Hoe Down

The Hoe Down at Farm Sanctuary was awesome. As we were arriving to Farm Sanctuary, we witness one of the most beautiful sunset. We had to stop in the middle of the road and get out to take pictures. Thank goodness there were no other cars on the road. It was so empty and relaxing.

We saw many cute little animals and we were allowed to pet and see most of the animals with the exceptions of those who were quarantined due to illness or not used to human contacts.


The staff working at farm sanctuary said that they rescued 69 gestation pigs from Iowa during the Iowa flood. It was so sad. Even during the time of a natural disaster, the farmers rushed to collect their corns to take with them but apparently they dont do the same for the pigs. They just left them behind because they were not worth as much as the corn. The majority of the pigs were died but those who managed to get free were shot down by the people on the levy because they were afraid that the heavy pigs would destroy the levy when they try to climb onto the levy. The people were the one who breeds the poor pigs to be so large that many of them get knee and feet problems as they get older.

Turkeys gooble gooble. It's so sad. Many turkeys get their beaks microwaved so that the tip of the beaks die and it it eventually will drop off. The same procedure is used to destroy their toes so that they don't peak or claw each other to death. They also get their snood teared off as a little baby chick. It's so terrible. They are also bred to gain a lot of weight in a short period of time and many of them can not work due to the weight problem and the missing toes. They can't even fly when they fall. People are so terrible.

That goat is Brooklyn and the guy petting it, is my b/f Paul. The name of the goat speaks for itself. It was recovered from Brooklyn, NY from a live goats and lamb market. The lucky little goat was abel to escape death. Thank goodness.

Baa baa black sheep have you any wool yes sir yes sir three bags full. One for the master, one for the dame, one for the boy who lives down lane. Many of these sheep are used for wool and like the other farm animals, they are bred to be a specific way. These wool sheep were bred to have folded skin so that there would be more surface area to produce wool. The folded skin causes the caretaker to accidentally shave off parts of the skin. The sheep were also bred to produce so much wool that they can not even shed for themselves. Boo wool. Boycott wool!!

Moo mooo. Cows are so cute but a few were a bit aggressive. They were busy munching on their grass.
The Farm Sanctuary staff said most of their bunnies were rescued from a breeder. The breeder's neighbor saw how bad the conditions were and managed to convince her to turn them in. Another half were recovered from experimental laboratories.

We also attended a nature hike where Geoge Eisman was the speaker. It wasn't much of a hike. We just walked behind the People Barn hahaha. We we learned that those disgusting weed growing on your lawn is very edible and nutritious.

Dandelions - You can eat the whole flower including the flowers and the white seeds when it becomes old. The only thing is that the leaves would become more bitter after it flowers but it's still edible.

Red/White Clovers - The whole plant is edible. It's also very nutritious too so you can chuck some into your salad.

Plantain Plants - Do you remember these big huge plants growing on your lawn?! They are so annoying but also very good for you. Like the other three plants. The whole plant is edible but I'm not sure about the roots though. The leaves are good for cuts and minor injuries so just grab a leaf and chew it to make a paste and then place it on your wound. The seeds can also be used to thicken soup and not only that, they are good for your digestive system. It's a natural laxative. They are sold in stores under the name psyllium. Instead of paying $5 dollars for a small bottle, you can collect your own.

Beware though. You should becareful of pesticide spraying so just call your park's department and what not to make sure before you go out to collect your goodies.

Happy chinese new year!!!

I am so sorry for both waiting so long before posting and losing all the info I have prepared for this posts. College had just started and I was still trying to adjust to the workload and working and the optometrist. I am such a unorganized person!!! All my papers were thrown away by a family member for the New Years cleaning. sigh** However on the other hand, I think I found a egg white replacement!! WHOOPDIEE DOO MARSHMELLOWS FOR ALL!!! Don't think it can be baked for a pavlova though.

Pictures Pictures!!

I was trying to experiment and see what can happen but I never would've guessed it would resemble egg white so much that it can form that sift of a peak. In other words, what I'm trying to say is that I made a bunch and did not have a recipe for it so I ended up eating it and scaring my mom pretending to be a rabid dog. Ahhh all that air in my tummy. BurP**


What I had planned to post this week was LowFat Banana Raspberry Muffins and it actually had a nice crumb and it wasn't disgustingly soggy or any of that good stuff but unfortunate I lost it. Hopefully I can replicate this recipe again.

I'll just post pictures

More picture for the previous steam bun entry


The bun's really tender

The delcious sesame seed paste!

My would have been muffins


I like the crumb. It kinda reminds me of those Chinese fatt koh.

HUGEE bowl of fluff!!

More or less nice hole. Well the point is, is that it retains that hole and the fluff does not sink in like how a peak does not fall if the "egg whites" are stiff enough.

Yay it defies gravity!!

Vacation Upstate...banana brownies, asian puff pastry

I am currently on vacation at Hyde Park for a week since my b/f is currently going to CIA and he already started school while I still have several weeks left. He goes to school at 12:30 pm and comes home at 9 pm. So you can only imagine with can a girl be doing in his apartment all day. Well truthfully, I've been doing nothing...maybe some food blog reading and some baking. The apartment is pretty bad. The shower leaks so you hear water running all the time and the toilet flushes automatically and the oven dial does not have the temperature on it and sometimes the oven doesn't even heat up! With some experimentation, I figured out the oven temperature with a handy dandy oven thermometer. Alright on word with the food blogging.

Very Banana-ie Brownie with Options

Very Banana-ie brownie. More Banana-ie than chocolaty but I've made some adjustment to make it more chocolately. However the picture is of the very banana-ie brownie. Modified the recipe on Vegweb Chocolate Banana Brownie to suit the ingredients that we had.

Recipe Yields 36 1.5" x 1.5" pieces 70 Cal/ Bite size Piece
180g 1 1/2 Cups All Purpose Flour
76g 2 2/3 oz Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips or Blocks, Melted
347g 2 1/2 Large Banana, Riped and Mashed
300g 1 1/2 Cup Sugar
1/4 Tsp Salt
15mL 1 Tbsp Vanilla extract

• In a large bowl cream the sugar, mashed banana and melted chocolate together.
• Combine the vanilla extract.
• In a smaller bowl combine the dry ingredients together.
• Slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet and combine.
• Pour it into a 9" x 9" pan and bake it in the oven for 400 F for 25-30 minutes.

Option : To make it more chocolaty use 142g 5 oz Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips or Blocks instead of the 76g 2 2/3 oz and used 319g 2 1/3 Large Banana instead of the 347g 2 1/2.

Apple Raisin Chinese Puff Pastry

They are similar to the European puff pastry but not exactly. Instead of butter, lard and oil is mainly used for the fat. I got the recipe of the puff pastry from Cafe of the East. Normally when you go out to eat dimsum, they are filled with the mung bean, red bean paste, taro paste or lotus paste. Apparently being upstate, I don't have the luxury of being a walking distance from my local Asian market so I'll make a apple raisin filled ball.

I modify the puff pastry from Cafe of the East to fit the ingredients I had available.

Recipe Yields 20 Puff Pastry Ball 162 Cal/Pastry Puff Ball

Chinese Puff Pastry 122 cal/ Puff Pastry Dough
Wet Dough
200g 1 2/3 Cup All Purpose Flour
70g 1/3 Cup Shortening*
20g Sugar, Confectioner
+ - 100mL Water

Oil Dough
120g 1 Cup All Purpose Flour
60g 1/4 Cup + 2 Tsp Shortening*

* If you don't want to use the hydrogentated crap you can use expeller pressed oil like Earth Balance shortening and Spectrum shortening.

Filling
742g 3 1/2 Large Apples (I used gala)
85g 3 oz Raisins
177 3/4 Cup Cranberry Juice
1 Tbsp of Sugar, Granulated

To make the pastry dough

• First you need to make the wet dough by combining the sugar and the flour.
• Then cut in the shortening into the dough until all the crumbs are uniform in size.
• Slowly add the water as you mix the dough with your hand until it is smooth like the consistency of bread dough. Then let it rest for 30 minutes.
• Then make the oil dough by cutting in the shortening into the flour and knead it until it has the consistency of the wet dough. Add more shortening if you have to. Then let it rest for 30 minutes.

To make the filling

• Peel and core all the apples and dice them into about 1 cm cubes.
• While you are cubing the apples pour cranberry juice in a medium size pot and put in your raisins and let it simmer on medium heat.
• Then add in your apples and sugar and combine.
• Continue to simmer it until all juice reduces to nothing. Stir occasionally to make sure that the apples or raisin do not stick to your pot.

To assemble the apple raisin pastry

• please click on the picture to enlarge and see the visual aid.

• 1. Put the oil dough on a flatten wet dough.
  2. Wrap the oil dough with the wet dough and pinch the ends together
  3. Roll out the dough vertically.
  4. Roll the long dough downward into a long cylinder, resembling a cigar.
  5. Turn the horizontal cigar 90 degrees so that it is vertical.
  6. Roll out the cigar dough vertically.
  7. Roll the vertical dough downward into a cylinder again.
  8. Sit the cylinder upwards on your palm.
  9. Pinch up the ends so that it forms a ball.
  10. Situate the botto of the ball on your palm, so that the swirly pinched
  up ends are facing you and flatten the dough with your fingers. Make sure
  the edges are thinner than the middle and do not pull on the dough to
  flatten as it will pull apart the coil lamination you have just rolled out.
  11. Put the filling into the middle of the circular dough and pinch up the ends and round it into a ball.
• The dough doesn't spread so you can put it close together on a cookie sheet and bake it for 400 F for about 30 minutes.

Last week of vacation

It's the last week of my vacation. College starts tomorrow and I haven't gone school supply shopping. See how much I care about school. it's going to be hard to balance out school, work and b/f. FUDGE!! I hate this crap. I haven't been doing much cooking this week since I've been quite busy. All I've been doing is living off of my banana kiwi quick bread and my frozen food. We went back to the Poconos this Wednesdays and we went with Moses since he wanted to buy some fireworks. that arse hahahaha.

Banana Kiwi Quick bread (Vegetarian)



This is the quick bread I've been living off of the whole week. I had to get rid of all the kiwi I had. The quick bread was very moisty and soft. It should be finished within a few days. It's not vegan because of the cream cheese. I also need to convert it to a vegan recipe. Does not seem like a hard conversion at all. Sorry I didn't weight the kiwi and the banana as I was very lazy that day due to the fudging weather. It looks like the sky will fall and the whole world will end.

Recipe Yields 8 Mini Loaf

Wet Ingredient
1 1/2 Cup/180g All Purpose Flour
1 Cup/120g Whole Wheat Flour
2/3 Tsp Baking Soda
3/4 Tsp Baking Powder
3/4 Cup/150g Sugar,Granulated

Dry Ingredient
2 Medium Banana
3 Small Kiwi
1/2 Cup/2 oz/57g Cup Cream Cheese, soften
2 Tbsp Vegan Butter, soften (I used Soy Garden)
1/2 Cup of Cooked Homemade Rice Milk (You can use 2 eggs worth of Ener-G)
2 Tbsp Rice Milk/Soy Milk

• Preheat the oven @ 350 F.
  
• In a large bowl, sift the all purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder and granulated sugar together and combine it well.
  
• Cream together the cream cheese and butter. Then combine the nondairy milk and "egg" into the cream cheese/butter mixture.
  
• Puree 1 banana in a food processor and chop the other banana into tiny pieces.
• Puree 1 1/2 of the kiwi and chop the other 1 1/2 kiwi in to tiny pieces.
  
• Pour in the banana and kiwi puree into the wet ingredients and mix well.
  
• Make a well in the flour mixture and pour in the wet ingredients.
  
• Gently combine the two mixture together. Do not over mix you're batter.
• Then Gently fold in the chopped banana and kiwi.
• Place it in the oven and bake for 35 minute @ 350 F or until the toothpick test come out clean.

Paul's 19th Birthday
It was my b/f's 19th birthday yesterday and I baked him a cake from VCTOTW. A maple cake to be exact. I made a 9" cake but I think it was best to make a 8" cake so it'll look higher. Basically I used the recipe from VCTOTW. I made two batches separately and one recipe of the maple frosting but 2 recipe of the frosting is best if you were to use the frosting as the filling too. I toasted some walnut and coated the side of the cake with it since I didn't have enough frosting to cover up the sides. Fudge. Had a hugeeee slice. It was really rich and sweet. My brother described it as eating pancakes. hahahha


Trip to Poconos
Went to the Poconos again and here is Paul and Moses fooling around at the Crossing Outlet.

Went to American Candles and I couldn't resist this time. DOOD HOW THE HELL CAN YOU RESIST VEGETABLES AND ANIMALS. hahah Animals and Vegetable/Fruits is my life since hello I'm living as a vegetarian. I found it quite fitting. I had to purchase this. They had a variety of Home Grown Statues but I think this figurine resembles the vegetable and the animal the most. Cauliflower body and mushroom head. It's very cute, it also has the nutritional facts for these little figures. If you can't see it on the photo it says:

Serving Size: One home Grown Friend
Amount Per Serving
Companionship 100%
Total Laughst 25g - DV 100%
Saturated Giggles 10g - DV 100%
Friendship 15mg - DV 100%
Smiles 50mg - DV 100%
Humor Lots - DV 100%

If you are interested here is the site Enesco. They also have salt shakers and appetizer forks.

Weekend getaway

More like a one day get away. I went with my b/f to the Poconos. Stayed at hojos and lots of candle stores/factories. They're also a cute little farmers market near by and two health food store. Awesome. Pangea the restaurant in the Poconos had a wide variety of food from different parts of the world and they also had a whole section for vegetarians. The waitress was very nice unlike some other waitress when you ask them about the food they would just lie about their answer. We asked the waitress some questions and she actually when to ask the chefs to find out the answers.
Other than that I didn't do much at all this week except for buy buy buy.

Crystallized Ginger (Vegan)
Bought some Vietnamese "sweetened ginger" thinking it's crystallized ginger at my local Chinese supermarket. I bought it before but I remember to taste more spicy. They also did not look like that either. It looks and taste like they have been boiled down and lost all it's ginger taste and dusted with confectioner sugar. It reminds me of those sugared cover Chinese new year candy like those sugar coated winter melons. I got the recipe from Great Cooking.

Verdict: I love sweet spicy ginger!!



Recipe Yields around 5.6 oz - 6 oz/156 g - 170 g
8 oz/227 g Large Young Ginger (Old wrinkly ginger has thread in it)
2 Cups/400 g Sugar, Granulated
1 Tbsp Water

• Peel the ginger with a spoon and slice it 1/8th to 1/4th an inch which ever way that will yield you the widest slice. (Yes peel it with a spoon! The spoon is harder than the ginger skin but not harder than the ginger so it makes peeling so easy. You wont peel away all the flesh of the ginger either.
  
• Toss the ginger with the sugar in a bowl
• In a large sauce pan put in the water, sugar and ginger. Try to layer the ginger evenly so that it gets cooked evenly.
  
• Bring the mixture to a slow simmer on low heat for about 45 minutes or until the syrup turns into paste. Stir when things starts sticking together or the ginger starts burning. It's best not to stir at all or else the sugar will crystallized. When it looks like the mixture will brown, lower the heat Do not let it brown at all or else it'll be too hard or bitter.
  
• When it reaches a paste like mixture start stirring the mixture more often to form sugar crystals.
  
• When the whole paste turn into sugar crystal place your crystallized ginger into an air tight jar or container. You can save the ginger sugar for tea or for your gingersnap cookies.

Sweet Potato Ginger Tong Sui (Vegetarian/Vegan)
I love ginger and sweet potato who know how many bowls I ate in one sitting. "Tong Sui" literally means sweet water in chinese so this is a dessert recipe. It's actually a sweet soup. The measurement is really not on scale because I just made it to my preference with no measuring cups. My mom never use measuring cups or any measuring utensils. She just grabs and dump and that's exactly what I did. I think the rock candy and the peen tong contains honey. I'm not sure... I was almost finished with the dessert, all except for dissolving the sugar but I had to run out to do something quickly. I'm assuming my mom used the rock candy cause that's all she uses.



Recipe
24 oz- 36 oz/680g - 1021 g Sweet Potatoes
2 in" worth Ginger
2 Handful Dried Jujubes (Chinese Red Dates) (optional)
1 Handful Dried Logan (Fruit similar to the lychee) (optional)
Water
Peen Tong/Rock Candy if none are available use Granulated Sugar

• Peel and cube the sweet potato ginger into 3/4" - 1" cubes.
• Peel the ginger with a spoon and slice it 1/8"-1/4" thick.
• Rinse both the dried red dates and the dried logan. They both can be purchased at the dinese herbal store or your local Chinese supermarket.
• Dump the sweet potatoes, ginger, jujubes and logans in a huge pot and pour in enough water cover 1 cm over the sweet potatoes.
• Let it boil on med to high heat until the sweet potatoes are soft and sweeten the soup with the sugar. Put as much as you like.

Frey Chocolate Bar (Vegan)
Frey, the Swiss chocolate company also has an American Line of chocolate called the supreme. Target is the only place in America that sells Frey's chocolate. So far I have only found out that Frey's Swiss Dark Chocolate and Frey's Supreme Hot Chilli Peppers are vegan but may contain traces of milk. All the other chocolates like Endanger Species, Chocolove, Rapunzel and Green and Black are considered vegan but may contain traces of milk. Up to you to decide. I do no have the email to authenticate my words on the Swiss dark chocolate but the ingredients does not contain any milk solid, butter, nonfat milk and other dairy products. I need to buy the bar and scan the wrapper on. I do have the email saying that the hot chilli pepper is vegan.

Click on the photo to enlarge

Korean Traditional Rice Syrup (Vegan)


I found it at the local Korean supermarket. It cost $3.99 but my b/f bought it at his local korean market for a buck cheaper and twice the size. I was comparing and contrasting this syrup and the one I had from Lundberg. The korean rice syrup was a bit more diluted and the taste was not as strong. It's possible that water was used to dilute it or it was mixed with malt syrup but I can't tell for sure. On the ingredients all it said was Rice Malt syrup. I think i might use this as a substitute for brown rice syrup.

Bread.A Bakery
Hooray a vegetarian bakery opened near my neighborhood. For all those who live in Flushing, NY you should check it out. Although it's quite small and has not so great of a selection, the girl who works there is really nice. A Taiwanese person opened this place so the workers there might not speak English well. I know I was having a hard time communicating with the girl who works there since I can't speak Mandarin and she was not quite familiar with English. I hope the other workers there are more knowledgeable of English.


Pros
They have cakes, cookies, buns and entree.
They have a variety of bread and buns. I love buns!!! They had many buns like those Chinese bakery buns. They have the red bean, cinnamon raisin, black sesame and others. I love the fact that someone actually tried to make those vegetarian buns!! The drinks they serve are very delicious too.

Cons
They don't really serve any vegan cake or cookies but they are willing to custom make it for you. Yay vegan birthday cake but damnnit birthday passed. Too bad it's situated in a poor area though. It's right on an area in which there are many construction companies, auto shops and hardware stores. I am afraid they might do a lot of business. The place also a bit small. Its like an extremely small bakery with 2 tables and several chais in the back.

Goodies from the Place
Po Lo Bao (Pineapple Bun er...more like pumpkin bun)


It was Po Lo Bao at all. I think it was the pumpkin bun but I don't think the girl understood me when I was speak in Cantonese but never the less it tasted quite good. I loved the dough especially the flaky coat layer. I was having so much fun peeling it as i was eating it. The filling was decent, not the best but not the worst either. It was mildly sweet and reminded me of apples. I thought it would have had more filling though.



Hong Dao Sa Bao (Red Bean Paste Bun)
I think it tasted funky to me. The red bean didnt really taste like red bean. It tasted a bit bitter and not sweet at all.

Hak Zee Ma Bao (Black Sesame Bun)

It looked really cute... too cute to eat. I like the walnuts in the bottom of the filling and the sesame was pretty good.

Everything there was fairly decent. I like the service since the girl did try really hard to help me and I loved the drink that my brother got and the fact that there are buns!!