Hayride

Whether you're in apple country or not, this drink really hits the spot after some outdoor fun or a cold autumn evening. No, this is NOT for the kids!! Send them to bed or something first!

(So
tell
me,
hon-
estly,
this
is an
iPhone
pic...
can
you
put
up
with
it 'til
I can
get a
new
camera?
How
about
if I
prom-
ise to post plenty of yummy recipes during Vegan Mofo this month?)
Here's my recipe for this amazing drink...

Hayride
1 cup warm apple cider
1/2 oz. cranberry juice (NOT juice cocktail!! I buy the R.W.Knudsen Just Cranberry at Trader Joe's for this)
1/2 oz. Goldschlagger
1 oz. vodka

Stir. Enjoy responsibly.
My husband drinks what I refer to as "girl drinks", and I'm the half Russian vodka expert. But he will drink this happily and calls it dangerous because he can hardly taste the alcohol. Really, this is so yummy. But you can always cut the amount of vodka in half if you are so inclined.
I garnished this with a striped apple slice. If you're going to serve these to guests and need to prep the apples ahead of time, make sure to bathe them in lemon water for a few minutes to prevent them from browning.

You can also dust them with
a little cinnamon if you'd like.
(Goldschlagger is a cinnamon
liqueur with flecks of gold in
it, imparting a lovely warm
cinnamon taste to the drink.)

Don't worry if you don't have
any fancy drink-making
paraphernalia, you could just
nuke a mug of cider and stir
in the rest of the ingredients.
I love this handy "mini measure" cup that's the size of a shot glass. Perfect for measuring and mixing small amounts, especially liquids. You can buy these at most kitchen stores.

But is this liquor vegan, you ask? Well yes, and I know because there's an app for that! I love the "Is Your Liquor Vegan?" app for my phone...along with two similar apps for beer and wine. Add the "Mixology" app and you have everything you need for vegan happy hour. Right?

Now of course I had to make
one of these for lunch in order
to get good light for the picture,
so I had some local roasted
butternut squash, parsnips,
sweet potatoes & leeks with
thyme to accompany it, along
with a local apple from Autumn
Hills Orchard and some
peanut butter.

Now that's a proper Vegan Mofo
kickoff!

spring flowers

Spring is here! It's only March, but the April showers AND the May flowers are here already. And as Ryan would tell you, the Mayflowers bring...Pilgrims! LOL

Ryan's lunch: tofu salad sandwich; apple slices; Tofurky asparagus rolls; baby carrots; steamed broccoli.

I think my paring knife needs sharpening! It was mangling the apple peel (which admittedly wasn't so firm unfortunately). I need to become more adept at knife sharpening.

Catching up on my food from the weekend...

Friday:
7:30am- smoothie: 1 peach, 1/2 cup frozen mango, 1/4 cup blueberries, 3 frozen strawberries, liquid DHA, water.
9am- sushi!
12:30pm- 1 avocado; marinated green beans; baby carrots.
2:30pm- Raw Revolution chocolate coconut bar.
4:30pm- mixed nuts; 1 banana.
8pm- tomato salad (tomatoes, snap peas, grapes, scallion, lemon juice).

Saturday:
7:30am- bowl of cantaloupe; smoothie: 1/2 banana, 1 nectarine, 1/4 cup frozen blueberries, 3 frozen strawberries, grated coconut, liquid DHA, water.
10:30am- some raisins, sliced almonds & date pieces.
12:30pm- bento lunch while hiking: spinach salad (baby spinach, tomatoes, scallion, shoyu); cantaloupe; 1/3 of a Raw Revolution chocolate coconut bar; 3 baby carrots; olives; pickle spears.
2:30pm- flax crackers w/almond butter; an orange.
5pm- cold miso soup.
8pm- 2 sliced bananas w/almond butter, grated coconut & agave nectar.

Sunday:
7am- smoothie: frozen strawberries, blueberries & black raspberries, 1 banana, grated coconut, liquid DHA, water.
9am- flax crackers; 1 mango.
11am- apple slices w/almond butter.
1:30pm- 1 banana; Raw Revolution chocolate coconut bar.
3pm- marinated zucchini; sliced tomatoes.
8pm- 1 avocado.

Hi Maia!

Apple for the Teacher

Our town seems to pride itself on NOT declaring a snow day even when ALL of the surrounding towns have done so. The white glare of clouds and snow made getting a good photo tricky this morning...
Ryan's lunch: sesame tofu; fresh pineapple; somen noodles; spring rolls; steamed broccoli.

Off they go into the
snow!

AJ said to me this
morning, "You know,
some people bring an
apple for their teacher."
Not sure where he'd
seen or heard about
this traditional, but of
course I let him.

And for the school food
drive, AJ brought a box
of cous cous, and Ryan
brought a box of cinn-
amon quick bread mix.

Autumn New England Traditions

Ryan's

lunch:
Thermos
of tofu
herb
ravioli;
raw snap
peas;
mixed
salted
nuts;
apple
bunnies;
steamed
broccoli;
marin-
ated
mush-
rooms.




It was a beautiful weekend. I took Nate with us on his first letterboxing hike...












The sun was setting as we made our way home. Nate found many leaves & pinecones, but brought home a giant oak leaf that we scanned for posterity.

Weekend food included...

Chocolate Pumpkin Bread

5 T. margarine, melted
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
4 T. milk (any) or water
1 1/2 cups steamed mashed
pumpkin or winter squash
2 cups flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4-1/2 tsp. grated nutmeg
1 cup roughly chopped walnuts (optional)
spray olive oil or other medium for oiling pan

Melt or soften margarine.
Mix in brown sugar until
creamy. Add vanilla & milk.
Stir. Add pumpkin. Stir.
Add remaining dry ingred-
ients (except walnuts). Stir
to make a thick batter. Add
walnuts. Oil a bread pan.
Add batter, spread flat on
top. Bake at 375F for about
50 minutes. Allow to a little,
turn out onto a cutting board
or large plate. Allow to cool a
little while longer before
slicing.



Pumpkin Curry Rice

2 cups basmati rice
2 cups pumpkin, cut into 1/2" cubes
1 T. ground cumin
1/4 tsp. garam masala
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. turmeric
1 cup coconut milk
3 cups water

Place all ingredients in a rice
cooker set on 'regular'. Turn
on.

This is a great way to use up
some excess pumpkin from
Halloween if you get to it
within a couple of days (I
used just the top of 1 large
pumpkin for this recipe!). Or
peel and cut up any small
pumpkin.


Curry Hurry Sauce

1 large onion
4 garlic cloves
2 tsp. grated ginger
1/2 tsp. hot sauce
2 T. olive oil
1 T. margarine or other buttery spread
1 1/2 cups crushed tomato
2 T. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. garam masala
1/2 tsp. turmeric
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/8-1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper (optional)
1 T. ground coriander
3 T. lemon juice

This is a great way to
make an easy curry.
I usually use chickpeas
but you can also do
potatoes, spinach, or a
combo of these, or
really any vegetable
you can think of.

First put the onion, garlic, ginger, & hot sauce into a food processor and puree. Melt the olive oil & margarine in a large pot. Add about 3/4 of the processed mixture to the pot and cook over medium-low heat. With the remaining 1/4 of the mixture, add all remaining ingredients (except the lemon juice). Puree again. Add your chick peas and/or vegetables to the pot, then the second batch of puree. Stir. Bring to a low boil. Then cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer 20-30 minutes. Add lemon juice, stir, cover, and cook another 10-15 minutes. Serve with rice, such as the pumpkin curry rice above! Garnish with fresh chopped cilantro (coriander leaf) if desired. I like to add some extra hot pickled mango relish!

fail to win

No bento to show for the day. Ryan SLEPT LATE, and said his nose was stuffy. Ryan does NOT sleep late, never has. So when he said he was still tired, too tired for video games in fact, I thought I'd better keep him home from school.

Of course by 10am I heard
nothing but complaints like,
"I'm bored", "why can't I
play my DSi", "can I go out-
side, it's not raining much
anymore", etc. Needless to
say I think sleeping in just
threw him for a loop and
it took him a few hours to
recover.


However, I attempted to
make mini candy apple
lollipops. Oy. The caramel
part went okay, though I
wasn't completely thrilled
by the taste of the recipe
I tried. But despite drying
the balls of apples well, the
caramel did not stick, and
by the time they had chilled
in the fridge, all the caramel
and nuts and fallen into a
sticky heap around the apple
pops and I was left with slip-
pery sweet apple bites on
toothpicks (thank goodness I
didn't waste my lollipop
sticks on this first attempt).

Anyhow, the leftover
caramel solidified beau-
tifully in the fridge, much to
my chagrin. But I melted
some of it again and served
it over TJ's vanilla soy ice
cream topped with peanuts.
Thumbs up. But it got me thinking...what else do I sometimes miss that has caramel and peanuts?? Chocolate bars! So to finish the day on a sweet note, I melted some vegan chocolate chips, poured it into a square silicon mold, added peanuts and caramel, topped it with chocolate, and froze it again.
I cut the square in half
to make two mini bars.
Mmmmmmmmm. A
perfect dessert for my
efforts. I poured a little
more melted chocolate
over the other bar for
Ryan's lunch tomorrow.
He better be going to school!
It's back to the drawing board for the caramel apple pops...I'm gonna make my own caramel recipe, maybe out of brown rice syrup? Though the agave I subbed in this recipe was tasty. Maybe a straight candy coating instead of caramel? Hmmmm...

pancakes for the sickies

I'm always looking for
apple recipes this time
of year. Each week we
receive a bag of apples
with a different variety.
Last week's Honeycrisps
were awesome.

Today Ryan has a cold,
and I could tell he was
weighing art class at school
today versus video games
at home, LOL. So I just
opted to keep the boys
home. With all the flu
fanatacism this year, no one
would question me keeping
them home for a sniffle.

Apple Cinnamon Pancakes

2 cups soymilk
2 tsp. cider vinegar
1 apple, peeled & diced
1 T. peanut oil
1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2-1 tsp. ground cinnamon
3 tsp. baking powder
spray olive oil

Measure soymilk and pour into a large bowl. Add vinegar and stir briefly to combine.
Meanwhile, peel and dice a large apple (or two small ones, depending on what variety you have available).
Add oil to the soymilk and beat with an electric mixer until frothy.
In a separate bowl or large measuring cup, combine flour, salt, cinnamon & baking powder. Mix, then add to the soymilk mixture. Beat with electric mixture until flour has just been incorporated.
Gently stir in diced apple.

Heat a large non-stick pan or griddle over med-high heat. Spray with olive oil lightly. Ladle on pancake batter. When bubbles form and pop, flip pancakes. Cook another 1-2 minutes until golden.

I like to add a light spread of Earth Balance as soon as each pancake comes out of the pan. We served these with agave nectar, which is nice and light, so as not to hide the flavours of the apples & cinnamon. But maple syrup would be fine too.

My little pancake helper, Nate... and "sick" Ryan...






























Maia chose a new toy from
the "extras" bin at the farm
yesterday--a delicata squash.

And it was probably just as well we took the day off today, since in addition to the never-ending water main reconstruction on our street, last night we were privileged to have an electric truck right outside our bedroom windows replacing the power lines to the house across the street which happen to attach to the telephone pole right outside our house. Lots of orange flashing lights and a man going up and down in a basket. Joy.

Barefoot Appleseed

Did you know that Johnny Appleseed used to go barefoot in summer to save on shoe leather? Cool. Too bad he wasn't vegan. Today is one of two disputed days celebrating his life. He died in 1845 some time in March, but accounts vary as to the exact date.

Ryan's lunch: rice "apple" colored red with roasted red pepper; meatless meatballs; peas & corn; a pickle; mini pumpkin muffin; cucumber slices; apple slices.

AJ's snack: apple
slices; a pickle; Annie's
saltine crackers;
cucumber slices.

nothin' fancy

Mothers aren't allowed to get
sick. And they certainly aren't
allowed to get a cold, mastitis,
and a bad back at the same
time. But if it does happen,
you had better bet it's going
to happen over a long holiday
weekend with beautiful
weather. Argh.

Maia is now 3 months old.

She starting to enjoy
books, watching toys,
rolling, kicking, and
chewing on her hands.
She is my latest teether.
Believe it or not, by this
age her big brothers
all had teeth!

Monday:

The plan
was for
me to
stay
home
so I
could
clean
the
house
and
relax.
But
since
I was
sick,
I should
have, napped. Instead I probably did too much cleaning but felt like I got nothing done. Sigh. Still, the 6 hours of silence was golden.
I made everyone a lunch for the visit to their cousins house. The boy got: sushi rice flowers/butterfly; cold spinach; shiitake mushrooms; sesame tofu; bell peppers; pea pods; starfruit (carambola) slices; cranberry pecan bread. Not shown: packet of pretzels and a Rice Dream drink box.

Husband's lunch:
similar to the
boys, with added
celery, nuts &
raisins, and carrot
chips.



Maia's "lunch" was
packed on ice in a
Hello Kitty lunch bag.
It was her first time
from me for that long;
she did great except
for disliking the 40
minute ride home.




While everyone was gone
I discovered Nate had
been up to his usual antics.
Our fruit share bag had
partially eaten apples &
pear cores in it. Thank
goodness most of our
produce is organic since
he just helps himself to
unwashed fruit when no
one is looking.

He also helped himself
to some freshly baked
cranberry pecan bread.
Either that or a little
mouse came along
after I had packed the
lunches.


Tuesday:
Farm share: arugula, celeriac, peppers, carrots, apples, butternut squash, leeks, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, broccoli, purple bok choy, baby tat soi. Not shown: PYO kale, collards, chard, hot peppers, tomatillos, herbs, flowers.

Tuesday's lunches never got photographed; I was too sick still. I believe they consisted of: sunflower butter & jelly sandwiches, cantaloupe, tofu salad, & baby carrots.

Wednesday:

Ryan's lunch he helped
pack: soy cheese cubes,
Nate's Meatless Meatballs,
carrot coins, mini banana
muffin, cantaloupe chunks,
pita chips; ladybug rice ball.




AJ's snack: mini banana
muffin, cantaloupe chunks,
rice ball, soy cheese cubes,
carrot coins.








Thursday:

I was finally feeling better, just in time for a crazy day.
Nate's lunch: pumpkin donut hole; Tofutti cream cheese & cucumber star sandwiches; orange pieces; carrot flowers & green pepper leaves; olives.

Ryan's lunch: vegetable crackers & soy cheese; a sugar cookie; cucumber slices; olives; Tofutti cream cheese & cucumber star sandwiches on lettuce; cashews; orange slices.

AJ's field trip
snack: vegetable
crackers & soy cheese;
pumpkin donut holes;
Tofutti cream cheese
& cucumber star sandwich.



AJ went apple picking
with his class at
Shelburne Farm in
Stow, MA. The apples
there were in great
condition even though
a nearby farm's crop
had suffered from a
recent hail storm.


Friday:
Ryan's lunch: cucumber slices; wheat flax lavash roll-ups with Vegannaise,sliced scallion, Tofurky smoked deli slices, & Vegan Gourmet Monterey Jack soy cheese; peanuts; olives; peas & corn; slice of carrot cake; 2 sugar cookies.

And the 2 year old's
gift of the day: a basket
with sweet potatoes,
carrots, pepper, letter
magnets, & AA batteries.
I don't think he's quite
ready for Iron Chef, LOL.