Thanksgiving

shane and I have made it a tradition to visit Farm Sanctuary in Orland for their Celebration for the Turkeys event. He was out of state visiting family this year, so I went up with friends Shalon and RJ instead.



It was a beautiful, sunny day, and as always, it was so nice to see these lucky animals living out their days on a picturesque farm, a wonderfully drastic change from the nightmares they had come from. I love seeing people interact with enormous steers and talkative pigs for the first time, and I appreciate that staff and volunteers take care to allow the less gregarious animals watch from a distance. It was also great to see Josh, Michelle, and the lovely Ruby, proprietors of Herbivore in Portland. Josh gave an excellent talk about everyday advocacy, and how to be eloquent with stupid people, even when all you really want to do is punch them in the face.



For the actual holiday, shane and I went over to Shaudi and Danny's home for a feast, where we enjoyed cornbread-stuffed seitan, tamales, biscuits, cornbread, stuffing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, roasted brussel sprouts, and green beans.





Violet outdid herself with a kick ass pumpkin cheesecake. There was also apple, pecan, and pumpkin pies, and chocolate cookies.



My contribution for the night was stuffing and glazed sweet potatoes. As much as I like the traditional candied yams, they are never quite as candied as I would like. Most recipes call for boiling first, which doesn't let the potatoes live up to their full sugary potential, and they're usually so soft, they might as well be mashed.

Instead, I slowly roasted cubed sweet potatoes (nutritious skins on!), starting in a cold oven, to give the starches time to convert to sugar (thank you checkout stand America's Test Kitchen) until they were toasty brown. Meanwhile, I made a glaze from water, sugar, molasses, freshly grated ginger, cardamom, and a touch of cayenne pepper, that I boiled to a syrup. Once the potatoes were roasted, I sprinkled them with a bit of salt and tossed them in the caramel-like glaze. Finally, I topped them off with a bit of Shaudi's marshmallow cream and popped them in the broiler. Sweet, but not too sweet, crispy outsides with creamy centers, and just a little hint of spice.

Cheddar and nacho teese

I was very excited to come home to a box of teese's new cheddar and nacho vegan cheeses. I thought I would take a day or two to decide how best to use them, but the moment shane saw that nacho log, it was decided that we would have nachos for dinner.



We went to the store to get some chips and salsa. I sauteed minced garlic in olive oil, then added a can of black beans, cumin, lime juice, 1/2 a chipotle pepper in adobo, and a pinch of salt. Cilantro and sliced green onions finished things off.

For the teese, I recommend whisking it in a small saucepan over medium heat until smooth and melty. This worked better than some quick nachos I made a few days later in the microwave, where the oil separated from the solids, much like I remember conventional cheese doing. Whisking and stove heat is the way to go!

shane went down to visit family in Arizona for a couple days, so I decided to wait until he returned to make a meal out of the cheddar. I did sample some in a grilled cheese sandwich in the meantime, which was delicious. I even tried a bit of teese straight off the log; it tasted exactly like those individually wrapped cheese slices of my youth. Not quite my thing, but if you like cold cheese, the resemblance is uncanny!

The afternoon of shane's return, I tried to think of the best way to use the cheddar teese. The great melting quality of teese made pizza seem like a good solution, but tomato sauce and cheddar didn't quite sit right. I saw the last of a bag of soy curls on the counter and it struck me. BBQ pizza!

My laziness turned into much more work than I had originally planned, following a bike ride to Trader Joe's for premade dough and BBQ sauce, where I discovered I had left my wallet at home. Not wanting to ride home and back again, I figured I should just make my own. I used the pizza dough recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance with whole wheat pastry flour, and made sauce from tomato paste, apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, maple syrup, mustard, sriracha, water, and liquid smoke. After soaking, I precooked the soy curls in canola oil, with a bit of soy sauce and pepper. Sliced red onions were added before the pizza went into the oven, and cilantro and green onions topped it off when it came out.



It was one of the best pizzas I've had in a long time!

If you want to pick up some teese of your own, check out locations on their website. Rainbow Grocery also carries teese, for those of you in the Bay Area.

Butterscotch pecan cookies

I was never a big chocolate fan growing up; these were my go-to cookies instead of classic chocolate chips, but it's probably been almost ten years since I've made them. I had been on an ongoing search for accidentally vegan butterscotch chips for a long time when I learned there are a few locations on the east coast that sell these dairy-free morsels (Price Chopper and Food Lion). Some gracious folks were willing to mail some over. It's probably for the best that I don't have regular access to butterscotch chips. They're filled with partially hydrogenated fats, artificial flavorings, and all sorts of things I would generally avoid, but as a rare treat, I don't mind indulging in these soft, chewy cookies.

This recipe is just the basic Toll House cookie with a couple modifications: soy yogurt for eggs and doubled-up brown sugar for an extra molasses chew that matches well with the butterscotch chips. Buttery pecans finish things off with a smooth crunch.



Butterscotch pecan cookies
2 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup margarine, softened
1 1/2 cup lightly packed brown sugar
3 tbs. plain soy yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 c. butterscotch chips
3/4 c. chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 375F. Line cookie sheets with parchment.

Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt, and set aside.

Cream the margarine and sugar together until slightly fluffy, then add the yogurt and vanilla and beat until combined. Slowly stir in the flour mixture, then once combined, stir in the chips and nuts.

Drop rounded tablespoons onto your prepared cookie sheets and use a dampened finger to flatten slightly. Bake for 8-10 minutes until just barely turning golden. Remove from oven and let cookies cool on the sheet for about 2 minutes, then slide the entire parchment sheet to a wire rack to cool completely.

Happy Birthday, Shaudi!

Shaudi turns a whopping 25 today! Yay, Shaudi!



Burning calories.


Consuming calories.


Violet's adorable cupcakes



Chocolate chip cake with chocolate mousse and vanilla buttercream.

She'll kick your bazzaz!

Vegan power!

My friends, gym-mates, and fellow vegans Shalon and Violet will represent Pacific Ring Sports on the undercard for an all-woman, Muay Thai competition on October 25 in Daly City.



I'm looking forward to watching them kick ass in their amateur debuts. Wish them luck! (And good luck to Diane, too!)

Sugar Beat Sweets

Last week, I helped Melisser prepare for a busy weekend at San Francisco's World Veg Festival with Sugar Beat Sweets. She had spent the previous day in the kitchen with the talented Carmen, baking hundreds of cupcakes and mixing up giant bowls of frosting. I came in on Friday for 11 hours of more cupcake making and non-stop frosting-piping. As much as I love baking, it was a long day!

On Saturday, Sugar Beat Sweets set up a booth at Veg Fest next to the friendly folks at Save A Bunny and their adorable, and amazingly calm, Mr. Pinkerton.



Cinnamon buns, brownies, and candy corn went quickly and were gone by the early afternoon.



We had 8 flavors of cupcakes: Chocolate, Vanilla, PB&J, Orange Dreamsicle, Snickerdoodle, Peppermint Patty, Peanut Butter Cup, and Chocolate Snowball.



It was another long day, but lots of fun! It was great seeing young children get excited at the opportunity to indulge in treats that they probably have watch sadly as their peers devour the conventional versions at school and parties. The crowd loved Melisser's recipes, with several repeat customers coming back again and again, claiming they were the best cupcakes they had ever tasted.

The kind Antonio of Flacos traded cupcakes for his crew, for a delicious lunch of tamales, taquitos, and pozole. Our friend, personal chef Jesse Miner gave a presentation about cooking and preparing heirloom beans and shared the leftover garlicky bruschetta with us. There were also samples galore from the various food and services vendors throughout the hall.

If you missed out on cupcakes and are in the Bay Area, make sure to stop by any of these locations that carry Sugar Beat Sweets:

Rainbow Grocery - 1745 Folsom @ 14th Street
Other Avenues - 3930 Judah Street @ 44th Avenue
Real Food Co. - 2140 Polk @ Broadway
Ike's Place - 3506 16th St @ Sanchez
Underdog - 1634 Irving St @ 17th Avenue
Harvest Urban Market - 191 8th St @ Howard

Melisser also takes special orders through her website.

World Veg Festival Weekend - San Francisco

October 4th and 5th brings the World Veg Festival to San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. There will be speakers, cooking demos, tasty food, and other good things.

Saturday & Sunday, October 4 & 5, 2008
$6 suggested donation
Free for Kids, Students, & Seniors
San Francisco County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park, entrance 9th Ave & Lincoln Way

Sugar Beat Sweets will have a booth with cupcakes and other goodies for sale. I'll be helping Melisser out on Saturday, so stop by to say hi!

Don't let these burnt cupcakes die in vain!