Mish mash, doo dads and gobble de gook -

Amazing how time flies - 2013 went by day by day to total 365 days and 2014 will do exactly the same thing - nothing revealing about that revelation but how do we fill those days - that is more a feat than anything else. I probably wasted a good number of those days and I would make myself crazy if I tried to get a tally on that so rather than inflict myself with any kind of burden I will simply say that however many days I wasted last year I will do my darndest to waste less this year. I wrote 12 posts for Char-Broil and I will write 12 or more for them again this year - in fact I have one up already. Salt to taste is demystified - sorta - go check it out.

I have lots of irons in the fire and hopefully this year those irons will do a little more than just get hot. My foray into molecular gastronomy got no further than simply ordering and receiving some things but very little in the way of learning new techniques, that will hopefully change this year.

 Everyone's diets are changing so I am going to embrace that with more vegan. vegetarian and gluten free alternatives.

I can never abandon my New Mexico roots so of course there will always be lots and lots of chile. It looks like I have my year cut out for me - how about you?

Creative Cooking Crew: VEGAN

I was so pleased to be asked to participate with this fine group of distinguished bloggers in their Creative Cooking Crew  brought to us by Joan and Lazaro - but when the first challenge was VEGAN it made me do a quick little back pedal. Nothing wrong with vegan cooking but if you have been poaching things in fat and butter like I have I needed nothing short of an exorcism and a colonic just to be qualified. Vegans and vegetarians always seem to be the brunt of whats wrong with things nutritionally with their very head strong ideas about what the rest of us should and shouldn't be eating, and if you had as few choices as they have you would be charismatic about your food too.

I often have to make vegan and vegetarian dishes for some of my clients so the idea of it wasnt as scary as I pretend. Anything stacked is sure to make a happy diner so with that in mind I got busy. I made a Two Potato Tofu Napoleon. Purple potatoes, sweet potatoes (yams) firm tofu, and zucchini went into my layers. I simply boiled the potatoes and let them cool before I sliced them thin, the yams were sliced thin raw and sautéed in a hot pan with olive oil until they were soft. The zucchini was flash sautéed in olive oil with a garlic clove and the tofu was dusted with salt and pepper and corn starch and fried until it was a light golden brown

I put some red chile on the plate and made my stack then I drizzled the whole thing with cilantro oil and scattered some black beans, peas and some of the chopped up roasted garlic then I garnished the whole thing with water cress. 

I made a small one for my son and sliced the edges off of his so you could get a good clean look at the layers.

I made a big stack for me, extra layers of extra flavor and packed with nutrients. I love to cook with colors - I hope you try my Two Potato Tofu Napoleon - and dont forget the chile!