Strawberry-Rhubarb Cobbler

Made this one up, and it came out great! Very exciting. Inspired by the strawberry-rhubarb-peach pie in VWaV, and the arrival of spring produce at the farmer's market.
Ingredients:
Filling
2 cups strawberries, finely chopped
3 stalks rhubarb, finely chopped
1/4 cup walnuts
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp arrowroot
1/4 tsp vanilla

Topping
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 + 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground allspice
2 tbsp turbinado sugar
1/4 cup very cold earth balance, sliced thin
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 425
2. Put the fruit and walnuts in a medium bowl and toss with the sugar and spices
3. Stir in the arrowroot, then stir in the vanilla
4. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and spices
5. Stir in the sugar and oats
6. Cut in the earth balance with two knives or a pastry blender, until crumbly
7. Gently stir in the vanilla
8. Pour fruit mixture into greased glass baking dish and sprinkle on topping
   
9. Bake for 30 minutes, until fruit is bubbling and topping is browned

I intended to make this in a 9" square dish, but when I went to get it from the cabinet I remembered it's still at my office with whatever is left of the brownies from last week. Clearly I am baking too much lately. I made it in a loaf pan instead, which worked just fine, but the ratio of fruit to topping would be even better in a shallower dish. We ate this hot with Soy Dream french vanilla, which may be my new favorite soy cream. It has a creamier texture than Purely Decadent and is less sugary than Temptation.
I've never cooked with rhubarb before, I thought it would require much more effort than it actually does. I love the tart-ness it gives the cobbler. Amazing how it looks so much like celery, and yet tastes so different...

Brownies (mmmmmm, chocolate)

This recipe (like so many things I make) comes from Isa Chandra Moskowitz, found on the ppk website.

Absolutely fantastic. As the recipe says, they're somewhere between cake-y and fudgy, definitely more cake-like than the brownies of my youth (which came from a box). They're like really really really rich chocolate cake squares. I think they'd be even better with a little chocolate icing on top.


While not as simple as your basic brownie, I had no trouble making these, and since I've already admitted to butchering baked tofu (repeatedly) that's saying something. I used light firm tofu instead of the extra firm called for, cause I had 3 boxes of it sitting around. I also added the rest of the bag of chocolate chips into the batter at the end. Holy mega chocolate bliss, batman! I brought these to work, and no one guessed they were vegan.

I used Trader Joe's chocolate chips. They're not specifically marketed as vegan, but they are, and WOW. I like these even better than Tropical Source and Ghiradelli, both of which cost way more. They are seriously rich and chocolate-y.