Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies from VWAV

Oh my goodness, these cookies.  I used the recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance, but used half shortening instead of all margarine.  Result: cookies reminiscent of childhood bliss.  Alas, this batch is destined for my cousin, but the practice chocolate and walnut batch is long history.

Banana Rum Bread Pudding

6 or so slices whole wheat bread

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

2 large, very ripe bananas

1 c nondairy milk (I used almond milk)

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

pinch of cloves

1/4 tsp salt

1 c brown sugar

1 T cornstarch

1 shot spiced rum (or more, I won't judge)

Mash the bananas in a large bowl, then mix in everything but the bread and walnuts.  Add the walnuts and bread, making sure to coat all of the bread with liquid.  Let sit as you preheat the oven to 350 degrees and oil a loaf pan.  Add the pudding mixture to the loaf pan.  Bake for 30 minutes, then refrigerate for at least an hour before serving so that it has time to firm.

If you didn't want to booze up the pudding, you could omit the rum or substitute apple cider.

The dude ate it with cookie dough coconut milk ice cream.  Whatever, man.

Challah Should Be Banned in Schools

I was looking through some old photos, and now I know: Challah is vulgar.  It's curvy.  It's ample.  Sometimes, despite my best efforts, it's got little nubbins on the end.  If you don't make the braids long enough, it looks like a dehydrated person's poo, or maybe like a rabbits en flagrante delicto.

If you let it rise too much, it sprawls out, whaling into obscene puddles of flesh as it bakes.  The likeness transforms into something anatomical.  Dribbled with a bit of margarine, it glistens and departs from "braid" and into "should I be uncomfortable looking at this and why?"

Or maybe it's just a baby Jesus, I don't know.

Cornmeal Scones

My muffin tin consists of 6 dinged and bent muffin cups.  This used to be a boon when I was living alone and only made half recipes of things, but lately, making full or double batches of muffins and cupcakes makes me sad.  But sometimes, a soup begs for a cornmeal something-or-other, and so the cornmeal scone takes a step forward and says, "Pick me!"

2 1/2 c AP flour

1/2 c cornmeal

2 T baking powder

1 t salt

2 T nutritional yeast

1/4 t pepper

2 T oil

2 T agave nectar

1 c nondairy milk

1 T apple cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Combine the nondairy milk and vinegar, set aside to curdle.  Combine the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, and nutritional yeast.  Mix in the oil, agave, and the curdled milk until just combined.  Dough should not be too sticky, if it is, add a little more flour or cornmeal.  Divide into four dough balls.  Flatten the balls into discs, cut into four scones and place on a nonstick baking sheet.  Bake for 10-12 minutes, until just golden brown.

Warm and served dipped in soup...heaven, without using a muffin pan.

Chocolate Chip Muffins

Many of my friends were born without the chocolate-loving gene; whether this is a defect or the absence of a defect will require further study.  Even the boy won't eat a super chocolatey brownie, preferring applesaucey vegany mildly chocolatey brownies to the ueber fudgy concoctions I will occasionally make.  So, I went in search for a gentle chocolate chip muffin, nothing double- or ultra- or otherwise prefixed.

This morning, I made these, which were these but with a tsp of instant coffee and a half cup of wheat bran thrown in to make them more breakfasty.

And, I took a shitty webcam photo--complete with the shadow of my laptop--of one before I ate it.

Good-bye, breakfast muffin.

Introduction

Lacking a standalone digital camera, a career, and a neighboorhood with decent culture, this apartment-dweller seeks to make up for the "lacks" and instead dwell upon the "how tos" and the "loves" and the "thank goodness fors."

I've been meaning to start a vegan food blog for some time--if only as a way to keep track of the meals I make for and with my friends, family, and my fiercely omnivorous boy, D.

As for me, and us:

I went vegan in January 2009.  My family enjoys food.  Hearty, traditional foods like flesh, cow's milk, eggs.  They have never discussed ethics of veganism with me, and my extended family refuses to try even the most decadent and delicious and innocuous vegan dishes.  I was afraid that the boy would be less than understanding (and even less open to trying recipes), but I was relieved to find him willing to give things a shot.  We moved in together about six months ago and now dwell in a conservative suburbian wasteland, with me commuting 2 hours each way to work in Los Angeles and him working 15 hour days at grad school to become a practicing mathemaphysician and Knower of Arcane Things.

As for the blog:

I want to make nommable things that don't involve violence upon animals (excepting, perhaps, the occasional cook getting hit with a spoon).