Xmas - Part 1

By Monica on December 27th, 2007

Hope everyone had a great holiday, whether you spent it surrounded by friends and family, or spent it like us - in pajamas, just the two of us, doors securely locked with a stern ‘go away’ sign posted. It was heaven. But we did have the obligatory familial gathering the weekend before, so there was still plenty of food and festivities.

Where to start? Appetizers, of course! As a kid, I distinctly remember this delicious, congealed glob of secretions my father called a ‘cheeseball’. The cream cheese and shredded cheddar inside not having enough saturated fat for him, he coated it in some sort of chipped luncheon meat. I had written this off as something best left to omnivores when Ahisma from VeggieBoards posted her recipe for the very same thing, sans lunchmeat which I added just for nostalgia. And wouldn’t you know it, same exact taste, a glorious vegan cheeseball. Absolutely delicious, and still very bad for you!

I also made Sauerbraten Neatballs, one of my favorites.

In previous years I served a few different main courses, typically everyone got to pick his or her favorite and I was kind enough to make them all. This year I made my favorite and told everyone to eat it or go hungry. Bah-humbug. Big surprise, everyone ate it. What we have here is the veganized version of my Babi’s Czech Beef & Dill Gravy. Seitan, dill, gravy, dumplings, damn right they ate it.

So that was dinner & then it was time to take our brandy spiked Silk Nog into the den for the American-Consumer portion of Giftmas. Ray & I made a very diligent effort to keep buying down to a minimum this year and I think we did alright. Ray bought me only eco-friendly, handmade, vegan-friendly items, and I bought him only one item he really wanted instead of 50 trivial widgets.

I do have to show off the necklace I got; I absolutely love it. A delightful vegan in Dallas creates these in various animal forms and sells them on Etsy, fully customizable.

If you’re waiting for dessert porn, you will have to wait a bit longer. I do have the dessert porn, lots and lots of seedy Xmas dessert porn, but this post is approaching novel length already and I still have to post recipes. So stay tuned, finish up your left overs this week, and I’ll get to the recipes!

Ahisma’s Cheeseball Treat
16 ounces vegan cream cheese
1 package Vegan Gourmet, flavor of your choice, shredded
1t garlic powder
1/4t pepper
2t umeboshi vinegar (or apple cider vinegar, or lemon juice)
1t Red Hot sauce
1 bunch fresh scallions, diced

Combine the spices with the cream cheese. Mix remaining ingredients with a fork. Combine the two. Line a suitable sized bowl with plastic wrap and pack the cheeze mixture into the bowl. Cover and refrigerate for a few hours.

Sauerbraten Neatballs
I used Bryanna’s recipe for “Saucy Neatballs” for the balls. I highly recommend it, but use whatever no-meat meatballs float your boat, and this recipe is for the gravy.

1T vegetable oil
1/2 yellow onion, finely diced
1 cup water
1/2 white vinegar
6T packed brown sugar
1t ginger
2 bay leaves
2T flour
2T water

In a sauce pan, heat the vegetable oil and saute the onions until soft. Stir in water, vinegar, brown sugar, ginger, and bay leaves. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Mix flour and water together, then add to gravy to thicken. Add your Neatballs to the gravy, simmer for 10-15 minutes, and serve!

Czezh No-Beef & Dill Gravy
(I’m doing this from memory, this is one of those dishes I never wrote a recipe down for, so bear with me!)

“Beef”
8 ounces seitan chunks, any kind
6 cups veggie broth
Tops and leaves of one bunch of celery
1 onion, quartered
2T peppercorns

“Gravy”
8T Earth Balance
8T flour
~4 cups reserved veggie broth
1 container Tofutti Sour Supreme, or Better Than Sour Cream
1 cup packed fresh dill
1T lemon juice
1T sugar
salt
pepper

“Beef” - To a medium pot, add the 6 cups of veggie broth, seitan chunks, onion, celery, and peppercorns. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat, and simmer for one hour. Reserving the broth, drain the mixture. Discard the veggies and peppercorns.

“Gravy” - When “beef” is done, melt the EB in a large, straight edged saucepan. Add the flour, making a roux, and cook for about 1 minute. Add approximately 4 cups of reserved veggie broth, +/- 1/2 a cup to form a gravy consistency. Add the sour cream, dill, lemon juice, sugar, and salt & pepper to taste.

Add seitan chunks to the gravy to heat throughout. Serve over dumplings, of course.

Operation Migaloo

By Monica on December 21st, 2007

This morning I was reading some Sea Shepherd crew member blogs.  They are out at sea right now on Operation Migaloo, determined to intercept illegal Japanese whalers.  If you’re not familiar with Sea Shepherd, I urge you to take a look at them.  I’m a long time supporter and Paul Watson is one of my personal heroes.

These blogs reminded me that this holiday season, not all of us are with our family like they would like to be.  Some folks, like Sea Shepherd volunteers, are in the freezing Antarctic waters.  Some are serving time in prison for being AR activists.  Some are on foreign ground fighting an unjust, political war.

So this is my reminder to myself (and us all) to remember those people, and your favorite charity, this holiday season.  As soon as I finish this, I am sending out cards to the Shac7, to let them know that the outside world has not forgotten them in the hustle and bustle of Xmas.  I’ve also been busy at my local animal shelter because there are no holidays for the homeless creatures of the world.  And, of course, I wish those on Operation Migaloo Godspeed.

This is one Sea Shepherd blog I was particularly moved by this morning.  I hope you enjoy it too.  Happy Holidays!

December 13, 2007
Report from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ship Steve Irwin

Why I fight
Peter Hammarstedt (2nd Mate)

Being out at sea has always given me the opportunity to reflect on the twists and turns in my life that brought me to a stage where I could safely say that I would risk my life to save that of a whale. My expedition to Antarctica essentially began a decade ago.

When I was 14, I met a dog named Marlboro through the chain-linked fencing of an animal shelter housing pen. No words were exchanged. But his deep brown eyes met mine and there was instantly nothing more important to me than finding this Akita/Cattle dog a loving home. Marlboro never said a word, neither a bark nor a whimper escaped his lips for the duration of his two month stay, but he spoke volumes about the way our society views animals - not as feeling, thinking unique individuals, but as disposable things. Marlboro was named after a tobacco company. I called him my best friend.

For an entire summer, we tried to make the best of the cards that Marlboro had been dealt. Every morning for two months, the concrete floor turned to mud and grass and steel fencing crumbled to a sun that kept us playing around the large oak tree that marked the end of the property for the better part of each day. From that oak tree, the kennels seemed far away.

One Saturday morning, I came in to find Marlboro’s cage empty. He’d been moved. But not to the wide expanse of a country home that I’d dreamed up for him, but to a set of cages down the road referred to as death row. Marlboro had inadvertently bit a volunteer. And because of that, he was condemned to die. The day before he was put down was the first time that Marlboro ever spoke to me. As I said my last goodbyes and turned to walk away, my quiet friend let out a howl and threw the entire weight of his body against the cage door. I ran home crying, feeling helpless. The next day, a Rottweiler named Holly stood in Marlboro’s old cell. She found a home one month later.

Marlboro taught me more than any other individual I’ve ever come across. He would help set the course of the rest of my life and because of that, I am forever in his debt. Marlboro taught me that every single animal, human and non-human alike, is a completely unique individual. Until the end of time, there will never be anyone else exactly like you. Or exactly like me. Or exactly like Marlboro. A pod of whales is a collection of distinct unique personalities. For me that has always been one of the most powerful arguments for animal rights. That we have more in common than separate us. That’s what my best four-legged friend taught me many years ago - that animals are worth fighting for.

The day that I ran from the caged rows that separated Marlboro from the rest of the canine population, I made a promise - that never again, when put in the position to save animal life here and now, would I turn my back. Sea Shepherd allows me the opportunity to keep the promise that I made almost a decade ago, every day of my life. Now I find myself in Antarctica for a third time, hoping to find the Japanese whaling fleet as early as possible in their season; not just because 50 endangered humpback whales are now slated for the harpoon, but so that Marlboro would understand that not for a single day, has he been forgotten.

A ‘ham’ trifecta!

By Monica on December 14th, 2007

Since last week’s faux-meat-roast experiment went well, I thought I’d try out another one of Bryana’s masterpieces. Baked ham was a Christmas staple in my yesteryears, so what better time to press my luck and try the vegan friendly version out?

Despite the very disturbing Tofu/Baco’Bit smoothie that you have to make as part of the ham recipe, this turned out excellent! There was even a twinge of “I shouldn’t be eating this, it tastes too much like ham”!

‘Ham’ going into the oven (sans cooking broth). Yes, it looks just like a giant wad of Silly Putty.

‘Ham’ coming out of the oven. As you can see, I didn’t have pineapple slices, but I did have chunks! Good enough!

And onto the plate, with a side of scalloped potatoes.

Another thing I love about Bryana’s creations is that while these ‘roast-type things’ take a long time to create, they leave you with enough food to make at least a few meals from. With the left over ‘ham’, the next night we had ‘Grilled Ham’ & Cheez Sammiches!

And with even more ‘ham’ remaining, what better to make than ‘Ham’ & Bean Soup?

In keeping with the theme, I made enough soup to feed a sizable vegan commune. That way I can freeze it for lazy nights, or take it to work for lunch. Feel free to half the recipe if you prefer.

‘Ham’ & Bean Soup
32 oz. dried navy beans
14 cups water or broth
3-4 cups diced ‘ham’
1 large onion, diced
6 carrots, sliced
6 stalks celery, sliced
2t salt
2t pepper
5 bay leaves
1t thyme
1t rosemary

Rinse beans and throw into a large stock pot. Add water/broth and bring to a boil. After boiling for a few minutes, remove from heat, cover, and let sit for about an hour.

Add ‘ham’, onion, salt, pepper, thyme, rosemary and bay leaves. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour, or until beans are soft.

Add carrots and celery and cook for another 30 minutes, or until carrots are soft.

Yippee, an ice storm!

By Monica on December 11th, 2007

Yippee, another ice storm! Here are a couple of shots I took on my way down the driveway this morning:

Birch tree in the front yard:

One of my poor little apple trees:

Now for something a little sunnier! A couple of weeks ago I spotted the “V word” on the front page of our local paper. There it was, staring at me like a beacon: “VEGAN”, on the front page. I think my heart skipped a beat. Inside, I was amazed to find an article about accepting the month long vegan challenge in November. Even further, Isa was pictured WITH A RECIPE. (Granted, it was next to a Turducken recipe, but this was a victory!)

I sent the author an email almost immediately, hardly able to contain my excitement about veganism in the local newspaper. And a few weeks later, here is the follow up article with mention to my little food blog. The best part is that a few local veg*ns have contacted me, terribly excited that they’re not alone out here in the sticks. Woo!

Ok, I’ll put my superstar status (har) aside and move onto the food. I wanted to give my vet a little gift of some sort for taking such amazing care of Sampson. (I’m so lucky to have the most amazing holistic vet on the planet, I drive 2 hours to get to her office and would drive 2 more!) Fruit baskets and the like seemed cliche, so I opted for Lindy Loo’s snowman testicles and a selection of home canned goods from my cold cellar.

Below, starting on the bottom left, we have: Apple Cranberry Relish, Brandied Pears, Blueberry Jam, Pear Sauce, Organic Apple Sauce. From the top left: Cinnamon Red Hot Apple Wedges, and Blackberry Rhubarb Jam. This is typically what I give everyone in my family for Christmas and it always goes over well, so I hope she and her staff enjoy it. Does anyone else can stuff? I love it!

Lastly, I am going to throw in a recipe that is perfect for days when you shivering and holed up inside because everything is covered in 1/4″ of ice. It relies heavily on vegan convenience foods, but frankly it’s so good that I don’t care. I made this as an omni and dare I say, it’s even better vegan.

Cheezy Tofurkey Stew
1T vegetable oil
1 package Tofurkey sausages (I think the kielbasa style work best here)
1 package vegan cheddar cheeze, cubed
1 medium yellow onion, diced
4 medium potatoes, peeled & cubed
1 can green beans, or even better - an equivalent amount of frozen
2 cups non-dairy milk
1t pepper
1t salt
1-2T flour

In a large pot, brown the sliced sausages in the vegetable oil. Add the diced onion and cook just until translucent. Add all of the other ingredients except flour. Bring to a boil until cheeze is melted, then reduce and simmer until potatoes are soft, about 1 hour. When potatoes are soft, add the flour as necessary to thicken.

You can also make this in a crockpot if you’d like, just reduce the amount of liquid used.