Decadent Chocolate-Marshmallow S'Mores Pie!

Oh. My. Gosh.
Graham-cracker crust. Chocolate-y pudding filing. Burnt-sugary toasted 'marshmallow' topping. Just like those S'mores you used to make over the campfire. Only in a pie. And all vegan. And totally decadent.

I have to give credit where credit is due... this is my Middle Sprout's idea, completely! (and except for a few minor tips, she did the whole thing herself!!)

Crust:

(You could just buy one, but I wanted to show my Sprout how easy it was to make a graham cracker crust, plus most commercial graham cracker crusts have honey in them, which vegans usually avoid.)

1-1/2 cups vegan graham cracker crumbs
2 tablespoons brown sugar
6 tablespoons Earth Balance, melted

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Combine all of the ingredients in a medium bowl.

Press into the bottom and sides of a 9-inch pie plate. (#1.)

Bake until set and golden, about 8 minutes.

Cool completely on a wire rack.

Chocolate Filling:

1 package chocolate pudding mix (we used Oetker Organics, but there's several different types. And even plain old "Jello" chocolate pudding mix is vegan!!!) Just mix with soy milk.

Mix pudding according to directions, (#2.) but use 1/2 cup less soymilk so it sets up firmer.

Pour into chilled pie shell. (#3.)

Refrigerate.

Toasted "Marshmallow" Topping:

OK, the tricky part.

We used Ricemallow Creme which is a vegan version of marshmallow fluff. (If you eat egg-whites, Marshmallow Fluff will work fine too).

We thought we'd toast it under the broiler to get that "toasty marshmallow" color and flavor.

Word to the wise, it melts into a liquid PUDDLE if you try this straight out of the jar.

So, we made a 9-inch circle of Ricemallow fluff on a cookie sheet, and froze it solid (about an hour).

THEN we stuck it under the broiler until it started to bubble and turn all "toasted marshmallow-y" (#4.) and QUICKLY slid the toasted, and only slightly-melted mass onto our chilled chocolate pie.

The melted marshmallow oozed around the edges of the toasted part (as you can see) but that only made it more yummy! (#5.)

TAH-DAHHHH... success is sweet.

(Though the picture does NOT do it justice!!)

Chill.

Sprinkle with vegan chocolate shavings if desired.

Enjoy. Compliments of my creative Middle Sprout...(#6.)

"War Cake" and Chinese Seitan with Walnuts

Lucky you (or maybe not) ...two (totally unrelated) recipes today.

These are stand-bys that I've had in my repertoire for years. I know there's at least a million versions of them all over Recipe-land, but for your viewing pleasure, here are the magic combinations I've always used.

Evidently I hadn't made either in a while, but I got inspired for whatever reason and whipped them up for supper last night. They were gobbled in minutes by hungry munchkins.

(As you can see, the cake got "sampled" before I could even get a decent picture - so it looks like a mess, not the pretty cake that it started out to be!!)

So, dessert first: "War Cake" was actually developed during WWII when sugar, butter and eggs were rationed. It uses no butter or eggs . Thus it's also vegan.

Now, you tell some unsuspecting (and un-vegan-educated) omni that you have a vegan cake and they just may turn up their nose. Their loss.

But you give them this interesting little tidbit of history - call it a 'War Cake' (or 'Depression Cake' or one of it's many other names) and they'll be fascinated, trust me. It's super simple too, (no eggs to crack even) probably one of the first recipes my kids learned to make.

War Cake with Praline topping

• 3 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 6 tablespoons cocoa
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoon vinegar
• 2 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cup cold water

Now the easy part:

Mix the dry ingredients.

Make a hole in the middle of the dry ingredients.

Mix wet ingredients together and pour into dry.

Stir until smooth.

Pour into greased pan.

Bake in 9 X 12 or two round pans at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

When cool, frost it as desired.

We've always used a "German Chocolate Cake" nuts-and-coconut-type topping... I used to sneak into the pantry and pick off the nuts when I was little, they were sooooo yummy!

Topping

• 1/2 cup soymilk
• 1/2 cup sugar or rice syrup
• 1 Tb. egg replacer powder (mixed with soymilk)
• 1/4 cup Earth Balance
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 2/3 cup flaked coconut
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped hazelnuts

In a medium saucepan, whisk the egg replacer powder and soymilk together.
Stir in sweetener and vanilla, and add the Earth Balance.
Cook over medium heat until the butter melts and the mixture thickens, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, about 8-12 minutes.
Remove from heat, add coconut and nuts, and beat with the wooden spoon until frosting is of spreading consistency.

Do not taste until it has cooled a bit, as it gets VERY hot.
Spread on the top of the chocolate cake. It'll be runny and soak in a bit but this keeps the cake moist too.
Serve warm or cool.

Chinese Walnut Seitan

• 1 cup coarsely broken walnuts* (I use halves, it's prettier)
• 1 Tbsp. peanut oil
• 2 cups bite-size seitan chunks , your favorite recipe or store-bought
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 cup onion slices
• 1 1/2 cups bias-cut celery slices
• 1 1/4 cups vegetarian chicken broth
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1 tbsp. cornstarch
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 2 tbsp. cooking sherry/red wine or apple juice
• 1 (2/3 cup) bamboo shoots, drained
• 1 can water chestnuts, drained and sliced

In skillet, toast walnuts in hot oil, stirring constantly.

Remove nuts to paper towels.
Put Seitan, onion, celery, and 1/2 cup of the chicken broth in skillet.

Add salt only if you think it needs it.

Cook uncovered 5 minutes or till slightly tender.
Combine sugar, cornstarch, soy sauce, and cooking sherry; add remaining broth.

Pour over vegetables in skillet.

Cook till sauce thickens.
Add bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, and walnuts.

Heat through. Serve over your favorite veggies and rice.

In the picture, I layered rice, then just a generic package of frozen, cooked vegetables, then the Walnut Seitan on top (mainly 'cause I didn't want to use a bunch of serving dishes - I'm lazy, I admit it).

*You can use cashews or pecans if your family isn't a fan of walnuts. Mine actually prefer cashews but I happened to have walnuts tonight.

California and Grandma's Birthday and Grilled Tofu

Just some random posts of family and food at Grandma's 90th Birthday Party.

We had such a wonderful time, can you tell?! The first thing we did was toast Grandma and her 90 well-lived years.

I added random pictures of me with my Grandma, my crazy and hilariously fun cousins, my darling little niece with the dog, and my wonderful Auntie J.

Of course the spread was far from vegan but my family watched out for me, (I have an awesome family!) and I made a side trip to Trader Joe's for veggie burgers, tofu, hummus and such.

Not to fear, I had plenty to eat right along with everyone else...









I'll leave you with my newest Tofu creation.

Grilled Tofu Kabobs

• 1 package EXTRA FIRM tofu
• 4 cups random veggies
• (tiny baby eggplants, cherry tomatoes, pre-boiled new potatoes, shiitake mushrooms, red bell peppers, pre-boiled baby carrot chunks, paper thin ginger slices)
• 2 cups marinade of your choice:
• I used:
• 1 cup teriyaki sauce
• 1/4 cup pineapple juice
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• grated ginger
• 1/2 tsp. Tabasco

I learned something recently. I really didn't think you could actually marinate tofu and have the marinade soak in.
But, the secret to actually getting marinade to soak IN to tofu is to press the tofu a LONG time until it's squeezed practically dry and THEN marinate. It soaks up the marinade just fine!

So, here's what you do, it takes some advance prep but it's SOOOO worth it:
Slice block of tofu into thick slices. (About 4 in a block.) Wrap in
6 layers of paper towel. (I know, sounds wasteful, but this is what works - if you have a lot of cheesecloth, use that.)

Lay in a shallow baking pan or similar
and weight down with another pan of the same size. Put several heavy books or cans on top the covered tofu.
Put in the fridge 4 hours or overnight. Unwrap the soggy towels and wrap in dry paper towels. Do the process all over again for at least 4 more hours.

Unwrap tofu. It should have shrunk and become dense and dry and firm. Cut into cubes.
Put into a bowl or bag with marinade. Marinate overnight.

Thread onto skewers with the above listed veggies and several slices of ginger.
Grill over med-high heat for about 15 - 20 min., turning several times until veggies are very done. Baste with marinade several times while grilling.

Gently remove from grill. Serve hot. (If you grill extra, throw 'em together for an awesome Grilled-Veggie and Tofu salad the next day.)

Surround yourself with family and enjoy!

Sorry I haven't blogged? Not really.

I just got returned from a wild and crazy, but SOO enjoyable trip to the jungles of San Jose, CA. Getting ready for, and helping celebrate, my wonderful little Grandma's 90th birthday!!
It was fun to help throw the party, wonderful to see my Grammy again (it's been 4 years!), and great to connect with cousins, nieces, nephews and other relatives I hadn't seen in ages; but it was also a much-needed break from life - the computer, housework, daily routine, mom-taxi-driving, cooking, and my job.
My kids spent the week of camping with their Dad. (I couldn't do airline tickets for everyone sadly, but it was also their annual not-to-be-missed "Dad" campout of the summer).

Needless to say, my house is now surrounded by weeds, and knee-deep in dirty laundry, half-unpacked suitcases and pine-needle filled sleeping-bags; but somehow I still feel re-energized and refreshed.

Blogging will resume shortly.

Oh - and here's Grandma and me :)
I should look so good at 90!!!!!

7th Grade's First Annual Car Show!

This post is not food-related and there are no amazing recipes lurking at the end; (just a disclaimer for my fellow food-blog-readers out there.)

I'm posting this particular page mainly for the benefit of my daughter, her friends and classmates; and our family and friends who live out of town - just sharing and showing off - so bear with us...

Sunday my "Middle Sprout" and her 7th-Grade classmates held an AWESOME fundraiser at their school, in the form of a Car and Bike Show. (Classic Cars, Hot Rods, Classic Motorcycles, etc..) Basically LOTS of purdy cars!

By way of explanation, my Sprouts attend a great private school and each grade organizes little events throughout the year to help defray costs of those "extras": field trips; music, electronic and science equipment, class outings, etc. Usually these are the typical bake sales, car washes and candy-bar sales. Ugh. We decided to end the school year - and our fund-raising efforts for the year - with one big, exciting event!

We had no idea if it would be successful or if anyone would even come - (despite the our advertising and careful planning)... but, Oh My Goodness! what a great day it turned out to be!

Over 60 great cars of all makes and models entered, and just TONS of people came out to see them! I'm definitely not a "car person" so I know next-to-nothing about these events, but all the participants had only good things to say about 'our kids' and the way things were organised and planned.

I'm so pleased and proud of the kids and their hard work, despite the funky weather that was alternately hot, cold, sunny or windy with sprinkles of rain...

My daughter kept busy selling Italian Sodas most of the day (other booths sold popcorn, coffee, doughnuts, burgers and hotdogs - even some vegetarian ones!! - raffle tickets, tee shirts and car "stuff"); She and her best friend were also the "Trophy Girls" at the end, handing out awards, and posing with all these car guys for pictures... they loved it!

(One of the 7th Grader's Dad's even won a trophy plaque - he was so proud with his car trophy and his daughter - I just had to get a pic!)

Lest you think I kicked back in a lawn chair, let me assure you, this was a TOTAL "whole family" event... starting with me dragging the Sprouts out of bed at 5:30 on a SUNDAY to help get things set up for the day... oh yeah, that was a thrill.

I was also the lucky parent who got to supervise the kids' "face-painting" booth, and despite my original skepticism, it was actually a lot of fun; Fortunately, I had VERY talented 7th Graders helping me out - no one would have paid for MY face-painting skills! My littlest Sprout kept herself well entertained having them do "paintings" on every exposed body-part - she went home looking like the Tattooed Lady!

And my older Sprout got wrangled into selling tee shirts when the original person didn't show up. Yeah, even though it was for little sister's class, and she pretended to be too cool to even BE there, she enjoyed helping (and handling all that money) too!

This was the first time most of us had ever attempted anything like this, and how great it was for these kids to see it turn into such a success! As each car left the event, the kids stood in little groups down the drive way and cheered and thanked them for coming. Very cool!

I am totally amazed at the work put into restoring some of the incredible cars we saw. However more than that, I am in awe at the hours of hard work put into this event by the parents *ahem* and students of the 7th grade class....

Can I just say we were absolutely EXHAUSTED by the end of the day? Even so, we're already making bigger and better plans for NEXT year!

Strawberries!!

So...
Strawberries, strawberries everywhere. Local farms and stands are posting signs and Saturday Market had them in many of the stalls this week.

Shuksan, Rainier, Totem, Puget Reliance, Puget Beauty, Nanaimo - whatever your favorites, the Puyallup Valley produces some of the tastiest berries in the US and I'm definitely one of their biggest fans...

We stopped by a roadside stand tonight and bought their last three little baskets of berries - it was hard to stay out of them, they smelled so good!
For dessert, I went simple (don't expect anything like a recipe here!!): I just sliced and slightly mashed the berries (cause I LOVE them extra juicy) and added a side of some very chocolate-y Purely Decadent Ice "Cream".

:drool: I'm definitely in heaven.

"Fresh Spring Roll Salad"

OK, so I got the bright idea to make fresh spring rolls (or salad rolls or fresh rolls or Vietnamese spring rolls or whatever they're called in your neightborhood) and I bought all the ingredients and rolled a bunch of the lovely things...

And though they don't LOOK all that great, (I'm still learning to get those rolls all perfect and wrapped nicely) - well, they tasted AWESOME!

But for some reason I'd WAY over estimated how much "stuff" I needed so I had a ton of leftover filling ingredients but no rice paper wrappers.

So what else is a good vegan to do but make SALAD!?!

My kids loved it so much they told me to write down exactly what was in it so we could have it all the time... WOW! Wish I could get that sort of response when I made kale or lima beans. Anyway, despite the rather boring picture, it WAS super-tasty, as well as cool, crunchy and refreshing - I'll definitely make it again.

"Spring Roll Salad"

1 head romaine lettuce
3 'stems' of fresh mint (10 - 12 leaves) 3 'stems' of fresh Thai basil (10 - 12 leaves)
1 cup bean sprouts
1 carrot, shredded large (I used a potato peeler)
1 daikon radish, shredded large (again I used a potato peeler to make large thin shreds)
thin strips of baked or BBQ'd tofu
snap peas

Chop romaine coarsely, put in salad bowl. Remove mint and basil leaves from stem. Chop coarsely. Add to lettuce.

Add rest of ingredients and toss well.

Top with as much dressing as you like and enjoy...

Dressing
1/4 cup Sweet-Hot Chilli Sauce (see picture - this stuff is AWESOME, despite having pictures of roast chicken all over it, it's perfectly vegan.)
2 Tbsp. rice wine vinegar
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
1/4 cup peanut oil
1/2 tsp. toasted sesame oil

pinch of sugar or salt to taste if you prefer

Whisk ingredients together, serve over the above, or other asian-type salads.

Saturday Market and Lunch

Went to our local Saturday Farmer's Market again today, and happened to see a cute little sidewalk cafe that had just opened.

Nosey food-fan that I am - I stopped in and asked if they possibly had anything vegan - They were surprisingly familier with the idea of veganism and were very much able to accomodate me!

SOOO pretty! You knew I had to take pictures...

They whipped up a great grilled panini with roasted peppers, roasted eggplant, onions, spinich and tomatoes and dressed it with a made-from-scratch lemon-garlic-mustard-olive-oil-dressing that looks sorta creamy simply because it's blended up. I was able to watch them mix the dressing tableside. Yay.

The soup is potato-carrot with ginger. No chicken stock or dairy. Score again! And it was all arranged so pretty, that always earns extra points!

Before our lunch came, they brought out big fluffy fresh-baked potato rolls (vegan) with a cute little plate of orange ancho- chili-and-herb-butter drizzled with balsamic vinegar and chili oil and micro greens... unfortunately the butter was...well...butter... but it was still creative and colorful - and my non-vegan daughter declared it extremely tasty.

Here's my beautiful Middle Sprout - looking just a little bored with my Saturday Market mania... she liked the cafe` though and found some funky jewelry, so I don't think she was as bored as this picture appears - silly girl!