Spent Grain BBQ Burgers

Just found this link via the homebrewing community at reddit, and can't wait to try it: spent grain burgers. 


What are spent grains, you ask? The stuff left over from brewing beer! 


The full URL: http://brooklynbrewshop.com/themash/spent-grain-burgers/ 

I [love] t o F U ...

I heart tofu hearts.

Food bloggers really love Valentine's Day - all the sumptuous desserts. Valentine's Day is the first big food occasion since Thanksgiving / Hanukkah / Christmas / New Year's Eve, so after a bit of a break, bloggers are ready to go. Flirty appetizers! Sensual flavors and textures! Sumptuous desserts!

Valentine's Day isn't really my holiday. No, I'm a Halloween girl, myself.

So today, friends, I simply pass along cuteness from our friends at Tofu X-press: http://bit.ly/zrEI6r. These hearts are adorable, plus you get to use those cookie cutters your mom/aunt/grandma gave you that you don't use as often as you should. 

This isn't a recipe as much as an idea, but you can tailor it to your heart's desire own liking. If you don't have a tofu press, just slice the tofu as thin as you'd like, and then press the tofu between towels before continuing. But you should really get a tofu press. Why don't you have one yet?

I made these with a small heart-shaped cutter (Pampered Chef, "Creative Cutters Set" item 1095), which gave me 28 hearts total out of a "standard" water-packed tofu block. 

First I pressed my tofu, then I sliced it horizontally to make two large slabs. I cut out the hearts with the little "cookie cutter", and then I cut each heart in half again horizontally, making two hearts from each. (Why do it this way, you ask? Too hard to evenly cut the original block of tofu into four thin slabs). Some of them I marinated in a lime-soy mixture and then tossed with a chili rub, and some of them I marinated in a ginger-garlic-soy mixture and then topped with sweet Thai chili sauce. And some of them, I didn't top at all. I put them on a well-oiled cookie sheet, and baked them in the oven at 300F for an hour. Adorable!

I'll do these again and again for different holidays and with different flavor combinations, with different shapes. They were sturdy, easy, and made good finger food.