Mardi Gras

Happy Mardi Gras! Even though we are not in New Orleans, we made some special recipes to celebrate.

First I made the Roasted Eggplant and Spinach Muffuletta from Veganomicon.

Rather than the olive salad in Isa's recipe, which I'm sure is delicious, I used this mix from Central Grocery in New Orleans to make it a little more "authentic." We got a jar for Christmas.

The result -- pretty good, but I think I used the wrong kind of bread. It started getting soggy after a few hours. Next time I will buy a sturdier loaf. Then I will be able to let it sit longer, allowing the olive flavors to seep into the bread without making it all goopy.

I also made Gumbo Z, from Vegan Soul Kitchen. With four different types of greens, how could this be anything but a winner? Delicious.

I was also going to make a king cake -- there's a great-looking recipe in Quick & Easy Vegan Celebrations -- but after Valentine's Day, I find that I am burnt out on sweets.  I haven't wanted anything sugary in the past several days. Since Tony doesn't have much of a sweet tooth, I decided to skip the king cake. But let me know if you made one! I've never had one, and they look so good.

Mac n' Cheese Disappointment

Today we were in a snacky mood when lunchtime rolled around. I made some kalamata olive hummus and the Garlicky Baby Lima Bean Spread from Vegan Soul Kitchen. I happen to love lima beans, so it's fitting that this dip was the first recipe I made from this cookbook. It's strong and spicy, flavored with red pepper flakes and, of course, garlic. 

My favorite thing about Vegan Soul Kitchen is not the recipes, however. It's the fact that author Bryant Terry suggests music to go with each dish. His taste is so cool and eclectic. If you want to check out the tunes, Oliver Danni posted the entire playlist on Grooveshark back during Vegan MoFo.

For dinner, I made the mac n' cheese from Happy Herbivore.  I'd been having great results with this book, which I received for Christmas. This led me to have such high confidence in this recipe that I made a double batch. That probably jinxed me. It was gross. The sauce had a weird smell, and it turns out I don't like rice pasta. Or maybe I overcooked it. The package directions said to cook it for like 16 minutes, which seemed crazy. It was rubbery and slimy. I like rice noodles in pad thai, but this rice elbow pasta was not working.

It looks good, right? The kids liked it, so it was not a total waste.

It's movie time...aren't Jackson and Olivia cute and cozy in their new sleeping bags? They love to snuggle up in them and eat popcorn.