Lemon Bundt Cake with Strawberry Sauce

So I discovered that a bundt cake needs a bundt cake pan for a reason.....it cooks quite differently in a 9" glass cake pan.....the middle didn't quite get to the right consistency, but the edge pieces were nice and tart! This is a rather lightly flavored cake and uses maple syrup instead of sugar so it becomes less sweet. I added a strawberry-lemon sauce (strawberries, preserves, lemon juice/zest, powdered sugar, cornstarch)....Overall, a pretty decent desert.

Fried Spring Rolls!

 

 

My younger sister and I made these spring rolls together last night! In my family, frying egg/spring rolls is definitely a tradition....and one that I have missed terribly since it is difficult to find vegan wraps in the area. However, we stumbled across a little Asian market the other day that had them and grabbed these right up! Also, with us being the cooks we had the privilege of eating the filling right out of the bowl as we were wrapping the rolls.....we maybe or maybe not ate almost half.........Yummmmmmmm!

We sauteed the filling in Earth Balance for the filling
      extra firm silken
      tofu,
      cabbage,
      carrots,
      broccoli
      seasoned with ginger, garlic, red pepper, black pepper, soy sauce, and a secret extra seasoning

We fried them in pure canola oil and served them with brown rice and crunchy lo-mein noodles.
Sauce: store-bought spring roll sauce

Boston Cream Cupcake w/ vanilla custard and chocolate gonache

So, I tried to recreate my memory of a good boston cream doughnut and it turned out very.....drum roll please............. MEDIOCRE!
Perhaps my expectations were much too high.....this is simply a challenge and I need to tweak it a bit.

So moist....so sweet....so coffee-ey?

Walnut/ginger coffee cake. The best coffee cake I have ever had....impossible not to brag about it.

LASAAAAAAGNA!!!!

Spinach and Broccoli lasagna wit a roma tomato marinara, olive oil, and vegan parmesan.

Carrot-Potato soup w/ northern beans

Extra-brothy soup is ideal for bread dipping or tasty crackers! Unfortunately I was out of bread...and the crackers were stale...what is a gal to do? Sneakily dig to the bottom of the pot for the biggest pieces when no one is home, that's what! Muah ha ha ha ha....

Broth: organic bullion, celery seed, fresh thyme and parsley, Nutritional Yeast, sea salt, black pepper

Veggies: Carrots, golden potatoes, white onion, white northern beans....simple and delicious

*I also sauteed some onions and garlic in plenty of Earth Balance and Olive Oil, added cracked red pepper and tossed it into the pot for a golden 'fatty' addition...Kinda reminded me of old fashioned chicken noodle soup....minus the chicken and noodles, of course. Yum!

Fresh blueberry-lemon muffins

Lemon extract and zest add an amazingly fragrant and tart addition to fresh blueberry muffins...such a smell has never filled my kitchen before....we were drooling only 5 minutes after they went into the oven! I'm not going to lie, I ate 4 of these in one sitting......burnt my tongue (no kissing for a while, I guess), but it was worth it!