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.

German Stollen (Veganized!)

My husband was lucky enough to have a wonderful German grandfather who was a professional baker.  Needless to say, it would be pretty impossible for us to recreate his magic in the kitchen, but I really wanted to make a stollen for Tyler this year (since it had been part of his Christmas tradition growing up) and one of my friends with German in-laws was kind enough to send me an authentic recipe by Dr. Oetker vthat she had (thank you, Jeannette!!!)

 

We followed the recipe, getting out one of the small scales my husband had used for his physics course, setting it to grams, and weighing the ingredients ;-)    To veganize it, we simply used Earth Balance instead of the butter.  We used soy milk. Instead of the egg, we used 1 TBSP ground flax and 3 TBSP water.  The other substitution we made was to soak the raisins in apple juice instead of rum, as we do not have rum on hand and didn't want to buy some just for this recipe.  Also, we had no candied lemon peel.

We were really delighted with how it turned out!  I thought the dough was really soft and buttery, too much so, so I added a bit of flour so that it held together better but otherwise it mixed up beautifully with the measurements given and we thought it tasted wonderful.  Tyler said it was close to what his grandfather's tasted like (wow!) and we even took up a few pieces to the in-laws when we went for a visit after Christmas and my father-in-law was very impressed and said he also thought it was close to what his dad used to make. Hooray!  I think we will try to  make this a Christmas tradition.

*~*~*Christmas Cookies*~*~*

Christmas Cookie Palooza

My sister and I made Christmas cookies over the weekend, listening to Christmas music and had a wonderful time making some sweet holiday treats we could actually eat (having to pass up all those amazing dessert tables at the work parties I've been going to had me feeling a bit Bah! Humbug and this definitely helped me feel happy and Christmas-y again!)  I was especially delighted to find this blog explaining how to "veganize" traditional Christmas cookie recipes.  It's fairly easy, such as substituting Earth Balance for butter or soy milk for cow's milk.  One suggestion for egg substitution was to use 1/4 cup of soy yogurt for one egg. I had never tried this but it worked well in our recipe.  I am not sure how to veganize certain recipes that require the eggs to be whipped, but perhaps I could find out...

Anyway, the cookie dough was surprisingly disgusting (Earth Balance doesn't taste nearly as good as butter in cookie dough!) but the finished products exceeded our expectations and truly tasted like Christmas cookies!  Woo hoo! :-D

Mexican Wedding Cakes (I have also heard these referred to as Russian Tea Cakes)

Here is a traditional recipe from Joy of Baking.  This was an easy sub. of Earth Balance for the regular butter and we used walnuts for the nuts.  These were sooo delicious.  They practically poof! apart and melt in your mouth.

Raspberry Oatmeal Squares (these were my husband's favorite!)

This is another recipe we "veganized" from the Joy of Baking.  In this case, I subbed the 1/4 cup soy yogurt for the one egg and used Earth Balance instead of the butter.  They turned out really yummy and weren't overly sweet (I cut the sugar a bit) with a gorgeous raspberry flavor.


Pecan Bars

Yummy!!!!  I've always had a fondness for pecan pie, but hadn't had it in ages.  This recipe brings back all those fond memories.  And, best of all, this recipe is already vegan!  It's from a blog I would like to follow, Megatarian.  The only thing I changed from the recipe is that I added an extra 1/4 cup flour to the base because it seemed way too gooey.  Also, I used brown rice syrup instead of corn syrup since I have kind of a "thing" against corn syrup.  They turned out sooo delicious!  The crust was a bit flaky, but they tasted great.

Annie and I hope to make more Christmas Cookies and/or other holiday desserts in the days leading up to Christmas and I'll be sure to post the results.


Happy Holidays! :->

Vegan Thanksgiving!!!

Before I get any tardier, I have to post about our awesome Vegan Thanksgiving!!!  I am so happy because this year my parents and sister are also pursuing a plant-based diet, so everything I put on the Thanksgiving table (and everything they brought for pot-luck) was vegan.  Not only was it nice knowing that we provided a cruelty-free meal, but it was fun to be able to eat everything :->

Here are some pictures from the feast.  I don't have time to collect all the recipes right now, but will try to add them later.

Tyler's amazing green beans -- delish!  A bit of spiciness with red pepper flakes.


My mom's "meatloaf", which had a wonderfully nutty and mushroomy flavor

Savory Stuffing (my favorite Thanksgiving dish!  Recipe is in my Nov 2010 blog archive)

Candied Yams with Vegan Marshmallows (mmm! I LOVED this recipe!!!)

Dessertapalooza!  :->  Chocolate pudding pie, apple cobbler, and two kinds of pumpkin pie (including one with gluten-free crust for my mom).  My recipe can be found in the November 2010 archives.

 

Tofu Burgers from "Peaceful Palate"

Mmm!  Forget those store-bought veggie burgers that look like frozen cow patties; instead, try a delicious homemade tofu-based burger from the Peaceful Palate cookbook.  Peaceful Palate was one of the first vegan cookbooks I bought and it remains an outstanding source for tasty and easy-to-make vegan meals, side dishes, and baked goods.  

They are sooo delicious!  I could eat them plain--the seasonings are just so savory.  It's very hearty, with bread crumbs and quick-cook oats mixed with crumbled firm tofu.  But the patties go really well with all the usual burger condiments.  The patties are a bit delicate so you may find a few pieces fall off when you eat your burger, but you'll just be glad to nab them up and eat them with your fingers :->

Vegan Brownies

If you are looking for a healthy vegan recipe, stop reading now!

If you want a delicious vegan brownie recipe that has zero redeeming nutritional value but tastes really good, this is the recipe for you.  

I needed something that would taste very similar to "real" brownies to have on hand when my in-laws arrived last week since my father-in-law is used to really decadent desserts (his father was a German baker!) but I didn't have time after work to make a really elaborate cake before their arrival.  The brownies really did the trick.  I was surprised that I didn't find any vegan brownie recipes in the cookbooks I had on hand, so I did a Google search and came up with the well-reviewed recipe on Allrecipes.com.  The result was tasty and very easy to make.  I cringed at the amount of sugar and oil in there, but for a splurge it was worth it.

The result is a bit more crumbly than regular brownies (I wouldn't recommend it as finger food) but tastes delicious.  I even melted some vegan marshmallows over mine.  Yum!

Pumpkin Pasties

 Presenting, courtesy of Dumbledore's Army, and our kitchen, Pumpkin Pasties:

Mmmm!  Sweet, pumpkin goodness.  I loved this treat!  Definitely the best "Harry Potter" recipe we've made so far.  My sister and I found the pumpkin pasties so delightful, we plan to make them for the rest of the Harry Potter movie evenings left in our marathon.  The crust is just wonderful, perfectly flaky and with a delicate, slightly sweet texture that is hugely satisfying.  The filling is also sumptuous, not quite like pumpkin pie, with a bit of a nuttier flavor (given the cashews).  If anything I would have liked more filling ratio to the crust, so we may experiment and make the pasties bigger next time.  Highly recommended, not just for Harry Potter fans, but anyone looking for a sweet treat perfect for Thanksgiving month.