The Antisocial Socialist

I'm super proud of this one because while I love squash—love it, every kind of squash—I am lazy af and just buy the pre-cut kind. So lazy, in fact, that when my friend dropped me off a squash I did not recognize what it was and had to ask. Anyway, it's a spaghetti squash, and I have never cooked one, so I looked it up and found this recipe.

I pretty much followed the recipe except I heard it helps if you put water in the bottom of the baking sheet when you're roasting, so I did that. I doubled the garlic. I also did not discard the seeds because I'm not a fucking monster—those look exactly like pumpkin seeds and I bet if you roast them they taste the same. Anyway I'll find out because that's the plan.

The squash itself turned out beautifully:



The recipe is not even that hard. Really, the only challenge is cutting the squash. I had to saw it with my bread knife, which ruined one half of the skin, so it was not as a e s t h e t i c as it could be. But it's very tasty and makes a ton. Would totally do this again, may need to get myself one of them knife-sharpening implements.

Tonight's dinner. The salad was technically part of lunch as well.

I almost never make anything super-fancy just for myself these days—seriously, half my meals come out of a can—but fiddlehead season comes but once a year, and my mom brought me some, so I got to make some of these tasty-but-dangerous delights.

Here is a recipe for how to make fiddleheads.

It came out excellently, holy shit.

The Southwestern salad is my own recipe, more or less. Sauteéd jalapenos, avocados, grape tomatoes, cilantro, and walnuts. The dressing is olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic, black pepper, and lime juice. 

Other delicious things I have made or participated in making this weekend: Homemade falafel balls, pear-walnut pie, and more of that avocado pasta that I am obsessed with at the moment.



















In other, related news, my apple tree is blossoming!

 

And Cocoa is looking extra-cute:

Tanzanian braised coconut cabbage:



Recipe here.

Verdict: It looks rather a lot like coleslaw, which can be unnerving as it tastes absolutely nothing like coleslaw. However, once you get over that, it is far more delicious than coleslaw. Easy to make, 100% would make again.

I added a bit of tofu for protein. It could also probably do with some other spices.

Last night, the_axel and I went to the Kensington Market Festival of Lights. Inexplicably, he'd never been before, and I hadn't been in about eight or nine years, so it was Necessary. It's a Solstice celebration and one of those weird, beloved Toronto traditions where you sort of wonder how this became a thing in the first place.

I was going to bring my camera, but at the last minute I was le tired, so all I have are crappy cell pictures. Still, you can see a little of what goes on there and why I adore it so:

( warning: clowns )

Today was my last teaching day of the year. Then I rushed home to finish up the Christmas baking to distribute to neighbours, co-workers, and friends tomorrow and this weekend.

( all the cookies )

I'm multitasking: updating my CV whilst doing more baking. Neither are things I particularly want to do right now, but at least today's experiment was awesome:



Okay, so Thin Mints are already vegan*, which is nice, so you should buy them and support the Girl Guides. Which I do. However, if you want to make homemade ones (maybe because you want to work with a better quality of chocolate or whatever, here is the recipe:

Vegan Thin Mints

I followed the recipe more or less exactly, and they turned out awesome. The only thing I changed was that two cups of chocolate for the topping seemed excessive. I ended up only dipping them on one side, as there's already a lot of chocolate in this. I watered it down with a bit of cashew milk, as the baking chocolate I use is never runny enough to dip things in, and you want it pretty runny or they won't look very nice.

* By a cool coincidence, the shitty cookies I like tend to be vegan. I don't eat shitty cookies often, but that's one thing that I was pleased to not have to give up.

I made some delicious cheesecakes for people and it came out yum. One was for a retiring co-worker (*sniff*); the other for personal reasons.



I basically use the same structure for most of my cheesecakes now and vary the flavouring depending on my whims.
( Recipe )

I did warn you.

This is an easy one. Like, surprisingly easy, assuming you live in the right kind of neighbourhood, which I do. Otherwise I imagine it's a pain in the ass.

Ethiopian is pretty much my favourite overall cuisine but, unlike my other favourite foods, it tends to be one I'm afraid of making, largely because the one time I tried it came out gross. This avoidance is enabled by the fact that there is a really excellent Ethiopian place across the street from me and several others within stumbling distance, so why bother doing it myself?

Because I can, that's why. And also because no one at work will go out for Ethiopian food for lunch with me and while this is a stupid thing to bring to lunch when you tend to eat at your desk and not always have access to a sink, I'm clearly going to do it anyway.

So I was walking home, past one of the many little convenience stores along my route, when I thought, "wait a sec, I wonder if I can get berbere here?" It looked like the kind of convenience store where they don't sell anything other than $5 deodorant and energy drinks, but inside, lo and behold, there before me was a whole rack of unlabelled spices, facing another rack of exciting obscure flours and lentils. Shyly, I asked, "do you have berbere?"

The two women working there looked at me like I was a particularly entertaining cat video. "You know what berbere is?" one asked. "You like berbere?"

I nodded. She handed me a massive fucking container of berbere. "Be careful with it," she advised me. "It's spicy. Start with two teaspoons."

I promised I'd be careful. I was not planning to be careful. Deciding that this was a magical convenience store, I asked if they also had injera. She handed me a massive fucking package of injera. The two women then proceeded to question me on my experience with making Ethiopian food (none) and what I liked (all of it) and both of them gave me tips. Which amounted to fry onions, put in spices, fill with delicious things, and nuke the injera for about a minute.

Anyway I made d'ba zigni and it came out amazingly:



The recipe is here. I followed it pretty exactly except that I used canned pumpkin (I know) and tomato sauce rather than puréeing tomatoes because I was lazy and didn't want to go out again. I also tasted it about halfway through and decided that it needed more berbere, because I am not a careful person.

Verdict: Do it my way and it takes far less time than it says in the recipe (we're talking like 10-15 minutes), and basically tastes like the d'ba zigni I've had at restaurants.

I meant to take a taste and I ended up shovelling massive amounts of it into my mouth. Oops. This was not supposed to be for dinner tonight. Fortunately it makes a not-miniscule quantity—I guess to go along with the ridiculous amount of injera I now have in my fridge. I might make some misir wat to go along with it this weekend because apparently that is pretty easy too.

Hey, you know what I love? Korma. You know what I can't eat anymore? Korma, unless I make it myself. So I did.

I also had a ghost pepper ripen in my garden—the first one I've ever managed to get to ripening stage!—so I figured, hey, why not make ghost pepper korma? I know korma is supposed to be mild, but this is me, and if I can add ghost pepper to a thing, I will.

The result is fucking deliciousness.

( pictures and recipe )

In other news, I dyed my hair green again. It looks rad.

This one is even better than the last one. This is probably the best cheesecake. It involves lavender from my yard.



( Recipe )
Other things I made: Two more jars of pickles and lavender soap. The soap doesn't appear to be setting, which is worrisome. I may have put too much liquid in it.

Vegan Nanaimo bars:



( Recipe )

Verdict: Incredibly fucking tasty. Taste-wise, indistinguishable from non-vegan Nanaimo bars. Structurally, the inside is quite gooey and any suggestions people have for fixing that would be greatly appreciated. It's totally fine right out of the fridge but at parties (as much as I'd like to eat the entire thing myself), people tend to leave baked goods sitting around.