Rainy Happy Vegan Birthday!

The morning I entered a new decade of life started out with gray skies and rain. But I certainly did not feel down or depressed.  "Today I turn thirty," I thought, "hooray!" I can honestly say that I am thankful for every year of the life I've had, rain or shine. Being taken as a 25-year-old is in some ways a compliment; but on the other hand, I feel that I have earned each year of my life. I'm happy for the wisdom I have gained, the people who have been part of my life, and the diverse and distant places where I have lived and traveled. My 20s contained a crazy variety of experiences that I could never have predicted, and I anticipate just as many adventures and life lessons in the decade ahead.

Besides, the rain outside my bedroom window was soon outshone by the flowers that my parents had placed all around the house before I woke up, including on my bathroom mirror:

 Flowers, family, and a nice bowl of oats - great way to start out a birthday morning!

Got this idea of adding pumpkin puree (and maple syrupe) to my oatmeal from my good friend Mipa. Another great product of Pennsylvania - pure maple syrup.

The pumpkin puree was completely unsweetened and therefore... kind of bitter and bland. But adding a tablespoon or two of real maple syrup made a rich and creamy blend that was just sweet enough to start off the morning.
Speaking of sweet.... I had decided that turning thirty would not be the only milestone happening this day. I also wanted to bake my own vegan birthday cake. I'd never before even baked a cake from scratch. First cake from scratch. First vegan cake. Thirtieth birthday. A day to celebrate indeed!

First, I gathered all the ingredients needed for this recipe of vegan chocolate cake. And by "chocolate" I mean chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. Oh yeah. This recipe's reviews looked very promising, so I just went for it - no substituting agave for sugar or using part whole wheat flour... I wanted this cake's degree of delicious-ness to stand up to this day's degree of special-ness. Even if it might cause some sugar highs!

Because I was expecting eight people to eat the cake, I doubled the recipe to fill two cake pans. Here they are, fresh out of the oven, looking spongy and decadent. As per the recipe, I let them sit to cool (without taking them out of the cake pans, which i probably should have done) for two hours.

The little tuperware container in the picture has all the icing ingredients in it, which I cooked up on the stove later. It's technically called a "glaze" in the recipe. And I'm not sure what consistency it was supposed to be.... Probably I didn't let it boil long enough, but I sure did stir it for seven minutes like it said! Oh well, it never got that thick. I poured it over one layer of cake, placed the second layer on top, and then poured it on that layer too, spreading it around with a spatula to get all surfaces covered.

Gooey? Yes. Drippy? Yes. As planned? No. Delicious anyway...?

Yes! Dad and I each took spoonfuls of the leftover glaze, dragged them through the batter that stuck to the pans and treated ourselves to a pre-dinner snack of chocolate heaven! The glaze tasted just like the frosting of the family famous "Grandma's Chocolate Cake."
It was difficult to tear ourselves away, but we drove down to Nikki's Thai Kitchen to meet up with Janet for my birthday dinner!

I love coming to this place because I've gotten to know Phii Wit, the woman in charge who is from Bangkok.

We chat about her family, Thailand, and life here, and I get to practice my Thai.  On top of that, every dish I've ordered here has tasted exceptional. It's about as authentic as I've ever had outside of Thailand. Always beautifully presented with top-notch friendly and attentive service.
We started off with our favorite appetizer - spring rolls with a peanut dipping sauce:

This appetizer is a great deal. Only $6 (less at lunchtime), and plenty for three people to chew on while awaiting the main course.

Tofu, rice noodles, lettuce, carrots and fresh basil... Actually, similar ingredients to the main dish I ordered for myself: spicy tofu and cashews with vegetables. I even asked her to leave out the fish sauce this time, just to make sure it was vegan.

Great gobs of crispy chewy tofu, plenty of crunchy cashews, lots of veggies, a nice spicy kick, balanced out with brown rice.

So much food in this serving, the plate practically looks like a serving platter. I saved half for next-day leftovers and prepared my stomach for an amazing dessert.
And here it comes, my vegan chocolate cake in all its blazing glory!

For multiple reasons - my focus on the flavor, the family conversations, the indulgence of the moment - I did not get a picture-perfect shot of the cake. But you can see that the frosting did indeed not harden. Instead, it seeped into all the tiny air bubbles of cake, creating a very moist cake. Soft, sweet and oh so chocolatey.

And it went deliciously with my favorite chocolate peanut butter soy ice cream. There was enough of this ice cream to go around, so having everyone eat vegan cake and ice cream on my birthday was a present in and of itself!

In addition to family members, a certain canine was part of the birthday party as well. This little silky terrier has won my heart over during the last few months. As I've worked with her on barking and aggression issues, she's learned not only to respect me (her pack leader, hehe), but how to provide some evening entertainment. Zoey and I did a little showing off, performing "crawling" on command and even playing Hide & Seek, not only with me, but with my three young nieces as well! Made me proud. :)

Honestly, my body was so shocked by all that sugar that by the end of the evening I was sick to my stomach. Still, it was a great day of chatting with friends, celebrating with family, and feeling thankful and content to experience it with love and kindness towards all - humans and animals. And besides, I wasn't the only one who collapsed at the end of the day.

And here's the recipe, taken from instructables.com, which is by no means a vegan website. Nonetheless, the name of the recipe is: "The BEST chocolate cake ever... that happens to be VEGAN. I kid you not!"

Cake Ingredients:
1 1/4 c flour
1 c sugar
1/3 c unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 c warm water
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 c vegetable oil
1 tsp distilled white or apple cider vinegar

Chocolate Glaze Ingredients:
1/2 c sugar
4 tbsp margarine
2 tbsp soy milk
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp vanilla extract

Cake Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Mix together in a bowl dry cake ingredients (flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt).
Add water, vanilla, oil and vinegar; blend together well.
Pour batter into an 8x8-inch square pan/dish.
Place in the oven and bake for about 30 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean.
Cool on a rack completely (2 hours).

Glaze:
In a small sauce pan, bring sugar, margarine, milk and cocoa to a boil.
Stir frequently; then reduce to a simmer for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
It'll look gloopy, but it's just the bubbles.
[If it doesn't look like this, then the heat is probably not high enough.]
Remove from heat and stir for another 5 minutes.
Add vanilla, stir, and immediately pour onto cake.
Glaze dries really quickly, so spread it immediately and add any sprinkles now if desired.
Let this cool for an hour, if you can wait that long!

Bibimbap & Banana Cookies

Man, sometimes I miss Korea. Mainly my friends and the fun of teaching, but also the food! A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to find some gochujang at the "Oriental Market" (yes, that's what it's called) in Pittsburgh's Strip District.

고추장 - Guchujang - is a spicy, salty, sweet paste made of a red pepper called "gochu." Honestly, I wasn't the biggest fan of it when I first started eating it in Korea, but it grew on me quickly, and now I love it. As a matter of fact, it's an essential ingredient in one of my favorite Korean dishes: Bibimbap. So, naturally, that's exactly what I wanted to make the first chance I got. It was a little bit of a process to prepare and assemble all the components. But I didn't want to take the easy way out, because half the enjoyment of eating Bibimbap is appreciating the neat and colorful presentation and then mixing it all up! First I cut up a block of extra firm tofu and marinated it for a few hours in garlic, agave (instead of sugar), soy sauce, ground black pepper, white wine, and sesame oil.

Bibimbap is often eaten with some kind of animal meat, like chicken or beef, but it's also fairly common to have the tofu option in some Korean restaurants. If the tofu isn't available, I just ask for no meat and am good to go. (I also forego the fried egg or soft egg yolk that's often placed on top.) Here, tofu cooking in a frying pan with enough oil that it doesn't stick to the pan, turned so all sides get brown and crispy.

Bibimbap always has lots of vegetables, and restaurants vary on which they use. Two of the most common vegetables used in Bibimbap are the stem of a brown plant called bracken fiddlehead and a white root vegetable called bellflower. Neither of those are available at your average PA grocery store or farmer's market, so I used what I had available: carrots, canned abalone mushrooms, spinach and zucchini (not in the picture).

All of those veggies are actually pretty standard in typical Bibimbap, so I was managing to keep it fairly authentic! I kept each of the four veggies in their own bowls, mixed up with sugar, salt, and ground black pepper. One type of vegetable at a time, I worked my way through sauteing each in sesame oil just until they were a little tender, but still crisp. Of course it would have been easier to toss them all in one frying pan together, but then you wouldn't be able to create this snazzy arrangement:

비빔밥 - Bibimbap - even the name looks fun. Scoops of brown rice covered with separated sections of carrots, spinach, mushrooms, zucchini, and tofu, topped with a big squeeze of fiery red gochujang.  밥 - Bap - means "rice" and 비빔- Bibim - means "mix." So once it's oh so nicely arranged.....

.....you mix it up!

Each spoonful has that tasty gochujang spicing up the tofu, vegetables and rice. It's hardy and crispy and crunchy and warm and filling. Yum yum! Thanks to my sister Sarah for printing out this recipe for me last year when I first came back from Korea. We made it together in California last year, and I think I pulled it off pretty well this time around on my own!

Oh but wait, what's this hiding in the oven?

Just a little somethin' I created from this fun book:

It had one section that included a few dairy-free and egg-free recipes, including one called Banana Cookies. What a great recipe - only 5 ingredients: bananas, oatmeal, dates, vanilla extract and oil.

Mash up three bananas, finely chop one cup of dates (I did under a cup because they were sweetened with sugar and I didn't want the sweetness to be overpowering), pour in two cups of rolled oats, add 1/3 cup of oil and 1 tsp of vanilla....

And then 비빔, i mean, mix it up and let sit for about 15 minutes.

Place flattened spoonfuls onto a lightly greased baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes or less at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). (I put some non-vegan chocolate chips on a few cookies for my parents.) Plated up for them:

And a nice little plateful with soy milk for me!

They're browned and crispy on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside. Isn't that perfect?

The ripe bananas get so sweet when they're cooked that you really don't need any sugar or sweetener. I would try to buy non-sweetened dates next time (as well as some vegan chocolate chips!), but I was perfectly content with these gobs of happiness just as they were. They kept great for a few days in an air-tight container. I just popped them in the microwave each time I wanted a little dessert, and they were warm, soft and satisfying. Especially when washed down with cold soy milk. :)

Collage-A-Meals

Cooking is an art. I'm certainly not the first person to say that statement, but I do agree with it. Cooking is a creative pursuit that is guided not just by taste buds, but by the eyes: when my plate of food is colorful and artistically arranged, I appreciate it more; I enjoy eating it more. Cooking is also influenced by the heart: we prepare meals for our loved ones, and even when we eat alone, a dish well made is one of the most fundamental ways we can love and care for ourselves.

As I've eliminated meat and animals products from my diet, my world has been opened to countless new foods and flavors. I know some people fear that becoming a vegetarian or vegan will make them feel  "limited," that there won't be enough flavorful and satisfying foods to keep them from missing the ones they've left behind, or more simply, that they will be left hungry or just plain bored. This is understandable. A decision like this, to change an aspect of our lives in which we partake multiple times throughout the day, almost always as part of a family or social experience, and often as part of a meaningful tradition or expression of our culture, is a process. It's a journey. It takes time to feel secure and confident in a new lifestyle. But accepting challenges and believing in ourselves - isn't that what life is about?

I've come a long way from the picky eater I was growing up. My favorite foods as a kid and teenager were Cheerios, cheese and crackers, and steak (yes, beef steak). My willingness to trek out past my regular favorites started out slow (see this post about how I learned to love black beans while in Guatemala). Traveling to other countries has given me many opportunities to try new foods. But while here in Pennsylvania the last few months, I have spent a decent amount of time in the kitchen trying out new foods, combinations and recipes. Trust me, as a vegan, the possibilities are endless.

Lately, I've realized that even spontaneous meals can involve loads of creativity. Sometimes this happens when certain desired food items are not on hand and the necessity of substitution yields an epiphanous flavor worth repeating.

What? A picture of oatmeal to represent something new and creative? True, I eat oatmeal almost every morning, so there's not much revelatory about this dish. But on one particular morning, there were none of the fruits on hand that I usually put in my oats (bananas, strawberries, blueberries, apples). There were cherries, though! I thought it seemed a bit odd, but you know what, I tried it out anyway. With a handful of walnuts tossed in as well, I found myself eating a new variety of oatmeal that I wouldn't have ever tried if my usual go-to fruits were available!

Cherry Walnut Scottish Oatmeal with soymilk. No sugar or sweetener necessary. Whole grains, fruit and soy milk get you going in the morning with plenty of fiber, protein, iron, potassium, Vitamin C, calcium, and more. (Very low in salt, fat and cholesterol as well.)

One day for lunch I decided that I didn't want to use any of the bottled salad dressing out of the fridge. They're all pretty high in salt, fat or cholesterol (or all three) and contain all these chemical flavors or high fructose corn syrup. It doesn't feel good to create a super healthy salad and then pour something so unhealthy on top. So I decided to whip up something from the food items that were sitting around the kitchen.

These blackberries weren't going to last more than a day, so why not use them up while they're fresh? I mashed them into a chunky pulp in a bowl, added some sesame oil, agave (a natural syrup-ey sweet liquid), a pinch of ginger, and then poured it on top of my spinach.

Sometimes I like to cook the mushrooms in some oil and spices first, but on this natural-dressing day, I decided to go 100% raw. Squeaky spinach, crunchy carrots, juicy tomatoes, crisp red bell peppers, and half a cup of chickpeas, straight out of the can (after rinsing). I was definitely not bored by having all these different flavors and textures. The dressing was tangy and sweet, with a bite of ginger and a savory hint of sesame flavor.

Speaking of sesame flavor... the crackers I ate alongside the salad had sesame seeds on them as well! Their salty whole grain goodness, paired with mushy tangy blackberries - it was an explosion of rich and contrasting flavors that made me pause my chewing just to fully absorb the remarkable combination.

In addition to the culinary rewards found by trying new food combinations, there are those concoctions that come into existence by bringing together the remnants of previous meals: leftovers! The picture above is an example of a vegan lunch born out of an openness to new flavors and a necessity to clean out the fridge.
Those little red and white grains are called "quinoa." Pronounced "keen-wah," it was first grown in South America and eaten has been a staple for centuries. It's packed with fiber, iron and protein. It's cooked just like rice, and I imagine can be eaten in just as many ways. A few night's previous, we had quinoa as a side dish, flavored sufficiently with just some mint leaves. For lunch a few days later, I wanted to use up some of the Italian bread (from Oakmont Bakery - their only vegan item) that had gone stale and hard. So I toasted a few pieces to make it more chewable. Then I spread some of the sundried tomato basil hummus on top that had miraculously not gotten finished off while we had company. Next, I pressed the quinoa into the hummus so that the little round grains wouldn't fall off. I sliced some kalamata olives in  half and mushed them in, too. A few pieces of raw spinach laid on top, and I had myself some fabulous open-faced sandwiches.

I call this beautiful harmonization of colors and flavors, don't laugh... The Keen-Wow Sandwich. Go ahead, laugh out loud! I said "wow" when I bit into this new creation, so I can tell you that it is worthy of such a name!

Leftovers don't have to be a drag. Neither does a diet free of meat and animal products. In fact, it's not only delicious and pleasing to the eye, but cruelty-free as well.