Cinnamon Sticky Buns

The children and I used to make CINNAMON STICKY BUNS years ago when the oldest were young and we had a weekly Education Bakery, wherein we baked cookies on Wednesday and started the dough for these buns, and then made bread on Thursday and drove the finished products around to sell to workplaces and friends to learn about measuring, cooking, time management, and marketing. These buns were always our top sellers.

 

Ingredients for Approximately 30 Buns

 

Dough

1 1/2 cups — cooked potato, reserving the potato cooking water (2 cups)

1 tblsp. — baking yeast

1 tblsp. — sweetener

1/2 pound — tofu, blended with cooked potato and 1 1/2 of its cooking water

2 cups — sunflower oil 

2 cups — unbleached white flour (2 more cups later)

2 cups — whole wheat flour (2 more cups later)

1/2 tblsp. — salt

Later, 4 more cups of mixed flours to knead the dough, so altogether about 8 cups flour

 

Filling

1 cup — maple syrup

1/2 cup — tahini

1 tblsp. — cinnamon

Sprinkle of salt

1 cup — pecans

Method

To start the dough, first cook a cut up large peeled potato in two cups of water. You will need one and a half cups of potato, so estimate how big a potato you will need. Remove one cup of the potato water and, when it is warm to the inside of your wrist and doesn't burn you, dissolve a tablespoon of baking yeast and a tablespoon of sweetener in it. I had run out of yeast, so I only used about two teaspoons, and that seemed to work fine. I also used rice syrup as my sweetener. Stir and let sit for ten minutes.

Red Lentil Soup

Raymond said the RED LENTIL SOUP was the best soup ever the other night, and though I didn't write down the proportions, I assured him I had at least written down the ingredients so I could duplicate it again some day. Now I seem to have lost them, but how hard could it be to remember? This soup will be a yellowish tan color, not red, when cooked, unfortunately, and it reminds me more of a yellow split pea soup consistency than of a lentil soup.

 

Ingredients

1 — large onion, chopped

8 — carrots, sliced

2 — stalks celery, chopped

2 tblsp. — olive oil

Several — garlic cloves, sliced

3 cups — dry red lentils, rinsed

4 quarts — water, with part of it vegetable stock if you have any

1-2 cups — various other vegetables if you have any lying around (not jicama)

1 tblsp. — vegan Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp each — thyme, parsley, turmeric, curry powder, sambhar powder (optional)

1 — bay leaf

1/3 cup — brown rice miso (after cooking is completed)

2 — limes, juiced 

Optional — Hungarian paprika, cayenne pepper (especially if not using curry and sambhar)

Method

Saute one large chopped onion and eight sliced carrots, five cubed potatoes and two stalks of chopped celery in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Start off in the most huge pot you have so you don't have to transfer everything later on like I did.

Throw in several sliced garlic cloves and about three cups of dry red lentils that have been rinsed. They clump together after rinsing, but they will behave once the water is poured on them. Pour in about four quarts (sixteen cups) of water. I did say to use an enormous pot.

Dandelion Greens, Baby Bok Choy, Linguine, and Sauteed Tofu Cubes with Tamari

They aren't growing around here, yet, but there were huge bunches of DANDELION GREENS at my co-op the other day. This very mild green is supposed to be good for your liver in the spring, but I couldn't wait. 

 

It's reassuring to know there is something edible right in your yard or a nearby vacant lot, if it comes to that, once it gets to be spring. Even when they are older they are still pretty good if you boil them twice and discard the water each time. Otherwise, when young, just steam them until they are limp and still bright green. 

 

I submerged the dandelion greens for about five minutes or so in the big pot of boiling water I used later to cook the linguine, and then I tossed them with a bit of lemon juice and olive oil and a touch of tamari. They aren't bitter when young, and I think the texture and taste is better than spinach.