Tuesday 23 October 2012

Cookbook Challenge Tuesday

It's Cookbook Challenge Tuesday and I feel like yet again the stars have aligned to create something perfect. Last week all three recipes went together perfectly as one meal and today, whilst everything didn't go together, they were all super quick and easy! Exactly what I needed as I have a day of appointment after appointment and won't have time to spend more than an hour in the kitchen at one time.

I started the day with a recipe from Viva Vegan. The generator picked page 182, Savory Fresh Corn Pancakes or Cachapas. I'd never herd of Cachapas before and whilst I think I've cooked a decent amount from Viva Vegan I'd never really noticed this recipe before.


I was a little daunted reading through the recipe as it uses a type of flour I'd never used before, unsurprisingly it turned out that I had it in the house - As with most vegans I can't really stop myself when I see exciting stuff that I haven't tried at the grocery store!

The whole recipe was actually surprisingly simple to put together, until now my experiences with Viva Vegan have all be awesome but almost everything has required some advanced preparation or a decent amount of time spent in the kitchen - I'm beginning to think that these are just the recipes I'm picking though, as I said, these were simple! As well as being simple these were really delicious, OMG, seriously, make these now! When the recipe popped up I was a little dubious about the idea of a corn pancake but now I'm a total corn pancake convert. We just ate them with a little margarine as it was breakfast time but I will definitely be making these with the optional cheese and a side of avocado at lunchtime sometime soon.

The second recipe that came up was the Creamy Bleu Cheez Dressing from The Uncheese Cookbook. The recipes I've made from here so far have been a little hit, miss or meh but I like to try new things and until I've made three terrible things from a cookbook it gets to stay in the random recipe generator! My favourite recipe from The Uncheese Cookbook is the Crock Cheeze, I enjoyed both the Chick Cheeze and the Amazing Mac n Cheeze Sauce (although it needed way more nooch!!) and the Fondue I tried was an unmitigated disaster!


I would say that this falls somewhere near the miss end of the spectrum, nowhere near as inedible as the fondue but unfortunately it's main flavour was vinegar. It was so vinegarey that Nick actually asked me whether I'd messed up the recipe and thrown in a whole load of extra vinegar! Unfortunately that definitely isn't what happened, I added more lemon juice to try to offset the vinegar which made it a little more edible, but still, not great.

The third recipe of the day came from Color Me Vegan. I haven't cooked much from CMV but everything I've tried so far's been great especially the Swiss Chard Pie...

This is where I stopped writing to go to the dentist, I really did intend to make the spinach and potato soup but whilst I was at the dentist my phone got stolen (don't even ask!), I then spent the rest of the afternoon using the 'track my iphone' software to chase the man and my phone around town to no avail as he eventually turned it off. I still have no phone, I'm feeling a little ragey and I have to have my wisdom teeth out! What a crap day. We ordered pizza, garlic bread and cherry chocolate sorbet to make it better though so I am happy that I live somewhere where I can get them delivered to my house even though thieves apparently now hang out at my dentist!

23 comments:

  1. Oh no!
    What a crappy day!
    And what a shit, robbing your phone :(
    Enjoy your pizza and I hope tomorrow is better for you
    x

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    1. Thank you! Today's looking better already & the pizza was awesome.

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  2. Ugh. Sorry your day turned out so badly.

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  3. Ugh, I'm sorry you had such a lousy day Jojo! :( that sucks about your phone (and about your wisdom teeth, too). I hope the pizza & chocolate sorbet cheered you up a bit and that tomorrow's better. At least the corn pancakes were a success! I like how the cookbook challenge allows you to try out recipes you'd normally skip over - I've never really noticed that recipe either but I'll have to look it up. They sound delicious with margarine or avocado!

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  4. boooo! I'm so sorry about your phone getting stolen. That SUCKS. I was just reading today about how cell phone theft is the new thing. I'm sorry it happened to you - and I'm sorry you're gonna have to get your wisdom teeth out. On the other hand - thanks for telling me about the cachapas - I never noticed that recipe either!

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    1. It does suck! Yay for Cachapas though, they were awesome!

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  5. Oh you poor thing getting your phone stolen and finding out that you need to get your wisdom teeth out!

    The pancakes look really good, I've bypassed this recipe in Viva Vegan and really should try it. I have mixed feelings about The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook too, some things have worked and others haven't, thanks for sharing what you have liked as I haven't tried these recipes yet. I really want to buy a copy of Artisan Vegan Cheese as it has had such good reviews.

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    1. You should definitely try the Crock Cheez, I love it, and the Mac & Cheese sauce recipe is cool (once you add the extra nooch) because you can use it the next day to make a gooey thick cheese on toast!

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  6. That sucks about your phone. What a cock!

    I freaking love those cachapas! That's one of my favourite recipes from VV.

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  7. Have you tried the melty white cheeze from the Uncheese Cookbook? That one is my favorite! And thieves at the dentist?!?!?! I'm so sorry, lady.

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    1. Uch, I know right? The dentist!! I haven't tried the melty white cheeze but I'm bookmarking it right now!

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  8. Whaaaaat!? Thieves at the dentists? That is awful. So sorry about your phone, it feels likes such a violation of privacy when something so personal is stolen.

    (on a different note I am relieved to see someone has a bigger cookery book collection than me. I've been told mine is excessive but I disagree)

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    1. Crazy right? The worst bit was checking my e-mails at home & seeing that he'd been reading my new ones, yuch.

      I had to build new shelves for my collection recently, it's still fairly moderate compared to some collection I've seen though!

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  9. That's awful about your phone :( Thank god for remote locking, wiping and tracking!! If you're signed up to icloud check if any new pictures have been added, one rather idiotic individual stole and iphone once and took loads of pictures of himself with it!! Good luck in getting it back x

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    1. Seriously I'm SO in love with iCloud right now, I went to get a new phone (thank you credit card!) and everything's there, even the pages I had open in Safari!! I can't believe your thief was that stupid - that's hilarious!

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  10. Your phone got stolen at the dentist office - that is crazy! I really hope you get it back :(

    And it's funny that you liked the corn pancakes, they are one of the recipes from VV! that I really did not like!

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    1. It is crazy right? Who kew thieves hung out at the dentists! Funny that we have differing opinions on the pancakes, I think that much sweet in a savory dish is good for some people but not so good for others.

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  11. Theft at the dentist's office just sounds like the worst combination of things I can think of.

    I don't have the Uncheese book, but I did find the fondue recipe online and make it a few years ago. It was awful! I'm glad it wasn't just due to me being a pretty new vegan at the time. I haven't tried any other recipes from the book since.

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    1. Yeah, it really wasn't a great day!! I'm glad it wasn't just me that hated the fondue recipe, it was pretty terrible! I feel like once you've gotten into Artisan Cheeses there's probably no going back!

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  12. I can't believe somebody actually stole your phone! What a d-bag! I hope you're able to hunt the bastard down, or at least lock your phone on them.

    Color me vegan is one of those cookbooks I haven't made much from either, I remember bookmarking the swiss chard pie at some point then forgot about it. I'm looking forward to hearing about what you made...whenever you're able to.

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  13. I LOVEEE corn pancakes. My mum used to make them for us when we were little so it'd be interesting to see how different these ones are. Anything with sweetcorn in pretty much makes me happy.

    I hope the douche nugget that stole your phone breaks a toof and has to have painful & expensive dental surgery!

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