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 generalI kissed a beagle

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

Happy Holidays!

Happy Save a Turkey Day!

Last year I asked one of my co-workers if she wanted to go in on saving a turkey together from Farm Sanctuary’s Adopt a Turkey program. While I was telling her about it another coworker overheard and said he would participate too. The next thing I new we started taking donations and saved three turkeys! This year, with the tiniest bit of organization, we raised a hundred and fifty dollars for Farm Sanctuary! Enough to save a whole flock! I am so excited because it has gotten everyone talking about turkeys and how great they are and the horrible things that happen to them in evil factory farms. And I have learned that I work with some really wonderful people. This morning I saw that farm sanctuary rescued some baby turkeys and they are omg adorable.

In other cute animal news I wanted to tell you a story about our dogs.Dinger, on the right in the charming baby blue sweater, has been sick for the last month. We had to change his food to prescription dog food that is very expensive. Willow, on the left, loves Dinger more than anyone in the world. She is just crazy about him, but she is very jealous of his special food, even though she has always been perfectly happy before with her dog food. In the past, she would always wait until Dinger had eaten before she ate. If she came near him he would growl and she would sit behind him looking adoringly at him until she got permission.

Since he got the new food she has become totally desperate for it. When we first switched him she went on a hunger strike for a couple days. She went back to eating her own food but occasionally got into his food and wolfed it down psychotically. And I mean totally crazy like a starving dog on the street, not at all like a pampered, sweater-wearing, bed-sleeping, full-bellied house beagle that she is. Dinger has been watching her recent exploits with what appeared to be very little interest until a few days ago.

We noticed that now, when he gets his bowl of food, before he starts to eat, he puts a few pieces of food in his mouth and carries them over to Willow. He drops them on the floor and then goes back to finish his meal. Can you believe that? He knows that she wants the food so bad but we won’t let her have any so he gives her a little treat. They love each other!

And on that note, Happy Thanksgiving even if you are not American. I am so thankful for good people and good dogs in my life.

Herbivore Clothing Company

When I was in Portland a few weeks ago I got to go to the vegan stip mall. It is always so weird to go to places that are entirely vegan because you are so used to asking questions all the time (there isn’t any cheese on there, right? Can you tell me if these shoes are made of leather?) and then you go to an all vegan place and it kind of blows your mind. You still want to ask the people working there a bunch of questions and they generally sigh and say yes, it’s vegan, everything here is vegan, and then feel silly. Going to a strip mall where every store is vegan was even harder to wrap my head around and I didn’t really trust it but it is true! It was fun to get soy curls and look around at Food Fight and I loved everything I got at Sweet Pea Bakery but Herbivore was the coolest shop for me because they appeared to have every vegan cookbook and zine ever made. I wanted to buy everything! Damnit I don’t need any more cookbooks! Today they are donating a percentage of their profits to good causes so if you haven’t bought anything from there now is the time to do it! I think I am finally going to get Yellow Rose Recipes.and I really want this walletand I am veery curious about the book “A Vegan Taste of Eastern Europe” but I can’t find any reviews! So if someone has it let me know….

Christmas Presents!

So I thought I would share some things on my wish list so that people searching around the internet with the question of what to get the vegan foodie in their life. My wish list is an ongoing list that I use whenever I have the urge to buy something, I put it on the list and then hope I get it from someone for Christmas. I go through it every so often and weed out the stuff that I don’t want any more. It is like clearing out the clutter without actually having anything. Virtual Clutter. Hopefully, none of these items will become clutter.

First, lets admire this shiny red lunch pail

I like it because it is not plastic, has a spot for silverware and has multiple containers while being the perfect container for soup. I have a bento box most of the time but it doesn’t work for soup.

Another Japanese item that I looked through at Book People was this book

called Japanese Foods That Heal, I have been having some imbalances in my system and learning all about miso and other Japanese fermented foods seems like a good idea since they are some of the healthiest people on the planet.

I wouldn’t mind a cool Japanese style teapot or plates either, I love that style

I love reading cookbooks and making new recipes and these are some that have been on my list, used books are always appreciated!

Get It Ripe

I love cute kitchen toys like this spoon

or different fun timers. You can never have too many timers, they are really a life saver when you have 10 things going on at once

But the kitchen toy I have coveted the longest is the R2-D2 Peppermill

A new stock pot would be really nice since someone burned the beans in my old one, we are lucky everyone made it out alive.

I would also love one of these butcher’s blocks even though all I really butcher is coconuts and squash. I would love a good one preferably made from something like bamboo.

Finally, I am interested in this hand blender from  Bruan. I really like it because it is 400 watts and it has an attachment for whipping things. Since I don’t have any beaters I thought this attachement might be pretty hand and it got good reviews.

Jubelale!

I went to school in Olympia Washington where we were blessed with many different wonderful kinds of beer from organic microbrews to my favorite shwag beer, Oly (its the water)

Here in Texas the beer isn’t as exciting, although Lone Star is the national beer of Texas more often than not we go with PBR (hey its vegan & cheap). Recently I was shocked to find that the Live Oak Market right down the street started carrying beer from Deshutes Brewery in Oregon. It is so exciting to see the Black Butte Porter and Mirror Pond Ale on the shelf again. Ah, simpler times. Even more exciting than that is that since it is almost Xmas we get the seasonal brew Jubelale (yes it is vegan).

We first came across it on election and night and now I will always associate this festive winter ale with Barack Obama and the night that I learned to stop being afraid of Republican domination of the country. This beer is so great, spicy and peppery without being so intense that you can’t drink it. It is almost creamy but is still very drinkable. I love it! The website says they have it in Austin and Dallas now.

Original Recipe Seitan

The polenta is leftover from when I made it a week ago. I sauteed carrots & leeks and then at right before serving mixed in the spinach and some tarrago. The gravy is the Punk Rock Gravy from Vegan with a Vengence and the seitan is from Kentucky Fried Chicken. Just kidding! I was trying to decide what to do with my last seitan cutlets and googling chicken recipes and I came up with the spice mixture from KFC’s original recipe, it sounded good and I had everything so I tried it. We both liked it a lot although it wasn’t as good as Wheatsville Co-ops! Here is the spice mix:

3 cups sifted flour
1 teaspoon paprika
2 teaspoon garlic salt
2 teaspoons onion salt
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried rubbed sage
1/2 teaspoon dried powdered rosemary
1/2 teaspoon dried powdered thyme
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper

It was really easy to mix and very similar spices to the Punk Rock Gravy so it was easy to make them together and pull together this recipe.

You know you are a vegan when….

You have 10 different recipes for mac and cheese and not one of them contains cheese! I feel like I make this dish all the time and I think at the point I like the vegan versions better. The first couple I tried tasted mostly of nutirtional yeast and I had to cover them in BBQ sauce to eat them but lately I have had several different versions that are wildly different and yet all satiate me when I want something creamy and startchy.

Although my favorite is still the I made a couple weeks ago and is a combination of the cashew ricotta from the Veganomicon and the Grilled Cheeze from the Uncheese book I really like this version from Veg News mac&cheese. The interesting aspect here that drew me to the recipe was the fact that nooch wasn’t subbing for the cheese, instead it got is creamyness from potatoes and cashews, its color from carrots, and its flavor from spices, shallots, and garlic.

I also finally found some Panko Breadcrumbs at central market and though they were expensive I bought them and then decided to bread my seitan cutlets with them similar to this recipe from Vegan Dad. I made this meal because my Dan really wanted fast food and when I was done he agreed that this was much much better.

Adopt a Turkey

Today at the office I was perusing a couple vegan blogs (on my break of course) and I came across this post about adopting Turkeys at the Urban Vegan. I asked one of my vegetarian coworkers if she wanted to go in on adopting a turkey together and the next thing I knew random people were donating money, looking at pictures of turkeys and talking about animal cruelty. We put up a bunch of posters in the office and are now collecting to save as many turkeys as possible. It is really exciting!

You can go to the farm sanctuary website and adopt one too! It is amazing how once people learn how turkeys are treated they really want to help!

Stuffed Sweet Dumpling

Did you ever want to just eat stuffing for dinner? Was there a time when you cracked open a squash and said “Where is the stuffin’ in my dumplin” well if so folks I have the meal for you. The Wild Rice & Pecan Stuffed Sweet Dumpling Squash. I think this could even be a good Thanksgiving or Christmas meal with some gravy and a cranberry dish. I was worried that it would be dry but I ended up just stuffing the squash not roasting it all when it was done. Mostly, because I was hungry and the squash was already cooked.

Recipe

2 Sweet Dumpling Squashes (or any other similarly sized squashes)
1 cup of uncooked wild rice
1 medium onion, chopped
1 leek, chopped,
2 ribs of celery, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 small apples, chopped
1/2 cup of pecans, chopped or crushed
1/2 cup of broth
1 TBSP fresh sage, finely chopped
1 TBSP fresh parsley
1 tsp rosemary
.5 tsp thyme
1 tsp marjoram
salt and pepper

First, bring the wild rice to a boil on the stove with 2 cups of water, reduce to heat to low and cover once it starts boiling. Next, cut around the stem of the squash in the same way you cut off the top of a jack-o-lantern. Remove the seeds and the stringy flesh and put the tops loosely back and place in the microwave. Heat on high for 7 minutes, rotate and flip, and microwave another 7-9 minutes. (If you don’t microwave you could also roast the squash in the oven for an hour or so). Meanwhile, heat olive oil or margarine in a large saute pan to medium high heat. Start sauteing the onion, leek, celery, and carrot until the squash is done (about 10 minutes). Open the squashes and remove as much flesh as possible with a spoon or knife without puncturing the outside. Chop the freed squashes into pieces and add to the pan. Add the apples and pecans and some broth to deglaze the pan. After apples are cooked through and starting to soften add the herbs, stir well but carefully and then add the drained wild rice. Salt and Pepper to taste. Stuff mixture into the squash and Enjoy!

Pecan Crusted Seitan Cutlet with Balsamic Glazed Carrots & Brussel Sprouts

One of my favorite restaurants in town is called Threadgill’s. It is this really old southern style comfort food place that is famous because Janis Joplin and others got their start there. I love it because they actually mark their vegan options on the menu which is very unusual for these southern-style places. Usually they go out of their way to add bacon or lard to every vegetable side dish. In my pregen days my favorite entree to order was the pecan encrusted chicken with brussels sprouts and candied yams. The other great part about Threadgills is that they have free refils on sides. How absurd is that!

Anyway, I decided that my seitan cutlets needed to be pecan crusted so I mixed some ground flax seeds with almond milk in one dish and chopped pecans, paprika, and minced garlic in another dish. The flax bath adhered to the cutlets really well, better than anything else I have tried and the pecan mix mostly stayed attached.Meanwhile, I had been sauteeing some baby carrots in eath balance on another burner. When it was time to panfry the seitan cutlets I moved the carrots to another saucepan with balsamic and brown sugar and placed the halved brussels sprouts face down in the remaining margarine and let them carmelize. Everything finished up 10 minutes later, I topped the carrots with chives from the backyard. The meal was truly delcious. I think I really captured Threadgills spirit. The seitan came out just perfect and the sprouts were ncie and carmelized.