Sugar cookies, rice pudding

So this will be my last post of 2006...

As promised, I have for you the sugar cookie recipe that my family has used every Christmas, which I veganized this year with excellent results.


Sugar Cookies

2 cups flour
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons Earth Balance margarine
1/3 cup non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening
3/4 cup sugar
Equivalent of 1 egg (I used Ener-G)
1 tablespoon soy milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine dry ingredients; set aside. Beat the margarine and shortening until soft; add sugar and beat until fluffy and not granular-looking. (This part is best done with an electric mixer.) Add egg replacer, soy milk, and vanilla. Add flour mixture and mix until well combined--it will be stiff. Place the dough in plastic wrap, wrap tightly, and chill for three hours.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Roll the dough out to 1/8 inch thickness and cut into shapes. Bake on a cookie sheet for 8 minutes or until just done. Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 1 minute, then transfer to a cooling rack. Immediately glaze and decorate (glaze recipe follows). The most important thing for these cookies is to not let them bake too long--they should become SLIGHTLY golden but if you let them get too golden then they will become crispy when they cool.

Glaze:

1 cup superfine sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 tablespoon soy margarine, softened
2 tablespoons vanilla soy milk

Combine all ingredients and beat with a fork until incorporated. NOTE: This glaze recipe made enough glaze for me to glaze exactly 1/2 of the cookies from the recipe above--my sister and I split the cookies and she did her half with a different frosting. If you want to glaze all your cookies with this glaze, double the recipe.

Bob's little brother came and spent a couple of days with us, and as we have been traveling a lot lately, there was not much food in the house to offer. What we did have was some kale that was dying in the refrigerator, so I made a pot of sloppy lentils--a dish that always seems to impress omnis. I also made some of the Banana Bliss Pancakes from Vive Le Vegan! and served them with the Blueberry Sauce from the same book. I've posted plenty of pictures for both of these already, so I decided not to bore you with them again.

What I will bore you with is this rice pudding I made this morning, with some leftover brown rice that I was afraid would otherwise go bad before it was eaten. Bob and his brother quite enjoyed it, and I have to say that I kind of liked it myself (even though the texture of rice pudding has never really appealed to me very much).


Rice Pudding

2 cups cooked brown rice
2 cups vanilla soy milk
3/4 cups sugar (or less--this was very sweet)
1-2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4-1/2 teaspoon allspice
Dash salt
2 tablespoons rum
1/2 cup raisins

Place the raisins in a small bowl and pour the rum on top. Set aside. Combine the rice, soy milk, sugar (or whatever sweetener you would like to use), cinnamon, allspice, and salt in a saucepan and bring to a gentle boil. Continue to simmer, uncovered, for 25-30 minutes, stirring frequently, until the rice has become tender and the mixture has thickened. Remove from heat, stir in rum and raisins, and cool to room temperature before serving.

Tonight we got to hook up with one of our friends who has been in Mexico for several months, and came home just for the holidays. One of our favorite things to do together has always been to go out for sushi--so that is what we did. Bob and I shared a seaweed salad and then an inari tofu roll, an eggplant teriyaki roll, and a soba spinach roll. Bob decided he was still hungry after all that, so he ordered a teriyaki zucchini roll as an afterthought. Then we all went back to a friend's apartment and drank wine and played Catch Phrase. How I love just having fun with friends, not thinking about everything else in the world!!!

One last thing: I received a Barnes and Noble gift card for Christmas, so I went to the store today and asked them to order Dreena's The Everyday Vegan for me. Yay! I will finally have it, in about a week! I can't wait...

Everyone be safe, and I hope you have a peaceful, fun holiday!

A merry little Christmas

I have been checking up with a few of you, but I know that blogging is not #1 priority right now. I hope to catch up with the rest of you as soon as life gets back to normal!

As for me, I had a great visit with my family, even though our Christmas was warm and stormy (even to the point of tornado weather). My sister and I have a tradition of making sugar cookies on Christmas eve, and this year was no different--except she was kind enough to let me veganize the recipe. I just made a quick glaze for mine, with powdered sugar and soy milk and vanilla and a little bit of Earth Balance, and I glazed them when they were hot out of the oven. I will share this recipe soon--it's one of my mom's, and I will have to get her to send it to me.



I don't have a whole lot of food to share--one night we just ate vegan Boca burgers, and one night Bob and I had our leftover lasagna which I had taken just in case. We did make stir-fry one night and I sautéed some tofu for me and Bob, but I didn't photograph it--you have all seen sautéed tofu before, I am sure. But for Christmas, my mom did make a nice meal, and she did everything in two pans--the vegan version for us, and the regular version for them. She cooked a turkey too, and I did not bring enough tofu to make a meatless entrée (and where are you going to find tofu on Christmas day?), so we just made a meal out of stuffing, squash, and green beans. I still have a Tofurky in the freezer, so I will probably cook it now that we're home, to have with the leftovers. But here is the vegan version of the stuffing:


It's just made with a wild rice mix, a sautéed onion, some mushrooms, vegetable broth, and seasoned stuffing mix--which was actually vegan, though I expected it not to be. My mom put sausage in hers, and if I had had the option I would have added Tempeh Sausage Crumbles from VWaV... but it was just fine without it. It was a nice meal, and it was fun to be in the kitchen with my mom again.



One of Bob's friends gave him a book called The New Vegan Cookbook by Lorna Sass as a Christmas gift, and I have flipped through it already. It looks like there are some interesting things in there to try. I received a lovely picture book called Vegetarian Sushi, which is exciting mostly because it has large color photographs displaying how attractive and artful even meatless sushi can be--and I am excited to try out some of the recipe suggestions. But on the cookbook front, my favorite gift by far was this one from Bob (which I think he picked out for selfish reasons, but that is fine with me):



But I am seriously going to have to wait to try it out until some of these cookies and everything else have worn off a little bit.

Funny story: Bob and I got each other one of the same gifts for Christmas. Have you seen the movie The Last Unicorn? It's a 1980s animated movie, and we both love it. Apparently we each picked it out for the other one for Christmas! We're so silly.



Tonight, Bob and I are going to Atlanta to see The Nutcracker at the Fox Theatre, and I am so excited because I have never seen it before and it is something I have wanted to do all my life! We are taking his brother and his two sisters along with us, as our Christmas gift to them. I just know it's going to be fun and special.

Everyone take care! If I do not catch up with you before then, be safe and have fun for the new year. Peace.

Mmmm, chocolate (and other stuff too)

This post is going to be quick--just an update on the goodies I have been baking. Bob and I are at my parents' house near Savannah, Georgia, and will be here through Christmas day. I may post again between now and then, if anything particularly exciting comes up.

Baked oatmeal, from Fatfree Vegan. The only changes I make are to use applesauce instead of shredded apples, and to use frozen blueberries instead of fresh. It's pictured here with some vanilla soy yogurt on top--yum.


The peppermint cookies I said I wanted to try, from Fueled By Popcorn (scroll down). WOW! Delicious. I love any manifestation of peppermint + chocolate, and I think in this recipe the peppermint to chocolate balance is just perfect. The candy canes were a huge mess--I have never wanted a mortar and pestle more than I did when I resorted to banging on a bag of candy canes with my rolling pin! But really... Try these, if you like this sort of thing. They're very good and pretty easy.


And then, of course, an army of my gingerbread men that I love oh so much. Dip them in coffee or hot apple cider or hot tea...

On to candy-making...

Truffles like the ones Vivacious Vegan made. The original recipe is here, and I think I stuck to the original recipe a bit closer than Crystal did (although her version using coconut milk in place of the water certainly sounds decadent!!!). I didn't have any bittersweet chocolate, so I used 3/4 semisweet and 1/4 unsweetened, and it seemed to work out right to me. I was seriously AMAZED at the use of cashew cream--I never would have thought of such a thing, but it worked in the recipe so well. I added a bit (about 3 tablespoons) of amaretto liqueur. I halved the recipe and got 26 truffles--a perfect number, because that meant we could give 25 to his aunt for Christmas and there was one left for "quality control." :) This really is a messy project, though, so don't attempt unless you really want to get your hands dirty!

Two kinds of chocolate bark:

Peppermint bark (1/2 bag semisweet chocolate chips, 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract, candy cane pieces to fold in and to sprinkle on top). It was really easy and is very tasty, but I had to go about the loud and sticky business of smashing up candy canes again.

Cherry almond bark (the other 1/2 bag of chocolate chips, 1/2 teaspoon almond extract, dried cherries and toasted almonds for folding in and for topping). This was an experiment--I'd never tried it before, but I am glad I did.

Of course, I made another batch of the Double Chocolate Almond Explosion Cookies from Vive!. Here is a sampling of all the vegan cookies hanging out around here at the moment:


We have shared our treats (except the bark) with our family, and it has all been a big hit. Bob's family really put a dent in those peppermint cookies yesterday. And my mom professed that Dreena's almond cookies are the BEST cookies she's ever had, and has commissioned me to make some more before I go home. Bob's aunt and uncle (and everyone else) thought the truffles were wonderful, and we tried to have them guess the secret ingredient (cashews). But no one was able to guess it. I wouldn't have either...

Well, I guess this post has been longer than I expected, but that's okay. Every one of you, have a WONDERFUL holiday and relax and have fun and be blessed. You are all very special people!

Nice food, naughty food

So in the past couple of days I have not baked as much as I thought I would, though I still have some things planned which I will (I hope) get to today. But I have baked some goodies. Thankfully, I have also cooked some real meals so that we're not just constantly snacking on the sweet stuff!


First up, Double Chocolate Almond Explosion Cookies from Vive Le Vegan! I made these as a gift for Bob's grandmother, who was kind enough to take us to lunch at the all-vegetarian Bluebird Cafe earlier this week (where I had one of the best veggie burgers I've ever tasted). If you have never tried these cookies, I really suggest that you do it soon, because they are so delicious. All the chocolate makes them taste really special. And I definitely recommend that you add the optional almond extract, if you can. I will be making another batch of these today--my parents would definitely appreciate this cookie, and I want to have plenty of goodies to share with them when we leave Friday to visit them.


Also on the baking front, I made Fatfree Vegan's recipe for Cherry-Walnut Banana Bread. This recipe is actually kind of special to me because it is the first recipe that I ever made that was purposefully vegan--I tried it waaay back in the spring, when I was just becoming vegan-curious (as I like to say), and Bob and I were just amazed at how tasty it was. A couple of days ago, when I realized I had three nearly black bananas sitting on the counter, I remembered that this recipe required three overripe bananas, and I needed no other reason to make this bread again. The bites of dried cherry are so sweet (even if you search high and low and get unsweetened dried cherries, as I did)--a nice contrast with the body of the bread, which is sweet but not overly sweet. The only thing I wish is that I had miniature loaf pans to bake these in--what a cute presentation for gift baskets! As it is, I will have to just share it in slices. Still not a bad arrangement.

As for more holiday baking, here is what I have planned.

1) Another batch of the Double Chocolate Almond Explosion Cookies.
2) A batch of my favorite gingerbread cookies.
3) Some chocolate peppermint cookies that I found here (scroll down).
4) Some truffles akin to those that Urban Vegan posted about--if I can find a suitable recipe. These will be a gift for Bob's aunt. (Please, Bob's aunt, don't be reading this right now!)
5) This is ambitious, but if I have time I would really like to make a gingerbread loaf. I have not decided on a recipe to use yet.

Wow, even just thinking about all those sweets makes me crave nutritious food! Here is what I have made:

Lasagna that was based on another Fatfree Vegan recipe. I like to start with her recipe and then just do what I want with it. For example, I usually add a bit of lemon juice to the tofu "ricotta" mixture to give it a little tang. Also, in this particular instance I left the mushrooms out because I just don't often keep fresh mushrooms on hand unless I have something in mind for them already. I use whole wheat lasagna noodles--and the first time I made this, I was certainly a little skeptical about not cooking the noodles beforehand, but they truly do cook up just fine while the lasagna is in the oven. I sprinkled the top with Italian herbs and a couple tablespoons of Dragonfly's Bulk, Dry Uncheese Mix (which I always seem to have on hand).



I made my own sauce for the lasagna, just by first sautéeing a chopped onion and 3 cloves minced garlic in just a touch of olive oil (a teaspoon?), then adding 2 cans (the 29-ounce size) of crushed tomatoes and about 1 1/2 tablespoons of herbs--I used an Italian seasoning blend that contains basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, marjoram, and granulated garlic. We had steamed broccoli to accompany the lasagna, and it was a great meal--a good thing too, since the two of us get about four servings each from a pan of lasagna!

Lastly, a very simple, staple meal that is almost not blogworthy, but I will share it anyway. Bob grew up eating beans and rice very often, and he loves it. In fact, I recently asked him if there was anything he would like for me to cook that I don't really cook that often, and he immediately said he wanted more beans and rice--not even soups and stews and chili, just beans and rice.
That is fine with me--I love beans and rice too, and it is definitely a cheap way to eat. So last night we had pinto beans, brown rice, and garlicky kale for dinner. We both prefer black beans, but I had these pinto beans that needed a use. They just went into the crockpot for about eight hours, along with an onion, 3 cloves of garlic, some cayenne pepper, red chili flakes, sea salt, dried basil, vegan Worcestershire sauce, and lots of water. This made plenty to freeze as well, and I will certainly freeze a lot of it, since we're leaving Friday and will not be home until after Christmas.

I have been enjoying all of your blogs recently! I know everyone is busy this time of year, and I hope that you are all enjoying yourselves and your families. That's all for now--have a blessed day!

Life intervenes

I know I disappeared for a week there. I had one last push--final exams. I finished on Thursday evening, then spent Friday and Saturday with friends and family, relaxing. I have really needed a break from things, including blogging. As much as I love it, I guess I can get burned out with it sometimes and need to step back. Most of you can probably relate to that too. Anyway, I have been saving up some great pictures to show you!



These mini quiches from Fatfree Vegan have been very popular in the past couple of weeks, and there's a very good reason for that--they are amazing. They have the texture of, and taste so much like, the original thing, only better! I was amazed at how well these held their form--I kind of expected them to fall apart, but they hold together nicely. I modified the original recipe in the following ways: For my veggies, I used sautéed onions and some thawed, drained frozen spinach, and I replaced the onion powder with a dash of nutmeg. They were perfect for a light lunch. I steamed some fresh broccoli to serve with them, and some spicy peanut sauce from The Grit Cookbook to go with the broccoli.



Also, for the first time I tried the Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookies from Vive Le Vegan! They were delicious! The texture of them surprised me a little bit--they were a little on the chewy side, and they spread out a lot in the oven so they were a little thinner than I thought they would be. I think maybe I just baked them a minute or so too long--definitely watch the time on these. But they were so, so good. Look at those soft, melty chunks of chocolate...



Just some roasted butternut squash. I love the flavor of roasted squash, with not much more than just a sprinkle of sea salt and olive oil.



One of my very good friends had a graduation party yesterday, and she asked me to help her with the menu so that she could be sure that there would be things for Bob and me to eat. As a nice, animal-friendly dessert that would not be too elaborate, I picked the Raspberry Blackout Cake with Ganache-y Frosting from VWaV (p. 217). It really was a very basic, low fuss recipe, and the result was quite elegant:



This is a very rich, dark cake. I ended up using extra dark Dutch processed cocoa powder, and it was perfect. The cake and the frosting are not extremely sweet on their own, but the layer of raspberry preserves that you spread just under the layer of frosting adds an ideal amount of sweetness. I was more impressed with this cake than I thought I would be, given the ease of preparation. Those who tried it at the party really enjoyed it.



That is all for today. I will try to update this blog regularly this week, as holiday baking gets underway. I've got several things planned that I will be sure to share. I hope you all are having an excellent holiday season! Take care!

Back!

Thanks for your well-wishes. I'm back and feeling so much better now. Honestly, I don't know why I have been more sick lately than I usually am, but I don't think it's anything I'm doing wrong. Anyway, I hope that it will not happen again. I tried the ginger tea that Dreena and Leslie suggested (thanks!) and it really is amazing how quickly it works to make me feel better, if I drink it just when I start to notice that I need something. I think I am going to make green tea with minced ginger a regular part of my diet.

This morning I was excited because I felt good enough to go grocery shopping--and we needed to, badly (last night's dinner was steamed edamame and celery, peanut butter, and raisins, to give you an idea of how bare our refrigerator got this week). So we went to the health food store and picked up some bananas and some whole wheat tortillas. When we got home, I felt creative so I made up these peanut butter and banana quesadillas:


Spread peanut butter on one half of a whole grain tortilla, and top with banana slices and raisins; sprinkle with cinnamon and nutmeg.


Melt a little Earth Balance in a skillet, fold the tortillas in half, and cook them for 3-4 minutes on each side, until golden and toasty and the insides have heated through.


Cut in half and serve.


With syrup, if you like!

I felt like such a kid with my little "brunch," but it was fun and it made me happy! I needed it!

For lunch I made a batch of hummus similar to the one I made last time, but I reduced the tahini to 2 1/2 tablespoons. It was definitely better than before, and I really enjoyed it on a wrap with some mushrooms, cucumbers, and red onion slices. I know, another tortilla meal... but we have not made bread in a week now (poor Bob has been pretty sick too, not just me). We're making some this afternoon.



That has been my day. It's so cold here, I predict some nice baked treats sometime soon. Mmm...

Have a great weekend, and I will be catching up with you all soon!

The story of my life

Hi friends... I just wanted to pop in for a minute and say that I'm sorry I have not been posting very frequently lately. It turns out I am sick AGAIN--this time with some kind of sinus infection. I think (I hope) I'm on the road to recovery now, but I literally have hardly gotten off of this couch in two days. The only thing I've managed to muster up in the kitchen was a peppermint hot chocolate. Not exactly photo-worthy.

I've never been prone to sickness before, so it's kind of odd that I have been sick so much these past few months. I take a lot of care to eat a balanced diet; I hope I'm not missing out on any vital nutrients to support my immune system! Any ideas?

I have some exams next week, so I may disappear again for a few days (I hope not). I wanted you all to know that I have been reading your blogs these past few days, but have not mustered up any comments because I've been drifting in and out of sleep...

I'll be back soon, but for now I'll leave you with a picture of the prettiest sunset I've seen in ages, which we saw as we were driving home from visiting Bob's family on Sunday evening. With this, take care! You are wonderful people!

Miscellany

Happy December! After a lapse back into warm, humid weather, it has finally started to feel wintry again here in Georgia. It is supposed to drop down to 26 degrees tonight--by far our coldest temperature yet this season.

I have been making quite a bit of food ever since I got over my headache spell late last week, and much of it has been inspired either by the cold weather or the holidays. Let's see, there was another batch of sloppy lentils--we seriously make this about 2 or 3 times a month, and that is significant since we each get about 3 meals out of it each time we make it. But it's so warm and healthy and tasty that I see it remaining a staple in our kitchen!

The next thing, perhaps not so healthy. I did a veg blog search on vegan nog, and I found this recipe. I only made half the recipe this time, since it was the first go round. It's a really good recipe. I like it because it is thicker than the commercial vegan nog that we have tried (Vitasoy Holly Nog), but not so thick that it feels like drinking raw eggs (yuck!!!). I didn't have the cardamom so I left it out this time. Very tasty--give it a try!

The whole time I was sick, I was dying for a bowl of soup, but was too tired to go grocery shopping (and our on-hand ingredients got very sparse after Thanksgiving...). Even though I felt much better this weekend, I still had soup on my mind--in particular, soup I had seen on Leslie's blog (though I got the impression that it has been adapted and adapted and adapted). Well, I took the recipe and adapted it again, so I'll share my version with you.



Ever-Evolving Gypsy Soup (Laura's Version)

1 cup dried pinto beans
1 1/2 cups dried chickpeas
1/2 butternut squash, diced
1-2 yellow onions, diced
3-4 cloves garlic, diced
3 celery stalks, diced
1-2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 bouillon cube
Several dashes tamari
1 teaspoon turmeric
2 teaspoons paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil
1/4-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/8-1/4 teaspoons cayenne pepper
2 bay leaves
Sea salt
Ground black pepper

After the beans have been rinsed, soaked for 8 hours, and drained, put them on to boil in a very large pot. In the meantime, chop the vegetables and sauté in the olive oil. Once they have cooked 10-15 minutes (the onions are getting translucent), add them to the pot with the beans. Add the spices and seasonings and simmer, covered, for about 30 more minutes or until the beans are very tender.

I changed the vegetables based on what I had on hand that needed to be used up. I kept the same spices (changing the proportions here and there) because, as Leslie mentioned, many of the spices really are known for their healthful qualities. Note: This made a ton of soup. I froze about 3 portions, and there are about 5 portions left in the refrigerator (this is after me eating a bowl last night and another today for lunch). Next time I'm sick I'll pull this out of the freezer!

I had a friend over to make lunch with me on Friday afternoon, and we made this nice stir-fry full of broccoli, carrots, garlic, onion, and edamame. The tofu I had frozen, re-thawed, and drained, and I marinated it in tamari and agave nectar while we went shopping for the veggies. I sautéed the tofu in peanut oil, then took it off the heat and sautéed the veggies in peanut oil. When they were tender, I added the tofu back to the pan and tossed it all together. Served on top of whole wheat noodles (should have gotten soba noodles while we were grocery shopping, but I forgot all about it). I tossed just a little bit of soy sauce on mine, and it was really tasty. I loved the way the tofu soaked up the sweetness of the agave nectar. Bob had the leftovers, and he was very impressed with them (which flattered me, since he had just gotten done eating our leftovers from P. F. Chang, the best Chinese food I've had in a long time).



Here, a quick potato stir-fry that Bob and I call hash browns, though it's really better than hash browns because we slice the potatoes thicker so they don't get mushy. This one has a purple potato thrown in, which made for beautiful color; also, mushrooms and onions.




The last thing I have for you is this: Last Monday my father-in-law had a birthday, and I wanted to make him a cake. But we had been sick all weekend and all day Monday, so I didn't get to.

Yesterday, we went over to their house, and I made him a cake then. I wanted to do a rum cake, but recipes are hard to find. I ended up using the Chocolate-Rum Pudding Cake recipe from VWaV (p. 221), and it was very good. Quite decadent and quite rich, I have to admit, but very good. It seemed to be well-received all around. Yay!



Sorry for the bad pictures, but I didn't want to make a scene out of photographing the cake while I was over there. I know it looks like a pile of dirt in the picture above, but it really does taste better than it looks. I love the sauce it makes while it's baking. We had it while it was still warm... with So Delicious vanilla ice cream. Yum.

That's all for now. Have a nice week (I know I will--tomorrow's my last day of classes for the semester)! I will see you soon!