Pineapple-Coconut Muffins

Since I had such success with the cherry-coconut muffins, I decided to use some of the pineapple sitting in the fridge to make a variation. But I have a problem. When I use fresh fruit in muffins, I think, "I love fruit. Fruit is good. So more fruit will make these even better." And, yes, loading a muffin with fruit can be tasty, but it can also make it heavy. So these need a little tweaking—and a little restraint on my part—before they're light and fluffy and perfect. But still, a nice Sunday-morning breakfast. The recipe is basically the same as the cherry-coconut muffins, with somewhere between 1/2 and 3/4 cup diced fresh pineapple swapped out for the dried cherries and the zest of one orange added.

Broiled Tofu and Beets with Lemon-dill Yogurt Sauce

A friend of mine is on an extreme elimination diet and is seemingly eating nothing but beets, greens, brown rice, and quinoa. OK, it's not quite that extreme, but almost. Two words: no salt. But he has inspired me to finally cook beets. I've eaten beets plenty, but usually on a salad, where someone else had to deal with the pink hands. Seeing Martha Stewart prepare beets while wearing latex gloves scared me off. But I finally dove in, and it wasn't bad. The mess rinses off no problem. And beets are delicious, especially with this yogurt sauce. The sauce was maybe a touch too sweet, so next time I'll reduce, or maybe leave out, the maple syrup (and maybe increase the lemon). But all in all a winning combination. And the sauce was great with the kale too.

Broiled Tofu and Beets with Lemon-dill Yogurt Sauce

1 lb. extra-firm tofu, sliced into eight pieces
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp soy sauce

1 bunch small beets, cut into even chunks
2 tsp olive oil
1 tsp maple syrup

Press tofu for at least ten minutes to remove excess moisture. Whisk together olive oil and soy sauce and dip tofu pieces in the mixture. Drizzle olive oil and maple syrup over beets, season with salt and pepper, and toss. Place tofu and beets on foil-lined baking sheet and place in broiler. I set my broiler and high and cooked for nearly twenty minutes, tossing the beets every once in a while and turning tofu halfway through. But keep on eye on it, as broilers can vary a lot.

Lemon-dill Yogurt Sauce

1/2 cup plain soy yogurt (I used Silk)
2 Tbsp chopped dill
1 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice
1-2 Tbsp chopped shallot
1 tsp maple syrup
salt and pepper to taste

Whisk together all ingredients in a small bowl. Serve with tofu and beets.

Teese Baked Mac and Cheese

I've been experimenting with a decent mac & cheese using Teese vegan cheese for a while now, and I think this is the closest I've come to deliciousness yet. As usual, there are still things I think I'd tweak, but overall it seemed to be a success. The interior was gooey but not runny, and the large bread crumbs on top added a nice crunch. Curiously, the Teese I sprinkled on top (below the breadcrumbs) didn't melt much in the oven, but every last bit that was stirred into the macaroni and sauce melted wonderfully, so next time it's all going inside, which should make it even moister. This batch turned out a bit on the spicy side, which was nice, as I'm still working my way through an especially potent batch of cayenne pepper, but if you don't have super cayenne, you want to add more.

Teese Baked Mac & Cheese

1 Tbsp Earth Balance
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup + 1 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1 cup water
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp sweet paprika
a few grinds of black pepper
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp prepared yellow mustard
1 1/2 cups Teese vegan mozzarella cheese, shredded
1-2 slices whole wheat bread, toasted and crumbled into pieces
1/2 pound macaroni

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook macaroni until it is almost al dente but still slightly undercooked. Melt Earth Balance in small saucepan and add 1 Tbsp flour. Cook until it gets bubbly, about 2 minutes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Whisk in remaining flour, water, nutritional yeast, soy sauce, turmeric, paprika, pepper, and cayenne, and cook, whisking often, until the sauce thickens but is still runny enough to drip off of the whisk. Mix in mustard. Add sauce and Teese to cooked macaroni in a casserole dish (I used an 8 x 6 1/2 inch Pyrex dish) and mix until well combined. Top with breadcrumbs and cook for about twenty minutes, with a couple of minutes under the broiler if you want the breadcrumbs extra crunchy.

Lemon-Pine-Nut Scones with Vegan Lemon Curd

The way I see it, vegan scones usually have one of two problems: 1) They're so dry you fear losing a tooth every time you bite into them, or 2) they're too moist and fluffy, resembling flat muffins more than scones. I always used to use a recipe from Everyday Food magazine, which was touted as lower fat and didn't use any eggs. But these always fell on the too-fluffy side, although if I put enough cranberries or blueberries in them I didn't so much care. But this time I wanted nice, semi-dry, flaky scones. This lemon-pine-nut version isn't quite there, they were a little too floury and fluffy, but with some tweaking I think they'll get there. And they don't have two sticks of butter like so many of the recipes I consulted.

Lemon-Pine-Nut Scones

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup sugar, plus more for sprinkling on top
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp baking powder
6 Tbsp margarine
3 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup soy milk, plus more for brushing tops of scones
1/4 cup pine nuts

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Whisk together flours, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Cut in margarine with a pastry cutter until it is in small sandy pieces. Mix in lemon juice and soy milk, turn out onto clean work surface, and pat into a round about 1-1 1/2 inches high. Use a bench scraper or other semi-sharp straight edge to cut dough into eight triangles. Brush each scone with soy milk and sprinkle with sugar (I use the vegan sugar carried at Whole Foods, which is nice and coarse and makes for a crunchy top, much like sanding sugar; finer-grained sugar will create more of a crust on top). Transfer to a baking sheet lined with Silpat or parchment and bake for 15 to 17 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool (the scones will be a bit tender when they're warm but will get crunchier as they cool).

Oh, and about that lemon curd. It is forking incredible. I used a recipe from Bryanna Clark Grogan, which I've been eying forever. I should've made it the night before so it could have time to cool and thicken, but it was still delicious as a sort of sauce on the scones. But once it did cool, it was so thick and gelatinous. It's the lemon curd I've dreamt about ever since the Chicago Diner so cruelly decided to make their wonderful lemon coconut cake special-order only. Maybe soon I'll make a lemon-curd pie, which would satisfy my urge to eat the stuff with a spoon but wouldn't feel so pathetic.