I’m very all about cheap snacks, even (and especially) if I have to make them myself.

So anyway, I was standing at the checkouts at work when I saw a magazine called Fine Cooking. It had some fine looking crackers on the cover with the caption “Home Made Crackers.” I spent a ton of time looking through the stupid magazine for “Home Made Crackers,” but came up with nothing. For some reason, the inside of the magazine called the crackers “Three Seed Crackers,” which is a pretty crappy thing to do.

I was hoping to just jot down the recipe, but it was too long and I figured that it would be online somewhere. The Fine Cooking website has a ton of recipes! So I searched for “Home Made Crackers” and “Three Seed Crackers,” but came up with nada. So I typed in “crackers” and with a bit of searching found “Seeded Crackers.” Same crackers, three different names. Brilliant marketing.

Well, anyway, I decided to make these multi-named crackers. I don’t really care for seeds on or in stuff (same goes for nuts), so I just made salted crackers. Fun, no?

Here’s the recipe…

1-1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour; more for rolling
scant 1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
1 tsp. table salt
3 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil (I used one part olive oil, one part canola oil)

Preheat oven to 450F

In a large bowl, whisk the all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, and table salt. Add the olive oil and 1/2 cup water to the flour; stir with a rubber spatula until it collects into a soft, crumbly ball of dough. Use the spatula or your hands to press the dough against the sides of the bowl to gather all the stray flour.

Set the dough on a lightly floured work surface and portion it into thirds. Pat each portion into a square. Set two squares aside and cover with a clean towel. Roll the remaining dough into a rectangle about 1/16 inch thick and 7 or 8 inches wide by 14 or 15 inches long. Whenever you feel resistance, lift up one edge of the dough and sprinkle more flour underneath before you continue rolling.

The recipe then rambled on about how to cut them and when to put the seeds on them. It warned “Don’t bother trimming the edges; rustic edges add character.” Awesome, huh? Edges add character. What I want more than anything from these crackers is character.

Bake these for about 10 minutes. The best thing to bake them on is one of those cookie sheets with the air in them. Hopefully you know what I mean. Otherwise, the bottoms could burn. They should be browned, but not burned. Quite tasty.

Sorry for the crappy pictures. They were taken with a webcam.

For the past three weeks, people have been visiting both Sarah/me and Ryan/Jaime. First, there was Sarah’s parents and then Jaime’s moms and then Ryan Full and Jason from back east. During this time we ate out a lot. So much.

It really showed us all the great vegan things that Seattle offers. Even though Sarah’s folks aren’t vegan/veg, they were GREAT sports and ate vegan with us most of the time (thanks!). Ryan Full and Jason are veg.

Around these parts, we have found more than enough vegan eateries. From donuts at Mighty Os to pizza at Pizza Pi. We round it out with breakfast at Wayward Cafe and Chinese at Bamboo Gardens or Thai at Araya’s.

These places are great. You look at the menus and you know that anything listed is not only edible for vegans, but probably really tasty too!

This is in stark contrast to my life back east in Central Pennsylvania. There, I could pretty much only eat Chinese. There would be maybe two tofu dishes on the menu and you’d have to trust the cook to not use a meat-based sauce (most Chinese places use chicken broth in their sauces – enough to make *all* Chinese places a no-go for me). Once in a while I could get Indian food in Harrisburg or Lancaster, but only the Lancaster place had the vegan dishes marked as such.

I got really sick of looking at menus and wondering, “what can I eat here?” The answer was usually “nothing at all.” But in Seattle, at the places we go, there is nothing I can’t eat! There are more choices than I could ever work my way through!

Another important aspect is quality. A lot of the places we go to use organic veggies. The dishes are fresh and look as good as they taste. The Chinese places we’d go to in PA had veggies that looked gray and beaten to death.

Sure, sometimes I miss central PA. It’s where I grew up, it’s where I’m from. But I’ll never miss the nasty excuse for food. Oh my no!

The first thing I ever learned how to cook was scrambled eggs. From that, I would always make egg sammiches. I took two pieces of extremely white bread, slathered them with ketsup and then ate ‘em up.

Well, I’m older and wiser now. I don’t eat white bread and I don’t eat eggs. So my option was one: make scrambled tofu and put it on wheat bread.

Here’s what you’ll need:
-1 package of extra firm tofu, 14oz.
-1 T “butter” (I use Earth Balance) – for fryin’
-1/2 t hing
-1/2 t black pepper
-1/2 t coriander
-1/2 t salt
-1/4 t black salt
-2 t nutritional yeast
-1 t tamari
-1/2 t turmeric

And here’s what you do:
1) Mash up tofu with a fork while you put the dab of “butter” in a skillet or wok and get it ready to fry. Med heat is fine. Here, I throw in the hing and the black pepper and fry them for a spell. Not long though.

2) Put the mashed up tofu into the skillet and stir it around a bit. There shouldn’t be any danger of it sticking just yet. Here, I put the coriander, salt, black salt and nutritional yeast into the mix.

3) Let it fry for a few minutes, stirring it (after all, it’s scrambled tofu). After those few minutes, it’s time for the tamari and turmeric. This will turn it an eggy color.

4) Let it fry until it starts to stick a bit. Parts of it will get a little crispy and start to brown. That’s when you know you’re finished. Toast up some bread, get some ketchup and do it up!

A couple of stray thoughts…
*Thanks to Kurma dasa for the black salt idea! Black salt in very sulfuric and makes it taste a bit eggy. I may even start adding 1/2 teaspoon rather than just 1/4.

*Ok, let me grippe a bit about vegan bread. WHY does vegan break have to automatically equal small? The slices are thin and the loaves are too small and too short. What gives, vegan bread-makers? Let’s have normal-sized vegan bread. Oh, and please, no nuts in the bread, ok? Just normal bread.

Enjoy!

Until this past weekend, I thought Seattle was without a decent Indian grocery store. All of the ones that I’ve seen that claim to be Indian are actually run by folks from Pakistan. They’ll carry a few Indian things, but mostly it’s “Halal Meat.”

I was looking for yellow hing, tamarind-date chutney, black salt, a tiny rolling pin, MDH’s Channa Masala spice mix and basically a place to buy what little I need in the Indian genre of cooking.

The places I’ve found in Seattle have none of this stuff. I found white hing at one of the Halal Meat places, but it was $5 for a very tiny container. No thanks.

I figured that a good Indian grocer was just something I had to live without in Seattle. Not that Lewisburg had one – it didn’t (not even close). But Harrisburg did and it was great. The one I found this weekend, Apna Bazar, is exactly what I was looking for.

I picked up everything I wanted plus some curry powder (since I was nearly out of it). Yes, they even had tiny rolling pins! What an exciting trip!

They’re not quite in Seattle, but close enough. They’re even opening another store a bit closer.

I’m not one of those freaky people that thinks simply because it’s Indian it’s perfect and better and super duper awesome, but I do cook Indian from time to time (I mean, come on… pakoras?!) and needed a few things.

When I first moved to Seattle, I discovered that “healthy” junk food was all around me. There was Mighty O’s, of course, but there were also stores that sold Red Hot Blues chips and vegan ice cream! I had isles of organic nachoes seasoned with sea salt! Corn syrup? Heck no! None of that here, just good old fashioned SUGAR! Mmmmmm!

We were stuffing ourselves on this veganny goodness! But I noticed that as my wasteline grew, my wallet inevitably shrank. My cupboard were full (well, at least till I skarfed it down) but my bank account was noticably shrinking.

Dining out wasn’t never something I was into and even though there are tons of amazing places in Seattle, I’d usually just rather make something myself. I love to cook, as many of you know. But when it came to snacking, I was all like “gimme them chips!”

That is, until I discovered… popcorn.

Yeah, as a kid, my mom would make popcorn and we’d all lay in front of the console TV watching Webster and Mr. Belvedere. But that was then! That was before I moved to Seattle and discoverd Veggie Bootie and Tings!

Popcorn had its place, to be sure. It was for the movies. Pay $9 for a movie and $6 for a bucket of popcorn that you’d eat during the previews.

Lately, however, I’ve rediscovered the glories of good old, old fashioned, hand made popcorn. Heck, I don’t even have a popcorn popper – just make it in a big pot!

And my goodness it’s cheap. Like really cheap. Compared to the $5 I’d pay for a half-full bag of Kettle Organic Potato Chips Sea Salt & Black Pepper, it’s a steal! For $5, I could be in popcorn for weeks! Even the organic stuff (if you buy it in bulk) is cheap!

Some folks like to put nutritional yeast on their popcorn. That’s all well and good, I suppose. But me, I just like it plain with a bit of salt, just like Mom used to make!

These days, Mom’s 3,000 miles away. The Dukes of Hazzard and Benson have been replaced with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Godzilla, but the popcorn remains the same.

Thanks, Mom!

A few days ago, Sarah perfected her pizza crust. It’s pretty amazing. I’m not at all one for baking, so I’m glad she thought of something. She posted about it on her blog and here it is on mine as well!

Here’s what you will need…
-2 1/2 tsp yeast (or one small packet)
-3 cups unbleached flour
-1/3 cup warm water
-1 tsp salt
-1 cup warm water

And here’s how to do it!

*preheat your oven to 200 degrees

1) Add the 1/3 cup warm water to the yeast in a small cup. Mix the yeast and water until it’s dissolved and then let it stand for about 10 minutes. While you’re waiting measure out your flour and salt in a medium sized bowl.

2) After 10 minutes, add the yeast mixture to the flour. Mix together with a fork.

3) Add 1/2 cup of warm water and again mix.

4) Add another 1/2 cup of warm water and now kneed with your hands until it’s one big sticky ball of dough.

5) Cover with a towel and place in over for about 10 minutes.

6) After ten minutes, remove from oven and let rise for another 10 minutes.

7) Set the oven heat to 450 degrees.

8) Sprinkle some flour on a baking sheet and gently pry the dough from the bowl. You’ll probably need to sprinkle some flour on the dough so it doesn’t stick to your hands and it doesn’t stick to the bowl again.

9) When the dough is out of the bowl, gently powder it with some more flour and stretch it out a bit. Now you can put it on the baking sheet and stretch it to the edge of the sheet.

10) All you have to do after this is add your sauce and vegan cheese! Try mine!

11) You only have to bake the pizza for about 8-10 minutes. the crust will be done, but it’s not too hard! of course you can bake the pizza longer depending on your likes and needs.

I’ve had quite a few devotee-made pizzas. Some are pretty good, some are … interesting. See, the “problem” lies in the garlic issue. Devotees don’t cook with garlic or onions. But most pizza sauces contain garlic and/or onions. That means that we have to make out own. This is where it gets interesting.

Many devotees make pizzas with a lot of toppings. Personally, I’m a traditionalist. I like a plain old cheese pizza (vegan cheese, in my case). No fake meat, no cauliflower, no eggplant or bittermellon (seriously, I’ve seen a few pizzas with bittermellon as a topping).

But that’s not the point of this. The point here is pizza sauce. And pizza sauce is not pasta sauce. There’s a difference. At least, there should be. With me there is. Pasta sauce should be an outspoken flavor. Pizza sauce should be noticeable, but only in a “hey! this pizza sauce doesn’t make me barf!” sort of way.

And here’s how I make mine…

Ingredients…

- 1 14ish ounce can of crushed tomatoes
- little olive oil for frying
- 1/4 t hing
- 1/2 t basil
- 1/4 t oregano
- 1/8 t marjoram
- 1/8 t thyme
- 1/4 t black pepper
- 1/4 t salt
- 1/2 t sugar

how to…

1) oil in pan, medium heat – wait till hot, add hing and fry
2) add can of crushed tomatoes
3) add spices
4) let simmer for about 20 or so minutes.

This should make enough for two pies.

I make the sauce and Smartz makes the dough. I don’t know what she does to that though. It’s always really good though. For cheese, we use Follow Your Heart.

So whatever you like to put on your pizza… even if it’s bittermellon, give this pasta sauce a try. The folks who have had it seem to really like it.