Vegan Mofo 2010: Big Fat Biscuits

Soups and stews have been on the menu for the last several days here. This evening we decided to make biscuits to enjoy with our brothy leftovers.  I made three different  types of biscuits: green onion, savoury red pepper & onion and a simple plain biscuit.  The savory red pepper & onion biscuit recipe can be found in the pages of Sarah Kramer and Tanya Barnard's The Garden of Vegan.  The green onion biscuit is identical to the plain biscuit with the addition of  1/2 cup chopped green onions. The plain biscuits were tonight's family favorite (recipe to follow.)  Biscuits are so simple and quick to make, why anybody would buy the toxic rolled up kind from the grocery store dairy section is beyond me.  Toxic??? Hell ya!  Even if you can find a dairy free version they will still be loaded with hydrogenated oils, refined flours and several laboratory created completely unnecessary ingredients.  Do yourself and those you feed a favor and steer clear of them.

Plain & Simply Biscuits

2 cups unbleached flour

3 tsp baking powder

1tsp salt

1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper

1 tsp garlic powder

1/3 cup melted earth balance (or other non hydrogenated, non dairy butter substitute)

1 cup plain almond (or soy) milk mixed with 1tsp lemon juice

Preheat oven to 450. In a large bowl sift together flour, baking powder, salt, pepper, garlic powder.  Mix lemon juice with non dairy milk then add melted earth balance.  Add liquid ingredients to dry ingredients  and knead until you have a large ball of dough.  Pull apart the large ball of dough into 6 medium balls or 12 small balls. Place the dough balls onto an oiled cookie sheet, and slightly flatten the tops down.  Bake 10-15 minutes. Will make 6 medium biscuits or 12 small ones.

Optional:  brush the tops of the biscuits with a little melted earth balance before you bake them.

Vegan Mofo 2010 Day 3: Hearty (Un)Beef Stew

Mike's trip to May Wah was a rather fruitful one.  Not only did he bring home last nights vegan ham, but he also brought home two bags of "beef" chunks!  Today we made an impromptu unbeef stew with the chunks.  Tomorrow no fake meat, I promise.

Vegan Mofo 2010 day 2: Black Eyed Peas, Collard Greens & Sliced Vegan Ham

The sliced vegetarian ham from May Wah is by far our favorite fake meat. For those of you not familiar with May Wah you can find their extensive and wonderful products here: http://www.vegieworld.com/.  Even though they list their products as vegetarian most are actually vegan. The kids favorite way to have the vegetarian ham is baked with sliced pineapples and an apricot glaze, my favorite way is with black eyed peas and collard greens - since I do the cooking and 99.9% of the dish washing this time my favorite won. Hurray for me!  You don't need the vegetarian ham to make a yummy batch of black eyed peas and collard greens, a good liquid smoke is all you need. In my old age I have become very loyal to several products, STUBB'S Mesquite liquid smoke is one of those products. http://www.ilovestubbs.com/. In a deep pot I  saute a large sliced onion with a couple of table spoons of Earth Balance, when the onion is soft and somewhat translucent I add 2 cups of vegetable broth, some Annie's natural organic vegan Worcestershire sauce, a couple of dashes of the Stubbs mesquite liquid smoke and salt & pepper to the pot. I bring it all to a boil then throw the collard greens into the pot and simmer until the greens are nice and wilted. Then I put the black eyed peas into the pot and continue to simmer for 15-20 more minutes, if I have the vegetarian ham I'll slice it into pieces and toss the pieces into the pot the last 5 minutes of cooking. Once everything is finished  I sometimes use any extra liquid to make a gravy for mashed potatoes, or I'll leave the broth with the greens and black eyed peas and serve with fresh biscuits. Canned black eyed peas work well in this dish and will cut your cooking time considerably, however I prefer to use fresh or frozen. If you decide to use either fresh or frozen make sure you soak your black eyed peas long enough so when you cook them they will be nice and soft.  Before cooking the collard greens you should remove all thick stalks then wash and chop the greens into bite sized pieces.  Ooooh, I almost forgot the hot sauce!  Keep a bottle of good hot sauce on the table when serving black eyed peas and collard greens.

Hello Vegan Mofo 2010!

This years Vegan Mofo arrived  not a minute to soon for me. The last two months were a bit rough for our family. We're all fine now and hard at work getting back into the swings of things, but I'd be lying if I didn't admit to a tad bit of residual post traumatic stress disorder.  Halloween and the Mofo were just what I needed to shake the little black cloud that's been following me around the last few days.

Black Bean Soup is the perfect companion to a chilly night of trick or treating.  I topped each bowl of soup with a teaspoon of a sour cream like blend of Vegenaise, tahini, lemon juice, almond milk, garlic powder and sea salt.  

The kids dressed up in their usual homicidal best, except for Em. She went the old Hollywood route.  We didn't carve pumpkins this Halloween for the first time in 18 yrs. - a decision I deeply regret.  Next year we'll have to carve two each to correct this injustice. 

Hope you all enjoyed your Halloween. Be sure to check out some of the other blogs particapating in this years Vegan Mofo.  You can find a list at http://veganmofo.wordpress.com/

Vegan Mofo Day 3 East meets West!

Stir Fried Seitan in Garlic Chili Sauce

Vegan Sushi

House of Vegetarian

Whenever we find ourselves in Manhattan we aim to eat at House of Vegetarian 68 Mott Street, NY.  It's not the trendiest place to eat in NYC but it's our favorite.  The food is straight up Chinese food ~ nothing  too fancy, it's all vegetarian and I'm pretty sure all vegan.  We don't live in NYC and taking 5 kids and 2 adults out to eat is not something we can afford to do more than a few times a year.  And forget about ordering good vegan Chinese food up here in the Hudson Valley. So we make our own. 

This is a pretty good Garlic Sauce recipe:

2 tbs rice vinegar

3tbs pure maple syrup

2 tbs dark soy sauce

2tbs Chinese rice wine

3 to 4 whole dried chili peppers

3 tbs sesame oil

1/4 cup water

3 to 4 cloves of garlic thinly sliced

2 tbs cornstarch

Saute garlic in sesame oil for a min or so.  Dissolve corn starch in water. Stir all of the other ingredients (except cornstarch and water) into the sauteed garlic and bring to boil for about 3 mins.   After 3 mins stir in cornstarch and water combo.  Bring to boil again while stirring.  Sauce will thicken.  Pour over your stir fry.  This sauce works really well with tofu, seitan, tempeh and almost any veggies you would use in a stir fry.

Whenever my man (Mr. Tattooedgeek) isn't working for the man he's working for the woman ~ me! He's my resident Sushi Chef , Screen Printer and Artist. Aside from the typical veggie sushi rolls he makes toasted tempeh w/hot sauce rolls, teriyaki seitan rolls and others.

We've added several new totes to the shop this week.  This Hanya tote is just one of them.   

Caught Willow, one of our Siamese, being lazy earlier today ~ she was too cute to pass up!

Vegan MoFo 2009 day 2 ~ Chocolate Chip Crumb Cake ~

This vegan chocolate chip crumb cake is a variation of Isa Chandar Moskowitz East Coast Coffee Cake from Vegan Brunch.  Vegan Brunch has quickly become one of my all time favorite cook books.  So far everything we've tried  has been LOVED! For my chocolate crumb version I doubled the the cake recipe and added 1 cup natural unsweetened baking cocoa and 1 cup of choclate chips to the crumb topping.  I sprinkled Hain organic powdered sugar all over it once it  cooled. 

The kids thought the chocolate crumb was a bit bitter without the powdered sugar.  I thought it was fine either way.  I doubled the cake part of the recipe because after making it once before we all decided that the cake was so good that we wanted more of it.

Lately my Bay Rum soy candle has gotten lots of attention.  The last two weeks it has made it to Etsy's front page 3 times.  I'm thrilled with all of the love the candle has been receiving but we have dozens of others that are deserving of lots of love as well.  With Halloween coming I thought I'd highlight a few of my "darker" candles.  First up is:

Man Eater is a complex blend of sensual amber, lotus blossom, and sweet jasmine accented with tangy orange and delicate orchids. This candle is black in color and topped off with a dazzling glittery splash of color.  Man Eater is available in 6oz tin, 2oz tin and Shea Butter Solid Fragrance balm. 

http://www.mrstattooegeek.etsy.com/

Veganized Italian Rainbow Cookies - Hell yeah!

 Rainbow cookies were a big family favorite, especially around Christmas time.  They quickly became the first thing missed after going vegan 2 1/2 years ago.  We recently veganized our recipe and the results were... excellent.  Non vegans will never know the difference.  In fact we all agree, the vegan Rainbow cookies were superior!  Unfortunately traditional Rainbow cookies can be very dry - our vegan version was super moist and delicious.

New Totes in the shop today!

We've been extreamly busy making tons of new products.  Here's a sneak peek.  New totes - in color!

This is just a small sample.  There's more in the shop.

http://www.mrstattooedgeek.etsy.com/

October is here - hooray!

Cleo was loving the cool October air this morning.