Apple Pie

Jane has always loved to bake. And I have always loved eating her baked goods. Times have been lean since eggs and butter are out of the picture, but today when I got home I was greeted by a heavenly aroma wafting out of the kitchen. I sniffed my way in, and what did my eyes behold but apple pie. Yay! Apple pie for dessert.

Alas, it was not to be. Jane made that pie for a party we are attending tomorrow night. No matter how much I tried to prevail upon her that we should have a slice to see if the crust came out good enough to bring with us, she wouldn't give in. I guess the thought of having to bake another pie tomorrow didn't really excite her as much as it did me.

Anyway, I'm certainly going to have some tomorrow night and I'm sure it will be great!

It's the Holiday Season....

OK, I'll admit it. I'm one of those guys you used to see frantically shopping on Christmas eve. I wasn't out there trying to get the perfect gift... I was just trying to get any gift. Jane has finally beaten it into my head that "Christmas is Coming." It doesn't matter what time of the year it is, Christmas is always coming.

My wife is always looking for gifts to give. But she's not one of those people who just give gifts for any occasion. She'll hang on to the thing until a birthday or Christmas comes along. Her life is far less stressful that way. And now mine is too.

It's early December, so guess what's around the corner?

So this year, for the third year in a row, I am looking ahead. I'm thinking Jane needs to have a new cookbook, specifically The Joy of Vegan Baking: The Compassionate Cooks' Traditional Treats and Sinful Sweets. But will this be a gift for her, or for me? ;-)

Fruit Baskets

It's that time of year again. I often get food baskets at work during the holidays as I deal with a number of vendors at work. Since Jane and I don't drink much, and hardly ever drink wine, this is a much more considerate gift. Unfortunately, most of these baskets are geared to the non-vegan. Yesterday I received a lovely basket with lots of milk-chocolate products, which I "shared" with my co-workers, much to Jane's dismay.

I got a fruit basket yesterday. Finally, a gift I could enjoy! The fruit isn't anywhere near as good as what we pick up at our local farmer's market. But that doesn't mean we're not going to eat it! (Mom would be so happy to hear that!) Anyway, it is the thought that counts.

The basket itself was beautiful, and it was an interesting composition. There was a half of a small watermelon, a pineapple, a bunch of globe grapes and some kiwi and pomegranate. I must admit, I've never seen anything like that before. Jane cut up the fruit and made us fruit salad which we'll have for dessert the next few nights. The kiwi and pomegranate will make nice additions to our dinner salad.

Season's Eatings

Thanksgiving is all about traditions. This was our 10th Thanksgiving together. Our first holiday together was Thanksgiving. For us, it has become a day we recommit to our relationship. As part of our tradition, we have our dinner alone, followed by dessert with our relatives. So this way we have the best of both worlds.

This year we had our first Vegan Thanksgiving. If you've been reading along with us, you've probably heard me whining about not having turkey this year. Well, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Certainly, we missed the turkey, but the Tofurky was a passable alternative. The dinner was very good. Our menu consisted of the following:

• Tofurky Roast and Gravy
• Stuffing
• Homemade Cranberry Sauce
• Mashed Yams
• Cumin Braised Brussels Sprouts
• Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage
• Salad: Mixed Baby Greens with Kiwi and Cranberry

And for dessert:

• Apple Pie
• Pumpkin Pecan Cranberry Cookies

Our traditional (non-vegan) Thanksgiving was pretty much the same. Obviously we had turkey instead of Tofurky. Also, Jane used to make mashed cauliflower instead of the yams, but since that dish requires copious amounts of butter and cream, Jane opted not to try to "veganize" it. She also skipped the onion pie entirely, as that calls for eggs and milk to bind everything together, and she was concerned that the taste would be "off" if she used one of the available alternatives. The rest of the dishes were all our regulars sans the dairy products.

So how was our Thanksgiving in comparison to the previous years? Our side dishes were stellar. If you didn't know they were "veganized, " it's highly unlikely that you would even notice. The mashed yams were a nice addition to the plate. Jane used a little soy milk and spiced them with garam masala and sea salt. They tasted like Thanksgiving!

Cooking the Tofurky was interesting. Since I usually took care of the bird in the past, Jane suggested I prepare the roast this year. When we took the product out of the box, we were struck by how small it was. And getting it out of the casing it was wrapped in proved to be quite the challenge. Really, they could make that a lot easier! But the preparation was easy enough. You put the Tofurky in a pan with some root vegetables and pour an olive oil sage mix over everything and into the oven it goes. Jane and I joked that I was making a baste-free bird, since you plop it in the oven and don't touch it again until 10 minutes before it's done.

It smelled like turkey. But it didn't taste like turkey, and we both missed our turkey. However, it's certainly edible, and much easier to prepare and clean up after than a roast turkey, and we wound up with about six servings instead of the four they suggest on the box. So, we'll do it again next year. By then our taste buds should have completely acclimated to the vegan life!

For dessert, Jane made the apple pie and pumpkin cookies I mentioned above. Of course they were prepared using vegan recipes. Our hosts also had pumpkin and pecan pies which looked delicious, but weren't vegan. As a side note, when being served my pie, I was offered the option of whipped cream. My response, "no thanks Maria, whipped cream isn't vegan."

And now it's time for some leftovers. Yum!

Ingredient

This is a can of pumpkin, and if you click on the photo to the left, you can see the ingredient list reads:

Ingredient: Pumpkin

I don't know why, but that struck me as hilarious. It's not often you buy something processed that consists of only one ingredient. The other pumpkin cans I've seen hanging around the grocery store shelves have multiple ingredients. I know Jane is planning on making a pumpkin pie with this, and she said something about pumpkin biscotti (using this recipe).

For an egg replacer (to make the biscotti vegan), Jane found the advice below at this website

• Flax seed egg replacer is the best overall egg replacer for baked goods around. It adds to the lift and contributes to a texture like that created by eggs in quick breads and cookies.

  Whole flax seeds can be purchased in natural foods stores. Grind them in a spice or coffee grinder to a powdery meal. Use a blender if you don’t have a spice grinder for this.

  To make the egg replacer, use 1 Tablespoon ground flax seeds to 3 Tablespoons water for each egg to be replaced. Whip flax seeds and water together with a hand blender or in a blender until frothy. It’s easier to blend enough for at least four eggs—3/4 cup water to 1/4 cup flax seeds. Replace up to four eggs with this mixture. You can store extra egg replacer in the refrigerator for one week.

I'll let you know how this all turns out! I'm hoping she'll pre-test it tomorrow, but she's a little consumed with the idea of a vegan Thanksgiving these days, and I don't want to push my luck!

I guess you could use the canned pumpkin for just about anything; it certainly looks like it would make squash soup a lot easier to make. I never understand having to roast the cut pumpkin for over 30 minutes. If you're boiling the pumpkin anyway... I'm not a cook, so feel free to ignore that comment.

Anyway, Thanksgiving is coming. As I mentioned yesterday, it's going to be our first vegan Thanksgiving. I'm hoping it's a good one.

Fudgey - The Dessert

No, it's not related to Fudgey the Whale (a Carvel ice cream cake in the shape of a whale, for those of you who haven't heard of Fudgey the Whale).

Fudgey is "a bundt chocolate layered cake with a dark chocolate, coconut and pecan frosting... and it's vegan." It claims to serve two, but as a dessert, it can easily serve four, or one, depending on how hungry you are and your love of chocolate.

So far, this is the ONLY baked vegan dessert we've tried that's truly worth eating. We've had other things that are passable, but this one tastes great. Our only complaint, there could be a bit more soft-chocolate filling.

Fudgey can be found at Fatty's restaurant in Eagle Rock.

I've got my baker back!

I've been missing Jane's baking. It's not like she baked something every week, but she baked occasionally, and she baked really well. Her coffeecake and strawberry shortcake are some of my favorites, along with apple pie and berry pie. Or her cookies. I could wax poetic here, but I'll spare you all.

Anyway, I've been whining. I understand that learning how to cook vegan after cooking non-vegan for 20+ years is a bit of a challenge. And the baked goods we've tried eating out haven't been particularly inspiring.

So, I've been poking around a few message boards to see what other people are doing. And I got this recipe from one of them: Link Here

Jane made this version of muffins, and they were yummy. We ate the batch in 3 days. (That's two muffins per person per day -- and maybe Jane didn't have two muffins every day.)

Because of the conversion from British cooking to American, they weren't perfect. Jane is going to use a little less oil and sugar and more flour in her next go round. But yay, I've got my baker back!

Mocha Frappuccino -- Who Needs It?

So yesterday Jane brought me home the Silk Coffee flavored soy beverage. Yummy. It's like a Starbucks Mochaccino. Ok, I don't really know if it's like a Starbuck's Mochaccino, but it certainly makes a nice iced afternoon snack.

Jane's not fond of coffee, but she had a sip and decided it's not bad, not quite her cup of tea (pun intended), but quite drinkable.

It was hot here again, so we popped some into the blender with some ice cubes. Yummy. If you like coffee, I'd suggest this as a nice "adult" snack.

And, it's cheaper than anything you'd get at Starbuck's... not to mention vegan!

We All Scream for Ice Cream

We had a slew of 100+ days at the end of August, 10 straight! And when it's that hot out, all thoughts turn to ice cream. OK, maybe not all, but our sweet thoughts do turn to ice cream when it's that hot out.

Jane and I were relieved to find out the Double Rainbow Very Cherry Chip Soy Cream was vegan goodness. We'd often purchased that in our non-vegan days and enjoyed it. The chocolate chips are dark chocolate and contain no milk products. And it tastes like ice cream.

We bought to So Delicious Chocolate Velvet Frozen Dessert over the weekend and finally got around to trying it last night. This will definitely be a staple in our household. And, best of all, a serving size is half a cup, instead of the usual quarter cup!. It's not ice cream though, the texture is way different. It's more like a gelato. But we've got no issues with that.

Happy desserting!

Lane