Christmas Dinner

Here we have last night’s Christmas dinner. (I’d space out all these posts but I’m heading to San Francisco for the MLA conference for the next few days, so I’m frontloading updates!) I brought a green bean casserole and roasted brussels sprouts, someone else brought slow-cooked root veggies I could eat, and I brought this vegan stuffed turkey cutlet that I got from Whole Foods, just for fun. That’s the cross-section below.

Holiday Cookies, Vancouver Version

Here we have the Vancouver flight of cookies. I did a repeat on the Maple Pecan, Jackson Pollocks (note the proper coffee granules used this time) and Gingerbreads from the Hamilton flight, and added the Chocolate Orange variation on the double chocolate walnut cookies from Veganomicon, which were fantastic and tasted like one of those Terry’s Chocolate Oranges.

Brunch Salad

Here’s the salad I made for a brunch at my aunt’s place last week. I just threw a whole bunch of things together: roasted beets, parsnips, and rutabaga; blanched green beans, beet greens, and carrots; red pepper, celery, and a can each of chickpeas and mixed beans. I made a vinaigrette with caramelised leeks, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, mustard, a bit of brown sugar, and salt and pepper. I topped it off with pomegranate seeds, but I wouldn’t do that again, because although I love pomegranate seeds on their own, in this salad their crunch was too unexpected on the teeth.

Holiday Cookies

Here’s the Hamilton ensemble (Vancouver selection will be up shortly!) I tried the Jackson Pollocks recipe from Veganmania for the first time. They are like shortbreads, with a bit of coffee flavour. I only had instant espresso powder, not instant coffee granules, which I knew would mean most of the speckled Jackson Pollock effect would be lost. But no matter! This is a very tasty recipe regardless of the aesthetic theme. Then we have Gingerbread Cutout Cookies from the Post Punk Kitchen, which is an old favourite recipe for my holiday baking. Then the Maple Walnut cookies from Vegan With a Vengeance, which I always make as Maple Pecan cookies, because I like pecans better than walnuts, and because I think I might be mildly allergic to walnuts since they often kinda irritate my throat a bit… now I’m rambling.

Tempeh White Bean Sausage Patties

Last week I was doing some dry runs for Christmas brunch coming up, and so I finally made the tempeh white bean sausage patties from Vegan With a Vengeance! These are quite tasty, though I had to leave out the fresh herbs, so I think they will be even more tasty when I make them again. I also added a teaspoon or two of maple syrup to the recipe because with sausage-like things I’ve always liked a litte sweetness. I was impressed with how firm these patties were–so many vegan croquettes are not very cohesive…

Sundry Snacks!

I used a bit of that Yoso cream cheese from the frosting to make a sandwich, with a beautiful avocado I had. And capers always seal the deal. After taking the photo I sprinkled on some salt and pepper, which always make friends with avocado in my mouth.
Below we have some Cavendish Farms potato patties fresh out the toaster oven. The Nutritional Facts panel got in a bit of a tiff with my oscillating chin. (I have these weird English/Irish/Scandinavian genes that make me gain weight only in my stomach and chin: I know, the most unhealthy body shape for heart disease, yadda yadda. Apple shape and so forth. Life’s too short to worry about it. Evidently. Plus I’m hoping with the zero cholesterol diet I enjoy, it might all come out in the wash.) But they reminded me of how much I enjoyed them on lazy carbfest days with my buddy Andrew throughout the year, so I bought them and ate them all in quick succession.

Alicia’s Birthday Cake

Man, I’ve been such a deadbeat lately! My apologies. And updates might be a bit spotty in the next couple of weeks while I’m visiting family in Vancouver. But bear with me! Here’s Alicia’s birthday cake I made last week. I used the same chocolate cake recipe from below, straight chocolate this time, in two layers. Between I spread some strawberry preserves. For the icing I used Yoso brand cream cheese for the first time, instead of Tofutti. While I like the texture and taste of Yoso better, the reason for this is likely the same reason the frosting wouldn’t stay very stiff no matter what I did: it’s non-hydrogenated. I’ve noticed the same thing with non-hydrogenated shortening, and as a result I save the non-hydrogenated shortening for pie crust, and guiltily turn to Crisco for frostings. Anyways, to this frosting I added a bit of rose water, which I thought suited Alicia (she has a rose tattoo, after all) and it worked quite well with the chocolate and strawberry combo.

Missed Picture Opportunities

Well, I haven’t posted much because I keep eating out like a crazy December socialite and I never seem to have my camera with me!
Some of the things I’ve eaten lately:
An amazing tapas dinner at Fressen in Toronto, including beer-battered tempeh fish and corn and taro dumplings
A seitan combo appetizer and sweet and sour soy chicken entree combo at Affinity Restaurant here in Hamilton
Marinated tomatoes, toast, and home fries at Harbour Diner here in Hamilton
Bowl of chili at My Doe Joe Cafe in Hamilton.
Toasted tomato sandwich and hashbrowns at Sunrise Diner in Hamilton.

So vegans can find things to eat at restaurants! The breakfast diner offerings are a little more limited (tomatoes take on a pretty important role, for instance), but in general I’ve had plenty of opportunity to stuff myself. And none of it caught on film.

Mocha Cake

Here’s Cake #2 for last Friday’s birthday party! I used the chocolate cake recipe from Kittee here, but again I used the Papa Tofu reprint, and took up her suggestion to replace the water with cold coffee. For the two teaspoons vanilla I used one teaspoon vanilla and one teaspoon Frangelico. Finally, I made a half-batch after the first two layers to make three layers. For the filling, I made the Hazelnut Mocha Mousse from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World: this works really well as a cake filling! So sturdy a filling, so much fun spackling during assembly. Anyhow, then I did another play-by-ear frosting (I wasn’t kidding about being fed up with the proportions of the VCTOtW buttercream), with Tofutti cream cheese, shortening, Earth Balance margarine, icing sugar, instant espresso powder, cocoa, and Frangelico.

Below: Mousse-filled naked cake.

Then: Side view. I have two new tools that have changed my cake decorating world. One is a Wilton plastic three-sided comb that carves a ripply pattern in the side of cakes (obviously I don’t know what this is called) and an honest-to-goodness angled cake-decorating spatula. Flat, smooth cakes!

Strawberry Cake

On Friday I made two birthday cakes for a birthday party celebrating seven December birthdays! This one was for Melissa, Alicia, and Quintin, and I used the Strawberry Cake recipe from Kittee’s site here. (well, I use the version reprinted in her zine Papa Tofu, but it’s the same recipe). I used unsweetened soymilk for the vanilla soymilk, because cake is already sweet enough! Plus I only had a teaspoon of strawberry extract: the tiniest bottle of extract I’ve ever bought. But I think it was strawberry-y enough anyways with just the teaspoon. For the filling I mixed some cut-up strawberries with some strawberry preserves. For the icing I decided I’m fed up with the Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World buttercream, so just mixed as-you-go amounts of Tofutti cream cheese, shortening, and a bit of Earth Balance with a bunch of icing sugar, raspberry syrup (the expensive stuff for lattes, not flavoured maple syrup!), blackcurrant cordial, and Wilton pink food colouring until it was the consistency I wanted. A very tasty cake; this was very popular!

Below: Half-assembled.

Ready to bake, pink batter in the pan.