Tuscan Faux Feta

This turned out pretty yummy! 

 I started with this recipe I found for Fake Feta from VegNews, but I thought it needed more flavor, as it didn't really taste like feta.  So here is how I adapted it, and then took it to a barbecue where it was polished off by meat eaters! I saw some using it as a dip, some plain, and some on salads. Some asked what it was, some not - and they still ate it!

When a block of tofu is crumbled this way, it makes a LOT of faux feta. It can serve a lot of people, depending on how you use it.

 TUSCAN FAUX FETA

Ingredients:

1/3 cup olive oil (less works well, too - adjust to your preference)
4 Tbsp. lime juice, or to taste - I think more lime made it taste closer to cheese
2 Tbsp. white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sea salt

1 Tbsp. Penzey's dried basil

1 Tbsp. Penzey's Tuscan Sunset Italian herb blend (dried)

1 package (3.5 oz.) sun-dried tomatoes, halves or julienne (not in liquid)
8 ounces extra firm tofu, drained

Instructions:

1. Place the drained tofu on a plate lined with a double thickness of paper towels to absorb as much liquid from the tofu as possible while you complete the next few steps. 
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the olive oil, lime juice, vinegar, salt and seasonings; mix well until blended. Allow mixture to sit while completing the next step.
3. Place the sun-dried tomatoes in a small glass microwavable bowl or Pyrex measuring cup; cover the tomatoes with water, and then heat in the microwave on full power for 30 seconds. Drain the tomatoes and allow them to cool to touch. If using halves, slice them into thin strips, and then chop the strips or julienne pieces into small bits. Add the bits to the mixing bowl with the seasoned liquid and mix well.
4. Now it's time to dice the tofu! Cut the block of tofu into long, thin strips in one direction. Lay the strips down so that you can cut the widths of them again into long strips. Then cut all the strips cross-wise into small cubes. Add the cubes to the large mixing bowl with the seasoned liquid. Mix very well, smashing some of the cubes as you mix it to make very small crumbles so that it almost resembles feta cheese.
5. Chill for several hours, overnight, or even for a couple of days for the best flavor. If the oil coagulates after chilling it, you can microwave the faux feta for about 30 seconds in the microwave without making it too warm.

When I make this again, I think I will try using a potato masher to get the tofu going toward crumbles. Seems like it just might be easier to do that than having to actually cut it into cubes that don't come close to resembling feta cheese. But dicing did work well in the end for this recipe with all the mixing going on with it.

Lettuce Slaw... a la Cat

YUM! 

My walking friends and I were talking early this morning on our walk about what to do with an abundance of lettuce this time of year - something other than "just" salads.

I just made this salad today using this and this for inspiration. Somewhere I saw a salad recipe calling for grilled sweet potatoes, which gave me the idea to used diced yams, but I couldn't find the recipe. It might have been something that I tore out of a magazine somewhere in time. The diced yams reminded me of croutons, but better for you.

I made the VegTimes recipe twice in one week, for two different occasions, it was so good. The smoky walnut topping made enough for both batches. Thought I'd try this MyRecipes recipe for a change in flavor.

Add other elements to the salad, whatever seems good to you, to make it even more filling... I think the smoky toppings from the recipe would be good on the salad, but I was trying to keep the fat under control here given that I already used cashews in the recipe.

Sadly, we devoured most of the salad before I took a photo. Just a tiny little bit leftover, on my small Fiesta plate.

Here is my final recipe for today's salad:

LETTUCE SLAW... A LA CAT 

Serves 2 generously for a main salad, or 4 side salads

The Salad:

1/2 half large cucumber (a gift from my neighbor's garden), peeled

1/4 medium red onion, sliced very thin

8-10 leaves romaine, sliced very thin (should look like it's shredded)

5-6 leaves kale, sliced very thin (should look like it's shredded)

1 peeled and cooked orange yam, medium-large, 1/2" dice

Olive oil spray

1 large stalk celery, sliced very thin

9-10 fresh green beans, sliced into very thin rounds or on diagonal

Salt & Pepper to taste

The Dressing:

1/3 cup raw cashews, soaked in 1/2 cup water for an hour, then drained*

2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard

1 Tbsp. lime juice

1 Tbsp. white wine vinegar

1 Tbsp. agave nectar

1 Tbsp. finely chopped red onion

Instructions:

1. Spray diced yams and sliced green beans with olive oil; season with salt and pepper to taste. Grill them over medium high heat in a large non-stick skillet until they begin to brown. Remove from heat to cool.
2. In a small food processor, add all ingredients for dressing. Blend for about 3-4 minutes until as smooth as possible. * If you really don't want to take time to soak the cashews, you can put them in water in the microwave to heat for 30 seconds on high power, then drain.
3. Slice cucumber into very thin rounds; then slice stacks of the rounds into match-sticks.
4. Add all the salad ingredients into a large mixing bowl, and then toss with the dressing. Serve immediately.

I'm NOT a Bird!

We had a visitor on our deck a while back. Well, that is not so unusual, as the fox comes to the deck regularly to try to find grapes and cherries that we put out for the birds. But, this was the first time we had one of THESE little guys on our deck!

Do you know what it is? He/She came up to the deck to eat bird seed that fell out of the bird feeder.

Can you tell what it is yet?

It's a ground squirrel. :-)

Hotel Glass Art in Chicago

At the end of June, one of my work friends and I were sent to Chicago for training.

I just like these photos, even if it was from a trip last month. This is the Hyatt Regency Hotel near O'Hare International Airport. This was the most exhausting, stressful trip I think I've ever taken. I'm not a good airline flyer - so it's really something if I can say the flight was nearly the best part of the whole trip! The absolute best part was just getting home again - without getting air sick.

 This is the restaurant and bar - zoomed in.

Here it is again - zoomed out. I like the use of surprise areas of orange.

Like this orange glass light fixture. You will notice I found several glass things in the hotel.

And this interesting decorative item. It was kind of huge.

What do you think about these glass stairs? Are they from a nightmare, or what? Yes. We walked up and down them. We used the adjacent escalators only when we needed to transport luggage to the meeting room on our last day there after checking out in the morning.

When we didn't take the stairs, we took the elevator - the glass elevator.

At night, the bottom of the elevator lights up. Kind of tacky, but true. Here's a shot of the bottom of the elevator - turquoise and pink. POV from the restaurant.

Here's another shot of the bottom of the same elevator, same POV, just a few seconds later - showing the change in color of the bottom of the elevator. Now pink and yellow.

And those flying orbs? They were above our heads at the restaurant.

I wish I'd taken a photo of my food from the restaurant the one night we were permitted to buy our own meal for dinner. It was called "The American Grill," operated by East Indians. They understood exactly what I meant when I told them I didn't eat animal protein. The waiter allowed me to purchase a half order (children's portion) of some kind of whole wheat pasta with Italian green beans, no cheese, and side orders of sauteed spinach, steamed broccoli and grilled asparagus. It was really yummy. My travel buddy, Linda, and I shared and filled up on the veggies. The waiter didn't think we could finish it.  It was a LOT of food (for $33+!), but we managed to eat all of it except for about three little pieces of broccoli.

In case you were wondering, here is a view from under the glass stairs.

And here is a bank of light fixtures from the meeting rooms downstairs.

There were some other glass art pieces that I didn't take photos of - like a bank of images on a wall that looked like etched glass photos, but they were black images on colored glass. I wish they'd had artist info about some of the pieces in the hotel. There was also a lovely mosaic tile inset wall with a bench seat - in colors of orange, red, gold... iridescent. Very pretty. Possibly some other things that I missed.

But I'll leave you with this last photo - a view of a lot of things all at once from under the flying orbs in the restaurant.

Lessons Learned from a Wedding Cake

I've made a number of cakes that were tiered, either stacked or separated, but none have ever really been used for a wedding cake until today. I also made cupcakes for this particular wedding. The theme was rustic. The bride found cupcakes that she liked online; I carried the theme over to the cake. She wanted square tiers, a-kilter, with bows. The setting was the university student union ballroom. The thunderstorms started just as we were leaving after setting up the cake and cupcakes.

LESSONS LEARNED:

RIBBON: 

• Let icing crust over before attaching ribbon so that the ribbon doesn't get greasy.
• If you live more than 50 miles away from the nearest store where you can buy ribbon, buy it in two sizes. Return what you don't need later.
• There is nothing you can do about ribbon that is too wide when there isn't a store nearby to get narrower ribbon. On the plus side, wide ribbon hides hours worth of trying to achieve a smooth-surfaced cake.
• Sometimes men DO have an eye for necessary adjustments when the ribbon is too long.

WAY TOO MUCH ribbon on the cake! Is there even any cake in here?

 PRETZELS:

• If you don't want pretzels to get soggy on a cupcake, you need to drop royal icing onto parchment paper or waxed paper first, stick the pretzels in the icing and let it harden so that you can attach the whole pretzel/icing thing to the cupcake in one step. 
• Don't store the cupcakes for too long with pretzels attached. They start to soften - we tested after about 12 hours.
• Don't store the cupcakes with pretzels enclosed in a covered plastic container.

 ICING FLOWERS:

• Royal icing flowers work better than meringue buttercream flowers. You can make them smaller, and they are less fragile.
• Flowers can be made weeks in advance to save stress as the wedding date approaches.
•  A fan blowing across royal icing helps it to dry faster so that you can actually avoid having to wait until morning to do something with your decorations.
• If you forget - or decide to use at the last minute - silver dragees for your flower centers, you can put a drop of clear decorating gel on the flower to attach the silver dragee.
• Do NOT make icing flowers when there is smoke in the air from a nearby forest fire. They pick up the taste of the smoke.
• Buttercream flowers pick up more smoke taste than royal icing.

RUSTIC WOOD DISPLAYS:

• Brown butcher paper - shiny side down - makes a great table runner to keep icing mishaps off the table cloth.
• Seems like a month's notice to the "builder" should be enough time to get a head start on production of display stands, but apparently not.
• Use a level to make sure tree rounds are really level. It's difficult to control a chain saw well enough to make really level cuts.
• SEAL the wood with something so that wood chips don't clutter up the table cloth. Don't rely solely on using an air compressor to "dust" them off.
• SPRAY the wood with something to kill bugs. You probably need to do this pretty far in advance so that they don't smell. The logs, that is, not the bugs.
• CHECK the table for ANTS, and PRAY very hard that no (more) ants come when you walk away from the cake display.

TRANSPORTING CAKES:

• The best hint for transporting cakes/cupcakes that I saw was, I think, on The Cupcake Project blog. Place non-slip shelf liner in the bottom of the cake box. Place cake or cupcakes on the shelf liner to keep them from slipping.
• I also placed the cake boxes on non-slip liner on the carpet in the truck. We took the truck, btw, because the air conditioning is better than my car.  You WANT to have GOOD air conditioning when temperatures outside are WARM... or HOT.

WALK-IN REFRIGERATORS:

• Look for a light switch for the walk-in refrigerator BEFORE you go in and the door slams shut.

• Look for a way to prop the door open to the walk-in refrigerator before it slams shut on your finger as you try to catch it before it shuts you inside.
• Do NOT leave the door to a walk-in refrigerator open too long (especially opening and shutting it when it's hot in the kitchen) or an ALARM will go off.

• When you walk out of a walk-in refrigerator, make sure that you stay on the sloped exit ramp - don't accidentally fall off the side of the sloped ramp because you're carrying a lot of cake boxes and can't see the ramp.

UNIVERSITY SECURITY AND EVENTS OFFICES:

• Even though someone gives you a number to call if you need anything, be sure that person is really going to be there when you plan to be there.
• Even though an office number says its an "EMERGENCY" number, if you get a recording, all bets are off.
• Even though you've tried to open doors - twice - have someone else come try to open them. They might have a magic touch. Or stronger thumbs to open the latches.

MISCELLANEOUS:

•  If you wake up at 4:30 a.m. because you can't sleep - wanting to be sure everything is done on time, you might was well just get out of bed. Think of it this way: bakers in most shops probably are up at 3:00 a.m. You've already gotten 1-1/2 hours more sleep!
• Check an hour earlier than when you were told the party will be over. Just in case.
• I'm not a professional. The best advice my cake decorating instructor told me. Be myself. I'm not a professional - the cake might not look professional. Good advice. It really relieves stress. I just need a lot of practice.
• I looked at past successes in photos that I took. It gave me a lot more confidence to just keep plugging away.
• If you know you have to get the job done, you might as well just get started. It's better to be working while you aren't tired (or hungry) than if you wait until it's way too late at night for anyone to still be awake.
• Eat a good breakfast before you start working. Eat lunch. Eat dinner. Don't eat icing. 
• According to the back of a bag of pistachios (in the shell), a serving size is 1/2 cup! This is the equivalent of 5 PPV (Weight Watchers). When the bag has been sitting in a truck in warm weather, the pistachios are warm - like they were just roasted. It is easy to eat more than you think you are eating. That's because you didn't eat icing.
• Less stress makes cake decorating a little more fun. It can still be challenging, though. Yet, I still prefer to decorate cupcakes.

DINER FOOD CUPCAKES - APRIL FOOL!

For April Fool's Day, I made special cupcakes for the "kids" who come to our house every Sunday for lunch. I wanted to get a photo of their faces, but decided at the last minute to just look at them - and enjoy watching them as they saw what I made for their dessert.

Spaghetti and Meatballs Cupcakes

The spaghetti is just piped icing. The meatballs are Ferrero Rocher candies, the sauce is strawberry preserves that have been warmed, with a little bit of cocoa powder added to make the sauce less pink.

Peas and Carrots with Mashed Potatoes and Gravy Cupcakes

The peas are green Runts candies - I had to buy three boxes to get enough green to cover 5 cupcakes. The carrots are quartered orange Starburst candies. The mashed potatoes are made from icing that has been thinned enough to sort of droop over the top of the cupcake. The pats of butter are yellow Starburst candies that have been  flattened, with edges rounded out a bit. The gravy is a pumpkin-caramel sauce combo that I make for pancakes and waffles.

You know, these were REALLY easy to make... but quite expensive, as I not only bought the candies required to make these cupcakes, but I also bought some mini cookies for future cupcakes and various other types of candies for more cupcakes and cookies down the road.


And I sure can't take the credit for the ideas, as the cupcake designs are from the book, Hello Cupcake, by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson. But I wanted to show you how cool they turned out, and tell you how surprised and tickled the people were when they saw them. They loved them. :-)  It was worth every $10 increment I spent to see the expressions on their faces, and to see some who don't particularly want to eat veggies walking away with a veggie cupcake in hand!

PHIL'S UGLY SHOES WIN BIG BUCKS!

Thanks to everyone who voted on Facebook for Phil's shoes to win the Ugly Shoe contest through our credit union's contest!  

So now I know a little bit about using Facebook, and I've made contact with a lot of people I haven't seen or heard from in ages. 

It was a stressful week until we got the phone call on Friday of that week to confirm we had, indeed, won with the most votes.  Phil's shoes, #13 on the contest page, looked pretty similar to the shoes that were #8.   I don't know who owned Shoes #8, but in the end I guess it all comes down to who you know and who you can convince to vote for your stinky, ugly shoes.  And I guess it didn't hurt that Phil's shoes had a mouse coming out of the hole in the toe.  FINAL RESULTS: #13, 71 votes; #8, 43 votes. Or something like that.

So, on Friday we headed over to the credit union to pick up our cash winnings. I was hoping they would take Phil's shoes, but it didn't work out that way.

 

They made us take the shoes home again.

 

In the end, Phil got to keep his shoes... and he isn't wearing them (do you suppose the "winner" status is going to be lost if they get a little more beat up?).  You might say that's a win-win solution to the end of the contest for us both. :-)