Grilled Smoky Mountain Cheezes (Thankfulness #7)

It's Monday... yaaaay. Today I felt kinda uninspired most of the day, and then I saw a thread on the PPK which made it totally clear what today's thankful thing needed to be.

Thing I'm Thankful For #7: my kitchen!

We rent an awesome house. The kitchen sold me on it before anything else. It's really quite a wonderful little place, in a nice neighborhood, right next to a park, etc. But it could have been a total pit and I still would have been like THIS ONE THIS ONE if the kitchen had remained the same.



The main workspace... look at all that counter top!



The stove. On the wall you can see the very tip of my spice iceberg (spiceberg).



Cookbook shelves, kitchen table. The table has a leaf that pulls out, which is good because it's a little awkward to get 3 chairs around it otherwise.



CABINETS! And our rolling dishwasher. And some other stuff.

You see why I love it so much. It's huuuuuuuge. It's bigger than like my last two kitchens put together. Also, so much counter space. Also, so many cabinets! We actually keep books (not cookbooks) in some of the cabinets because there are so freaking many of them. (And we have too many books.) And drawers. And other storage spaces.

Our landlords believe the (newly installed) granite counters are one of the main sells on the kitchen but actually they're just about my least favorite part. They're beautiful, but that's where their awesomeness ends. They look instantly filthy if anything gets on them and you have to be VERY careful with them... can't splash lemon juice on them and not clean it up instantly. And apparently you're really not supposed to put hot pans directly on them either. They're kind of a pain.

Still... a really great kitchen.

What did I make in my really great kitchen tonight? Well, first the fun thing. This was inspired by Cara of Fork and Beans and shows why I leave the fancy stuff to the professionals:



Snack turkey! After taking this picture, I piled up celery with peanut butter and raisins all around it. I had this vague idea that the Emperor might eat the celery if it proved too difficult to extract the peanut butter and raisins from it. This is probably why the dish ants on a log exists... someone else's mom had exactly this same idea. It probably didn't work for her either.

And I did another something I never, ever, EVER do this afternoon: I got home and put my jammies on (normal) and then realized I didn't have an ingredient I needed and (shudder) put my normal clothing back on and went out to the store. I didn't want my family to go hungry, which was obviously the only alternative to making these:



Grilled cheezes made with the Great Smoky Mountain Cheez from Vegan Diner. I didn't have agar or onion powder so had to go out for those things.

The cheeze is really nice. I'd had it before as made by ameyfm, who sold me on this book by merit of the cheezes. But I'm pleased to report that even I could make it without screwing it up. It's quite a gorgeous orange color, and nice and perfectly smooth. The agar gives it a wonderful texture. Cheese-like? I dunno. But good anyway.

I really like it on the sandwiches, more so than most vegan cheeses. It is perhaps a little heavy on the paprika for me. (I know, how is this even POSSIBLE?)

The Emperor ate all but one bite of the (small) sandwich I made for him, which was a surprise. He's often resistant to sandwiches and since this had "sauce" of a sort inside, I was concerned he might not even try them. But he dove right in and loved them. He also licked the peanut butter and raisins off of several pieces of celery and ate about half of the turkey's head. Not a bad dinner for him.

Here he is chomping his sandwich: