More "Chowder" and Some Deeelish Bread

CHUNKY VEGETABLE CHOWDER
p. 120 LDV
Prepared 01/10/08

Wonder if chowder is different in Canada? Anyway, this isn't a milk or tomato-based soup so don't be fooled. However, it comes with a tempting description in the book, "perfect recipe for when you're in a hurry and only have a few items in the vegetable crisper to throw together." That described my situation perfectly. So I made this. I didn't have celery (as usual) and so added an extra carrot (as usual), I also added a half can of lentils I had lying around. Then, at the end, I spooned into each bowl a small helping of the leftover split pea non-chowder from the other day. I am glad I made these additions because without them the soup was kind of...plain, boring and unfilling. But it was quick and easy. My suggestion is that you use this as a base and, as we did, add in whatever you have lying around to bam it up.






SANTA'S FAVORITE CHRISTMAS BREAD
p. 241 LDV
Prepared 01/10/08

This has banana in it so I didn't eat it myself but rather relied on the heartfelt exclamations of my testers/assistants.

"Delicious!" "Hint of banana is key!" "Would be great for breakfast!" "Orange doesn't taste orangey but is sweet and good!" "Coconut is very subtle and gives a nice texture but I don't think anyone would miss it!"

So it seems like this was good and also fun to make, there are lots of more esoteric ingredients (compared to the usual vegan baking shenanigans) that seemed to come together really well.

We topped this with some homemade chocolate ganache as well as a candle our dear pals had just sent to the wee lad, it is shaped like an ice cream cone and he is mad for it. Thanks Hubrandts!!

Oh, and I got to use my mini loaf pans for the first time, that gave me disproportional amount of happiness. They were a birthday gift. I can't wait to make more mini loaves! (heh)