MErry Xmas

Merry Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Years. Holiday is the best LOTS OF FOOD!! weight gaining time awesome!! No more school thank goodness but the vacation is passing by so quickly!!

Spicy gingerbread cookies


Vegan cookies delicious!! I'm sick and tired mild tasting or just sugary tasting gingerbread cookies. Need the spiciness of all the herbs, so here's my recipe of these very spiced up ginger cookies.

Dry Ingredients
1 Cup All Purpose Flour
3 Tbsp Ginger, Grounded
1 Tbsp Cinnamon, Grounded
2 Tsp Allspice, Grounded
1 1/2 Tsp Clove, Grounded
1 1/2 Tsp Baking soda
1/4 Tsp Salt

Wet Ingredients
113g or 1/4 lb 1/2 Cup Butter, Soften
6 Tbsp Sugar, Dark Brown
6 Tbsp Molasses, Regular
1 Egg Replacer

• Preheat the oven to 350 F.
• Sift the dried ingredients and the dried portion of the egg replacer into a bowl.
• In a larger bowl cream together the butter and the sugar*. Add in the rest of the wet ingredients and combine well.
• Then gradually add in the dried ingredients into the wet ingredients.
  
• If you are making medium size gingerbread houses (around 4x8), bake the cookies for 18 - 20 minutes. It's better to over bake them a bit rather then under bake them like you usually would since you need a sturdy base for the gingerbread house.
  
• If you are making small tiny cookies for decoration (around 1 1/2- 2 cm) like the one in the picture bake them no longer than 5 minutes.
  
• If you are making regular cookies bake them for 10-12 minutes or until the top is slightly brown.

*Cookie Tip : Never over beat the sugar and the butter because your cookies will raise to much in the oven and deflate, resulting in a thin oily cookie because of all the extra air that is trapped in the butter.

Whole Wheat Cranberry Raisin Bread
The key to make great chewy artisan like bread is by creating a wet dough and letting time do all the work.

• Bread Tip #1: To get a better tasting bread let the bread rise slowly for a long period of time. So if you plan on eating bread tomorrow, you should make the dough and let it rise overnight in the refrigerator but the longer the dough rises, the yeastier it will taste so reduce the yeast a bit.
• Bread Tip #2: Normally flour requires a lot of water. They have bread dough with up to 75% hydration and some even higher which will result in a very sticky dough. IMPOSSIBLE TO WORK WITH, but this is where the next several tricks will come in handy!!
• Bread Tip #3: If you are preparing a wet bread dough mix all the dry and wet ingredients together. Don't knead it cause you wont be able to anyways. Just let it sit for 45 minutes. (Longer if you want but reduce the yeast, same principle as Bread Tip #1). This method is called autolysis. This allows the flour to absorb all the water and it helps develop good fibers between the gluten and starch.
  
• Bread Tip #4: Since the wet bread dough is too sticky to knead, just use the stretch and fold method. No need for kneading. After the autolysis or if you are skipping that step, put a bit of flour on your work area, stretch out the dough into a huge rectangle. Just fold the right side towards the middle, the left side towards the middle, the bottom side towards the middle and the top towards the middle. It's kinda like folding a envelope. Turn it over so that the smooth sides face you and fold it two more times. Let your dough rest for another 45 minutes or until double and fold it once more and let it rest before shaping, go through it's final rise and baking it.
• Bread Tip #5: Getting a hard crust by steaming the bread in addition to preheating the oven at the highest setting. You should steam the bread the first 5-10 minutes of baking since that is when the crust develops. To steam just preheat a metal pan in the rack below where you intend to bake the bread. When the oven finish preheating, put your bread in and pour a cup of water into the metal pan below the bread BUT newer ovens can't handle steam so it might break. If you have a cruddy oven like mine, I don't think you would mind as much but do this at your own risk. You should lower the temperature of the oven after 5-10 minutes.
  

Sponge Starter
118g 6/7 Cup Bread Flour
118 mL 1/2 Cup Water, Warm
1/4 Tsp Active Dried Yeast

Main Dough
53g 2/5 Cup Bread Flour
163g 1 1/4 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
180g 3/4 Cup Water
1 1/2 Tsp Sugar, Granulated
1/4 Tsp Salt
2 oz Cranberries, Dried
2 oz Raisins

• The night before mix the yeast into the water until all the yeast dissolves.
  
• Then mix the water with the bread flour until everything is combined.
  
• Cover it with a damp cloth and let it rise for 24 hours. My house was 63F if it's warmer let it rise for a shorter period of time.
  
• When the 24 hours is up start by soaking the dried fruits in warm water.
• Then combine the flours, sugar and salt in a bowl and mix in the water into the dried ingredients slowly. Mix with a plastic or wooden spoon.
• After the main dough is combined mix the sponge starter into the main dough. Make sure everything is well incorporated.
• Then drain and fold in the raisins and cranberries.
• Let the dough sit for at least 45 minutes for autolysis.
• Fold the dough like I have described in bread tip #4.
  
• Let it rest again for 45 minutes or until it doubles and passes the finger test.
• Punch down, fold once more and shape into your loaf.
• Preheat your oven to the highest setting.
• After your shaped bread has rised for 45 or until it passes the finger test, put it into the oven and bake it for 8 minutes.
  
• Then lower it down to 350 F and bake it for another 45 minutes or until the toothpick slides into the deepest part of the bread easily and comes out clean.

Vegan Rugelach

Wow I haven't updated in quite a long while. School was crazy! I'm so glad classes and finals are over. Now I can devote all my time into my hobbies. HOrray hoorah. It seems like there's never enough time for anything.

Mixed Fruit Rugelach
I used to work in a Jewish Bakery and I would snack on those all day. Too bad it's not vegan and that place closed down due unsatisfactory scoring in the health inspection. I would know hahaha, but thank goodness I left before that happened.

Rugelach is a very popular Jewish cookie. They normally contain nuts or some kind of jam. The most popular rugelach that we had in the Jewish bakery were the chocolate and the cinnamon raisin. This is a really simple recipe. Nothing special. No crazy drizzle or excess amount of sugar especially for the holidays.



Yields 24-32 Mini Rugelach/ 12-18 Large Rugelach (2129 cal Total)
Dough
1 Cup/ 120g All Purpose Flour
3 oz/ 85g Vegan Cream Cheese, Room Temperature
2 oz/57g Vegan Butter, Room Temperature
1/4 tsp Salt

Filling
2 oz/ 57g Raisins
2 oz/ 57 g Dried Cranberries
2 oz/ 57 g Deglet Noor Pitted Dates, Chopped
1/3 Tsp Cinnamon, Grounded
3 Tbsp Soymilk, Warm (you can use any vegan milk)

• For the dough part, sift the flour and salt together.
• Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture and cut in the cream cheese and butter.
• Let the dough chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
  
• Meanwhile mix the cinnamon with the soymilk and soak the dried fruits in the soymilk mixture. You don't want the fruits to burn while they are baking.
• After the chilling is finished.
  
• Preheat the oven to 350 F.
  
• Take the dough and roll it out to be a 8" x 16" rectangle. *
  
• Then spread the mixture evenly across the dough and tightly roll up the dough.
• Wet a knife and cut the rolled up rope of dough to however big you want the rugelach to be.
• If there is any leftover liquid from the filling, brush it ontop of the rugelach and bake it for 35-40 minutes or until the top turns into a light golden brown.
  

*If you want to make mini rugelach, you get less spirals in the cookies. Just divide the dough in half and roll each piece to a 4" x 16" rectangle.

Steamed Spring Roll
Normally the ones at YumCha is fried but it's healthier to steam but the taste is very different.
This recipe is very similar to the tofu skin wrap.


Yields 21 Spring rolls

Water
21 Spring roll Wrapper
15 Dried Shiitaki mushroom
2 Bunch of Rice Vermecille Noodle
1 10 oz Baby Corn, Canned
1 10 oz Braised Bamboo Shoot, Sliced into Matchsticks
20g Woodear Fungus
Soy Sauce
Salt

• Soak the shiitaki mushroom, rice vermecille noodles and woodear three separate bowls of warm water.
  
• Rinse the canned baby corn and bamboo shoot to get rid of the perservatives in the can.
  
• Slice the shiitaki mushroom into thin slices and cut the rice vermecille noodles into 2" and snip and hard spot in the woodear. Then roughly chop the woodear fungus.
• Cut the baby corns into quarters.
• In a saucepan cook the mushroom and woodear fungus until it's almost 3/4th done then add in the baby corn and bamboo shoot and cook it until they are warm.
• Toss in the vermecille noodles and cook for about 2 more minutes. Then flavor with soy sauce and salt.
  
• * Soak a spring roll wrapper in warm water to soften it.
  
• Place the spring roll wrapper on a flat surface and place the filling horizontally in the middle towards the bottom of the wrapper.
• Fold the left and right side of the wrapper towards the middle and then roll the wrapper tightly starting at the bottom where the filling is.
• Repeat this process 20 more times, start the steps where the * asterisk is.
• Place the spring rolls in to a steamer or a wok with some water and steam it for 15 minutes.
  

Soy Yogurt Cheese


I personally think it taste better than sour cream and cream cheese. Just follow these few simple step to make your own yogurt cheese from regular soy yogurt. You can make your own soy yogurt by going here. You can use this soy yogurt cheese for almost anything

Yogurt
Colander
Cheesecloth or Coffee Filters.

• Line your colander with a cheesecloth or enough coffee filters to fit the whole colander. (Just wet the coffee filter to make it easier to handle.)
• Pour the cheesecloth over the muslin and let it strain the refrigerator for at least 4 hours.

*note: if you want a more tangy yogurt cheese do not use commercial soy yogurt, make your own. The longer you ferment the yogurt, the tangier and sourer the yogurt becomes.

Macau Almond Cookies

They are also known as Macau Almond cake. This brand makes their almond cookie mainly out of almond, oil and mung bean starch. This company is a well known bakery in Macau famous for their almond cookies. They are absolutely delicious. I have odd cravings to make southeast Asian food. Delicious. I love kueh!

Thai food anyone?

Curry Kabocha with Yu Choy and Tofu



It's a rip off of the Epicurious shrimp curry with yu choy and kabocha

Instead of the shrimp I used some extra firm silken tofu.

As for the fish paste, I used FatFree Vegan's No Fish Fish Sauce.

Note: If you can't find kaffir leaves, even in the Asian market but you can use lime leaves, lemon leaves or 1 tablespoons for every 6 kaffir leaves.

Normally you can find lemongrass in your local Asian market but you can use a substitute of 1 zest of a whole lemon is 2 stalk of lemongrass.

I found the thai basil a bit overwhelming since Thai basil is very pungent in comparison to the regular basil you may find in the regular supermarket.

The choy sum has so many names for the Cantonese, it's called yu choy, yow choy or flowering rape.


Tofu Mushroom Side Dish


Recipe

1 Clove of Garlic, Minced
1/2 Yellow Onion, Chopped
8 oz Mushroom (Cremini or White)
6 oz Firm Silk Tofu, 1/2 Inch Cubed
1 Scallion, Finely Chopped
Oil

• Heat the oil on medium-high heat and cook the garlic to release the aroma for about 10 seconds, make sure not to burn them.
• Then add in the onions and cook it for a few minutes then add the mushrooms. Add enough salt to the vegetable to salt to your preference. This will allow the vegetable to release any water.
  
• When the onions are almost thoroughly cooked add the tofu and the scallions and cook it until the onions are soft and the mushrooms are cooked.

Chocolate Banana Muffin


It's not very banana-y tasting so I dont know whether to post this recipe or not.

Midterm week

The title describes all!! I had midterms last, this week and I believe the one after this... Great this shows how tentative I am in class. I don't even know when my midterms are. I've been so busy studying for calculus, I'm drained so I decided to treat myself by going to Six Flag for the fright fest. I'm not a picture person so there's no pictures. It wasn't what I had expected. I expected it to be more frightening but apparently not with all the rude people pushing and shoving.

Anyways onward to the food. I helped my boyfriend bake some goodies for his mother's office since she was leaving that hell hole yay!!! We had to bake 80 of each item but we didn't have enough time to bake enough of the muffins. I wished I had more influence on what was being served. We made apple cranberry muffins (ovo-vegetarian), gingerbread cookies (ovo-vegetarian) and VWAV pumpkin oatmeal cookies (vegan). Awesome. Everyone loved the baked goods. The vegan cookies came in second though :[ They liked the muffins more...but at least it's not last!!


This week's muffin, Persimmon Muffin!!
Tis is the season for persimmons!!! I love persimmons although they can cause severe heartburns if you just eat it out of the hand. They're amazingly delicious. Some how they remind me of pumpkins because they're so orange! *Note I tend not to use cups to measure ingredients as they can be quite inaccurate. I've just converted the weight to volume so please excuse all the odd measurement in volume.


Recipe Yields 6 Muffin // 165 Cal/Muffin


75g// 5/8 Cup All Purpose Flour
75g// 5/8 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
38g// 3 Tbsp Sugar, Granulated
12g// 1 Tbsp Dark Brown Sugar
1 1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
1/4 Tsp Cinnamon, Granulated
1/8 Tsp Allspice, Granulated
1/8 Tsp Nutmeg, Granulated
1/8 Tsp Salt

115g// About 1 Medium Persimmon, Pureed
12g// 1 Tbsp Maple Syrup
1/2 Cup Soy Milk
1 Tsp Vanilla

Kabocha Pie (Japanese Pumpkin Pie)
Tis is autumn!! The leaves are falling, the winds are strong, it's almost Halloween, Thanksgiving will soon follow. It's a great time for eating pumpkin pies and sweet potato pies! Normally people associate autumn with pumpkin pie and sweet potato pie but there aren't many pumpkins readily available here but there are many kabocha. Kabocha is also known as Japanese pumpkin. The taste a bit like pumpkin and a bit like sweet potato. Even better! Killing two birds with one stone. Of course I wouldn't do that I can't even kill one bird with a stone. Poor birdie. Kabocha is a popular ingredient in Asian cooking and it's avaible all year round in the Asian markets. I've seen them in both the Korean markets and the Chinese market. In the Chinese market these kabocha are actually called pumpkin in Chinese. Hey why not make so "pumpkin pie"?


Recipe Yield 1 7" pie, 8 slices// 140.25 Cal/Slice

Crust
62g// 4 2x2 Graham Crackers, Crumbled
60g// 1/2 Cup All Purpose Flour
24g// 2 Tbsp Soy Butter, Room Temp.
3 Tbsp Soy Milk
1/3 Tsp Cinnamon, Granulated

Filling
265g// Kabocha, puree
6 oz// 170g Silken Tofu, Firm (I used Mori-nu)
50g // 1/4 Cup Sugar, Granulated (You can use more, my kabocha was very sweet)
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
1/2 Tsp Cinnamon
1/4 Tsp Nutmeg

• Preheat the oven to 350F.
  
• Crumble the graham crackers and combine it together with the all purpose flour.
• Cut in the soy butter into the flour mixture.
• Make a well in the middle and add the soy milk and knead the dough.
• Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerated it for about 20 minutes.
• Take out the dough and flour the rolling pin and your surface.
• Roll out the dough to be around 3/4 cm thick and cover your 7" pie pan.
  
• Poke many holes with the fork and back it in the oven for 15 minutes.
• Take it out and let it cool while you make the filling.

• Peel and dice the kabocha. (Make sure you measure the kabocha with out the skin and seeds.)
• Dice the kabocha to 1.5" cubes and steam it in a steamer for 15-20 minutes or until tender.
• Puree the squash in the food processor until there are no more lumps.
  
• Put the kabocha into a large bowl and puree the tofu in the food processor. (Since we're using firm tofu, make sure there are no lumps! You don't want lumpy pie!)
• Add the kabocha sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg into the tofu mixture and puree it until all the ingredients are combined.
• Pour the filling into the crust and bake it for 20 minutes. If you bake too long, it will crack!

Cinnamon Raisin Coconut Rice Pudding


Rice pudding hmm....The coconut taste is very subtitle but with the addition of shredded coconuts, it goes quite far. Actually I've made it twice, once in my b/f house and once at home. The one that my b/f and I made was from a recipe in vegweb. It didnt turn out the way we wanted to so I've made it again.

Recipe Yields 4-6 Serving// 533-355 Cal/Serving

1 13.5 Fl Oz// 2 Cup Canned Coconut Milk
1 1/2 Cup Soy Milk (I used plain, sugarless)
185g// 1 Cup Jasmin Rice
150g// 3/4 Cup Sugar, Granulated
40g// 1/4 Cup Raisins
1 Tsp Vanilla
1 Tsp Cinnamon, Granulated
2 Tbsp Agave Nectar (Optional)
23 g// 1/4 Cup Shredded Coconut (Optional)

• Boil the coconut milk and soy milk together in a saucepan or pot while you wash and rinse your rice. (It helps a lot if your saucepan or pot are nonstick because the rice will stick!)
  
• When the milk mixture is just boiling, pour in the sugar and let the sugar melt in the milk. (If you are happening to use sweetened soy milk, reduce the amount of sugar.)
• Pour in the the rice and let it boil with a lid overing the saucepan or pot on a medium to low heat.
  
• While you are waiting for the rice to cook, soak the raisins in half a cup of warm water. If you don't soak the raisins they will absorb the moister in your rice pudding, making your pudding dry.
• When the rice is starting to cook and has already absorbed about half of the milk, lower the heat to low and let it simmer slowly with the lid on so the steam can softens the rice. If you don't use a lid, the moister will evaporate out of the saucepan or pot. It's essential that you lower the heat or else the rice will burn! No shortcuts!! It may take up to 20 minutes to 30 minutes of simmering and steaming depending on the size of the saucepan or pot.
  
• Stir the rice every few minutes to prevent burning or sticking to the saucepan or pot. If it does stick quickly scrap off any rice that is sticking to the saucepan or pot to prevent burning.
  
• When the rice is mushy and reaches your desire consistency, fold in the raisins, vanilla extract, cinnamon, shredded coconuts and agave sugar (if you are using those).
  
• Let the rice pudding simmer and steam for five more minutes. If your rice pudding happens to be drier due to moisture lost, add in some more soy milk.

Fatfree Carrot Muffin
Delicious muffin. My b/f and I got this recipe from fatfree vegan but we made our own streusel. which was not exactly fat free.



Streusel Topping

Recipe Yields enough for about 16 Cupcakes// 349 Cal total

36g// 3 Tbsp Sugar, Granulated
24g// 2 Tbsp Sugar, Dark Brown
1 Tbsp Applesauce, Sweetened
1 Tbsp Soy Butter
1 Tsp Cinnamon. Granulated
1/2 Tsp Ginger, Granulated
1/4 Tsp Clove, Granulated

• Combine the sugars and spices.
  
• Cut the applesauce and soy butter into the dry ingredients.
  
• Combine until they are the consistency of breadcrumb
• Sprinkle them onto the muffin batter after you scooped the batter into the muffin pan.
  

Tofu Pie!!

Yearly check up at the doctors. I got a call back from my doctor because there was something wrong with my check up. I had a low count of white blood cell uh oh...don't know why though. I haven't gotten sick in a long time so I didn't really use any wbc... I dont know. I also have a high level of URIC ACID. All vegans and vegetarians should be concerned because high level of uric acid is caused by beans, pea, wine, beer and nutritional yeast! If you're a vegetarian/vegan and a lover of alcohol, it's a double whammy. High level of uric acid causes gout which is also known as metabolic arthritis. Here's a little more info about uric acid. Uric acid is the product of the purine when it's broken down by your body. Some holistic ways of reducing uric acid are eating 1/2 lb of cherries per day, drinking celery tea, eating bilberries, eating hawthorns, drinking juniper berry tea and much much more. Ah this is terrible...

Lots of cooking but not a lot of recording. I find that cooking is something that is hard to measure...People have different taste. Some people love to eat salty things, some people like blander things. Some people like spicy, some people can't stand spicy. I think I'm going to focus mainly on dessert and baked goods since I love baking. Whoopdeedoo.

Despite the fact that I should be reducing my intake of beans, I made CHOCOLATE TOFU PIE "magic pie". Love it so much. My b/f went ballistic. No picture since my mom borrowed my camera. Tofu is the shit!!. Also made raspberry chocolate pie. Hm.. hm.. good.

Chocolate Raspberry tofu pie

Not much modification. Just the addition of some raspberries.

Recipe 8" pie Serves 8/ 347Cal /Slice

Crust
8 large/128g Graham Cracker, Crumbled
4 Tbsp Applesauce, Sweetened
1/2 Tsp Cinnamon, Grounded
1/4 Cup/50g Sugar, Granulated
or
You can use a prepared graham cracker shell.

Filling
16 oz/454g Silk Tofu (I used soft)
12 oz/340g Chocolate Chip, Vegan
7.35 oz/208 g Frozen Raspberries, Unsweetened
plus
2.5 oz/71g Frozen Raspberries, Unsweetened

• Start preparing the chocolate by heating up the chocolate chips in a double boiler.
  
• Preheat the oven to 350F.
• Combine the graham cracker crumb with the cinnamon powder and sugar. Then mix in the apple sauce until it reaches a consistency of brown sugar.
• Bake it for 10 minute.
• While the crust is baking, place the tofu in a blender and start blending. The chocolate chip should be melted by now so add the melted chocolate while the blender is on.
  
• Add in the 7.35 oz/208g of Frozen Raspberries into the blender while it's on.
• Shut the blender off. Try and chop the remaining 2.5 oz/71g of frozen raspberries into halves or quarters and stir it into the blended mixture.
  
• Pour it into the graham cracker crust and let it sit in your refrigerator.

*Note: This is softer than the original "magic pie" due to the addition of raspberries. The brown color of the pie is much lighter too.

Autumn = Apples

Autumn is Here

Don't you just love autumn? My family and I went to the Masker Orchard in Warwick, New York for a jolly family apple picking trip. We picked around 45 apples but the variety was not great since there were only a few variety of apples ripe at that moment. We only have a few left. We love our apples. Yes we do.

Apple Tartlet


Recipe Yields 6 Tarlets 112 Cal/ Tarlet

3 1/2 Tbsp / 49g Vegan Butter, Room Temperature
48 Sheets/26 g Phyllo Dough (Each sheet around 4.5"x 2.5')
1 Large/ 268 g Golden Delicious Apple, Finely Diced
1/2 Cup Sugar
1/4 Tsp Cinnamon
1/4 Tsp Vanilla
1/8 Tsp Nutmeg
1/8 Tsp salt

• Grease a muffin pan.
  
• Peel and dice your apples and put it into a sauce pan with the salt and a tablespoon of butter.
  
• Heat up the apples on med-high heat and wait until the apples starts to let out it's juices.
• Pour the sugar and lower the heat. Let the apples simmer and continue stirring the apples until the syrup reduce into a thick syrup similar to the consistency of rice syrup.
• Add in the vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg and stir until it is combined.
  
• Then set the apples aside while you prepare the phyllo dough crust.
  
• Preheat the oven to 350 F and Lay the first sheet down and generously spread some butter on the phyllo dough, lay another phyllo sheet and spread the butter on it again. You should do this four more times, resulting in 6 layers of phyllo dough.
  
• Gently stuff the sheet into the muffin pan and dollop 1/6th of the apple filling into the phyllo shell.
• Do this 5 more times resulting 6 apple tartlets.
• Bake in the oven for 30 minutes.

Another day in Manhattan

Sorry I didnt bring my camera but damn!! I love Union Square. I went with my boyfriend and we went to the green market and bought a lot of those decorative guords and indian corn. There was also a street fair with many various booths. There was a couple who had a booth selling vegan soap. Awesome! The only non vegan soap they had was the Honey Oatmeal. The couple was very nice and offered some nice tips and free samples. They also have a website so maybe you can check it out. They're booth is called the Copasoaps. They're from Phila, Pennsylvania but they sell their soaps in the street fairs on N.Y. They have the locations, time and date on the website.

My boyfriend and I also went to Zen Palate. They serve mostly vegan Asian food. They do specify whether the food contain milk derived ingredients, eggs, or dairy. Although it's a bit small, I loved the atmosphere. Their dishes are also huge so we ended up sharing our food and getting some appetizer. I didn't fully enjoy my stay there because of the other customers. There were several groups of customers who went into the restaurant not knowing that it was a veggie restaurant. When they took a look at the menu, they got up and left. What bunch of pricks. Screw them.

Thank goodness we went to some place sweet to calm my nerves. We went to Whole Earth Bakery and Kitchen. FUck Yah. COMPLETELY VEGAN. I think Babycakes is overrated. Pretty website and what not. After reading an article online about Whole Earth Bakery and Kitchen, I found out that they went through a lot since early this year, they were suppose to be scheduled to closed down due to their landlord but with support from the lovely customers of the bakery, a rally was held to keep the bakery open. Hell yah! They're still open. We got a pumpkin pie. Great treat for the fall. It tasted great! The bakery does not look the best nor was it big, it fucking rocks.

Homemade Vegan Candle

No update in over a week because I'm too caught up with school and work. I haven't had the time to truely make anything worthy but I did modified the banana kiwi muffin.

Updated Banana Kiwi Muffin

I think the last Banana Kiwi Muffin didn't taste so good. Yet and I still posted it. Shouldn't do that...

Recipe Yields 8 Loaves

1 1/2 /180g Cup All Purpose Flour
1 /120g Cup Whole Wheat Flour
1 /200g Cup Sugar, Granulated
2/3 Tsp Baking Soda
3/4 Tsp Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp Salt

1 Medium/128g Banana
1 Small/95g Kiwi
4 /56g Tbsp Vegan Butter, Room Temp.
2 Rice Eggs or Ener-G
1/4 Cup /59 mL Soy Milk
1/2 Tsp Vanilla Extract
1/4 Tsp Banana Essence
1/4 Apple Cider Vinegar

• In a large bowl sift together the all purpose flour, whole wheat flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt
• Preheat the oven to 350 F and grease the loaf pan.
  
• Puree the banana and kiwi together in the food processor.
• Cream together the vegan butter and vegan egg. (If you are using flax or rice egg please let it cool to room temperature before you cream together with the butter or else the butter will melt.)
• Combine the fruit puree into the liquid mixture.
• Add in the soy milk, apple cider vinegar, vanilla extract and banana essence.
  
• Pour the liquid mixture into the flour mixture and combine until the two mixture are all mixed but do not over mix.
  
• Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake it for 35 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean.

Vegan Candles

For all those arts and craft people who enjoy making your own candles, there is a great site that provides vegan candle equipments. Hooray hoorah! They have very reasonable prices and a wide variety of candle base and scents. They're called Southern Scentsation. I emailed them to inquire about their product information. I didnt ask about their soap base nor do I think they are vegan.

This is the email between Beth and me.

Cookies

So damn tired. My b/f, friend and I went bike riding for more than 4 hours along bike trails. Holy Fudge!! My bum hurts like a bitch. We went down hill on a rocky, dirt rode. I hit a tree at full speed and I went flying across the path. Awesome...bruised my pelvic bone when I hit the metal rod on the bike that is between the legs. I need to go out more hahahh fudging loser :3 Anyways enough ranting.

Berry Stoned Pome Smoothie

Laced it with calcium powder and protein powder in attempt to get all the needed nutrients. It does taste more like a power shake since it's does have a slight powdery gritty texture from the soy protein. You can do without it but hey you're not getting that calcium and protein even though it's not as much as a glass of soy milk. It has more protein than a regular soy milk smoothie.

Recipe Yields 3 cups/ 144 Cal, 11.7% Dv Calcium, 6g og Protein
1 Med-Large/195g Apple
1/138g Nectarine, White
1 Cup/250g Raspberries, Unsweetened Frozen
1 Tbsp Agave Nectar
2 Tbsp Soy Powder (Now Brand)
1/2 Tsp Calcium Powder (Now Brand)
1 cup/237 mL Soy milk, plain

• Pit and chop the apple and nectarine into 1/2 inch cubes.
  
• Throw in the raspberries, apples and nectarine into the blender (hence the name of the smoothie).
• Top it off with the soy powder, calcium powder and agave nectar.
• Pour in the soy milk and blend!
  

It's really sweet from the apple yum!

Graham Cracker Raisin Cookies!!

Whoopdie doo! Need to get rid of my graham cracker. Use vegan graham cracker so watch out for em honey!! I need to perfect this cookie. My mom thinks it's sweet but I think it's fine. I think it's a bit too soft and chewy but my mom thinks it's nice soft and chewy. Hard to please so eh...

Recipe Yields 18 Cookies
1/2 Cup of Sugar
1/4 Cup Soy Butter
1 Egg Substitute (I used the rice egg)
1/3 Vanilla
1/4 Tsp Cinnamon, Grounded
8 Large/125g Graham Crackers
1 Tbsp Baking Powder
Pinch of Baking Soda
1/4 Tsp Salt

• Place the crackers into the food processor and process it until the crackers become powdered graham crackers. (Not crumb, POWDER!!)
• Cream together the sugar and the butter in a large bowl until the mixture is all nice and creamy.
• Cream the egg substitute into the creamed sugar mixture until everything is combined. (If you are using flax egg or the rice egg, let it cool down first or it will melt your creamed butter mixture)
• Put in the vanilla extract the grounded cinnamon and cream it all together.
• Preheat the oven to 350 F.
  
• Sift the graham cracker powder, baking powder baking soda and salt into the creamed mixture.
  
• Mix the dough together until everything is combined.
  
• Form into 18 balls of dough and bake it on the cookie sheets for 12 minutes @350 F.
  

Italy Grape


Can someone please tell me what exactly are they? They were labeled Italy Grapes but I googled it and there were just listing of wine grapes. The chinese name for it is also Italy Grapes so I don't know. They are about 3/4 inches in diameter. The skin is also quite thick and the flesh is a bit tart but also has a hint of grape/plum flavor. I don't know please do inform me of this odd fruit.


Tempeh mixed Veggie Sandwich


Mixed veggies...You can tell me about it. Yes that is bokchoy. I dont even know what kind of sandwich it is hahah. Fried tempeh with soy sauce, Bokchoy, pan fried tomato with sweet relish and dijon mustard on pumpernickel. Que? Asian stuff with some non Asian stuff hahah yay!! It tasted pretty good though. Muahahah oddball

Lipton Diet Citrus Green Tea and Wrigley's Orbit White

Lipton Diet Citrus Green Tea
I called the company up using the number on the back of the bottle 1(800)657-3001. I spoke with one of the representative named Lin. I asked whether any of the ingredients contained any animal products or are derived from any animals. Lin quickly said no as if she has been asked many times before.

Here are the ingredients : water, citric acid, green tea, natural flavors, sodium hexametaphosphate (to protect flavor), phosphoric acid, potassium sorbate and potassim benzoate (preserve freshness), ascorbic acid (to protect flavor), aspartame, acesulfame potassium, calcium disodium (to protect flavor), caramel color, yellow 5, blue 1.

Although they may not contain many animal products, they do contain a lot of chemicals!! whoop dee doo.

Wrigley's Orbit White

I also called to inquire about the orbit white product and lo and behold, all flavors are vegan! I called 1(800)974-4539 and spoke with Kerry, Cari, Carry ( however you may spell her name) and asked her whether or not the spearment orbit white contained any animal by products and she also responded quickly ask if she has been asked this question a million times. In fact she said all of the orbit white contains no animal products.

Here are the ingredients: maltiol, sorbitol, gum base, acacia, natural and artificial flavors, mannitol; less than 2% of glycerol, soy lecithin, aspartame, acesulfame k, sodium bicarbonate, carnaba wax, BHT (to maintain fresshness)

All the flavors contains the same ingredients with the exception of colors.

Wintermint contains: Colors (titanium dioxide, blue 1)
Bubblemint contains: Colors (titanium dioxide, red3)
Peppermint contains: Colors (titanium dioxide, blue 1)
Spearmint contains: Colors (titanium dioxide, yellow 5, blue 1)

First week of School

College sucks butt. This semester is more hectic than my previous semesters. Despite all the load I want to start a a vegan/vegetarian club at my school I need to recruit some vegan/vegetarians first. I know no one there let alone any vegan/vegetarians. I need to devise some things to do and plant out each meeting. I'm at a total lose. Some suggestions would be nice :3

I didn't cook much either. I have no idea what I've been eating this whole week...I've been eating Energy bars. Hahah a lot of luna bars, organic food bar. Oofz those are so gritty but it doesn't taste that bad after a while. They do have 22g of protein AWESOME. I've been eating a lot of durians too. Yayyy durians everyday. It's my fucking life.

Calcium Enriched Banana Raspberry Shake
It sucks that I have to go to work right after class so I don't get a chance to eat lunch and I start work at 1. I don't want to go to work and work for only 5 minutes and take my lunch break. I decided to make shakes so I can type as I chug down my shake. Sorry no picture because I had to rush to work. This shake is also calcium fortified since it's quite important for women to get a sufficient amount of calcium or else by the time we're 40, we're screwed.

Recipe Yields 2 Cup/ 198 Cal/cup

1 Large Banana, Chunks
1/2 Cup Frozen Raspberry
2 Tbsp Agave Nectar
1 Cup Soymilk
1/3 Tsp Citrate Calcium (I used NOW brand since it's Vegan)

• Place the frozen raspberries in the blender first then put in the chunks of banana on top of the raspberries
  
• Pour in the soymilk and put in the calcium and the agave nectar.
• Blend it on high speed.
  

ed Bean/Green Bean Buns
Buns buns buns!! Sorry didn't measure out the amount for the filling so I only have the calorie intake for the buns not the filling

Portuguese Sweet Bread

Recipe Yields 8 Buns/262 Cal/Buns
1/6 Cup/8 Tsp Warm Water (105- 115 F)
2 1/2 Tsp Active Dry Yeast
1/2 Tsp and 3/8 Cup/6 Tbsp Sugar
1/6 Cup/ 8 Tsp and 1 Tbsp Warm Milk
3/8 Cup/ 6 Tbsp Margarine, Warm (Soy Garden)
1/2 Tsp Salt
3 Flax Egg ( I used 1 1/2 Flax Egg and 1 1/2 Rice Egg)
2 1/4 Cup All Purpose Flour

Red Bean/Mung Bean Filling

Recipe
Red Bean/Mung Beans
Water
Sugar
Oil

or you can use canned red bean or mung bean at the asian markets.

To make the filling

• Prepare the filling first if you are making your own by soaking the red beans in one bowl and the mung beans in another bowl for at least 4 hours or overnight.
  
• Boil the red beans until the beans are cooked and soft.
  
• Drain out all the water and blend the beans in the blender until it becomes a paste.
  
• Then put the paste in a sauce pan and pour a small amount of oil (same amount you would for sauteing that much vegetables) and enough sugar for you to sweeten that batch of red bean.
  
• Cook it on med to high heat until it reaches the consistency of a thick paste. (around 5 minutes)
  
• Follow the same instructions above to make the mung bean paste.
  

To make the bread

• Combine the warm water, active dry yeast and 1/2 tsp of sugar together. Let it sit for 5 minutes or until the liquid mixture starts to bubble and rises to about double the size.
• Then combine in the sugar, warm milk, butter and salt.
  
• Then pour the "eggs" and 2 cup of the flour and mix it until it forms into a dough.
  
• Knead the dough and add in the remaining flour. If the dough is a bit too wet add a bit more flour.
• Knead it for 10 minutes. Cover it with plastic wrap and let it sit for about and hour or until it has double in sized and the dough retains the punctures of your fingers when you poke at the dough.
  
• Punch down the dough and separate the dough into 8 balls.
  
• Fill each ball of dough with the bean fillings.
  
• Preheat the oven to 350F.
  
• Let the shaped buns rise for about 35 minutes or until it has double and the passes the finger test. (Same test you would use to test for the first rising)
• Brush the buns with the remaining soy milk and bake for 30 minutes at 350F.

NOW Food
You have to love NOW food. They have an awesome amount of vegan/vegetarian supplements. I just go the calcium citrate and the soy protein powder from them and I already had the calcium citrate + vitamin D pills. Awesome. Hm... I would consider these items a staple we need protein to survive and calcium too especially for women. Women tend to lack calcium so by the time they reach their middle ages, their bone mass has decrease to half it's original bone mass. Osteoporosis, slouching and fracture limbs are some of the symptoms of low bone mass. Watch out women!! BUILD EM BONES!!



Calcium Citrate
1 Tsp = 700mg = 70% of our DV (DV is 1000mg)
Although it says powder, it's not as fine as powder sugar. It's a bit gritty like cornmeal. It also has a tint of sourness towards it since it is derived from citrus items. It's great for sprinkling it on food items. The sour taste can easily be covered up by salt, sugar or anything.

Soy Protein
1/4 Cup = 21g =40% of our DV (DV is aorund 52g-53g)
NOW food brand soy protein powder is unflavored. Unlike the flavored soy protein drinks, it does not contain sugar so you can sprinkle your soy protein powder into salty food as well yay!
It taste like soy so it's not so hard masking the taste. Create a sauce for your tofu dish. Whatever you want! Make your own soy protein shake. Vanilla, chocolate, strawberry. Use your imagination. You are not limited to the vanilla flavor or chocolate flavor that they have at the health food stores.

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.

Day in Manhattan

Wow many things to say and talk about well I'm going to talk about first is my day to Manhattan since that is the title after all. xD

I went with two of my friends, whom I have not seen since high school to Union Square to explore the world or organic produce, green markets and veganism and the whole shindig.

We went to the union square green market and browsed around. There's so many produces and there was this vendor there selling vegan baked goods...well only two...There were the apple cranberry cake and the carrot raisin cookie!! I have not tried it yet though since I was eating alllll day today haha.


I also bought some berry hot garlic jam. No berries only garlic and hot peppers. It was expensive though, $4 for a 2.5 oz. It's minuscules!!! When I went to the poconos I bought my 10.5 oz mayhaw jame for $3.50 at the local green market. There were so many items ranging from herbs to vegetables to flowers to baked goods to ice cream to cheese to goat hide....WTF?! goat hide. I got so pissed I was standing in front of the standing screaming OMFG they killed the poor goats. GOAT KILLERS. Cursing like crazy. It was so upsetting to see. It ruined the whole excitement of being at the green market so we quickly left.


We went to Galaxy Global Eatery a "new age" cafe with a full menu and a lot of vegetarian/vegan choices. There weren't that many vegan choices for the weekend brunch though. We didnt get to see the whole menu since they only gave us the weekend brunch menu. I took the paper menu for a souvenir and that was when I learned that they have the most scariest non veg food in the world!! They served rabbits, ostrich, bison and buffalo. NO FUCKING KIDDING about the new age theme!! As for the vegetarian/vegan food items, they did serve seitan and tempeh and a lot of tofu. I was surprised a non veg restaurant would have even heard of seitan and tempeh. For vegans, there were the choices of all the salads, rosemary tofu skewers, vegan breakfast and bbq buffalo seitan with out the japanese eggplant since it was breaded. As for the vegetarians, there were many choices like the whole wheat blueberry flaxseed pancakes and many of the other dishes as the turkey bacon can be substituted with the tempeh bacon. I got myself the Vegan Breakfast.


The tofu scramble was a bit bland but it had a nice parsley aroma. The potato and tempeh was delicious but the salad was a bit too salty. Maybe the chef mistakenly seasoned the salad a second time instead of the tofu scramble. Don't understand as to how the chef can get that incorrect though...

Archer Farms Fruit Bars (Vegan)
Here's what I've found at Target...FRUIT BARS!! It's like fruit preserve...but they had boxes of fruit preserve next to them so I guess they're not as similar as I think it is. I've bought the pomegranate and the Tropical fruit bars. According to the ingredients of the Pomegranate one, it says apple, natural pomegranate flavor, fruit juice concentrates (pomegranate, blueberry and lemon), elderberry juice, absorbic acid (vitamin c). Here's the ingredients to the Tropical fruit bars:



Vegetable Crackers (Vegan)


Free gift from the Asian grocery store!! My mom got it for free for spending over a certain amount of money in Hong Kong Supermarket. Yayy it's vegan! Here's what the ingredients have to say wheat flour, starch, vegetable oil, celery, scallion, onion, salt, leavening agent (it says in Chinese: leavening powder for food usage) , edible color yellow no.4



Concoctions muahah...

Green Tea Jasmin Cupcake~Muffins
I was intending to make some green tea jasmin muffin but they turned out to be more like cupcakes :[ I must experiment more!! I think I over seeped the green tea because the mufifn had a bitter after taste.


Lara Bars Copy Cats
I love lara bars but I don't think I can afford to buy a bar ranging from $1.29 to $1.79 everytime I go to the supermarket. It super duper good!! I must make my own I shall experiment and see how close I can get to the real deal.


FRUITS FRUITS FRUITS
We only had a tub of kiwi and one banana left so I went to buy some fruits after work and my mom also saw that there were no more fruit so she decided to buy some fruits while she was at work and guess what we ended up with? A LOT OF FRUITS. We have 12 different varieties!!

A bunch of Banana
3 Pears
8 Pluots
11 Plums
A bag of Logan
1 Cantaloupe
3 Nectarines
10 Oranges
A bag of Grapes
9 Mango
9 Kiwi
3 Dragon Fruits (Not in the Photo)

DURIAN!!
I love durians, the king of all fruits!! I had 6 nuggets and mommy bought another durian!!! It's 99 cent per lb!! DURIAN SEASON IS HERE!!!

Homemade Rice Milk

I'm going to try and post smaller and more frequent post. It's hard to browse because you would have to keep scrolling down the the bottom of nothing just to get to your destination. :3 I've said that before but apparently I haven't improved yet.

Rice Milk Have you ever tried Rice Dream or Whole's Food 365 Rice Milk? If you haven't you should! My initial reaction was damn this is good. I personally prefer rice milk over soy milk because it's so light, crisp and tasty but, soy milk provides more protein. I'm so upset by the price of these alternative milk since it cost around 3 dollars for a quart of UHT milk. I can finish that in two days!!! I've tried making my own rice milk using the recipes acquire from nomilk. I've tried two of the recipe and they do not come close to any of the commercial rice milk. Here's my review for them.

Rice Milk Recipe #1
1 Cup of Warm Cooked Rice
4 Cups of Warm Water
1/2 Tsp Vanilla

• Cook some rice or you can use left over and put it in a blend.
• Pour in the warm water and blend it on high until there are no more rice particles.

The Recipe ask you to let it sit for half and hour and pour off the water but my rice milk has been sitting in my refrigerator for a couple of days and never separated. The liquid was very thick and pudding looking. It did not taste like rice milk but rather like rice. If you have ever tried congee, it's like a pureed form of it. It's not the best drink beverage but I think it would work great as a thickener in cakes and it goes well with coffee.

Rice Milk Recipe #2


1 Cup Rice, Raw
4 Cup Warm Water
1 Tbsp Sugar
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract (optional)

• Wash the rice until the water becomes clear to get rid of all the starch.
• Soak the rice in water overnight or for at least 4 hours.
  
• Rinse the rice out with clean water and wash the rice until the water is clear.
  
• Put the rice into the blender and pour in the warm water and blend for about 3 minutes.
  
• Let the rice particles separate from the liquid and blend it again for another 1 minute. *(I found that if you just pour the layer of water off as the rice milk, it taste jsut like water)
  
• Pour the rice water into a fine muslin cheesecloth and catch the liquid with a bowl or a bottle to filter out the remaining rice particles.
  

I think this recipe taste the most like the commercial rice milk BUT unlike the manufacturing companies, we do not have a nice fancy filtration device to filter out the liquid from the solid resulting in gritty rice milk!! Another problem is that when you let the rice milk sit in your refrigerator, the liquid will separate and it must be shaken before you use it. It is also not wise to warm or cook the rice milk because it will turn into a thicker form the previous rice milk. It's going to turn into paste!

BUNS BUNS BUNS!!!!


I'm in love with buns! Steamed buns to be exact. This has to be my favorite brand of steam buns. They're in such an adorable size and they come in several different flavor!! Red bean paste, lotus paste, sesame paste and butter cream. I don't the brand name in English but I just call it the Flower Head Man Buns!!! My mom bought the sesame paste one and the butter cream one. The butter cream is not vegan because it contains butter, cream and cheese powder. I'm not exactly sure if that is vegetarian since I'm not really going to call international to China. I've never heard of cheese powder but I'm assuming it's custard powder since many of the other companies uses custard powder to make the custard fillings. My mom love these buns too so she'll be eating the butter cream one. I believe the other fillings are all vegan but I don't have them stocked in my freezer. I'll edit this post when I purchase the other fillings.

Flower Head Man Buns
Sesame Paste Buns - Vegan
Butter Cream Buns - Not Vegan and ?? if it's vegetarian
Red Bean Buns - ?? for now
Lotus Bean Bun - ?? for now