Vegan Cupcakes? Have I lost my mind?

From the very precious Gwynneth Paltrow's site, Goop, which I actually secretly kind of like oops the secret is out, an interesting post on vegan cupcakes and darn it, other vegan baked goods.

The one time I had vegan bread I was violently ill for a day. I channeled my grandmother, "My body needs butter." But the baguette is butter, salt, and oil. I eat that without turning my gastrointestinal tract inside out. Of course, I usually eat it with cream of cauliflower soup topped with Gruyere, shmeared with lots of fresh imported butter, but still. It makes no sense.

I am, however, intrigued. I might try it. I might like it. I will not, however, give up the precious goodness of the butter cow.

Goop Make: Babycakes with recipes

Best use of vodka on a Monday

If you're a conspiracy theorist, then you probably already recognize this drink with the word "Moscow" in the name and "vodka" in the glass as the drink that NO DOUBT Barack Obama imbibed while he was being inculcated into Communism in order to take over the world. How he did that during his free time getting good grades and going to Harvard Law School I'll never know. My husband went to law school and I remember him barely having time to read the paper and nap on the couch.

If you're not a conspiracy theorist (why exactly DO people want to believe this stuff?) but you just want to try an interesting drink, check out:

Moscow Mule via Serious Eats

The best use of squash and corn pudding perhaps ever

From the genius 101 Cookbooks. Heidi has done it again:

Roasted Corn Pudding in Acorn Squash

On the subject of eggplant

Another killer article from Gourmet. The directions are a bit coy, although they read like my directions so maybe I should pay more attention and be more specific. It can be such a downer to measure everything, though, and to skip cooking something just because you don't have everything on the menu. But the title is a killer. This must be tried:

An Eggplant Confession

Orangette is going to use it as a sauce for pizza, which sounds fabulous especially on my grill in the backyard. Read her post, although it makes me tired. She and her husband are working so hard on their restaurant.

What I do now

Her post was just in time. I need the crumble recipe for the prune plums I picked up at the orchard today, along with the 4 bushels of apples fresh from the tree.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Tomatillo Chicken Stew

WWYD?

Oh, The Temptation from Steve V on Vimeo.

Stuffed eggplant and the 12 foot window

Image by Brooklyn Museum via Flickr

Long ago, before I went to medical school, Monsieur Latte and I took a trip to Turkey. This was one of our best trips. There were so many wonderful, colorful, aromatic moments. Istanbul is amazing. (I haven't had a lot of coffee yet, so bear with my turgid writing.) We felt as though we were in wonderland.

One wonderful evening we "spent a little extra" on dinner. That means we probably dropped $20 for the two of us including alcohol. We sat one evening on top of a rooftop restaurant, about 3 or 4 stories high, in the lovely, sparkly Istanbul weather. We looked out over the old City, the Sultanahmet, right across from the Blue Mosque. I had one of my ten best meals ever, stuffed eggplant. Two things, in fact. On that trip, even though (as usual) Monsieur Latte drove me crazy it became absolutely clear to me that I couldn't be separated from him. Ever. We weren't married yet and he was living in Connecticut, but I'd figured out bigger problems.

I also fell head over heels completely gaga crazy for eggplant on that trip. Monsieur et the Aubergine. They are still with me.

Monsieur and I live in a house with a 12 foot window in the living room. Try covering that for $100. We've been limping along for sometime with an Overstock.com meets Lowe's solution and I tire of it. What to do? Well, I was just having a chat with Google about it, and one thing led to another and I found a new cookbook. Not only that, I found a GORGEOUS new cookbook with a recipe for stuffed eggplant.

For a moment, at 7:14 this morning, gazing at the picture I clicked on a lark, Google sent me on a virtual magic carpet back 15 years ago to a rooftop restaurant with my beloved, kooky, neurotic Monsieur, in a far away place surrounded by exotic, ancient, enormous buildings, enveloped in a scented, silky cocoon of eggplant. A land before children, patients, sick parents. I'd never seen a leg amputated. I'd never delivered a baby. I'd never fallen in love with the chortle of my own babies. I didn't want to go back for long, but my, my, what a way to start a day.

Here's the recipe, in case you're interested.

Vefa Alexiadou's Meet Stuffed Eggplants Recipe

Few more cookbook links:

Vefa's kitchen (there are links here at Phaidon to recipes)
Amazon (with a few pics of the inside of the book)