Cream of whaaa? Two weeks in a row our CSA came with a head of celery, there is only so much peanut butter I can scoop out of the jar with a stalk (well, that’s not true, but there is only so much I should scoop out), hence this soup was our dinner last night. If you don’t like celery, you might keep on walking, but if you do like it (even a little bit, like you don’t have to love it), this is quick, easy, and the flavor grows on you so that, by the end of the bowl, you want a second bowl.

Roastin’ up some veggies:

Brownin’ up some onions:

Cookin’ up some soup:

If you have a few friends, a bottle of wine, and a Sunday afternoon to spare, might I suggest trying your hand at tamale making? This is not a week night endeavor by any stretch, but if you have the time and inclination it is really fun and rewarding, and you end up with dozens of delicious tamales to eat for weeks! Tamales freeze really well, too, just wrap them individually and then thaw them before re-heating.

To make tamales you need a few dozen corn husks, filling of some kind, masa dough (recipe below), and a way to steam the little pockets of yum. I think the best way to do this is to set up an assembly line in your kitchen and get a helper, but yesterday I made these by myself and took photos of the process (mind you, it took three hours, but I still had fun).

1. Soak your corn husks in a large rimmed pan with hot water to make them pliable and take a few of the husks and tear them into strips for tying off the ends of your tamales. Like so:

2. Put your bowl of masa dough next to the husks and keep a wet rag handy to cover your dough when you aren’t using it. Check out my masa recipe below, or use Google to find one, it’s seriously easy stuff to make. Don’t be scared.

3. Put your bowl of filling (I like to mix my tempeh chorizo and some sofrito, or use my sweet potato black bean taco filling – that was a lot of self promotion in one sentence) next to the bowl of dough.

4. Set up your method for steaming these babies on your stove top at the end of the line up. Most proper tamale makers have a huge tamale pot and sit like 50 down in there at one time on top of a steam basket. I have no such thing, and thus just use a big dutch oven with about 5 inches of water in it at a soft boil, and a cheap-o, multi-level steamer basket from the local Asian grocery store. It isn’t perfect, but I get to eat tamales at the end of the night. Here’s my MacGyver set up:

So, to make your tamales, you 1. Take a soaked husk in your hot little hands.
2. Spread about 2 tablespoons of masa dough in the center of the husk with a spatula (or your wet fingers, which I totally do) until it’s spread even and thin.
3. Take a heaping Tablespoon of filling, plop it in the middle, and then fold your husk in half, connecting the two side of the dough.
4. Roll the husk shut over the closed dough and tie it on both ends.
5. Put those cuties in your steamer basket seam-side-up (helps stop leak-age).
6. Steam for 60-90 minutes until the dough is set (stiff to the touch and not mushy anymore). Be sure to check there’s water in the pot from time to time!

The assembly process looks something like this:

Serve these up with some nice seasoned beans, a Mexican slaw, some fresh guacamole, some chipotle cashew cream, or all of that.

This makes a kick-ass filling for tamales, tacos, quesadillas, your mouth…whatever. The spice blend really needs everything, save for the annatto (that’s just nice to include if you have it), to make the tempeh taste right. But, if you don’t have smoked paprika, you could use regular Spanish paprika and add a dash of liquid smoke to the pan. Or, try a little liquid from a can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce.

This dish came to me after I made Samosa-stuffed sweet potatoes for the Vegan Housewives. It is my very favorite taco filling, stuffed into a baked sweet potato, rested on a bed of bay greens, quinoa and cilantro and topped with guacamole and spicy chipotle cashew cream. It’s even more delicious than it sounds.

I live in central Florida. Our winter generally consists of three or four chilly days (I’m talking weather in the 60s) strung together, periodically, in the months of January or February. But, for the last few weeks we’ve had a nice little chill (highs lower than 50!) This is big stuff for this boot-loving, scarf-hoarding girl.

When it’s cold, I love nothing more than a thick, creamy soup with some crusty bread for dinner. This baked potato soup fits the bill perfectly.

My little love is 13 months old now. He is running and climbing and eating like there is no tomorrow. I can already see he shares his father’s metabolism (great for him, horrific for my wallet). Feeding the two of them is a full-time job. One I love, for the most part, thank goodness. If only my day job were as fun.

Auggie has loved every morsel he (or I) have put in his mouth so far. The only thing he’s not sure about are blueberries, but he’ll still eat them. To my delight, he loves quinoa, lentils, and tempeh (and good thing as his dad and I eat them each week). Here’s a quick dinner that he loves a lot and is packed full of goodness for his busy little body.

Confession: I take dessert to every family holiday gathering in order to prove veganism is delicious. I come from a large southern family, and sugar is a common denominator amongst their taste buds. I like my food to be loved by all, sue me.

Yesterday I picked up our weekly veggie share (there is a really cool organic buying group in the southeast called Annie’s Organics, can’t recommend them enough if you are in their geographic reach), and found not one, but two heads of celery (I just had to look up what a bunch of celery is properly referred to as – turns out it is a head). I don’t typically eat much celery. Unless it’s slathered in peanut butter, I don’t much care for it frankly. But, with two heads sitting on my counter, I made a quick decision to do a fast soup for dinner. It turned out so well I decided to write a guide for how to make any sort of creamy soup with any extra veggies you might have lying around (think potatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, parsnip – something in the root or cruciferous family would work great). I recently posted a cream of leek soup using this very process.

I am beyond excited to be guest blogging recipes once a month over at Vegan Housewives. I met the ladies at Tampa Veg Fest a few years ago and have been happily reading their blog ever since. They have a whole group of new guest posters and we are writing on a wide, interesting variety of vegan lifestyle topics. My first recipe appeared last week, a Mediterranean farro bowl, that’s super quick to make, really fresh and savory, and easy to take on a picnic or to a party (it can sit out a long time and still taste great).