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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Adorned with an adorable skull, this pirate knife is perfect for breaking vegan bread! Red bows complement the color palette.
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Displayed in a frame decorated with pasta (garden rotini and farfalle, to be exact), this photo of the Flying Spaghetti Monster depicts her Noodleyness spreading the saucy word. A skull-topped pirate’s chest, filled to overflowing with gold coins, sits off to the right.
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The queen of the festivities, this burgundy criFSMas bear pirate rests on her perch of (mostly) vegan/vegetarian cookbooks. Note the pirate hat, dreadlocks and swanky golden pipe cleaner hook!
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A closeup shot of the pirate altar’s main book pile. Most of the cookbooks are vegan or vegetarian, save for a few of the larger tomes at the bottom of the stack. These are from my pre-veg days and are included strictly for the added height they provide.
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In another macaroni-lined photo, a flying spaghetti monster is shown visiting a crucified Jesus. Probably she comforted him with vegan mac & cheese in his time of need. Daiya is divine, is it not? A glass Christmas tree filled with garden rotini sits off to the side.
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Book pile #3 is the pirate collection. On this too-small stack sits a portrait of our FSM as painted by Edvard Munch. A baby monster hovers above, admiring the portrait approvingly.
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Two of the many festive, sparkly holiday flying spaghetti monsters that haunts my heathen home ’round the holidays. Learn how to summon your own monsters using nothing but pipe cleaners, poms and googly eyes here.
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The mecha-mega-monster, which is made of pairs of regular-sized pipe cleaners twisted together at the ends. Craft stores such as Michaels do sell extra-large pipe cleaners, but I’ve yet to find any ginormous ones that SPARKLE. (Everyone knows that criFSMas monsters sparkle, like duh.) / Pirate altar.
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Throwbacks from my childhood! A very old and tattered Santa Clause holds a stocking with my name on it. Cue the awwwws.
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A baby spaghetti monster shown in her natural pirate hat habitat. So cute! And she’s even got an extra set of balls! Perhaps she’d be willing to loan a set to President Obama?
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Eeyore the pirate is partying like it’s 1725!
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The filing cabinet in our office is adorned with a number of (mostly) homemade magnets. These include photos of the flying spaghetti monster, Captain Jack Sparrow, and the crew of the Serenity (SPACE PIRATES!), all found ’round the internets, as well as past holiday cards. On top of the cabinet you can see the adorable-yet-pitiable Charlie Brown tree my mom gifted us last year; under it sits stuffed holiday Hello Kitty and Pochacco dolls. (Did you know that Pochacco is, in point o’ facts, A VEGETARIAN!? Neither did I, ’til about ten seconds ago.)
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The fridge is also home to a number of DIY magnets.
You can find instructions for making your own here.
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This year, our criFSMas tree features a mix of traditional and Pastafarian decorations: “garland” strands made of pasta (penne, to be exact); red and white lights; and ornaments both handmade and store-bought, including lots of pieces featuring nonhuman animals and pasta. Next to the tree sits our criFSMas terraist pirate, all decked out in a domestic terrorist apron (fresh from Green is the New Red), pirate hat and treasure pouch (perfect for plundering and looting!). At her feet sits a skull & bones goblet, matching dagger, and a massive treasure chest. (Unfortunately, the only treasure it contains is our hammock, retired for the year.)
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A more natural-looking FSM made of raffia tops the 2010 tree. I’ve yet to streamline the creation of this type of monster – raffia can be frustrating to work with, yo!
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Noodles on a cross! Sweet Jeebus, do I love this door hanger.
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The tree, all lit up after dark. (The doubles you see in the first photo is due to the windowed wall in front of which the tree is positioned.) Peace and pasta were the working themes in 2010.
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Last but not least, the staging of the tree for our annual canine criFSMas cards. The first day’s photo shoot, which sadly bombed (pun sooooo! intended!), featured the domestic terrorist apron as its centerpiece. The idea was solid; its execution, not so much – I tried to cram way too much into the frame and failed miserably. On day #2, we ditched the apron and weird spoon-paddle thingies in favor of pirate swag and book piles galore. Yeah, that’s the stuff!
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Homemade peanut butter cups (top), along with peanut butter bites made using the leftover filling (bottom) – perfect for gift baskets and NOMING while decorating alike! Recipe via VegWeb.
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Homemade rocky road chocolate bark (made with roasted almonds and Dandies marshmallows), also for gifting.
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For the dogs in my life: a triple batch of Pumpkin Pie Biscuits. (These smell so good, y’all! You will seriously get a NOM high whilst baking them.) Rennie WANTS! Recipe courtesy It’s A Vegan Dog’s Life.
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Holy kitchen disasters, Catwoman!
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Meanwhile, Kaylee and Ralphie lurk in the background, waiting patiently for a dropped or neglected foodstuff to roll their way. They have three eyes between them, you know.
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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.

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Mix the flour, baking soda and cinnamon together in a small bowl. Set aside.

3. In a larger bowl, mix the dark brown sugar and oil. Beat until smooth. Add the whole banana and vanilla. Mash the banana with a hand masher, stirring it in with the sugar/oil mix. Keep mashing until the banana is mostly blended with the sugar and oil.

4. Add the flour mix to the banana/sugar/oil mix and blend as best you can. At this point, the mix will probably be somewhat dry.

5. Start adding the water (or soy milk) to the mix, a little at a time. Keep stirring in the liquid until your batter is moist and blended, even a little liquid-y.

6. Add in the oats and stir. Keep adding more water (or soy milk) as needed. The batter should be thick and moist, not dry, but not too liquid-y. If you do add a little too much water (soy milk), let the batter sit for a few minutes; this will allow the oats to absorb the excess liquid.

7. Taste the batter. If it’s a little bland for your furkids, add in a cinnamon – just a sprinkle at a time, until the batter’s to your liking. You can also use a little nutmeg or backstrap molasses if you’d like.

8. Add dried fruit and/or nuts as desired. Again, I should stress – do not add chocolate chips if these are for hungry doggy mouths!

9. When done, drop the batter onto greased cookie sheets by the teaspoon. You should get between 30 and 36 cookies. Allow space between the dough balls, as the cookies will expand and fluff up.

10. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool and enjoy!

11. You can also let the cookies sit out for a few hours; this will allow them to harden a bit and become more biscuit-like – perfect for your furry friends!

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I also made – or tried to make, rather – a batch of these lemon poppyseed cookies from about.com for myself. I say “try” because I spent almost an hour on them, and all I got was a big plate of lemon FAIL.

I’m not really sure where I went wrong. Possibly I made the cookies too big, and didn’t leave enough space between them, because after ten minutes in the oven, the cookies all kind of blended together into one big sheet of cookie dough. Consequently, the cookies on the outside came out ok, with nice crisp edges, but those in the middle never baked all the way through. Even after I scraped the half-baked cookies off the sheet and flipped and re-baked them, the dough remained doughy.

Of course, I didn’t have any poppyseeds, so…maybe that was the problem? I dunno, though – the dough was really good, so I assume the issue arose during baking. I should have just frozen the dough or dumped it in the ice cream maker – yum!

Anyway, here’s the recipe in case you’d like to give it a go. Maybe you can tell me where it all went so horribly wrong?

Vegan Lemon Poppyseed Cookies

Ingredients

3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup margarine
3/4 cup soy yogurt
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp lemon zest
2 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup poppy seeds

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Cream together the sugar, brown sugar and margarine until smooth and creamy. (I used a hand mixer.)

3. Add the soy yogurt and vanilla and mix well. (Again, with a hand mixer.)

4. Add the remaining ingredients and mix until smooth and creamy. (I used a wooden spoon and elbow grease for this last step.)

5. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto a cookie sheet and bake for 8 minutes, or until done. (My bake time was more like 15 to 20 minutes. And tablespoonfuls!? I used a teaspoon and they still came out too big!)

(Crossposted from.)

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Tagged: recipe food vegan veganism vegetarian vegetarianism dessert cookies lemon poppyseed lemon poppyseed cookies oatmeal banana cookies ots oatmeal bananas dried fruit apples apple slices dried apple cranberries dried cranberries dog canine pet companion animal nonhuman companion dog food dog treats dog biscuits dog cookies flickr photos

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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Tagged: my furbabies o-ren rennie rat terrier fox terrier dog canine pet companion animal vegan veganism vegetarian vegetarianism recipe yummy for dogs dog treats birthday dogs in clothes flickr photos

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

Directions

1. Slice your spaghetti squash in half, lengthwise. Using a large spoon, scrape out the insides, i.e., the stringy mass in the middle. You can save the seeds to roast later, if you’d like.

2. Once the two halves are “clean,” place them in a large glass baking dish, rind-side up. Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes. When done, remove from the oven and let cool for 15 minutes or so.

3. Spray a cookie sheet with Pam or a similar cooking spray.

4. Place one of your squash halves on the cookie sheet, rind-side down. Grab a fork and scrape the prongs of the fork through the flesh; the flesh should fall away from the rind, in a string- or strand-like formation. Keep scraping until the rind is rather bare. Repeat with the other half of the squash.

5. Spread the strands out on the cookie sheet as much as possible. If needed, use a second cookie sheet. Sprinkle on some salt to taste.

6. Bake at 375 degrees for approximately 15 minutes. Keep an eye on the squash, stirring and turning the strands every 5 minutes or so. A few dark or burned strands add a bit of flavor, but try not to torch all your squash!

7. If you’re feeling daring, keep going: I had hoped to bake the “spaghetti” until it git crunchy, almost like a snack chip, but I lost my nerve.

You feeling lucky, vegan?

(Crossposted from.)

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Tagged: recipe recipes vegan veganism vegetarian vegetarianism vegetable squash spaghetti squash twice baked spaghetti squash snack side dish flickr photos

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.

(Crossposted from…just because.)

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Tagged: video video blogging gardening tomatoes infomercial tomato tree topsy turvy food vegan veganism vegetarian vegetarianism vegetables diy

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

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a soup pot.

2. Add the minced onion and garlic; saute on low until tender.

3. Toss in the cubed potatoes and water. Cover and simmer on medium for about 15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes or so.

4. In a measuring cup, add the flour to the soy milk and whip with a whisk. When blended, add the soy milk to your soup pot.

5. Allow the soup to cook, covered, on medium for another 15 minutes or so (less if you’d like your soup chunky with potatoes, more if you’d rather the potatoes be tender and creamy). Continue to stir at regular intervals.

6. Add the creamed corn to the mix and let the soup cook for another 5 minutes or so. If the mix is too thick for your taste, add in a little extra water or soy milk. If it’s too thin, stir in a little extra flour.

7. Once the soup has reached the desired consistency, and the potatoes are cooked to your liking, remove the pot from the heat and serve your soup/chowder/spowder hot. Garnish with sea salt, seasoned salt and/or black pepper to taste.

Optional: Toss in some fresh or frozen broccoli florets between steps 3 and 4.

Uber-awesome bonus option: Serve with some (baked) Lightlife Smart Bacon (or similar) as a side, or crumbled on top. Tre yummay!

(Crossposted from.)

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Tagged: recipe food vegan veganism vegetarian vegetarianism dinner soup chowder potatoes corn creamed corn garlic onions potato soup potato chowder flickr photos meat free herbivore meatless corn soup corn chowder

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

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Mix the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together in a small bowl. Set aside.

3. In a larger bowl, mix the brown sugar, white sugar and oil. Beat until smooth. Add the whole banana and vanilla. Mash the banana with a hand masher, stirring it in with the sugar/oil mix. Keep mashing until the banana is mostly blended with the sugar and oil. (A few banana lumps are ok.)

4. Add the flour mix to the banana/sugar/oil mix and blend as best you can. At this point, the mix will probably be somewhat dry.

5. Start adding the water (or soy milk) to the mix, a little at a time. Keep stirring in the liquid until your batter is moist and blended, even a little liquid-y.

6. Add in the oats and stir. Keep adding more water (or soy milk) as needed. The batter should be thick and moist, not dry, but not too liquid-y. If you do add a little too much water (soy milk), let the batter sit for a few minutes; this will allow the oats to absorb the excess liquid.

7. Add the second banana, mashing it as you stir it into the batter. If your heart desires, leave large chunks intact. These bake well and taste awesome in the finished cookie!

8. Taste the batter. If it’s a little bland for you, add in a little extra white and/or brown sugar and/or cinnamon – just a teaspoon (for the sugar) or a sprinkle (cinnamon) at a time, until the batter’s to your liking. Remember that the chocolate chips and dried fruits will sweeten it up a bit!

9. Add chocolate chips, dried fruit and/or nuts as desired.

10. When done, drop the batter onto greased cookie sheets by the tablespoon. You should get between 30 and 36 cookies. Allow space between the dough balls, as the cookies will expand and fluff up.

11. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes. Let cool and enjoy!

(Crossposted from.)

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Tagged: vegan veganism vegetarian vegetarianism recipe cookies dessert banana oatmeal oats quick oats chocolate chocolate chips banana oatmeal cookies dessert flickr photos herbivore meatless meatfree dairy free egg free

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.

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
1/2 of a teaspoon of salt
1 1/4 cup of brown sugar
1/2 of a cup of regular sugar
Slightly less than 1/3 of a cup of vegetable oil
1 banana, mashed (the riper, the better)
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
Chocolate chips (and/or dried fruit and nuts) to taste

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Mix the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together in a small bowl. Set aside.

3. In a larger bowl, mix the brown sugar, white sugar and oil. Beat until smooth. Add the whole banana and vanilla. Mash the banana with a hand masher, stirring it in with the sugar/oil mix. Keep mashing until the banana is mostly blended with the sugar and oil. (A few banana lumps are ok.)

4. Add the flour mix to the banana/sugar/oil mix and blend as best you can. At this point, the mix will probably be somewhat dry.

5. Start adding the water (or soy milk) to the mix, a little at a time. Keep stirring in the liquid until your batter is moist and blended, even a little liquid-y.

6. Add in the oats and stir. Keep adding more water (or soy milk) as needed. The batter should be thick and moist, not dry, but not too liquid-y. If you do add a little too much water (soy milk), let the batter sit for a few minutes; this will allow the oats to absorb the excess liquid.

7. Add chocolate chips, dried fruit and/or nuts as desired. I used about 8 oz. of chocolate chips for this recipe.

8. When done, drop the batter onto greased cookie sheets by the tablespoon. You should get between 30 and 36 cookies. Allow space between the dough balls, as the cookies will expand and fluff up.

9. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes. Let cool and enjoy!

(Crossposted from.)

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Tagged: vegan veganism vegetarian vegetarianism recipe cookies dessert banana oatmeal oats quick oats chocolate chocolate chips banana oatmeal cookies dessert flickr photos herbivore meatless meatfree dairy free egg free

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):

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!

Comrade Kelly’s Communist Manipesto (Chapter 1)

Ingredients

For the Sundried Tomato/Tofu Manicotti Filling:

* 6 ounces sun-dried tomatoes
* 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
* 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
* 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
* 1/4 cup chopped pine nuts (optional – I was fresh out of them)
* 3 tablespoons chopped onion
* 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
* 4 tablespoons tomato paste
* 1/2 cup crushed (or diced) tomatoes
* 1/4 cup red wine
* 1/2 cup olive oil
* salt to taste
* 1 12.3 oz brick of Silken Tofu (or similar size)

And:

* 1 package (8 oz) of manicotti pasta
* 1 can tomato/pasta sauce (26 oz, give or take)

* A food processor or professional/industrial strength blender
* A large glass baking pan

Note: As you can see, I increased the final amounts of the tomato products – the sundried tomatoes, diced tomatoes and tomato paste. This was in an effort to offset the taste of the balsamic vinegar and/or red wine, one (or both) of which I Did. Not. Like. (Too sour!) You can follow suit, or use the originally called-for amounts. Or, as a compromise, start with the original amounts, and add in extra tomatoes to taste.

Directions

1. Place sundried tomatoes in a bowl and cover with warm water for 5 minutes, or until tender. If you’re using sundried tomatoes packed in olive oil, skip this step.

2. In a food processor, combine sun-dried tomatoes, basil, parsley, garlic, pine nuts, onion, balsamic vinegar, tomato paste, crushed tomatoes, red wine and olive oil. Process until the pesto is well blended, but still a little chunky. Add salt (and additional tomato products if so desired) to taste.

3. Remove the pesto from the food processor; place in a bowl and set aside.

4. Place the silken tofu in the food processor and process until smooth and creamy.

5. Leaving the blended tofu in the food processor, gradually add in the sundried tomato pesto, a few tablespoons at a time. Process the tofu and pesto until well blended, stopping to taste as needed. Keep adding the pesto to the pesto/tofu manicotti filling until you’re satisfied with the taste and texture.

Note: Depending on your preferences, you may or may not add all of the pesto to the pesto/tofu filling. Really, how much pesto you use depends on how strong you’d like your manicotti filling to taste. We blended a full batch of pesto with one brick of silken tofu. At least I think it was a full batch – we made a double batch of pesto to start, not knowing how much pesto we’d need, so it’s hard to tell how much we actually used. We still have a full batch of sundried tomato pesto languishing in the freezer; Shane swears he’ll eat it on some toast, for reals!

6. Transfer the pesto/tofu filling to another bowl. Save any leftover sundried tomato pesto in the fridge or freezer (or your tummy).

7. Cook your package of manicotti pasta according to the directions on the box. When done, drain, rinse with cold water and set aside.

8. Coat the bottom of your baking pan with a thin layer of pasta sauce; a little less than half a jar/can, perhaps.

9. Using a butter knife, stuff the pesto/tofu filling into the manicotti. (Or, if you’ve got a better method for stuffing manicotti shells, drop it in the comments!) You should have enough pesto/tofu filling for 16 shells.

10. As you fill each piece of manicotti, gently lay it in the baking pan.

11. When done, coat the manicotti with the rest of the pasta sauce.

12. Bake, covered, at 350 degrees for approximately 45 minutes.

13. Serve warm with dinner rolls.

Additional commentary

I made this dish on FSMas eve (which fell on the 24th this year), let it sit in the fridge overnight, and then just popped it in the oven 45 minutes prior to dinner the next day.

I actually wasn’t crazy with how the pesto came out, so I ended up making myself pierogies for FSMas dinner. Shane, on the other hand, quite liked the manicotti – which was cool, cause he had the whole batch to himself.

Upon reflection, I think the balsamic vinegar and/or the red wine ruined it for me – the pesto tasted very sour, and not tomato-y enough…even though I kept adding extra tomato paste, diced tomatoes and sundried tomatoes to try and salvage the dish. *Shrug* You win some, you lose some.

I’ve not yet given up on the idea of “Comrade Kelly’s Communist Manipesto” – I think I’ll keep experimenting with the dish until I find a recipe I like.

Some possibilities:
* Repeat this recipe, omitting the balsamic vinegar and/or red wine;
* Try a different sundried tomato recipe;
* Try one (or both) of the above, but with “regular” tofu, crumbled and hand mixed with the pesto, instead of silken tofu;
* Try one (or both) of the above, but with veggies, diced and hand mixed with the pesto, instead of tofu;
* Try one (or all) of the above, but using the pesto as a sauce on spaghetti (or a similarly stringy pasta) instead of stuffing it in manicotti. That was tedious, yo.

To sum up, I wasn’t thrilled with the dish, but Shane was. I’m a super-annoyingly-fussy eater, so be your own decider person.

Either way, it’s not half bad for a recipe which started as the punch line to a campaign season joke on The Colbert Report.

(Crossposted.)

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Tagged: holidays observances fsmas x-mas xmas christmas crifsmas pasta pirates fsm flying spaghetti monster Pastafarian Pastafarianism religion spoof religion parody religion science Intelligent Design creationism evolution global warming food vegan veganism vegetarian vegetarianism recipe manicotti pesto sun-dried tomato pesto sun-dried tomato tofu silken tofu flickr photos communist manipesto stephen colbert the colbert report

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

Maple Roast Tofurky

Adapted from this non-veg version at All Recipes.

Ingredients

1 defrosted Tofurky
3 baking potatoes, peeled and quartered
1/2 pound whole baby carrots or 4 large carrots, diced
2 cups chopped onion (optional)
1 cup chopped celery (optional)

2 cups apple cider
1/3 cup real maple syrup
2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme
2 tablespoons chopped fresh marjoram
2 1/2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
3/4 cup margarine
salt and ground black pepper to taste
2 cups vegetable stock
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
2 tablespoons apple brandy (optional)

Directions

1. Boil apple cider and maple syrup in a heavy saucepan over medium-high heat until reduced to 1/2 cup (about 20 minutes).

2. Remove from heat and mix in 1/2 of the thyme and marjoram and all of the lemon zest. Add the margarine, and whisk until melted. Add salt and ground pepper to taste. Cover and refrigerate until cold. (Syrup can be made the day before.)

3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

4. Line a baking pan with aluminum foil. Place your defrosted Tofurky in the pan. Rub the maple syrup mixture onto the Tofurky, leaving a little (approximately 1/8 of the mix) for later.

5. Add the potatoes, carrots, celery and onion; arrange the veggies around the Tofurky.

6. Sprinkle the remaining thyme and marjoram over the vegetables, and pour the vegetable stock into the pan.

7. Wrap the “roast” and veggies in the foil, sealing it tight.

8. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

9. Remove the roast from the oven and baste the Tofurky with the rest of the syrup mix.

10. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and enjoy!

Vegetarian Stuffing

(The photo is from last year’s feast.)

Ingredients

6 cups diced bread
2 tablespoons margarine
1 medium onion, diced
3 stalks celery, sliced (optional)
2 large carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
1/4 teaspoon rosemary
1/4 teaspoon thyme
1/4 teaspoon sage
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
3 tablespoons raisins (optional)
1/4 cup each walnuts and pecans (optional)
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1 1/2 cups vegetable stock

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Place diced bread in a 9″ x 13″ baking pan and place in oven for about 15 minutes, until the bread is well toasted. Meanwhile, warm the margarine in a saucepan and saute onion, celery and carrots over medium heat until onion is translucent.

3. Remove bread from oven and add onion mixture, herbs, parsley, raisins, nuts and salt. Mix well. Carefully drizzle the stuffing with vegetable stock and toss gently.

4. Bake, uncovered, for 20-30 minutes.

5. Season with black pepper if desired.

nomnomnom.

(Crossposted from.)

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Tagged: food recipe recipes vegan veganism vegetarian vegetarianism thanksgiving thanksliving save-a-turkey day tofurky day tofurkey tofurky stuffing potatoes carrots apples apple pie soy ice cream flickr photos silk soy nog turtle island foods maple tofurky Maple Roast Tofurky