"There's No Business Life ELF Business!"

Y’ALL!! Do WE have a TREAT for you this (and NEXT) week! At least we hope so. We’ve been poring over the past year at the looking at the FatFree Vegan Kitchen recipes that we’ve made, tryin’ to come up with our TOP 10 for 2015! We’ve had a real struggle with this and we are pretty sure now that our list is complete. In FACT, it’s MORE than complete, bein’ as how we have some runners up! This week, we will report out on the first half of our top 10 + a runner up. And OF COURSE, we will call these recipes recipients of the KINKY ELFY!  award.

Our Expert and the Elf project started on February 8 2015; we took a brief hiatus during the summer months and picked back up in November. During those cookin’ months, we prepared 27 of Susan Voisin’s FatFree Vegan Kitchen recipes. There were a few weeks that we selected two recipes, most likely because we couldn’t really decide which one to pick so we did both.
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So, in no particular order, we’ll start with the beginning of our Expert and The Elf journey. Seems we launched a good one right out of the gate! Our FIRST KINKY ELFY goes to

EGGPLANT AND CHICKPEA CURRY.

http://the-elf-in-the-kitchen.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-expert-and-elf-we-begin.html

http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2011/01/eggplant-and-chickpea-curry.html

We are giving the link to that week’s blog, appropriately titled “We Begin”. Now Your Elf understands that no EVERYBODY is a curry aficionado, but we LOVE the spiciness and aroma of a good curry. We had such fun making this recipe because we made our own garam masala and it still smells awesome.We're including the link to the recipe as well!

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The SECOND KINKY ELFY, would you believe, comes the very next week with

SPICY COLLARDS AND BLACK-EYED PEA SOUP.

http://the-elf-in-the-kitchen.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-expert-and-elf-week-three-havin-ball.html

http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2008/05/spicy-collards-and-black-eyed-pea-soup.html

This was actually NOT the selection for that week but an added one simply because we love soup, we love collards, we love black-eyed peas and it was close enough to the recent New Year Day that it qualified as a good luck offering. Turned out to be one of our favorite soups for a chilly winter day. Heck, you can’t have too much good luck or good soup.

March welcomed in the next KINKY ELFY winner!

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SKILLET GARDENER’S PIE

http://the-elf-in-the-kitchen.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-expert-and-elf-week-three-havin-ball.html

http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2008/05/skillet-gardeners-pie.html

This was a recipe that Your Elf tried when Big Solid was out of town. Sometimes Big Solid doesn’t cotton to one dish meals. We can say in all truthfulness, howsomever, that he has begun to appreciate them more and more. We’ll have to get this one on his radar soon, as it’s very very good!!

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Our next KINKY ELFY winner skips all the way to early April as spring was bustin’ out all over! And, it’s absolutely one of our MOST favorites of our favorites. Perhaps because The Elf FINALLY made a decent FAT FREE Roux! The best one we’ve ever ha

VEGAN SAUSAGE AND MUSHROOM ETOUFEE

http://the-elf-in-the-kitchen.blogspot.com/2015/04/on-clear-day-you-can-see-elf.html 

http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2012/02/vegan-sausage-and-mushroom-etoufee.html

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Our FIFTH KINKY ELFY winner is

HEALTHY HASHBROWN CASSEROLE

This was another time we ‘sprung’ a casserole on Big Solid in hopes we could sway him toward more one dish meals. This was indeed a success. In fact, we’ve had this now a couple of times since and it’s always a hit. You actually get a lagniappe with this blog post as we did a two-fer. The other recipe came MIGHTY close to being in the KINKY ELFY running—Roasted Okra Masala! It’s delicious!

http://the-elf-in-the-kitchen.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-elf-also-rises.html

http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2013/02/healthy-hash-brown-casserole.html http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2013/07/roasted-okra-masala.html

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So, there you have our first FIVE KINKY ELFY winners. HOWEVER, we DID promise a runner up and here it is.

FRENCH LENTIL AND PORTABELLA STEW

http://the-elf-in-the-kitchen.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-expert-and-elf-winter-of-our.html

http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2006/02/french-lentil-and-portabella-stew.html

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Next week, we’ll finish the year of 2015’s top recipes out and throw ours-elfs back into the FatFree Vegan Kitchen Expert and The Elf Project once again.

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Since we didn’t cook at FFVK recipe this week, we did explore some of the things we’ve learned from Joe Moorefield, Chef at the Crossroads Café. The dude knows what he’s doing so we’ve been watchin’ and learnin’. In turn, he’s been more than willing to try some of The Elf’s plant-based meat analogues. We think we may have surprised him with how tasty they can be…mainly the Anduoille sausage and the Chikun. This week, we prepared a sautéed kale and onion, stovetop roasted golden beets with maple syrup glaze and some Chikun shreds.

 

And one night, we made Tofu Scallops…one of our favorites. We used an extra firm tofu but will return to the Wildwood SUPERFIRM tofu to do these again. They were quite good but the texture was better with the firmer tofu.

So there you have another week with your Elf in the Kinky Elfery Kitchen. We will also venture to Starkville MS for the weekend to once again visit with all of Big Solid’s football soulmates from MS State. It’s always a treat to hear these guys tell lies, laugh and enjoy each other. Til next week, y’all belly laugh, do a random act of kindness, play hard and DO EPIC!

Your Elf