Some updates.

Sooo...I opened a new Twitter account. I can be tweeted/twat at @downhomevegan. So far, I haven't said much. I'm kind of bewildered when it comes to Twitter. All the posts look like hieroglyphics, what with the hashmarks and such. But, I figured I'd better get on it (that, and I snapped up @downhomevegan before someone else did), since the Oxford Concise has now added "retweet" to the dictionary. It has also decided that "cassette" no longer deserves an entry, which leaves me feeling OLD AS FUCK. Speaking of which, can anyone recommend a good vegan wrinkle cream?

This Saturday, Animal Rights Coalition will be holding the event "Cupcakes for Their Sake" at noon at Ethique Nouveau. Make sure you get down there early, because every CFTS event has seen all the goodies get swooped up pretty quick. I hear there are peanut butter cup cuppers this time. I am so there!

I haven't been doing a lot of cooking lately, but I'm planning to get back on that so I'm not burned out the first week of Vegan MoFo. I've already got ideas for a theme week. I'll bet you can't take the suspense!

The Minnesota State Fair starts tomorrow. Besides the Giant Naked Pickle on a stick, and the new category in the cooking competition, what the hell can a vegan eat there? I want to see some carnies and maybe ride the rapids, and barf after a trip down the giant slide. If there's something I'm missing, let me know. Otherwise, I think I'll stay home. I saw this billboard on the side of a bus and it bummed me the hell out:



There is so much I could say...that I'm speechless.

Saturday! Come stuff your face (and your fridge)!

You Twin Cities folks with a little space to fill in your refrigerator need to come down to the Gourmet Vegan Heat and Eat Smorgasbord at Ethique Nouveau this Saturday, March 5.

Come down with your reusable shopping bags, and stock up on all sorts of vegan goodies as if you lived in a real city where you had a deli counter that contained ONLY vegan entrées, salads, soups, and baked goods. Sounds awesome, right? I know! So get down to 317 West 48th Street Saturday between noon and 3:00pm. But come early to get the best selection!

Psst...I'm making sweet potato chili.

Fluffy white stuff

Those of you who were wondering: we got our first snow. It started sometime last night/early this morning, and it just stopped a bit ago. When I ran outside in inappropriate footwear to take pictures, it was already at three inches.





But now I want to talk about some other fluffy white stuff. Namely, whipped cream. Vegan whipped cream. I needed to make some for the recipe Hassan chose from Pillsbury Appetizers & Desserts magazine. I didn't want to resort to canned Soyatoo, because it's not only expensive, but I needed to fold some berries into it, and wasn't sure how that would work. I heard somewhere that Rich's non-dairy creamer could be whipped, but the thought of taking any buses today turned me off. I needed to make a trip to the store, but today was just not the day. I went into the fridge to pull out some leftovers for lunch, and that's when I noticed the box of Soyatoo whippable that I was POSITIVE I had used. Crossing my fingers, I got to work.



It didn't make much. Just enough to fill all the puffs, but only top about ten. I now have a can of coconut milk in the fridge, and will finish these up tomorrow before work. A plea to the makers of Soyatoo: That box is nowhere near big enough. And you need to redesign the canned stuff, because I have now purchased two that got clogged after the first use. Seriously. Someone needs to make a vegan equivalent of Cool Whip. I'm completely terrified that these puffs will look like sad little islands in a pan of slushy cream by morning, and like Minnesota snowfalls, will just be shoveled away. I'll say a prayer for the little guys tonight.

Waiting for the snow

I have never been so ready for winter. I know, I always duck when I say that. But living here my whole life, I know I'd miss the cold and the snow if I moved somewhere warm. My dad packed up everything and moved himself, my mother, and their business out to Hawaii after the Halloween blizzard of '91, declaring that "This will be my last Minnesota winter." Well, he was right, sort of. He retired to his hometown of Valley City, North Dakota, which is not Minnesota, but may as well be. At least Minneapolis has city-run snowplows. Also, driving down to the Cities for holidays kind of puts him back into Minnesota Winter territory.



Shannon also picked tonight's recipe. A very snowy-evening kind of dessert. The original recipe, from Bon Appetit, calls for an obscene amount of eggs. It's supposed to be light, puffy, and soufflé-like. I tried. I whipped silken tofu in a frozen bowl with frozen beaters. I added agar. Powdered sugar. It wasn't going to happen. Instead, I focused on making the pudding taste rich and wonderful, and stopped worrying about being some sort of vegan meringue pioneer.



The pudding is pretty close to the real recipe as far as ingredients go (minus the eggs), with a tofu/Silk Nog/agar/almond extract mixture folded in. The topping is pecans, Earth Balance, brown sugar, gingersnaps, and pumpkin pie spice. The ginger-orange marmalade I used has big pieces of orange zest, which really adds to it. It came out fluffier than I'd expected, which was a nice surprise. In future attempts, I'll add a little cardamom. Because my mom would have.

Minnesota State Muffin?

No idea we had one, or that any state did, but here ya go. Blueberry. This recipe turned out very blue due to using frozen/thawed instead of fresh berries. I also used about 3 tablespoons of ground candied ginger. I'm not even going to offer one to my boss because he thought the lavender cupcakes "reminded him of old ladies." Lord knows what ginger blueberry muffins might do.



This is another one that I plan to play with and improve on. It didn't seem sweet enough, and it could stand to lose about five minutes off the baking time. They are still good, and certainly hit the spot on a Saturday morning with a cup of joe before going in to work. Ugh. I need a real job.

The Jucy Lucy

The whole story of the most famous burger in town can be found here. I knew that the bar that invented it is disputed, but I was always told it was Matt's Bar, right by my old high school. I didn't try the damn thing until I had out of town guests (this was pre-veg, of course), and all I remember is that the entire first layer of my tongue and the roof of my mouth were burned off by the molten cheese inside the burger.

Well, since vegan cheese typically doesn't melt at all, I felt safe. I even dusted off the ol' George Foreman for this. It's easy. Gimme Lean hamburger made into two patties. One slab of Teese cheddar in the middle. Pinch it all around to seal in the cheeze, and throw it on the grill. Really fast and easy.



And, I was right. No molten cheeze. Just hot and yummy. And all the fixins.

Iron Chef: Apples and Peanut Butter

This was almost too easy. Ingredients that already go great together, and it's Minnesota Week, and there's no better time than right now to buy a peck of Honeycrisp apples. The Honeycrisp, developed at the University of Minnesota, is the sweetest, crispest, and most mouthgasmic apple there is. It makes that Red Delicious mushball look like a cat turd. The ones I picked up tthe other day are by far the best I've tasted. It was like the sweetest champagne. If somebody ever makes cider from this stuff, sign me up.



Honeycrisp Apple Crisp

3 large Honeycrisp apples; cored and diced
juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup old fashioned oats
1/3 cup natural chunky peanut butter
1 tbsp Earth Balance

Heat the oven to 375°.

Toss diced apples with lemon juice, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Set aside. In another bowl, combine the sugars, flour, and oats. Cut in the peanut butter. Oh, eff it, just get your hands in there and work it until you have some peanut buttery crumbiness. Grease a medium sized baking dish with the Earth Balance. Dump in the apple mixture. Cover with the peanut butter mixture, and spread it around evenly. Throw it in the oven for about 45 minutes, or until the apples are tender, and the top is golden brown. Cool to room temp, and serve with vanilla ice cream.

Vegan Nut Goodies

There's a little old lady with one tooth that comes in our store about once a week and buys ten or eleven Nut Goodies. One week, we didn't have any. She was very upset. Then it started... you could almost hear the ominous music playing as the public advanced on our little drugstore like zombies. "Where are the Nut Goodies?" "Why don't you have any Salted Nut Rolls?" "I can't get through the day without one!"

It wasn't until I was told that our store was the hub for Pearson's candy in our district. I knew that Pearson's was widely available in the Twin Cities, since it is a local company, but we keep the damn things in big red barrels by the registers, and if we run out? Every store in the district does, too.

I didn't really miss the Pearson's candies. I have fond memories of their peppermint patties getting all mashed up in the bottom of my trick-or-treat bags, and I am a big fan of caramel, peanuts, and chocolate, but I was lobbying for gelatin-free Starbursts and vegan Snickers that didn't cost $2.50 a pop. But I figured, since it's Minnesota week, why not try my hand at one of the classics. The Nut Goodie. Maple cream center surrounded by peanuts, and covered in chocolate.

The inside of a genuine Pearson's Nut Goodie.

The maple cream is loosely based on the nougat recipe in Please Don't Feed the Bears, but I didn't really measure anything, and used maple extract along with vanilla. It came out kind of grainy, so I beat the stuff until my arm was in serious pain. It turned out more like a maple-y, fluffy caramel. I just mixed the peanuts in, and used a small cookie dough scoop to make plops on waxed paper.


I stuck them in the freezer for a couple of hours. Watched the last hour of From Hell (which I fell asleep in front of last night), and started melting the chocolate.



I used tongs to dip the frozen Goodies in the chocolate. Set them out on waxed paper again, and cooled. In hindsight, I should have used some sort of candy coating, because they didn't turn out glossy, like Pearson's. They are also super melty when you eat them, but who's complaining? Now I need someone to come over and take these away from me. Yum.

Love in a casserole dish

I think when it comes to comfort foods, Minnesotans win the prize. Of course, when your winters come in September and last until April, you need a lot of comforting.

I was trying to locate the most authentic Minnesota Hotdish recipe. Any Minnesotan will tell you how it's made, but it's always different. Everyone's mom made it the right way. My mom, for example, was the queen of tuna noodle hotdish. Not one to lose her cool New Yorker status, she added a tablespoon of curry powder, which I adopted into my own version of said dish. But what the Authentic Hotdishes always include are ground beef, several cans of cream of something soup (mushroom, chicken, celery), frozen peas or corn, and Tater Tots up top. No noodles?

I had to call in my dad on this one. Born in Valley City, North Dakota and having lived in Minneapolis a good chunk of his life, he knows a thing or two about hotdish. He agreed with me; hotdish has noodles. I knew it! I always have had noodles in my hotdish, and usually there's crushed Rip'l Chips on top instead of Tots. He got a second opinion from his wife, who was born and raised in Mitchell, South Dakota. She said hotdish was ground beef, noodles, and soup. "What about Tater Tots?" "Oh, yeah yeah yeah...Tater Tots!" So there you have it. The internet is only half right. Hotdish has noodles and Tots. Chips go on tuna hotdish. Now, then.

Finding everything I'd need was easy. Instead of making my own cream of mushroom soup, I got some creamy portobello soup from Imagine Foods, Morningstar Farms burger crumbles, frozen corn and peas, and instead of Ore-Ida Tots, I got the Whole Foods bougie version called Tater Puffs.

I added some salt, pepper, garlic, and thyme because this stuff is usually bland as hell. This is how we do it in the Cities, yo.



Mmm. Carby.



Perfect for a cold, misty night. I need to arrange some sort of Vegan Church Potluck. Without the church part.

Minnesota Week. You betcha.

For lack of a better phrase, this week was kicked off by a nail-biter of a win by the Vikings. I didn't make anything remotely Minnesotan yesterday, but the spirit was there. Hey, and the cupcakes were purple! Now, I'm flying high on a wave of purple and gold glory until the Vikes get their asses handed to them by the Steelers next Sunday. I'm sending good vibes to Antoine Winfield: get better! Rest! Ice! Compression! Elevation!

And speaking of rice, who doesn't like a big bowl of down home Minnesotan creamy wild rice soup? With the Minnesota state mushroom?



Wild Rice Soup with Morels
Makes a ton

2 tsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and diced
5 stalks celery, chopped
1 zucchini, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 quarts not-chicken broth
1 cup fresh morel mushrooms, chopped
(I used dried and rehydrated a half cup)
1 tbsp dried thyme
1 tbsp dried parsley
salt and pepper
1 lb chicken-style seitan, cut into bite sized pieces
1 1/2 cups cooked wild rice or wild rice blend
1 cup white wine
2 cups soy creamer

Cook the wild rice and set it aside. I used a blend because I wanted a variety of flavor, so use that.

Heat the oil in a stockpot. Sauté the onion, carrots, celery, and zucchini until the onion is translucent. Add the broth, rice, herbs, and salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer until carrots are no longer crunchy; about ten minutes. Add the seitan and wine. Cook five minutes more. Remove from heat. Stir in creamer. Test for salt. Serve!