Your Vegan Mom

Around the World with Bryanna Clark Grogan

Nine years ago this December, Paul and I got married.  After the stress of fabricating the most perfect day in our entire lives, I didn't care where we went on our honeymoon as long as it was warm and we could lounge.  We settled on Montreal.  In December.  

I can't remember precisely how we settled on Montreal.  In December.  But I had always wanted to go there, and we have an irritating tendency to do the opposite of what everyone else is doing even when they are right.  

So we went to Montreal.  In December.  And everyone there was eating poutine - a snacky, regional specialty of fries slathered in cheese curds and brown sauce.  And we wanted in.  So on one of our last days in the city, in a movie theater no less, Paul asked the French Canadian in charge, "Could we get an order of poutine without meat or cheese?"  With a mixture of French Canadian bewilderment and disdain, the concessionaire told Paul, "It is made of meat.  It is meat sauce."    

Unsatiated, I've had a niggling desire for poutine for the last nine years... until Bryanna Clark Grogan's new cookbook, World Vegan Feast, arrived on my doorstep in August.  Flipping through the roster of international recipes - Spanish Omelet - Saigon Crepes - Serbian Braised Sauerkraut and Seitan - South African Bobotie - Moroccan Bisteeya - Vegan Poutine - I knew where we would begin.  

For the Kids at the Table: a new coloring (!) zine

You know Garlic-Onion-Beet-Spinach-Mango-Carrot-Grapefruit Juice, right?  Well, I am so excited to tell you that just in time for Thanskgiving, the author of that book, Nathalie VanBalen, has busted out a coloring zine, and it's adorable.  It approaches its message more directly than her previous book does.  On the second page she out and tells you: 

There isn't a turkey on our table
and we're happy to tell you why - 
because turkeys are friends (like cats and dogs)
and feathered friends must fly! 

In that way it reminds me of Ruby Roth's book for kids, That's Why We Don't Eat Animals, but as you can see, Nathalie has such a gentle, sweet voice that even when she comes close to the subject of factory farming (never farther than a mention of cages), I still want to sit down with a plate of warm cookies and listen.  

Super Easy Homemade Baked Applesauce

I am surrounded by apples.  The preschool just completed their fall fundraiser apple sale and shelves and drawers and bowls are now spilling over with fragrant red and yellow fruit.

And I just finished reading The Orchard by Theresa Weir.  Have you read it?  It's both a memoir of her time living on an apple farm in Henderson County, Illinois in the seventies and eighties and a parable of the dangers of conventional farming.  She experiences firsthand the effects that pesticides and other farm chemicals have on the families whose livelihood is raising our food.  The book reads like chick lit - it's a quick, easy read - there's romance - but at the same time, it makes real what for many is just a vague idea - that there is a human cost to that piece of cheap flawless fruit in the grocery store that is far greater than what we are paying.  

And then my weekly produce box showed up, with more apples.  

So when I came across a recipe I wanted to try that called for applesauce, I thought, there is no flipping way that I am buying a jar of flipping applesauce. 

And I love Amelia Saltsman's technique for making it at home.  You cut the apples in half, roast them, and then scrape out the soft flesh.  It could not be easier.  She suggests you roast the apples with thyme and use a smidgen of calvados or cider to deglaze the pan, and that makes me want to throw a Hannukah party for grown-ups.  But my day to day applesauce needs are for the 2 to 5 year old set and their simple palates.  I did throw a few beautiful yellow pears into the mix that had recently fallen prey to a dangerous game of fridge jenga, and they added a nice floral sweetness to the sauce.  Also, it's important to note - if you use a red variety of apple, your sauce will blush a beautiful rosy pink.  That color, and the smell of roasting apples filling your house, just cannot be bought in a jar at Trader Joe's.