one more post before vegan mofo 3

note the wonderful cross section of this bread. moisty-pumpkiny-chocolatey goodness.
this here is miki's pumpkin bread. the recipe makes two fabulous loaves, perfect for sharing. every year at rosh hashana peeps from shul bring lots of sweets to eat after the big erev rosh service-(imagine if you will tables and tables of fresh fruit, chocolate, cookies, etc.) but there's never much for the vegans. actually, there aren't many vegans at temple, but among all the wacky food allergies, there should be, so i brought both loaves! i didn't stick around for the reception, because my little one was preparing for a meltdown. besides--i make sure my home is stocked with plenty of sweets to eat year 'round.

so this will be my last post until october. i need a few days to take a break, stock up the food porn photos, and get some ideas in line for veganmofo 3. * note the link holds the guidelines for last year. if you're interested in participating this year, see kittee's blog and drop her a line. at first i thought i'd have a theme, but with the hectic life i lead, i'll be lucky to get a quick entry in every day during the mofo. i'm pretty excited to read my bloggin' buddies entries during this time and hope to get some new recipe ideas.

GUMBO! bring on tha crunk parte tres

GUMBO! is one of those dishes that i think should be spelled in all caps with an exclamation point. it is a word that needs to be bellowed with the drawl of the ol' cajun chef that used to have the cooking show on t.v. and make random appearances on episodes of hee-haw. do you remember him? he was so adorably obnoxious. until i had tested this recipe of bianca's, i've never had GUMBO! this is her tempeh GUMBO! from her gonna-be-so-hot-damn-awesome up and coming southern vegan cookbook.
here's the thing: i didn't have anything to measure it by since i've never had GUMBO! before, but it was quite tasty--imagine a spicy stew that got it on with some gravy. notice the topping of frank's red hot? sure you did. i like frank's on most everything.

and while i can't tell you the recipe, i can tell you that it has tempeh in it, hence the name tempeh GUMBO! and it also has okra in it, because that seems to be standard for 99.9% of GUMBO! recipes, so i don't think i'm leaking out any big trade secret on my part. the big mistake i made was getting very large okra at the farmer's market. i don't like the stuff, but i thought bigger meant better. not the case. if you want to like okra, you should use the small stuff. if you want to scrub your skillet, then get the bigguns. that shit was tough and fibery, like eating little tubes of paper towel. fortunately, the okra was so huge i just picked it out and proceeded to enjoy my GUMBO! with a nice tomato, onion, pickle, and veganaise sammich.

i ***heart*** care packages

i've given up apologizing for not posting as much, because i realize i have good reasons. my plate is pretty full as you all know, it was my son's 2nd birthday on saturday, AND the jewish new year--so i was busier than usual and ass tired before it was all said and done. i'm grateful for all of you readers for your patience and understanding.

i do have mad plans to hell-or-high water post a snipit every day during the upcoming VEGAN MOFO. what's dat, you ask? it's the Vegan Month Of Food and it's a group of bloggers from the PPK who more or less commit to blogging about all the cool shit you can eat while vegan. since it's in the month of october and i'll just be getting bigger with that bebeh in mah belleh, i have a couple of themes in mind, but i'm gonna tease y'all by not telling you what it is, so please stay tuned.

the pic above is a care package that was sent to me by a fellow PPKer that i've met and have become really fond of. out of respect of her privacy, i won't reveal her identity--but i'll tell you what she sent me was just AWESOME: snazzy decaf coffee beans from one of her local beaneries, mimicreme-( a vegan creamer made with nuts, not soy), pacifica mexican hot chocolate soap-(which makes me smell really really edible), and her own homemade blend of cocoa that is just OUT OF THIS WORLD and puts my own recipe to shame. when i made it, i used 1/3 cup of the mimicreme and 2/3 cup of regular soy milk just to make my cocoa more decadent. oy, the sweetness! this package really made my rosh hashana very sweet. so thank you, ppk buddy--you know who you are!

product review! NOTE: not food related

out of food porn, so it's time for a product review. i don't think i've ever reviewed a vegan body product. so let's take a look at tom's of maine, shall we? i think mr. jewbacca scored this as a freebie at cvs. i was excited about it being vegan.

here's the problem. it smells good, but it's only effective if you apply it every few hours. i found that at the end of the day even though i've showered and used this stuff, i reek with the stench of a gutter punk that has been attending a protest. pee-yew! and all of you gutter punks, yes--i DO love you, but not the funk. that's why i don't think i ever really fit in with y'all.

i think i'll stick with the old tried n' true crystal stick deodorant. y'know, the stuff you buy at the co-op that's just a salt stick that lasts for five or six years. that stuff rocked and to my knowledge was perfectly vegan.

it's too late...

it might be too late to fall in love with sharon tate-(RIP jim carroll!) but it's never too late to eat these pancakes. these are the brainless banana pancakes from vegan-a-go-go, originally from how it all vegan. i apologize profusely for the shitty photo, but i was so into these flapjacks that i was mid-nom when i realized i hadn't taken a food porn shot. natural light made it look yukky and the flash produced the best pic possible. and yes, these are so 'brainless' that they'd never register on a zombie's radar. so simple. i'm talking eeeeeaaaaazzzay like sunday mornin'. okay, okay--i'll stop already.

i added chocolate chips because that's how i roll.

sorry i've been gone for a few days. take one part pregnant lady, add one sick toddler, then stir in a generous portion of that pregnant lady getting said toddler's illness and viola! you have me over the past few days. not pretty.

i'm coo-coo for coconuts! bring on tha crunk part deux

another vegan crunk recipe. i'll tell you what, her granny rocks. i don't know many vegans who have such dedicated family members that take their old skool recipes and veganize them for their vegan loved ones. how precious! this is called "old fashioned coconut pie"
i'm sure you've all heard the term "sugar pie". well, now i know where it comes from! this pie is soooo sweet, you're better to have it with a strong cup o' joe (decaf in my case) or top it off with a scoop of vanilla soy delicious to cut the sweetness. this dessert would hands down be the belle of the ball at your next potluck or the perfect alternative to pumpkin pie at the holidays.
i made one big pie to eat for dessert for the week and these gnawdorable mini-pies for labor day. i just took the crust, cut it out with a wide mouth glass, put them in muffin tins, and filled them with the filling prior to baking.

yeah-yeah, the recipe? sorry that's classified information, sweetie pies. you'll just have to buy the cookbook when it comes out.

bring on tha crunk part one

i've tried making seitan buffalo "wangs" before, but bianca's recipe puts mine to shame. since it's a tester recipe, i've been sworn to secrecy and therefore can't really tell you what's in it, but just trust me when i say it is so awesome, that this is the ONLY way we'll prepare seitanic wangs in the jewbacca household.

the ONLY way.

harvest time!

well, considering that i've been pregnant most of the year, i think my punk rock garden turned out okay. i didn't invest much energy into it, and by not much i mean hardly at all. in indiana it was an unseasonably cool and wet summer. i believe i broke even. pictured above are cherokee purple tomatoes, orange tomatoes, garden peaches-(they're the small round yellow ones that taste kind of like a tomato peach hybrid) and a ton of yellow pear tomatoes. my first batch of green peppers were okay, but the second crop that have come in have been awfully gnarly-(and not in a good way). i lost my cabbage to loopers and i made the mistake of sewing lettuce seeds near my tomatoes--they require different nutrients. oops. on a positive note, i've made 4 batches of raw salsa in the past couple of weeks, and very little has gone to waste.

here's the aforementioned salsa and on top of a glorious mountain of my southwest scramble. hash browns topped with the amazing cheez sauce from the previous post.

jen's southwest scramble

• 1 package firm tofu in a carton
• 1/3 c. nooch
• 2T yellow mustard
• 1/4 c. corn
• 1/4 c. black beans
• 2T chopped pimentoes
• 1/2 t cumin
• 1/2 ground coriander
• 1/2 turmeric
• 1/4 c. chopped onion
• 1 clove of minced garlic-(more if you want, i tend to not be garlic-centric this pregnancy)
• dashes of bragg's
• dashes of frank's red hot

saute garlic and onion in a T or two of your favorite oil. make sure your tofu is pressed well. i press mine between two plates with a 5 lb hand weight on top, dumping the water every 10 minutes. if you're pressed for time-(pun intended) you can gently squeeze with your hands, but make sure that tofu has most of the water out of it. it really makes a difference with the scramble.

with some clean hands, mush it well in a bowl-(to the consistency of ricotta cheese) and add all the other ingredients. place in the frying pan with the onions and garlic and cook over med. heat. i like to cook mine for a while until it gets a little brown and crispy. top with fresh salsa and serve with some home fries.

upcoming posts: i've been crunkin' it up in the kitchen for bianca. i'll have not one, not two, but three posts dedicated to her recipes this week!

sailing the seas of cheez

"sailing the seas of cheese" is one of my favorite albums by primus. les claypool is one cool dude. since going vegan, i've learned that i actually fare quite well without the stuff. even during the beginning stages of this pregnancy when i confessed to y'all that i struggled and have exercised a flexetarian muscle or two, the dairy-go-round backfired miserably. i have become lactose intolerant, quite literally. thank g-d for that blessing!

and i haven't really found a vegan cheez i've liked. the commercial stuff is way too expensive. last channukkah, mr. jewy got me the ultimate uncheese cookbook by jo stepaniak. i've tried 4 or 5 of the recipes and there's one that i really have come to love: the tangy hot or cold chedda sauce on page 69. to make it more awesome i added 1T of samba oelek and a handful of spanish olives in the blender with the recipe. yowza, that's a spicy cheez sauce!
i put it to good use on these here nachos
close-up! say cheeze!

attraction rather than promotion

it is much better to attract people to veganism via good ol' fashioned cooking rather than promotion. what do i mean by that? i mean make some effing cookies. these are the chocolate chip coconut cookies from vegan-a-go-go. we like them a whole lot here at the jewbacca ranch. the recipe calls for an egg substitute of your choice, and hands down the flax seed option works best!

a little over a year ago, when i told mr. jewy i was going vegan, he balked a little because he thought i was going to turn into a self-righteous killjoy who made food that tasted like dirt. he recalled a vegan friend of his in the early nineties that brought cookies to a party that tasted like ass. i informed him vegan cooking has come a looooong way since then, adding that just because someone is vegan doesn't mean they can cook. mr. jewy still ain't vegan, but he happily eats 98% of what i make and no longer drinks cow's milk. it's progress, not perfection--upgrades are good.

anyway, how do you deter people from veganism? pushing the issue. being uppity about your eating habits. talking about it while omnivores are eating-(*"eeew, how can you eat that? do you know how long meat rots in the colon?"), giving people gory pamphlets, or setting them down to a good ol' fashioned PETA endorsed animal abuse movie. seriously, why do people think this is a a quality method to bring peeps over to our side? we don't sit around and watch footage of people being killed to know that murder isn't a good idea. why would people want to watch this other than to get riled up or be seriously depressed? for the record, i don't want or need to see any of those movies to know what happens to animals. i don't need to read about the torture either. i've read about it once, and put the book down. i know animals live a life of torture for the sake of human taste and consumption. i actually have quite the (pun intended) beef with PETA that could easily fit into a series of blog entries, namely the organization's blatant fataphobia. after seeing a billboard that exploited a fat child sponsored by the organization, i wrote them telling them i'd never go vegan again because of them. now i guess, i'm happily eating my words. via cookies, of course.

*=look, i know omnivores give us the same crap about how we eat: "ewww...." isn't it irritating? then don't do it to them.

so again, make some baked goods. cookies, cakes, pies, and bars are the easiest things to make vegan. don't tell people what's in them or that they're vegan unless you have someone who is allergic to something at your workplace. marvel at their requests to have the recipe.