Vegan Bangers & Mash

Once when I lived in  Olympia Washington we went 97 days without the sun. It rained every day. The local news would keep a very dramatic SUN WATCH and report the number of rainy days like we were approaching the apocalypse. People started to act a little weird. One guy stopped leaving the apartment building and even stopped changing out of his robe and slippers. I stopped sleeping at night because I was working on a  project and it was easier to get blocks of editing time in the wee hours which made everything seem even more out of whack. The whole experience made me really crave sunshine which partially lead to settling here in Austin TX where you can have 97 days of sun and 100 degree days.

People say that England is very similar to Washington and that the winter is cold and rainy all the time. I haven’t ever been there and I haven’t really had any English food, it all sounds either disgusting (blood pie) or really fun (bubble & squeak) but either way I never know what the hell they are talking about until I look it up. I decided to make bangers because I saw ideas for the spice mix on a sausage forum. I knew the bangers were sausage but what the hell was the mash? I guessed mashed potatoes but this is the country that calls fries chips and a cooter a fanny so who knows what other backward ideas they have. After looking at a lot of disgusting pictures I learned that bangers & mash is indeed sausage and mashed potatoes. It is pub grub so you are supposed to drink a pint alongside. It is so British that Radiohead has a song about it. Thom Yorke is vegan so maybe they are searching for recipes to recreate this dish right now! (Hi Thom Yorke I dig your music, please play Austin next time you are around so I don’t have to drive to Houston). I thought the recipe for the bangers was pretty awesome but I don’t know if it is authentic! I tweaked it a little and I think it turned out great. Mr. Smurf applauded after he finished! If you try it and you have had the non-vegan version let me know how they compare.Bangers (make about 8 sausages or 4 servings)

2 Cups of stock

2 Tablespoons of oil

4 Tablespoons of soy sauce

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 Cup Nutritional Yeast

2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice

1 teaspoon lemon zest

1 teaspoon nutmeg

2 teaspoon sage

1 teaspoon pepper

dash of cayenne

1 tsp salt (if there isn’t any in your stock)

1 Cup of pinto beans, mashed

2 1/2 Cups Vital Wheat Gluten

First, get a big pot of water boiling and set up your steaming apparatus. I use a bamboo steamer on top of a stock pot.  Then tear off 8 pieces of foil, about 8X11 inches or (30X20 centimeters). Next mix all the ingredients, except the Vital Wheat Gluten in a bowl. Once everything seems well incorporated mix in the Vital Wheat Gluten. It shouldn’t quite be a dough but if it isn’t holding together at all add a little more vital wheat gluten. Divide it into 8 pieces and roll each piece up like a tootsie roll in a sausage shape and steam for 45 minutes, rotating the top and bottom tiers.

In the meantime make mashed potatoes however you like them. I like roasted garlic, earth balance and hemp milk added to mine.

When the sausages are done steaming, unroll them and fry them in a little olive oil with garlic on the stove and serve them with the potatoes and a nice pint. Enjoy!

Suck it February OR Summer is almost here….

Right? Please!!!!!!!!!! I am so cold! Recent cooking has been a disaster. I have been eating a lot of Thundercloud (the bread is vegan now!) and Chinese takeout. I made soup that wasn’t very exciting.  Soup is usually my favorite thing and I have been making it since I was a kid. You can’t mess up soup, or so they say.  This winter has been slowly killing me. As I have surely moaned about in the past my house has little to no heat in the main room so when it is cold there is nothing to do but get in a pile with a bunch of beagles and hope for winter to end.

I thought I would take a journey to a time I can’t hardly even remember… summertime

Remember tomatoes when they are just ripe and pick them off the plant? They are still warm from being out in the sun and you pop them in your mouth and think about the perfection of life.

This tofu scramble was one of the best I ever made because the yellow tomatoes were perfectly fresh. What a difference a good tomato makes.

I made the pico to go alongside Panuchos last Cinco de Mayo. Remember eating outside and actually want to spend time outside and not just passing through it on the way from one destination to the next. I love eating outside when it is so hot that you can’t deal with even warming up a burner. These panuchos were stuffed with beans, fried and topped with marinated limes and chorizo.

Remember grilling and eating corn on the cob outside. 

I miss going to the farmer’s market and just picking out whatever looks good and making simple food like this pasta that used the beets and the greens. Sure the farmer’s market is open during the winter but how am I supposed to leave my house in a time like this? How do you people in Vermont do it? Over the weekend I went to a few bars because I had to get out to see foot patrol. We were on a mission to find a warm bar. Then I kept asking the bartenders if they had any hot drinks, like a hot toddy or something. 2 different bartenders told me that they would give me hot tap water! That is how lost people are in Austin when it comes to “warm-ups” we are all about the “cool downs” it broke into the 70s briefly last week and my friend and I ran off to Opal Divine’s happy hour to drink margaritas. I was so sure winter was over. I thought I would soon be enjoying michelada’s instead of eating dinner.

And Batido’s with brunchRemember waking up in the morning and it already being really bright out and you have more eggplants and okra than you know what to do withand spending the weekend at the swimmin’ hole

What do you miss the most about summer?

The Bake Sale was a Success!

We had such good turnout for the bake sale on Sunday at Ten Thousand Villages to benefit Food For Life’s work in Haiti. There was Red Velvet Cupcakes Oatmeal Cream Pies, German Chocolate Cupcakes, Chewy Chocolate Cherry Cookies, Magic Cookie Bars, Thyme Spiced Nuts, Rice Krispie Treats

Pistachio Rosewater Cupcakes

And the donuts that I madeand there was tons of other stuff, It just kept coming in all day.

Arthur was overwhelmed with the decisions

Molly from Scratch and Sniff also got on News 8 Austin!

Everyone raved about the baked goods, actually my friends were still talking about what they ate just this morning. In the end we still had stuff leftover that Jessica took to Food Not Bombs who was feeding people in the park.

The best part is that we raised enough money to feed 2880 Haitians a healthy vegan meal.

Here is Sarah, who did such a great job making all the posters, with the checks for Food For Life

I was thinking that maybe we could have another one over SXSW! Let me know if you are interested

Thanks to everyone who helped and who bought something!!!!!!!!!!

Austin Vegan Bakesale Recipe Round-up

Mmmm doughnuts.....

This Sunday, January 24th, we are having a bake sale to raise money for victims of the earthquakes in Haiti at Ten Thousand Villages on South Congress from noon to 4 pm. I am thinking about making doughnuts. A lot of non vegans are a little mystified about what to make so I thought I would share some recipes that I have had success with. I am more of a savory cook but I enjoy baking too…. well eating baked goods anyway. Unlike my regular cooking I try to follow a recipe as close as possible so I use some of my favorite blogs and cookbooks.

Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World is a terrific little book with tons of ideas and recipes with lots of baking advice if you are interested in a book you can pick it up at almost any bookseller in town. I have made the Mexican Hot Chocolate, Mucho Margareta, Chai Tea, Chocolate, Apple Spice, Jelly Donut, Green Tea and who knows how many other cupcakes. The Earl Grey variation that we made for the Star Trek feast has been my favorite so far!

Mr. Smurf is kind of a cookie fanatic and he makes these chocolate chip cookies from the PPK blog all the time. They are delicious, easy, and use mostly ingredients that you probably have around. Over the holidays I became obsessed with these mint chocolate chip cookies from Readymade magazine. The recipe yielded a ton and at least one person said they were the best cookies that he ever had! I made lots of cookies and one of my personaly favorites was these chocolate chocolate cookies with peanut butter insides. My friend said they tasted like something you find at a bakery! The recipe was from the fantastic “Cakemaker to the Stars” where the wonderful kittie has tons of great recipes and advice. I have made the buckeyes and the peanut butter filled whoopie pies which would be a GREAT recipe to try because my friends will pay serious money to eat those whoopie pies!

Another fantastic recipe that I just adore is the Triple Chocolate Chip Brownie. This recipe has some pricey ingredients but a spicy, gooey, chocolate brownie is really something to sing about.

Another great source of recipes are the Cupcake Punk, especially if you like really creative baking recipes with alcohol! And many are gluten free! I really want to try her Cheesecake Bites, Kahlua Cream Cheese Swirl Brownies, and  Chocolate Espresso Cake. Finally, a great online resource is the Bittersweet Blog. The author Hannah Kaminsky has a book as well called My Sweet Vegan. Her blog has tons of great look recipes like Cinnamon Buns, Zucchini Babka, and even dog biscuits, you don’t want to leave the pups out! Mmm bake sale….

The Freakin Vegan at Taco Deli

I love Taco Deli. It is one of those places that I regretfully didn’t try for a long time. We take our dogs to the Spyglass greenbelt access point sometimes and I had seen Taco deli for years but I didn’t stop in until a couple years ago and then I was soon hooked. The whole place has kind of  a summer camp at a strip mall kind of feel to me. Maybe because we sometimes hike there but also because there are tons of trees around it and on summer days everyone is sitting outside looking active and happy with their dogs.

today was not a summer day

I noticed the breakfast tacos seemingly everywhere around town but they were always eggs, bacon, & cheese so I didn’t think that they would have a lot for me. I couldn’t have been more wrong! Taco Deli is one of the most veg friendly taco joints in Austin.  They have 5 vegetarian tacos on the menu and most can be easily veganized. The black beans are vegan so you can choose the Frontera Fundido Portabella (no cheese) it comes with roasted poblanos, sautéed peppers, and onion strips or the Florentino which comes with sautéed spinach, mushrooms, and peppers or the Veggie Taco which is their veggie mix of shredded cabbage, carrots,  zuchini, mushrooms, peppers, celery, and onions sautéed in olive oil and sherry. They also use the veggie mix in the burrito and the tortas.

The most fun part is that they have a secret vegan taco. I heard from someone somewhere that  this off menu item is called “The Freakin Vegan” and now this is what I typically order. At first I was a little hesitant. What if I ordered the freakin vegan and they looked at me like I was just making shit up? So far, that has never happened so I happily get my black bean, avocado, verde sauce, and pico taco on a corn tortilla.

I also highly recommend the chips and guacamole. You get a ton of chips for only a few dollars with some of my favorite guac in town.  You can also get rice, beans, guac, or roasted peppers with any order. I wish that every place had the options of Taco Deli. They really only have two things that I wish I could change. One disappointment is that they don’t use tofu, tempeh, or seitan which, for me,  is kind of sad. The non-vegan menu is really creative and I think it would be so easy to sub fake chicken or pressed tofu in any of the chicken tacos with fantastic results. Also, they close at three every day and that can be pretty early for us to make it there on the weekend but that isn’t really a problem since most people aren’t that lazy. So the next time you sleep over at your favorite south Austinite’s house and you are cruising up mopac stop in for a taco. Studies have shown that it only takes 5 minutes and your happiness factor will enlarge by approximately 67 percent. And 67 percent isn’t the kind of number that you can laugh off.

Carribean Breakfast: Gallo Pinto, Tostones, and Tofu Scramble

It has been so cold here that people have taken to wearing ski masks. The local news shows people frantically buying earmuffs and warning parents that this is the coldest their children have ever seen. If you live somewhere where it snows we Austinites look pretty ridiculous in the winter. The threat of snowfall consumes news coverage for a week ahead of time and the eventual hint of snow flurries sends children running outside to try to make snowmen.

I have a hard time dealing with the cold. My main problem is that my house was not built with winter in mind. Floor to ceiling, poorly constructed windows make all the walls let cold air in and you can feel a breeze in the living room. The beagles can’t stand it either. They get excited to put on their sweaters and they spend a great part of the day under covers cuddled with each other and us. If you sit down in my house you will have a beagle next to you within a minute, cuddled up. The only way I could get out of my warmer bedroom over the weekend was to remember this time last year when we were in Costa Rica. We would have Gallo Pinto for breakfast every morning, usually with a side of plantains. I usually either bake plantains or cut them into long pieces and pan fry them but this morning I decided to try to make tostones. First you cut the plantains into circles and fry them.Then you smash them flat. I used a tortilla press because I could do several at once.

unsmashed

smashed

Then you fry them a second time. They were really good but they didn’t turn out perfect. I am having a lot of trouble with my stove so I am going to blame technical difficulties since I couldn’t get the oil hot enough. They were really yummy.

I was out of coriander so I made the gallo pinto a  little different from my usual recipe. I used a little bit of allspice and some ginger and cayenne. It was delicious! I also tried a baked tofu recipe that my friend Wes came up with. I loved the shake & bake method for tofu scramble, it was ridiculously easy and tasty. I think I will make my spice mix next time because there was a little too much cumin for my taste. Finally I made a yogurt cream sauce to go on top of everything. I blended yogurt, cilantro, and lime together then added a little bit of asafetida. I loved it! If you are feeling beaten down by the weather I completely recommend this spread. Caribbean Breakfast makes everything better.Pura Vida!

Staying Alive

At the first sign of illness my instinct is to completely panic. Luckily, those who know me know this well and are good a providing calming influences. After flying on planes, dramatic changes in weather, and a lot of stress I started to succumb to flu-like symptoms earlier this week. I talked to my friend who is extremely knowledgeable in health and she gave me some tips.

1) Don’t Panic! Take a deep breath. Get some cozy clothes and blankets, have Mr. Smurf make you soup with lots of ginger and garlic

2) NO SUGAR & NO CAFFINE & no dairy (the latter one is easy!)

3) Drink Ridiculous Amounts of Water

4) Strong Herbal Tea

4) Herbs. My problems were in my lungs so Sandra recomended Elecampagne, a lung compound tincture like Lung Eazy, a formula called “wellness formula” it comes in capsules and liquid it WORKS, and “wild cherry bark, elderberry” cough syrup if the cough gets worse.

5) Get lots of sleep

I love it when people tell me to get lots of sleep. It is just the excuse I need to spend a day in bed watching James Franco on General Hospital and asking Mr. Smurf to bring me things. He really outdid himself with the miso noodle soup on a smurf tray, with a smurf glass! So far I haven’t gotten really sick and I think it is because everyone is taking such good care of me.

Welcome to Miami – a vegan on the beach

It took awhile for me to fall in love with Miami. I had some initial trouble finding internet sources from my usual haunts for good eating besides the Happy Cow (which I made a map from), so I was kind of on my own. Plus, I was traveling with all non-vegans and no car, staying by the airport (don’t do it!), and had shows to go to every night in downtown Miami so time for hunting down restaurants was extremely limited. After I returned I did find a great website, Meatless Miami, so check it out if you are traveling to south Florida. I learned some valuable lessons that I thought I would share.

The Airport District

Lesson 1: Call ahead. Especially if you don’t have a car and it is the holidays.

The first day I tried to go to the Prana Health Store to have lunch and pick up supplies. They were closed for new years!  We checked out every other place in the strip mall but all the Cuban and Peruvian places were veg-free so we got stuck with Chinese food, lucky for us the server was incredibly friendly and gave me the low down on the best vegan dish. It was really good and of course I don’t know the name, it wasn’t the ma pa tofu. After we finished eating Mr. Smurf checked out the bus situation while I happily digested and wrapped up my leftovers. Suddenly, he came running in saying we had to go right now to catch the bus or wait an hour for the next one! We ran down the street to see the bus waiting ahead of us but we couldn’t make it on time. For an hour I sat on the dustiest most industrial road you ever saw in your life, across the street from a prison waiting for the bus to come. Qué lástima!

The day got much better as it went on, though, and later that night everyone had veggie burritos in a parking lot.

Little Havana

Lesson 2: Don’t be afraid to look ridiculous

After accidentally sleeping until 2 pm the next day we were off to a Cuban restaurant recommended to me by a friend in Little Havana called La Carretas. I made a plate from the sides and I had more plantains than ever before in my life! They also had yellow rice with no meat and mashed yucca. Unfortunately, I ate way too much and then we decided to walk ~50 blocks to downtown.

At first, walking through Little Havana was really fun. In Cuba the symbol of the rooster is significant so all over little Havana they have giant cocks decorated differently. We took lots of pictures for cock tour 2009. I made a very bad decision to dress for the show instead of the walk so I was wearing poor (but cute & vegan) walking shoes and a very light dress. I was really cold so we slipped into a Cuban store to find a sweatshirt. Instead I found a blanket with the Cuban flag that I draped around me for the rest of the walk. I felt a little silly walking but at the end of the night the cab driver totally gave us a huge discount because we had the flag! Which reminds me that in Miami the buses do not run late so plan accordingly.

South Beach

Lesson 3: Be open-minded

The next day the boys went to play disc golf while Amanda and I went to  meet with our friend Trisha at her better hotel on South Beach. It was called the Starlight and it was practically on the beach. I didn’t think that South Beach would have much for a person like me but it turned out that I really liked it. The art deco is a lot of fun, the beach was beautiful and Caribbean blue, there are people from all over the world staying there and it didn’t seem overly cheesy like everywhere else I have been to in Florida. We even found an Indian store on Hispanola street that we loved filled with really inexpensive beautiful dresses. It was amazing and totally unexpected.

There was a lot to laugh about as well, like the slam-tight leggings painted to look like designer eurotrash jeans and a lot of the mannequins with really big boobs. We also saw a lot of really tiny dogs that appeared to be used as Paris Hilton-style accessories. I almost cried looking at the baby puppies in an all pink pet store because I felt so sorry for them and angry at their situation and simultaneously completely overwhelmed by their excessive cuteness.

We ate a Peruvian restaurant that I didn’t get the name of. They didn’t speak much English but assured me that tallarines verdes was free of animal products. I later looked into it and it seems that there are indeed vegan versions of the Peruvian dish although I don’t think mine was. Basically you cook onions and garlic with basil and spinach and then blend so it is like a cooked pesto. I want to try to make it when basil is plentiful later this year because I liked it more than regular pesto. I also got a pineapple batido with water and felt like I left the United States was far behind.

Little Hati

Lesson 4 Ital is Vital

Everything got better each day we were in Miami, the food, the weather, the concerts; so it was no surprise that New Year’s Eve Day was, without a doubt, the best day of the trip. By this time we had the bus system totally figured out and I convinced everyone to ride out to Little Hati to check out an all vegan Rastafarian place called the Garden of Eatin’. This is the kind of place that I dream of finding on vacation. It was tucked away behind another building with little kids playing soccer in the parking lot. We had two choices, vegan chicken or jerk tofu with sides and that was it.

I opted for the curry vegan chicken with the vegetables and the rice & peas. The inside was a little small and dark. I asked if they had any outdoor seating since it was gorgeous outside and they immediately set up a table outside for us which was very friendly. The food was unbelievable. For such a small amount of money you get a gigantic portion of glorious vegan food that makes me want to move to the Caribbean. The curry chicken had amazing flavors and wasn’t too hot but there was a really spicy chunky salsa type sauce that you could add to punch it up if you were so inclined. I just needed the tiniest bit and it spiced everything. The vegetables were a mix of cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, and onions and were delicious. I wish I could eat it again every day. I read that they sometimes have fried Jamaican patties and other fun items as well that I wish I got to try. The Jerk Tofu was good too and Mr. Smurf also had the kidney beans which were just fantastic and I wished I could eat them all.

After we left the Garden we ended up walking through Little Hati since it was such a beautiful day. We went into quite a few different shops and it was like another world. I read that in Hati the slaves used the Christian symbols to practice voodoo undercover and it is really interesting to see the two melded together. We went into shops that were filled with bottles of herbs with handwritten labels. Everyone was so friendly and the barter system was very much alive.

After the walk we took the bus (we finally learned about the all day pass) back to South Beach for some final 2009 beach time. One thing that I didn’t know about Miami before is that there are no open container laws and the bars never close. Unless it is happy hour is really expensive to get drinks at the bar (although you can barter and find deals) so it is cheapest to buy your supplies and take them with you. We made bloody mary’s and met up with friends on the beach just as things were starting to really rage on South Beach.

And then we took off for the last show of the New Year’s run. In a lot of ways it was the perfect trip. I love Miami and I hope to go back for future New Years’ now that I have the whole transportation and where to stay thing all figured out. There is still so much to see and I can’t wait to go back.               .

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Happy New Year!

a merry little christmas

I stayed in Austin for American Christmas this year. Mr. Smurf said he used to be really good at wrapping presents but then somehow lost the ability.

We started the day with a cuddle puddle. I am under there.Dinger inspected the groceries to make sure everything was vegan.I made a ton of Indian food starting with Khandvi so we would have something to snack onI popped more spices and made more mixtures than ever in my life.I cut cauliflower and was reminded of this picture I saw of a human brain

The dogs napped together

I battered and deep-fried bananas and peppers but not banana peppers

and I set them in front of Ganseha who is known as a fan of deep fried goodness and feasting in general

and we ate a ton of food and will end the day with another session of hugs.

Happy Holidays!

Peace on Earth, Goodwill to men

This is one of my most favorite Christmas movies, it is pretty short but beautiful. Enjoy: