cranberry-lemon curd

It's crantastic!

Sweet, tangy and totally vegan.

My friend the suzz and I loooovveee lemon curd. Its true. In our kitchen crafting adventures....  we came across this recipe from Simple Sundays for this BEAUTIFUL cranberry curd. I had to find a vegan recipe for this bright crimson concoction.

There are plenty of vegan lemon curd recipes... but as I scoured the internet I was fairly turned off  by the presence of parsnips or soy creamer or silken tofu. Not that I am unwilling to work with these ingredients,. I've just been burned by such wild ingrediants before. I didnt want an interpertation of curd, I wanted a bright, tangy gelatinous mess of goodness. So I combined several recipes, props especially to vegansaurus; one for the awesome name and two, for the tip about starch.

In as little as 45 minutes ( with 95% of that being downtime...), I concocted a delightful cranberry lemon curd I look forward to using at just about every meal... I even got to use my new fancy shmancy immersion blender I got for Christmas. rockin it.

Cranberry Lemon Curd (Parsnip free)

• 2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
• 3/4 cup boiling water
• 1 cup lemon juice
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 4 TBLS Tapioca starch 
• dash salt
• 1/2 cup unsweetened soy milk
• 3 TBLS vegetable oil

Place cranberries and boiling water in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring whole mixture to a boil and allow cranberries to pop and cook down (about 10 minutes).

Place mesh strainer over a wide mouthed mixing bowl. Once cranberries and water are liquidy and mushy, remove from heat and pour mixture into the mesh strainer, pushing on the cranberry pulp with a wooden spoon or spatula. Be sure to scrape any puree off the underside of the strainer and into the bowl.

Pour strained cranberry juice into a large measuring glass, you should get roughly 1 1/4 cup  (or a little more) of liquid from the press. Stir in lemon juice. Pour cran lemon mixture back into the original sauce pan    

Add sugar, starch and salt. Using an immersion blender, blend mixture together until completely smooth. Turn heat to medium and bring mixture to a boil. As soon as it boils and thickens, stir in milk and oil until completely incorporated. Remove from heat.

Let curd cool to room temperature then pour into containers  and refrigerate!

Extra-flexble vegan: a journey?

The holiday season wouldn't be complete without a flu bug or two...

Those that know me well, know that I have a lazy immune system, awesome right. However I finally got a bug that stumped the doctors this summer-- flu symptoms but no real bug. I went through doctor appt after doctor appt trying to figure out what the deal is but nothing would reveal itself.

This bug visited again to wish me a merry Christmas and a happy new year.

Alas, it was not a bug that was torturing me, sadly it was my diet. After a couple doctor appts and consultations and an internal struggle or two... I have to abandon my vegan ways.

About 13 years ago, I stopped eating red meat of my own volition (or because my older sister did it and she was  is like the coolest ever). During the next ten years or so, I slowly reduced animal product intake until committing to a vegan diet 2.5 years ago.

Now because of diet induced gluten and soy sensitivity, and multiplying GI issues, I have to move away from veg and towards a pescatarianish diet. Translation-- no meat, no dairy, yes eggs, yes fish.

I am of the opinion that everyone's body needs a little something different to operate its best. Maybe its evolutionary or cultural, but we all process things differently and subscribing to the same diet across the board just wouldn't work. Not everyone can or should commit to the same vegan, or vegetarian, or paleo, or pickles-only or whatever diet. The most important consideration, in my humble opinion, is to know where my food comes from, how it is processed and how it plays into my own health.


So I hope people will be supportive of this shift. All the recipes I post here will still be 100% vegan, because they are oh so tasty and awesome.

gingerbread, made with real gingers.

I loooooove the holidays. Have I mentioned that yet?  I haven't posted in ages because I have been busy at work; chaotically crafting in the living room, dining room, garage kitchen. Thanks to my darling roommate for the support and I can happily report that the craft corner is put away and kitchen fully recovered, for now...

This year was a very DIY Christmas.. from ginger bourbon to almond bark, pretty much everything came out of the kitchen. My neighbors were the lucky recipient of delicious vegan sticky gingerbread. I veganized Nigella Lawson's amazing recipe from NPR, and I am delighted to say that it twas a far classier treat than the previously gifted turkey cookies.

Vegan Gingerbread

• 2/3 cup vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup light corn syrup
• 3/4 cup dark molasses
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
• 3 inch chunk of fresh ginger
• 1 tsp. ground ginger
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1tsp baking soda
• 2 tbls whole flax seed
• 4 tbls plus 2 tsps warm water
• 1 cup unsweetened almond milk (or whatever unsweetened non-dairy milk floats your boat)
• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 350F

Lightly grease 2 medium loaf pans.
Combine oil, corn syrup, molasses and brown sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. **Trick! Spray your measuring cup with cooking oil before you measure out the molasses or corn syrup. that way it pours out quickly and easily, no mess!**
Stir to fully combine. Using a microplane, grate ginger into the mixture. Add remaining spices and stir.
Remove from heat.
Using a coffee grinder, grind the flax seed into a delightful spowdery mess. (yes you can just use ground flax to start off with, but the measuring business gets tricky)

In a very small bowl or 1 cup measuring cup mix together the baking soda and ground flax seed. Slowly add water and whisk mixture together until it gets thick and goopy (about a minute).

Pour mixture and almond milk into the saucepan with other ingredients, stir to fully incorporate.

Add flour in 1/2 cup increments, mixing well after each until all flour is used.

Pour into loaf pans and bake for 30-40 minutes, until the loaf is firm, but still sticky on top. (it may seem a little underdone, but it continues to cook in the pan after you remove from the oven.
Let cool for about an hour and then cut into slices, but dont attempt to flip it out of the pan. This bread is sticky, but shockingly not too sweet!

Barbeque sauce and banana muffins

GET READY FOR THIS AMAZING COMBO!!!!

post-combo that is...

Though people have combined some crazy things before... Maybe?

This week was tough. My brain was a flurry with all sorts of job shtuff, and well, there wasn't much room to process anything else.
At one point I found myself wandering around the grocery store precariously balancing ginger ale, an avocado, onion and maybe some sprouts. I had no plan. Sometimes, I just pick things up... Maybe that avocado really needed to be held. poor avocado.

As I hit lap 467 of my local fred meyer, I'd finally and half-heartedly decided on a dinner I thought to be acceptable. BBQ brussels and tofu. Nom. A Bye and Bye classic.

So my avocado and me (we've bonded) hit the condiment aisle in search of bbq sauce for our brussel sprout friends.

The first ingredient in every bottle of BBQ sauce (under 5 bucks, did I mention I am broke?) was high fructose corn syrup. THE FIRST INGREDIENT!!!! IN A 24OZ BOTTLE!!!
It seems that no tomatoes were harmed in the making of said sauce...

So cloudy brain and all, I decided to concoct my own sauce.
Whipping out my handy dandy indestructible smart phone, I scoured vegweb for a few choice recipes to smash together. The culmination was smoky, slightly sweet, with a firey mouth finish. I liked it. Sad to say that the rest of dinner was a disaster...I royally biffed the tofu. So much so, that even the Suzz chose to stick with just brussel sprouts and rice thanks...

I don't really have much to say about Banana muffins, other than that they are delicious and the recipe is below. Oh and I am trying to bring the muffin back to breakfast status (does that sound weird?), so these are low fat, whole grain and have a lil flax for that kick. They don't taste as healthy and hippie as that just made it sound....