double-trouble

Double your pleasure, double your fun . . .

Nah, double your trouble with Terry's Favorite Almond Cookies from VCON!

Yesterday, I tried making Terry's Favorite Almond Cookies from VCON. Key word, aparently, is "tried." I preheated the oven, followed the directions, scooped out the first tray of cookies, and stuck them in the oven. I always set a timer for half the amount of time suggested for baking, so I can rotate the cookie sheet halfway through -- the back of my oven is a little hotter than the front, so I try my best to get things to bake evenly. Look what I found in my oven after only six minutes of baking!

The cookies had spread so much, they became one gigantic, caramelized sheet of cookie-concrete. I had to soak my baking sheet for a couple of hours before I was able to scrub it clean!

So, I used my noodle, and thought I would put the rest of the cookie dough into a baking dish and make a cookie bar, since the sides of the dish would hold in the batter. They would have, if I had chosen a big-enough baking dish! Ack:

Aparently, my noodle wasn't working so well yesterday. In the end, I have just had lousy luck with oil-based cookie recipes. I may try the cookies another time, using Earth Balance, but for the time being, that recipe's going to remain untouched, at least until I clean out my oven!

One baking project did turn out well yesterday, though!

I made the basic scone recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance, and added the juice and zest of one lemon, and 3/4 cup frozen blueberries. (Pardon the blurry pic.) Delish! These did spread pretty far, too, (although they did retain their scone individualities,) so I think the almond cookie disaster had more to do with the heat and humidity than some major failure in the recipe.

For the finale, dinner tonight:

I am IN LOVE with the curried tofu recipe from VCON -- seriously, Dan might want to watch that I don't leave him for a batch of curried tofu! :) Why do I love this recipe so? It uses a small handful of pantry staples, takes seconds to throw together, moments to cook up, (after several hours of marinading, of course,) and is SO FREAKIN' GOOD. I threw a handfull of leftover sliced mushrooms into the marinade, too, and those were magically delicious as well. (In fact, that marinade might make a mighty tasty curried portobello mushroom sandwich in the future!) Coffee Cup Couscous and spinach salad with leftover beet and parsnip salad on the side.

What is "Coffee Cup Couscous," you ask? Well, simply put, it's a single-serving of couscous made in a coffee cup in the microwave. Try it -- you'll thank me for not having to wash an extra saucepot! (P.S. If you have big coffee cups, you can easily make two servings, too.)