Even though I rarely blog here anymore – V for Vegan is my main space now – I’d planned on posting a few more FSMas tutorials in the days leading up to December 25th. Alas, exhaustion and burnout from veganmofo iv, coupled with the foolhardy decision to make many of my gifts by hand this year, have pretty much blown that plan out of the water. (Oh, the boiling, pasta-filled water. FSMas NOM!)

But seeing as I’ve already taken and uploaded a number of photos, it’d be a shame not to at least throw up a photo essay. So here’s a sampling of this year’s decorations. You can view the entire set on Flickr, along with those from years past. The dogs’ annual criFSMas humiliation is forthcoming – they deserve their own post, dontchathink?

The “pirate altar” in our front window features a mix of relevant books, framed flying spaghetti monster photos, pirate accessories, pasta decor, gold tinsel and doubloons, and sparkly flying spaghetti monsters.
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A closer look at book collection #1, which consists of vegan/vegetarian/Italian cookbooks (including Cathe Olson’s Lick It!, which I snagged in a veganmofo contest) and – of course – a copy of The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
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Update, 3/30/09: Actually, I take that back. The lemon cookies weren’t so much a huge plate of FAIL as an exercise in delayed gratification: they tasted much better the next morning, once the doughy-ness had transformed to chewiness. Methinks the problem rests not in the batter or cook time, but in my lack of a cooling rack. Currently, I have to remove freshly baked cookies from the sheet asap, otherwise they tend to stick. The lemon cookies probably needed to sit a bit, hence the trouble I encountered when scraping them off. A cooling rack might make all the difference.

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The last time I made a batch of Oatmeal Banana Cookies, I wasn’t able to enjoy them as much as I would’ve liked. Truth be told, I felt a wee bit guilty. The dogs, you see, started begging like lil’ vegan monsters before the goodies even came out of the oven. I’m fairly certain that they thought the cookies were meant for them, since the week before I’d made some pizza biscuits for Rennie’s birthday. So I resolved to adapt the recipe to make a doggy edition.

Which I did, yesterday. I took the last version of the human Oatmeal Banana Cookie recipe and made a few changes: omitted the salt, cut the sugar down to almost nothing, and added a few extra ingredients that I just so happened to have on hand. The result? Total success! The dogs absolutely loved the cookies. They’re also 100% suitable for human consumption (really, shouldn’t everything we feed our nonhuman friends be?), if a little bland. By which I mean unsweetened. But maybe unsweetened is your thing?

Again, this recipe has proven extremely versatile. The oat/soymilk combo makes the dough impossible to mess up: Too dry? Add some soymilk! Too wet? Toss in some oats and/or let sit! As long as you taste test the dough before baking, and like what goes in, you’ll love what comes out of the oven.

Oatmeal Banana Cookies: Doggy edition!

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon + a little extra to taste
1/2 cup of dark brown sugar (or less)
Slightly less than 1/3 of a cup of vegetable oil
1 banana, mashed to liquid (the riper, the better)
1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
1/2 to 1 cup of water or soy milk
2 1/4 cups of quick oats
Several handfuls, give or take, dried fruit (cranberries, cherries, blueberries, apricots, etc.) to taste; for this recipe, I used about 4 handfuls of dried cranberries and 4 of homemade dehydrated apple slices

Note: If this is for your furry friends, do not use chocolate chips! Or raisins! Or grapes! Or onions or onion powder! Um, not that you’d put onions in oatmeal banana cookies. That would just be gross.

Optional: Add some backstrap molasses, nutmeg and/or wheat germ.

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Today is Miss O-Ren’s birthday! She’s five years young today. (OK, who am I kidding?! My lil’ babies are all getting old!)

Not-so-coincidentally, today also marks the four-year anniversary of the day we adopted her from Animal Haven. All our girls are strays, so we’ve no clue when their true birthdays fall. Hence, we celebrate their birthdays and adoption days together; if you think about it, the day we adopted each of the dogs was the first day of the rest of their lives, a sort of rebirth, into a new home and better life, if you will. So it’s not very far off base, really.

On the flip side, Ralphie and Peedee were both owner surrenders; we know their dates of birth, so they get to celebrate two special days every year. As usual, the ladies get screwed. To add insult to injury, Kaylee and Jayne share their special day with one another, since they came as a package deal.

Which is why I try to pamper the girls and give them an extra-super-special day of celebration. It’s too cold to take Rennie walking today, but rest assured that she’s getting plenty of belly rubs and lots of playtime.

I also made her a batch of Pizzas for the Pupperonis (recipe via Yummy for Dogs).

These treats smell wonderful while baking – so much so that I was tempted to try one myself. I wouldn’t cheat Rennie like that, though.

Happy birthday, my sweet little piglet! I don’t care how old you are, you’ll always be my little lady.

(Crossposted from.)

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Believe it or not, the Mr. and I still have about a dozen lil’ spaghetti squashes left over from the 2008 gardening season. All lined up on the work table in our garage, there they sit, patiently waiting their turn in an inspired vegan recipe. Alas, having exhausted all of the obvious possibilities, we’re kind of sick of spaghetti squash for the time being. There just aren’t many spaghetti squash recipes out there, yo!

That is, until yesterday, when I recalled this recipe for baked zucchini chips. “Could that possibly work with spaghetti squash strands?” I wondered. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to give it a whirl; after all, even if I didn’t like the result, I have five hungry, indiscriminate dogs who would.

So I baked the spaghetti squash using the usual method, and then scraped the strands from the rind, spread them out on greased cookie sheets, and then baked ‘em a second time.

The dried spaghetti squash strands were delish, but not very filling – with most of the moisture evaporated, there really isn’t much left in spaghetti squash! One smallish medium squash yielded a small, single serving, when all was said and done. It sure makes a yummy side dish or snack – and is a great way to use up any leftover squash you might still have laying around, sitting, staring, accusing, mocking your utter lack of culinary creativity.

Twice-Baked Spaghetti Squash

Ingredients

1 spaghetti squash
Pam or similar cooking spray
Salt to taste

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I was channel surfing last night, and accidentally stumbled upon an infomercial for the Topsy Turvy Tomato Tree. I’m not usually one for infomercials, but I caught the program title (Tomato Tree), mistook the channel code for SciFi instead of SRI, or whatever it was, and thought the show was a cheesy SciFi original about a killer mutant psychic tomato tree…and naturally, I just had to stop. Still, I ended up watching this for a full 15 minutes before changing the channel. I blame it on all the gratuitous food porn closeups.
 

 
Anyway, TOTALLY WANT. I bet this would be great for growing tomatoes indoors, during the winter. Just as long as the mutts don’t knock the stand over. Normally, Shane’s the one cajoling me to buy crap marketed on late-night teevee, but I might have to add this one to my birthday list.

Sigh. Next thing you know, I’ll be wearing a Snuggie. Or a Slanket. Probably a Slanket. For some inexplicable reason, they’re currently donating a portion of their proceeds to NRDC.

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Two recipes in one week! A regular Martha Stewart, I’m becoming. Or not.

For today’s dish, I started with a recipe for Comforting Potato Soup from the International Vegetarian Union (IVU). I’ve made this for dinner a few times now, tweaking the recipe a little each time – but the photo’s from my first try, when I followed IVU’s directions to the V. Yeah, I’m a cheat. What of it?

The recipe below is more of a chowder-y consistency; I wouldn’t really call it soup. Though, it’s pretty simple to switch from one to the other: if the soup’s too liquid-y for you, add some extra flour; too thick, throw in a little more water or soy milk. This is a hard one to mess up.

IVU’s Comforting Potato Soup version is yummy, though I do prefer my own incarnation. Work with what you’ve got in the pantry; it’s a versatile meal.

Creamy Potato -n- Corn Spowder (Soup +/ Chowder)

Ingredients

1 medium onion, chopped
1-2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil
3-4 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 cups water + extra to taste
2 cups soy milk (plain or vanilla) + extra to taste
3 tablespoons whole wheat flour + extra to taste
1-2 cans creamed corn
sea salt, seasoned salt, or freshly ground black pepper, to taste/for garnish

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Right before I got sick last week, I made another batch of those super-awesome “Best Oat Cookies that Ever Existed,” courtesy of satan at VegWeb. I wanted to try a healthier version – especially considering how quickly I scarfed ‘em all down before – so I tweaked the recipe a bit: I cut the sugar nearly in half, added an extra banana, and threw in some dried cranberries along with the chocolate chips. The new batch came out even better than the original; the sweetness of the dried fruit more than made up for the lost sugar. I hope to try it again when I’m able to procure some dried cherries and blueberries, maybe some apricots, too. Alas, the only dried fruit currently residing in my cupboard is cranberries, so I guess the extra-loaded version of this recipe will have to wait.

Oatmeal Banana Cookies (was: Best Oat Cookies that Ever Existed)

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon + a little extra to taste
1/2 of a teaspoon of salt
1/2 cup of brown sugar + a little extra to taste
1/4 of a cup of regular white sugar + a little extra to taste
Slightly less than 1/3 of a cup of vegetable oil
1 banana, mashed to liquid (the riper, the better)
1 banana, mashed to chunks
1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
1/2 to 1 cup of water or soy milk (I used Silk Pumpkin Spice; Soy Nog will also work well)
2 1/4 cups of quick oats
1 handful, give or take, chocolate chips to taste
Several handfuls, give or take, dried fruit (cranberries, cherries, blueberries, apricots, etc.) to taste; for this recipe, I used about 4 handfuls of dried cranberries

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So said Shane last night, upon tasting these super-yummy banana-oatmeal cookies, from satan (!) on VegWeb. After nearly 24 hours of nonstop snacking, I’ve got to agree.

As usual, my amateur-at-best photos don’t come anywhere close to doing this dessert justice.

I think it’s the banana-oatmeal base that really makes these cookies rock. I tossed in some chocolate chips, but methinks the recipe would be just as good without the chocolate bling. For a healthier cookie, substitute dried cherries, cranberries, blueberries and/or apples (and/or some walnuts or similar) in place of the chocolate chips. Or, heck, in addition to. This recipe strikes me as super versatile.

And not having to muck with egg substitute? Priceless.

Keep reading for my modified version of the VegWeb recipe.

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I started to think about this year’s FSMas feast well before November. Since we’re talking about a (spoof) religion which revolves around pasta and pirates, a noodle-based dish is basically a given. Last year, we had lasagna…the same as every x-mas before. What can I say? The pasta, I loves it. That, and I’m not especially adventurous in the kitch.

But in the spirit of Vegan MoFo, I vowed to try out a new dish this year – but what?

Stephen Colbert to the rescue! (@ 2.27):

The Colbert ReportMon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Obama the Socialist

Colbert at Christmas
Colbert Christmas DVD

Green Screen
Bill O’Reilly Interview

Communist Manipesto – that’s the ticket. Naturally, a “Communist Manipesto” dish must involve manicotti and pesto. And sundried tomato pesto is the shit! Blend a pesto recipe with a little tofu for bulk, stuff it in a package of manicotti, and there’s a FSMas dinner to (not) die for!

So I started by Googling around the internets in search of sundried tomato pesto recipes, finally settling on this one from All Recipes:

Ingredients

* 4 ounces sun-dried tomatoes
* 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
* 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
* 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
* 1/4 cup chopped pine nuts
* 3 tablespoons chopped onion
* 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
* 1 tablespoon tomato paste
* 1/3 cup crushed tomatoes
* 1/4 cup red wine
* 1/2 cup olive oil
* 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
* salt to taste

Directions

1. Place sun-dried tomatoes in a bowl and cover with warm water for 5 minutes, or until tender.

2. In a food processor or blender combine sun-dried tomatoes, basil, parsley, garlic, pine nuts and onion; process until well blended. Add vinegar, tomato paste, crushed tomatoes and red wine, and process. Stir in olive oil and Parmesan cheese. Season with salt to taste.

Of course, this was only a starting point – I had to modify the recipe a bit to make it vegan. And, you know, adjust certain ingredients according to what I did and didn’t have in the pantry. And add a few extra steps.

Here’s the final version of the recipe…well, the final version of Chapter 1, anyway. I’m not in love with it, so likely there will be additional “Chapters” forthcoming. More on that below!

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Thanksliving has come and gone, but if I might, a late menu and some food porn – if only to give y’all a few ideas for next year (or, better yet, this FSMas).

Since my father’s a vegetarian, I’ve been eating Tofurky for Thanksliving every year since I went veg – which is roughly a dozen Save-a-Turkey Days, give or take. Up until last year, I (and my mother before me) always roasted it using the “traditional” OJ and soy sauce baste from Turtle Island Foods. Last year, the Mr. and I decided to mix things up, so we went with a newer Turtle Island recipe, Tofurky with Caramelized Onion and Cherry Relish. It was delish – but, not wanting to fall back into our habit of falling back on familiar recipes, I started searching for another baste recipe a few weeks ago. Dissatisfied with the Google results for “Tofurky recipe,” I had that aha! moment: why not search for turkey baste recipes? Surely I’d find a wider variety of bastes and marinades, most of which could be veganized, yeah?

Hells yeah! In particular, I came upon this recipe for Maple Roast Turkey Tofurky that sounded awesome. Previously, I’d been eying Turtle Island’s Tofurky Maple-Pecan Roast, but was afraid that the chili paste and 5-spice powder might make the dish too hot for my taste buds. The Maple Roast recipe, then, sounded like the perfect compromise.

And perfect it was! Of the three Tofurky recipes we’ve tried thus far, this was our favorite. And, even though the syrup has to cook and cool longer than the OJ/soy sauce marinade and caramelized onion and cherry relish, it wasn’t especially difficult to make. Not as mapley as I expected – perhaps I’ll try adding more maple syrup next time around – but yummy nonetheless.

As for the other dishes, Shane made our standby Vegetarian Stuffing (which is actually vegan), as well as Cranberry Apple Potato Dumplings, while I was in charge of the white dinner rolls and apple pie. My menu isn’t nearly as impressive as those of other veg*n bloggers (you should definitely check out Elaine, River, Isa, and Jane and Lane’s Thanksliving Day offerings), but it was just the two of us, and we’ve got enough leftovers to last the rest of the week.

Menu

- Maple Roast Tofurky with potatoes and carrots (recipe below)

- Vegetarian Stuffing (recipe below)

- Cranberry Apple Potato Dumplings (from Turtle Island Foods’ Tofurky Feast)

- Rhodes white dinner rolls

- Mrs. Smith’s Deep Dish Apple Pie (frozen) with vanilla So Delicious ice cream

- Beverages: watermelon juice, Silk Pumpkin Spice, Silk Soy Nog, Bigelow’s Earl Grey Green Tea, apple cider

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