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.

I hate Illinois Nazis

By Monica on November 19th, 2007

Saturday night Ray & I went out to dinner at a local dive. At the table in front of us was a man who kept telling his 3 young sons to “stop eating so many carrots and eat your fried chicken!” At the table next to us was a family full of white supremacists complete with a very scrawny pale kid, maybe 18 years old, sporting a swastika tattoo on the top of his right hand. Now, I know the swastika symbol has been around long before Hitler and has significance to other cultures, but this was the Nazi version for sure.

Yes, some days it is a real hoot living in the rural Midwest. All I could think of was Jake Blues in the Blues Brothers: “I hate Illinois Nazis”. Best movie ever.

Glutton for punishment, after dinner we stopped at the grocery store to see if I could find vegan graham crackers for a cheesecake crust. (Snowball’s chance in hell, right?) Now I’ve been to this store in the past and it’s like all the rest out here - meat, processed crap, semi-rotten vegetables. I don’t know what transformation the Hy-Vee underwent since our last visit, but it was a vegan extravaganza! Out here! In the sticks!

Not only did they have graham crackers I could use, but THREE kinds, including chocolate graham crackers! There was tofu, and it wasn’t even expired or covered in a layer of dust! There was soy chorizo, two kinds of Tofutti cheese, Gimme Lean sausage, Sour Supreme, polenta, TVP, dairy free ice cream, tempeh, the ‘good’ hydrogenated Tofutti cream cheese… It was my Christmas miracle, even though it’s not quite Christmas and I’m not quite (at all) religious. No longer do I have to trek 60 miles to Whole Foods when I need tempeh or tofu! So today I am sending off an email to Hy-Vee thanking them for carrying these things, though I will probably not mention that Ray and I now call them “Hy-Veegan.”

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.

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!