Sparkled Vegan Ginger Cookies

This is my new most requested recipe. We first tried these when some of the family decided to go vegan for a month in January for political and health reasons. Actually, the first time I made these was for Skip Shea and his crew for his short film reading. I completely overbaked (but didn't burn) them - they looked great, but were hard as rocks. Everyone lied and said that they were great (thanks for that!) I've adapted this recipe from the dazzling Vegan with a Vengeance by the fabulous Isa Chandra Moskowitz. Make sure that you make lots to share!

Sparkled Ginger Cookies

makes 2 dozen cookies

4 Tablespoons turbinado or demerrara sugar (regular sugar will work, but they won't be as sparkly or good

1 Cup all-purpose flour

1 Cup whole wheat flour

1 Teaspoon baking soda

2 1/2 Teaspoons ground ginger

1/2 Teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 Teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 Cup canola oil

1/2 Cup applesauce

1/4 Cup molasses

1/4 Cup soy milk

1 Cup sugar

1 Teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease two cookie sheets. Place the turbinado sugar in a small bowl.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, and spices. In a separate large mixing bowl, mix together the oil, molasses, soy milk, sugar, applesauce and vanilla. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet and combine well. Roll into 1-inch flat balls, flatten into a 1 1/2 inch diameter disc, press the cookie tops into the turbinado sugar and place one inch apart sugar side up on a prepared cookie sheet. Bake 10 to 12 minutes, let cool on cookie sheets for 3 to 5 minutes, transfer to cooling rack.

Enjoy!!!!

More Fake Food and Yogurt Bread

I really love to bake bread - mostly because I love to eat it! This recipe makes a LOT of bread (approximately six loaves) and is wonderful for gifting. Speaking of gifting, check out the fabric pears that my my just made. They are wonderful - I really love them. My parents also brought over some homemade strawberry rhubarb jelly (which prompted me to make this bread) and a beautiful bouquet of flowers. I hope to get her recipe for the jelly and try to make it one day. Here is the recipe for the lowfat yogurt bread. It is from a cute little book called "homemade" by Judith Choate. Oh - the book was a recent gift from my mom, too!

Lowfat Yogurt Bread

Rising Time: 1 1/2 hours

Preheat Oven to 375 degrees

12 cups white bread flour (regular white flour will also do)

2 cups white wheat flour (or regular wheat flour)

1 cup coarsely ground yellow cornmeal

3 packages of yeast (or 7 1/2 tsp.)

3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon sea salt (I totally left this out and the bread came out delicious)

2 1/2 cups nonfat milk

2 cups nonfat plain yogurt

Combine the flours, cornmeal, yeast, sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl.

Heat the milk in a medium saucepan over medium heat. When just hot, remove from the heat and whisk in the yogurt (make sure that this mixture is not hot, just super warm).

Stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, pour the warm milk mixture over the dry ingredients and begin blending. When the dough gets too heavy to mix with the spoon, scrape it onto a lightly floured surface and begin kneading. Knead for about 12 minutes, or until the dough is well blended but still a bit tacky. This will not be a smooth, shiny bread dough. Scrape the dough into a large buttered bowl, cover with a clean kitchen towel, and set aside in a warm spot to rise about 1 1/2 hours, or until doubled in size.

Uncover the dough and again place it on a lightly floured surface. Punch it down to release all of the air and knead for about 4 minutes.

Divide the dough into at least 6 equal pieces. Form each piece into a loaf shape and place into loaf pans, or, alternatively, form into a free form round shape and place onto a greased baking sheet. Bake for about 35 minutes, or until golden brown.

Remove from the oven and place on wire racks to cool before serving or storing.

ENJOY!!!!

If you think that this recipe is too much trouble, stay tuned for my post soon featuring no-knead dough.

Story of a Doll

This is the story of an angel doll. About a year ago, I bought a pattern from Annie at Chickadee Primitives called Sweet Seraphim Angel. I put the pattern away and forgot about it. A few days before Mothers Day, a little angel voice was calling me from the attic - somehow I found the pattern in all of my craft supplies and unearthed my sewing machine.

Now, I don't think that I have sewed for 10 years, but ever since I moved to my new home, I have been thinking about it a lot. I decided to sew the Sweet Seraphim Angel for my mommy for Mother's Day. I rooted around until I finally found some muslin, a bit of stuffing, some dress fabric and the proper paints.

Ok, I didn't have too much time - I had to do my legal work... By some miracle, my machine worked perfectly and was actually threaded (I have a fear of threading my machine. It usually takes me about an hour because I have no idea what I was doing).

I could not find any fabric scissors to cut out the dolly pieces. I tried to hack out the pieces with some dull paper scissors, but it just wasn't working. I then remembered that my daughter, Molli, had some little sharp hair cutting scissors in her bathroom. They did the trick, thank goodness.

By some miracle, I remembered how to sew! Annie's pattern was so well written and easy to follow. I might add that I cannot stand patterns or directions of any kind and usually make up my own. I had a bit of a hard time turning the limbs of the angel, only because I sewed them a little too far in, but I finally managed. They ripped a little on both of the hands. Oh, well. When I sewed the little legs on, I had a hard time sewing through all of the layers - one of the legs just got pinned on (it's ok - the dress covers it!)

I loved painting the angel dolly and following Annie's special instructions - I especially liked the part where I rolled her around in spices and sanded her.

I got to the part where the dolly takes a nap in the oven to dry and had to go back to my day job. After work, my son was wondering what was in the oven - there was a small brown person laying in there. She looked pitiful, but smelled really good.

Here is my favorite part of Annie's instructions - "Give her a kiss on the forehead and fetch her wings." Isn't that sweet?

It was now time to sew the wings. That was going fine until my machine ran out of thread!!! It was getting late, so I left out part of the rows of stitching on the wings. I think it looks ok.

Now the dress. I skipped the petticoat (it would have made the angel's dress look nicer, though). Ok, so now my machine is out of thread - I handstitched the dress which worked out well, but then I had to put a drawstring in the waistband. Annie says to use a doll jointing needle (what is that?) I then frantically searched for a safety pin - I know how to put in a drawstring with that. After I wasted about 20 minutes looking, I decided to tie a nail onto a piece of string and pull it through. It was difficult and idiotic, but it somehow worked.

I have to say, the angel dolly came out pretty good, in a very primitive and rustic kind of way. I can't wait to sew some more (preferably not before and after work and I hope to be more organized next time). I can't say enough about the pattern I used. It was the most thorough and well-written pattern I have ever seen. I hope that Annie keeps making more patterns. I will be buying more. Thanks, Annie!

Oh, and I gave the angel dolly to my mom for Mother's Day. I think she liked it. Can someone please come over and help me thread my sewing machine?

SomeBunny Loves Me!

Last night, my dad came bearing some early Easter cheer! I just love the wooden bunny - it goes so nicely in our kitchen. Also, can you believe this basket of beautiful handmade folk art Easter eggs my mom just made us? I can't even imagine how one makes something like that. They are all hand stitched in beautiful warm golds and browns - they are so perfect for our kitchen, also, but will not be stashed away after Easter! Thanks, Mom and Dad! We love you so much!

Vegetarian Baked Potato Skin Party

Long ago when I was a waitress, I served hundreds of platters of artery-clogging, greasy fried potato skins. Last Sunday night we made a much healthier version - they turned out really good and are quick and easy to make. Not to get all Rachael Ray on you (eww - I just thought of her annoying voice and stupid Rachael Rayisms), but they can be made in 30 minutes or less. If you want, you can even make them in the morning before work and heat everything up later for dinner.

Spring is coming, I promise!

Baked Potato Skins

Serves 5 as a main dinner course

10 Big Russet or other Baking Potatoes

Assorted toppings, including but not limited to:

Sour Cream (No Fat is Nice)
Green Onions, Sliced
Crumbled and Cooked Veggie Bacon
Chopped Black Olives
Salsa
Chopped and Cooked Brocolli
Shredded Cheese
Low Fat Cheese Sauce (Recipe to Follow)

Preheat Oven to 425 degrees. Bake Potatoes for one hour, then turn the oven up to 475 degrees. After Potatoes cool, cut them in half lengthwise and scoop out the insides, leaving 1/4" of the potato in the shell all around (save the potatoey goodness for another use). Place potato shells on baking sheet with a bit of olive oil, coconut oil and or cooking spray. After 10 minutes, turn the potatoes over and cook for an additional 10 minutes or so, making sure they don't burn.

Yeah! Have a potato skin party!

Lowfat Cheese Sauce

2 cups Soy Milk (or Skim Milk)
1/4 - 1/2 Cup Nutritional Yeast (Optional)
2 tsp. Cornstarch
2 cups shredded or grated lowfat Cheese

In a microwavable bowl, heat milk for two minutes on high in the microwave. Remove bowl and add all ingredients except cornstarch. Microwave for two minutes longer. Remove bowl from microwave, stir and scoop out 2 Tablespoons or so of the mixture - put into a small bowl. Add the cornstarch to the small bowl, stir until smooth and add contents of the small bowl to cheese sauce mixture. Microwave for two minutes, stir and test if cheese sauce is hot enough. Microwave in two minute intervals until done.

Have fun!

Peace and Chunky Granola

There are two things that I'd like to share with you - I've been reading Peace is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh. It is a great little book - here is a passage from it:

Like a Leaf, We Have Many Stems

One autumn day, I was in a park, absorbed in the contemplation of a very small, beautiful leaf, shaped like a heart. Its color was almost red, and it was barely hanging on the branch, nearly ready to fall down. I spent a long time with it, and I asked the leaf a number of questions. I found out the leaf had been a mother to the tree. Usually we think that the tree is the mother and the leaves are just children, but as I looked at the leaf I saw that the leaf is also a mother to the tree. The sap that the roots take up is only water and minerals, not sufficient to nourish the tree. So the tree distributes that sap to the leaves, and the leaves transform the rough sap into elaborated sap and, with the help of the sun and gas, send it back to the tree for nourishment. Therefore, the leaves are also the mother to the tree. Since the leaf is linked to the tree by a stem, the communication between them is easy to see.

We do not have a stem linking us to our mother anymore, but when we were in her womb, we had a very long stem, an umbilical cord. The oxygen and nourishment we needed came to us through that stem. But on the day we were born, it was cut off, and we received the illusion that we became independent. That is not true. We continue to rely on our mother for a very long time, and we have other mothers as well. The Earth is our mother. We have a great many stems linking us to our Mother Earth. There are stems linking us with the clouds. If there are no clouds, there will be no water for us to drink. We are made of at least seventy percent water, and the stem between the cloud and us is really there. This is also the case with the river, the forest, the logger and the farmer. There are hundreds of thousands of stems linking us to everything in the cosmos, supporting us and making it possible for us to be. Do you see the link between you and me? If you are not there, I am not here. This is certain. If you do not see it yet, please look more deeply and I am sure you will.

I asked the leaf whether it was frightened because it was autumn and the other leaves were falling. The leaf told me, "No. During the whole spring and summer I was completely alive. I worked hard to help nourish the tree, and now much of me is in the tree. I am not limited by this form. I am also the whole tree, and when I go back to the soil, I will continue to nourish the tree. So I don't worry at all. As I leave this branch and float to the ground I will wave to the tree and tell her, 'I will see you again very soon.'"

That day there was a wind blowing and, after a while, I saw the leaf leave the branch and float down to the soil, dancing joyfully, because as it floated it saw itself already there in the tree. It was so happy. I bowed my head, knowing that I have a lot to learn from that leaf.

Now, in the sprit of peace and love and all, is my newest favorite granola recipe, taken and adapted from Diet for a Small Planet. I was recently given this book and I forgot how progressive and wise Frances Moore Lappe was and still is...

Chunky Granola

(With No Oil Added)

8 cups rolled oats

1 to 2 cups nuts

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

1/2 cup sesame seeds

1/2 cup whole millet or buckwheat groats

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup cornmeal

1/2 cup honey (or maple syrup or brown sugar)

2 cups hot water

1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl, combine oats, nuts, seeds, millet, cornmeal and flour. Mix together honey, water and vanilla, and stir into the dry ingredients. Spread on a lightly oiled baking sheet and squeeze mixture together to form small chunks, but don't crowd; the chunks needs to bake through. Roast until golden brown, about 30-40 minutes. As it bakes, the granola needs to be stirred every so often to brown evenly.

Cool throughly before storing. Makes lots!

Snowy Days and Macaroons

No Snowflake Ever Falls in the Wrong Place

- Zen Saying

There's nothing like a snow day to stay home with the kids and pets and bake! A few days ago, it snowed so much, it came into our screen porch! Charlie the cat was very amused by it all.

These are the macaroons that I like to bake around the holidays, or on a snow day. This recipe is adapted from a Susan Branch cookbook. They are nice and crispy on the outside and tender and soft in the middle. I like to double this recipe and make the cookies nice and big Also, they look very impressive, but are so easy to make! Love and chocolate!

Chocolate Dipped Coconut Macaroons

2-2/3 cup flaked coconut, firmly packed

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup unbleached flour

4 egg whites, unbeaten

1 cup sliced almonds

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond extract

8 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (or chocolate chips will do just fine)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Combine coconut, sugar and flour. Stir in egg whites, almonds, vanilla and almond extract. Form balls from rounded tablespoonfuls and place 2 inches apart on lightly greased cookie sheets. Bake 20 to 25 minutes until golden. Remove from pans while hot and allow to cool. For or chocolate drizzle: Melt chocolate in microwave in a microwaveable container, stirring every minute or so until chocolate is melted. Dip chocolate with a spoon onto each cookie and set on waxed paper to allow chocolate to set. Makes about 30.