More garden stuff

2010-05-02T11:02:00.003-07:00

My poor cantaloupe, damaged in shipping, doesn't seem to have made it. Everything else is still alive so this is a good start.

I received a replacement tomato plant for the one that was never shipped and I need to get that planted this weekend.

I also need to order some herbs for the garden too, so I should get that done this week.

Organic Garden

2010-04-27T17:19:00.003-07:00

I got my organic garden planted for this year this past weekend, and I'm quite happy with it. Everything is organic, including the plants, soil, and mulch.

Left to right, back to front, we have broccoli, cantaloupe, cauliflower, cucumber, lettuce, onions, bell pepper, acorn squash, a pot for a tomato plant coming soon, watermelon, and pots for the herbs I'm currently growing in the kitchen and will transfer when they're bigger.

I'm excited to see how it all goes as I don't normally have much of a green thumb, but everything went in easily and nothing has died yet so I have fairly high hopes. :)

Vegan Hot Dogs

2009-01-22T17:14:00.008-07:00

On the menu for dinner tonight was hot dogs.

I was looking for something which didn't require me going to the store, and found I had all I needed to make hot dogs in the pantry and fridge. And I'm not talking a pack of Yves hot dogs (blech) in the fridge and a bag of buns in the bread bin. Nope, these were made-from-scratch dogs and buns. I don't normally bake fresh bread. All that time waiting for it to rise feels very hands-off to me, and I love to just dig my hands in rather than sit back. Plus, bread is my one downfall in the kitchen. I either over-knead or over-mix or ... something, because my bread always comes out, hmm, thick. But I try every now and then anyway.

Vegan Dad here on Blogger recommended using a recipe for sausages he found on Isa's blog as a nice hot dog replacement. She apparently got it from someone named Julia. Anyway, thank you to Julia for the original recipe, and to Isa and Vegan Dad for passing it along.

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INGREDIENTS
- 1/2 cup pinto beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 cup cold vegetable broth
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 cloves garlic, grated (with a microplane, or very finely minced)
- 1 1/4 cups vital wheat gluten
- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
- 1 1/2 teaspoons fennel seed, crushed
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- Several dashes fresh black pepper

METHOD
1. Before mixing your ingredients, get your steaming apparatus ready, bring water to a full boil. The rest of the recipe comes together very quickly.
2. Have ready 6 sheets of tin foil. In a large bowl, mash the pinto beans until no whole ones are left. Throw all the other ingredients together in the order listed and mix with a fork. Divide dough into 6 even parts. Place one part of dough into tin foil and mold into about a 5 inch log. Wrap dough in tin foil, like a tootsie roll. Don’t worry too much about shaping it, it will snap into shape while it’s steaming because this recipe is awesome.
3. Place wrapped sausages in steamer and steam for 40 minutes.

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Now on to some pictures!

This is everything required for the sausages, minus the beans which were on the stove-top (because I used dried beans rather than canned beans)

Here's a tip - a pastry cutter is an awesome way to mash beans if you're looking for them to retain some texture.

I don't have a proper steaming device so I came up with this rather clever approach. Get a big pot and put the water in and then place a colander inside, making sure that there's a gap between the water and the holes in the bottom of the colander, put the food in the colander and then place the lid of the pot inside the colander. This will only work if your colander is wider than the pot and will rest on the edges though, or if your colander has a stand.

Here's the sausages inside my make-shift steamer, ready to get cooked.

And here's one freshly steamed.

And then on to the hot dog buns. I found a random recipe for hamburger buns with good reviews so I made it and shaped the dough into logs instead of balls.

Here's what was needed for the buns.

It looked good after kneading.

Ready to be baked.

The buns looked good when they were done (though my dough-shaping skills are clearly lacking) and tasted great, but were definitely heavier than they should have been. I should have also made them smaller. Plus, the sesame seeds fell off. I should have brushed them with milk before sprinkling the sesame seeds on rather than giving them a quick spray of olive oil. That probably would have helped make them stick.

Overall though, the whole package was a HUGE hit with all the boys, which more than makes up for my semi-failure in the bread department as far as I'm concerned. I'll definitely be making the sausages again, using the same modifications I did today, which were as follows :

- dried beans (1/4 cup dry makes 1/2 cup cooked) in place of the canned beans. I only had lima beans and Vegan Dad said he thought any bean would work, so I gave it a shot. I'm definitely going to experiment with different beans in the future, but for the record, lima beans work just fine.
- no fennel or red pepper flakes, based on my kid's tastes

I'd also love to make a spicy one in the future for the grown-ups and myself and try them on the grill. I'd also love to make a huge batch of the mild ones and freeze them, which Vegan Dad says can be done. Plus, the recipe can be used as a great starting point to experiment with other flavors.

Anyone have any favorite recipes for buns?

What exactly is this blog about?

2009-01-21T18:51:00.001-07:00

I figured this first post should be an introduction to what my blog could contain.

I'm a single-parent SAHM to my 5 children - 4 boys aged between 7 and 3, and a baby girl aged 5 months.

I'm a breastfeeding, cloth diapering, co-sleeping, baby wearing, non-vaccinating, non-circumsising, baby wearing attachment parent.

I'm homeschooling my children using the Montessori method and materials.

My children and I have been vegan for over 3 years. I love to cook. I love to take pictures of my food.

I love to listen to music. I pretty much have music playing constantly. I love rock and industrial.

So, chances are that my blog will contain a varied mix of all those things.

Oh, and probably some rants about laundry. 'Cause I do a lot of it and it's the one domestic duty I hate with a passion.

Big Love

More garden stuff

Organic Garden

Vegan Hot Dogs

What exactly is this blog about?