Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Alright, enough about me...

Let's get to the food! Thanks for the congratulations from everyone.

I've heard a lot about Candle Cafe's cornmeal-crusted tempeh...so I tried it. It was very good, although it was too salty. I was expecting there to be extra marinade (which contained about 1/2 cup of tamari) after baking, but the tempeh soaked it all up and all of its salt too. These are fried, but I cut the oil down by half and it was enough to fry them all. I served these with sweet potato smash, also from Candle Cafe. I really enjoyed the potatoes. I slightly undercooked them, but the combination of cinnamon, maple syrup and miso was great.

While in Ottawa, Billy's mom brought us to the Produce Depot. I need one of these here! They had every imaginable fruit and vegetable in the world! I consider myself to be pretty knowledgeable about product, but there were many things I'd never seen before. Anyways, they even had vegan products there (Tofutti, etc). I picked up some Shefu Tofu BBQ Bites by Soyarie. I followed their tip on the package and made a wrap with it. A brown rice tortilla with some guacamole, curried mayo, spinach, pineapple, red pepper and the tofu bites. The texture of the tofu was awesome. It was kind of stringy and dry, the way meat can be, and the flavour was good too. Anyways, my picture of the wrap whomps, so I'm using the one from the website.
I have a lot of fruit to use up, and I was in a baking mood so I made some Maui Muffins with Orange Glaze, again from Candle Cafe. These have orange juice, orange zest, coconut, and pineapple and are topped with an orange juice and zest glaze. They are marvelous. If you have the book, I strongly recommend this recipe!

12 comments:

theONLYtania said...

Now I have to get this cookbook! The tempeh looks reeaally good! We have a thing called Produce Junction here by my school but I haven't gone yet!
And I just read your entry from yesterday.. ahhh congrats on the weight loss! That's really exciting :-)

Michelle said...

okay, that Candle Cafe book is definately going on my must-get list :) man, i wish you lived closer so that we could swap books sometimes!

Tracy said...

Ok, now I'm really jealous. First, your trip to Licks (which we don't have here) and then that cool sounding tofu (which we don't have here.) Damn...I love living in the country, but some things truly suck.
That muffin made me drool, by the way...

Anonymous said...

that muffin looks so good!

great work!

bazu said...

Congratulations about the big 2-0! That's an accomplishment.

Oh man, I could SO use a good produce store around here. Although, at least in the Summer, our farmer's markets are pretty good.

That last shot of the muffin is so beautiful. Looks like you're getting good use out of the Candle Cafe cookbook!

Judy said...

Ooh, that muffin looks divine!

Congrats on the loss! Feels good, doesn't it?

KleoPatra said...

Ooooooh good stuff. I'm a fan of that muffin cake thing. YUM! Nice about the food and your personal nooz of weight loss. Be healthy, be happy! Good for you.

vko said...

Hey, I live right by Candle Cafe and I have never seen that gorgeous muffin there- I'm going to have to ask or just go get the cookbook...
It all looks delicious.

Melissa said...

Haha Tracy, keep in mind I had to travel 5 hours to Ottawa to get that stuff!

vko, in the cookbook, the authors say that the muffin is a very popular breakfast item with soy lattes...And how lucky are you to live near there!

Anonymous said...

I live right next to Ottawa, and I have never heard of the Produce Depot Would you know where it is situated? Love the muffins too, by the way.

Melissa said...

Chantal, I think it was on Bank St, its part of a strip mall.

Unknown said...

The muffin photo looks divine!