Your Vegan Mom

Crock Cheese

This recipe came about as an excuse to eat more bread.  My pal, Vegyogini, gave me a copy of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day for my birthday a few weeks back, and I have grown annoyingly evangelical about it.  I'm sure you've heard, or already know first hand, how brilliant this book is, but here's the thing.  The real secret to bread making, like most things, is just doing it, over and over, until you're really good at it.  This book helps you fit bread making into your daily life, holds your hand while you do it, and makes you an expert.  I am so flippin' pleased with the bread that has been coming out of my kitchen.  (Which I'm sure you've heard if you have been unfortunate enough to have seen me recently.  Also, sorry if I didn't return your email/call/pleasant greeting - I was busy baking.)  

So while I really like nut butters and jam and earth balance and mashed avocado with a pinch of salt and maybe a squeeze of lemon juice, I was ready for something else to spread.  Something that merited my delicious homemade bread and rivaled its simplicity.  This is it.  

 Cashew Chive Cheese Spread

The rich, creamy yogurt-cashew base is endlessly malleable.  You can easily adapt this recipe to your favorite combination of herbs and spices, but I really like the fresh chives here.  And also, I happen to have two big pots of them on my back porch.  Use what you have or what you like.  Oh, it's also good on crackers.  

3/4 c. raw cashew pieces
scant 3/4 c. (or one 6 oz. container) plain yogurt 
1/4 c. nutritional yeast
1/2 t. salt
about 2 t. minced chives

In the bowl of a food processor, grind the cashews to a rough powder.  Add the nutritional yeast and salt and pulse once more to combine the dry ingredients.  Add the yogurt and process until smooth and creamy.  Add the chives (or other herbs) and pulse once more to combine.  

Serve at once or chill overnight for a slightly firmer texture.  This keeps well in the fridge for several days.

Makes about 1 1/4 cups of spread.  

You Win! (If you're Susan. If you're not, thank you still for leaving such a nice comment.)

I have to wake up the boy in eight minutes.  But really quickly, since it is no longer last week, I want to tell you that I have a book for Susan (the Susan that left comment number 25 about the persuasive powers of good vegan cooking).  So get me that address, Lady, and I'll put your book in the mail.  Congratulations.  Everybody else, thank you so much for telling me about your Mother's Day foraging, and recipes you've tried, and campfire treats.  It was such a pleasure to hear from you.   

Now, any advice on getting my 2 1/2 year old to go to sleep on his own?  For the last four nights he has needed Paul or me to lay down with him.  Is this a (brief) phase?  Or now that we have caved in to his demands will we be doing this for years to come?   

Also, I defy you to give me an example of a more ridiculous transitional object than three life-size, plush golden retrievers.  

Holidays, S'mores, and Free Books

This weekend I sat on a yellow towel in dappled shade and ate cherries.  Just about a whole bag of cherries.  I saved five for my mom because it WAS Mother's Day.  I listened to the wind and the birds and wore a sun hat.  I laid back on the towel and studied the structure of pine branches and blue sky and felt my baby move.  

Desmond made pancakes by the lake from two squishy blue water balls that Grandma bought for him at the Dollar Tree.  And then he made soup from rocks and pine needles in his new blue bucket.  It smelled delicious.    

I read a book.  Not three pages of a book before falling asleep, but a whole book.  (Beatrice by Noelle Harrision.  It was pretty good.  I found it on a shelf in the cabin, after the local library was closed for staff development, but thank you so much for the book recommendations - those titles are added to my list.)

The day was so perfect in fact that we wrote out a detailed list of provisions for dinner and sent the boys away to make it happen.  And since it WAS Mother's Day, they came back not only with sausages and fresh rolls and peppers and onions, but also a perfect little tub of Sweet and Sara Marshmallows from Sol Food Market.  We stacked up graham crackers and marshmallows and good dark chocolate, wrapped the sandwiches in foil, and put them on the grate just over the warm coals while we ate dinner.  

And I brought you back a present too.  Since, as I mentioned the other day, I started this blog on my first Mother's Day, two years ago, and you've been kind of enough to come back and read and share your thoughts and maybe even try out  some of the recipes, I have a book for you.  My radical mother-in-law gave me two copies of Vive le Vegan. 

This cookbook is so sensible and maternal and warm and loving.  The recipes, with their focus on a variety of foods and ingredients, will take care of you and keep you healthy.  Plus there's a section on feeding your vegan baby and toddler if you're interested in that sort of information.  

  

 So like one of those heart-shaped friendship necklaces, I'm keeping one and sharing the other with you, Pal.  BFF?  Just leave a comment about anything you like, perhaps your favorite campfire treat, or notes on any recipes you've tried here would be so great.  I'll draw a name next week.

Mother's Day Brunch

I was planning on baking all day today.  There was to be bread, and quiche, and a crumble, and at least three kinds of muffins or quick breads for my best pal that's going to be a mama this year, and  could really use a treat, but as the temperature in South Pasadena, and therefore in my kitchen creeps towards 94 degrees, I am changing my plans.  I am drinking a smoothie (frozen mango, banana, and pineapple + soy milk and a splash of orange juice) and writing about it instead.  Maybe it's not quite as hot at your house, and you could do it.  I bet your real live mama would appreciate it.  Sunday is Mother's Day, and you really ought to make someone brunch.  (Or hand someone recipes and suggestions if more appropriate.)

Did you see this fig bread recipe in the L.A. Times a couple of weeks ago?  It came from one of those old-fashioned home economics personalities that I have such fondness for, and did not call for any eggs, so clearly I gave it a go.  Lightly sweet and not too fatty, it would make a nice healthy accompaniment to your weekend meal.  Or if you have a spare grapefruit lying around, this grapefruit bread worked very well with a flax egg substitution and a little extra baking powder.  It was rich and moist with a nice tart citrus flavor.  And I love these little cinnamon muffins from Raised on Sunshine.  Unlike, the fig bread they are a decadent special occasion breakfast treat.  You really do need to eat them right away when they're warm and they taste like cinnamon cake donuts.  If you have one of them little donut pans, I bet this would be some good batter to put in it.  

For your savory treats, just put this onion mixture in a pie shell, and bake until browned on the top and set up in the middle - about an hour.  

Now with your quiche and your baked good, you just need a little fruit.  Last weekend I sliced up some oranges - a mixture of navel and these gorgeous little blood oranges that my mom had brought up from the Torrance Farmers Market and tossed them with some fresh mint.  It made such a nice refreshing counterpoint to all those rich brunch foods.

And you need a brunch cocktail.  You can't go wrong with a mimosa, and I always make a big pitcher of orange juice and soda water for those that don't like booze in the morning (Paul.  Pregnant Trina.).  To turn things interesting, you can always top off with a splash of another juice.  I love to add a bit of guava, or a trickle of cranberry juice dripping down into the orange looks so pretty.  

I hope you have a Happy Mother's Day.  

And, as of Sunday, I've been at this blog thing for two years.  On Monday or Tuesday I'll be giving away a classic vegan cookbook to celebrate.  But for now, I'm heading out for the weekend, where I will be handing over these recipe suggestions and ideas to someone else, while I put my feet up with some good fiction.  (What's the best book you've read lately?  I need a new one.)  

Spicy Fig Loaf
Adapted from the April 22, 2009 L.A. Times food section which was in turn "adapted from a Marian Manners recipe that ran on Jan. 26, 1969, in the Los Angeles Times."  Unlike many quick breads that improve upon resting overnight (like that grapefruit bread), this is really best eaten warm from the oven.

1 1/2 c. white whole wheat flour (do not use regular whole wheat flour, if you don't have the softer white whole wheat, then just use all-purpose)
1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
3/4 c. sugar 
4 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. powdered ginger
1/2 c. chopped pecans
3/4 c. chopped dried figs
1 1/2 c. rolled oats
2 T. vinegar + enough soy milk to make 2 cups (i.e. vegan buttermilk)
1/3 c. canola oil

Heat the oven to 350 and grease a 9 by 5 inch loaf pan.  In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, soda, salt, and spices.  Stir in the pecans, figs, and oats.  Add the buttermilk and canola oil and stir to combine.  

Pour the mixture into the greased loaf pan and bake for about an hour until the top is a nice golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool on a rack until warm before slicing.  (Though we couldn't have waited more than 5 minutes, and it was wonderfully steamy and soft.)