Peer Pressure

By Monica on November 16th, 2007

1. Favorite non-dairy milk? Rice milk, preferably Trader Joe’s original flavor. I don’t like the taste soymilk can leave in certain dishes, and this way I can make horcahata anytime the urge strikes.

2. What are the top 3 dishes/recipes you are planning to cook? Shamefully, I still have not made V-con chickpea cutlets. And with Christmas coming, I am looking forward to veganizing my beloved kolach recipe and a vánocka.

3. Topping of choice for popcorn? I intensely dislike popcorn. Not as much as I dislike mushrooms, but I will only eat popcorn about once a year and then only because there is no food in the house and I am faced with imminent starvation.

4. Most disastrous recipe/meal failure? I have only made one meal which was so bad no one would eat it, and that was my first attempt at sauerbraten. Making gingersnaps and vinegar into something edible is not an easy task.

5. Favorite pickled item? Pickled beets, although sauerkraut is a contender as well. My dining room is filled with antiques, and on a shelf is a 1/2 gallon blue mason jar filled with pickled beets. My great-aunt canned them in the 60’s and while I wouldn’t eat them for obvious reasons, they are still gorgeous.

6. How do you organize your recipes? I have a 3 ring binder that holds all my print-out recipes from other bloggers and internet sites. I am failing desperately at keeping it organized though! I’m embarrassed to say that all my cookbooks are in a state of disarray too, spread out between kitchen cabinets wherever there is a free spot.

7. Compost, trash, or garbage disposal? There should be a 4th option for chickens! The chickens get all of our food scraps, the rest is trash. I really wish we had recycling where we live but we don’t. The closest center for me to drop off recycling is 75 miles away and I’m not sure the recycling benefit would offset the fuel burned.

8. If you were stranded on an island and could only bring 3 foods…what would they be (don’t worry about how you’ll cook them)? My seitan kabob, Hot Tamales (the candy), and maybe avocados.

9. Fondest food memory from your childhood? [edit] just realized this said fondest FOOD memory, der. I’m gonna go with the copper penny salad my grandmother would make just for me on holidays. While others were feasting on ham and roast pork, I was eating copious amounts of carrots and green peppers!

10. Favorite vegan ice cream? Purely Decadent Turtle Trails. I have to find this ‘Black Label’ stuff the rest of you are talking about!

11. Most loved kitchen appliance? Heini. That’s right, I named my Kitchenaid stand mixer I love it so much. It is named after strongwoman Heini Koivuniemi, after watching her kick everyone’s butt in one of those Strongman competitions on TV.

12. Spice/herb you would die without? Caraway seeds, dill, and garlic. Not necessarily together!

13. Cookbook you have owned for the longest time? Well I have a lot of family heirloom cookbooks from the 1920’s and a few even earlier. But I think the first cookbook I ever bought was The Best of Czech Cooking, which IMO is anything but.

14. Favorite flavor of jam/jelly? Raspberry Rhubarb, homemade of course.

15. Favorite vegan recipe to serve to an omni friend? Everyone is amazed with dumplings, for some reason. I make enough to feed an army and it still isn’t enough. And I actually had people willing to pay me for kolach last year. I think that’s a good mark of success!

16. Seitan, tofu, or tempeh? I really can’t imagine living without any one of them, but I’m going to say tofu. I’m convinced it’s magical.

17. Favorite meal to cook (or time of day to cook)? I’ve always hated breakfast and most all breakfast foods, and I never have time to eat lunch. I’m not terribly fond of sweets, so that means I have one meal a day to make really snazzy. Dinner it is!

18. What is sitting on top of your refrigerator? Cookbooks held up by two black bear bookends, a crock containing bay leaves, and an antique egg carrier.

19. Name 3 items in your freezer without looking. Veggie remains for stock, Morningstar Vegan Grillers, asparagus.

20. What’s on your grocery list? A lot right now, I’m way overdue! Rice milk, silken tofu, seitan, Tofutti cream cheese, Trader Joe’s Italian salad dressing, pita bread, spaghetti sauce, I could keep going…

21. Favorite grocery store? Trader Joe’s. I lurve them. Last time I was there a cashier spotted my Vegan Freak hoodie and told me how much she loved it. Then she saw the Shac7 button on my purse and really got excited. It’s so fun to accidentally meet another vegan.

22. Name a recipe you’d love to veganize, but haven’t yet. My Babi’s recipe for “Beef & Dill Gravy”. I’m quite sure seitan would work just fine, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet.

23. Food blog you read the most (besides Isa’s because I know you check it everyday). Or maybe the top 3? Oh boy. I can’t say there’s a top 3, but I use a lot of recipes from SusanV at Fat Free Vegan. Bazu’s posts are always entertaining and educational. And Lindy Loo is the vegan comedian extraordinaire.

24. Favorite vegan candy/chocolate? Hot Tamales. Oh how I love them.

25. Most extravagant food item purchased lately? I’d say a tiny package of agar agar that was $8.99, or another big tub of nutritional yeast at $14.99.

26. Veganaise or Nayonaise? Is this a serious question? Veganaise, of course!

27. What is one recipe or ingredient or cooking technique that you’ve become familiar within the last year that you can’t imagine you ever lived without?
I’m going to say ’seitan’. It looked so disgusting in the package at Whole Foods, like a box of brains floating around in cerebrospinal fluid, that I refused to try it until about a year ago.

28. When you are sick, what is your comfort food of choice? Grilled Cheez and tomato soup. It has stuck ever since I was a kid and now I have it in my head that I cannot get well without it.

‘Nomicon and Vittles!

By Monica on November 13th, 2007

Since everyone is on the chickpea cutlet bandwagon, I thought I’d be sassy and try out the Hot Sauce Glazed Tempeh from Veganomicon.  This is the first thing I tried from ‘Nomicon and I probably need not mention that it was damn good.  I took Isa’s advice and served it with mashed taters and her jaleneno corn gravy.

I’ve also fallen in love with Vegan Vittles.  The recipe for gyros is what made me buy the book as gyros are one taste I genuinely miss.  I was not disappointed; these are easily the best vegan gyros I’ve ever had.  Right up there on the ‘fool the omni scale’. Typically I get gyros from the Chicago Diner every time we visit, but I am now freed up to try something else there.  You need to make them.  Now.

And last but not least, Chuckwagon Stew from Vittles.  Paired with last week’s squash rolls, of course.  You can’t beat a good no-beef stew on a cold night, and this is a good one!

Sorry for the short post, but this has been one crappy week and it’s only Tuesday.  We have a kitty going through hepatic lipidosis (fatty liver disease) and he’s on support at the vet’s.  Tomorrow we find out if his numbers are improving or if his liver is still failing, in which case we’d have to say goodbye.  So hard to come home from the vet’s with an empty carrier or leash.  This is the snarkiest, most stubborn cat I’ve ever known, so I am hoping he is fighting with everything he’s got.  If anyone else has been through this disease, please gimme a holler with any thoughts.  I’ll be at home drinking heavily!

What’s in the oven?

By Monica on November 8th, 2007

Yes, the time of year is here when lighting the oven and having it heat up the entire house is a good thing!  My oven has been getting a workout lately and I suspect the end will not be in sight until early spring.

Up first is my modified old-time Czech stuffed pepper recipe, perfect for fall:

6 bell peppers
3 large onions, diced and divided
2 cloves garlic
2T vegetable oil, divided
1 1/2 cups TVP
1 1/2 cups vegetable stock
1T Braggs (or soy sauce)
1 cup cooked rice
1t dried parsley
1/2t salt
1/2t pepper
2- 28 ounce cans whole peeled tomatoes
1t whole peppercorns
1t allspice
1t oregano
1t marjoram
1c vegan sour cream

In a large skillet, heat 1T oil and saute 1 onion with the garlic until onion is translucent.  Add the TVP, vegetable stock, parsley, Braggs, salt, pepper, and rice.  Simmer until liquid is absorbed.  Stuff this mixture into your bell peppers, and place peppers into a deep baking dish or crock.

In a large saucepan, heat the remaining 1T oil.  Saute the remaining 2 onions until translucent.  Stir in tomatoes, peppercorns, allspice, oregano, and marjoram.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Cook on medium for 20 minutes.  Pour over peppers in the baking dish.

Cover peppers and bake at 350° for 1 1/2 hours.  Remove peppers from dish and transfer sauce to a blender or food processor (or use an immersion blender) and puree until smooth.  Whisk in sour cream, pour the sauce back into a pan to reheat if necessary.  Serve the sauce over the peppers.

This next recipe for Squash Rolls was modified from one of those mini-cookbooks manufacturers send out.  It was in a Gold Medal flour themed book I found at a rummage sale and the only changes were using non-dairy milk and Earth Balance.  Easy enough, and these were great!  They’d be perfect for Thanksgiving dinner.  I used a carnival squash, but I think next time I’d use a butternut for a little more color.

5 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1t salt
1 package dry active yeast
1 1/4 cups non-dairy milk, very warm
1 cup cooked and mashed winter squash
2T Earth Balance

If you have it, use a stand mixer with the dough hook.  Mix 2 cups of the flour, sugar, salt, and yeast.  Add non-dairy milk, squash, and Earth Balance.  Mix very well, then blend in remaining flour 1 cup at a time until dough is easy to handle.

Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface and knead for 5 minutes or until dough is elastic.  Place in oiled bowl and let rise until doubled, about 1 1/2 hours.

Grease 24 muffin cups.  Punch down dough and divide dough into 48 equal pieces.  (The recipe suggests 24 pieces, but these are the size of huge muffins at 48 pieces.  If you do 24 pieces, they’re going to be like football muffins!)  Shape each piece into a little ball and place 3 balls into each muffin cup.  Bake at 400° for 15 to 20 minutes until rolls are nicely browned.

And finally, a Cranberry Peach Upside Down Cake.  I have a bit of a love affair with upside down cakes.  They look like you put a ton of effort into it, when in reality you just throw ingredients into a pan on top of one another.

No recipe is really needed for this.  I used a cast iron skillet for variety and added some melted Earth Balance and brown sugar to the bottom.  Arrange some peaches however you like, throw a handful of frozen cranberries on top and then fill with your favorite yellow cake batter.  Viola!   It stuck a little when I flipped it, so excuse the poor picture here, but everything was so ooey-gooey and sweet that I didn’t mind!

So many cookbooks!

By Monica on November 1st, 2007

I am literally being overrun with cookbooks.  I picked up Vegan Vittles and the Candle Cafe Cookbook at Farm Sanctuary.  I bought about 50 funny old cookbooks at a rummage sale last week for $2 total.  I finally bought the Chicago Diner cookbook.  I have not even cracked open Veganomicon. To boot, my fellow bloggers have been posting some of the most delicious recipes ever, and I am delightfully overwhelmed with foodie goodness!  Here’s just a little of what’s been going on in my kitchen this week, inspired by other blogs or my new cookbooks:

Up first is Fat Free Vegan’s tofu-spinach lasagna which has been making the rounds on vegan food blogs lately.   I made this the night we left for Farm Sanctuary and somewhere around Pennsylvania, a half asleep voice mumbled from the back seat of the car, “I wish we had more of that lasagna”.  It was so good, in fact, that it sparked a lively dinner conversation on “why vegan food tastes so good”!

Next we have a pudding cake from How it all Vegan.  I had never made a pudding cake before and I can assure you I read those directions at least 10 times.  “Sarah Kramer, you so crazy!  What do you mean, don’t mix?  Are you SURE?”

From the Chicago Diner Cookbook, we have Corn Chowder.  (Chowdah if you like.)  The recipe for this is online as well as in their cookbook, so check it out if you need to get your chowder on.

While I had that sucker cracked open, I also made their Chocolate Chipper cookies.  A little too cakey for my liking, but no chocolate chip cookie goes to waste in my house, no matter how bad it may be.

And finally, your standard “No Bull Beefaroni“, because sometimes you just have a taste for that weird orange sauce that covers canned pasta.  I add a couple spoonfuls of homemade sour cream into the sauce to make it a little creamier and more strangely orange.

Unfortunately I didn’t get to bake anything macabre for Halloween as we had a sick kitty at home, so Halloween was spent at the vet’s office.   Halloween is also my wedding anniversary so the timing was doubly bad.  But the kitty will be fine, and I did get to catch a few good Halloween movies.  Our local drive-in surprised us with a triple feature of The Day of the Triffids (bah!), Resident Evil 3, and the new Halloween.  The following night I was lucky enough to catch Nightmare Before Christmas in 3D which was a lot of fun; I adore that movie.  Hope everyone had a great Halloween!