Peanut Butter Cookies

We have a favorite, tried and true peanut butter cookie recipe from Shauna at Gluten Free Girl and the Chef.  It's the one we bring to potlucks and parties and playdates.  It has just a few ingredients, is easy to make, and is always a crowd pleaser.  It is not, however, vegan.  The kids request it a lot and so I reluctantly make it for them, knowing that I will have to exercise extra will power to avoid these babies.  Having eaten them prior to going vegan, you see, I know how melt-in-your-mouth scrumptious they are.
I have tried to re-work the recipe using Ener-G Egg Replacer, but the cookies just don't hold together at all that way.  They are slightly precarious even with eggs.  With egg replacer, they are a mess.
Today, just on a whim, I tried the recipe with a few alterations that I thought might give the vegan version a little more body and came up with the cookie to end all cookies.  Like the fudge, they are not sugar-free.  Since it is the holiday season, I am worrying more about bringing treats to events that are allergy-free (for our family) than sugar-free.  I have tried to make these with agave to no avail.  It is a completely different cookie made with agave.  I have considered trying other forms of sweeteners, like maple sugar, but in the end, they are still just sugars.  Consider making this recipe as a public service.  When people taste these cookies, they are sure to change their opinions of both gluten-free and vegan foods!
Gluten-free, Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies
Makes about 36 small cookies
Ingedients:
2 c. peanut butter (creamy or crunchy)
2 c. unpacked brown sugar
2 T. ground flax seeds
6 T. warm water
2 t. baking soda
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Place flax seeds and water in a bowl and whisk.  Set aside as it forms into a gel (about 10 minutes).  Put all ingredients, including flax gel, into a bowl and mix well.  Form small balls and place on a lined or greased cookie sheet.  Flatten twice with a fork (forming a cross).  You can dip the fork in the brown sugar or a little white sugar first if you want.  Bake 12-15 minutes.  Cool and enjoy.

Melt-in-your-mouth-goodness

Vegan Fudge

If there is anything that can test my devotion to a vegan diet, it is Rachel Ray's 5 Minute Fudge.  It makes me all googely inside.  Furthermore, it is a Christmas staple in this household, perhaps the very catalyst for this website.
I should not even be attempting to make a vegan version of it.
You'll notice I wrote "vegan" version and not "sugar-free vegan" version.  That's just not possible at this point.  Perhaps by this time next year, I will have learned enough to concoct a sugar-free version.  For now, consider this a bit of a special treat.  It is the holiday season after all.  Enjoy a few bites and then run a mile, go on a salad fast, or just give yourself a little break.  My guess is that if you have been eating a sugar-free diet, a few bites will be plenty.  If it's not, slice it up and give it away.  Quickly!!!
This version might seem a bit labor intensive, but if you prepare ahead of time, it should not be too difficult to whip up.  I tend to cook by the seat of my pants.  My kitchen is small enough that I can continue stirring something in the pot while opening cupboards to extract the next needed ingredient.  On a good day, I can do all this while scrubbing the dishes and teaching my daughter to read.  My kitchen is just THAT small and I am just THAT incredible.
Since this  recipe involves a bit of the confectioner's touch, I didn't want to leave the timing up to chance.  So try and stick with the order I have given you here for a more pleasant culinary experience.  You want the fudge to feel love, not venom.  Venom does very little for fudge.
My Vegan version of Rachel Ray's Fudge
Start by making your sweet cashew cream.  I have adapted the recipe from an Oprah show, which I believe is a recipe that has been circulating in vegan circles for a while.  The recipe below yields about 4 cups.  You only need 2 1/4.  I made extra because tomorrow is Thanksgiving and we will use it to top the vegan, gluten-free pies my husband and son are making at this very moment. If you make the full recipe, it won't go to waste during the holiday season.  It replaces sweetened condensed milk or cream in recipes.
Sweet Cashew Cream
Note: this needs to be started 1 day ahead of time
Yields 4 c.
You will need 2 1/4 c. of the cream for the fudge
4 c. cashews
1/2 c. agave
water to cover
Rinse and just cover the cashews with water.  Cover the bowl and refrigerate over night.  When ready, rinse again.  Put in the blender, add agave and enough water to just cover.  Blend until nice and creamy.  Reserve 2 1/4 c. for your fudge and store the rest in the refrigerator.
Now measure out all the ingredients you will need for the rest of the fudge in separate bowls and place them on the counter near your stove.  Also put a large pot on the stove and get out a candy thermometer, wooden spoon, and spatula.  Next, grease 2 fudge receptacles with vegan spread.  I used an angel food pan and a small casserole dish.
Here is what you will need:
20 oz. Vegan Chocolate Chips (Enjoy Life Brand)
2 1/4 c. sweet cashew cream plus 1/4 c. water to thin
Butterscotch (recipe below -- you need exactly that amount)
1 c. pecans
1 c. dried fruit of choice (we like cranberries)
Now, it is time to start the butterscotch.
Butterscotch
From this website, but converted to 1 1/2 recipes
3 c. brown sugar
1 1/2 c. water
6 T. vegan butter spread
3/2 t. vanilla
In your large pot, over low heat, melt the vegan spread.  Add the brown sugar and stir well.  Add water.  Invite someone interesting to come into the kitchen and have a long conversation with you.  If there are no interesting people around, invite a boring person to come and do the next part while you go chat with the interesting people or read a book.
Increase the heat to medium.  Stir constantly until the brew reaches between 250 and 265 degrees.  You can also put a little on a spoon and submerge it into some ice water.  If it turns slightly hard, it is ready.  It took me about 30 minutes (Thus the interesting conversationalist).
Now then, onto the fudge making portion.
Turn your butterscotch to medium-low.  Add cashew cream and water.  Stir well.  Slowly, while stirring, add the chocolate chips.  Stir until nicely melted and smooth (but thick).  Remove from heat.  Stir in vanilla.  Stir in nuts and fruit.
Pour into your fudge receptacles and let cool completely in refrigerator.  This could take a while.
Go for a run.
Photos to come.

My Happy Norwegian

It's been a long time since my husband's had any.  You can imagine how cranky a man might get having gone that many years without it.  It borders on cruelty and it certainly can't be good for his health - mental or physical.  I won't even attempt to grapple in the spiritual implications of going that long without that which is so vital to a Norwegian man's very identity.
That's right.  The poor man has gone at least five years without so much as a nibble of LEFSE!  The horror!  The shame!  It is a secret we have had to keep from his Minnesota and Wisconsin relatives.  We hide it like the Amish romances I poured over while I was in Haiti awaiting the completion of our kids' adoption (Did I just write that out loud?).  Oh be still.  The Amish are a very romantic people.
Gramma, just before her planned trip out to sew some things for the kids, casually mentioned that she had just made a whole batch of lefse.  It would have been a cruel admission had she not thrown in that she'd be happy to bring along the lefse accouterments so that we could attempt a gluten-free, dairy-free version.  First, she had to pack them under the dark of night, hiding them beneath blankets, lest any of her Minnesota neighbors learn that she might be attempting to alter the lefse recipe in any manner.  I am sure it borders on blasphemy to remove flour and cream, two Minnesota Norwegian staples rivaled only by green Jell-o in their popularity, from the recipe.
But brave Gramma, she who unabashedly consumes spicy food on a regular basis, was ripe for the challenge.  She arrived with grill, lefse roller, lefse rolling board and cloth, and those funky lefse flipping thingys.  We supplied the potatoes.
Together (and, by "together", I mean that I suggested the cashew cream, vegan butter, type of flour and, with the help of some online recipes, she thought of everything else), we came up with an answer to my gluten-free husband's prayers: Gluten-free, dairy-free LEFSE!
Not having eaten lefse in five years, I could not tell the difference between this recipe and the authentic version.  Having eaten lefse just days before, my mother-in-law thought this was a bit different, but still very good.  My husband was in heaven and the kids LOVED it.  We had it with melted Earth Balance and brown sugar.
If you don't eat it all in one sitting, I suggest storing it in sealed containers and microwaving slightly when ready to eat.
I am not going to attempt to explain how to actually cook the lefse.  I am of Irish descent so it would be wrong.  Instead, I'll link you to an authentic web site to show you how to do everything after the initial preparation.  I will also admit that this recipe is largely for those who have made/had lefse in the past (prior to going gluten-free) and are familiar with the original texture and feel.  It's hard to know if you are close to getting it right if you've never done it before.  Trust me on this one.
As they say in Norway, Tar dere kredittkort ?  (which I believe translates to "Do you take credit cards?"  It's the only phrase I could find in a pinch.)
Gluten-free, Dairy-free Lefse
serves between 1 and 20, depending on how much you can eat and how much you are willing to share
5 lbs. of Idaho Russet Potatoes (about 7 cups), riced (that's right, riced -- my mother-in-law had the kids rice it in the meat grinder that was her mother's and was still in the original box with the 1950's housewife on it) or mashed
7 t. xanthan gum (This is vital!  It's what keeps the dough together.  If you find your dough not sticking when you roll it out, sprinkle in more 1/4 t. at a time)
1/2-3/4 c. cashew cream and a little water (refrigerate 1 c. raw whole cashews just covered with water overnight.  Rinse.  Just cover with water again and pour in the blender.  Blend until very very creamy.  Measure out the amount you need.  When making the dough, add about 1/4 c. cream and 1 T. water at a time until you get the right feel)
3 c. white rice flour (roughly)
1/2 c. (plus a little more as needed) melted Earth Balance (we used the Soy-free Vegan version)
2 t. salt.
potato flour for rolling (per MIL, a mixture of white rice flour AND potato four)
A few notes:
You will want to put the potatoes, flour, salt, and xanthan gum all together and mix.  Add your liquids a little at a time and combine with your hands.  You will start to notice it feeling like lefse dough.  You can test a small ball by rolling it out in the potato flour and baking on the griddle.
The griddle works best at 475 degrees.
VERY IMPORTANT: This dough works best after you have let it sit a bit.  At the beginning of the process, we (and by "we", I mean my husband and his mother) had to make very small lefse, lest they break.  After it sat for over an hour, we could roll out large pieces from golf-ball sized pieces of dough.
And now, I take you to a video with a woman who actually knows what she is doing.  Just replace her ingredients with the ones listed above and have at it!!
Lefse Making Tutorial
We enjoyed our lefse with some chips and guacamole on the side, while listening to Haitian music.  We are thinking of adding lefse to our New Year's menu of Haitian Soup Joumou.  If we also add Irish scones, everyone will be covered.

Lefse!

Vegan Haitian Soup Joumou

Meat is not exactly abundant in Haiti.  Typically, if one finds meat in one's meal, one can assume it is a holiday.  So it is with Soup Joumou, the traditional soup of New Year's Day.  This special soup announces the new year with color and spice and offers some gustatory cheer in celebration of Haitian Independence day. January 1st, 1804 was the day that Haiti became the world's first independent black republic by defeating the French.
Soup Joumou is usually made with stewing beef.  In our home, we cannot wait for New Year's Day to partake of this specialty, though we do make it for New Year's Day as well, and we eat it vegetarian style.  I will often times set a bowl of stewed beef on the table for those who desire meat, but it really doesn't need it.  This soup is just a little burst of Caribbean sunshine, a much needed flavor when your parents have ripped you out of the warm Caribbean and plopped you down in the coldest, flattest place on earth.  Cruel.  Just ask my two eldest children, both Haitian, both perpetually cold.  Here kids...have some soup.
In this version, I have left out both meat and potatoes (potatoes to make it a little less heavy).  I have added shredded carrots for a little texture.  I also give two options for spices just in case you'd prefer not to experience too much Haitian heat (Haiti is, after all, the country that adds cayenne pepper to it peanut butter).
Vegan Soup Joumou
serves 10
2 onions, chopped
2 T. olive oil
4 stalks celery, chopped
2 large carrots, shredded
4-8 cloves garlic, minced
1 large can crushed tomatoes
4 c. mashed pumpkin
4 c. vegetarian broth
2 c. water
1 t. sage
1 t. thyme
1 t. parsley
1 whole scotch bonnet pepper or, for the more reserved, a few shakes of cayenne pepper
a couple shakes of cinnamon
the juice of 2 limes
1 c. cashews and enough water to cover
Walk to the well to get some water, which you will carry home on your head.  Start the fire around 3:00 in the afternoon so you will be ready to eat by 10:00 or 11:00 in the evening.  Once you've got your fire to a medium heat, add the oil to your soup pot.  Saute the onions and celery until the onions are translucent.  Add the garlic and saute another minute or so.  Add all the other ingredients EXCEPT the cashews, water for cashews, and limes.  Either include the scotch bonnet pepper OR the cayenne pepper.  If you use the scotch bonnet pepper, omit the cinnamon and just let the SBP float on top of your soup.  You will remove it before adding the cashew cream.  If you add the cayenne pepper, add to your liking and then add a little cinnamon too.  Bring to a boil and let simmer about 20 minutes.  Meanwhile, and this is where the Haitian scenario breaks down, put the cashews in a blender.   Cover with water and blend until creamy.  Add this mixture to the soup, stir, and simmer about 10 more minutes (if you used the scotch bonnet pepper, remember to remove it before adding the cream).  Just before serving, stir in the lime juice.
As is true with most soups, soup joumou is even better the second day.

Not a very fancy photo. We were all too hungry to make it pretty.

I Like It Zucchini Bread (Do you?)

There was a time, pre-Celiac of my youngest, when our household was pretty well known for bread.  My husband baked homemade bread by hand, never even attempting the bread-maker we were given as a wedding gift.  Pew!  Pew!  He spits on the bread machine.   The Bread Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum was his, well, how do I say it... Bible.   I, in the same vein, was the whirling dervish of quick breads, the Octomom of sweet cakes.   Oh my yeast, those were some tasty, happy days of olfactory goodness.   There is nothing like fresh bread baking in the oven.
It was nice while it lasted.  My baby left me with a scar too large to mention, droopy body parts, and a house absent of the sensual bouquet that baking bread offers.  See how a mother's love is?  I still want to kiss her all over and hug her tightly every minute of every day anyway -- despite the loss of gluten.  And my abs.
For a while I experimented successfully with gluten-free quick breads, settling upon a few lovely recipes that pleased the entire family.  Then, I decided to personally mess it all up again by going vegan AND sugar-free.  I must really like a challenge.  Essentially, I hadn't even attempted a quick bread since going vegan.  But, that was summer and this is fall.  Summer does not require quick bread.  We have watermelon.  Fall beckons two things, though: soup and bread.  What is fall without pumpkin bread?  Banana bread?  Zucchini bread made from the final bits of Farmer's Market zucchini?
I created a few recipes last week that were okay.  My family, used to gluten-free, sugar-free, and vegan, were content enough with the loaves.  I am not sure they would have flown in the real world, though.  I think this week's attempt comes closest to something one could serve to guests without having to explain that it is free of pretty much everything typically used to make quick breads taste good.  It is moist and sweet and tastes like fall.
But that's for you to decide.  Please make a batch and let me know if your family likes it or if it made them hide.  What about guests or friends?  Would you serve it to them?  I fear that my taste buds are so used to this lifestyle that I am careening away from what normal people eat.  Help me.  Won't you please help me?
Zucchini Banana Bread (makes 2 standard, but short, loaves or 1 standard, very tall loaf)

2 c. grated zucchini (skins on, again because I am lazy)
2 very ripe, one might even say rotten, bananas (skins off, because that would be weird otherwise)
3 T. flax seeds, blended in a blender with 3/4 c. water until gel-like (you can also use 3 servings egg replacer, but you can kind of taste the egg replacer when you use that much)
1/2 c. Date Syrup (you can find this in any "fruit market" type store, where they sell foods from all over the world; I found it in the Iraqi section; you can use agave here, but the date syrup is cheaper and sweeter; if you use agave, reduce milk by 1/4 cup and use 3/4 c. agave; Whew!)
1/4 c. canola oil
1 t. vanilla
1 c. vegan milk of your choice
1 T. apple cider vinegar
2 c. brown rice flour
1 c. white rice flour
1 t.  baking soda
1/2 t. baking powder (gluten-free)
1 1/2 t. xanthan gum
1 T. cinnamon
1/2 t. salt
optional: 3/4 c. chopped nuts of choice or 3/4 c. raisins
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine all wet ingredients in one bowl.  Combine all dry ingredients in another, bowl.  Add wet to dry and combine.  Put into your 1 or 2 loaf pans.  If you'd like, drizzle a little date syrup on top.  Bake 50-60 minutes, until a toothpick or tester comes out dry.

A short loaf

Apple Cobpie

Spin me around and call me Sally!  Local apples were 39 cents a pound at the grocery store.  I nearly fainted.  Thirty-nine-cents-a-pound!  How is that even possible!  Oh, I am not even going to ask, lest the grocery gods swoop down and suck the pure joy out of this moment.  Thirty!  Nine!  Cents!  A!  Pound!
I bought enough to feed our entire apartment building.  So you know the old saying: when the grocery gods give you apples, make APPLE PIE!
The kids and I debated over this one: did we want a traditional crust, albeit gluten-free, or did we want more of a cobbler type topping?  It got pretty harry for a while there.  I thought little I.Ma, my youngest, was going to drench me in spit, her speech was so impassioned.  That's right.  Little I.Ma spits when she gets excited.  And she gets excited over apple pie.  In the end, it was Little Se, ever my diplomat, who solved the problem: "Why don't we just make a crust on the bottom and top it like a cobbler?"
Well, duh!  We checked with the grocery gods, who conferred with the apple demi-gods, and it passed their strict standards.
Do you know how wonderful it is to walk home after a day of errands, classes, and activities, open the door, and see a perfectly lovely apple cobpie sitting on your counter waiting for dessert?  It's so wonderful that, in our family at least, the apple cobpie must be promoted to meal-in-and-of-itself.
And so it was.  And now, with the permission of the apple demi-gods, I pass it on to you, in hopes that your own grocery gods have blessed your local grocery store with apple abundance!
Apple Cobpie
one recipe graham cracker dough
5 apples (your preference; we like them tart), sliced (you might want to peel them, but we like the peel on (because we are too lazy to peel them)
3 T. white rice flour
1 t. cinnamon
1/3 c. agave
1 T. balsamic vinegar
1/2 c. nuts (your choice; pecans and almonds work nicely)
1/4 c. corn meal
pinch nutmeg
Make the graham cracker dough per instructions, stopping before rolling into a ball.  Separate out 2/3 of the dough and roll that into a ball.  Keep the other 1/3 in a bowl for later.  Using flour on your surface and rolling pin, roll out the dough into a circle that is 1 1/2 inches larger in diameter than the bottom of your pie pan.  Carefully lift the dough and place in your pie pan, letting it go up the sides.  Gently press the dough into the pan and shape the sides as you wish.  Fork the dough every few centimeters.  Set aside.
In a clean bowl (as in, not the one with the rest of the dough), combine apples, flour, cinnamon, agave, and vinegar.  Pour mixture into pie pan.  Carefully cover the top ridge of the crust with foil (so you will have a circle of foil on the perimeter of the pie pan at the top of the crust, but not covering the pie).
In the bowl with the rest of the graham cracker dough, add nuts, cornmeal, and nutmeg.  Mix with a fork.  Put this topping on top of the pie.
Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.  Remove foil and bake another 5-10 minutes.  Let cool completely and serve as desert, the main meal, breakfast, or what have you.
Be sure to thank the apple demi-gods first.  As mere demi-gods, they get so little praise.

The sight that welcomed us after a long day of errands, classes, and such

FINALLY: Graham Crackers

The food I have most missed as a gluten-free mom is the handy dandy graham cracker.  Is there anything more succinct than a graham cracker?  It's part cookie, thereby satisfying the sweet teeth among us, and part cracker: compact, simple, and convenient.  With my two eldest children, I knew I could safely leave the house with a box of graham crackers and a container of peanut butter.  They would happily scoop up the peanut butter with the perfect little scoopers and not complain of hunger. They always satisfied longer than apples and peanut butter, carrots and hummus, and any other combination of carb and protein I could assemble.
Alas, those days of glory ended with my youngest, she of the gluten-free existence.  There was no way I was going to spend four dollars on a box of processed gluten-free graham crackers that didn't even contain enough servings to satisfy one child, much less three.  And then there is the shock that ran through my brain when I finally read the ingredient list on a box of regular graham crackers.  Seriously, I was feeding this to my children?  This is what they pass out at hospitals to hungry cardiac patients?
Unless you are willing to pay even more than four dollars for the organic version, you might as well be injecting the boxed graham crackers right into your kids' arteries.  Well, that might be a little dramatic.  Just a little (I tend to swing that way).  Still, I am not keen on feeding my kids hydrogenated fats and am somewhat ashamed that I had not noticed the ingredients a long time ago.  I just assumed that something so lovely and simple as a graham cracker had to be made with equally lovely and simple ingredients.
Not so.  At least not if you buy the cheap kind.  So, we have lived a grahamcrackerless existence.  A sad sad grahamcrackerless existence.
Until now...
I figured I could develop a part cookie/part cracker concoction that would surely cost me less than four dollars for half a snack.  I was right.  My kids love these things.  They are not quite as scoopulous as the boxed version (in regards to peanut butter), as they are a bit less solid, but they are fantastic alone or as a vehicle for various spreads: nut butters, my divine chocolate frosting, fruit spread.  You could even make a sweet little fruit pizza with a cracker, a little frosting, and some sliced strawberries or bananas.  Oh man.  I am so going to do that tomorrow.
Gluten-free Vegan Graham Crackers
1 1/2 c. brown rice flour
1/2 c. white rice flour
1/2 c. almond meal or flax meal (or 1/4 c. each OR, just for kicks, 1/4 c. Hemp Powder and 1/4 c. flax meal)
2 t. cinnamon
1 teaspoon gluten-free baking powder
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 T. soy-free Earth Balance (scooped in 1 T. increments)
5 T. agave
1 t. vanilla
3 T. cold water
Put dry ingredients in a bowl.  Cut butter into the dry ingredients with pastry cutter or a butter knife.  It will look somewhat like this

After cutting in the butter

Add water, agave and vanilla and then knead the dough to combine.  Form a large ball.

The big ball of graham crackery goodness

Smear a 10 X 13 (ish) baking dish (10 X 10 will yield thinker, more cookie-like crackers; the bigger your pan, the thinner and harder your crackers; 10 X 13 really yields the nicest crackers) with Earth Balance and dust some rice flour or corn meal all over it (I use corn meal because it is cheaper).   At this point you have two options:
1.  You can flour your work surface and use a floured rolling pin to flatten out the dough.   Next, transfer your dough ever so carefully to your baking dish.  It will not fit perfectly and there will be cracks in it.  So wet your hands with cold water and gently spread the dough to fit the dish. You can also use your wet hands to smooth the dough out.  This will make the cookies a bit softer.  If you don't want them to be softer, flour your hands to flatten and smooth.
OR
2.  Plop the big ball down into your baking dish and flatten with the palm of your hand.  Wet your hands with cold water and gently spread the dough to fit the dish. You can also use your wet hands to smooth the dough out.  This will make the cookies a bit softer.  If you don't want them to be softer, flour your hands to flatten and smooth.
As you can see, my 10 X 10 baking dish was otherwise occupied.  I used a large cookie sheet and let my daughter do the smoothing (because she said it looked fun).  There's no need for these yummy babies to look perfect.  They are scrumptious enough to hold their own.

Spread into a much larger baking dish by my chef daughter

Next, cut the dough with a sharp knife into 16 crackers.  Then fork it.  Poke the flattened dough with a fork about 2-4 times per cracker.  You can optionally sprinkle with cinnamon.

cut, forked, cinnamoned, and ready to bake

Bake at 325 degrees for 20-25 minutes.  Let cool partially and then separate (you might need a knife to help you).  Let cool completely before eating, if you can wait that long.  These freeze very well.
In the photo below, I used the hemp/flax meal combination to add extra protein and good fats.  I sprinkled it with the cinnamon just in case the hemp flavor came through.  It didn't, but the cinnamon added such a nice touch.

with a little strawberry fruit spread

Moist and Nutty Gluten-free Vegan Chocolate Cake

We home-school.  Actually, we lakeparklibrarymuseumartinstituteclubclasscoopteam-school.  But, I digress.  In an effort to curtail the constant requests for complicated projects just as I am about to prepare dinner or right before bed, I initiated what we call "Thomas Edison Time" (TET).  About 3 times a week, we dedicate 1-3 hours to all those complicated projects that require lots of supervision and one-on-one time.  The kids write down what they want to do during TET and we save those projects for then.
Today, we fulfilled my eldest and youngest's request to bake a chocolate cake.  Normally, my eldest, nine year old Little O, can run with a recipe and cook up a feast herself.  But I thought it might be nice to bake a cake that all of us can eat.  Since we were out of the ingredients needed to make my Vegan Chocolate Cake of Happiness, I needed to develop something new with what we had on hand.  It also needed to be simple enough for the kids to learn once and then create on their own in the future.
I came up with the recipe below.  Not only did it solidify the very confusing world of fractions for Little O (who exclaimed somewhere in the middle of the process, "You know Mamma, fractions are really making sense in my brain.  Before, it was all jumbled up.  Now it makes sense"), but it was also a huge hit.  My son, nearly eight year old Little S, has requested it for his upcoming birthday.  That is definitely success in the gluten-free, vegan world.
Sidebar:  I have been torturing myself over what to call the cake because of America's apparent abhorrence of the word "moist".  But, moist it is and thus, the name of the cake:
Moist and Nutty Gluten-free Vegan Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
3/4 c. cashew meal (We pulsed about 1 c. cashews in the food processor, leaving some coarse pieces in tact -- so as not to make cashew butter.  The tiny bits of cashews add to the delight of the cake)
1/4 c. flax meal
1 c. brown rice flour
1/2 c. white rice flour
1/3 c. cocoa powder
1/2 t. salt
1 t. baking soda
1.5 t. xanthan gum
1 t. vanilla
1 T. vinegar (apple cider might work best, but we used rice vinegar)
1 c. agave
1/3 c. Soy-free Earth Balance or vegan butter spread of choice (you can also use coconut oil or canola oil), softened
1/3 c. vegan milk of choice (we used So Delicious Unsweetened Cocount Milk)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Prepare 9" round cake pan by greasing with vegan spread or coconut oil and dusting with white rice flour.
Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Blend all wet ingredients in another bowl.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix well.  Pour into pan and bake 25 minutes.  Let cool completely before frosting.
Frosting:
1/2 c. agave
a scant 3/4 c. cocoa
1/2 c. vegan butter spread of choice
optional 1 t. vanilla
Melt spread.  Whisk in other ingredients.  Cool in freezer or refrigerator until ready to frost.

Did I mention it is both moist AND nutty?

Fried Green Tomato Burgers

Let me just say from the outset that these will not in any way, shape, or form pass for real burgers.  Don't try it.  Just don't.  People will start to talk about you right there at the dinner table in hushed tones: "She's a vegan.  That's why she looks so waifish and anemic."  Now, I have never looked either waifish or anemic a day in my life, but people still think that about vegans.
It is best to tell people that these are a well-known southern delicacy about which books and movies have been made.  So there.
We serve them as burgers because they make a more filling, easy meal that way.  My kids LOVE them.  I prefer them without the gluten free bread-as-bun that my kids like.  I can taste more of the green tomato goodness that way.  They are delicious with ketchup, salsa, or mustard.  They are also just fine plain.  Today we had them with sweet potato fries.   They are much easier to make than hamburgers, much healthier, and just as filling (Okay, that last assertion is one of the big lies we vegans tell meat-eating folk in order to bring them over to our side.  It's not actually as filling as beef.  But then, beef is far more filling than the average human need consume.  So, there you have it -- tastes great, less filling).
Fried Green Tomato Burgers
Several big fat green tomatoes (not to be confused with tomatillos, which will yield an entirely different product), cut into 1/2 inch slices
olive oil for pan
1 1/2 T. powdered egg replacer (I use Ener-G brand)
4 T. warm water
1/2 c. corn meal
1 t. garlic powder
1/2 t. salt
pepper to taste
cajun spice to taste (optional)
Start to warm fry-pan on medium.  Meanwhile, whisk egg replacer and water in a pie pan (or shallow, flat dish).  In another pie pan, combine corn meal, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and spice.  Add a small amount of oil to the pan.  You really don't need a lot.  Dip tomato slice in egg replacer mixture, coating both sides.  Next dip in corn meal mixture, coating both sides.  Place in pan.  Repeat until the pan is filled.
The key at this point is patience.  Allow the tomatoes to bond in their warm fry-pan experience.  Make yourself a cup of coffee and chat with those lovely slices of green tomato that have spent their entire existence in preparation for this moment.  They are, after all, giving their life for you.  LOL.  I can't really pull that off.  I don't really believe eating vegetables is cruel.  I just thought you might like something to read while you are waiting.
When the tomato has started to brown on one side, dab, spray, rub, or brush a little olive oil on the top side and then flip that little baby over.  Now, be patient again.  I'm out of clever things to write so you'll just have to check your email or something.  Oh -- or you could chat with your guests/family.  That works.
Once both sides are slightly crispy and slightly golden, prepare as you desire and enjoy!
I will post a recipe for gluten-free bread-as-bun soon.

On the gluten-free bread-as-bun, prior to getting dressed

Fried Green Tomatoes of Goodness

Dinner Party-worthy Vegan Spaghetti

Back when I was single, my go-to dinner party food was spaghetti.  I say this with the same pride that one might say, "I always make a sublime coc au vin for our dinner parties."  Spaghetti cannot, technically, be considered an adequate dinner party food, particularly when most of it comes from a jar or can.
Having aged evolved a bit, my current version of spaghetti is a family favorite.  This has not always been the case.  When I first made it for the children, it contained a good deal of ground beef AND ground turkey.  They loved it.  It was because of that recipe that we came up with a rule that a full glass of water had to be consumed and 10 minutes needed to pass before seconds could be eaten.  They would wolf the spaghetti down so fast we occasionally worried they might take us with them.  And we NEVER had any left-overs.  The water/10 minute trick worked...about 1/2 the time.  The other 1/2 they spent slurping down anything in their site that remotely resembled tomato sauce.
Then there were the initial months of me cooking as a vegetarian.  They still liked the taste of the sauce, but there seemed to be a lot more left-overs.  They weren't all that thrilled with the chunkiness of the vegetable-packed sauce.  It was a texture thing.
So, I started to puree the vegetables a la that one celebrity and that one cookbook author who keep fighting over whose idea it was first.  This was fine for a while, but they really missed the texture they had so thoroughly enjoyed when the sauce was laden with meat.
Sidebar: I don't require my family to be vegetarians.  Since I make the majority of the food, however, I do cook vegetarian.  Though I am willing to add cheese to their food, I am not interested in fiddling with raw meat.  Therefore, they don't eat a lot of meat at home.
Anywho... I tried adding beans to offer some texture, but they were not fooled.  Still, they never lost hope.   They tirelessly requested spaghetti for dinner and went into each venture deeply faithful that Mamma would come through.  I rarely did.  Until now!
My last few spaghetti dinners have been wildly successful and we are once again enforcing the water/10 minute rule in a frequently futile attempt to garner some left-overs.  The trick is ...
Are you sitting down for this?
The trick is ...
FALAFEL MIX!
That's right.  Falafel Mix.  Could you just pee your pants right there?  Falafel Mix!
Here's how it works...
Dinner Party-worthy Vegan Spaghetti
(serves a family of 5 with left-overs, if you employ the water/10 minute rule)
Ingredients:
Spaghetti noodles (We use brown rice noodles when the livin' is easy and Thai rice noodles, the cheap ones from Asian markets, when things are a little tight)
1 c. boxed Falafel Mix (I use Ziyad Brand Falefil [sic] Mix)
3/4 c. cold water
2-3 large cans crushed tomatoes or tomato sauce (depending on your preference and on how much you want)
1-2 large onions, diced (depending on how much you like onions and how badly they make you cry)
1 T. olive oil plus 1 T. olive oil
1-2 c. diced vegetables (like zucchini, eggplant, mushrooms, carrots)
5 cloves garlic, chopped (I LOVE garlic)
1 t. parsley (to taste)
2 t. basil (to taste)
1/2 t. thyme (to taste)
1-2 t. cinnamon (to taste)
salt and pepper to taste
10 pitted Kalamata black olives, chopped
If you like it a little sweet, 1 T. agave
Put Falafel Mix in a bowl with water and let sit 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a large saucepan.  When warm, add diced onions.  When onions start to brown, add garlic.  Saute 2 minutes more.  Add all other ingredients, except Falafel mixture, and stir.  Bring to a boil and then simmer.
In a saute pan, heat olive oil on medium.  When hot, add the Falafel mixture and pat down with a spatula, as if you were making an enormous pancake.  To make this easier, you can also form burger-sized patties and add those to the pan.  It's just not as fun to flip when you get to the next step.  When brown on one side, flip.  Let brown just slightly and then take the sharp edge of the spatula and start to break apart until it has the same consistency as ground meat.  Brown a few more minutes.  You want it to be chewy.
Add Felafel mixture to spaghetti sauce and stir.  Continue to simmer ever so slightly while you make the noodles per package directions (If you are like me, you would have started the water the minute the onions first hit the pan and your water would be furiously boiling by now, causing you to shoo the children from the kitchen for fear they might get caught in a tidal wave of boiling water).
Drain and rinse noodles and serve on a plate drenched in sauce.  Drink water and wait 10 minutes before having seconds.  Trust me.

I like to top the noodles with some spaghetti
squash before topping with the sauce.

Figs! Glorious Figs!

I unapologetically call them sweet little balls of joy.  When figs first appear each August, I momentarily forgive them for the message they bring: that summer is coming to a close.  How could I stay angry at such a lovely little piece of fruit, with its figgy goodness all soft and sweet inside its perfect purple skin?  Alas, the fig is such a fleeting lover.  It arrives in late summer and only stays long enough for me to fall madly in love with it all over again before it leaves me, desperate and brokenhearted.
If you have never tried a fig before, I urge you to get some the next time you are at the grocery store or Farmers Market.  They are so lovely and delicate that you can't find them any other time of year.  They are lightly sweet, just enough to satisfy, almost like a large, creamy grape.  Oh dear...I hope the thought of a creamy grape doesn't turn people away from the fig.  It's the best I could do except to say that they are my favorite fruit and make me happy each August, even though I know summer is ending.  To inspire you, here is a recipe that showcases the fig's goodness.
I thought of this recipe because I was, believe it or not, craving a wilted steak salad.  I'd had one once, and only once, during my carnivorous era.  There was something special about the way the hot, juicy steak slightly wilted the cool, crunchy spinach.  My craving, I realized, had nothing to do with the actual steak and everything to do with hot and juicy against cool and crunchy (my goodness, this is a rather suggestive post all around).   A portabello mushroom replaces the steak beautifully in this recipe.  My eldest daughter, she who consumes copious amounts of meat, LOVES this salad.  It is also easy enough to prepare for a quick dinner and elegant enough to serve at a dinner party.
Wilted Fig Salad
(serves 4)
8 cups of spinach, washed, dried, and stems cut off
12 figs, stems removed and quartered
2 carrots, cut into thin slices or julienned
2 large onions, cut in half and then sliced fairly thinly
4 portabello mushrooms, sliced lengthwise
1-2 T. olive oil
1/2 c. balsamic vinegar
1 t. garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
1 T. Dijon mustard
1 more T. olive oil
To prepare the dressing, combine the vinegar, 1 T. olive oil, garlic powder, mustard, and salt and pepper to taste.  Whisk.  Set aside.
To prepare the salad, heat 1-2 T. olive oil in a pan (depending on how big your mushrooms are).  Add onions and saute.  When the onions start to brown a little, add the mushroom slices.  Continue to saute until the mushrooms are cooked through.  Meanwhile, on each plate, place 2 c. spinach, 1/4 of the figs, and 1/4 of the carrot slices (You can also do this all in a bowl and toss it with the dressing, but I would be terrified that I might not get my equal share of figs).  When the onions and mushrooms are done, portion them out on top of the 4 salads.  Top with dressing and enjoy nice and hot.
I would have a nice picture of the salad, except it was gone too fast for anyone to think of taking out the camera and getting a photo.

Look at these beauties!

Vegan Pate

You read that correctly.  Vegan Pate.  You know, it feels a bit weird to call anything that is vegan a pate, considering that a pate is typically some sort of pureed meat.  But I suppose if Boca can call their creations "burgers", then I can call this a pate.
This is one of my favorite recipes.  All of my kids love it.  We will often eat it with Totopos, Mexican style tortilla chips, and allow that to serve as the entire meal.  Besides being creamy and filling, it is packed with protein, fiber and vitamins -- the good ones from green veggies.  The adults with whom I have shared this dip comment that they do not miss the missing ingredients at all.  It can rival those gooey, cheesy artichoke or spinach dips at any party.
I like to serve this dip warm, but it is also good cold and refrigerates well for several days.
Vegan Pate
1/2 onion
2 c. green beans or 2 cups spinach, fresh or frozen (let frozen drain a bit once thawed)
1/2-1 T. olive oil (if you prefer less fat, use the former; if you could care less, use the latter and add a bit more)
1 small can or 1 3/4 c. cannelloni beans
1 T. dry parsley or 2-3 T. fresh parsley
pepper to taste
juice of 1 lemon or 2 T. balsamic vinegar
1 t. garlic powder
1/4 c. walnuts
Saute onions in oil until they have browned a bit.  Add green beans or spinach and cook until green beans are tender or spinach is cooked through.  While the veggies are cooking,  put all other ingredients in a food processor.  Add the cooked veggies and puree.   Serve warm or cold with chips or crudite (cold vegetables).
I sure wish I knew how to add accents into my blog posting.  The above post would look much more French.

Mocha Sandwich Cookies

My husband's grandmother used to make the most incredible caramel cookie sandwiches.   We liked to freeze them and eat them straight out of the freezer.   They were better than any Girl Scout Cookie, another freezer favorite.  These, however, are not them.   I am pretty sure it would be disrespectful to bastardize her cookies in any way, shape, or form, much less removing such Norwegian favorites as butter and plenty of sugar.  Instead, I have taken the idea of her cookies and created a gluten-free, vegan cookie sandwich that is best enjoyed frozen.  But, the sandwich part, the frozen part, and the part where her grandson stands by the counter with puppy dog eyes begging for a bit of dough, are the only similarities to the original inspiration for this cookie.
I made a batch of these and brought them to a playdate.  They were a big hit.  The 8 kids there, ranging in age from five to nine, loved them.  The adults loved them.  My biggest culinary critic, Little Av, who has been known to pick the chocolate chips out of her chocolate chip cookies (true story) and who once poo-pooed boxed mac-n-cheese because her mother had -- GASP! -- made them with a different brand of butter, gave them a thumbs up (full disclosure: Little Av's version of a thumbs-up was to lick the frosting out of the middle, eat one bite of the cookie, and give the rest to her mom).
Mocha Sandwich Cookies
3/4 c. almond meal
1/2 c. teff flour or other flour of choice (Teff adds more protein, as well as calcium, thiamin and iron)
1/2 c. brown rice flour
4 T. flax meal, preferably golden (if you don't have this, just use 4 T. more flour)
5 T. Earth Balance
1/2 c. agave
1/4 c. very finely ground decaf coffee OR 2T. decaf coffee and 2T. cocoa powder)
Filling
1/3 c. plus 1-2 T. cocoa powder (to taste)
scant 1/3 c. agave
1/3 c. Vegan spread (I use Soy-free Earth Balance)
Make frosting first.  Refrigerate.  You could even freeze it, which makes it easier to sandwich between the cookies.
Put all cookie ingredients in a food processor and blend very well.    The dough will start to stick together. Refrigerate for about 10-20 minutes to allow the vegan spread to firm up and the flax to absorb some liquid.  The dough will feel like slightly moist play-doh fresh from the container at first.  Roll out onto a  floured surface (white rice flour works best) with a floured rolling pin.  Cut into small circles with a floured cookie cutter (or the floured rim of a shot glass).  As you work with it, it will begin to feel like play-doh without the moisture.  After cutting your first round of cookies, you will need to gather the scraps, knead them into a ball in your hands again, and roll out once more.  These will not rise or expand very much at all so don’t worry about placing them close together on the cookie sheet.  Bake for 12-14 minutes at 350 degrees.  They will not be completely hard when warm from the over, but slightly soft with a little give.  They will harden as they cool.
Cool completely (about 10 minutes) and freeze for about 10-15 minutes.
Make sandwiches with a little less than a teaspoon of frosting and 2 cookies.  Freeze.  These taste best frozen and are also cleaner frozen as the vegan spread doesn't give the frosting a lot of heft.

Girl Scouts, eat your heart out!

What in the Name of Twinkies are you Thinking?

It does seem an odd thing to voluntarily give up so many foods.  Meat.  Dairy.  Gluten.  Sugar.  Soy.  Why would anyone do that?  I can explain.
I'll start with gluten.  My youngest daughter has Celiac Disease.  You don't want me to describe what happens when she eats gluten.  We are in the process of trying to figure out if casein might also be an issue for her.  It does seem to have some nasty consequences.  In addition, my husband cannot tolerate wheat.  It stuffs up his sinuses, adds weight to his gut, and makes his cholesterol skyrocket.  When he gave it up, he lost 60 pounds without counting a single calorie.  So, while I will eat gluten when out and about and still buy one or two items with gluten for my other two kids (when the gluten-free alternative is just too expensive to feed an entire family), I keep a mostly gluten-free household.
That one was easy.  It's always easy to explain giving up a food when allergies or intolerances are involved.  Which brings me to soy.  If it's processed, I can't eat it.  It makes my heart palpitate.  No kidding.
Then there is sugar.  Hi, my name is Paula and I am a sugar addict.  True story.  Sugar makes me want to eat everything in sight.  I once made S'mores Nachos.  I put Totopos, our favorite brand of tortilla chips, found in the Mexican aisle, on a plate, sprinkled (read dumped) chocolate chips on them, carefully placed 6-8 large marshmallows on top, and then nuked the whole thing for 20 seconds, just enough for the marshmallows to threaten explosion.  So, three months ago I broke up with sugar for good.  I have never been one to use artificial sweeteners as they give me a headache and are, well, artificial.  I do use agave, however, so you will find plenty of sweets here.
What's next?  Ah yes.  Meat and dairy.  Ooooh, see now...I hate conflict.  How do I say this without offending anyone?  Let's see.  I could write how, when I think dairy, I think pus.  But that's just me.  I get myself all worked up like that.  I don't think anyone would argue that the current manner in which livestock is raised and slaughtered in this country is less than ideal, inhumane even.  There is also the environmental impact of raising and consuming meat and dairy to consider.  And then there is the fact that meat and dairy just plain old make me feel like the unmentionable stuff that comes out of my youngest daughter when she eats gluten.
Finally, I have been slowly working to lose a little weight, trying to do it in the most healthy way possible.  Meat, dairy, and sugar just do not make losing weight easy at all.  I am not one of those people who does moderation very well.  In fact, I am a complete failure at it.  To make matters more complicated, this past year I went into atrial-fibrillation twice, both times while eating frozen yogurt.  In each case, I had just completed a very long work-out and in both cases, the ice cold yogurt sent my nicely warm and over-exerted heart into electrical confusion (I apparently have not evolved enough to handle refrigeration).  It's not actually a big deal because my cardiologist (because I, in my early 40's, have one of those now) checked my heart out thoroughly and found it to be freakishly perfect (freakishlybecause my father died at 44 of heart disease and because I still have some weight to lose).  Nonetheless, one does not spend two hospital stays on the cardiology floor planning their next fat-laden, diabetic-coma-inducing meal.  I spent it planning my very long future with my three children, wonderful husband, and all the grandchildren I will have.  And so, to that end, I come to this place where meat, dairy, and sugar are not welcome.
Whatever reasons you might have for eschewing this slightly daunting list of foods, I hope that you will enjoy the fruits of my labor.  I try and avoid processed food as much as possible, both for financial and health reasons, and so I do a lot of cooking from scratch.  May you and your heart/conscious/family/allergies benefit from the recipes you will find here.
Bon Appetit!

Vegan Chocolate Cake of Happiness

I thought I would start with a bang, a big 'ole chocolate bang.
Our family attended the birthday party of our very good friends recently.  We'll call the host, my friend, A-funk.  I volunteered to bring a cake because poor A-funk had already purchased one cake for her youngest daughter, who specifically requested a cake "with gluten".  It WAS a celebration of her birthday after all.  Ah, but it was also a party to celebrate her sister's birthday.  Her sister does not eat gluten so her mom also made a cake for her and for any other gluten-free guests, my daughter included.  But then there were little Lu, Little Ni, and little 'ole me.  Like me, little Lu eats no sugar, gluten, or dairy; Little Ni eats no dairy.  If I had been the only problem guest, I would have just sucked it up and not eaten cake.  But little Lu and Little Ni are, well, little, and that's just mean.
I came up with this cake by varying the ingredients of a very popular brownie recipe that has been traveling the web and playdates all over the place.  You can find a version of it here.  I knew it would be dense without the addition of real eggs and I was concerned that it might not be sweet enough for little Lu.  It did turn out to be dense, much like a flourless chocolate cake.  This is a good thing really.  It is more like a fudge cake than the traditional fluffy sort of cake gluten creates.  It was plenty sweet.  I made up the frosting recipe on the fly.  The frosting was so good that A-funk forced me to make another batch for the two of us to snack on while playing cards the night before the party.
Little Lu LOVED this cake and requested and ate a second piece.  Little Ni seemed equally pleased.  In fact, several people who normally eat all the ingredients I eliminated sang its praises (even after stuffing their faces with the store bought concoction of deadly purple dyes and insulin spurting white flours).  The greatest compliment, however, came from A-funk's mother-in-law, a true foodie and incredible cook with a few of her own dietary limitations, who made some pleasant oohs and aaahs upon eating her piece.
Chocolate Fudge Cake
Ingredients:
2 c. white cannellini beans, rinsed extremely well to eliminate post-party flatulence
1 c. agave
1  1/2 c. chopped unsweetened chocolate (I used the bar from Trader Joe's)
1 T. plus 1 t. egg replacer without added water (I used Ener-G brand)
1 t. baking powder
Prepare an 8 inch cake pan with a little vegan spread (I used the Soy-free Earth Balance) and some brown rice flour or corn meal.  I used a cheesecake pan so it would be easier to get the cake out.  Preheat the over to 350 degrees.
Melt the chocolate in a double boiler.  You can melt it in the microwave too.  Just melt it on a lower power so that it doesn't burn.  While chocolate is melting, add all other ingredients to a food processor or a really good blender (and I mean a REALLY good blender!).  Process ingredients until there are no more bean chunks.  Add the melted chocolate and process again until it is well blended.  Pour into cake pan.  Bake for about 30 minutes.  You will want to test it at 30 minutes to make sure it is cooked.  Tester will come out more moist than crumby, but not mushy.
Chocolate Frosting
Ingredients:
1/2 c. vegan spread (I use Soy-free Earth Balance)
3/4 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
a scant 1/2 c. agave
Mix together in a mixer or with a hand mixer.  You can use a whisk if you first melt the spread.  You will just have to refrigerate the frosting for an hour or so before frosting the cake.  Frost cake once very cool.

The shadow on the cake is a very happy little Lu looking over it.