"Fronch Toast"

I've gotta say that really good breakfast food is probably the one thing I miss being vegan.  I used to love eating breakfast food, especially at restaurants.  Now, I have to pretty much kiss restaurant breakfast food good-bye.  And, while tofu scrambles are okay and I've found some good vegan pancake recipes to make at home, my beloved French toast has always alluded me. 

Until now!

Ooo-la-la! ;-)

This is probably the closest to "real" French toast that I've come, most other recipes yielding rather disastrous results.  Thanks to the Post Punk Vegan Kitchen, you can find the recipe online here.  I was a bit skeptical at the chickpea flour, but I've liked most of Isa's recipes and this is no exception.  It really gets that nice crunch on the outside and moist center that I love from regular French toast, and it tastes wonderful with jam. 

Smoky Southwest Sweet Potato Shepherd's Pie

As I dragged myself back into the house on Monday after a long day back at work following winter break, I was greeted with a deliciously spicy-sweet smell and my husband telling me not to look in the oven as he had made a surprise for dinner.

And what a lovely surprise it was!  This take on the traditional British dish is a long way from the flavors I come to associate with Shepherd's Pie, yet I absolutely loved it!  It has a layer of mashed sweet  potatoes to create the top crust and the filling is beans, corn, carrots, onion and a spicy salsa to add some heat.  Tyler used a chipotle salsa and green pepper instead of the hot chiles but otherwise he didn't see a need to change the recipe and I thought it was wonderful just the way he made it.  The photo doesn't do it justice but I had to snap it quick before I hungrily tucked in! ;-)

The recipe is from Vegan on the Cheap by Robin Robertson.

A few more festive dishes from Christmas 2011

Before we get too far into the new year, I wanted to post a few more of the fun and festive dishes we made over the holidays.

Yule Log Cake

My sister and I wanted to make a traditional British Christmas dessert and had hoped to make Christmas pudding, but we didn't have the proper culinary paraphernalia to steam the pudding.  So, we opted for a Yule Log cake instead.  We used the recipe found here from Veganfamily.co.uk .  The chocolate cake was delicious!!!  I loved the inclusion of the orange juice (very subtle flavor when cooked but still detectable and delectable!) and the frosting was also super yummy and indulgent.  Ours ended up looking nothing like a yule log, but oh well.  It was fun and probably one of my favorite vegan cakes yet! :->

"Egg" Nog

Usually, I love the recipes Isa comes up with on Post Punk Vegan Kitchen (and in her books) and I had high hopes for her egg nog, despite how odd the ingredients sounded to me (coconut milk and avocado!!??!!).  I am not a fan of the store-bought "veg nog" and this recipe got great reviews.  My sister and I tried it hopefully, especially since the avocado made it seem like it had a bit of redeeming value, but we were disappointed.  The taste was just really odd, not bad, exactly, but not at all like egg nog and not really something we wanted to drink much of considering the calorie load.  Oh well, we'll try something else next year!

German Red Cabbage

 This was for my husband.  He remembers his German grandmother making this and he loved it.  My friend Jeannette again came through with a helpful recipe.  Basically, you take a red cabbage head, medium yellow onion, and two apples, shred them and cook them down in a bit of water, butter (in my case, margarine), with sugar, vinegar, salt, pepper, cloves and a bay leaf.  The recipe was a bit vague on how much of the sugar, etc. to add so we just kind of guessed at it.  The result was fairly tasty (I don't know that I'm a huge red cabbage fan, myself) and my husband liked it but said it wasn't quite like his grandma's.   This is probably because we did not use butter (or, gasp!, lard as the recipe said) and the spices, etc. were so variable.  But, it was a good attempt and he quite enjoyed it!

Happy New Year with Hoppin' John (New Year's Peas)

Happy 2012!  I decided to celebrate New Year's Day by cooking up a big pot of Hoppin' John (New Year's Peas).  I'd never cooked with black eyed peas before and am not even sure our store regularly carries them since I only found one selection in a special part of the produce section and I'm suspicious they are seasonal.   I got the recipe from Nava Atlas' Vegan Holiday Kitchen, which the local library got in just in time for my December cooking and baking extravaganza! ;-)  It's a gorgeous book and I found many tempting recipes.  The photographs are wonderful and I love the selection of recipes, from Thanksgiving through 4th of July and including even recipes for Easter, Hanukkah, etc. and some great tips on things that new vegans (or non-vegans who will be including vegans in their holiday festivities) would want to know, such as how to find vegan Easter candy.

Anyway, the Hoppin' John was tasty and surprisingly easy to make.  The picture is rather dreadful, but my lighting wasn't good.  At least you can see the "black eye" of the peas.  The dish is touted as bringing good luck for the New Year. I hope so and that  your New Year is off to a great start and will be full of good health, good food, and much joy.