Sunday Night Test Kitchen

I've done this in the past but now I'm back at it.

 What am I talking about? I've reinstated Sunday Night Test Kitchen.
 I get to try out a new recipe each week and have our friends eat it all up and give feedback.

 In the past few weeks, we've made...

Chocolate Layer Cake with Chocolate Hazelnut Filling and Cocoa Frosting

Homemade Ladyfingers for Tiramisu

Napoleons

Mini Almond Pound Cakes with Vanilla Bean Whipped Cream and Fresh Strawberries

Rustic Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

It's all vegan and all delicious. Who says you can't eat amazing vegan baked goods. Baking with out eggs or dairy is soooo easy!

Friends Don't Let Friends: Not Celebrate St. Patrick's Day

Over the past several weeks, the husband and I have been getting together at another couple's house, along with another couple and all our dogs(!!!), for Sunday night dinner, games and The Walking Dead.

Yesterday, being St. Patrick's day, we decided to get all festive and do a full Irish dinner... veganized of course!

Everyone in the group cooks so we've had some great meals - enchiladas, tacos, lasagna, many many varieties of homemade pizza, chili, and more. Last night we had a corned beef-style seitan (made from scratch), colcannon made with kale, red cabbage and apples and Irish soda bread. Everything was amazing!

 I've also used these dinners to bring back what I call "Sunday Night Test Kitchen". I try to make a new recipe each time and we've had tiramisu, chocolate cheesecake, coconut cake and, of course, cupcakes.

Last night's dessert, to be festive, were Chocolate Stout Cupcakes with Irish Whiskey Buttercream Frosting, modified from Chef Chloe's new book.

Ingredients

Chocolate Beer Cupcakes

• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour (or gluten-free all-purpose flour plus ¾ teaspoon xanthan gum)
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup stout beer (I used Guinness Extra Stout, which is vegan)
• ½ cup canola oil
• 2 tablespoons white or apple cider vinegar (I used white)
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

Irish Whiskey Buttercream (note, I made my regular frosting and did not add milk)

• 1 cup non-hydrogenated shortening (I use Spectrum Organics)
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 to 5 tablespoons soy, almond, or rice milk
• 3 to 4 teaspoons Irish whiskey

Caramel

• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• ¼ cup vegan margarine
• 4 teaspoons soy, almond, or rice milk

I opted to ditch the caramel and instead do a festive green ombre frosting with green jimmies.

Here's the process:

Procedure

To make the Chocolate Beer Cupcakes

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 (12-cup) cupcake pans with 14 cupcake liners. Note, I got 16 cupcakes out of this recipe. 

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, brown sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together stout, oil, vinegar, and vanilla. Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and whisk until just combined. Do not over mix.

Fill the cupcake liners about two-thirds full with batter. Bake for 16 to 18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean with a few crumbs clinging to it. Cool the cupcakes completely before frosting.

To make the Irish Whiskey Buttercream

Using a handheld or stand mixer, beat the shortening until smooth. With the mixer running on low, add powdered sugar, vanilla, and 1 tablespoon nondairy milk at a time, as needed, until frosting reaches a spreadable consistency. You may not need to use all of the nondairy milk. Add whiskey, 1 teaspoon at a time, until desired taste. Beat on high for 2 more minutes until light and fluffy.

To make the Caramel

In a small saucepan, over medium heat, heat brown sugar, margarine, and nondairy milk, stirring frequently.  Once mixture comes together, increase heat to medium-high and let cook for one to two more minutes, until it begins to boil and the bubbles move into the center of the caramel. Remove from heat.

To assemble the cupcakes: Frost cooled cupcakes with buttercream and dust with cocoa powder. Drizzle warm caramel over cupcakes using a fork or a squeeze tube. Caramel will be easier to work with while warm.

If you want the ombre frosting, I use gel food coloring and then paint 4 stripes of it in my piping bag before putting in the frosting.  When it comes out, it's swirled!

I hope you enjoyed some craic and... 

Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona Daoibh

Addictive Foods

I am just starting to read this article, The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food, and I'm already nodding my head in agreement.

I wish people would take the time to really look at what they are eating.  If you are buying it out, what you are liking and craving is created.  Not through culinary skills but through a combination of, often man-made, chemicals.

The best thing to do is go to independent, local restaurants or make your own.  And read Fast Food Nation!

Dogs Can Evolve

I was so excited to see the new study out from Uppsala University in Sweden that shows how dogs have evolved right along side humans, helping them to mesh perfectly into our lives.

The main reason for this is contributed to the fact that, as man was creating an agriculture based lifestyle  planting, harvesting and eating grains more regularly, dogs were able to eat and process starchy foods and carbohydrates.

I love this because it just goes to show, again, that dogs are not obligate carnivores like cats and that they can be very healthy on a varied diet.  Just like ours who are still getting (and reacting to) a veggie filled dinner each night.

Evolutionary geneticist, Erik Axelsson, states that all dogs have this genetic change and that it's thousands of years back in time.

So now when people whine about the fact that it's not natural for dogs to eat veggies (like eating kibble is?) we can say "yes, yes it is!"

Smiling!

There is little that makes me more smiley and happy than having someone contact me and asking about going vegan.  

I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!!

In the time we've gone vegan, we count at least 8 people who have wanted to go vegan too.  Yeah for vegan outreach!  

It makes us so happy because we know how happy we are and we know how good it is for the people who want to make the change, as well as for the animals and the world. 

I get so excited, I write a huge long response.  Here's a sample:

Going vegan was one of the best things we've ever done (almost 5 years now!) and I'm happy to help you in any way possible. The great thing is there are TONS of resources out there now, from cookbooks to sites to blogs and podcasts, etc. I even wrote a little "introductory" post about it on my site -http://dailycoop.blogspot.com/2012/06/vegan-kickstart.html- and the cookbooks/writers listed there are our favorites. Colleen and Happy Herbivore both have blogs, sites and pages on FB with tons of info. We also get Veg News magazine which is filled with good info as well.

What's also cool is we never feel like we are skimping on anything. Being big foodies and loving cooking and baking, we make lots of the same stuff all the time. I've added resources on The Daily Coop about baking, but the Joy of Vegan Baking and Chloe's books are great resources. And I'm happy to answer any specific questions.

Some other good sites/resource are Vegan Yum Yum (beautiful and she also has a cookbook - http://veganyumyum.com/ ), Vegan Dad (for kids/comfort food -http://vegandad.blogspot.com/ ) and Finding Vegan -http://www.findingvegan.com/ .

There are some great apps (with sites) if you have an iPhone, such as: HappyCow.net (the app is VegOut, for finding veg friendly restaurants), VeganSteven, VeganXpress, iVegan, Barnivore (vegan beer, wine & liquour guide), Animal-free (lists vegan and non-vegan ingredients in pkgd foods).

Great food options if you don't know already are EarthBalance (the sticks work JUST LIKE diary butter - you can melt, saute, bake, etc. I prefer the tub spread for toast and sandwiches), all kinds of non-dairy milk of course, Veganaise instead of mayo, Gardein and Field Roast meats, Dandies marshmallows, So Delicious ice creams, Go Max candy bars and Daiya non-dairy cheese (OMG, so good! Mellow Mushroom uses it too.)

Some people we know are better with the change than others - but I just kind of brazen through and take to push back. It helps that we're committed on so many levels - animals, health, environment, etc. It makes it easier. When we go to stay at people's houses we bring stuff and cook a lot. So that helps. It will actually be surprising how disconnected people are from their food. You'll find yourself explaining that, yes, dairy milk and cheese, as well as eggs actually ARE from animals too! We ask lot of questions in restaurants, especially about things like bread but it's usually not a big deal and we eat out a lot.

It's a journey but it's a fun one. You'll be amazed how much you learn and how peaceful you feel. It was a benefit I never expected. And do check out Colleen Patrick Godreau's Podcast on iTunes - Food for Thought. It was one of the first things we listened too that helped us a lot.

Yay for new vegans!!!

5 Years of Thanks

This year is going to be our 5th year having a vegan Thanksgiving.  And I'm thankful for that every single day!

Turkeys are such wonderful, sweet, compassionate animals.  It's so horrible to think of the abuses they go through - not only through genetic manipulation but how they are forced to live, that they are killed early and the actual gross physical abuse they are subjected to at the facilities.

I'm so glad we have our beautiful boy Jake with us.  He is a great reason to be thankful too!

Each year about 45 MILLION turkeys will be killed for this "holiday". That's a lot of violence on a day when we are meant to be expressing peace and gratitude.

The great thing about traditions is that they are so easy to change and/or create. Do something more than once and you have a new tradition!

We've had a compassionate, no-turkeys-or-other-animals-killed meal for going on 5 years now. Our

 meal includes: stuffing, root veggie mash or mashed potatoes (or both!), asparagus, Brussels sprouts, salad, pumpkin-herb rolls, gravy, fresh orange cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, apple pie and ice cream. Our "centerpiece" food have been Field Roast's Celebration Roast and their Hazelnut Cranberry Roast En Croute. This year we are going to add stuffed, maple-glazed roasted acorn squashes.

Just sub out a few ingredients and 1 item and your celebration becomes thankful, caring and compassionate. A TRUE celebration for the season.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Autumn Goodies from Sugar Bean Bakery

Equal to my love of shoes is my love of baking.  And what's as much fun as accessorizing is picking out all the displays I want to use and my packaging.

In the Spring I did a booth for my bakery, Sugar Bean Bakery, and this past weekend was the Fall event.  Spring was all pinks and yellows and mint green but Fall calls for a different color scheme.  So I went with orange, creme, gold, dark brown and green.  This leads to new signage, vintage tablecloths and matching cake stands.  And the flavors included cinnamon, pumpkin, walnuts and nutmeg.

I ended up making:

Pumpkin whoopie pies
Apple Oat muffins
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip muffins
Vanilla cupcakes with autumn leaves
Cinnamon coffee cakes with walnut crumble
Spice cupcakes with vanilla bean frosting
Brownies with and without nuts
Spooky chocolate cupcakes
Lollipops in orange, lemon, chocolate and butterscotch
Rock candy sticks in orange and apple

We even served hot mulled cider and lemon-thyme water.

Admittedly, I do get a bit out of control with the decor (mini-topiary price holders!) but it's such fun I can't resist.

We had a great event and nearly sold out.  All the proceeds are going to The Gentle Barn (we do a different charity each time) and I can't wait until the Spring show!

More pictures on Flicker.

Compassionate Candy

We don't really get any trick-or-treaters in my neighborhood but if we did, I'd be printing out some of these little flyers to add to the bags.  What a great way to let kids and parents know that your goodies are compassionate!

There are two versions which you can download here - a Vegan only and a Vegan/Fair Trade option.  And remember watch out for carmine (insects used in red candies) and those with gelatin (ick!).

Here's a list of compassionate candy, but always double check the ingredients.

Milk Sucks

If these images aren't enough to convince you that dairy (all forms) is evil...

Maybe this will help...

For years, we’ve been told that milk does a body good. But does it really? Though touted as the healthier option at home and in restaurants, milk has roughly the same calorie count as soda and 2% milk contains the same amount of saturated fat as french fries. Given these two facts, the correlation between high milk consumption and high rates of Type 1 diabetes and heart disease makes sense. Even though one-third of Americans are lactose intolerant, the U.S. still consumes nearly 9 times the amount of milk that China does. So why do we drink so much milk? Because cows are making more of it. With the introduction of growth hormones like rBST, milk cows are producing nearly twice as much as they did in 1970.

Milk – bad for us, bad for cows.

View larger here.

Meet Maple

There's a new girl in town and her name is Maple!

Maple was found by our local animal control wandering the streets.  A friend of ours let us know that there was a sweet girl with a hurt foot who needed a home, so we went and picked her up.

Jake took to her right away.  He even acted as a bit of a buffer against Butterscotch and Telly as the pecking order was established.

Sadly her hurt got a bit worse so we took her to a local specialist who prescribed some antibiotics, pain meds and foot soaks.   For the last week Maple has alternated her time between the porch, the chicken "playpen" in the yard and a softsided crate when sleeping indoors at night.

She's been good about taking her meds and letting us care for her foot, but we weren't sure what to do this past weekend, as we had planned on going out of town.

Luckily, she was able to come with us!  She snuggled into the carrier for a five hour ride and was good the whole way.  A few chicken purrs and some bored feather preening and we were there.

Maple did manage to get out of her outdoor pen the first night but was no problem after that.  It was a bit warm but she cooled off in the grass and charmed family and friends.

It was actually kind of fun traveling with her.  Who wouldn't like having a sweet girl along for the ride?!?

Her foot is looking much improved and we will take her back for a check-up next weekend.   We want her to heal up soon so she can run around with the other chickens.  But I may actually miss her being up by the house too!

Grimmy Grimms, We Love You.

I am beyond sad.

My sweet love kitty, Grimmy, has passed away.

Grimmy found us about 10 years ago. She showed up on our back porch and we let her sleep there at night.  Every morning she would cry outside our glass door until I came out and held her on my lap, where she would purr and purr.

Over the years, Grimm, who was a total house cat and a bit clumsy and crooked, would continue to be nothing but love.  She wanted nothing more in life than to be next to you or sleeping on you.  She would sleep on my pillow at night with her paw resting on my cheek or with her head resting on our arm, if she was next to us.  And she was just as loving with the other pets, especially Badger, our pup.

Sometimes Grimm would be pushy but generally she just wanted to be near you.  In the past year she developed diabetes but never fussed about getting her daily shot.  The vet said she purred for her whenever she was there.

But on Saturday, I was lying on the couch and Grimmy was right where she always wanted to be - sleeping on my chest.  I noticed she was breathing heavily through her mouth. I took her right in and we found that her lungs were surrounded with fluid and she couldn't get any air.  In the end, we discovered she'd had cancer but we never knew it.

I can't express how much I miss her and will always miss her. I loved this little (big) kitty with a big heart more than I can say.  I'd, selfishly, hoped for more time. For more days, months and years filled with her love.  I just hope that we gave her everything she needed because she gave me more than I could have ever asked for or been worthy of.

I love you, Grimmy Grimms. 

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