good eats

When @ZuckerBaby tweeted the above I was suddenly like, hey, yeah! I’ve got that cookbook! That’s one of the recipes I wanted to try!  In fact, I’ve been wanting to try about 80% of the recipes in Appetite for Reduction.  So I built this week’s menu around some AFR recipes that sounded like potential winners for our family.  On the menu for yesterday was the previously-lauded Veggie Potpie Stew and Sweet Potato Pumpkin Drop Biscuits.

Oh. My. Goodness.

 

Words and pictures simply can’t do justice to this dish. Soothing and familiar flavors, but not boring at all. 100% comfort food. Hearty but not heavy. The only thing that would have made this dish better is if it had been mid-winter and we’d all just come in from building a snowman to a piping hot bowl. It was that kind of dish. The only change I made to the recipe was to cook the onion in broth instead of oil. Trust me, it cost the dish nothing.

To go with the stew I made the recommended drop biscuits, using some pumpkin purée I’d just made instead of sweet potatoes. I also subbed out the three tablespoons of oil for three tablespoons of applesauce.

The texture and general flavor of the biscuits was really good. But the nutmeg was overpowering. I’ll definitely be using the recipe again, as it might have been the best vegan biscuit I’ve ever made. But I’ll also be at least halving the amount of spice. In fact, let’s try it out right now and see if I’m right! We have leftover stew from last night. I just got back from a bike trip to the park with the kids, and I just don’t feel like taking the time to mess around with a new recipe this evening. Let’s try and tweak the one we’ve already got, shall we?

Step one: zap a couple mini-pumpkins in the microronde, seeing as I’ve already frozen the rest of the pumpkin purée. Normally I’d bake these instead, but in the interest of time and all…

 

Step two: DO NOT burn your fingertips removing the flesh from the skin. That would hurt and you would look stupid. (running fingers under cold water now)

Step three: Did you really think I was going to list out the whole recipe? Nah, I don’t do that unless I’ve significantly changed it. Buy the book – it’s worth it, have a little faith! Mix. Half the nutmeg. Bake.

Step four: Enjoy. And maybe try to convince your kids they want a piece of bread instead (answer: they do not). Next time make a double batch.