On-hand salad

You know those days, when you feel like you have nothing to eat, and you're really hungry? And you poke through your fridge and make whatever you can find? Well, sometimes you end up with delicious things, such as tomato-kale-chickpea salad, with the only dressing I had in the fridge (also delicious). I give you, on-hand salad: it was perfect!

Spinster buns

I bought a stand mixer last week. It was on sale for Mother's Day--$199 down from $349!--and since I'm going to be a cat-hoarding childless spinster forever, I figured I might as well buy it for myself. I finally set it up on Saturday, and this being a long weekend in Canadia, I have had two and a half days to play with it. And play with it I have! I have already made seitan, focaccia, and cinnamon buns.


I've never made cinnamon buns before. When recipes involve making dough, kneading dough, and rolling it out, my eyes start to glaze over and, zombie-like, I pull out my cupcake cookbook.


But this was delightful. The stand mixer kneaded the dough for me, twice! And then mixed the icing too. I used VegNews' recipe here; I found it less fussy than the other one I checked. And now I have cinnamon buns to share with my friends and co-workers, which is who you share baked goods with when you're a spinster.

Baked mac and cheese with Daiya

I made vegan baked mac and cheese yesterday. (Apparently, my logic goes: feeling sick? Don't wanna eat? Make comfort food!) And I regretted not trying this before. I tried a different vegan version once or twice, but it wasn't nearly as good. The Daiya vegan cheese made the difference. Nom! You can find the recipe on daiyafoods.com.

Hot and sour soup, you are wise

We know that ordering vegan food can be challenging when we're eating with omnivores. We often have to eat at places with few vegan options, but we also don't want to cause a fuss, or make it seem like eating vegan is "difficult", but we don't just want to eat the salad either. So when I ordered delivery for dinner on New Year's Day with my family, I was expecting to have to compromise--a lot. But we agreed to get Chinese food, went online, and found a good Chinese food restaurant nearby that not only seemed authentic, it also listed all the vegetarian dishes. Bingo! My family got to order a few things for themselves, and I ordered "bean curd and vegetables" with steamed rice--and a small vegetarian hot and sour soup, for kicks. And we were all happy!
The soup was an afterthought--"Have I had hot-and-sour since I went vegan? I don't remember. I should have some!"--but I couldn't resist, since it was so clearly labelled and I knew I could eat it. It was delicious! I haven't had that many hot and sour soups, and those I have had have been very light--mostly broth with a few thinly-sliced pieces of cabbage, carrot and celery, if memory serves--but this was almost a meal. It was so packed full of veggie and tofu goodness I had to take a picture for sharing. I kinda want to go back there just for the soup.
But it reminded me of a few Things Vegans Should Remember:
--ethnic food is your friend! Since so many cuisines around the world developed with limited availability of meat, their menus often have vegetarian or even vegan options.
--try new things! It can be easy to eat the same things over and over again (when I go out for lunch I usually either eat from 1 of 2 regular lunch places) but when we try new things, we can be pleasantly surprised.
And one thing I should remember:
--I am spoiled! I live in a time when there are more and more vegan items available every day. Today I saw a posting about vegan "egg yolk". Yowza! I also live in a city with an incredible diversity of veg entrees, veg restaurants, and ethnic foods. I rarely have to eat "just the salad". I'm pretty lucky. thank you for the lessons, hot and sour soup! You are so wise.

Peanut butter cups of awesome

I posted this photo on Tumblr and those Tumblr vegans loved it. Come on, I got 21 notes! I know that doesn't compare to the few thousand or so notes Animals Talking in All Caps gets. (And no, I'm not jealous, why do you ask?) But for me it's pretty good. Someone even asked for the recipe! It's not a recipe as such, but here it is, cross-posted from Tumblr:

It’s really easy! They’re just labour-intensive—it usually takes me an hour or so to make a batch. Mix some peanut butter with some maple syrup or agave—maybe 1/2 cup peanut butter to 1/4 cup agave. It’ll thicken and get hard to stir, but that’s what you want, so it won’t leak out of the chocolate cup when you bite it. Melt vegan chocolate chips or semi-sweet baking chocolate in the microwave—about a cup or one and a quarter cups. I usually nuke for a minute then stir and repeat until it’s melted and smooth. The key to getting them to look right is to use silicone muffin/cupcake cups. Smooth some melted chocolate into the cups until you’ve used up about half your chocolate. With a spoon, scoop out some of the peanut butter mixture and gently use another spoon to scoop it into a chocolate-d silicone cup. Repeat until you’re out of peanut butter mixture, or you’ve used up all your choclate-d cups. (If you have leftover melted chocolate or peanut butter mixture, you can make more of what you don’t have—until you run out of silicone cups!) Cover the peanut butter mixture scoops in the cups with more melted chocolate—just enough to cover. If the chocolate has cooled while you were scooping out the peanut butter mixture, do another nuke-and-stir to melt it again. When you’ve run out, you’re done! Just allow the peanut butter cups to cool so that the chocolate hardens, but if you’re impatient you can put them in the fridge for a few minutes instead of leaving them at room temperature. Pop them out of the silicone and if you’re not eating them the same day, you can leave them on the counter, but cover them with plastic wrap. Enjoy!

You are Every Vegan

As vegans, we often feel the need to explain our beliefs, our food, our health and nutrition, and even all the one-off examples people tell us about. You know, that friend who used to be vegan but then all her bones started melting so she had to eat rare steak laced with Skele-Grow immediately to save her life. Because we are often the only vegan they know, we are therefore also Every Vegan--so we feel the need to be ambassador for veganism. All the time. Every day. Even when we're tired or cranky or hungry because the only thing the restaurant can provide us is green salad and dry baked potato. So when we cook for non-vegans, we feel pressure to make an amazing meal, lest the next day they're saying, "Yeah, we had weird vegan food last night. It was horrible! Dry and tasteless--it needed bacon." Because if they did say that, I might have to hurt them--which wouldn't reflect well on me as Ambassador for Veganism. So when I made dinner for 9 of my relatives over Christmas, I was feeling the pressure. Which I shouldn't--I can only do my best and then it's out of my hands. But luckily they it got very good reviews. The choice of dish may have helped. I picked Leek and Bean Cassoulet, from Veganomicon. It's deliciously warming and filling and comfort food-y, and it has biscuits on top. Who doesn't love stuff with biscuits on top?!? Even my anti-vegetable brother liked it. Make it for sharing with the non-vegans in your life. That way, when they meet another vegan, this time they'll say, "Oh yeah, I have a vegan friend. She made amazing cassoulet this one time!" And Every Vegan will thank you. 

Minty chocolate presents

I was told food is always a good gift. Seasonal food is even better, in the season of course. But soemtimes making food can be time-consuming, and you start getting tempted by the simplicity of just going to a store and buying stuff. But bark is easy. Melt and pour! And for seasonal goodness, crush some candy canes and sprinkle the bits on top while it's still melted. Wrap in a pretty seasonal bag or a nice jar and pop a bow on top an you're done!