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.

The Thanksgiving Post

By Monica on November 23rd, 2007

This year was the first year of my adult life that I did not host Thanksgiving dinner.  I have a small family and this year the crowd would have been a measly three people, hardly worth cooking for.  So I made the executive decision to trek down to the Chicago Diner for their 25th Annual Vegan Thanksgiving.  Let someone else cook and do dishes, was my motto.

The diner was all dressed up for the big event:  fall colored cloth napkins, pumpkin candles on all the tables, the music was slightly toned down from the usual punk sounds, and all the servers were even wearing clothes their mothers probably approved of.

Upon seating, we were presented with a basket filled with adorable little muffins and rolls, breadsticks, and herb ‘butter’.

First out was a field green salad with champagne vinaigrette.

Next up was Roasted Squash and Apple Soup with Maple Pepitas.  This was really the masterpiece of the meal, for me, absolutely fabulous.

And finally, onto the main course.  Mumsy & I had the Roasted Veggie Turkey which was oven baked tofu with chestnut stuffing and gravy. All the entrees came with cranberry relish, 7 grain stuffing, green beans almondine, wild rice pilaf, and maple mashed sweet potatoes.

Ray had the Beefy Wellington, really an impressive sight! It was a pastry crust with seitan, mushroom pate and tofu filling, covered in peppercorn sauce.

Last but not least, chocolate pumpkin cheezcake.  Oh. My. Hell.  There had to be a 1/2″ thick layer of chocolate on top of this baby and the piece of cheezcake is mammoth.  If there’s one thing the diner does better than anyone, it’s cheezcake.  This terrible picture is a shameful tribute, but it was dark in there!

While I did miss cooking for everyone, I am very glad we had a welcoming veggie place to eat at.  My mother, who I’ve turned into ‘half-a-vegan’, was a good sport and enjoyed herself as much as Ray and I.  Actually, she’d never been into this part of Chicago and was delighted at how nice Boys Town is.

And for the obligatory sobby, What-I’m-Thankful-For component of this blog post, today I’m thankful that Sampson is still with us.  He’s at home now after I was taught how to give him IV fluids and all his meds.  Keep sending him vegan hugs, they seem to be working!

Wait, one more thing!  Adopt a turkey!  For a one-time $20 adoption fee, adopters receive a color photograph of their turkey, an adoption certificate and a year subscription to Farm Sanctuary’s quarterly newsletter. The adoption fee provides funds for feed, bedding and veterinary care for the turkey.  This year we adopted Moth.  Ain’t  she lovely?

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!