tempeh is the new black

am i ever in love with tempeh these days. it's got all the flexability of tofu with none of the unpleasent mushiness. a few weeks ago i made a tempeh/stirfry/peanutty thing. and holy freak was it good. i sliced up a brick of tempeh (which is apallingly hard to find in my neck of the woods. the last time i went out looking for tempeh i was forced into the horror of a saturday at whole foods. the humanity!) anyway, sliced tempeh was marinated in a yummy bath of natural peanut butter, sambal, sesame oil, fish sauce, braggs liquid aminos, cider vinegar, a bare drop of molassas, and regular&black sesame seeds tossed in for good measure. i let it sit and cut up a MOTHER LOAD of veggies-- spinach, mustard greens, broc (stems and all), celery, and a million different kinds of cabbage. i tossed the veggies in a hot pan with some extra sesame oil and fish sauce-- let it cook down, added the tempeh (and marinade), and let it all cook for a while. meanwhile i scrambled up some eggs (with a TON of pepper), made a little space in the skillet and cooked the eggs right into the rest of the veggies and tempeh. served w rice and more sambal it was excellent.

tempeh has burned me once though-- i attemped tempeh 'sausage' a few weeks back. it was so nasty. for some reason it ended up tasting like bananas-- and it was just tempeh, grated potato, sage, red pepper, salt and pepper, and various other 'sausagey' type seasonings. ick. i'll stick with meaty sausage thankyouverymuch.

turkey soup, part II-
i again tried my hand at stock making. this time it turned out better. i let the carcass simmer for like 4 hours w carrots, a ton of herbs, garlic, and a cut up lemon-- and before making the soup i let the finished stock reduce a little. still not the feel-it-in-your-toes taste sensation i was going for, but oh well. to the stock i added a bunch of big handfulls of the same veggies i used in the stirfry and an entire bag of israeli couscous (which is this awesome HUGE couscous). i gave away two huge jars of the stuff and i still have a crapload left. good with wheat crackers-- great with beer bread.

easy bake me
i baked the best freaking brownies for 'family xmas'. so chocolatty & delicious. dense and chewy. i used dark chocolate melted together w butter and mixed it up with your standard flour, cocoa, eggs, sugar, etc. i'm having brownie sundae fantasies about it right now...

more adventures in meat cookery
in your face lamb vindaloo. i totally dominated you! lamb vindaloo, your are my little spicy bitch. ok, i may have cheated by using a spice mix from penzeys. still though. i caught myself eating the leftovers cold from the fridge. 1 lb of lamb cut up in chunks, 2 med/biggish potatoes, some onion, and a lot of vindaloo. i added some yogurt because it seemed a little dry-- i'm so glad i did. served with rice and a little salad on the side. mmm. lamb vindaloo, you are welcome into my regular repertoire-- now kneel before me!

upcoming-
i have people coming over this weekend and no idea what to feed them. pimento cheese is always a solid hit. i've been dying to use my crock pot lately though. some kind of hot dip??? my dad used to always make this tamale/chili/cheese dip. maybe i can work out a variation of that.