Faux Brick Tutorial

Well, what a mish-mash this blog is! I really need to stay focused. But hey, look what I did here.

Larsen Bakery's Vegan Donuts

These donuts are brilliant. They are nothing like the dense, cakey, vegan donuts I've tried in the past. Yes, they do violate almost every nutritional principle I've come to believe in, but they are unbelievably reminiscent of the donut-store pastries I enjoyed in my pre-vegan days. And to top it off, they are only 160 calories each.

You can get these Bavarian cream-filled donuts at Vegan Essentials. Eat them quickly after they arrive (no problem there) since they are shipped fresh and contain no preservatives. After putting a dollop of the chocolate frosting on top, we just warm them up for a few minutes in the toaster oven, then spread the gooey frosting around. Amazing. With products like these, there are fewer and fewer excuses to eat animal-based foods.

Daiya Cheese

Daiya is an unfortunate name for a spectacular cheese substitute. So far, I have had 2 grilled cheese sandwiches (using the cheddar) and 2 small pizzas (using the Italian/mozzarella). Pros: it does melt and stretch, is delicious, and the grilled cheese is EXACTLY like I remember. Cons: it is very expensive and hard to find (I got mine from veganessentials.com), and the mozzarella, while extremely good, is not a replica of the mozz I remember on pizzeria pizzas. That said, if you are a committed vegan, this 'cheese' is a dream come true. I highly recommend the splurge!

By the way, the photo shows a skillet pizza I made using the Mother Earth News recipe by Genie Dickerson. I doubled it.

Vegan Pumpkin Pie

There are lots of vegan pumpkin pie recipes out there, but I'm in the process of developing my own because I have yet to find one with a somewhat creamy filling, that is not derived from silken tofu. This recipe, therefore, is in its beta form. Although it firms up nicely the day after it is baked (be sure to plan ahead), the unbaked filling is alarmingly liquidy. Also, although my daughter thinks it is just fine, I feel it is a little too sweet. So I may tweak it to include less soymilk and sugar, and a bit more cornstarch. Even with its slight imperfections, I can't seem to stop picking at the leftovers.

Pumpkin Pie

8 oz Tofutti cream cheese
2 cups pumpkin (or one 15oz can)
1/2 cup each white and brown sugar
3 Tbs cornstarch dissolved in 1 cup soymilk
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (we like Frontier)
-or- 1 tsp cinnamon and 1/4 tsp each cloves, ginger, and nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt

Beat the cream cheese with a hand mixer until smooth and creamy. Add pumpkin and keep mixing until combined. Add remaining ingredients and pour into pie shell. Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes. Cover pie edges with foil if they start to get brown. The pie may be a bit wobbly in the middle, but will firm up when cool.

I use the pie crust recipe from good old Betty Crocker:

2 cups flour
2/3 cups shortening (I use Earth Balance sticks)
6-7 Tbs cold water.

Put the flour and shortening in the food processor. (or cut in the shortening) until crumbly. Add water until a ball forms. Roll out and shape into 9 inch pie pan.

The Pomodoro Technique

Travel Formula

Unsure how long to stay in a spot whilst traveling? My cousin Lisa has a carefully constructed formula that will take all the uncertainty out of travel planning:

# of hours in car divided by 2 = minimum number of days to stay, excluding travel days. Anything over 5 hours in the car is considered a full day of travel. Add one day for each time zone crossed (for air travel) or add one week for crossing the Equator or International Date Line.

So there ya go!

One More Boat

I put most of the finishing touches on a 4' rowboat for Eliza this week and we took it out for a maiden voyage to Lake May - a small body of water in Fairfield. The boat plans are called "Peapod" and were free from Hannu's Boatyard on the internet. I built a rather stripped down version, but it floats and rows quite nicely. Eliza wants to call her boat "Thex" - we still need to paint the name on.

I plan to build one last boat next summer - probably something from the "Mouse" family of boats by Gavin Atkin. Then I'll be done. Really.