Lime and ginger cordial and summer gimlets (cordial and cocktail recipe)

let's talk about cooking again, or to be more accurate, let's talk about cocktails.

My drink of choice has been a gin and tonic since I was an undergraduate. Over the past year however, I have become fond of the dragonfly which is gin, ginger ale and a squeeze of lime. Over the summer though while poking around for another delicious looking gin cocktail I came across the great gimlet debate.

I will admit I've never had a gimlet before but when I was reading over a list of gin cocktails it jumped out at me as sounding particularly tasty, and rather historical.

The debate around this particular old school cocktail however is whether you absolutely need to use Rose's sweetened lime juice. Mostly because according to some it tastes of the bottle it comes in plus the preservatives used to give it its shelf life. Some people recommended making your own lime sour and intrigued I started looking at recipes.

The winner of my afternoon's research was this recipe for lime and ginger cordial which can be used instead of Rose's to make a really, really delicious gimlet.

The recipe is simple and inexpensive, really, the most expensive part of the entire thing is the gin. 

One Saturday afternoon I went to my local Trader Joe's and came back with a whole lot of limes and a piece of ginger root and set about making some cordial.

I used:
10 limes
one 4 inch piece of ginger root
2 cups sugar

a vegetable peeler
a glass pitcher or canning jar with lid
a fine mess strainer
a food processor or blender
a cutting board
a pairing knife
a lemon juicer or small spoon
several small bowls

Scrub all your limes thoroughly.

Then peel all the limes with a vegetable peeler. The article says to be careful not to peel any of the while as well but I found it was actually easier just to peel the skin without gauging at the white so no problems there. put the peels in a bowl and set aside.

Then cut the limes in half and juice them. I used a spoon, but a juicer would be a much, much better idea. I got about 2 cups of lime juice out of them.

The article says to use a glass container with a lid. I have a glass pitcher with a lid my parents gave me for Christmas but a large canning jar would work just as well. 

Pour the lime juice into the jar and then crush the peels between your hands to release the oils and add them as well.

Next wash your piece of ginger, trimming off any bad spots, and put it in a food processor. The article says you don't need to peel it so I didn't and it turned out fine.  Pulse chop the ginger until it is ground finely and add that to the lime juice and peel.

Add the sugar a cup at a time, stirring until all the sugar has been dissolved. Because the liquid is cold this will take a while. I actually sat down and watched an episode of Miss Marple while I was stirring the sugar in. It will incorporate eventually though.

What you end up with will look like this:

Put into the refrigerator and let sit for 12 to 24 hours.

After it has sat use a fine mesh strainer and strain out all of the pulp and peels from the cordial. Put the liquid that remains back into the glass container and refrigerate again for another 12 to 24 hours.

At the end you will end up with this:

I had just about 2 cups of cordial when all was said and done.

You can use the cordial and mix it with seltzer water to make a delicious non-alcoholic drink  or you can used it as your base for an amazing gin gimlet.

For the gimlet I used:
2 shots gin
1 shot cordial
top it off with lime seltzer and a lime wheel (optional) 

Add two ice cubes, gin, and cordial to a cocktail shaker, shake well, and pour into cocktail glass. Add seltzer and lime wheel if you are so inclined and enjoy. I usually keep the ice cubes in the glass to keep my gimlet cold but that too is completely up to your preference.

Recipe: Virgin Piña Colada Vegan Cupcakes!

Summer weather came fast where I am.

One day I was scurrying back and forth between academic buildings in my woolen pea coat and scarf and the next I'm sweltering in my short sleeve buttons ups.

So today, as I was contemplating an afternoon of research and study, I thought a cool summer snack might be in order. I really wanted cupcakes but didn't have any eggs so I decided to go vegan and make some vegan cupcakes.


Thus the virgin piña colada vegan cupcake was born!

These little cuties are sweet, light and deliciously moist (insert your own dirty joke here). They are perfect for a particularly warm spring or summer day. Plus you can now share delicious cupcakes with all your vegan friends.

this recipes makes a dozen large cupcakes.

Cupcakes:
(Note: this vegan cupcake is based on the Post Punk Kitchen's vanilla vegan cupcake which you can find for free here)

ingredients:
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup coconut cream
1 tea apple cider vinegar
1 1/4 all purpose flour
2 TB cornstarch
3/4 tea baking powder
1/2 tea baking soda
1/4 tea salt
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 granulated sugar
1 tea spoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup frozen pineapple tidbits (or small one inch cubes of pineapple)
2TB lemon juice
1 tea lemon zest

Take a can of whole fat coconut milk and stick it in the fridge the day before making the cupcakes. Alternatively stick it in the freezer for an hour then stick it in the fridge for another hour then use. The chilling of the can of coconut separates the milk from the cream, if you get low-fat this won't work because they've already separated out some of the cream and usually also pasteurized it so it will not separate.

Preheat oven to 350 and put paper liners in cupcake pan and set aside.

When the coconut cream and milk have separated use a spoon to push through the cream to allow the milk to drain out of the can. I used Trader Joe's Coconut Cream: extra thick and got about 1/2 cup of coconut milk out of it, it may be more or less depending on the brand you use. Make up the rest of the cup in coconut cream (in my case another 1/2 cup). Put the rest of the cream in the fridge for later. Use a fork to beat the cream and milk back together but don't worry if it isn't completely smooth.

Pour the 1 cup coconut in a large mixing bowl and add vinegar, sugar and oil, beat the mixture together so there are no large lumps of anything.  Add flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda and cornstarch and mix gently, until everything is incorporated, don't over mix.  Add the pineapple pieces or tidbits and lemon juice and mix again gently. Add lemon zest and fold it gently into batter.

Grease a large soup spoon and place a generous spoonful of batter into each of the cupcake liners. If there is a little batter left top off the ones which need a little extra.

Bake for 20 minutes or until the cupcakes are golden brown. Take out of pan and place on wire rack and let cool completely before topping.


Topping:

ingredients:
1/4 cup pineapple tidbits
rest of the can of coconut cream
1/2 tea vanilla extract
Maraschino cherries (optional of garnish)

While cupcakes are cooling measure out 1/4 cup pineapple tidbits or pieces. If they are frozen stick them in the microwave or heat them in a small sauce pan to defrost. If you are really thinking a head measure them out before making the cupcakes and let them defrost while you cook.

Put the pineapple into the food processor and pulse chop until it resembles crushed pineapple. Add the rest of the can of coconut milk from the cupcakes plus the vanilla and pulse until everything is incorporated and relatively smooth (there will still be tiny flecks of pineapple giving it an attractive speckled look).

At this point the topping will be a little loose with a creamy mild taste. If it is not sweet enough for your taste adds some powdered sugar. Take out of the food processor and put back in the fridge which will thicken it as it chills.

(Note: if you really don't want these cupcakes to be virgin then you could probably add a splash of white rum to the topping. I haven't tried it though so I can't vouch for how it would turn out. )

When the cupcakes are room temperature top with a generous spoonful of the pineapple-coconut topping. If you like them (I don't) add a Maraschino cherry to the very top and enjoy!

My favorite ghost stories by Barbara Michaels and vegan pumpkin pudding

The weather is finally getting cooler out. I've been able to wear my obligatory sweater vests and long sleeve shirts without sweltering. Pumpkin flavored everything is hitting stores and I love it since pumpkin is one of my favorite flavors. My writings has also been taking on a spookier edge. I've been plotting out a gothic horror/Lovecraftian inspired story, while working an another dark retelling of Little Red Riding Hood.

Plus I have been looking forward to rereading something by one of my favorite authors of all time.
Back when I was growing up the only romance author my mother let in the house was  Barbara Mertz who writes as both Barbara Michaels and Elizabeth Peters (and also received a Ph.D. in Egyptology from the University of Chicago when she was only twenty three. Not that it is important to her life as a writer but the academic in my is mad jealous). As a Elizabeth Peters she writes murder mysteries with academic female characters and more then a splash of romance. As Barbara Michaels she write ghost stories, gothic horror and suspense also with a romantic subplot. I adore Elizabeth Peters' mystery stories but I really fell in love with the ghost stories she wrote as Barbara Michaels. 

My favorites are: 

 From the moment she arrived on King's Island, Joanne McMullen knew that her sister's grief over losing her child had driven her dangerously close to madness. But when Joanne heard the same child's voice that her sister had heard wailing in the woods, she knew something terrible was happening!

The Crying Child is just down right creepy. Barbara Michaels takes the classic set up of a ghostly child's cry and builds the suspense up and up and up. As always I enjoy how she combines a whole lot of historical detail even into one of her books with a modern setting. Always a creepy read.

 It is a find of inestimable value for Karen Holloway. The battered manuscript she holds in her hand—written in the nineteenth century and bearing the mysterious attribution "Ismene"—could prove a boon to the eager young English professor's career. But Karen's search for the author's true identity is carrying her into the gray shadows of the past, to places fraught with danger and terror. For the deeper she delves into Ismene's strange tale of gothic horror, the more she is haunted by the suspicion that the long-dead author was writing the truth . . . and that even now she is guiding Karen's investigation, leading her to terrible secrets hidden behind the cold walls of houses of stone. 

One of the things that I love about Barbara Mertz, no matter what name she write under, is that she often writes about women academics and when she does they always come across as real academics. Thus I've always enjoyed this book, Karen Holloway has the passion and the drive of any young up and coming academic and as an up and coming academic myself I can relate. I also found the suspense to be riveting and then the conclusion incredibly creepy. I actually just recently found out that many fans consider this one of her weaker books which I think is a shame because this is definitely one of my favorites.  

 For the guests at Ruth Bennet's fashionable Georgetwon home, the seance was just a playful diversion . . . until Ruth's niece Sara spoke in a deep guttural voice not her own . . . and the game became frighteningly real.. 

This is an old-fashioned ghost story with everything you could want, possession, seance, creepy old house. The book is set in the nineteen sixties which can make it a little hard to connect with if you go into it expecting it to be contemporary but definitely one of my favorites. The mystery is solid, the ghosts scary, plus there are some hilarious scenes to boot. Put in the same position I only hope I could handle a haunting as well as Ruth does.   

 

There are terrible secrets from generations past buried at Maidenwood. Medical student Julie Newcomb has returned to her family's decaying plantation—the site of so many painful childhood memories—to tend to her tyrannical grandmother, felled by a stroke. The fire of malevolence still burns in the cruel, despotic matriarch's eyes—yet, for Julie, a faint spark of redemption and second chances flickers in this hated, haunted place. But her hope—and her life—are seriously threatened by a nightmare reborn . . . and by the grim discovery on the lonely road to Maidenwood of the earth-browned skeletons of a mother and child.

This is a ghost story that deals with some darker real life subject matter as well. Set in a crumbling old plantation house, this is again one of my favorite Barbara Michaels books because it scares the hell out of me. The only reason this book isn't a favorite, favorite of my is because I felt the ending was a little rushed but delivered no less of an impact.

The house next door to Pat Robbins—eerily identical to the home Pat shares with her college-aged son, Mark—has been empty for years, the darkness within seeming to warn all to stay away. Now new tenants are moving in: affable Josef Friedrichs and his lovely daughter, Kathy, who has stolen Mark's heart on first glance. But something is not right—something old and secret lurking in the shadows that fresh paint and new furnishings cannot mask or exorcise. There is evil alive in the heart of the house next door—and it means to feed on the fears of two families . . . and drag Kathy Friedrichs with it into peril. 

This is another great and creepy ghost story, with a historical mystery that kept me at least guessing until the end. There are certain images from this book that have stuck with me the longest simply because of there understated scare factor. Gothic horror at it's best as far as I am concerned.

It should be noted for the record that the most recent of these books was written in the mid-nineties with Ammie, Come Home originally published in 1968 and all the rest falling somewhere in between. While I don't feel like that takes away from how good the ghost story is or how relatable the characters are don't expect these books to be contemporary to us any more. 


Finally, speaking of autumn treats here is a picture of the vegan pumpkin pudding I made this afternoon the recipe for which can be found here.

  I also topped it with coconut cream which I got by sticking a can of full fat coconut milk into the freezer for a hour or two and then in the refrigerator until I was ready to serve it. I then skimmed a couple good spoonfuls of cream off the top and sprinkled the whole thing with sugar and nutmeg.

It is delicious in case you were wondering.


 

Tofu is Not a Meat: a Food Related Rant

There used to be a jokey catch phrase for vegetarians/vegans that went "Tofu: the other white meat." It is indeed a cute and catchy play on words but it also highlights what I see as fairly major and wide spread problem in vegetarian/vegan cooking in America.

So I just want to get it out there and say this: tofu is not a meat. It does not look like meat, does not act like meat, nor does it taste like meat and it doesn't smell anything like meat. This seems really self evident but I've found I need to actually come right out and say it. You cannot use tofu instead of meat 99.9% of the time.

Now let me tell you that I love tofu.  I love it, I think it's delicious. However it is really very difficult to use it as a substitute for something else.

TVP, tempeh, seitan, and all those processed soy stuff you can buy these days are better substitutes for different kinds of meat then tofu is.

Yet for some reason tofu is what everyone always starts with when they become vegetarian or first try to cook vegetarian food. Over and over again I've eaten dishes by people who are not used to cooking vegetarian food where they simply take a hunk of tofu and stick it in a recipe they would ordinarily use meat for. Over and over again I've gotten told by people who did not grow up eating tofu that they've tried it and don't like it. The answer why most people hate tofu on first taste is; it can only very rarely be used instead of meat in recipes. Tofu is great, in recipes that are supposed to use tofu.

This is what I tell most people who aren't used to eating tofu: find a recipe using tofu from a country that tofu comes from. Fine a recipe for a tofu dish from China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, or Viet Nam. If you are going to use an Americanized version of the recipe be careful where you get it. Just don't google a recipe and make the first one that comes up.

Doing this, cooking tofu in recipes that were designed to have tofu in them, not as a substitute but in its own right, is how you are going to learn to use and eat tofu. These are the dishes in which it will taste the best. Once you get the hang of cooking with different kinds of tofu in different ways you can try using it as substitute for different kinds of meat.

I'm just going to be frank though, tofu doesn't substitute for meat well at all, even if you know what your doing. The reason why is tofu is soft and porous, and meat is not nearly as soft or porous. Tofu even frozen Chinese tofu is fairly delicate stuff, most meat that we eat is much more hardy and can handle different kinds of cooking better then tofu can.

Seitan, TVP, tempeh, some kinds of vegetables like eggplant, some kinds of mushrooms and processed soy product hold up to substitution for meat much better. So if you want to change a recipe from a meat recipe into a vegetarian recipe use these, not tofu, it'll be much better in the long run.

More Lunch Related Stuff

Hey All,

so my Mom made my brother and I these great utensil holders/place mats/napkin holders to take with us for lunch at school.

The outside is made out of a fabric that has some kind of water-resistant coating on it. The inside is leftover fabric I bought about a year ago to make boxer shorts with. The napkin is made out of fabric I also bought to make boxer shorts.

The whole thing folds in half and then rolls up. The tie on mine is made out of leftover fabric from a set of pillow cases my Mom made me for Christmas. The entire thing is made out of cotton fabric so it can just be popped in the wash when it gets dirty. It's a great way to use up fabric scraps too.

Crafty Me

So I'm starting school again in a week, and I've also been moving into my new room. The bad thing about moving is for me it's super stressful. The good thing about it though is that it's a great time to get rid of stuff you don't need, orginizing stuff you've been putting off, and fix up things you've just had hanging around so they work again.

One of the things I fixed up for the move was one of my lampshades which had been peeling apart. I used an old book that wasn't any good any more and mod podge to make a new, much more attractive lampshade. It took me a couple hours one morning, drinking my coffee and gluing squares of paper onto the lampshade. I then gave the whole thing about three coats of mod podge to finish it. I think it came out nice.

I am also commuting back and forth to school so I need to pack my lunch. I have a very small Wonder Woman lunch box I've used to pack lunch in before put I decided it was too small especially if I want to bring a thermos of soup with me or something. My mom found this super cute lunch bag pattern  so we decided to try making it. 

I'm not super good with the sewing machine but I did do a fair amount of the sewing for this which I am proud of myself for. I used cotton canvas for both the outside and the inside so I can throw it in the wash if it gets something spilled on it. There wasn't a huge selection of cute or whimsical cloth in cotton canvas which was sad but I think the cloth I picked out looks good anyway. We added a flap and button to the top to keep it closed better. We also recycled an old sweater as the insolation instead of buying cotton batting especially for the bag. 

It might not look it but the bag ended up being big enough that I will definitely be able to fit a thermos or water bottle plus a lunch box. My old Wonder Woman lunch box is really too small for me to carry a whole meal in so I've been thinking about buying a bento box. I really like Edge bento boxes. 

They're both big and very sleek looking. You can also just use two out of the three layers if you want a smaller box. Kokeshi bento boxes are some of the cutest things I've ever seen. 

They are a little too small for my needs though I think. Mostly because I'm planning to use my bento box as predominantly a lunch box not actually pack things as compact as bento in it. 

Wether or not I'll get a bento box will depend largely on whether or not I get money for my birthday though.  

Little Vegan Cupcakes

Hey all,
I made vegan cupcakes for my sister's wedding earlier this summer. I made apricot and lemon ones since the wedding cake was apricot and lemon.

Recipe: Omuraisu (Vegetarian, for now)

Hello all you beautiful beings,

So I will admit this is a cheat recipe mostly because the only thing I did was make it vegetarian, but it was super tasty and I had a picture so I figured I'd put it up. A couple months back my Nana gave me a small rice cooker. Now I don't eat a lot of rice, I hated it as a kid and it's one of those things I've been trying to add back into my adult diet. I've also been trying to learn how to use this rice cooker and get good at it. So this afternoon after running around doing the shopping I decided to make myself omuraisu for a late lunch. 


I used the recipe at Just Hungry which is a fabulous website I'd definitely recommend checking out especially if your interested in making Japanese food. This recipe makes one good sized serving so you can just multiply it by how many people you're cooking for.


Ingredients: 


1 cup cooked white or brown rice
1/2 small onion, finely chopped
5 pieces sliced pre-made seitan or as much as desired 
2 TB butter
2 TB ketchup plus more for top
2 large eggs
salt and pepper to taste 



The recipe calls for chicken or ham. I originally added about 2 TB of TVP while I was frying the rice and about 3 TB of water to re-hydrate it. It was good but the on my second try I made it with a package of pre-made seitan I had in the freezer and that was even better. I'd definitely recommend making it with the seitan.  


I also want to try making this vegan probably by using Vegan Dad's recipe for vegan omelet 


All and all I really liked this a lot.  

Recipe: Polish Lazy Pierogi (Vegetarian)

I’ve been eating a dish known as lazy pierogi my whole life. It involves egg noodles, sauerkraut, and mushrooms. Over Christmas though I discovered that there is another more traditionally Polish version of lazy pierogi, which are actually cheesy dumplings. With a youth retreat coming up and my vegan housemate out of town I decided to give them a try. These are really, really not vegan and not dairy free. The traditional recipe calls for farmer’s cheese but I used goat cheese and plain yogurt (one for each batch). Although I am allergic to all dairy produced by a cow I can eat goat cheese for some reason. These little dumplings are filling though, I ate three and that was too many. Most of the kids only ate two, which is a good serving size for these filling little guys.

It makes 20 dumplings and serves 10

Ingredients:

1 pound goat cheese, or 1 ½ cups plain yogurt

3 large eggs

1 tea oil

1 tea salt

2 cups all purpose flour

2 TB butter or margarine

Directions:

Combine all ingredients except the butter, in a food processor. With a steel blade pulse until it turns into a very sticky dough. Cover a large, flat surface with flour and turn dough out onto it. Roll dough into a log about one and a half inches across.  Slice log into about inch wide dumplings. I managed to get about twenty out of one batch of dough.

Heat large pot of water until boiling. Gently drop dumplings into boiling water. They will boil for about five minutes before rising to the surface. When the dumplings rise let them boil for another five minutes before taking them out with a slotted spoon.  

Sauté them in a large skillet with the 2 TB of butter until both sides are golden brown.

I served them with vegan mushroom gravy, but they would also be good with sour cream or melted butter and caramelized onions.   

Recipe: Vegan Mushroom Gravy

Mushroom gravy is just one of those things I’ve been making so long I don’t even think about things like recipes anymore. I made it last weekend though to go along with our decidedly non-vegan dinner. Everyone loved the dinner and to my surprise all of the kids loved the gravy too. I was asked a couple times for my gravy recipe. This is just a simple brown gravy that can be eaten with anything from mashed potatoes to a vegan “meatloaf” to whatever kind of vegan poutine you’re cooking up. This weekend we ate it with non-vegan Polish lazy pierogi.  

Makes 4 ½ cups gravy

Ingredients:

¼ margarine

¼ all purpose flour

4 cups water

2 veggie broth cubes or 4 TB veggie broth powder

12 large white mushrooms

2 onions

1 TB oil

1 TB garlic powder

Directions:

Slice onions very finely, then wash and slice the mushrooms. In a large fry pan heat oil and add the onions. Cook onions until they are brown and starting to caramelize. To do this move them around the pan with a cooking spoon a lot. Also add small amounts of water, no more then a TB at a time, to keep them from sticking and burning to the pan. Add mushrooms, to the pan and cook until they are also brown and tender.

In a small pot melt the margarine. Add the flour to the margarine and whisk until it becomes a paste. The technical name for this is a rue and it's what I base all my sauces on because I am cornstarch impaired. Cook over low heat until the rue start to bubble. Add the water about a cup or a cup and a half at a time whisking constantly to make sure it doesn’t become lumpy. Add the veggie broth and garlic powder to the pot. Let simmer whisking every couple of minutes so gravy does not stick to the bottom of the pot. When the liquid boils take off of heat and add it to the fry pan with the mushrooms and onions. Heat everything in the fry pan stirring until gravy boils and thickens. Pour into serving dish and serve over whatever you want.  

Recipe: Miso Noodle Soup (Vegan)

My Mom used to make this for us a lot when I was growing up. I do the cooking for a youth program now and this past weekend I thought it would be nice to make this for the kids for lunch. My Mom always used to just add whatever pasta we had but I love udon so I added that instead. Everyone loved it, and it’s vegan so I thought I would put the recipe up here. Again I have no picture for you. I didn’t get to my camera until later that evening. This is just a real fast and simple dish that can be made pretty much any time of the year.

Serves 14 people, adjust as needed.

Ingredients:

16 cups water

½- ¾ cup miso paste

2 veggie broth cubes or 2 TB veggie broth powder 

1 onion (optional)

1 TB garlic powder

1 package udon noodles (or really any kind of thin pasta)

6 cups uncooked bok choy (optional)

1 TB oil (optional)

1 tea sesame oil (optional)

Directions:

Pour water into a pot and let simmer until almost but not quite boiling. Add veggie broth, garlic powder, and sesame oil to water, and let simmer until the broth has dissolved.

Slice onions finely, wash and slice the bok choy also finely. Sauté both the bok choy and onions in the 1 TB oil in a separate pan. You can add the onions and bok choy to the soup right before serving or serve it separately on the side.

Take about a cup of the broth out of the pot and put in a separate bowl. Add the miso paste to the bowl of hot broth and whisk with a fork until the paste as mostly dissolved. Add the broth-paste mixture back into the pot. Heat until the miso broth is lightly boiling but not at a rolling boil and add the udon noodles. The noodles take about 4 min. to cook. Once the noodles are soft take the pot off the heat and serve.

             

Recipe: Christmas 2010 Vegan Lasagna, With Vegan Green Beans and “Pesto”

Greetings all you beautiful beings,

(the picture isn't the best because the light isn't good in my parents' kitchen)

My family gets together for Christmas at my parents’ house, and every year we have lasagna for Christmas dinner. The lasagna is made by all of the younger members of the family, while my parents and Nana relax by the Christmas tree. When I became allergic to dairy I started experimenting with ways of making vegan veggie lasagna.

Here is the recipe for this year’s vegan lasagna

Ingredients:

 Uncooked lasagna noodles (I used about six but how many you need will depend on the pan you use)

1 jar pasta sauce (or a bag of frozen if you make your own and freeze instead of can)

1 pound firm tofu

1 package rice “cheese” (or your favorite dairy alternative)

1 summer squash slice thinly

1 clove peeled and crushed garlic

3 TB ground or dried basil

1 medium onion

2 teas salt

1 TB olive oil

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

To make the tofu filling chop the onion into thin slices and sauté in a large pan with the olive oil. While the onions are cooking drain and pulse chop the tofu in a food processor until crumbly. Add the tofu to the onions and stir the two together. Then add the crushed garlic and basil*. Add salt and the sliced summer squash (I had them pre-sliced and frozen in the freezer from the summer), turn down the heat. Let simmer for about three to five minutes then take off the heat.

Grease a medium size casserole dish (I used  a 5 inch by 10 inch pan which I wouldn’t recommend) pour pasta sauce into the dish until the bottom is covered, then place two uncooked lasagna noodles on top of the sauce or as many as you need to cover the bottom. Put a couple good large spoonfuls of tofu filling on the noodles until they are covered in a thick layer of filling, then sprinkle rice cheese on top. Place more noodles on top of the rice cheese and ladle on more pasta sauce. Repeat until the dish is full. Ladle on the remaining sauce. This kind of lasagna cooks the noodles as it bakes so it needs a lot of sauce. Sprinkle the top with rice cheese and cover with aluminum foil. Bake for 45 min. to an hour. You can test the lasagna to see if it is done by sticking a fork or knife into the center. When the noodles are tender the lasagna is done.

Traditionally we eat this with a crusty Italian bread and sparkling apple cider.  This year we had green beans in the freezer from the summer. So I made these green beans with pesto.

Ingredients

2 cups green beans frozen or if fresh washed and cut in half

1/2 of a good-sized leek

1 clove of garlic

3 TB ground basil 

2 TB olive oil

1/2 tea sail

Chop the leek finely. Pour the olive oil into a medium pan add the leek. Mince garlic finely. When the leek is lightly brown and soft add green beans, garlic, and basil*. Cook until the green beans are tender but not mushy, add the salt and serve.

* I make pesto cubes during the summer months and put them in the freezer for winter meals that need that pesto taste. The cubes are made of basil that’s been ground with olive oil and garlic in a food processor and put into ice-cube trays that have been lined with greased plastic wrap. Once frozen the cubes come right out of the ice-cube tray. I put them in zip-lock bags and stored in the freezer and then use them all year round. So if you do that just add a pesto cube instead of the garlic and basil in either recipe and let it thaw in the pan. You may need to add extra garlic to taste though.

Come The Vegan Revolution I Will Not Be Living In the Vegan Suburbs

Hello all you beautiful beings,

so about a year and a half ago I, and the rest of my intentional spiritually community, made the commitment to eat local as much as possible. Luckily for us we are blessed to live in an area where a lot of local products can be readily found. We also have a Community Supported Agriculture share, both during the summer time but then also during the winter and a fruit share for our fruit and juice.

As I have mentioned before I was raised vegetarian and have been severally allergic to dairy for about thirteen years at this point. However one of my community members is off and on vegan so we decided as a community to cook and eat vegan as much as possible.

Since then I've had a love/hate relationship with the vegan community. I really love cooking and eating vegan, I think all the vegan food I've cooks thus far has been very tasty. I like the challenge of adapting recipes and trying new things. I however dislike a lot of vegan cookbooks assumption that A. I'm made of money and B. that I can get whatever food whenever I want it. I mean I don't mean to get testy but I dislike the assumption that I'll be eating green peppers or avocados in the dead of winter when I do not live where avocado's grow. It was also an endless source of frustration to me when I was in a low-income college student and recipes would call for ingredients that cost more then I could afford to spend on the entire meal.

In fact the most helpful vegan cookbook I use the most often is The New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook which was written and published before you could get almond milk or buy sun dried tomatoes in grocery stores.

So my personal goal when I write recipes and post them here is to make sure that it is possible to make them with a low income and a mind to wear the food is coming from as much as possible. If I use something that is expensive, unneeded or, outrageously not in season I will make it optional.

Recipe: Peanut Noodles (Vegan!)

Greetings all you wonderful beings! 

This is my favorite thing to eat ever. I can make this meal in my sleep and it never fails to cheer me up.

There are lots of peanut sauce recipes out there but this one was originally created by my Mom and became my favorite thing to eat as a child. As I grew up and learned how to cook I changed and tweaked it until it became my own.

This is a great meal because it’s fast and relatively easy. It has lot of protein and can be as full of veggies as you want. It’s also very flexible; it can be changed around without really any bad affects.

Ingredients:

one lb pasta

Sauce:

1 clove garlic

1/2 cup peanut butter

3/4 cup veggie broth

1/4 cup soy sauce

3 TB vinegar

2 TB sugar

1 tea sesame oil (optional)

1 tea powdered ginger (optional)

1/2 tea hot pepper flakes (optional) 

2 TB sesame seeds (optional)

1 TB Thai curry paste (optional)

1/4 cup coconut milk (optional)

Cook pasta. Any kind of pasta will work. I usually use whatever I have. However thick spaghetti is what I grew up eating this sauce on, while fettuccini works well too. Thicker rice noodles or Udon is probably my favorite to use now.

Just be sure the pasta is not so thin that the sauce bogs it down and make it turn into a giant sticky pasta lump. I usually stay way from thin spaghetti or thin rice noodles for this reason.   

To make the sauce:

Place the garlic in the blender pulse blend until finely minced. Add all the rest of the sauce ingredients into blender. Pulse blend for three minutes, or until smooth.

You can also make the sauce on the stovetop. In a small saucepan sautéing the garlic and then adding the peanut butter. Do Not let the peanut butter burn (and for those of you who have never melted peanut butter on a stovetop it goes from melted to burned in a second.) Adding the veggie broth when the peanut butter is soft but not melted. Stir with a whisk or fork until combined. Then add the other sauce ingredients and let simmer until sauce thickens. 

When the pasta is done drain and mix with the sauce. If you made the sauce in the blender you may need to simmer the pasta and sauce for a minute to thicken it.

Add veggies. Any veggies you like will work with this meal. We added peas and green beans (which we had in the freezer) to the pasta in the pictures. I usually add whatever I have or whatever is in season. Some of my favorite veggies to add to this meal are:

Peas

Thinly sliced carrots

Lightly steamed broccoli

Green or red pepper

Lightly steamed summer squash

Thinly sliced sweet onion

Lightly steamed bok choy

Pealed, cubed and sautéed eggplant

Serve hot or cold and enjoy!

Recipe: Blueberry Winter Cake (dairy free, not vegan)

Hello all you marvelous beings!

So we had a Christmas party at Beloved Community House about two weeks ago. I had been planning on making Christmas cookies for the party but we had gotten a bag of frozen local blueberries from our CSA and had eaten about half of them. Because we had unused blueberries sitting in the fridge I decided to do something with them instead. We also had a can of mandarin orange wedges in the cupboard (don't ask, I don't know.) So the night before the party I created this recipe:

Cake:
2 cups four
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 tea baking powder
1/2 tea salt
1/2 tea cinnamon (optional)
1/2 cup soft margarine
1 cup soy or rice milk
1 tea vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 small can of mandarin orange segments


Blueberry filling:
6 TB soft margarine
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 - 2 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen)

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.
Put all dry cake ingredients into a bowl, add soy milk, margarine, eggs, vanilla and orange segments. Use an electric hand mixer to mix the cake batter until smooth. Pour into a well greased 10 or 11 inch square pan.
In another bowl beat together the brown sugar and the 6 TB soft margarine until they have combined and become crumbly. Sprinkle sugar/margarine mix and blueberries over the top of the cake.
Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the cake is cooked all the way through. You can test it by sticking a sharp knife into the center of the cake. When the knife comes out clean the cake is done. Let the cake cool, then slice and serve cold or warm.

The blueberries and brown sugar sink into the cake and make a blueberry filling in the center of the cake. Everyone loved it at the party and I have to say it was pretty tasty with coffee. I do wish I had a picture for you guys though.