2012 Resolutions, Updates, and Pictures

Midnight came and went with hardly an acknowledgment from myself on Sunday. I think this is the first New Year in many, many years that I awakened without a hangover. I had a nasty cold, but that's never stopped me before; alcohol is the Great Alleviator.

One thing I will not forgo is making resolutions. I've made them before and had them stick (quitting smoking, losing weight), with or without stumbling and relapsing. This year, I resolve to blog more often. With that comes creating, experimenting, and experiencing. I also resolve to make more of an effort as an activist. Any lazy sonofabitch can share links on Facebook, but it takes some sacrifice and schedule shuffling to hand out leaflets and talk to people about what it means to be vegan, especially when people just want to fight with you. 2011 was very trying for me in the activist regard; I lost a friend over it, but it made me realize that this is not just something that will eventually pass with me. It's the barometer by which I make any decision. After six years, it's the one thing I've stuck to without a known slip-up; probably because sneaking a cigarette outside a bar or eating an entire pizza after losing 40 pounds only hurts me.

Anyway, here's some pictures I cleaned out of my camera today.

From the night of Paranormal Activity and chocolate-cherry-cheesecake, Aaron's Pumpkin-Pie-in-a-Pumpkin:



From Thanksgiving Day at Dallas & Brandon's:

Wild Mushroom & Walnut Paté (Dallas hates shiitake mushrooms with the fury of a thousand ninjas, but looooved this).



The Beast made another appearance.



Maple glazed carrots.



Creamed spinach and parsnips. This didn't turn out as good as I wanted (but it was much better as leftovers). I'll try it again next Thanksgiving, but now I know how to make it better.



Autumn Latkes from Veganomicon. Props to Brandon for doing all that peeling and shredding. My arthritic hands thank you!



I forgot to take pictures of dessert, which was eggnog pumpkin pie and apple-pear crumble. That just means I need to make them again!

Aaron and Kevin showed up for dessert that day, and showed us a piece from the news that night.

Rescued beagles get normal homes

Then they told us that they were adopting one of the beagles! Meet Kevin Junior:



Junior is still a little scared of stuff, especially doorways. I promised him that whenever I come through a door, I will always have hugs and treats.

That's it for now, but expect more soon. I hope I can keep my word on that.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Today, my dad gets to do three things he loves: smoke a cigar, drink some Rémy Martin, and have lunch at the Indian restaurant he loves in Fargo. Since I can't be there, I'll celebrate my own way: by making a dish that my dad made for me a lot as a child.



Rich, cheesy, and comforting, Carbonara is perfect for a crisp autumn evening. I've never written down the recipe, because I've always just thrown it together. But I'll give it a try.

Pasta alla Carbonara
for one or two

cooked pasta of choice (spaghetti is most common)

1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 onion, sliced thin
4 strips of vegan bacon, chopped
1 clove minced garlic
1 tbsp margarine
3 tbsp vegan cream cheese or Daiya mozzarella
1/3 cup soy creamer or unsweetened almond milk
splash white wine
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 tbsp vegan parmesan cheese if desired
salt, pepper, fresh parsley

In oil, cook the onion, bacon, and garlic until bacon is browned and onion is translucent. Add margarine, cheese, and milk. Stir until cheese is melted. Add wine and peas. Heat through. Add vegan parmesan (I use a mixture of sea salt, walnuts, and nooch). Salt and pepper to taste. Toss with pasta. Garnish with chopped fresh parsley.

Chocolate & Cheese

Sometime in September, after I found out that Mofo was October this year, I started to plan out my themes. I seriously considered a week of cheesecakes. I'll probably do it at a future date, but I think I scrapped it this year because I knew that I was going to have to buy new jeans after Chain Restaurant Week, and eating the equivalent of a truckload of Tofutti wasn't going to help matters. Next year, I'll do some healthier stuff and top it off with Cheesecake Week, 'kay?

I actually made this for a party tonight, but it was postponed. I'm sort of glad, because the huge party became a small dinner party, and I got to go home with leftovers. Yayah! I am very happy with how this turned out, and after watching Paranormal Activity tonight, I'm fairly sure the demon has moved from my kitchen to my camera. This was the best picture I took, and look how I cut it off on the top there. Fucking amateur.



Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake
6-8 servings

1 chocolate cookie crust (I used Keebler--it's vegan!)
1 8-oz pkg Tofutti cream cheese
1 asceptic box extra firm silken tofu
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tsp almond extract
1 can cherry pie filling
Whipped topping, chocolate shavings if desired

Preheat oven to 350°. Place crust (keep in the tin) on a cookie sheet.

In a food processor, blend together the cheese, tofu, sugar, cocoa, cornstarch, lemon juice, and almond extract. Scrape the sides with a rubber spatula and blend again. Pour into crust. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes. You don't have to use a waterbath, since you'll be covering up any cracks with the cherries. Once baked, cool the cake to room temperature, and then chill, covered, for at least an hour. Spread cherry pie filling over the cake. Chill until time to serve. Excellent with whipped topping of choice (we used Soyatoo, but chilled whipped coconut cream would be good, too), and chocolate shavings if you wanna be fancy.

Back in the saddle

Last Thanksgiving, I added vanilla and cardamom to the cranberry sauce, and made it AMAZING. I wanted to recreate that, but in a dessert. This is so, so delicious. It's also super quick, because I used canned whole cranberry sauce. I highly recommend pairing this with So Delicious Dulce de Leche ice cream.



Cranberry Crisp
9 servings

1 cup flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup chopped almonds
1 stick margarine (1/2 cup)
1 can whole berry cranberry sauce
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cardamom

Preheat oven to 375°. Spray a 9"x9" baking pan with cooking spray. In a large bowl, combine flour, oats, sugar, almonds, and margarine. Work it with your hands until it's all crumby. Spread have the crumbs in your pan. In another bowl. combine the cranberries, vanilla, and cardamom. Spread over crumbs in the pan. Sprinkle remaining crumb mixture on top. Bake 40 minutes. Serve with ice cream.

When life gives you lemons, or in this case...

exploded caramel apple cookies or melted turtle brownies, you do this.

This is of course after furiously slamming the brownie pan on the counter and yelling "FUCK" at the top of your lungs because you're convinced that your goddamn kitchen is cursed and/or you've completely lost all of your cooking skill somehow. This has been a weird week for me. I wonder if it's some strange hormonal thing because not only can I not cook, but I've gone back and read some things I posted on other sites and it's like a fucking illiterate teabagger transcribed for me. I was tempted to just throw in the towel, but instead, I took the day off from Mofo, made some spaghetti, and slept for about thirteen hours. This morning, I took a couple of my melted brownies, and made the above sundae. The rest are going in the freezer until I figure out what else to do with a baking fail other than toss it in the garbage with what Mischka left on the floor this morning.

God. Why didn't I do a garlic week or something?

Caramel Apple Cookies

This was a whole lot of work for only one decent looking cookie.



So, I made these caramels (minus the cardamom), and I veganized this apple cider cookie recipe (I used Earth Balance and flax eggs), and my cookies exploded and there's caramel all over the cookie sheet and oh fuck THIS. That one is the only one worth taking a picture of. Since I have plenty more cider mix (I only made a half batch, THANK GOD), I might try this again, and instead of caramels inside the cookies, I'll just drizzle some caramel on top.

But I will tell you this: They are pretty damned yummy. I might just crumble them up and mix them into vanilla ice cream.

Can't gain weight? Read on:

Is everyone aware that Megan Fox recently gave up veganism because she "couldn't gain weight?" Yeah. I had this reaction. Anyway, I have four words for Megan Fox: Mint Oreo Fudge Cremes. See, mint Oreos were already awesome, and vegan, and then they went and covered those fuckers in chocolate. Are you kidding me? These things are like Thin Mints, only BETTER. I always pick them up when I go to Target and feel like a pathetic junkie on the bus as I rip the package open.

Here's another nice surprise: Jell-O cook and serve pudding? Vegan. I shit you negative. It appears that the instant puddings are as well, but the cooking-required ones actually set using non-dairy milk. Now, I highly recommend using almond milk, because soy just doesn't set right, and it tastes funny. But the one thing about this find that's extra awesome? It makes bitchin' vegan ice cream.

So, I made up a batch of chocolate pudding this morning (using Silk Pure Almond vanilla-but the dark chocolate makes an even richer pudding), put plastic wrap over IT (to eliminate the skin on top) and refrigerated it. When I got home, I dumped it in the ice cream maker with 20 or so smashed up mint Oreo Fudge Cremes, and a teaspoon of peppermint extract to make it extra minty.



Flavor: check. Texture and mouthfeel (I hate that word): check. Weight gainable? Oh, check. Come to mama.