Top chef speed

Hello! God. I really do suck at blogging.
Anyhoo.

Last weekend was my cousin's big fat Greek wedding! Yes, we are Greek. Orthodox. Like the movie. The church and reception hall weren't air conditioned, but it was still super fun. I got my hair done on Saturday, and so did my cousin Anastasia. So with all the hairspray, we were trapped in our hotel room for a few hours, taking naps on our stomachs, being cautious not to mess up our hair! My mom brought me some food, and I got a "salad" which consisted of an uncut pile of lettuce, 2 tomato slices, and 2 raw onion rings. A pile of stale croutons on the side topped it off. Bon Appetit! I like lettuce!! Ha. I also had 1/2 a PB cup. And a few too many of these:Come on. The vending machine was down the hall.

Didn't get any pictures at the actual wedding, but here are some from the reception.

My niece Christina.

Alexa and Thom, the happy couple :)

She likes dirt. She's 3. Who cares.

The girls in my family, first cousins, second cousins, aunts, etc. (I'm in the floral spaghetti straps with the weird purple line going down my torso.)

The next day at the brunch:
Gibson, the amazing fuzzy black dog.

This week has been super lazy, I had cereal for dinner most days (puffins + nut milk = :) and I've been making banana soft serve by the boatload. I have been going to the Ann Arbor art fair a ton, which is awesome! I can bike there, lucky me :)

My niece and nephew have birthdays not too far apart, and today was their party! My nephew, Jack, turned 5.


And Christina turned 3!! She's so cute. I loved their cake too.

For their party, I made Potato edamame samosas with coconut-mint chutney. Yay! I biked to whole foods in the rain, prepared and excited to make fresh mango summer rolls. I had all the ingredients, and then I found out that the last ingredient on my list, rice paper wrappers, were out of stock. Poopy.I had been smart enough to bring my handy dandy pocket sized (psh not really) Vegan with a Vengeance! So I sat down and decided on another thing to make. Thus, potato edamame samosas with coconut mint chutney was born (dang thats long)! I happily walked out of whole foods, only spending $4.46 (something like that) and I was ready to zoom through making them.

So I biked home, with all the steps planned out in my head. I pretended I was on Top chef, with a certain amount of time to cook. I did, my mom was coming home at 4:30! And it was 2. Ouch.

I got home and began putting the dough together, kneading it, then peeling potatoes at record speed, cutting other veggies, and doing this all in less than an hour. (Maybe an hour and 10 minutes?) Anyways. I was on such a roll that I

forgot

the

freaking

edamame

!
!!

I'm so stupid. There was no turning back, because I had already made the stupid little pieces of dough into stupid cute little pockets with the potato-carrot-ginger-garlic filling inside.

But to be fair, the recipe was quite vague. It said "add the edamame" while on the ingredient list, it said "frozen edamame" so I was never instructed to cook it, or defrost it. This one is your fault, Isa.

They still turned out yummy, and I'm taking the leftovers to our dinner partay tomorrow. (more about that in tomorrow or sundays post! Lots...) I whipped up some more coconut mint chutney, which is sitting in the fridge. Heres the recipe, but please. Remember the edamame!!

For the Dough

3/4 cup rice or soy milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 Tsp apple cider vinegar
3 cups all purpose flour

1/4 tsp turmeric

1/4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

For the Filling

3 medium-sized russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks

2 tablespoons vegetable oil plus extra for brushing
1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 medium yellow onion, very finely chopped
1 cup shredded carrot
2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tbs fresh ginger, minced

1 tsp coriander

1/2 tsp ground turmeric

Pinch of cayenne pepper

1 tsp salt
Juice of 1 lemon

3/4 cup shelled frozen edamame (or green peas)

For the Chutney

1/2 cup coconut milk

1/3 cup fresh mint, finely chopped
1/3 cup fresh coriander, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tsp pure maple syrup

1 tsp fresh lime juice

1/4 tsp salt

For the chutney:

Mix together all ingredients in a medium sized bowl and refrigerate for 1 hour. Serve at room temp.

For the Samosas

Boil potatoes until tender, 20-30 minutes. Remove, drain and set aside

Preheat oven to 400'F.

To make the dough

Pour the wet dough ingredients into a mixing bowl. Add 2 cups of flour, the turmeric and baking powder, stir.
Knead and gradually add remaining flour until dough is smooth, not sticky. (Should take about 10 minutes,I found an additional 1 cup was much, I probably used 3/4 cup)
Cover with a wet cloth and set aside.

To prepare filling

In a large skillet over medium heat, heat oil, mustard and cumin seeds. Let seeds pop for about 1 minute.
Add onions and carrots. Raise heat to medium-high and saute 7-10 minutes, until the onion begins to brown.
Add garlic, ginger, coriander, turmeric, cayenne, salt and lemon juice and saute 1 minute more.
Add potatoes, mashing as you go.
Add edamame and mix well.
Divide dough in half and roll on a floured surface until thin. Cut into circles with a 4-inch cookie cutter.Place 1 1/2 Tbs filling into center of circle, dab the edges with water and fold over. Use thumb and forefinger along edge to seal. (This isn't too precise, don't worry they wont explode in the oven.)

To Bake:

Brush each side lightly with oil and place on a nonstick cookie sheet. Bake for 15 minutes, flip and bake for 10 minutes more. Serve with Coconut-Mint Chutney

Please try this, it's yummy! But see what I mean about the edamame? It's so vague!! There was also carrots and hummus, asian cole slaw, and raw broccoli at the party. Also pizza, breadsticks, and cake, which I didn't eat.

There has been a really scary storm today, the sky kept changing colors and it rained on and off. At my sisters house, the power went off! So it was hard to take pictures. The power is on at our house though, as you can see :)

Along the road when we were driving, we saw this tree and many others uprooted! Scary!

Of course theres always a rainbow<3

I got 2 library books on the way home.

Made popcorn for mother dearest

Isn't he cute?

Went shopping with padre at Hillers, to get needed items for our dinner thingy tomorrow. Still have a few things to get from the farmers market tomorrow, then it's off to the cottage to COOK! A lot from fresh and fast vegan pleasures, more to come then...

Well I am very slow looking at blogs, so I had better catch up:D

See ya.