Happy Holidays!

Thanksgiving Pictures

Thanksgiving Pictures

Beer O'Clock...Pizza Crust!!!

Ingredients:

• 3 cups flour of choice (recommended: 2 cups unbleached all purpose flour and 1 cup whole wheat flour)
  
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 12 oz. beer
• 1.5 cups (approximately) of sauce (recommended: marinara sauce)
• Toppings (veggies of choice, chopped or sliced thin) We used marinated artichoke hearts, marinated sun dried tomatoes, fresh chopped basil, green olives, chopped garlic, and mushrooms.
  
• Grated vegan cheese (Follow Your Heart Monteray Jack brand works. It's yummy, and it melts!)
  

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400. Combine flour, baking powder, and beer in a large bowl. Dough does not have to rise at all, but will be fairly wet and sticky. Press into oiled cookie sheet (12 x 18 or slightly smaller works well). If it seems too sticky to work with, sprinkle a little flour on it as you pat/press it into the pan.

Top with your favorite sauce & toppings. Bake approx. 25 minutes or until dough is browning & crisp around edges.

Serves: 4-6

*In the future, instead of using a pale ale, I think I'll try a darker beer. Also, adding some fresh rosemary to the dry mix (before the beer) might help instill more flavor. I found the crust a little bland, but Ben liked it as it was. He likes most things pizza, though.

Simple Evening Pasta

http://www.vegnews.com/web/articles/page.do?pageId=276&catId=2

What You Need:

• 4 quarts water
• 8 ounces farfalle (bowtie) pasta
• 1 bunch asparagus, sliced into 1/4-inch pieces
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon non-hydrogenated margarine
• 1 tablespoon garlic, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground

What You Do:

1. In a large pot, bring water to a boil. Add farfalle and cook until just underdone, about 5 minutes. Place a steamer basket over boiling farfalle, and steam asparagus for 2 minutes. Remove steamer basket and run asparagus under cold water to stop cooking. Drain farfalle and set aside.
2. In a large saucepan, heat oil and non-hydrogenated margarine over medium heat. Add garlic and nutmeg, and cook until garlic is fragrant, about two minutes. Add farfalle, asparagus, and pine nuts and stir. Add salt and pepper, tossing to combine. Remove from heat and serve.

*Easy and pretty good.

I want to try this...

http://www.wayfarefoods.com/home

So Delicious Cultured Coconut Milk -Fail

Ummm...despite being expensive, this little container was a big disappointment. I now understand why it is not called yogurt. Maybe it's my fault for thinking it would taste like Silk's Soy Milk yogurt. Bottom line is that it does not taste like yogurt and congeals weirdly as you mix it. Trying to eat it almost triggers a gag reflex, as if to say, "that looks like fat, why are you trying to eat that?"

And the thing is I really want to like it. I want those good yogurt properties back in my diet. Might have to give in and go back to soy yogurt. I just hope my body does not overload on estrogen.

The only way this product might prove useful is in a smoothie. Too bad work does not come equipped with a blender.

Rice Divine

Organic Rice Divine: Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge

I bought this on accident; I thought I was buying the coconut version from Turtle Mountain. This tastes more like a fudgesicle than anything really yummy. However, I will say that their Mudd Pie is delicious!

Organic Rice Divine: Mudd Pie

Hot Chocolate

Endangered Species Peppermint Hot Chocolate is yummy! Can't really taste the peppermint, but the chocolate is very rich. I used half almond breeze, and half hazelnut milk, two tablespoons of mix and voila! Actually, two table spoons might be a little too much, but I still highly recommended the mix. Hey, and it helps animals; can't beat that!

I've been on a chocolate binge as of late.

Chrsitmas Cookie Candles

I have four cooling in the kitchen! 5 lbs of wax looks like it equals to 6 or 7 big candles.

This is so exciting! So, it turns out that it's pretty easy to make vegan candles!

http://www.candlemaking.com/store/Candlemaking-C1.aspx

Soy Candles

I've ordered the soy wax chips and fragrance. Now, I just have to wait for it to arrive, glue in a wick to a jar, heat the wax, add the fragrance, cool and light.

Candles free of stearic acid and cetyl palmitate, and soot.

http://www.caringconsumer.com/contest_DIYsoycandle.asp

Thanksgiving

Menu:

Gypsy Soup (Moosewood Cookbook)
Green Bean Casserole
Recipe-> http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=6137.0
-use hazelnut milk instead of soy milk
Pumpkin Bread
Recipe-> http://www.theppk.com/recipes/dbrecipes/index.php?RecipeID=234
Cheese (Cashew)Dip
Endangered Species Chocolate
Website->http://www.chocolatebar.com/index.asp
Artichoke Pie
Chick'n Salad (seitan)
Walnut Pate
Nacho Cheeze (cashew dip)
Pecan Bars
Chocolate Almond Bars
Orange Potatoes (yams)
Spinach Artichoke Dip
Enchiladas

Ice Cream & Chocolate

Turtle Mountain Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl is amazing!

The coconut milk takes the place of soy milk found in most other vegan frozen desserts. This is important for people trying to avoid ovarian cysts. Too much soy might = ovarian cysts.

Endangered Species Chocolate
Smooth Organic Dark Chocolate with Cherry

This is yummy! The cherry flavor is in the chocolate. And they donate 10% of their profits to help support species, habitat and humanity. This is my new favorite chocolate bar; I like it even more than their mint, non-organic, version.