More Christmas... (and Stuffed Mushrooms!)

Christmas Dinner with my family:
(I always love my Mom's dinner table all set with the Holiday china...)

Famous Stuffed Mushrooms:

The stuffed mushrooms are not really famous, but very impressive - and so embarrassingly easy I hate to tell people...

• Buy a package of stuffing mix - whatever brand you can find that is vegetarian/vegan (some have chicken broth, but amazingly, many don't).
• Or make whatever type stuffing/dressing you like, using vegetable broth, of course... (A boxed-mix is just super easy and just the right size)
• Make stuffing/dressing according to directions on package and set aside to cool..
• Buy 20 largish (golf-ball size?) mushrooms.
• Pop the stems out of the mushrooms.
• Chop the stems fine.
• Chop 1/2 an onion and 1 stick celery just as fine.
• Saute in olive oil until soft.
• Add 2 cloves crushed garlic (I put it thru a garlic press - this totally makes the dish, using fresh garlic, but it's up to you) no need to cook it, it'll cook when they bake.
• Mix vegetables with the already made stuffing and 1/4 cup nutritional yeast.
• Stuff into mushroom caps. (If too dry, add a little vegetable broth)
• Pack down firm and mound up in each mushroom. It will shrink.
• Put in baking dish, drizzle a little olive oil around.
• Bake for 25 - 30 min at 375 until mushrooms look softer and cooked.
• They will shrink and dry a little.

Thats it. Yum! Basically it's your fave stuffing or equivalent, and chopped mushroom stems and stuff. Though they don't look impressive here - sorta all jumbled together on this plate. Use your imagination.

My sister finished some last-minute gifts...

My Holiday "must-have": Fruit and Nut Holiday Rice <<-- Click for the recipe, it's an oldie that I posted several years ago...

My brother-in-law shovelling snow off my parent's deck. Took him all morning, there was a LOT of snow up there!!

And last, but, not least, the "Smoking German Figurines" that fascinate us every Christmas... (They have incense cones inside to provide the smoke and I just think they are DARLING!!)

Hope your Christmas was filled with family and friends!!

Christmas Past (A late post) and Cider

So Christmas is officially over (and probably forgotten) in most households. I've been bowled over by snow, family obligations and out-of-town travel, so I'm finally getting to the first of a few Christmas posts, you'll have to bear with me.



First of all, the Tofu Family decorates their tree:
We waited until a few days before Christmas to put it up, because all my girls wanted to be there to help. And it just wouldn't seem right if they weren't.



Our tree isn't fancy, nothing matches, it's a hodge-podge of ornaments collected and made over the years. But it's always special to us, and each of the girls has their favorite.



My oldest 'Sprout' loves this little wooden Santa that a friend STOLE off his Mom's tree many years ago to impress her - when they were about 5 or 6. When his Mom found out, she only laughed and said we could keep the ornament. We still tease her about it, but she doesn't seem to mind much!






My middle daughter is attached to, of all things, a LOBSTER CAGE ornament that we picked up for her in Maine one year.
The story behind this: She used to love the (poor) lobsters in the tank at our local supermarket and thought they were there as pets. She would talk to them and named them all and told them stories. I waited a few years to tell her their real fate. Thus starting her on a path of animal activism that is still going strong.

My kids bought ME my own special ornament this year. A Starbucks cup. How appropriate!!




My youngest has always put the angel on the top of the tree. Sometimes this undertaking is more dangerous than others, depending on how hard we're all laughing...

And last of all. Homemade Spiced Cider is our "tree-decorating" beverage of choice.

Once you've tried this, you'll never use those nasty little paper packets of chemicals again. It simmers nicely in a crock pot all day, waiting for whatever evening event you have planned. Adjust the spices to your tastes. I like a lot of ginger so that's the way we've always made it...

CHRISTMAS CIDER


6 cups of apple cider (we use unfiltered)
6 whole cloves
2 (3-inch) cinnamon sticks, broken into pieces
2 tangerines, sliced
3 slices of lemon
2-inch piece of peeled, fresh ginger, cut into 10 slices
2 Tbsp. brown sugar

Combine the ingredients in a medium saucepan and simmer over a low flame for 20 minutes.
If simmered in a crockpot, you may have to add some cider near the end, as it may evaporate a cup or so away.
Strain and serve.
(Also good with a little Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum, if you're into that. Not for the kids of course!)

Crazy Christmas Catch-Up (and Cookies!)

I have an embarrassing number of e-mails wondering whether I have dropped off the face of blogging forever. Eeeep.
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No, I have not.
People, Thank-You. But I am just not that interesting, I don't have anything amazing or yummy to report or any breath-taking photos I just have to share.


Life has somehow charged into overdrive and I'm attempting to keep up. Or catch up. The rest of my blogger-friends seem to be surviving beautifully, but somehow I'm a bit swamped. After Christmas it'll be WAY less crazy in this household and I'll be back to blogging as much as ever. Not to fear; I enjoy cooking vegan, creating messes, inventing interesting recipes and eating tasty food FAR too much NOT to keep talking (or blogging) about it.

But, for those who asked - here's what the Fairly Odd Tofu Family has been doing the last few weeks...

¤ Dressing up pretty for School Christmas Concerts, Holiday Banquets, Choir Productions and other fun and festive Christmas-type events.

















¤ Playing the Role of VERY PROUD MOM for all my kids' events.


















¤ Hanging out with loved ones. (My oldest 'Sprout' and her Auntie - aren't they beautiful?)

















¤ Hanging out with crazy friends.

















¤ Choosing and cutting the "perfect" tree. (The tiny one above was for my oldest daughter's dorm room).


















¤ Playing in the snow.



















¤ And baking Christmas cookies!!















YES! I have a recipe, and it's actually a timely, and useful one!!
Here's my all-purpose basic sugar-cookie recipe. It's simple vegan-ized Betty Crocker or someone, more of a short-bread texture than some Christmas Cookies. I didn't include a frosting recipe because that part is open to your preference and interpretation....

Christmas Sugar Cookies for Decorating

1 cup (2 sticks) vegan margarine (I use Nucoa because it's cheap, but Willow Run is good too)
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
"Egg-replacer": 1 Tbsp. tofu blended with 1 Tbsp. soymilk and 1 tsp. flax seeds

OR if you don't like the "specks" in the cookies use commercial egg-replacer powder mixed with water equiv. to 2 eggs.

1/2 tsp vanilla

2 - 3 drops anise, lemon or rum extract

3 1/2 cups sifted flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cream of tartar

1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 400°.

Cream margarine and sugar until fluffy.

Add egg-replacer, vanilla, and extract.

Beat well. Sift together dry ingredients.

Add slowly to wet mixture. Form into ball of dough.

You may need to add a tiny bit more flour or water to get the perfect consistency for rolling (I do have to "play with it" a little bit here) .

Chill for 1/2 hour.

Have extra flour on hand to sprinkle on the rolling pin and on your hands.

Roll out on very lightly floured board, a little over 1/8 inch thick.

Cut rolled dough into fun shapes.

Bake on ungreased cookie sheets for 8 minutes at 400° or until firm and barely starting to brown.

Cool on wire racks and decorate with glaze, frosting and/or sprinkles...

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Hope you're all getting ready for Holidays in a safe, sane and FUN manner.

Gingerbread Houses and 15th Birthdays

Once again, in keeping with our yearly tradition, we celebrated my middle "Sprout"s birthday with a delightfully messy, sugar-filled annual Gingerbread House-making Birthday party.


















Teen girls and lots of sugar. It gets crazier every year.

But every year the girls are older, they can do more of the prep work themselves, clean up more of their own mess, and their creations get prettier and more lavish.

Everyone loves it. I have Moms calling in September asking if we're making houses again this year.

I always have the house "parts" baked and cooled ahead of time, and after many years of doing this, we have it down to a science.

This year, however, I used the gingerbread recipe from Vegan Dad's blog, as I haven't really liked the texture of the other vegan gingerbread recipes I've used.

I'm not much of a recipe follower, which is why you'll rarely see links to other recipes here; there's millions of better recipes than mine, I just stubbornly prefer to muddle through until I've concocted my own creation (or disaster!).

However, with my daughter's time-honored Gingerbread party I didn't want to experiment. And happily, (as you'll see) the gingerbread turned out great.
(Here are some good cut-out-and-assembly instructions, we use slightly smaller measurements since we're making 6 houses...That equals a LOT of dough!

We DO use commercial Royal Icing however, just to "cement" the house parts together. Yes it has egg-whites. But any and all attempts I have made at decent vegan royal icing have ended up in collapsed houses that look somewhat like a Hurricane Katrina re-creation... Not the effect you're going for at a Holiday party!

However, once the houses are assembled and "set", we mix up some fairly decent vegan frosting for the final (and fun, messy, sticky, icky, sugar-coated) step of decorating...

And no, I am sure some of the candy isn't vegan. Bring on the vegan Police.

Here is my approximate icing recipe (and <-- here is what happens when big sisters get bored with Gingerbread houses); play with it according to the humidity in your kitchen and how much liquid your powdered sugar absorbs.

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"Almost" Royal Icing

7 Tablespoons water

4 Tablespoon Ener-G egg replacer (don't use another brand)

7 cups of powdered sugar (you can make non-bone-char powdered sugar with beet sugar and cornstarch in a coffee grinder, Whole Foods sells vegan powdered sugar too)

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

Mix dr ingredients together. Add to water. I don't usually add all the powdered sugar/cream of tarter, just keep mixing it in until the right consistency. It still takes longer to set up than royal icing

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And just in case you're thinking this is a worthless post with nothing but frosting, here are the amazing vegan chocolate-chip muffins that big sister Jessika made for everyone for breakfast. (She made the birthday cake too! )

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Pretty generous of her since she had to put up with a housefull of "younger" girls all night!

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Chocolate-Chip-Banana Muffins

3 very ripe bananas
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 cup sugar
2 cups sifted whole wheat pastry flour (or white, or whatever)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup chocolate chips, chopped to make them a bit smaller, and tossed with a bit of cornstarch so they don't "sink" in the batter

Pre-heat oven to 360 degrees.
In a large bowl, mash the bananas with a fork till mushy.

Add the oil and sugar and mix together until creamy.
In a separate bowl combine the dry stuff.

Combine with the banana mixture, stirring gently just to combine.
Grease (WELL!) or line a muffin pan, and fill each muffin about 2/3 full with batter. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean.

Here's hoping your Holidays are sweet and memorable.

Soup in Bethlehem

My oldest daughter is a Tax Collector's servant. She's been working in Bethlehem all weekend.

And I'm OK with this new position of hers...

Actually she's taking part in an Interactive Living Nativity that goes for three nights this weekend.

Observers (that's us, the general public) get to experience a little bit of authentic "Christmas" as they walk through the 'town' of Bethlehem - wander among market stalls, pet live camels, donkeys, sheep and interact with about 60 people dressed and acting in character as townsfolk, the Innkeeper, Roman Soldiers, fishermen, shepherds, a tax collector, Rabbis, wisemen, children.

At the end of the walk-thru, you come to the stable with Mary, Joseph and the Christ Child.

It's all outdoors, at night in the cold (how authentic!), but fortunately everyone's pretty well wrapped up under those robes.

My other two daughters LOVED it too of course and we walked thru many times.

It's a beautiful, powerful and well done rendition of the Nativity - as well as huge production that I am amazed by, but glad it's one thing this season I'm not in charge of!!

My Jessika is one of the Tax Collector's servant girls and in her 'role' she fusses around his tent while he collects taxes from those entering Bethlehem. Not really a big role, but she's absolutely LOVING it. The cold weather and long hours of basically just standing while people walk by don't seem to phase her at all - and she still has Sunday night to go as well! I'm proud of her though, it's not an easy way for anyone, let alone a restless teenager, to spend four evenings.

The cast and crew are kept warm and fed by a hidden staff of more volunteers who keep soups, coffee, cocoa and cider available for quick snacks behind the scenes.

Knowing that there were several other vegetarians/vegans in the production besides my daughter, I offered to bring a big pot of vegetarian soup for part of each evenings warm-up chow.

Did they have Potato-Green-Chile Chowder in Bethlehem? Maybe not 2000 years ago, but it certainly kept a few weary souls warm tonight while the story they shared warmed hundreds of onlookers hearts.

Whatever your beliefs, hopefully this finds you safe, warm and sharing the Season with friends and family.

Here's my soup recipe (one of my daughter's favorites) and some pictures from the Living Nativity. Enjoy.

Creamy Potato and Roasted Green Chile Chowder

--5 medium Potatoes (I like Yukon Gold, this is also good with 1 sweet potato mixed with the white potatoes)
--½-pound tub of Fire-Roasted, chopped Green chiles (These are really quite mild. I get the Bueno Foods brand, they're available frozen around here, if you live near New Mexico, you're lucky enough to buy them fresh)
--1 medium Onion, chopped fine
--2 carrots, sliced very thin
--1 stalk celery, sliced
--2 tablespoons margarine
--16 ounces vegetarian broth
--3 cups Soy or rice Milk
--½ cup Flour
--½ teaspoon Salt
--½ teaspoon Pepper
--1/2 tsp. onion powder
--1/2 cup Tofutti Sour Supreme

Cube potatoes into about a 1 inch square and place in 4 quart pot.
Add onion, carrots, and celery and pour in broth and add enough water to just cover the potatoes. Bring to a boil and cook for about 30 minutes.
Add the remaining ingredients except for 1 cup of the soymilk and ½ cup of flour.
Mix the remaining milk and flour; pour into soup mixture and simmer for another thirty minutes until thickened.
Add Sour Supreme and stir in. Blend partially with an immersion blender if you prefer it more smooth. This is also good with corn added!

'Tis the Season; Concerts and Cookies

I don't know how all my fellow Bloggers do it! These past few pre-Christmas weeks have been INSANE!! BUSY!! I haven't even LOOKED at my computer!

Let's start with the last two nights alone: 2 concerts, dozens of cookies and all manner of Holiday craziness. But I guess that's typical of this time of year...

First of all, a huge deal to my two teens, I let them go to a pop concert BY THEMSELVES for the first time. They've been looking forward to this for months now!

OK, cast aside all images of smoke-filled crowds swaying to The Grateful Dead, it was only The Jonas Brothers, pretty tame Disney Channel stuff and all.

And maybe I AM overprotective and "everyone else" really does get to go to these things without their parents... but still, it was after dark, in a huge arena, in a large city; makes an ol' fashioned mom a lil' nervous, you know?

Despite my fears, things turned out fine and the girls even came away with some great photos (if you care anything at all about The Jonas Brothers, which I don't much but hey, I remember back in the day... I would have KILLED to have 6th row seats at Duran Duran...).

Two nights after the auditorium of screaming fans, in drastic contrast - we toned things down tonight for a traditional and beautiful Children's Chorale Christmas Concert.

My two youngest Sprouts are Chorale members and the entire evening sparkled. Call me nostalgic and old fashioned, but seeing all the kids up front with velvet skirts, shiny hair bows, starched collars and sharp bow-ties; hearing traditional carols, the soaring pipe organ accompaniment; it all makes me a bit misty-eyed. Yeah, I'm a little weird that way, but I like Christmas with the old fashioned Christian symbols, celebrations, routines and traditions; not turned into some generic Winter Holiday.

But I digress; After the Christmas concert there was a short reception with coffee, cocoa and cookies donated by parents... You knew I couldn't blog without some FOOD, right?

So in good vegan form, I made basic spice cookies with cream-cheese frosting. All vegan. And gone before any of the other sparkley-sugar-coated Holiday offerings, which made me feel pretty good.

Soft Ginger- Spice Cookies

3/4 cup Earth Balance
1 cup sugar
Ener-G Egg Replacer for 1 egg
1/4 cup molasses, honey or corn syrup (I cannot STAND molasses so I use something else... the cookies are less "gingerbread-like" but still very good)
2 tsp baking soda
3 tsp finely grated ginger ( I use an orange zester, it takes a while, make sure and include the ginger juice too!)
1 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 cup white flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

Heat the oven to 350 degrees.
Cream together the margarine, sugar and egg replacer until smooth.

Add the remaining ingredients and stir to combine well.
Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
Roll the dough in to 1 inch balls and place on a baking sheet.
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until done. Cool on wire rack.

Frosting (which isn't pictured, I added it later):

8 oz. Tofutti cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup Earth Balance

3 cups vegan powdered sugar (Whole Foods and most health food stores sell it)

1/2 t. vanilla

1/2 t. almond extract

Using an electric mixer or in a large bowl with a hand held mixer, cream the Tofutti and margerine. Add the sugar, vanilla, and almond extract, and continue to beat the mixture until light and fluffy. Spread on cooled cookies.

Enjoy!

I'll be back sooner, I promise. Christmas craziness is settling down around these parts...

Hot Cocoa and a Snow Day

We had an unexpected snow day today which, in Western Washington usually means, oh, about two inches of snow. It also means no work for me and kids home from school.

So, I cleaned out kitchen cuboards suffering from post-holiday chaos (found all sorts of things I need to try cooking with...)and the kids spent most of the day back and forth between the snow and making forty-bazillion cups of peppermint hot cocoa - great way to mess up the kitchen AND use up all those Christmas candy canes I wasn't sure what to do with.

Candy Cane Cocoa

For each cup (multiply this recipe as much as you need)

1 cup soymilk, or other non-dairy milk (we actually used 1/2 almond milk and 1/2 Silk Soy Creamer because that's all we had, it came out DEEE-LISH!)

1/2 T. unsweetened Dutch Process cocoa powder

1 T. sugar

1 T. isolated soy protein powder (optional - if you have it, it makes it extra creamy!!)

1/4 tsp. vanilla or 1/8 tsp. peppermint extract (or the adults can use a shot of Peppermint Schnapps - woo!)

garnish with:

Soy Whip or Hip Whip or whatever

crushed candy-canes left over from Christmas

Blend all ingredients in the blender or with a stick-blender. Heat on stove or in microwave being careful to watch for boil-overs. Garnish with whip "cream" and crushed candy canes or stir with whole candy canes for an even more glorious mess.

Vegan Christmas Baking: GINGERBREAD!

VEGAN GINGERBREAD!

My daughter celebrates her birthday at the end of November every year with a "Gingerbread-House Making Party" for several of her (not so little anymore) friends. It's always a HUGE hit and the girls spend hours making beautifully (?) decorated little houses.

I realize some of the candies you'll see pictured are NOT vegan but the gingerbread is, and actually VERY tasty. Besides making the sheets of gingerbread for the houses, I always make plenty extra, just to be baked into cookies that we eat...

GINGERBREAD COOKIES

1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup plain soymilk
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour or all-purpose flour (or a mix of both)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
spice blend:
1/2 teaspoon each ground nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger

Directions:
In a large bowl beat together oil and sugar for about 3 minutes. Add molasses and soymilk. The molasses and soymilk won't really blend with the oil but that's ok.

In a seperate bowl, sift together all the other ingredients.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet in batches. MIx together with a firm spoon or spatula until well combined. You should have a pretty stiff dough. Flatten the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for an hour or up to 3 days in advance. (If you chill longer than an hour you may want to let it sit for 10 minutes to loosen up a bit before proceeding).

Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease your cookie sheets.

On a floured surface roll you dough out to a little less than 1/4 inch thick. You can do this in 2 batches if you don't have the space. Cut out your shapes with your cookie cutters and gently place on cookie sheets (if you are using them to decorate with remember to cut a hole with a straw or something before baking).

Bake for 8 minutes.Remove from oven and let them cool for 2 minutes on the baking sheet then move to a cooling rack. Wait until they are completely cool before icing.

If baking "walls" for a gingerbread house, make cookies 1/2 inch thick and bake at 300 F until very firm - about 15 minutes or longer. Then let cook on a rack overnight.