Fried Cabbage and Field-Roast Sausage

Oh man, this is the best "super-quick" supper ever!! (Steaming-hot food makes for blurry pictures, sorry!)

Now, I realize opinons about cooked cabbage may not be as enthusiastic as mine, but if you haven't had it in a while, try it again.

Just cook until tender-crisp, not soggy. And understand, I grew up eating my share of German/Polish/Russian-inspired family cooking, so anything with cabbage is gonna be a hit.

Sauteed with some Field Roast sausage (my favorite "faux sausage" in the world, but I suppose you may use whatever you like) and really, how can you go wrong?

This hardly needs a recipe but:

4 cups coarsely chopped or shredded cabbage
1/2 cup chopped onion

1 tart apple, shredded coarsely
2 Apple-Sage style Field Roast sausages, sliced
wee bit of olive oil
splash of cider vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Sautee sausage slices with onion over med. heat until they start to brown. Add cabbage and apple. Cook, stirring frequently, until cabbage is done. Sprinkle with vinegar, salt and pepper to taste.

Rambling About Fajitas

I used to ramble on randomly, about my kitchen and family and foodie adventures - a lot more than I do now. Lately I've noticed my posts have become a rushed, "slam-bam-here's-the-recipe-ma'am" sort of thing. And to most of you poor readers, that's probably a good thing (just the fact's please, ma'am!!); but tonight I slowed down just a bit. I have no specific recipe and my cooking took a rather rambling turn, so that's what you get.

Around here, Friday is "Mexican Food" night; a weekly supper tradition started when the girls were little and their Dad cooked awesome and loaded nacho platters of cheesey insanity; I do have to give him credit there, they were good. But diets, ethics, relationships and the rest of life changes and evolves. These days, I do the Friday night (and every other night) cooking and it's usually enchiladas, tamales or tacos.

So, tonight, my youngest suggested fajitas. She'd been begging me to use the Field Roast Mexican Chipotle sausages I had stashed in the freezer. According to her, they're her favorite thing in the world and it wasn't FAIR to see them sitting in the freezer every time she opened the door and we needed to use them because they'd been there FOREVER. Well, things don't need to be quite as dramatic as all that, but it was a good suggestion, and as you'll see, her idea had DELICIOUS results.

Wow. Can I just say these were just INCREDIBLY yummy! No exact recipe, but I do think we stumbled on the perfect blend of spices and veggies.
I'll definitely do these again - (when I can afford the sausages, which isn't often, sadly. Yes, I tried making my own seitan Chipotle/Chorizo-style sausage, and while I love it, I just cannot duplicate the same flavor or texture as the fine folks at Field Roast, which is why they own a faux meat company and I don't...)

But I digress...
We cut 2 sausages into strips (which sorta crumbled, but my daghter specifically wanted "strips" I don't know why...) and fried (yes, I said FRIED, deal with it or substitute the word "saute" if it makes you feel more virtous) in a non-stick pan with strips of veggies;
1/2 an onion,
1 zucchini,
1 red bell pepper,
1 medium carrot, sliced paper thin so it cooks quickly
minced garlic and some tomatoes.

Have your pan HOT and throw everything in, stir gently until tender-crisp and browned in a few spots. No oil needed, the veggies and sausages have enough liquid. (So maybe that IS sauteeing instead of frying? Nevermind.)
You can use any vegetarian meaty thing you want here, but you may need to add spices and seasonings to taste, unlike with the Field Roast sausages.
Add the tomatoes at the last, just let them soften a bit, and for heaven's sake, don't let the sausage get dried out, you paid too damn much to let it do that!! (Add a little tomato sauce or even broth if needed, but not so much that you make a sloppy mess).

Serve in warm, flour tortillas with some vegan sour cream and/or guacamole (not pictured here because my youngest isn't a fan of the guac and this was HER idea, after all).

VeganMoFo I Hate Thee!

OK, I really don't, but the title caught your attention, right?

For the uninformed, "VeganMoFo" is a month-long attempt by vegan bloggers everywhere to post something about vegan food, every day. That's a LOT of blogging. And a lot of food. REALLY good vegan food.

VEGAN-MOnth-of-FOod... get it?

You can read about it on the PPK forums, here.

Now, I am perfectly OK with VeganMoFo, in fact I embrace it wholeheartedly. But it doesn't like me, or my blog for some reason...

To start with, last year the cute little "VeganMoFo" banner caused some huge script-java-something-something error on my blog and it crashed. I removed the banner and all was fine. Add it, in a different version... and my blog refused to function properly for yet more reasons. So after several more attempts to unify myself with other "VeganMoFo" bloggers, I skipped the whole banner idea all together.

This year, October 1st dawns bright and clear and I again attempt the to add this little bit of brown font to my blog. No dice. I get gimongous "ERROR" messages whenever I try to log in. The nice people at Blogger help me. I remove the bad VeganMoFo. And several posts disappear into thin cyberspace air, never to be found again...

SOooooooo... that said. I really AM attempting to participate in the whole "post as much as you can all month" concept, I am just not going to do so with a cute little banner.

With that said, I'm finally posting my vegan seitan sausages, the same recipe that everyone else made and posted ten years ago. I've been using this recipe from "Every Day Dish" but there are a zillion variations out there.

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They turn out really nice, though I admit I just can't leave a recipe exactly "as is".

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I usually punch up the spices and garlic a WHOLE LOT and use 1/4 cup tapioca flour for 1/4 cup of the vital wheat gluten flour because I like the more tender texture.
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We've been enjoying these grilled, fried with onions and potatoes, sliced in ratatouille, and topping pizza. LOVELY and actually much quicker to make than you'd think. Do try them if you're the one person on the planet who hasn't.

And yes, for you whiners, I'll be back with more original "Straight-From-Tofu-Mom's-Kitchen" recipes in a day or so.

Olivia's Incredibly Famous Breakfast Potatoes and 'Brats'.

So my 13-year-old "middle Sprout" considers herself quite the cook (OK, I admit, she's an awesome cook in her own right).

Tonight for supper she wanted to make her "famous" potatoes and decided they belonged in Mom's (my) food blog. Her potatoes ARE famous - or at least very-frequently-requested among friends and family. And believe me, they're NOT just for breakfast, though for some reason, that's what we've always called them.

Anyone spending the night at our place is usually treated to these babies the next morning. And what a treat they are. Perfectly seasoned, melt-in-your-mouth crispy-brown home-fried potatoes with chunks of vegan bratwurst-style "Bavarian sausage" and onion. Mmmm.

I've had so many people ask for the "secret" to the recipe, but as far as I can tell, there really isn't any great "secret", just a little time, patience and taste-testing... I think most of us just don't take the time to actually COOK real home-fried potatoes anymore, relying instead on those frozen, microwaved, flash-cooked, pressed-together atrocities that fast food places try to pass off as "potatoes". Blehh...

OK, I swear not everything we make around here is FRIED (there's the evil word yet again) though for some reason the last few posts have all mentioned the word. *sigh* What can I say? We go on jags. Doesn't everyone?
The "bratwurst" added to these are a newer vegan "sausage" product made by the Canadian company, Yves. They can be hard to find, but it happens to be the one brand my kids really like, so that's what we use here. Never gotten any complaints, even from those omnivores who've eaten (gobbled) these. Use whatever product you prefer, or skip them, though they do add a nice touch.

So... the potatoes. I paid attention this time (actually when my kids are in the kitchen, I always pay attention), took notes and pictures, and here ya go!!

Breakfast (or anytime!) Potatoes and Brats

6 Yukon Gold Potatoes, boiled until barely tender.
1 sweet onion (like a Maui or Walla Walla)
2 or 3 Yves vegan bratwurst (Bavarian sausage-style) links, "classic" flavor

coconut oil
Lawry's (or similar style) all-purpose seasoned salt
garlic and onion powder
black pepper

In my daughter's words, (she imagines herself the next Food Network star...) here's what you do:
"These work best in an electric skillet. I don't know why, just do them that way. That's the secret.
To start, melt a spoonful (about 1 Tbsp.) coconut oil in the electric skillet - only use coconut oil. Nothing else works right.

Then, since onions hurt your eyes, have your Mom cut the onion into smallish chunk-things. (Take off the peel of the onion first of course). Put the onion in the skillet. Turn the heat on low while you cut up the potatoes. The onions should barely be turning clear when you add the potatoes.

For the potatoes: While they're still warm from boiling, cut the potatoes into medium-large chunks. Like each potato is cut into about ten pieces or so. Put in the pan with the onions and turn heat up to med. high.

Cover pan and cook about 5 min (check a couple times until you get the hang of how hot your pan is...) until getting nicely crisp and med brown on the bottom. Turn in big "sections" don't break them up. (All the potatoes and onions will stick together but that's OK) Leave alone, covered for another 5 minutes or so until the next side browns.

While the potatoes brown, cut the sausage into thick slices.

Now stir and break the large "sections" of potatoes and onions apart and then 'smoosh' them all flat in the pan. Season to taste, a couple good shakes (a little more heavily than you might think you need) with Season salt, garlic and onion powders and black pepper. Gently stir seasonings in.
Put sausage pieces in the pan and stir in and 'smoosh' flat again. Brown the potatoes on one side again, and turn after a few minutes again. Do this a couple more times, stirring and breaking apart and gently 'smooshing' until potatoes are falling-apart with crusty brown pieces and the sausages are browned too..
Serve with lots of ketchup and Tabasco."