Friday, December 30, 2016

...a part of our past...

The Man's father passed away yesterday...

~Peace be with you all...

Thursday, December 29, 2016

...Vegan Christmas Sides...Nanny's Sweet Potatoes...

...I just slice the sweet potatoes on an angle so that you get a nice long 'sliver' of sweet potato...but any way you slice them is fine...and you probably want them fairly thin...less than 1/4 of an inch...
...sprinkle with sugar and dot with Earth Balance...
That's it - Nanny always said that after you peel and slice the potatoes - you rinse them and put them in the pot - just with the water clinging to them from the rinse (i.e., don't add any water)...

Nanny's Sweet Potatoes

2 sweet potatoes - orange or mix orange and white - we're a small family but you can double/triple/quadruple the recipe at will
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 Tablespoons Earth Balance

Bake at 350° until potatoes are tender.

~Have a lovely day!

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

...Vegan Green Bean Casserole...

...this recipe is a Thanksgiving/Christmas dinner staple...and we hardly ever have it at any other time of the year...not sure why...as it's so good...
...but this year...I changed it up a little bit...just by chopping finely and lightly browning the mushrooms...Scout is not a mushroom fan...and he would always slide the pieces of mushroom off to the side of his plate...
...this is just a thick flavorful white sauce...with mushrooms in it...
...kinda wishing I'd made extra so I could have a big bowl of mushroom soup with saltines...
...but I only made enough to pour over the French style green beans...
...it always turns out perfectly...and we love this side dish...

Vegan Green Bean Casserole

1 package of frozen French Style Green Beans
1 3 oz. can of French Fried Onions

1 c. Silk Soy Milk Plain
1 cube vegetable bouillon
1 small can mushroom stems and pieces - finely chopped
dash of cayenne pepper
dash of black pepper
1/4 c. flour
1/2 c. water

Heat the Soy Milk and dissolve the bouillon in it. Chop the mushrooms and lightly saute them...until fairly dry...Season with the peppers. Mix the flour and water and slowly add to the pot stirring constantly with a wire whisk, keep stirring and cook until the mixture thickens. It should have the consistency of a thick white sauce.

Pour this over the Green Beans and bake at 350 until bubbly. Top with the entire can of onions and bake until just browned.

~Have a lovely day!

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Tuesdays with Julia

...so I'll start the week of Vegan Christmas food with the main course...Vegan Poulet à la Broche...
...I fashioned a roasting spit of sorts out of two tin cans with holes punched in them...and a skewer...

...a couple of tips learned from roasting seitan this way...

...you need to 'truss up' the seitan really well with some foil wrapping and twine...and I think next time...(if there is a next time...as I really didn't see much difference between spit roasting and regular roasting)...is that I would probably use more than one skewer somehow...as it was difficult to turn the seitan on the spit...but a skewer stabbed into the seitan at an angle and resting on the sheet pan will hold the trussed seitan in place as you turn it for even roasting...and I made the holes in the tin cans rather large...and maybe making them just large enough for the skewer would have held the skewer in place as well...

...all of the particulars are over at The Vegan Version...

~Have a lovely day!

Monday, December 26, 2016

...The Week of Vegan Christmas Foods...

...we had such a nice little family Christmas celebration...and I hope you all did so too with your families...so I thought I'd share all of our vegan Christmas foods over the course of the next week...

...and I remembered to put the cranberry sauce and the cranberry relish on the table when I set it...as it's kinda a family tradition here to forget that...

~Wishing you a lovely start to your week...

Saturday, December 24, 2016

...Merry Christmas!...

...Affectioknit-ly wishing you all a blessed and joyous Christmas with your families!...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!
XOXO

Friday, December 23, 2016

...a new stocking holder...of sorts...

...our pets have Christmas stockings...

...and Jack is so funny getting his treats out on Christmas morning...

...and since we have a new kitten...she needed a stocking too...

...I bought a generic cat stocking...but the cat was orange striped...so I painted over that with black...gave her green eyes...and a grey mouth and nose...there's no pink on our Kitten at all...

...so then we needed another stocking holder...Jack's stocking is on Duke's old holder with a photo of Duke...we'll probably never change that really...

...and since it's too late to buy a stocking holder...all sold out...I bought a heavy little globe that has a cat (orange again...what's up with orange cats?) and a snowman...but no hook...
...I brought it home and thought about what I could make a hook from...and came up with a coat hanger...of course...
...when I took it apart...it actually already had a hook...bonus...
...so I twisted that into a circle and glued it with hot glue to the bottom of the globe...
...and there you have it...a last minute stocking holder from a snow globe and a coat hanger...
...and Kitten's stocking takes its place beside Jack's...the kiddos are calling her Grimm...but I still just call her Kitten...

~Have a lovely day!

Thursday, December 22, 2016

...a new stocking...

...Scout asked me if I'd make a stocking 'like ours' for his girlfriend...

...so sweet...

...and when your child asks you to knit something (anything)...of course you say yes...YES!

...you've seen our stockings before (every year)...

...mine and the Man's were made our first year of marriage...so they're antiques...

...and they just have traditional Christmas symbols on them...snowflakes...ribbons...trees...

...and for Scout's first 2 years...we just used his 'Baby's First Christmas' stocking...

...and then I asked him (a toddler...don't know why)...what he wanted on his stocking...so his has typical toddler Christmas items...and now looks kinda childish beside our 'grown-up' ones...kinda sweet though...

...his has a gold ornament...a snowman...a Christmas tree with a gold star on top...and a gingerbread cookie...he also has a couple of symbols copied from each of ours...

...so...when he requested this new stocking...he asked for items meaningful for her...

...a blue snowflake...a flag...ballet slippers...and notes...and a Christmas tree...of course...

...so I got busy charting those things out...
...a small and simple snowflake...our snowflakes are all white...but Scout asked that her's be Carolina blue...her favorite colour...
...the flag and the Christmas tree...with lights...
...the music note...and the one that wound up being kinda problematic...the slippers...
...and the letters of her name...
...so the finished portion of the stocking showing the slippers...my sweet sissie said last weekend at her visit that I might need to tell her what they were...not exactly recognizable...HA!
...so I thought it might help if I outlined them...and I'm glad I did...much more recognizable as slippers with dangling ribbons now...
...all finished and hanging with ours...

...it has been so much fun buying the stocking stuffers for this one...

~Have a lovely day!

Wednesday, December 21, 2016

...W.I.P. Wednesday...

...I think this is probably the latest I've ever gotten my Christmas cards in the mail...
...the photo is from the beach...and taken by my sweet sissie...
...and we finally got all the presents wrapped and under the tree...

...now...I think we're ready for Christmas...are you?

~Have a lovely day!

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

...the BEST Vegan Fruitcake Ever...

...many years ago...when I was teaching...the Japanese teacher brought in a fruitcake made of graham crackers and condensed milk and regular fruitcake candied fruit...

...I'm not a fan of the fruitcake fruit...bright green and red...but I wanted to try to make a vegan version of the fruitcake...
...so the first thing I did was open a couple of cans of fruit...one tropical...and one just regular mixed fruit...
...and I spread those out on the dehydrator...
...and dried them out...
...maybe a little too much...they were so crunchy and good though...I'm definitely going to do this again...just for snacks...
...set those aside...while I made some vegan sweetened condensed milk...
...I was using what I had on hand...and that was about 3/4 cup of soy milk...and I wanted a cup and a half...so I mixed it with some homemade almond milk...
...added some vanilla and 1/4 cup of sugar...in a big pot so it would evaporate faster...
...and stirred and cooked...and cooked and stirred until it had reduced by 2/3...and I was left with 1/2 cup of very sweet thick vegan milk...
...I ground up a sleeve of vegan graham crackers...in the food processor...
...and chopped up a cup of pecans...
...and then just dumped everything into the pot...
...gave it a good stir...it looks pretty crumbly now...but it will stick together when I pack it into the dish...
...I lightly oiled a loaf pan with some safflower oil...
...and dumped the mixture in...
...pressed it down...pretty well...
...to form a nice loaf of fruitcake...
...added a row of pecans as decoration...
...let it set up in the fridge for a couple of hours...and then sliced it...
...definitely the BEST fruitcake ever...

~Have a lovely day!