Scraps and Snippets ~ Oh Yeah, This One Was Tasty...Asian Cranberry Slaw

On my quest to find delicious and Vegan or Veganable recipes for Thanksgiving I found a braised cabbage recipe that sounded pretty yummy. Except all the flavor came from pepperoni. Uhhh, so I put the idea of a warm cabbage slaw into my think-tank and this is what came out.

Braised Asian Cranberry Slaw.

1 Onion, small dice

2 TBSP sesame oil

1 tsp soy sauce

4 Cups Chopped Cabbage (or approx 1/2 large head cabbage, I used purple)

2 TBSP rice vinegar

1/4 teaspoon hot pepper flakes

1 TBSP sesame seeds

1/2 cup craisins

Heat 1 TBSP sesame oil in pan. Get it hot. Toss in onions and cook til browned and aromatic. Add cabbage and cook until it begins to shrink and tenderize, 3-5 minutes add soy sauce and hot pepper flakes. Stir and cook until cabbage is coated. Turn down flame and add sesame seeds, vinegar and last TBSP of sesame oil. Stir well, add craisins, stir again and serve.

Scraps and Snippets ~ ThanksgiVing with a Capital V...

To work through this Thanksgiving feast conundrum I think I have to dissect it. It helps to think about what I like, need, love about the Thanksgiving feast occasions.

Here is my early dissection list: the flavors and textures I love, the things that scream Thanksgiving meal.

Rolls. This is no issue. I’ve got a French bread recipe from the red gingham cookbook that is virtually Vegan. It calls for egg whites which I’m just going to skip since they just help make the bread crusty. And the suggestion was to use water if you want extra crusty. Win. Win. I’m going to make a batch of bread, as rolls, and with whole grain flour and some extra fun added. I'm thinking garlic rolls, some rosemary onion rolls, and maybe some herb with parsley, sage, and thyme.

I love the taste and texture of cranberry relish, but it has gelatin in it. I could use agar but I have an idea that will take a cranberries relish type dish another step into deliciousness. Stay tuned.

I’ve never been a die-hard turkey fan and I’ve always LOATHED dressing. This may be because early on I discovered my mom used giblet juice (and possibly little bits of giblets themselves sliced and diced but this is usually denied in an attempt to get me to eat it.) I always put gravy on my turkey and usually just ate one serving, calling it good. This year I’m going to make the Chickpea Cutlets. I think I might make smaller ones and bake them in the gravy. I’ll add sage and celery to the gravy to give it that Thanksgiving taste. More on this later, too.

Potatoes. That’s easy. We don’t need to make them, but I may do a batch anyway. Cut and boil potatoes (about 5 pounds) leave skin on for texture, a few peeled cloves of garlic and salt to taste, toss in a bag of frozen or fresh chopped cauliflower, when all tender, drain most of the water. Save some if needed. Add a container of Vegan Cream “Cheese” (Trader Joe’s has one.) Mash to consistency you like, add more potato water if needed. Make a few wells, add a TBSP or so of Earth Balance to each well.

My aunt has made a fudge pecan pie for years. That sucker is delicious. And full of dairy. So. I’m thinking that what I love best is the fudginess and the pecan. The flavors can be Veganized, No problem there, either. Not sure how yet, but it's on my list. Stay tuned.

Pumpkin. & has produced two different, delicious caramelized pumpkin nut “cheese”cakes. And she just needs to tweak her recipe to pull off the perfect Vegan pumpkin pie, traditional style.

& also keeps mentioning a Vegan stuffing recipe she found somewhere.

All of these sound delicious and I'm pretty sure they will scratch the itch and fill the "meat and dairy" void. I'll keep you posted.

Scraps and Snippets ~ Gobble, Gobble, Gulp...

My anxiety level clicked up a notch today.

Why? Probably because I solidified plans for two Thanksgivings and remembered a church Harvest dinner I'd signed up for. Not a big deal. Really. None of them are at my house. And I kind of have them all on my radar. But. These suckers are all a week or less away.

Yikes.

This is the first year we are going to concern ourselves with the Vegan thing, too. Which means that what I prepare has to be Vegan for us to eat without guilt and/or sadness that we are gorging on stuff we don't really want to gorge on, and it has to taste good to others, those who are hoping that what we bring to the table is going to be deliciously up to our normal standards of food.

I've been called a good cook. And I've had folks ask my husband and kids what I made so they can be sure to grab some at potlucks. I don't want to become the weirdo lady who brings tasteless food to gatherings. I want to keep my good cook badge.

The other issue I have is the stupid Martha Stewart inner freak who wants to not only make things good enough, she wants to make things that cause tastebuds to rejoice, and tears to well and maybe even spill over the eyelid and trickle down a cheek. You know. Sappy stuff which is better than a purple ribbon at a state fair.

My challenge over the next few days is to find, tweak, twist and wrestle foods that embody the spirit of Thanksgiving and the heart of "Kind" eating i.e. Whole Food Plant-Based.

I'm not even thinking about Christmas. The Eves of many Christmases past have been at my house and full of soups rich with meaty goodness, cheeses, creams. Cookies, and candies made with items like butter.

Suffice it to say. This blog is going to continue to be about food. I'm very grateful that there are hundreds of other blogs that are about food, too. I'm going to need all of them as I take the holiday challenge to beat my own holiday food expectations.

Scraps and Snippets ~ Monkeying Around

Crazy day.

For starters. I was a little crabby. People annoyed me today. So it's probably good that I didn't have a patient filled day as I was seriously lacking patience. : ). However. I did start out my morning with a new guy who laughed like I was a stand up comedian. (This is my absolute favorite thing. I have another patient that hoots and hollers at almost everything I say. Trust me, a person is seriously good when she can make, "I need you to put this paper top on so it opens in the front. Remove your blouse and bra and lay them right here." funny on any level. I do, apparently. It's pretty amazing. (Okay, sometimes I ad lib and add a few other one-liners, and these folks are fasting which means they DO not have the benefit of coffee in their systems, which can affect common sense and bring drastic mental changes.) But still. However, an enthusiastic hooter generally only crosses my path a total of three minutes, and they are usually long gone when I hit the paperwork part of my job.

I left work when the scanner took the equivalent to a spring break and refused to come back, even when I whistled for it and promised it treats.

& and I went to the big city again for groceries, our Financial Peace University Dave Ramsey class, and candle shopping et al. Ecoscents, a local "cottage" candle shop was kind enough to honor a Groupon we both purchased and then procrastinated and tried to redeem on a day they were closed, the last day of redemption. They gave us the full value, even though the date had passed, and really, honestly, we should not have procrastinated and should have noted that they wouldn't have been open on the last date because they don't have weekend hours. Nice of them to be generous, they really could've just given us the value we paid as required, instead they let us spend the full amount. The candles smell amazing. And they will refill the jars, and any other candle jars we have, for a discount of 30%. Kind of cool. I picked out a cranberry hot tea and an herbal medley that are yummy. 

Since we were in the neighborhood, (literally, we walked through the ditch that separated the stores) we visited an indoor farmer's market that is chock full of locally grown and made items. Fun and quirky and nice to know we can still find some local stuff after the farmer's markets go to sleep for the long winter.

Finally, the pictures. This is Latte Art. & made me a monkey. I'll let you figure out which one is her monkey in my mocha soy latte, and which is the pro's monkey. We will be generous and say this was a) her first attempt at a monkey, and b) soy milk doesn't quite produce the foam that milk does, so there's that. 

As far as financial wisdom. Uhh. I wish I had taken Financial Peace University about twenty years ago. I'd be typing this from some beach somewhere...maybe. :  )

Scraps and Snippets ~ Monday Malaise...

...might just have to do with the time change. Or the fact that Monday comes too early and weekends are too short. Or because the weather tells me that the cocooning season is here.

It is dark at 5:15 around here. Dark. Last week found me in PJ's and slippers twice before 7:00 p.m. In my defense, 7:00 p.m. felt like midnight. And I technically could wear my PJ's out and about. Could. Shouldn't, wouldn't, but could.

We've been doing some cooking and baking. Our goal is to use up what we've already got, creatively. Some of the results are mehhhh, which is the Monday Malaise way to say, edible but not yell-it-from-the-mountaintops-worthy, hence no recipes or photos of the results.

Veganomicon (by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero, really, I'm just a fan, not a full-on stalker. She's got great recipes! ) gave me a nice little chickpea cutlet to try out. Try out I did. And they will be on the Thanksgiving menu. Yum. I made a nice little mushroom sage gravy that, with a bit of tweaking, will star as well.

My dad's birthday celebration happened last night. Save for the salmon I steamed then broiled for the meat-eaters, everything else was Vegan and pretty much got snarfed up. We had frozen squash soup base from an earlier huge batch of squash soup and we added roasted veggies of all sorts (the last of the CSA farm veggies) turnips, beets, potatoes. & outdid herself with caramel walnut pumpkin "cheese"cake, and chocolate almond pies. She even tried her hand at a tofu-free regular pumpkin pie.

We ate well over the weekend. A quick trip into Trader Joe's gave us a thrill. The farm brussel sprouts bit it in the hail storm. But these little cuties looked great, tasted even better and make for lots of fun veggie moments.

Marbled Mix-Up Oatmeal Squares

3/4 Cup Flour of choice (I used Whole Wheat Pastry)

1/2 teaspoons soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 Cup Coconut Oil or Earth Balance

3 TBSP Sugar

1/4 Cup Brown Sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 TBSP ground Flax seed

3 TBSP water

1 Cup Oatmeal

1 Cup Vegan chips of choice/or dried fruit/nut/chip combo of choice

Grease 9 x 13 pan, pre-heat oven to 350. Place flax seed in water and set aside. In mixing bowl combine oil/Earth Balance, sugars, vanilla. Add flax mixture. Mix in soda, salt, flour. Finally add the oatmeal.

Scrape mixture into pan. Then sprinkle topping combo (i.e. semi-sweet with dried cranberry, or just semi-sweet, semi-sweet and white, etc.) over the batter. Place in oven and bake for 2 or 3 minutes. Remove from oven, run knife up and down lengthwise, then widthwise, through chocolate/chips/topping and batter, making marbled swirls. Place back in oven, finish baking for 12 or so minutes. Cool. Cut into 24 squares.

Scraps and Snippets ~ Reading, Cooking, Rithmetic....

We've been taking classes like crazy lately. And learning lots of great information. 

The farmers are taking us to an organic growing class in early December. One of the sessions will be all about non-pesticide pest control. Hopefully they will teach the words and steps to the Horrible-Horned-Tomato-Worm be-gone ritual. 

Until then & and I have signed up for four weeks of Kitchen Chemistry. Sounds dangerous to me, too. Especially with the two of us on board. Good news, we don't actually touch the hot pots, the blenders, the chef knife. We get to eat the examples though. This instructor leans Vegan. 

Our first class was all about fats. Useful information and a few great substitute ideas. Tofu Hollandaise and Caesar salad dressing were actually called tastier by several non-vegans in the class.

I learned the following: That very little flavor comes from the fat, including butter. Fat is added for texture, heat transfer and binding. So it can be tweaked with to avoid some fat. She suggested that fried foods can be roasted if the heat transfer issue is handled correctly. Fried foods need the frying oil to be at the 300-350 stage so that the oil immediately sears the food and seals it. So the oven needs to be set to 450 to compensate. A cast iron cooking source (i.e. pan or griddle) or baking stone can be preheated with the oven. Then the veggies laid upon it (allowing space for proper cooking) and the food put back into the oven. A nice crust/sear should occur and create a texture that is similar to frying. Hmmm. Going to have to try that out. She also said that nut meals can take the place of some fat and some flour. 1/2 cup equals 2 TBSP fat, 2 TBSP flour. I'll be trying that out as well. Veggie and fruit pulp can be used in place of oil in salad dressings and other items. Potatoes can add cream to soups. And when doing a vinegar oil dressing. Always put the spices/seasoning in the vinegar and let it sit for 5 -10 minutes. The water soluble portion is what accepts the flavors. 

I'm also partnering with & at a Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University class. Uhh, if you don't have common sense money skills, hate money handling, have a desperate need to make some changes, look into taking this class. Seriously good information. I actually understand the concept and a tiny bit of the language of investing after just one video lecture.