Cookin' through Cookin' Crunk - fried green tomatoes and cauliflower creole

 

Those of you who know me know that my journey to veganism was a lot faster than my journey to liking vegetables and fruit.  The potential reasons for this are plentiful - possible childhood trauma (the only veg we had at home was boiled-to-death canned or frozen stuff), being a supertaster (I'm one of those people who can taste cucumber), personal preference/texture issues, who knows.

But I've always had a problem with tomatoes.  I started out not being able to eat anything other than ketchup (catsup?), then progressed to being able to eat completely smooth tomato products.  I've now reached the point that I can have small diced tomatoes, but only cooked.  I can't eat raw tomatoes.

So, as you can imagine, the Fried Green Tomatoes recipe was kinda daunting for me.  A thick slice of tomato - brrr.  But I bought those green tomatoes at the farmers market (lookit that wee one!  it's so tiny!), put on my big girl pants, and made some fried green tomatoes.

I have to say, they were alright, but I probably wouldn't make them again unless they were for someone else who really loves them.

I made the Fried Green Tomato and Tofu Sandwich with them, and that was pretty good, but it was more the tofu than the tomatoes that I was interested in.  The coating on the tomatoes gave it a nice crunch, though.  This used the Sweet & Spicy Marinated Tofu, which was really easy to make and was very, very tasty.  I can see it going into regular rotation.

Dinner tonight was Cauliflower Creole.  I did it in stages, so it probably took longer than it would have if I'd made it as written.  This was fantastic.  I don't think it really mimicked shrimp creole all that well (at least texture-wise - I've never had shrimp creole to compare the taste), but whatever, it was tasty as hell.  I served it with the remaining tofu and some brown rice.  I would definitely make this again.

My shrooms went off, so I didn't get to make the cream of mushroom soup.  I'll buy more shrooms and make that this week since I cubed the tofu chicken to use in a recipe that also requires the cream of mushroom soup.

Southern Saturday - sweet potato hash

It's the last Southern Saturday of MoFo!  I can't believe it's almost over (and almost October).  Since I'm nowhere near finished cooking through Cookin' Crunk, I might keep blogging about my experience.  I've at least liked everything I've made so far, and I've loved quite a lot, so I'm looking forward to the rest of it.  A lot of it is stuff that takes advanced prep, multiple steps, or loads of ingredients (some of which I might not be able to get here), so it might not come as thick and fast as the recipes I've made for MoFo.  That said, I have to make food for a work potluck at the end of October, so I might take a range of stuff to that (since I can usually only eat the hummus and bread).

I meant to do more today, but I was out and about and hauling things around a lot, so I just made one dish for brinner - Sweet Potato Hash.  I didn't take a picture because, frankly, it ain't pretty.  I honestly can't remember if I'd ever had corned beef hash pregan.  Surely I must have, but maybe I blocked all occurrences of it from my memory because of that time my dad fed us dog food and told us it was corned beef.*

Mike and I both loved this, so much so that we finished it all off before it even got cold enough to reheat.  I thought I'd have to use it up as leftovers tomorrow, but it was gone pretty quickly.  I used the ground TSP beef from the book, so I did all the prep and the beginning stages of cooking while that cooked.  Apart from grating the sweet potatoes, it was pretty easy.

I would absolutely make this again.  It was super delicious and really homey and comforting.  In fact, I still have some TSP beef left, so I might make a personal-sized serving while Mike's at his game!

*Unfortunately, true story.  Or so I'm told.  Apparently, dad could only afford a potato and a can of dog food.  I was probably too young to have understood what corned beef was and that dog food was different and not to be eaten, but maybe he felt the need to lie to us in case mom asked what we'd eaten and we told her dog food (even though none of us could've read the label at that age - my now 32-year-old sister wasn't even on solids yet).

Sundae Sunday - Vegan Dublin Mudslide

My favourite pregan ice cream was Ben & Jerry's Dublin Mudslide - Irish cream ice cream, chocolate chocolate chip cookie* pieces, and coffee fudge ripple.  I'm pretty sure it was the last non-vegan thing I ate intentionally while I lived in the US**.

One of the things I put on my 40 before 40 list was to veganise the Dublin Mudslide.  It doesn't seem like something that would be terribly difficult when you think of it as just veganising some ice cream.  But when you consider the various components, having to veganise those, and the amount of time it would take to make them regardless of their animal content, it's a goddamn project.  For the vegan version, not only do you have to figure out a way to make the ice cream, cookies, and fudge swirl vegan, you have to make your own Bailey's Irish cream!

I got a bug up my butt today and decided to just do it.

I started by making some Irish cream liqueur - I used the recipe in Quick and Easy Vegan Celebrations.  I then made the cookies - I used the soft baked chocolate chip cookie recipe in The Vegan Cookie Connoisseur but switched out 1/4 c of the flour for 1/4 c cocoa powder.  I used my modified V'con ice cream base for the ice cream, adding 1/4 c of the homemade Bailey's to a vanilla recipe.  I used this recipe for the fudge ripple with some instant espresso added for the coffee element - my original attempt ended in chocolate syrup, so it was the wrong consistency.***

The final product was good, but it wasn't Dublin Mudslide.  *sadface*  I'll probably make this again, but I'd make the following changes:

1. Use the homemade Bailey's instead of rather than in addition to the soy milk (so the full soy cream and 1/2 c Bailey's), and add a bit of coffee flavour to the ice cream itself.
2. Leave the chocolate chips out of the cookies (I honestly don't remember chocolate chips in the cookies in the original).
3. More coffee flavour and more sweetness in the fudge ripple.

I think these changes would make it much more like the original.  I made about a liter of Bailey's, and I still have some cookie dough (it would be pretty easy to pull out most of the chocolate chips), so I could probably make this again soon.  For science.

*The description I read said chocolate chocolate chip, but as I mentioned in my post, I don't remember the chocolate chips.
**I had a hard time adjusting to life in the UK as a vegan, so I went back to ovo-veg for a couple of weeks until I found my footing.
***My 2nd attempt almost failed too.  The original recipe calls for maple syrup, which I probably wouldn't have used even if I had it.  I tried to use light corn syrup, but to my great surprise, it wasn't sweet enough, so I added in some golden syrup.  Next time, I'd go with all golden syrup, or maybe agave.

Vegan MoFo VI, Day 19 - British Food Friday - Treacle Tart

Lemme 'splain something - UK sweeteners are kinda confusing.  When I was younger, listening to loads of British music, I would hear the word "treacle" and assume it was something super sweet and sticky.  Well, it turns out that what the Brits call treacle is what Americans call molasses - so at least the sticky part was accurate.  What I thought was treacle is actually golden syrup (or just syrup - not to be confused with the syrup Americans put on pancakes, which they don't really have here).

So, treacle tart - technically, it doesn't actually have treacle in it.  It's made with golden syrup.  Also, breadcrumbs!  So you're basically eating a crust full of syrup and bread.  There's almost nothing else in it.  I always found treacle tart to be the kind of thing that sounded both horrific and delicious, and this was before I even knew what was in it.

I can't even remember the first time I had treacle tart, but it was well after I'd moved to Scotland.  It was pretty much exactly what I expected - a little bit dirty, but addictively delicious.  I struggled to not eat the whole package.

I knew I had to make treacle tart at some point - it was one of the recipes that made me decide on this theme.  So I looked up recipes and landed on this one from a few MoFos ago.  I had all the ingredients on hand, and it looked pretty easy, so I went for it.

Well, it wasn't quite so straightforward.  Part of this is to do with my hateful kitchen - I don't have the best surface for making pastry, so the rolling out of the pastry was a bit of a project.  Then it turned out that the filling didn't actually fill the crust!  So I ended up having to nearly triple the filling.  I also ran out of syrup, but luckily I had a bottle of the maple-flavoured syrup, so I used a bit of that.  I'm so glad I made my own breadcrumbs because I used nearly all of them, and it was more than would've been in a box.

In the end, it all worked out.  Everyone loved it.  It had just a hint of maple flavour, which made it a little different than the usual treacle tart.  I might try to recreate this on purpose some day, but it might not happen until after I get a new kitchen (or maybe use someone else's).

Vegan MoFo VI, Day 13 - Cookbook Challenge - Yellow Rose Recipes (again)

I'm back on board with the cookbook challenge!  I kinda cheated with tonight's recipe, in that I've made parts of it before, but I hadn't ever eaten it exactly the way it's written (OK, I didn't do that tonight either).  I made the Taco Salad from Yellow Rose Recipes.  I've made the taco "meat" part of it (for the tamale pie), but I never did the salad.

My best good friend Eva is in town to see Phantom of the Opera with me, and we pretty much always have Tex-Mex when we hang out.  We're both trying to lose weight, so instead of having our usual tacos, we decided to go for the taco salad.  I've never been a huge fan of taco salad because of the lack of tortilla, but I've been getting more accustomed to eating bowls (bed of greens, grain, protein, sauce), so I figured this would work out.  I left off the avocado because I'm allergic; Eva had tomatoes but I didn't because I'm a hater.  We both had a bit of the Appetite for Reduction Green Goddess Dressing on our leaves because it's healthier than sour cream.

We all really liked this.  Eva and I liked having the salad at the bottom because it's a good way to get a lot of salad in without really thinking about it.  We both thought it was missing a little something - Eva kinda wanted a cheesy substance, and I missed the sour cream (though cheesy substance would've been good too).  But it was still quite good and filling (though we ate really early and now we're both hungry), and it was fast to make - it would've been on the table in 15 minutes if I hadn't misread the directions and had to cook it longer because I forgot to put the spices in at the right time.

I would recommend this, but if even if you're not down with taco salad, the taco filling itself is super quick and tasty.

Now we're gonna drink some Big Red and watch Star Trek: The Next Generation, because we regress to age 12 when we're together.  Because we're awesome.

Vegan MoFo VI, Day 12 - British Food Friday - Fish and Chips

It's British Food Friday!

I really struggled with what to make tonight.  I didn't want to make another sweet thing because we've had sweets in the office every day this week and it's reaching the point of overkill.  I was waffling between pot roast and fish and chips because that's all I could think to make.  I dug out a couple of pot roast recipes and realised that most of them were for crock pot roasts, which would take 4+ hours to cook.  I'm not spending 4+ hours on dinner on Friday night.

I finally decided to make the Fish and Chips (kinda) from Quick and Easy Vegan Celebrations by Alicia Simpson.  As you might recall, I tested for this book a couple of years ago.  Well, this recipe wasn't on the tester list, and for some reason I kept passing it over when I flipped through the book.  I honestly don't know why because fried fish is one of the few pregan things I still miss.

Of course, when I finally went to start cooking, I realised that the light above the cooker is now out - the day after we got the other light fixture replaced.  I very nearly decided to just say "fork it" and make some Fry's chicken nuggets for dinner.  But I powered through the annoyance of my hateful kitchen and made the seitan.

I was really unsure about this - you cook it in a smaller-than-usual pan in not very much broth.  But it actually turned out really well.  Unfortunately, it wasn't particularly fishy, but it was still really, really tasty.  Also, I have to say, the coating was more Southern than British (even though this is a St Patrick's Day recipe).  Again, super tasty, but not quite what I was expecting.

I couldn't be bothered making chips from scratch, so I bought the non-coated chips at the store.  Yes, most of the bags of chips I looked at were battered or otherwise coated in some way.  I just wanted straight-up chips, so I went with the bag which had an ingredients list so small (potatoes, sunflower oil) that it took me about a minute to find it.

I made a quick and dirty tartar sauce from some smoked garlic mayo, lemon juice and minced capers (I don't do vinegar on my fish).  It all worked really well together, and I'd definitely recommend it!

I will eventually do that pot roast, but maybe at a weekend.

Perfect chocolate chip cookies

I thought I would take a break from blogging for one day, but then I decided not to.  It's World Vegan Day!  And because of that, I had to make something.  I decided to dig out my old favourite chocolate chip cookie recipe and see how it compared to the ones I'd made the past few days.

Many years ago, I was not really a cookie fan.  I don't know why - maybe because people thought putting things like oats and raisins and nuts in cookies was acceptable practice.  I pretty much only ever ate chocolate chip cookies, and my favourites were Keebler Soft Batch cookies.

Then this dude started coming out with books for making home versions - nearly exact replicas - of packaged and restaurant foods.  One of them had Keebler Soft Batch cookies in it.  Score!  I bought the book and made the cookies, and they ended up being my sister's favourite as well as mine.  I think about her every time I make these, if only because of the time she insisted I make them at her tiny little apartment when, not being a cook/baker herself (she preferred things from cans and boxes in those days) and not having much equipment, we had to try to cream the first ingredients by hand with a spoon (or maybe it was one of those hand-cranked egg beaters).  I think we gave up after about 15 minutes (but we still made the cookies).

One of the first recipes I veganized was that cookie recipe.  Instead of posting the recipe here and running afoul of copyright law or something, I'll just direct you to the link above and make the following suggestions:

• Only make half a batch unless you're taking them to a potluck or something (otherwise you'll be in the kitchen for hours)
• Replace the butter with vegan margarine
• Replace the egg with either a flax egg or commercial egg replacer
• If you live near sea level/in a moist climate, increase the flour a bit (you should be able to shape them by hand)

I love how these cookies are still soft a day or two later (if they last more than 2 days).  I don't know if it's the molasses or the method, but whatever it is, they're amazing both right out of the oven and the next day.  They're the only chocolate chip cookie I've ever had that stayed soft, which is how I like them.  Oh, and if you mess up and take them out too early (like I did tonight), you can still eat them and they'll still be delicious!  I actually kinda love gooey, undercooked cookies.  I think I ate about 5 tonight, and now I feel a bit sick.

I tested a recipe for Terry last night, but since this post is already kinda lengthy, I'll post that tomorrow.

Vegan MoFo - Copycats and crap shops

One of the things I wanted to do was a whole week of copycats - recipes that other MoFo'ers posted this month.  I didn't get around to that, but since I'd bought all the ingredients to make The I-40 Kitchen's Sausage Balls, I decided that those, at the very least, I had to have.

I only made a half batch because I didn't want to use up the entire box of Bisquick on one recipe.  I used Cheezly mature red cheddar for the cheese and Fry's sliceable sausage log thing for the sausage.  I tried one almost right out of the oven, and they were amazing, but they were also kinda crying out for gravy, so I whipped some up.  This was probably the trashiest and most delicious meal I've ever eaten!  I kinda wish I'd made a whole batch because we ate them all, but at the same time, I would probably already have eaten the rest if I had done.

After breakfast, we had to go get Mike's passport photos done, and then I headed up to Cameron Toll shopping centre.  They have a new American store called Amerikandy (I guess using a k when neither America or candy is spelled with a k gives it that added whimsy so crucial to a store that sells nothing but junk food).  When I walked by the other day and saw a tower of root beer, I promised myself I'd go back and check it out.

I had a comprehensive look around, and this is the impression I came away with - the person running the shop has probably never been to the US and possibly was accidentally sent a bunch of crap that s/he then marked up ridiculously to try to offload it to dupes.  They have boxes of Cocoa Pebbles for £8, and cans of soda (Mug and A&W root beers, Wild Cherry Pepsi, vanilla Coke, grape Fanta, and a few flavours of Mountain Dew) for £1.50 each or £16.50 for a 12-pack.  They also have Pop Tarts.  The rest of the shop, which, as you may recall, is called Amerikandy, is full of candy and junk food from the UK, some of it even made in Edinburgh.  I promise you that no child in the US will have ever consumed an Iron Brew (their spelling) lollipop.

Growing up only buying brand-name sodas when they were on sale for 2/$5 (because the generics were half as much and tasted the same), I'm reluctant to part with what amounts to about $25 for a box of soda.  When you then consider that Lupe Pinto's has most of the same sodas for £1.10 each, and also has other products I'd actually want to buy, I'm unlikely to shop here again.  However, I did grab a few things out of a combination of desperation (for root beer) and curiosity/shock value.

Mountain Dew, Wild Cherry Pepsi (which I've loved since my childhood taking the Greyhound from TX to NY, stopping at Withville, VA, for driver changes on almost every trip), A&W root beer, and Mug root beer.  Let's get a closer look at that Mountain Dew, shall we?

What the honest fork, Mountain Dew?!  Yes, that is a mountain man (called Hillbilly Willy) with a moonshine bottle cork blasting a hole through his hat, and it's called "throwback".  Well, at least he doesn't have a wild look in his eyes and isn't brandishing a shotgun.  The gimmick with this is that it's made with sugar (like the original Mountain Dew) instead of HFCS (like current Mtn Dew).  Soda companies' attempts to be down with the kids by doing some stupid promotion or changing their products to be more "xtreme" are annoying but usually not offensive, so could we please not use stereotypes in our marketing campaigns?

I'm hoping to get some more tester recipes done tonight and tomorrow, so I'll blog about those then.

Vegan MoFo - Simple things are often best

I was initially gonna review the Linda McCartney mini sausages that I bought last weekend.  But then I ate them and realised that they really are just smaller versions of the regular-size LM sausages, so I figured there was no point.  But I didn't just eat the mini sausages.

The side here is microwave-steamed rice mixed with microwave-steamed veg (cooked separately - they're two different products).  After I served Mike's rice, I threw my veg into the rice, then shook some liquid aminos and nooch over them and gave them a stir.  It's amazingly delicious, and actually kinda reminds me of fried rice!

It specifically reminds me of my pregan days when I hardly ate any veg and would only ever get chicken fried rice when we got Chinese take-out.  Of all the things on the menu, it had the least veg in it, so I figured it was safe.  I'm glad I've expanded my palate since then.  I can't wait to get back to Dallas and go to Veggie Garden for some awesome vegan Chinese food.

In other news, the soy milk powder available in the UK is so far inferior to that in the US that I could almost cry.  I don't know why this is, but the proof is in the fact that my instant hot chocolate mix is now nearly undrinkable.  I'm most displeased and will definitely be buying some US soy milk powder for my Xmas present from my sister (my present is that she pays to ship stuff I buy from the US).  So if anyone has a coupon code for Pangea or Cosmo's or any other US online vegan shop, it would be awesome if you shared.

Vegan MoFo - Cookbook Challenge: Appetite for Reduction (pt 1)

So, we're doing the Cookbook Challenge again.  It seems to always coincide with MoFo, which actually works out great for me.  It not only gets me to use my cookbooks, but it also gives me something to blog about!

This week is actually supposed to be Vegan Soul Kitchen by Bryant Terry, but I don't have that book, so I'm going back to week 1, Isa and Terry Week.  I still haven't cooked much out of Appetite for Reduction (in my defense, I've been testing for Alicia for several months now), so I decided to focus on that.  I have the rest of the books after that, and there's a 2nd Isa/Terry week, and I'm really looking forward to using a few books I haven't had for long.

It's kinda late and I'm pretty tired, so I'm just posting the recipe I tried last night, which was the Smoky Split Pea Soup.

Split pea soup is another one of those things that I didn't try for a very long time because my mom always made it seem like something vile.  Pea soup was the stuff of nightmares, and this was before I saw The Exorcist (or did my Linda Blair impression at that Halloween party a few years ago).  I've since learned to love split pea soup.  How could you not?  It's creamy and savoury and comforting.  It's like a bowl of liquid hugs for your insides.

Isa's smoky, low-cal version is great.  It mimics that bit of ham you'd get in an omni split pea soup without the fat or cruelty.  The only thing I didn't like about it was the thyme.  I wish there was a way to have the flavour of thyme without the texture.  Those little bastards always stick in my teeth.

To be honest, I tested another low-cal split pea soup recipe for Alicia that I like better, so I'll probably stick with that.  But until the rest of you mortals have access to that one, I would recommend this one.

Vegan MoFo - Homesick

As you know, I'm American, and I live in Edinburgh.  I love Edinburgh, I love living here, and I have no intention of ever leaving.  But I haven't been back to the US since 2008, and I haven't been back to Texas since 2006.  I have friends, family, and cats that I haven't seen in 5 or more years.  Overall, I don't like Texas, and I never want to live there again, but sometimes I get homesick.  I miss my friends, I miss my family, I REALLY miss my cat, and I miss the food.

This afternoon I was reheating my lunch when I realised that I'd bought one of those new fridge packs of baked beans (which really are quite genius) and forgot about it after eating one serving.  It says to use within 5 days, and it's been 7.  But I smelled them and they seemed fine, so I brought them home.

So, what does the one have to do with the other?  When I first started experimenting with veganism, my friend Joy let me borrow a copy of How It All Vegan by Sarah Kramer and Tanya Barnard.  Being a shitty vegetarian (I pretty much just replaced meats with mock meats and still didn't eat any veg), I gravitated towards the recipes that most closely resembled my regular diet.  I think the Bean and Cheese Casserole was the first recipe I made from that book.

It turned out that my mom really liked it.  I mean, what's not to like - beans, potatoes, and cheese layered in a casserole.  But my mom liked it enough to request it multiple times and even make it herself (though with hot dogs and dairy cheese, completely defeating the purpose) when she visited family in New York.  I haven't made this recipe in years.  I honestly can't even remember the last time I made it.  But it always reminds me of my mom.  So, tonight, I'll be using up my beans and potatoes in this casserole, and maybe I'll call my mom.

Since this recipe was first written (over 10 years ago!), we've come on leaps and bounds in vegan cheese.  You can now get vegan cheese that melts, which I'm sure would make this recipe even better.  I'll be using smoked cheddar Sheese tonight, but those of you in the US could use Teese or Daiya, and it would probably be amazing.

BTW, this recipe is already online and has been for ages (here), but the direct link is a bit dodgy.  I'd cut and paste, but the formatting is all jacked up.  And I think I can maybe make the directions make a little more sense, so I'll just rewrite that bit.

Bean and Cheese Casserole
How It All Vegan

Ingredients:

5-6 small potatoes, sliced
1 can baked beans
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
2 tsp pepper
2 c grated vegan cheese

Directions:

Boil or steam the potatoes until soft enough to pierce with a fork.  While the potatoes are cooking, mix the beans, mustard, and pepper.

Preheat the oven to 400F/200C and lightly grease a casserole dish.  Place half the potatoes in the bottom of the casserole, then layer half the bean mixture, half the cheese, then another layer of each, topping with cheese.  Cover and bake for 35-40 minutes.


For those far away from home, what recipes remind you of home?

Vegan MoFo - On freezers and freezing

I was about to have to miss a day out because we were both too hungry to wait for me to cook, so I had a Freenut Butter and jam sammich and Mike had cereal for dinner.  I couldn't think of anything to talk about until, about 30 minutes ago, I realised that I was still pretty hungry and needed a snack.  And that's when I realised, I haven't talked about my freezer!


When we moved into this flat, it had a TV but no freezer.  We asked them to get rid of the TV (we didn't want to pay for the license) and put in a freezer.  They did neither.  So I lived with a dusty TV and no freezer for over 2 years.  If we ever got frozen food, we had to eat it all within the day (or 2 days, depending on what it was), so we were eating entire tubs of ice cream between the two of us in one go.

I finally decided I couldn't stand for it any longer.  In all seriousness, not having a freezer was contributing to my weight gain, and we were wasting food (and therefore money) on food we could've frozen before it went off.  So, for my birthday this year, I demanded gratefully received a freezer.

I love having a freezer.  It's actually helped me eat better because we now have veg on demand without having to buy it the same day.  I can eat a small amount of ice cream and put the rest back.  And I can eat an actual portion size of tots rather than half a bag one day and the other half the next (though I never actually had a problem with that).  I can now make things one night and save them for a meal weeks later (in fact, I made some beans a few days after I got the freezer and still haven't used them).  I MADE MY OWN JELL-O PUDDING POPS!!!

And then, during the PPKamping trip, someone told me about Fry's Vegetarian chicken-style burgers.  I bought them pretty much immediately after I got back.  They are truly delightful.  I ate one tonight, pan-fried with just a spray of oil, between two pieces of wholemeal bread with the cheesy mustard mayo from American Vegan Kitchen.  It was one of the nicest things I've ever eaten - quick, easy, delicious, a little greasy.  So good.

BTW, when I looked for the link to the burgers, I discovered that Fry's are coming out with new products, including "Louisiana Tenders" - vegan chicken strips!  And popcorn "chicken"!  I can't wait for those.

So, talk to me about frozen convenience foods - what's your favourite?

N.B. - Apologies for any possible typos.  I'm super tired and can't be bothered proofreading right now.

Vegan MoFo - Me and Sammiches

I was gonna write about ice cream, pancakes for dinner, and things of that nature today, but a friend was in a pickle (pun intended) about sammiches, so I offered to help.

Ruth, who blogs at dorkymum, posted about Perfect Sandwiches (caution: not vegan!) a few months ago.  Today, a reader commented that she doesn't eat sandwiches because she's dairy-free and (presumably) can't find a dairy-free spread.  Rather than simply comment about dairy-free spreads, I offered to write up a little something for her to pass along.



I wrote a whole bunch of superfluous stuff, and then I wrote what follows, which frankly is enough on its own.  So let's just go with this - a few ideas for spreads and sandwiches that will get you back in the sammich-making game.  FYI - most of this is aimed at the UK reader (e.g., the bits about where to buy), but there are a couple of things that will be helpful to anyone. 

Margarine - Pure do a variety of non-dairy spreads, made from soya, olive oil, and sunflower oil.  These can be found at the vast majority of big box stores.  Some of the big boxes also carry Vitalite, which is my personal favourite.  It's more spreadable and just has a nicer flavour.  You might also be able to find Suma spreads at health food shops like Holland & Barrett, Real Foods (Edinburgh), Roots and Fruits (Glasgow), and Whole Foods (London). 

Mayo - Mayo shouldn't actually have any dairy in it - its creaminess comes from an emulsion of egg and oil.  Regardless, there are a few good vegan mayos.  You can get Tiger Tiger plain or garlic mayo at larger Sainsbury's stores.  There's another brand found at most big box stores whose name escapes me.  Some health food shops will also carry Plamil mayo, which comes in a variety of flavours (garlic, chili, tarragon and chive, etc.).  My current favourite, which I bought at Real Foods in Edinburgh but which should also be available in Brighton and probably London, is Infinity Foods' organic vegan smoked garlic mayo.  I want to eat it with everything!  OK, everything savoury.  It's much thicker than standard mayo, but it's crazy good. 

Mustard - I admit that I rarely eat mustard without something else, but it can be good on wholemeal bread encasing a plain old (homemade) seitan cutlet.  You can make them beefy or chickeny (or even hammy), but they'll all be good with a swirl of mustard.  In fact, mustard is pretty much the only thing Mike will eat on his sammiches. 

Dressings - Some salad dressings would make a great sandwich spread, especially if you can make them yourself and cut out some of the liquid to make them more spreadable.  For a few ideas, click on the look inside thing on the Amazon page for Appetite for Reduction by Isa Chandra Moskowitz.  The salad section usually comes up first, so you could try a few of those out before you buy the book (which I would recommend because it's amazing). 

Sandwich ideas - Check out the (small) selection of sandwiches in the PPK Recipe section.  This is another place where Amazon's look inside feature is helpful - you can preview The Best Veggie Burgers on the Planet by Joni Newman (FYI - if you log in, you can see more).  And if you can wait a while, Tamisin Noyes, author of American Vegan Kitchen (which, incidentally, has a section on sandwiches, though unfortunately has no look inside option) and Celine Stein (co-author of 500 Vegan Recipes and a couple others) are writing a cookbook all about sandwiches!  Tami has 43 sandwich-related posts on her blog!

I hope Ruth and her reader(s) find this helpful.  Or maybe you're new to veganism and didn't realise just how little you actually have to give up in the sammich department!  Either way, hopefully this wasn't just an exercise in remembering where I've bought or seen certain products.

What's your favourite sandwich or sandwich spread?

In praise of soggy bread

I made my first dumplings tonight.  I know - shocking - I'm Southern and I've never made dumplings (to the best of my knowledge).  My grandma is spinning in her grave.  Or maybe now she's stopped spinning.  But there's a reason why I never made dumplings.

When I was young, I never ate anything even remotely like soggy bread (with the exception of biscuits and gravy).  You see, my mom hates (HATES!) soggy bread, so I just assumed that I also hated soggy bread.  But then there were the biscuits and gravy (but even my mom likes biscuits and gravy).

I'm not exactly sure what made me realise I actually love soggy bread.  (I should clarify, I'm not talking about a piece of bread that's been sitting in water, and I've never had bread in milk.)  I don't know if it was realising that biscuits are bread and gravy makes them soggy.  I don't know if it coincided with my soup revelation (i.e., I like soup), the day I had a delicious soup at my friend Julie's house with a piece of bread to dip in it.  All I know is, I like soggy bread - biscuit-topped cassoulet, the lump of cheese-covered deliciousness atop French onion soup, sammiches moistened by condiments, and dumplings.

Incidentally, the recipe I made was Seitan and Dumplings from American Vegan Kitchen as part of week 2 of the cookbook challenge.  I have to say, it took a long damn time to make.  If you were to make it from start to finish (from the seitan to the bowl), it would take about 4 hours.  Luckily, I at least made the seitan ahead of time.  That said, it's totally worth it.  So delicious.  I might see if I can figure out a way to make it take less time.  I don't know how, but there must be a way.  Anyway, even taking as long as it does, I would definitely recommend it.

An ode to Ms Cupcake

This post is pretty much a wall of text, so here's a picture of my gorgeous husband, reading a book instead of talking to me when we're waiting for our food at Infinity in Brighton:


(BTW, he's wearing the shirt he was wearing when we met. Aww.)

I'm sitting here hungry, waiting for my dinner to cook, with an open package of Oreos within easy reach. So what better activity to occupy my time than writing about cupcakes?

As mentioned in my post about the last two days of our holiday, we went to Ms Cupcake when we were in London. Holy hell. Let me put it this way - if Ms Cupcake were in Edinburgh, I would be fat and poor. If I'm ever in London again, I'll be hitting up Ms Cupcake on the daily, no matter what part of the city I'm staying in. I will get a day pass for the tube and take 3 trains if I have to. Lemme tell you why.

First of all, we got off the Victoria line at Brixton. I stupidly didn't print out directions because I looked at the map before I left Edinburgh and thought, that's right around the corner, I'll be able to find that. Well, we had no idea where to go. But I had their number, and I called them up, and they told me the way. Good customer service - that's what it's all about.

Then we got there. I wouldn't say the cases were overflowing, but there were so. many. cupcakes. And cookies. All vegan, all the time. And other things as well - Plamil chocolate spread, candy bars, cake baking and decorating ingredients and equipment, and multiple copies of every cookbook written by Isa and Terry (together and solo). I think there was even some variety of vegan jerky.

We decided to get a half-dozen cupcakes (3 each), a cookie sandwich with chocolate frosting (they were out of vanilla), and some Plamil milk chocolate spread (which I talked about in my chocolate post). Mike got a triple chocolate, a chocolate raspberry, and a banoffee cupcake, and I got triple chocolate, red velvet, and gingersnap. Later that day, while at Vx, I also got another cookie sammich (vanilla this time) and sausage rolls (since we'd be on the train for 5 hours and would need something savoury to eat).

We ate the sammich cookie - two large chocolate chip cookies with a thick layer of chocolate frosting in between - while we were still at the shop. I normally prefer vanilla frosting, but I hadn't had a proper sammich cookie in a dog's age, so I took what I could get. I'm so glad I did. It was exactly what a sammich cookie should be - slightly crunchy around the edges, but nice and soft in the middle. The frosting didn't overwhelm despite being chocolate. It was like the ones I used to get at the mall, except nearly twice as big and 10 times better. When I saw the vanilla one at Vx, I thought, surely this will be the perfect sammich cookie. AND IT WAS! I hesitated a bit with the first one because we were getting all those cupcakes, but when I saw the vanilla cookies, I almost bought 2. I kinda wish I had. It might actually have been the best thing we ate on the entire trip (well, the best sweet thing for sure), and it was a day old!

Then came the cupcakes. I think Mike finished all three of his before we even got on the train, while I managed to save two of mine until the day after we got back (probably because I ate most of both of the sammich cookies). We both started out with the triple chocolate - chocolate cake, a layer of chocolate ganache, and thick*, fudgy chocolate frosting, topped with a chunk of dark chocolate and two white chocolate buttons. I usually don't go for something so chocolaty - I like chocolate, but not in such heavy doses. But when I saw it, I just thought, I'll have that. And it wasn't nearly as overwhelmingly chocolaty as I expected. It was quite good, though I kinda expected more white chocolate than just the buttons. I guess we're programmed to see "triple chocolate" and think "three varieties of chocolate" rather than "chocolate three times". Meh.

I can't say much about Mike's other cupcakes. I barely had a glance at the banoffee because I'm not a fan and didn't really care. He said it was good, not great, but you'd probably love it if you like banoffee (he didn't know if he actually did). I did have a bite of the chocolate raspberry - chocolate cake topped with (I think) a thin layer of raspberry jam and then a thick* layer of raspberry buttercream. One bite isn't much to judge by (especially since I prefer the middle and I had to have an outside bite), but it had a good flavour - you could definitely taste the raspberry. I think I might have liked a more pronounced raspberry flavour, but that might just be because of the one-bite thing.

I loved my other two cupcakes less than the cookies, but they were still great. I think the red velvet was the only one that didn't have a layer of something between the cake and the frosting. It was just red velvet cake with thick* cream cheese frosting. What can I say - it tasted the way red velvet cake is supposed to taste. The gingersnap was golden cake (I'm pretty sure the cake itself didn't have any flavouring) with a layer of ginger preserves (I assume) and thick* gingery buttercream. I liked it a lot, but I would've preferred it to be a little more gingery. Or maybe to actually have bits of gingersnap in the cake and/or frosting (a la cookies and cream cupcakes) - that would've been awesome!

We did eventually eat the sausage rolls. Sausage rolls are something I prefer hot, but I usually end up eating them at room temperature because I'm usually eating them on the go. I'm used to dry, slightly stale-tasting, not very full sausage rolls from Holland and Barrett. But these were actually really good. They had a decent amount of sausage wrapped in gorgeous flaky pastry. They were lovely.

So, in case you couldn't tell, I'm now a huge fan of Ms Cupcake. If you're in London, even if you're not vegan, hit them up. You won't be disappointed.

I think I'm gonna experiment with those gingersnap cupcakes this weekend! That sounds like a good use of my time. I'll probably blog about that on Sunday.

*I keep talking about the frosting being thick. Here's why - the frosting on every cupcake was nearly as thick as the cakes themselves. It was at least an inch and a half to two inches thick. I had to bite from the top so I could sink my teeth into the frosting before getting the cake in order to not have a nose full of frosting. It was some thick damn frosting.

My first recipe (no actual recipe included)

I was lazy tonight and didn't cook. Well, I did, but it was just pasta with nothing special. And then we had mint Oreos for dessert. Awl-raight*! But since I didn't do anything particularly exciting food-wise today, I borrowed some ideas from Isa's inspiration thread and decided I'd talk about my first recipe.

OK, in fairness, I think this is just the first thing I very specifically recall making. And it's just the story of it.

I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but my grandmother pretty much taught me how to cook from about the time when I could physically be put to work helping. She was one of those 50s housewives who grew up poor on a farm in the South but got just far enough into the middle class to get into that weird semi-homemade / heavily branded thing. Looking through some of her recipe books, and recipes she wrote herself, almost every recipe had either an ingredient that would normally have been an entire recipe on its own (e.g. pudding mix) or demanded the use of a particular brand (e.g. Crisco shortening). So she had her well-seasoned cast iron pans that probably belonged to another woman in the family before her sitting next to her various molds for the shaping of Jell-O (OK, I'm not actually 100% sure she made Jell-O molds, but it's a reasonable assumption). She was also a Navy wife, and her travels took her to places and introduced her to cuisines that most of the people back home wouldn't have heard of until the 90s or later (like couscous).

The point I'm trying to make is that the woman knew how to cook at the best of times and the worst of times, with both the best and worst ingredients. And by getting me in the kitchen from a young age, she fostered a love of cooking in me.

I can't really remember when I started baking. I have vague recollections of making biscuits and gravy from a very young age. But I remember when I started to realise I was good at it. When I was in 4th grade (age 9), I was in 4H. We had a baking contest, and my entry was my favourite dessert made even more sickeningly sweet and thus perfect for a 9-year-old. I made chocolate chip blondies with an entire jar of marshmallow cream swirled into the batter. I wasn't the only person who thought these things were a party in one's mouth. I ended up tied for first place with the boy I had a crush on. He made peanut butter cookies (this was well before the days of banning peanut butter in schools so allergic kids wouldn't be exposed to it), so I was unable to judge for myself who had the best baked good.

When I was 9, it was the best thing I'd ever put in my mouth. At 31, it would probably make me vomit as soon as I woke up from the sugar coma (or vomit then sugar coma). But the great thing about progress is that I could actually make a vegan version of this, since we (people of the world, not necessarily those of us in the UK) now have access to delicious Ricemellow Creme. So hey, if someone out there wants to make the Call Me Blondies from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar and swirl or fold in a tub of Ricemellow Creme, you should totally let me know how it turns out. Actually, if I hadn't already eaten most of my tub, I might do it myself.

*That should be pronounced as heard in this video.

I've perfected my cinnamon chocolate chip muffin recipe!

Remember these (for those of you in the States) - Betty Crocker muffin mix pouches?


When I was younger and lazier (and not vegan), I used to buy one of the chocolate chip and one of the cinnamon (they made 6 muffins each) and combine them for cinnamon chocolate chip muffins. I have always loved cinnamon muffins, but ever since going vegan and opening my life up to all the amazing creations of vegan baking, I very rarely make a straight-up cinnamon muffin. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen a cinnamon muffin recipe in any of my plethora of vegan cookbooks, or even on a blog. Surely I'm not the only person who made cake-sized muffins (all the mix into a 9" round pan) and tried to consume the lot (with margarine, and starting from the middle because I didn't like the crusty outsides), only sharing when I was so full I thought I might be sick (or if there was nothing left but crust). OK, maybe I am. However, I'm sure other people liked those Betty Crocker muffins as much as I did. Here is my closest approximation to those delightfully chemical-filled muffins.

Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Muffins

1 1/2 c flour (a-p/plain, a combo of plain and wholemeal pastry, or a good GF mix)*
3/4 c sugar
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 c non-dairy milk
1/2 c oil (or do half oil/half applesauce if you want lower fat)
1/4 c plain or vanilla soy yogurt (or any other substitute for 1 egg)
1/2-3/4 c chocolate chips**

Preheat oven to 375F/190C. Line a muffin tin with paper liners.

Sift dry ingredients together and stir to make sure they're all mixed. Make a well in the centre and add liquid ingredients. Stir to combine. Fold in chocolate chips. Fill muffin liners about 1/2-2/3 full. Bake 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick through the centre comes out clean.

*I've had a lot of success subbing Dove's Farm Gluten and Wheat-Free Flour Mix for plain flour in other recipes. If you have access to this, just use it rather than trying to make your own (it's relatively cheap). If not, hopefully you can come up with a good mix; this one has rice, potato, tapioca, maize, and buckwheat flours (in that order) if you want to try it.
**The bags of chocolate chips we get in the UK are 1/2 c, so it's just easy for me to dump in one bag. If you like more chocolate chips, go for it.

In other news, I'm keeping up alright with some of my resolutions, but not so much with others. I might do an end-of-month review on Sunday.