KZCAKES: mac and cheese

November 17, 2016

Something Rare

November 01, 2016

I'm KZ and my favorite food is Mac & Cheese

September 08, 2014

Mac And Cheese-- What Vegan Dreams Are Made Of

The story goes: You see your cousin that you never see except on Christmas, she asks how your life is going, you tell her about your job, your yoga class, your vegan blog... Then she goes, "Oh I could never go vegan! I love Cheese too much!!" And you debate whether or not it's worth it to tell her that the hormones in cheese are what are addicting her to it... but you decide-- it's not. Then you come home, and cook up one of eight zillion recipes for Vegan Mac and Cheese that paper the internet and fill your cookbooks, which fill your shelves, and sit down. Take a bite. Laugh. Maniacal laughter. How dumb is the rest of the world? This is the best tasting food ever. Not only do you disagree on multiple levels with the ethics of animal cheese, but there are so many question marks as to WTF is in there and what it could be doing to your body. All of that aside, because Who gives a shit, this mac and cheese is all you are ever going to need, crave, or want to eat ever again.

Now everybody has got their favorite mac. Some people are all about the baked-in-a-casserole-dish mac, some people want it to taste as close to the kind that came from a blue box as possible, and some people will really just eat anything and like it. Mine varies from time to time. Current favorite? It's the Roasted Red Pepper Mac from Isa Does It, but you could have guessed that, couldn't you?

I sprinkle it with a little extra salt, add a bunch of extra nooch, and do a bunch of chili flakes. This is just what I do, do what you like. You can put chili powder on it, paprika, gummy bears. Do what you will. You're the one who is eating it-- Customize your mac!

I also love mushrooms. The BF leaves town like all the time, which is alright by me as long as it gives me license to cook all the food he doesn't like and eat all the mushrooms I've been missing out on since the last time he went out of town. We in mushroom town now.

Guys I think Magic Hat replaced their Octoberfest beer, Hex, my FAV, with this pumpkin beer! It's good but not as good as Hex. It does have a cool title and cool picture on it, so I'll allow it. BF doesn't like pumpkin either, so I'm obviously guzzling this in my moment of solitude. So anyways, what's your favorite Vegan Mac recipe?? I've tried like 1 of the 8 zillion, but I'm always open to new ones!
Happy Fall/Mac/Monday!
<3 KZ

March 25, 2014

Adventure Time with KZ !

November 22, 2013

KZ Does It. Kind of.

January 06, 2013

Macaroni Pie, First Try

Every vegan has their beloved mac & cheeze recipe that they go to after a bad day at work, a pang of nostalgia, or a strong hankering for creamy noodles. I know I do. I have probably tried about 25 different recipes for vegan mac & cheeze since going vegan, perhaps more. Some did the trick better than others, but it took forever to find one that I specifically craved. Whether or not this tastes like real mac & cheese, I don't even remember. I just know that it hits the nail on the head when an ex-mac-&-cheese-lover is having a moment of weakness. I grew up on kraft mac and cheese, and not so much baked southern-style mac and cheese, and definitely prefer a creamy, soupier and cheezier mac than a dry, baked casserole with a crust. Like I said, I've tried a lot of different recipes, and applaud everyone for getting in their kitchen and trying to recreate their favorite comfort food and share it with the world so that other vegans like me can have a go-to mac & cheeze at our fingertips. My recipe is sort of a combination of all my favorites out there. I feel like I can't truly claim responsibility for whole recipe since I've had so much help along the way. So, Thanks Everybody!

Now, I've got a solid recipe and I make it all the time. So after recently finding myself with a large leftover pot of mac & cheeze, I sort of looked at it for a while, tilted my head sideways, and wandered over to my thinking stool and sat with my temple resting against my fist propped by my elbow on my knee.. you know, the thinking pose; the one you get in to access the creative part of your brain. A very distant memory crossed my thoughts of a girl scouts potluck we had when I was in brownies (that's when you're between 7 and 9). Everyone was supposed to bring a family recipe or a recipe from our family's heritage. So of course my mom and I brought kielbasa, this is obviously many years ago, because we're polish, and my best friend had her mom make lasagna because she was italian, and my other friend probably brought schnitzel and another rice and beans, and so on and so forth. Anyways, one scout brought macaroni pie. I was so intrigued by it, since I had never seen or heard of such a thing. I forget if it actually had a crust, or if it was just elbow pasta with tomato sauce, put into a casserole or pie dish and baked. But the idea of merging two dishes, macaroni and pie, excited me so. A long search of google images just yielded dishes of spaghetti jammed into a dish, covered in shredded mozzarella cheese and baked. Now I'm sure if I brought a dish like that to my next potluck, its praise, if any, would surely not get me to hollywood. I thought, maybe I could put a spin on all this spaghetti business and make a mac & cheeze pie.

I pondered over making a savory pie crust, but really ached over the idea of that much starch in one dish. I am aiming for ultra american, but that might be a little too american for even me. I took inspiration from a timbale, which uses eggplant slices as it's crust, and used steamed chard leaves. Collards would obviously work great here too. I really love to chop up some soy dogs and mix them into my mac, like I did as a little kid. I grilled my dogs first and then chopped them up and threw them into the mix. The results, pretty similar to straight up mac & cheeze, but in a nicer presentation, and also portion controlled slices. A jazzy new way to bring your favorite comfort food to a potluck!

Macaroni Pie, version 1

*For gluten-free variation, use a gluten-free pasta like shells or elbows. Instead of using flour, use chickpea flour in place of all-purpose flour.

1 lb macaroni pasta

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 cup flour

1/2 cup nooch

1/2 cup cashews

2 1/2 to 3 cups butternut squash, peeled and cubed

1 tablespoon worcestershire

3/4 cup water or veggie broth

2-3 cloves garlic

2 heaping tablespoons white miso

1 tablespoon tomato paste

2 tablespoons tahini

1 tablespoon dijon or spicy brown mustard

the juice of 1 lemon

2 cups unsweetened almond milk

1 teaspoon old bay

1/4 teaspoon turmeric

1/2 teaspoon dry mustard

salt and pepper

1 large bunch swiss or rainbow chard, or collard greens

1 handful plain breadcrumbs

3 tablespoons olive oil, for drizzling

Bring a large pot of water to boil for pasta.

Add pasta and cook according to package directions. Drain and set aside.

You can use canned butternut squash, and save yourself the roasting, but I prefer to roast my own, because it's a little thinner and a bright vibrant orange, instead of a dull, grayed out can of squash. Plus you can find it year-round. So peel your squash, cut it in half, scoop out your seeds, and chop it into cubes and roast in on 400ºF for about 30 minutes or until super soft. If you get lazy you can skip the cubing step and just slice it in half and scoop the seeds and place the cut squash halves cut-side down on a baking tray. But then you have to wait for the squash to cool to peel. So I say, Cube em!

In a blender, add cashews, water and garlic. Blend at high speed for 2-3 minites, until a creamy paste is achieved. Scoop this mixture out and set aside. Puree the roasted butternut squash cubes separately after scooping out cashew mixture, set aside.

In a heavy-bottomed skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat. Now take a wire whisk and slowly whisk in the flour. This will turn into a clumpy mass, at which point you may switch to a wooden spoon. Stir it around for about 2-3 minutes, until you smell a toasty scent, that means the flour and oil are nicely toasted and combined. Get your whisk again and scoop in the cashew cream. Whisk this into the mass of flour and oil to create a thick paste. Add the miso, tahini, tomato paste and lemon juice, and spicy mustard and whisk until well -combined. Now, slowly whisk in the almond milk, until desired thickness is acheived. You want a relatively loose sauce, not a paste. It will seem soupy at first, but just keep stiring until the mixture absorbs the flour and forms a creamy cheese-like sauce. Now stir in the nooch, old bay, turmeric, dry mustard, worcestershire sauce and lower the heat. Now stir in the butternut squash mixture. It will make the sauce a silky luxurious texture. Taste the mixture and add salt and pepper accordingly.

Turn off the heat and dump pasta into sauce. Using a spatula, fold the noodles into the sauce so that each noodle is well-coated.

I have dreams about this.

Preheat the oven to 400ºF.

Steam leaves of chard or collard greens for about 6 minutes, or until soft. Lay them out on a cutting board and pat dry. Lay them flat in a springform pan, draping it over the sides of the pan. Overlap the leaves so that the entire bottom is covered and some leaves overlap along the outside edges.

Scoop in your mac mixture and smooth out the top using a spatula. Fold the edges of the chard that hang off the pan up over the mac and cheeze so that the chard forms a border around the top of the pie.

Now evenly sprinkle the breadcrumbs over the mac and drizzle with olive oil. Bake for about 35 minutes or until the crumbs have browned. If they haven't browned, pop it under the broiler for 2 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes before slicing.

*If you don't have the worcestershire sauce, now is a perfect opportunity to use one of the many bottles of specialty soy sauces you bought to make some fancy thai dish, but are now left with a cabinet full of open soy sauce bottles. To me, this recipe screams to the open bottle of thai golden mountain sauce burning a whole in my fridge or cabinet. If you have neither, just add some extra salt.

If you don't have old bay, you can leave it out. If you feel dangerous, add a teaspoon or so you're favorite spice blend, like a persian 7-spice or an ethiopian berbere.

*If you want to relive my childhood, you can add some tofu dogs! Grill or toast in the oven 2-3 non-gmo soy organic hot dogs, my fav is tofurky, for about 5 minutes. Slice into bite-sized pieces and stir into the mac when done.

October 28, 2012

A Lazy Dinner, for a Lazy KZ

September 28, 2011

KZ Lately..

I have so many food adventures to share with everyone and no time for blogging! I'll have to pack this one post chock full of food pics and entertaining facts about each one to keep my readers at bay. It's true, I hate it when my favorite food blogs wait 2 weeks or so in between posts. I get sick of looking at the same picture of soup or whatever it was they last posted when I check it. It starts to feel like leftovers that you're sick of eating... Because I've obviously already made it if it's been posted 2 weeks... I mean, come on...

Item #1, Brunch party!
My friends and I celebrated my friend Clare's birthday with the best meal ever, brunch, obviously. Many of the items on this table were made by me, though some were kind enough to make, bake and bring other delicious foodstuffs as well. I made a ton of things from Vegan Brunch like a broccoli tofu quiche, chorizo sausges, smoky maple sausages, spicy italian sausages, bagels, potatoes, french toast and cinnamon rolls. mmmm. Something about coffee and cinnamon rolls make everything just.. a little bit okay again. We had a great crowd and I think and hope everyone enjoyed the food! I can't wait to host another. Also, I have to share this with everyone:

How great is that?! My friend Abbie made this to bring to the brunch party, and I fell in love with it. Way to maximize the Martha Stewart cuteness. Not like Martha Stewart is cute. She just makes cute things out of food. Anyways, this turtle rocked my little vegan socks off...

Who am I kidding. Everyone knows I don't wear socks..

Item #2, Fun with Sushi

Making sushi is fun, especially the second time you make it. Because the first time is so unbelievably frustrating and humiliating that it's not that fun until after you eat it. But the second time, you've already learned from your many mistakes, like rolling up the plastic wrap into your perfect roll you just spent half an hour on, or not dipping your fingers in water before you try and press sticky rice onto your plastic-wrap on your mat. The second time you make sushi, you've already forgot to include the nori in your roll twice, so you definitely can't screw that up again, and you can just create beautiful little masterpieces without fuss or frenzy. Making sushi reminds me of when I was a kid, and my mom and I went through this phase where we would make tons of stuff out of sculpy clay and bake it, and we started making these cool little beads where we rolled up a bunch of layers and then chilled them and sliced them, so they came out like little pretty windows. Just like with sushi!

So I bought a tube of wasabi from the grocery store and squeezed about as much wasabi on each slice as I would put from the wad of wasabi they give you at a japanese restaurant. And then I ate one. And then I cried. That tube is mega-concentrated. It's probably like.. ten times hotter than regular wasabi. Just sayin'.

Item #3, Mac and Cheese

On Tuesday night, I decided nothing else would do me better than a big bowl of vegan mac and cheese and a marathon of Chopped Champions. And that's exactly how it all went down. I also love making a huge batch of this because Alex won't eat it because it tastes too much like real mac and cheese (which he doesn't like) and I get all the leftovers to myself. It doesn't taste just like real mac and cheese, but it comes close, and that's okay, because it tastes really really good, and isn't that all that matters? One giant reason I could never see myself vegan a year or two ago would have been because of mac and cheese alone. It was my favorite thing to eat before I went vegan. And it was the first thing I tried to make after I went vegan. I've tried at least seven recipes for vegan mac and cheese and this is definitely my favorite. People ask me what I make it from instead of cheese, and I take a minute to think, and then answer, "Lots of stuff."

That's how this vegan rolls.

Something Rare

I'm KZ and my favorite food is Mac & Cheese

Mac And Cheese-- What Vegan Dreams Are Made Of

Adventure Time with KZ !

KZ Does It. Kind of.

Macaroni Pie, First Try

A Lazy Dinner, for a Lazy KZ

KZ Lately..

About me

Popular Posts

Blog Roll

Labels