Also, DC! E Street Cinema is debuting the new documentary King Corn on Friday, October 19. I’ll be there and you should be there, too!

I don’t like blogging. I’m not creative enough to blog, really. I’m pretty boring, actually.

I’ve been cooking. And even taking pictures of some of it. Some of it’s really beautiful, too. And delicious.

But when it comes to writing about it, I’ve got nothing. C’est la vie.

If I ever have a bakery, that might be what I name it.

Today I woke up and decided I should make two loaves of bread. So I did. One sweet, one savoury.

Lolo’s Cinnamon Raisin Swirl Bread

My Own Focaccia!

Most of this is stuff I’ve been to lazy to post. I didn’t make any of these recipes up.

Did I tell you my biggest vegan chef crush, Lolo, is coming out with a cookbook? It’s going to be published the guys over at Herbivore. She has a slew of kids from the ppk forum testing for her. I’ve done a few recipes, but I’ve been lazy for the most part. This is her Crispy Sweet N Sour Tofu. I’ll let you know when the book comes out. It’s going to be killer.

So for my friend’s birthday/last day in town, I felt inspired to stay up all night so she could have the one thing she missed since becoming vegan — a good, homemade cinnamon roll. And thanks to rachaelrayforever’s cinnamon roll recipe, Brit got her cinnamon rolls. Warning: the dough for these rises twice, so you definitely have to have time to dedicate to these guys. But man oh man — they’re totally worth it. There was also a cream cheese icing involved, but they didn’t last long enough to get photos.

More porn after the jump.

I found this great vegan, gluten-free cake mix…which is great because I was sick of having to buy fifteen types of flours/starches to make my friend Kanye a cupcake. And since her roommate, Beegs, is vegan, this is perfect. I might even venture to say that these cupcakes are better than non-GF cupcakes. They’re amazing. These are Gluten Free Fauxstess cupcakes with cream cheese icing.

These are a variation on the basic Nut Cookie recipe in Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone by Deborah Madison. These are, obviously, walnut cookies that I sent to my sister, who is awesome at picking blueberries.

These are another Lolo tester. They’re seitan ginger dumplins that are absolutely worth buying the book for. This woman knows her shiitake, for sure.

Oh man, vintage porn. I made these in, like, March. I woke up on the floor of my friends’ house and went into the kitchen at like 7 AM so they would have scones when they woke up. I am so nice sometimes. They’re pumpkin scones from Recipezaar. Despite the ratings, I remember these being pretty tasty.

And finally, here are a few cupcakes from VCTOTW….

Cookies N Cream (to die for)

Isa’s Peanut Butter Bombes

Gluten free chocolate with chocolate icing. (”Poopcakes” to Porter Housers)

Okay, enough catch-up for now.

…so I’m moving back. Here are the pictures from what I thought was going to be my last night in town dinner. I made BBQ tofu, cornbread, quinoa jambalaya, stuffed mushrooms, and brownies. I started cooking a little after 5 and we were ready to eat at 8. There are pictures and info about the food I made after the jump.

People I Love

Isa’s Cornbread - Explains itself. It’s definitely not that sweet, rich cornbread that you might be used to, but it’s nice if you aren’t into that kind of thing. I will say that it needs a bit more moisture. I would make this recipe again if I was in a hurry, but I would probably prefer to find something a bit sweeter and moister. I’m from Mississippi, y’all.

Momma’s Stuffed Mushrooms - My mom made these when I still lived down South. I guess it isn’t a particularly Southern dish, but it’s a nice hor’dourves. And tasty to. Basically, stem some white mushrooms. Chop up the stems into little bitty bits. Then, heat on medium a pan with just a touch of oil or cooking spray and cook both sides of the mushroom caps until they release some juice. Remove the mushrooms from the pan, throw a bit more oil, some finely sliced onions (ooh - I bet it’d be good to caramelize them first if you have the time) garlic, the chopped stems and a bag of spinach in until it’s wilted/reduced & combined. Then just “stuff” the mushroom caps with the spinach mix. The mushrooms will probably have cooled off, so you can easily put the stuffed shrooms in a warm oven to heat them up before you serve them. My mom would top them with cheese — and I guess you could do that…if you’re into that kind of thing.

My Quinoa-Veggie Rainbow Jambalaya

I’m sure kittee — who has a new blog — or any other New Orleanian would never want to call this jambalaya. But I’m sick of rice. So I’ll make my “jambalaya” with quinoa if I damn well please, thank you. So for this I think made 2 cups of dry quinoa and ended up feeding like eight people. I sauteed up some onion, celery, red pepper, carrot, squash & zucchini (it’s also excellent with some Seitan O Greatness chunks). Then I threw in some tamari, some black pepper, a pinch of salt and a few shakes of Creole seasoning mix. I found it easier to stir the can of tomato paste in with the quinoa first, then add it to the veggies. But it’s your prerogative. It’s still damn good.

Easy BBQ Tofu

This was like the easiest dish ever, but only because I cheated and bought BBQ sauce. I drained, pressed and froze two blocks of tofu for about 3 hours. Then I layed them in this glass baking dish and covered them with a bottle of BBQ sauce and threw in some crushed cashews for good measure.

Okay, didn’t have time to read all of this (babysitting for one of Bush’s speachwriters tonight — seriously.), but it seems like NYT is covering something with a little more depth today. There’s an article about the Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glen, NY. Someone read it and tell me how it is.

EDIT: So. The ending of that article was a let-down, huh?

ALSO! The Poplar Springs Animal Sanctuary needs volunteers this weekend. Here’s a thread about it over at the PPK forums. They’re short on volunteers due to the Taking Action for Animals thing going on this weekend.

NYT wrote an article about Sticky Fingers Bakery. But it’s not very interesting.

Don’t waste your time, actually.

Okay, I have some sad news: I’m moving to North Carolina. I’ve decided I want to pursue a degree in Geography, which isn’t offered at AU. I’ll be taking a year off between schools and then hopefully going to UNC. So I suppose it wouldn’t make much sense for me to keep up a blog called Yum, DC! (I’m going to do my best to start one in NC, but we’ll see.)

The good news? This blog will (hopefully) not end! I’m going to pass it on to my friend, Scott Lane who is an experienced vegan here in the District. In fact, he’s been helping me hit up all the vegan places I haven’t experienced in my last two weeks. Here’s what we had at our trip to Great Sage last week…

Scott had a club sandwich.

I had a roasted vegetable sandwich.

We had a vegan sundae.

THE FARM BILL SUCKS.

I could write a ten page paper (oh wait — I did that) on how much I hate this disgusting piece of complicated legislation. Michael Pollan (okay, I know a lot of vegans hate him, but I don’t) wrote a great piece on it a while back in the NYT. I would bitch more about it, but I’m at work. And Michael Pollan’s take on it is probably a way more engaging argument.

 Oh. Here are some brownies I made for my friend Leah who just left for South Africa. The recipe is mine, but it needs some work. I’ll post it once I get a chance to make more brownies. My friends are lying a state of sugar-induced a coma from all the baking I’ve been doing, so it may not be any time soon.

Inspired by Vegan Treats

Sorry for the time off, guys. I’ve been pretty busy working a 9-5 this summer, so cooking has sadly taken a back seat. But I was pretty busy this weekend.

And I’ve also been experimenting with a wheat-free diet (not gluten-free). I realized I was eating too much bread (a love of mine), so I’ve been mixing things up, trying news grains, etc. It’s been hard, though, because Celine over at Have Cake, Will Travel! is a genius when it comes to cakes and such.

One good thing has sprung out of a lack of time: a love for quinoa. Why didn’t anyone tell me how fast cooking and delicious this stuff is? I made quinoa sushi yesterday and it was fantastic. Basically, you just season the rice the same way you’d season sushi rice. (1 T seasoned rice vinegar; 1 tsp sugar to 1 c quinoa). True, it doesn’t stick together as well as rice does, but it definitely works. Especially if you throw in a bit more water; I used 1/2 quinoa to 1-1/4 c water. And with it being so high in protein, it’s totally worth it.