Defining Vegan...

The Great Gingerbread People Experiment of 2011!

As I finished my two day effort to make Gingerbread people cookies, my sister likened my cooking to science experiments. This one, I admitted, was a failed experiment but one that definitely taught me a lot.

I wanted to make Gingerbread people (I use people because my mom was really worried about me using only Gingerbread men and having gone to an all women's college, I agree), but my first obstacle was finding a Gingerbread person cookie cutter. I settled for a snow-person instead.

So, I set out to make Gingerbread Snow People based on this recipe on my favorite vegan website theppk.com.

Mistake #1: I substituted Brown Rice Syrup for Molasses. Molasses scares me. It is SOOOO thick. And it was kind of expensive. So I hypothesized that Brown Rice Syrup would have a similar effect as Molasses. Conclusion: While the end effect of the cookies was not favorable, it is uncertain that the sole cause of this outcome was due to this substitution. But it sure did not help!

I was very proud of myself for chilling the dough overnight. I am usually impatient and try to roll dough right away, ending up with a sticky mess. The next day, the dough was surprisingly easy to work with.

Things were going well. I even hand cut one Gingerbread person amongst the snowmen. Then, I put them in the oven...

Major spreading!!! I was left with really overweight Snow People. I suspect they ate too many cookies :) I tried to make them look the part by using the cookie cutter to make the imprint of the original Snow Person shape. 

I think one Snow Person saw their fate and decided it was too much to handle. He made an attempt on his life. 

The knife and the spatula jumped down to try to stop him but it was too late. The Snow Person had taken his own life. 

OR, perhaps he just fell because I stupidly tried to balance the tray on our dish drying rack...not even on the rack, on the dishes in the rack. MISTAKE #2. I had to pause for a while and clean that up. 

By this time, I felt defeated. My cookies were coming out hard and crunch instead of the desired soft and chewy and they were also HUGE. 

I switched to circles hypothesizing that they would stay together more and come out better. I used a cup (the cup I was using as a rolling pin) to cut them out. They were easier to deal with but still came out HUGE! 

I adjusted. I made smaller circles using a smaller cup...

Somehow I did manage to get this outlier...a somewhat normal looking Snow Person. Every experiment has its anomaly. 

While the smaller circle cookies were in the oven, I attempted vegan icing. I had gotten all natural food coloring so I was excited to try to make colors. I put some powdered sugar and almond milk in 2 different mugs (one for each color). I also added some extra vanilla because it seemed like it needed more flavor. Then I realized the almond milk had vanilla in it. Mistake #3?? Not sure. 

It took a while to get the consistency and color I wanted. This was not it...

Finally the color looked like an actual color. The consistency was not quite right. It was hard to get out of my icing tube squirter thingy. So it ended up very goopy and hard to shape. But I took my model Snow Person and tried to do him/her up right. 

I made the small circles into sandwiches with the icing. That was easier. The problem was they were still very crunchy cookies, not ideal for cookie sandwiches. 

My sister claimed she still enjoyed them and would eat a whole plate. But she will eat anything with sugar. 

 I saved these deformed ones for her.

THE RESULT: A LOT of gingerbread cookies that are too crunchy for my taste but somewhat edible. I learned a lot about icing in the process and in the end probably should have used the molasses as scary as it is. I will still serve the cookies at our holiday party at work because I have a ton of them and they are edible just not ideal. But they are certainly not my best work although they were an interesting experiment. 

Yup, more breading.

I was so excited by my breading success that I had to try it again. So here is some more breaded eggplant. However, in my tiny kitchen it was a lot more difficult. I have written about breading so many times, I will let my pictures tell my story.













Yummy. And no eggs or dairy.

Breading Success!!

I had a successful breading experience! This weekend I was at my parent's house and my dad and I made eggplant (parmigiana). His had cheese but mine, of course, did not. It was inspired by the same Throwdown with Bobby Flay that had inspired me the last time to try breading eggplant. This time, it worked!! And I used no eggs! In fact, mine came out better than my dad's. His eggplant burned a little when he fried it, I guess because of the egg.

So here is what I did. First, I salted the eggplant. Then I rinsed it. Then, I coated it in flour. With a light coating of flour, I dipped it in soymilk. Then I coated it with breadcrumbs. Then it went back into the soymilk and I coated it again with breadcrumbs. Double dipping!

It came out great and the breading really stuck to it.

Success!!!
(sorry, there are no pictures because I wasn't expecting such success and I was at my parents without my camera)

My favorite recipe: Banana Pancakes

I have been making these pancakes for a couple years now. I got the recipe from Post Punk Kitchen and have adapted it a little to make it easier and more to my liking. Basically, the only modifications are how I mix in the bananas and that I don't use All Spice because I never have it. And I don't really understand what All Spice is. All the spices? That is a lot of spices. I also add chocolate chips. Yum.

So, first I blend the soymilk and bananas together.


Then I mix it with the dry ingredients.


Then I put them on the stove on a griddle-like pan, flip them, and I am done. These are the easiest vegan pancakes you will ever make. Seriously easy and seriously delicious.

Soups on! Vegan Chikin and Dumpling Soup x2

Today I recreated a soup that I made back on December 3rd with my friend and co-worker Jay. It reminded me that I never blogged about that crazy cooking experience! We attempted this recipe that Jay had made with his mom over Thanksgiving. In my small kitchen, it was quite an adventure!

Fist we had to make the dumplings. We mixed vegan butter with flour, and baking powder. We mixed this until it crumbled. We had to clear off the table in our living room to have enough space to roll out the dough for the dumplings. I am sorry to say the table is back to all clutter.


Then we added soymilk and it became a dough.


Kneading the dough was a little messy.


Then Jay rolled it out.


Meanwhile, I began to chop the vegetables. I was really excited to use my new chopper. We were going to use more carrots, onion, and celery, than the recipe called for, so it was going to be a big job.


But the chopper proved more difficult than I had expected. I had to use a lot of muscle.


The onion we used was CRAZY! It was so strong. It was a spanish onion. I was crying my eyes out.


Even my sister, in another room, not helping, was affected by the onion.


After all was chopped, Jay put the onions, celery and some vegan butter in a saucepan and sauteed it until soft. He added flour to make a paste. He then put the mixture in boiling vegetable stock. I didn't get a picture of this step because I was busy chopping carrots. After stirring the mixture, we added the carrots and some fake chicken or "chikin." We used traditionally flavored Seitan, the blue box.


Then Jay stirred the pot.


I took over stirring while Jay cut up the dumplings and started bringing them over to go into the soup.


I was amazed that my sister helped with this part! I think she just wanted us to be done so she could eat it!


(I couldn't get this picture to rotate, but I think this way it emphasizes the craziness of the occurrence. Bizarre!)

My kitchen was a little small for this project and being that I wasn't familiar with the recipe, I didn't plan right. As a result we had a little accident with the cutting board and the stove.


It just melted a little. I always like to clean up right away. So I started on the dishes while the soup simmered.


We didn't know how we were going to get the flour off the table without getting it all over the floor and carpet. So I came up with a very effective method. I used the spatula to push the flour onto tin foil and then wrapped up the tin foil and threw it away. Very clean and easy.


The soup was so thick!!


It was a big project. But I had help. So it wasn't one bowl wonder.


It wasn't even two bowl wonder.


It was THREE bowl wonder!!! My sister, Jay and I all enjoyed the soup. It was hearty and delicious.


And very filling.


What a fun night cooking with friends!


I recreated the soup this snowy day because I was in the mood for something hearty. This time I wanted to make it a little easier. So I got pre-chopped onions, celery, and carrots. A little more expensive but totally worth the time and energy. I also used a baking sheet to roll the dumpling dough so I didn't have to clean off the table. I also put a little more broth in this one so it was not SO thick.



I was able to avoid melting any kitchen equipment this time, too. It is really a very yummy soup.