Holiday Cookies (One Month Late!)

Okay, so I think I'm ready to get back into blogging regularly. I'm not making any promises, though. I've discovered lots of new favorite dishes in the last year, or so. I've been sticking with lots of those, and only occasionally make something that I haven't blogged about already. That probably isn't good, so how about I commit to making one new recipe each week? Okay, that's settled. I've also decided to try to cut my grocery budget some. With these economic times, I feel like saving as much money as possible is probably a good idea. Maybe I'll try to come up with some creative food-budgeting ideas while still eating a healthy, varied diet.

Anyway, as you (not that I know exactly who "you" are) may remember, last year I embarked on an ambitious "12 Days of Goodies" holiday extravaganza. This year I kept it a bit more simple. Being vegan now, I made more vegan goodies. I made the kids their non-vegan holiday favorites, though (sugar cookies and chocolate chip cookies).

I made the Sparkled Ginger Cookies from VWAV again this year. Even non-vegans think they are fantastic ginger cookies. They truly are. I would recommend doubling the recipe. They freeze very well.

I also tried a vegan thumbprint cookie from Vegetarian Times. They were pretty good. The texture wasn't great, but the flavor was. I've found that vegan cookies made with canola oil tend to be more true to their non-vegan counterparts than those made with Earth Balance.

Since 7-layer Bars are one of my favorite "cookies" ever, I actually vegan-ized those. Let me tell you, they may be better than the originals. I simply replaced the butter with EB, found vegan graham crackers (Keebler brand), vegan chocolate chips and vegan butterscotch chips (Food Lion store brand are the only vegan butterscotch chips in existance, apparently. They're pretty much just flavored chemicals. Not something I'd want to eat regularly, but once-a-year is acceptable.) I even made vegan sweetened, condensed milk from scratch. It didn't turn out like your standard milk, it was more gooey and carmel-y. YUM!

So, as you can see I didn't go all out like I did last year. I still managed to make some really tasty goodies, though!

I'm Back!

Wow! It's been a while, eh? My dad and I had a fantastic time in Colorado. It was very beautiful there, and we had wonderful weather. We did lots and lots of hiking, which I seem to have developed a passion for over the last year or so. I'm glad I live in West Virginia. Lots of hiking here, and mostly in places I haven't yet explored. I have a lot to look forward to. Chez Mama will now be a vegan cooking blog, as I've finally fully committed to living a vegan lifestyle. It's been a rather slow transformation for me, starting four years ago when I stopped eating land animals. Over the last year, I ate fish a handful of times. Over the last few months, I've barely eaten any eggs of dairy. A couple of weeks ago, I ate something with dairy in it, and it just didn't seem right to me. So here I am. Vegan. I feel really good about it.

So, when I got back from Colorado I was ready to start cooking. When I'm gone for a few days, eating at restaurants, I realize how much I miss cooking and eating my own food. Restaurant food seems to wreak havoc on my digestive system. Even if it's relatively healthy stuff. It kinda sucks.



So, I got back and cooked up a big batch of black beans. It's always nice to have lots of beans on hand and ready to go. And with some of those beans, I made one of the best things I've made in a while. Sort of a "Huevos" Rancheros. Or, you could call it "Tofu Rancheros". I made up some tofu scramble, loosely using the recipe from VWaV. I add whatever veggies I have on hand. This time it was onion, various peppers from the CSA, and a bag of spinach. I also warmed up some of my black beans in a pan with a can of diced, fire-roasted tomatoes, chile powder and diced onions. I had some corn tortillas which I heated on the griddle, then topped with the tofu, black beans, salsa and Better Than Sour Cream. It was so good that I think I'm going to be making it again this weekend. YUM!


I also made some black bean burgers this week. The same ones as usual from V-con. To go with those, I made some sweet potato fries. It's getting to be sweet potato time again, and I'm so ready for it. I can't get enough sweet potatoes.



Oh, and I made the Peanut-Butter Oatmeal Cookies from VWaV. I used whole wheat flour, and reduced the amount of sugar by 1/2 cup. They aren't really sweet, and they're soooo peanut-buttery. So good. I don't think I'm going to miss anything by going vegan! As a matter of fact, I think I'm going to enjoy baking more than ever. I mean, check out some of the cupcakes that Carrie (Adventures in Vegetarianism) whips up!

Sleek and I had the oppourtunity to check out a really fantastic concert last Sunday. We saw The Swell Season perform in Pittsburgh at the Byham Theatre. We've wanted to see them since last spring, so it was a real treat. We were introduced to them through the Irish, indie film Once. I highly reccommend checking out the film, and their music. They did lots of new stuff at the show, so I'm hoping for a new album from them sometime soon! It's not a show to be missed, so if they're coming to your area, check them out for sure!

Radiohead Etc.

Well, it happened. It was a dream come true. Seeing my favorite band from just a few feet away. I can't even describe how freaking awesome it was. Totally surreal. Perfect setlist. I loved every second of it and never wanted it to end. It will happen again. I look forward to it. I feel myself becoming Radiohead-obsessed for a while. I'll probably be mostly listening to In Rainbows for the next year or so, with a little Kid A, Amnesiac, OK Computer, The Bends and Hail to the Thief thrown in for good measure. (I'm kidding, people! Kind of.)


Now for the food...The swimming lessons every evening have been killing me. Some days, I spend the morning/early afternoon in the kitchen preparing the dinner we will eat at 8 p.m. It's exhausting. I've been doing mostly really simple things. Last week, I did a really cool stir-fry with vegetables from the CSA. (Note the really cool carrots. Red/purple on the outside, orange inside.) I also added some black beans just because I had them in the fridge and needed to use them. I got all the veggies stir-fried, and at the end I cranked up the heat and added this:

1 TBS brown sugar
3 TBS shoyu
1/2 tsp Thai chili sauce
tiny pinch of Chinese five-spice powder
splash of water

Whisk until combined.

It was exceptionally tasty. Maybe the best stir-fry I've ever made. Great way to use up all the CSA veggies.

Instead of making rice to go with the stir-fry, I made the Soba Salad with Soy-Wasabi Vinaigrette from the July issue of Cooking Light. I subbed sugar snaps for snow peas, and left out the radishes. It was really good, but the wasabi nearly lit my nasal passages on fire. It wasn't spicy to my mouth at all, but boy my nose felt it! Didn't stop me from eating nearly the whole batch, though. (Not all in one day. I had lots of leftovers. Sleek thought the wasabi was a bit much.) So, if you're sensitive to wasabi-type heat, you may want to cut back the amount of paste you use.


Another thing I'm really into these days is making homemade granola. I made my first batch last Saturday, using this recipe. I subbed brown rice syrup for the honey, and used almonds instead of peanuts. I also used some chopped, dried apples as well as raisins. It's so good just to grab a handful as a snack, but it's extra-good in a bowl with some vanilla hempmilk. (I ordered a case of the Living Harvest vanilla hempmilk, by the way. That stuff is so good!) We finished that batch off, so today I made another. This time I used pecans instead of almonds, and dried cranberries instead of apples. I just can't wait to experiment more and make lots of different kinds of granola.



This evening for dinner, I made a zucchini orzo dish. (I left out the parmesan and used whole wheat orzo.) The recipe was given to me by Kathy Evans, of Evans Knob Farm, which is where our lovely CSA veggies come from. She had printed it out from the Animal Vegetable Miracle website. I've looked at that book many times in the bookstore, thought about getting it, and haven't done it yet. Have any of you all read that? I'm curious. I also made some beans from the CSA. They're a lovely heirloom bean. Light green/yellow in color with lots of purple stripes. Unfortunately the stripes fade when the beans are cooked, but holy smokes! They were absolutely delicious. I really wanted to get the full-flavor of the beans, so I cooked them simply. I started by sauteeing a chopped onion in just a little canola oil. After the onion was soft, I added the beans. I lowered the heat and covered the pan. After about 10 minutes, I added two cloves of minced garlic to the pan. I put the cover back on and let them steam for about 15 more minutes. I seasoned them with salt and pepper. They were nice and crisp, but not too crisp. Just incredible. I hate thinking back to the fresh beans my grandmothers would cook. They cooked the hell out of them and they were mushy and bacon-y flavored. I've found that fresh beans are so much more flavorful when they're nice and crisp. They also seem so much healthier.




For dessert, I made a batch of the oatmeal-raisin cookies from V-con. They are so freaking good. So chewy. They were a little difficult to remove from the baking sheets. The recipe advises a lightly greased sheet. I always use parchment, so I decided to go ahead with it as usual. It was not easy removing them from the sheets. So, I decided to lightly grease the sheets for the next round. It still wasn't easy getting them off. I think the parchment was actually easier. It just took some patience. They didn't tear or get destroyed in the process, at least. I'll definitely be making these again. They're really easy, and they're whole wheat and full of oats and raisins. They also contain brown rice syrup, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite ingredients! I think it's what gives these cookies the gooey-chewy texture. YUM!

Cookies, Pizza, A Big Salad and Chili Dogs

Last Friday was Annelies's last day of kindergarten. I can't believe the school-year flew by so fast. My little girl is a first-grader now. It truly makes my heart ache. Although, since last Friday, I've spent my days playing mediator for the kids. When they aren't fighting, they're zipping around the house. Trashing the place and screeching. I may very well lose my mind before the end of summer. Maybe once we get into a routine, things will run smoother. For now, though, I feel like I can't get a single bit of work done and I want to go to bed at 8 o'clock at night. I'm worn out already!


To celebrate her last day of school, I made her favorite sugar cookies and her favorite dinner, "Mama's homemade pizza!" I didn't do too much cooking the rest of the weekend since Sleek was out of town. I had lots of salad mix and fresh spinach from the CSA, so I did eat a good bit of salad. Wondering what to do with my bunch of fresh chives, I decided to try a vegan ranch dressing. It turned out to be excellent. Here's what I did:

3/4 cup soy milk with a good splash of cider vinergar. Let it sit for a few minutes until it curdles.
3 TBS Vegenaise
a good pinch of sugar (You can make it on the sweeter side, or not. Just whatever you like.)
pinch of salt
good pinch of dried parsley
black pepper

Whisk it all together, and there you go! It's best after it's been in the fridge overnight. The flavor of the chives really comes alive after a day or two.

When Sleek arrived home, I decided to make some buffalo tofu salads. After pressing the tofu, I sliced it and brushed both sides with a mixture of peanut oil and shoyu. I baked it at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Then I flipped it over and baked it for 15 minutes more. After that, I covered it in buffalo sauce and baked it for 15 more minutes. I let it cool a bit, then put some slices on the salads. I put some french fries on top, then followed with the ranch dressing. So good! A great way to use up the CSA salad greens. I figure on one big salad a week for dinner as long as we're getting this many greens. Oh, and I made the buffalo sauce by melting about 1/3 cup Earth Balance and adding 3/4 cups of hot sauce to that.


Last night, I went with an idea that Sleek had the first time he sank his teeth into a Snobby Joe. Veggie chili dogs. I bought some veggie dogs and made the very simple Snobby recipe as a chili. Add some mustard and chopped onions, and OMG! It's a vegan chili dog! Even better than the "real" thing. I made some of my vegan macaroni salad to go along with them. A true summer meal.


I'm at my parents' house for the next several days. My next post will be Julian's birthday post. My little guy will be 4 on Monday. 4!

Lemongrass and Aspargus Risotto and Lots of Other Things

Wow. Seems I haven't posted in a while, eh? I feel like I've barely used the computer in the last week. The kids were at their grandparents' over the weekend, and I took a nice long break from cooking. I got back into the groove this evening, though, with lemongrass and asparagus risotto from V-con. While labor-intensive (lots of adding broth and stirring constantly) it was delicious. Crazy-good. Must make more risotto. To go with it, I made a sort-of crustless spanakopita. Jessica made it during our winter-fun weekend at Canaan Valley. I think she did hers like a casserole. I copied the recipe from her, and it called for making it in a pie-plate. I decided to try it that way and cut it into slices. Mmmmmm. So good. Jessica originally found the recipe in Health magazine. It was a really good meal, and the risotto was worth every second of preparation.

Now, back to last week...Wednesday evening, I made a really interesting lentil-kidney bean loaf. The recipe came from my Vegetarian cookbook. It turned out really good, and was especially good as leftovers on a sandwich. Cold with a little ketchup. Very reminiscent of a traditional meatloaf sandwich. I had a mandarin-pecan spinach salad with it. I made the dressing with some spicy pecan vinegar (Thanks, c-drums!), mandarin orange sections, olive oil, salt and pepper. I topped it with some toasted pecans.



Thursday I made the zucchini-chickpea-tomato curry from ED&BV. It was pretty good, but the recipe called for whole coriander seeds. Every few bites, Sleek and I would bite into one of the seeds. It was quite unpleasant. If I make it again, I'll definitely use ground coriander. First time I've thrown away leftovers in many, many months.





My absolute favorite thing I made last week was vegan, no-bake cookies. Yu-hum. Why hadn't I made these before? This is roughly the recipe I came up with:

4 TBS Earth Balance
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 cup turbinado sugar
1/4 cup soy milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 TBS peanut butter
3 cups oatmeal

Melt EB and cocoa powder. Add sugar and soy milk and bring to a boil. Let boil for a few minutes. Remove from heat and add vanilla extract, pb, and oatmeal. Drop spoonfuls onto parchment-lined baking sheets, or just start eating it out of the pot! So good! I'll definitely be making these again. Next time, I'm going to reduce the cocoa to 1/3 cup, and increase the pb by a TBS or two. They were a little too chocolate-y, and not quite peanut butter-y. Still freaking good, though.

Twelve Days of Goodies: Part V

Today was Annelies's first official snow day. We woke up to a couple of inches of snow on the ground. At 3:45 p.m., it's still coming down. I'd say we have 5 inches now, and we're under a "heavy snow warning." We're expecting a total of 8 inches by the time all is said and done. It's a little unusual for us to have a snowfall of this magnitude in early December 'round these parts. It's really beautiful, and the kids had a blast playing in the snow today. They've just enjoyed having a day to spend together, I think. It's nice when they have a chance to just play all day. And that's exactly what they've done.

I, on the other hand, have been making cookies! I made another batch of the ginger cookies, and a big batch of chocolate chip. I used to use the Nestle Toll House recipe for chocolate chip cookies, but time after time the cookies came out flat. I modified it to make it just right, and also added some nutrition by using some whole-wheat pastry flour. Here's my recipe:

1 1/2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup butter or Earth Balance, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
chocolate chips

Combine flours, baking soda and salt. Set aside. Cream butter and sugars until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add vanilla. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Add chocolate chips and stir until mixed in. (Sometimes I use a 12 oz. package of choc. chips, and sometimes I'll use less. Really, you can use as many as you like.) Bake at 375 degrees for 9-11 minutes. Cool on cookie sheet for a couple of minutes and transfer to cooling rack.

I didn't write a post about dinner last night, but I made an enchilada casserole from the December issue of Cooking Light. Instead of using the red chile sauce that they included, I just used my enchilada sauce that I had in my freezer. At first, I thought the casserole was just okay. I had a second piece later on after it had cooled off, and I thought it was much better. I also made another batch of refried beans, and some chipotle Brussel sprouts. The Brussels turned out really nice. Just some brown sugar, chopped chipotle in adobo sauce and water.

Today while I was making the cookies, I was in the mood for some Christmas music. I checked out the "Classical Christmas" station on Pandora. It is absolutely fantastic. That's the kind of Christmas music I love.

Tweleve Days of Goodies: Part IV

I wanted to make one vegan "goodie" during my holiday baking extravaganza. I saw a recipe in Vegan With a Vengeance for "Sparkled Ginger Cookies," and since ginger cookies were on my list, I decided to try it. I made up a batch this morning, and let me just say: "Lordy, Lordy!" These are some seriously good ginger cookies. In a taste-test, I'm sure they'd match any non-vegan variety. The recipe makes a pretty small batch, so I'm definitely going to have to make at least one more! Also, the dough was much easier to work with after being refrigerated for 10-15 minutes.

As I was working on these little gems, I listened to something new that Sleek recently put on my iPod. It's a Talking Heads compilation that just RULES!

Twelve Days of Goodies: Part III

Like the seven-layer bars, my next "goodie" is a childhood favorite. I remember loving them as a child, then all of a sudden my mom stopped making them. I probably haven't had them for 25 years. Last summer, while looking through my mom's recipe book, I found the recipe. It was on a piece of calendar paper from 1974. It was in my dad's handwriting. (My parents have been divorced for nearly 30 years.) The recipe is called Swedish Nut Balls, but these cookies are also known as Russian Tea Cakes, Mexican Wedding cookies and Italian Wedding cookies. There must be a name for every nationality.

I remember writing down the recipe, and I've looked over it several times in the last couple of weeks. One thing I didn't quite grasp the magnitude of was the one pound of butter it calls for. Yes, one pound of butter! My eyes about popped out of my head as I reached in the fridge and got out one entire package of butter. It's a good thing I stocked up for all of my holiday baking. I usually don't even have "real" butter in the house.

So, yesterday I spent the entire afternoon making these little cookies. The dough is definitely different than most. (Must be the butter.) I was concerned I'd written the recipe incorrectly, so I was anxious to try one from the first batch. YES! They were exactly like I remembered them!

I had plenty of time to listen to lots of music while the baking was going on. I actually listened to Radiohead's In Rainbows two times. That album will get you. I swear it has the power to keep you from moving the iPod dial to something different! At the kids' request, I listened to "Colin" next. That's Colin MacIntyre, aka Mull Historical Society. After that I was tired, and once again resorted to "string ensembles" on Pandora.

Twelve Days of Goodies: Part II

Oh yes I am doing four posts in one day! Today I had the whole house cleaned by 1 p.m. I was bored. I had nothing to do. Julian was upstairs watching a dvd. A rarity. He's almost always climbing all over me. Really. So, I decided to go ahead and make a pan of Seven-Layer Bars. They are a childhood-favorite of mine. They are still a favorite. If I wouldn't have cut them and put them in the freezer, I'd be eating every last one. I really could. The photo here to the right didn't turn out that great, but I'm sure everyone knows about these magical bars anyway. If not you're missing out. So damn simple, but so good! I make them the same way my mom did:

Melt 1 stick of butter or margarine in 9x13 pan
Pat in 1 cup of graham cracker crumbs
Add one cup of chocolate chips and one cup of butterscotch chips
Add one cup of coconut
Top with a can of condensed milk (YUM! Yep, I licked the spatula!)
Sprinkle with a cup of chopped pecans

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Cool completely. Cut into bars.


By the way...All these goodies I'm making are pretty much going straight into the freezer. The week before Christmas, I'll start making up trays and packages for our friends and family. We're not doing a full-month sugar binge here, in case anyone was wondering. Sleek, the kids and I are allowed a sample or two from each batch, though.

Twelve Days of Goodies: Part I

Okay, so this year I decided I'm taking back Christmas for myself. For years, I've gotten really disillusioned with the holiday season. You know, the stores opening at 4 a.m. the day after Thanksgiving. People fighting over parking spaces and material items. Call me a Scrooge, but how is any of that in the spirit of Christmas? (Or any other holiday that holds spiritual meaning to people.) The consumerism and over-consumption is sickening to me. So, this year Sleek and I are going easy on the gifts for the kids and family. We're doing practically all of our shopping online. The thought of a department store or mall at this time of year nearly sends me into a state of panic.

So, here's the deal: I'm doing things I like this year. I'm going to be happy and make it a special time for the kids. (I've actually been listening to Christmas music with them for two weeks already. And I enjoy it!) I'm doing lots and lots of baking. I'm not getting stressed out. I decided it would be fun to blog about my holiday baking. I started last night by making my snowflake sugar-cookies. Unfortunately, my snowflake cookie-cutters didn't really make cookies that look much like snowflakes. However, they really, really taste good! I use a recipe given to me by a family friend. It makes the best sugar cookies, and the dough is very easy to work with. Here goes:

1 stick of butter
1 cup of sugar
2 cups of sifted flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 TBS Brandy
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Cream butter and sugar. Sift dry ingredients. Add to butter mixture and blend well. Add egg, brandy and vanilla. Beat until well-mixed. Shape dough into two flattened rounds, wrap and chill for at least an hour. Roll and cut into shapes. Bake at 350 degrees on parchment-lined sheets for 10 minutes. Do not allow them to brown!

I like to just use coarse sugar on them, which I put on before baking. They could be baked plain and iced when cool. I also usually double the recipe.