Category: Miscellany

Veganuary 2021 Easy Condiments: Sour Cream

Oh my gosh …this stuff is so good! Who knew that cashews could make sour cream?

When I was first playing with vegan recipes I thought they would all be complicated, too difficult, and hugely time consuming. Wrong! This recipe, although a condiment and not a meal, is an example of how easy it is to eliminate animal based products from your diet. Inspired by the cookbook Fuss Free Vegan my rendition of the recipe is as follows. (if you don’t own that book you need to go get it!)

1 cup raw cashews…now you can put these into a container, cover them with water and soak for a minimum of 6 hours (you can keep some in the fridge if you’re using them a lot) OR you can cheat. I boil water, throw the cashews into a heat proof container (usually a Pyrex measuring cup), cover them with the boiling water and wait about 15 minutes. I find this works well when I don’t have cashews soaking in the fridge and I’m in a time crunch.

1/2 cup water
1-3 teaspoons of lemon juice. I like quite a bit of lemon juice, sometimes even as much as a 1/4 cup, but some may not. For me it really kicks up the “sour” of the sour cream.
1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Get your cashews ready. Then put them, the water, a teaspoon of lemon juice, and the vinegar into a high speed blender. I used my bullet blender in the video and if you have one it works great for these smaller recipes. Whiz all this up for a minute or so scraping the sides as you blend. If using the bullet make sure you stop and give it a shake then put it back on to blend some more. I stop after a bit and just rub a little bit of the cream between my fingers. If it feels smooth you know the nuts have been thoroughly blended. If you feel a slight grit then just keep blending. Also make sure to taste your creation and add salt and/or pepper (and maybe more lemon juice) to your liking. Always start with very small amounts and work up to more.

Put your sour cream into a closed container in the fridge and it’s even better the next day when all the flavors meld together. I find it keeps for about a week.

Use it on anything you would normally put sour cream on. Spicy food, quesadillas, chili, nachos…all your favorites!

I hope you’ll try it and let me know what you think.

Until next time,

Susan

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Veganuary 2021: Chocolate Chip Cookies

Now that I’ve eaten about 50 of these I can share the recipe with you. The actual recipe is in Sam Turnbull’s cookbook “Fuss Free Vegan.”

Here’s my rendition that I used in the above video:

Dry Ingredients

3.5 cups of all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix these together in a bowl, set aside for a moment.

Wet Ingredients

1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar lightly packed
4 teaspoons vanilla
3/4 cup vegan butter
3/4 cup refined coconut oil
optional approx. 1/4-1/2 cup soy milk or coconut milk

In another bowl cream sugars with butter, coconut oil, and vanilla till mixed. Add flour mixture a bit at a time mixing each time. Continue with all the flour mixture. If the dough seems too dry sprinkle in some of the milk, a little at a time, until the dough incorporates completely. (you may find you need less or more of the milk as necessary)

1 1/2 cups vegan chocolate chips (I buy the Costco brand when I can find them as they have no milk product in them and they are cost effective)
Optional: 1 or more cups of your favorite nuts , walnuts, pecans, peanuts…whatever you like. Throw them in whole or chop them up!

Tip: Divide the dough and add different things to each. My kids aren’t fans of nuts so I divide the dough in half after adding the chips. I add our favorite nuts, right now that’s walnuts, to half and leave the other half plain. Makes everybody happy!

Bake at 350 degrees for between 12 and 15 minutes.

It’s very hard not to eat either the dough as you’re making or the baked cookies. They are delicious!

if you don’t own Sam Turnbull’s book “Fuss Free Vegan” you need to run out and buy a copy!!

Here’s a link to help you out with that…
https://itdoesnttastelikechicken.com/fuss-free-vegan/

Until next time,

Susan

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Veganuary 2021: Breakfast Cookies

These are truly my favorite go to for breakfast. Pair them with your favorite beverage, mine is coffee, for an easy start to the day. I find the oatmeal in these is fairly filling and takes me through until lunch no problem.

The original recipe is from the cookbook “Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar.” Written by two vegan powerhouse chefs, Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero, this is a great addition to anyone’s kitchen vegan or not.

Here is my rendition of the breakfast cookie recipe. I’ve tweaked it a little to fit my taste and also to enlarge the final cookie count. Because, well, you just can’t have too many of these. (and did I mention they freeze well?)

Here is my version:

3 medium over ripe bananas (4 if small)
3-ish tablespoons of ground flax
1/3 cup non-dairy milk (whatever you like)
3/4 cup vegetable oil (I use a no taste olive oil)
3/4 brown rice syrup
1/3 cup date syrup
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (I’ve used regular whole wheat flour sifted with good results)
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (or more if you really like it)
1 tablespoon cinnamon (adjust for more or less)
3 cups of rolled oats
1 1/2 cups of raisins (choose your favorite, dried cranberries, chopped dried apricots , chopped dates…?)
1 1/2 cups roasted walnuts (again choose your favorite, pecans, almonds, macadamia…)

I like to get everything out, measure, and ready the mixer before beginning. This lets me know if I’m missing anything before I get started and then realize I need an ingredient I don’t have.
Mix bananas with flax, milk, and the oil until combined. Add rice and date syrups plus vanilla, mix again. Add flours, baking soda, salt, and spices. Mix until incorporated.

The oats, dried fruit, and nuts will need to be folded in by hand as this gets crazy thick. Just take your time. It will all fit I promise.

Drop by 1/4 cup scoop or large tablespoons onto a non stick Silpat or pan. (Feel free to make smaller cookies but you’ll need to adjust the cooking time to less so they don’t burn) Flatten slightly with a fork or the bottom of a glass. Place in a 350 degree oven for approximately 12-15 minutes. Use a toothpick to check your cookies. If it comes out clean you’re done!

These store in a covered container maybe a week…if you can stay away from them that long. I normally freeze half in hopes that we have cookies for a later date but that doesn’t always work. We end up eating them before the week is out.

Which only means I have to make more!!

Until next time,

Susan

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The Virus Chronicles Part 2

The fog is clearing.

I truly believe that creating and the act of doing art saves your mind, body, and engages your soul. And that’s what I’ve been doing. Lots of it.

Glitterfest is actually going to happen (October 11 in Tustin, outside, socially distanced and masked up) Yay! So nice to have a deadline to work towards.

That may have been a big part of my angst during this mess. No deadlines…no priorities…big plans, little plans, everything cancelled so there was nothing to work towards. 🙁 So the days are better and returning to some sense of normalcy.

So in the light of creativity moving me forward I’d like to share a few things that have been inspiring me.

I’ve pretty much sewn myself an entire wardrobe (to go nowhere lol) and watching sewing videos has been educational and entertaining. Let me introduce to a couple of my favorite YouTubers.

Welcome to the Fold Line. These videos are put together by two gals and if you like fashion and sew for yourself you have to watch these trend episodes. They waltz through all the things for the upcoming season then match them to indie patterns. So much fun to see the things you can customize to your own fashion sense. Even if you don’t sew your own clothing it will give you ideas of what to look for when your shopping. Definitely worth a watch.

One more…

This is just one of many but Chase Jarvis does some fabulous interviews of creatives, thought leaders, and popular personalities. Great to listen to when you’re doing something else. Always something interesting.

I’ll be back with more …there are many!

Susan

Charming Trinkets

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The Virus Chronicles

Or stories from quarantine…or pandemic play by play…or tales from behind the mask…

It seems like I’ve disappeared. I really haven’t. I just have been hiding from some forms of life since February. I don’t think I’m the only one. Let me go back and fill you in on what’s been going on.

Back in January and February I was finishing up a business plan for a brick and mortar creative store. Almost ready to commit to commercial space I found out my parents were having some health issues….and there was a deadly pandemic on the horizon. My dad turned 90 in February and that was the marker for his health decline. Numerous hospital visits and my Mother, in trying to take care of him, fell and broke her hip. They both went into rehab but my Dad never came out. All of this went on 3000 miles away from where I live.

Stay at home orders were in place when my Dad passed away. There are more things going on around his passing that effected me emotionally but mixed with the virus threat it put me into retreat. We stayed home. We only visited with each other. We did all the quarantine things. Creativity took a hike.

All of the spring and summer shows cancelled. Not surprising. I felt like my creative brain was cancelled. Don’t get me wrong spending time with family was pretty wonderful. We had lots and lots of quality time to chat, connect, cook, and bond. We dove headlong into a bunch of home DIY projects …like 20 different projects all at the same time. (no they’re not all finished)

My creative retreat took me back into lots of sewing. I dug out patterns, made some of my own, and spent hours alone at the machine. I made myself almost an entirely new wardrobe…that I have no where to wear. But it was meditative and allowed me to take my mind off all the other things going on in the world.

That pretty much brings me up to date. This is my first public and/or social media post since February.

Surprisingly there are a couple artisan shows that are going to go as planned this fall. This news has plucked me out of my funk a bit although I feel a little off course. Grieving different aspects of life takes you off course. But I’m finding my way back through creativity…and looking forward to doing a few normal activities.

See you soon,
Susan

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