Sometimes being vegan isn't enough

For me, I am vegan because I love animals and it hurts me to see them suffer. I haven’t been very active lately, besides living vegan and encouraging good food. Recently I started to get very upset over so many things happening in this world which affects animals. It can be so overwhelming and depressing sometimes! I knew I had to make a choice; be depressed about it, or do something more. I decided to do something more.

My parents live along the Columbia River. I have seen sea lions swimming along the river and was mesmerized by them. When I would visit Astoria, my favorite place to visit was the pier next to Safeway which you could easily find listening to the barks of the sea lions. They were lined up along the different docks, sleeping and arguing and swimming and sun bathing. They were great!

Then I heard they are being killed at the Bonneville dam, and potentially anywhere else they were deemed a threat to salmon. The truth is, sea lions eat less than 4% of the salmon while fishermen catch an upwards of 12%, which was recently raised. I guess the state feels fisherman catching fish are more important than the lives of sea lions! This issue is so misunderstood by the public, due to lies from government agencies. The news reports that animals are being killed since they are sick and have cancer. The truth is about 40% of sea lions have a virus which can predispose the animal to a form of cancer, but 82% of these animals never contract cancer. The virus does not affect them living normal lives. Other sea lions were killed because they were considered overweight. The sea lions traveling up the Columbia are primarily male, trying to fatten up for mating season. Once again, the state is punishing the sea lions for doing something that is normal and natural for them.


The government is suppose to work from a lethal removal list, which are sea lions identified as “repeat offenders” (i.e., eating). Recently, the government was caught capturing and potentially killing a sea lion not on the list. This should be something that could be stopped, since by law, it is not suppose to be okay. Unfortunately a judge recently ruled that In Defense of Animals could not even bring the issue to court since the sea lion himself did not have standing and IDA could not represent the sea lion since it did not affect them. So crazy!

I am not the most educated about this issue, although I am trying to learn all I can. I encourage you to do the same! Please visit http://www.sealiondefensebrigade.org/ for more information.

What you can do!

* Write letters to the editor
* Educate your neighbors and co-workers
* Volunteer with Sea Lion Defense Brigade
* Donate money and other needs from their wish list
* Get on the “cool bus” April 16 for a field trip to Salem
* Contact the following agencies and people and let them know you want the sea lions left alone.

Oregon Dept of Fish & Wildlife Rick Hargrave 503-947-6020and cell 503-559-1592

Washington Dept of Fish & Wildlife Craig Bartlett 360-902-2259

US Amry Corps of Engineers Diana Fredlund 503-808-4514

NOAA Fisheries Garth Griffin 503-231-2005

Contact your legislators! To find out who they are and their contact information, go here http://www.leg.state.or.us/findlegsltr/

There is something everyone can do. Allow your voice to be heard!

Brownies

When I am asked to teach a baking class, if I have time, I like to create new recipes for the event.  It is a great excuse to add more recipes to my file and learn more about baking.  Brownies can be difficult to make vegan from an original recipes since for some reason the results sometimes don't work with commercial egg replacers.  So I decided this would be a great recipe to veganize.  I looked at a recipe with eggs and decided to try using blended silken tofu as the egg replacer.  I decided on this egg replacer since it is flavorless and has a good texture.  I hoped it would allow the brownie to have the correct consistency and possibly make it more moist, in a good way.  The original recipe called for 2 eggs, so I used 1/4 cup blended silken tofu for each egg.  It is important to make sure you use silken tofu, which has a very different consistency than a regular tofu you might use for a stir fry.  The results were just like I was hoping for!

Brownies

1/2 cup Soy Margarine, melted

1/2 cup Unsweetened Cocoa

1 cup Organic Cane Sugar

1/2 cup Silken Tofu, blended

1 tsp Vanilla

1/2 cup Unbleached White Flour

1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1/4 tsp Salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease a 9-inch square pan; set aside.  Combine the melted margarine and cocoa.  Add the sugar, silken tofu and vanilla and beat until smooth.  Add the flour, baking powder and salt and mix to combine.  Spread into the pan and bake for 30 minutes.  Makes 16 brownies.

Blueberry Muffins

Flaxseed Meal is one of the most versatile egg replacers of them all.  I can't think of anything it doesn't work for, plus you get the added nutrition.  For every one egg, combine 1 Tb Flaxseed Meal + 3 Tb Water.  If a recipe contains 3 or less eggs, it usually works to use an egg replacer.  

I recently taught a baking class and developed this muffin recipe using flax instead of eggs.  the results were very tasty.  Blueberries are my favorite muffin fruit, but strawberry is close behind.  A co-worker recently told me she had never heard of a strawberry muffin before and that just boggled me mind!  So next time I make these it will be with strawberries, which is now in season.

Blueberry Muffins

2/3 cup Unrefined Cane Sugar

2/3 cup Soy Milk

2 Tb Flaxseed Meal + 6 Tb Water

1/3 cup Vegetable Oil

1 tsp Vanilla

2 cups Unbleached White Flour

2 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Salt

1 cup Fresh Blueberries

Combine the flax and water and let sit a couple minutes.  Mix together the sugar, soy milk, oil, vanilla and flax blend.  Add the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.  Fold in the blueberries, careful not to over mix.  Fill greased muffin cups 3/4 full.  Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes.  Makes 12 muffins.

*This recipe contains an egg replacer for 2 eggs.  Instead of the flaxseed meal, you could also use 1/2 cup of applesauce, non-dairy yogurt, tofu sour cream, mashed banana or blended silken tofu.  Egg replacers usually make up about 1/4 cup quantity to equal 1 egg.  

Tofu Buffalo Sticks

I haven't been cooking or baking much lately, but that going to change. For one thing, I am teaching two different cooking classes within the next month, and I always make a practice of creating new recipes for this. My friends have also been asking me to cook for them and teach as I go along. I recently made my friend Spicy Tofu Triangles which was served with brown rice and steamed collards with a raspberry red wine vinegar sprinkled on top. Tofu is one of my favorite foods to play with, since it can be so versatile and absorbs flavor so nicely.

Last year I decided I needed to create a recipe to make something similar to buffalo wings. I looked up a variety of recipes and used them to give me a start. I played around with different hot sauces and using fresh onion, or dry, and how much of this and that to use. The final recipe was made for my parents and niece and nephew. Kids are such great food tasters since they won't lie to you if they don't like something. Luckily, no lying was needed and everyone gobbled up all the tofu I made by the end of the night.

Buffalo Tofu Sticks

1 lb Tofu, firm

2 Tb Oil

Batter:

1/3 cup Unbleached White Flour

2 tsp Paprika

Sauce:
1/4 cup Onion, chopped

2 cloves Garlic, chopped

2 Tb Tabasco Chipolte Hot Sauce

2 Tb Ketchup

1/4 tsp Salt

1 Tb Agave Nectar

1 Tb Lemon Juice

Place all the sauce ingredients into a blender. Blend until the sauce has a smooth consistency and set aside.

Cut the tofu block into 32 sticks. Mix together the flour and paprika for the batter in a wide mouthed bowl. Place the tofu sticks in the batter, a few at a time, to cover the tofu with the mixture. Set aside and finish covering all the tofu sticks with the batter.

Heat the oil in a large skillet on medium heat. You may need to cook these up in two batches. Place the battered tofu sticks in the skillet and cook until all sides are golden. Add the sauce and cook until all the sauce is absorbed and adhered to the tofu sticks.

This is great served with Mac & Cheese and steamed broccoli!

A Visit to Eugene

Last weekend I visited one of my favorite food places in the world, Pizza Research Institute (PRI) in Eugene, OR. I love this place for so many reasons and feel personally connected to the people who run it, even though we have barely talked in the many years I have eaten their fabulous creations. I hadn't been in for a year, but the owner still recognized my face and sincerely asked how I was doing. Many, many years ago, my picture showed up in the Eugene newspaper after my involvement in a fur protest in San Francisco. They cut out the photo and told me how they had it displayed on their home refrigerator, and did so for many years. The first time I saw them after the newspaper photo, I was given a free homemade soda as a reward for my involvement.

PRI offers the best a vegan could ever hope for. Their vegan "cheesy" topping is a tofu base which is creamy and tasty. I don't know any statistics, but I am sure they sell more vegan pies than ones made with cheese. The basic pizza comes with marinara sauce, spinach and more, so even if you did not want to splurge on additional toppings, you will still be happy. PRI is not afraid of trying new and different flavor combinations as well, although I am not always game to try it since I can only get down there every once in a long time and know what I like. Their "Chef choice" pizza is usually topped with more vegetables than imaginable and usually includes corn on the cob which looks really interesting in disks around the pizza surface. If you are in Eugene, you must go to this place. But I must warn you, you will be addicted!

I also visited a place with lots of amazing memories for me, Morning Glory Bakery & Cafe. It is hard for me to sit down and order from this place, because it is not the same as when the original owner had control over the quality of the food and service. I was the first employee that original owner first hired, when her business was a very popular bakery which delivered baked goods around town. I did order one of my old favorites, The Fushion. It is a potato omelet folded over an amazing array of tofu, tomato, onion and spices topped with a fabulous homemade sour cream. This was not as good as I remembered (and had way too much tumeric which I am not a fan of anyway) but even with these issues, it was still very enjoyable. Oh, and the Dill Roll that came with the breakfast was luckily, just like I remembered it. I was saddened when I looked in their pastry shelves, though. When I worked there the shelves were lines with the most surprising visual of scrumptious vegan baked goods including flaky croissants, gooey cinnamon rolls, muffins, coffee cake, cookies and so much more. This was the place where my vegan baking skills were developed and my life in activism was supported. I will always have very fond memories of the place.

Luckily Eugene now also offers The Sweet Life Bakery with many vegan options including cheesecake, cakes of all flavors, cinnamon rolls, cookies and more. I usually go for the cake. They had a Chocolate Pistachio Rum cake with layers of their vegan cream cheese frosting which was so delightful I didn’t want to share (but I did a little). I definitely had my fill of great vegan treats on my visit down to Eugene which was suppose to have little to do with food.

Mac & Cheese with Gluten Free Options

Most vegans have a version of Macaroni & Cheese that they like to make.  There are so many different recipes to make a vegan version, you could have a new mac & cheese every night of the week.

When I first started to eat vegan, there weren't all the hip cookbooks now available.  Luckily there was one which I found to have lots of flavor.  The New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook helped me appreciate a vegan diet and all the possibilities with my new diet.  There are some great recipes for baked goods, what to do with nutritional yeast and make it taste wonderful and even how to make your own tempeh and soymilk.  The recipe for Macaroni and "Cheese" Casserole showed me a new love for this old time favorite dish.

For most of my vegan life, I have made the cheese sauce for the noodles and baked it as directed in the original recipe.  Recently I started just mixing the sauce with the noodles and have found this to be a creamier version I am really enjoying.  There is also less fat used in my version of the recipe which I will share with you today.  I am no longer on my gluten free diet, but luckily last month I was so I have gluten free options  to share as well.  Now this dish can be enjoyed by even more people!

Mac & Cheese

1/3 cup Soy Margarine

1/2 cup Unbleached White Flour*

3 cups Water

1 tsp Salt

1 tsp Garlic Granules

2 Tb Braggs

2 Tb Oil

1 cup Nutritional Yeast

16 oz. Pasta*

*For gluten free options use 1/3 cup White Bean Flour instead of the unbleached white flour and rice, quinoa or corn pasta instead of wheat pasta.

Cook the pasta according to the package directions, drain and set aside.

In a medium pan, bring the water to a boil.  In the mean time, melt the soy margarine on medium heat.  When melted, add the flour and blend with a whisk to make a roux and allow to cook until smooth and bubbly.  Add the boiling water (carefully) along with the salt, garlic granules and braggs.  Continue to heat until the sauce starts to thicken.  When it reaches a good consistency, add the oil and nutritional yeast and whisk until fully incorporated.  Add the cooked pasta to the cheesy sauce.  Serve right away or add your own twist and then serve.

Other options:  Some people like adding a pinch of tumeric for a more orange color.  You can also add chipolte tabasco sauce for a unique flavor, add hickory smoke, add tomatoes or other vegetables, add tempeh, tofu or setain to the dish, use flavor themes such as a mexican twist and even use different types of pasta shapes.  Be creative!

The Triple Threat Dessert

Sorry it has been a little long since my last post. When I started my blog in the summer, the sunshine allowed me to get some great lighting for my food photos. Ever since the fall, when the sun was not usually available, especially when at home, I have been struggling with getting decent photos. I am very particular with my photos and want them to look really nice. I don't have the set up for inside photography, so I just can't seem to get good enough photos lately. I am doing research for some creative and cheap lighting ideas, so hopefully I won't let me photo quality get in the way of my postings for much longer. Until I figure it all out, please forgive my less than ideal photography. Just know that I will only post truly tasty recipes on here.

This recipe is not the most beautiful no matter how you frame it. I entered this recipe in Northwest Veg’s monthly potluck for a valentine bake off. There were about 15 baked goods entered in the contest and almost 80 people in attendance at the potluck. There was an award for the prettiest dessert. If there was an award for the ugliest, mine would have probably won, especially after cutting it so everyone could have a sample. Luckily, it won the most original and fan favorite instead.




Gluten Free Cheesecake Cherry Brownies

8 oz. Frozen Cherries, defrosted & blended

Cheesecake:

2 - 8 oz containers Tofutti Cream Cheese
1 - 12.3 oz pkg Silken Tofu
3/4 cup Organic Unrefined Cane Sugar
1/4 cup Cornstarch
1 tsp Vanilla

Blend all ingredients in a food processor or blender. Set aside for use later in the refrigerator. This can be store for a few days if needed.

Brownies:

1/3 cup Sweet White Rice Flour
1 cup Water
1/2 cup Soy Margarine
1/2 cup Chocolate Chips
1/2 cup Cocoa
2 cups Organic Unrefined Cane Sugar
1/4 tsp Salt
1 tsp Vanilla
1 1/4 cup Sweet White Rice Flour
1/2 cup Sorghum Flour
1/4 cup Potato Starch
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Guar Gum

To make the brownies, whisk together the 1/3 cup Sweet White Rice Flour and the 1 cup water in a shallow pan. Heat on medium heat and whisk until thickened. Take off the burner and let cool. In medium sauce pan, combine the margarine and chocolate chips, place on stove burner and heat on medium until melted. Add the cocoa and whisk until the mixture is smooth. Take off the burner and allow to cool.

Combine the sugar, salt and vanilla with the cooled flour mixture. Then, add the cooled chocolate mixture and blend until fully combined. In a separate bowl, mix the flours, baking powder and guar gum. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet and with a spatula or spoon, stir to combine.

Spread the brownie batter in a greased 9 x 13-inch pan. Spread the cherries on top of the brownie batter. Slowly spread the cheesecake batter over the cherry layer and spread to evenly cover the baking dish. Bake at 350ºF for 40 minutes. Allow to cool at room temperature, then place in the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight for the cheesecake to set.