Jane and I were at a holiday party Saturday night (that's where the pie went to that I mentioned in my previous post). It was hosted by neighbors down the block with whom we have a casual, nodding-hello, friendship. The party was a sit-down dinner, and was our first dinner party as vegans.

How to handle this? We really didn't know the hosts all that well prior to the party, so we didn't want to inconvenience them. But if they were planning on a "surf and turf" plated meal, we certainly weren't going to be able to participate in that, nor did we want them to waste their money on food we wouldn't eat. We decided that we would tell the hosts we were vegetarian, but didn't eat much cheese, and hope for the best. When Jane called to RSVP she reassured our hosts that we didn't require any special efforts on their part, and if they were worried we'd be more than happy to bring a vegan dish. Otherwise, we'd most likely be fine with the salad and sides they were serving.

Indeed everything did work out fine. We had a number of vegetarian sides to choose from, and our hosts prepared a few of their items meat-free specifically for us. Somehow the conversation got around to our "peculiar" eating habits so Jane outed us as vegans. The couple from the mid-west didn't know what "vegan" meant. When Jane explained we eat no animal product, the wife asked us if we ate fish. I guess if you come from cattle country, fish aren't animals...

We were asked to all bring a dessert, and the dessert table looked wonderful! There were brownies and caramel squares, and lemon bars. In addition to those goodies, there were two cakes and three pies: Jane's Apple Pie, and two pies from Marie Callendar's (a family style restaurant that is most famous for a wide variety pies). I can't speak to the quality of the other desserts because they all contained eggs and butter, so I didn't partake of them, but Jane's Apple Pie was wonderful. In fact, it was the most consumed dessert on the table. There were only two slices left at the end of the evening, and the poor Marie Callendar's apple pie sat there untouched.

Being a member of the estimated 1.4% of the United States population that is vegan certainly makes party-going a challenging event food-wise. But with a little planning and a bit of communication, everything can work out well in the end.

Happy Holidays.

As I sit here struggling with the December Daring Baker's challenge, I am researching my ingredient substitutions, specifically eggs in baked goods. I have two really good references at my side. The first is Ann Gentry’s Real Food Daily Cookbook which Lane has blogged about often, and we love. The second is Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian- an ambitious title, but at just over 1000 pages (if you count the Acknowledgments and Intro sections) it may be accurate. This book is new to us, but looks very promising. We've got it on loan from our local library, but I'm thinking it might need to live in our home!

Anyway, the recipe calls for butter and eggs. Of course it does, who on this earth doesn't bake with butter and eggs, and maybe milk. All us vegans! The rest of the ingredients don't pose a problem, I've got them in my cupboard. But I still have this nagging sense of dread. Why? To date, I haven’t been happy with my baked goods and I think it is the fact that the eggs are not (easy to replace). Now I'm faced with baking again, but that is why I signed up for The Daring Baker's in the first place, to get me baking again!

For egg substitutions Ann Gentry recommends tofu, nut butters, fruit purees, or arrowroot. Mark Bittman recommends this recipe:

2 Tablespoons water
1 Tablespoon neutral oil (grapeseed or corn), and
1 teaspoon cornstarch (I’ll use arrowroot)
Mix together and stir until smooth.

The internet provides a whole host of other options, the most intriguing to me is something with ground flax seed. Intuitively, I think the recipe above will work best because it substitutes for the fat, the liquid, and the binding properties of eggs. Mr. Bittman also suggests 3 tablespoons of silken tofu could be used in place of an egg, but I’ve found it adds an almost gritty texture, and maybe changes the taste; in any event, when I’ve used tofu in place of an egg in baking, I haven’t been happy with the results.

If this recipe turns out to be a success (and I will have the opportunity to taste test), Lane will be bringing it to work for his office holiday party on Tuesday. If not, well I still have a few days to try and get some cookies together!
Merry Happy! -- Jane

It' s been cold here again. That always makes me think of soup. Luckily, Jane thinks the same way, so we've been having a variety of soups and stews lately. In our pre-vegan life, one of our old standby meals was cream of tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches, with a green salad. The only possibility left from that meal is the green salad.

This week's foray to the library resulted in us borrowing The Taste for Living Cookbook by Michael Milken and Beth Ginsberg. It's not a vegan cookbook but it promotes itself as a collection of recipes for fighting cancer, so that got our attention (Jane's family history of cancer being one of the primary reasons we're vegans now). The book is fresh looking and attractively laid out, and a number of the recipes are vegan, and sound interesting. And lo and behold, one of the first recipes in the book is for Cream of Tomato Soup.

So, last night Jane made their version of cream of tomato soup. Cream? you might ask. Well in place of the cream it comes with a surprise... Their note states that oats can be used as a cream replacement in any pureed soup. (Huh?) To accompany the soup, Jane made grilled cheese sandwiches with vegan cheese. (Woo hoo, old standby!) And, as usual a green salad, this time topped with Chili Lime Dressing (recipe from the aforementioned book).

To recap: new cookbook, two new recipes. The salad dressing was outright awful. Thankfully, Jane only made half the recipe, so dumping the rest down the drain wasn't as wasteful as it could have been. The soup wasn't awful, but didn't hold up to the grilled cheese at all. We had leftover soup tonight with the last of the Tender Potato Bread Focaccia; it was better the second day. I don't know whether that's because the flavors had a chance to mature overnight, or if the bread was a better compliment than the grilled cheese.

It's that time of year again. I often get food baskets at work during the holidays as I deal with a number of vendors at work. Since Jane and I don't drink much, and hardly ever drink wine, this is a much more considerate gift. Unfortunately, most of these baskets are geared to the non-vegan. Yesterday I received a lovely basket with lots of milk-chocolate products, which I "shared" with my co-workers, much to Jane's dismay.

I got a fruit basket yesterday. Finally, a gift I could enjoy! The fruit isn't anywhere near as good as what we pick up at our local farmer's market. But that doesn't mean we're not going to eat it! (Mom would be so happy to hear that!) Anyway, it is the thought that counts.

The basket itself was beautiful, and it was an interesting composition. There was a half of a small watermelon, a pineapple, a bunch of globe grapes and some kiwi and pomegranate. I must admit, I've never seen anything like that before. Jane cut up the fruit and made us fruit salad which we'll have for dessert the next few nights. The kiwi and pomegranate will make nice additions to our dinner salad.