if you haven't noticed...

I haven't posted in a while. i've been crazy busy, and am currently in the middle of trying to move. the blog WILL be back up, once i am again settled in the pacific northwest, and once i find and unpack my deep fryer. then we can continue this nutty adventure and finally get to tomato aspic and roasted "possum". stay tuned!

You’re My Cherry Pie…

What kind of southern cookbook doesn’t have cherry pie?!? The WSCC, that’s what. But they do have a recipe for piecrust. Which is a good thing, because do you know what happened when Colleen visits Costco and walks past an eight cup container of cherries? She decides she absolutely has to have it. So now, we’re making cherry pies. Lucky for us, the WSCC has a recipe for piecrust, so I can still post the recipe. Woot woot!

Crust:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

2/3 cups earth balance

5-6 tablespoon ice cold water

Add the salt to the flour and cut flour and the earth balance until you have a very coarse meal. If you don’t have a pastry blender, just get one. Otherwise, you’ll be like me and end up using 2 knives to cut your dough. This takes forever and will make you cranky and anyone that attempts to enter the kitchen will incur the wrath of Khan. Add the water to your flour mixture a tablespoon at a time, blending until mixture becomes a coherent dough. Wrap and place in the fridge for at 2 hours.

Filling:

2 cups fresh-pitted cherries

1/2 cup water

1 tsp lemon juice

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons cornstarch

In a saucepan, cook cherries in water and lemon juice for 10 minutes. Mix the sugar and cornstarch; add to cherries. Cook cherry mixture until thickened. Cool slightly before filling pie.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Place your oven rack on the bottom rung.

Divide your pastry dough in half. Roll out each piece large enough to fit into an 8 to 9-inch pan. Put one of the rolled pieces of dough in the bottom a greased pie pan, and pour cooled cherry mixture into the crust. Moisten edge of bottom crust. Place top crust on and flute the edge of the pie. Make a slit in the middle of the crust for steam to escape. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake for about 45 minutes and cool before eating.

An after thought: I made this a while ago, but life has been nuts and I haven’t gotten around to posting this (or really, cooking at all) but seeing as it’s a holiday, it seemed appropriate. Happy 4^th, bitches!

"Cheesy" Garlic Biscuits

Yum…. Reminiscent of those biscuits one gets at Red Lobster. Except I do not have a tank of pathetic looking live lobsters in my foyer. Hell, I don’t even have a foyer. Anyways. The household ate the whole batch, and I know I’ll be making them again soon.

2 cups self-rising flour

2 teaspoons sugar

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

¾ cups vegan “buttermilk” (made with apple cider vinegar)

¼ cup vegetable oil

1 cup shredded smoked cheddars style sheese (though I suspect Daiya cheddar would work. I wouldn’t know. All I could find was the mozzarella style. Though I do like the smoked sharpness of the sheese)

3/8 teaspoon garlic powder

¼ cup earth balance

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Combine sheese, 2/8 garlic powder, flour, sugar, and baking powder in a bowl and make a well. Add in the “buttermilk” and vegetable oil and mix with a spoon until thoroughly combined. Divide the dough into 12 pieces, roll into loose balls and pat down to about ½” thickness. Place on a cookie sheet. Melt earth balance and add the remaining 1/8 teaspoon of garlic powder. Brush on the dough. You can also sprinkle some dried parsley on the biscuits if you want to add to that faux red lobster biscuit taste. I ran out of dried parsley months ago and never bothered to replace it, but the last time I attempted to make similar biscuits, I went this route with no regrets. Bake for 10 minutes. Eat. Repeat whole process.

the oyster stew experiment

There are two recipes in this book I’ve been dreading. This is one of them: oyster stew. The other one is a roast possum recipe, but we’ll get to that later. Back to the oyster stew. Why anyone would make oyster stew in the first place is beyond me, but it’s in the book, and had to be done sometime. So I guess I thought today seemed like as good as any other.

Oysters:

Faux fish seitan recipe from La Dolce Vegan. Use smoked salt. Tear the seitan into small pieces when placing it in the boiling broth. They kinda turn out in the shape of oysters. Weird.

1 lb. potatoes

1-cup bacon bits (vegan, duh.)

1 chopped white onion

1 cup chopped celery

Corn from 2 ears corn

4 cups regular unsweetened soymilk

2 cubes vegan bouillon

2 teaspoons vegan Worcestershire sauce

1-teaspoon salt

1-teaspoon black pepper

Herbamare to taste

1/3 cup minced fresh parsley (optional)

Boil the potatoes in two batches (1/2pound each), 1 batch whole, 1 batch cubed.

Sauté celery, corn, and onions until celery is soft.

Heat up soymilk, bouillon, and whole potatoes and use a hand blender to blend until smooth (or throw the soymilk, bouillon and whole potatoes in a vitamix and blend until smooth. Then heat up in a large pot.

Add Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper, and bacon bits.

Add corn. Celery, onions, cubed potatoes, and faux oysters

Cook for 10 minutes. Add herbamare to taste.

Serve in bowls and add parsley for garnish

I found it quite tasty, although a bit strange. My wife and roommate ate the biscuits and ignored the soup. I guess, unless you’ve had oyster stew and really miss it, don’t bother making it. On that note, if any workfolks want some for lunch Tuesday, hit me up. I have a ton. After that glowing review of this strange stew, I can imagine how many messages I’ll get asking for this concoction.

Poifect Waffles

Waffles have an uncanny ability to take me back to my childhood. Many a Sunday morning was spent sitting around the table eating fruit with my mom while my dad fired up the old waffle iron. We’d enjoy each others company and Dad would inevitably be stuck eating the burned waffles, while mom and I enjoyed the golden brown ones. Once we discovered that replacing half the liquid in the batter with seltzer water resulted in the most light, airy and crispy waffles, every time anyone mentioned making waffles, they HAD to be made using seltzer water. So when I started off to make these waffles, I was quite skeptical, as the little voice in the back of my head went “but where’s the seltzer?” Surprisingly enough, with these babies, no seltzer water is needed to get the perfect waffle.

The trick, I’m convinced, is self-rising flour. For some reason, I’ve never used self-rising flour. I have no idea why. But anyways, you can buy self-rising flour, or you can just make your own: for each cup of all-purpose flour, add 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Easy peasy

1 ¼ cups soymilk “buttermilk” (add 1 tbs of lemon juice and then fill up your measuring cup to 1 ¼ cups. Let sit for 10 minutes to curdle)

Egg replacer equivalent to 2 eggs (I used Bob’s Red Mill egg replacer. I stand by its genius)

¼ teaspoon baking soda

½ cup vegetable oil

1 tablespoon sugar

1 ¾ cups self-rising flour

Grease waffle iron with earth balance and heat. Mix egg replacer and beat in soymilk, baking soda, oil, and sugar mix until smooth. Add flour and beat the crap out of it until no lumps are left. Pour the batter into the waffle iron and cook until steaming stops and waffles are golden brown. We have the “Flip ‘n’ Fluff” waffle iron, which we affectionately call the flip ‘n’ fuck. It makes us giggle and makes great waffles. Who can beat that combo?

Serve waffles with earth balance and syrup, or jam. I had mine with some locally made peach ginger compote, and it rocked my socks off. This is definitely a recipe I will use for years, and makes me love Fannie Flagg for giving me the poifect waffle.

"beef" stew

It’s true, it’s not winter, which is usually the stew season, but I haven’t cooked in a few weeks (was out of town for a week, and who cooks when they’re out of town?) and, quite frankly, last week I just didn’t feel like cooking. And I still don’t really feel like cooking. But there’s something to be said for that. When life gets you down, and motivation is scarce, sometimes the best thing to do is to go look at beautiful local produce at the farmers market, choose some ingredients for comfort food, and make yourself get in the kitchen (of course, this really does only apply if you actually enjoy cooking, but, you get the point).

So, with a black and white kitty trouncing behind my footsteps, and Gogol Bordello on the stereo, I made the seitan, made the stew, and drank a beer. And therein lies a little bit of happiness.

“Beef” Stew (WSCC 126)

Faux Beef (La Dolce Vegan: 288)- times recipe x2

2 large onions, coarsely chopped

4 cups broth (I use rapunzel vegan bouillon)

1 ½ tsp seasoned salt

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp pepper

6 medium red potatoes, cubed

6 carrots, peeled and cut into ½ inch pieces

1 28 oz can diced tomatoes, undrained (I use fire roasted)

1 15 oz can tomato sauce

Really, I suppose you can use whatever “beef” you wanted. Was toying around with Gardien’s new beef tips, but I would need 2-3 packages I think, and besides, I wanted to make the seitan fake beef from La Dolce Vegan.

Take your “beef” and onions and brown them using a little bit of olive oil in a heavy skillet. Don’t go as far as to caramelize your onions though!

Combine the broth and the remaining ingredients into a stockpot and bring to a low boil. Add the “beef” and onion mixture and bring heat down to a simmer. Cover and simmer for 45 minutes.

Spoon up in lovely bowls and enjoy. Comfort in a bowl.

Lemon Ice Box Pie

OH MY GOD. No, seriously. This is what I had for dinner tonight. And then I had seconds. It’s tart and sweet and cold and delicious and you can bet your sweet ass I’m going to be making this recipe again. In fact, if you choose to make one, and only one of my recipes I post here, please make this one. I promise you it’s worth it. A perfect treat for a hot summers day. Or any day, really.

Lemon Ice Box Pie

Crust:

1 ½ cups crumbled vanilla wafer cookies (see recipe in revious post)

¼ cup margarine

Filling:

1 package tofutti cream cheese

1 oz can sweetened condensed soy milk

1 6-oz frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed

1 box soywhip, beaten until fluffy

For the pie:

Mix the cookie crumbs and margarine and press onto the bottom and sides of a 9” pie pan

and chill. Beat tofutti cream cheese until fluffy, and gradually beat in condensed soy milk and frozen lemonade. Beat in the whipped topping. Pour into pie pan and place in fridge, let sit for 3- 4 hours or until set. Top with more whipped topping if you like.

I can’t tell if I’m giggling because this is like sunshine in my mouth, or because I get to say “box pie.” You decide.

Vegan Buttermilk Hoe Cakes

 
Vegan Buttermilk Hoe Cakes

Sunday. In mine and Lindsey’s house that means pancake day. Really, what is better than sleeping in, rolling out of bed, and munching on fresh pancakes and maple syrup? So, in the spirit of this cooking project, I opened up the WSCC to page 15 and made the “buttermilk pancakes,” which are really more of a hoe cake, since they have cornmeal in them. Apparently hoe cakes are called such because they were originally made on the blade of a hoe over a campfire. So, there’s your history lesson for the day.

Egg replacer for 2 eggs (I use bobs red mill egg replacer for pancakes)

¼ cup vegetable oil

2 cups vanilla soymilk

2 tbs lemon juice

1 tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 ½ cups all purpose flour

¾ cup self rising cornmeal (or ¾ cups cornmeal plus ¾ tbs. baking powder and a pinch of salt)

Mix soymilk and lemon juice and let sit for 10 minutes to curdle. Mix egg replacer and vegetable oil, add soymilk and mix. Mix the rest of the ingredients in order until you have a smooth batter. Pour ¼ cup of batter for each pancake onto a slightly greased griddle. Turn when top is covered with bubbles and cook the other side until golden brown. Serve with syrup or jam. Enjoy your hoe cakes. ;)

Faux "'nilla wafers"

Well, it's not a Whistle Stop Cafe Cookbook, I needed 'nilla wafers to make my next recipe, the crust for Lemon Ice Box Pie. And when in doubt, what do us vegans so? we make our own. So, here's my recipe for some slightly dolled up vanilla wafer cookies.

Fancy vanilla wafer cookies

 ½ cup powdered sugar

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/4^th tsp dried orange or lemon rind

1/4^th tsp dried cooking lavender (optional)

1/3 cup vegan shortening or coconut oil

egg replacer equaling one egg (I use bob’s red mill egg replacer in baking most often.)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 ½ cups cake flour OR 1 ½ cups, scant 6 tbs, baking or all purpose flour plus 6 tbs cornstarch

1 ½ tsp baking powder

1 tbs water

Heat oven to 325 degrees

Cream together first  ingredients (sugars, rind, lavendar, shortening, egg replacer, vanilla and salt)

Add flour and baking powder. Add 1 tbs water and continue to mix until dough forms a ball. Roll dough into ¾” balls and flatten slightly onto a slightly greased cookie sheet. Bake for 15- 18 minutes, until cookies are light brown.

They aren't all that close to 'nilla wafers (I did put lavender in, after all) they are good little cookies for tea and quite addictive.

Stay tuned for the recipe tomorrow.

Fried Green Tomato FAIL

I do not take to failure well, especially when cooking. But inevitably it happens. Like mixing up baking powder and baking soda, or that time I ran out of arrowroot when I was making orange crème brulee and decided to try and use guar gum in place since that’s all I had handy. I ended up with something that resembled stringy tapioca/ rice pudding and tasted even worse than that sounds. This was one of those times.

Now, when I think of fried green tomatoes, I envision a light cornmeal coating fried to a deep golden brown, so I have to admit, I was a bit skeptical going into the this recipe (which, by the way, is “Fried Green Tomatoes 1” in WSCC. There are two more recipes in the book. TFG)

The batter is much like the batter I used for the onion rings in my previous post, which does not jive with my dreams of crunchy cornmeal coated tomatoes, but I thought “what the hell.” Which is exactly what I thought after I fried two rounds. I successfully decimated two of my beautiful green tomatoes I had spent many minutes selecting at the farmers market. I ate a few, and Lindsey tried to eat one, but only made it through two bites. They were super oily and half the batter fell off during frying. So sad. The tomato slices that hadn’t made it into the hot oil went in fridge, which means I’ll be snacking on not-fried green tomatoes tonight.

Like I said, I’m glad there’s 2 more recipes to try. Because I really REALLY love a good fried green tomato.

A Little Plate of Fried Snacks (Hush Puppies, Onion Rings and Zucchini Fries)

I knew I couldn’t make it long without busting out the deep fryer my friend Jen got me for Christmas, and today looked like the day to do it. Yesterday was a gorgeous day for a long walk, Lindsey and I took advantage and walked though the city, stopping to pick up some gorgeous onions from the farmers market at the Eastern Market. She’s been begging me for onion rings since I started this adventure, and I figured as long as I had the fryer out, I might as well make zucchini fries and hush puppies at the same time. In my opinion, hush puppies are the king of all southern food, you just can’t go wrong with deep fried corn meal batter.  Let the frying commence!!!

 Hush Puppies

(WSCC pg. 115)

2 cups cornmeal

3 tbs all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

egg replace for one egg (I use bob’s red mill.)

1/3 cup extra firm silken tofu, beaten in blender

1 cup milk soy milk with 1 tbs apple cider vinegar (mix together and let sit for 10 min)

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

3 tbs minced onion

vegetable oil for frying

Mix first 5 ingredients together. Beat egg replacer, oil, silken tofu, and soy milk mixture. Add to cornmeal mixture, onion and stir until blended. Drop 1 ½” spoonfulls into hot oil (375 degrees, approx) and deep fry until golden brown. Drain and serve. And don’t crowd the oil!

“Why add vinegar to soy milk?” you may ask. Well, when you add vinegar (or lemon juice) to soy milk and let it sit, the soy milk curdles and acts more like a buttermilk. And no, it doesn’t work with rice milk. Unfortunately.

Onion Rings and Zucchini Fries

(WSCC pg. 94)

1 cups bisquick

1/3 cup cornmeal

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp black pepper

1 cup soy milk (or rice)

1 tbs yellow mustard

vegetable oil for frying

1 large onion, peeled, cut into ¼ slices and split into rings

1 zucchini, cut into sticks

Combine dry ingredients into bowl, and beat in soy milk and mustard.

Coat zucchini and onions and place in hot oil until browned, turning once. 

The best to make both of these are probably if you have people coming over. It makes quite a bit for just two people. Even when one of them can eat copious amounts of onion rings.

Collard Greens and Mac 'n' "Cheese"

'Cause I didn’t get to the collard greens last night, they had to be done tonight. No excuses. But what to have with collard greens? Usually when I think of collard greens i think of fried chicken, but seeing as I've been having faux chicken meals all week, that idea went out the window. and then the answer came on page 104. Mac 'n' cheese. So my wife stopped by Sticky Fingers and grabbed some Daiya cheese. And now it’s 9 pm and we’re finally sitting down to dinner. Tasty, tasty dinner that took a while to make and was so worth the wait. Who doesn’t love mac’n’chesse?

Collard Greens

(WSCC pg. 90)

2 lbs collard greens, center veins cut out

2 ounces peppered vegan “bacon” product from Asian health food store (DC peeps, Terry’s Healthy Foods = faux meat heaven!)

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

8 cups water

Dice peppered vegan “bacon” product, combine with water, salt and sugar in a large stock pot and bring to boil. Add collard greens, turn heat to low, and simmer until tender. Apparently you should cook collards for 6-8 hours. But Fannie says 1-2. I cooked them for about 2 and a half hours. Also, the leftover liquid, called “pot liqour” one is supposed to dip cornbread in. Unfortunately, I didn’t make cornbread, so I can’t actually tell you if that’s any good or not.

Macaroni and “Cheese”

(WSCC pg. 104)

3 tbs margarine

2 tbs all purpose flour

2 cups nut milk (I used soy)

¾ cups silken firm tofu

½ tsp black pepper

½ tsp salt

Daiya cheddar “cheese” in the following measurements: 1 2/3 cups; 2/3 cups; 1/3 cup.

6 cups cooked elbow macaroni

¾ cup panko breadcrumbs

In a blender, combine soy milk and silken tofu until smooth. Melt the margarine in a medium saucepan. Whisk in flour until smooth. Whisk in soy milk/ tofu mixture. Add 1/3 cup daiya cheese and pepper is salt. Whisk until smooth and a little thick.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Put 3 cups cooked macaroni in large glass baking pan. Cover with 1 2/3 cup Daiya cheese and layer the remaining noodles over the cheese. Pour all the sauce over the noodles and cover with the panko bread crumbs. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the breadcrumbs and bake for another 10 minutes.

Yum. Yum. Yum yum yum yum yum yum. Yum. 
 

Originally I made this with 8 cups, but upon further reflection I thought it may be too dry. So when my friend Julia asked for a mac 'n' cheese recipe, I told her to try 6 cups instead of 8. She did, and this is what she had to say: "I used jumbo macaroni because we already had it. We (her and her husband) ate it until we felt sick. I've never liked any vegan mac 'n' cheese until now." Thanks Julia!

Creamed “Chicken” and Biscuits

I’m tired and cranky tonight, but I said I was going to make creamed chicken on biscuits and gravy and collards greens. Well, I made it halfway through following through on that one. Didn’t really realize that I needed to cook the collards for 2 hours. 2 whole hours!!! So when I started cooking dinner at 8 o’clock tonight, there was no way in hell I was going to spend two hours waiting for collard greens. Nope, they will just have to wait. Fortunately, for me, creamed “chicken” and biscuits only takes about 20 minutes. Perfect.

So, I popped the cork on a bottle of wine and got to cooking.

Creamed “chicken” and biscuits

(WSCC pg. 20)

¼ cup margarine

½ cup thinly sliced celery

¼ cup all purpose flour

1 ½ cup soy milk (or rice, or whatever)

½ teaspoon salt

Few dashed of black pepper

Dash of chili powder

2 cups diced fake chicken (I used the rest of the “chicken” seitan I made or the bbq the other day, and when I try this recipe again (because I will!) I’m gonna get my hands on some of that gardien fake chicken. That would set this over the top.)

3 large biscuits (I just used bisquick and soymilk. I know, I know, why use bisquick when it’s so easy to make my own from scratch? I just love bisquick. I can’t help it.)

Melt margarine in medium heavy saucepan over medium-low heat and add celery. Cover and cook until tender. Sprinkle flours over mixture and stir until smooth. Cook for 1 minute. Gradually pour in milk and stir until smooth (I use one of the rubberized flat whisks. I love them. They make the best gravy every time). Stir in fake chicken and cook until thick. Serve on biscuits.

Tomorrow morning I am going to make toast and have the left over for breakfast.

Frozen Fruit Salad

 Before I get down to the "somewhere between solid and liquid" business that the next recipe embodies, I gotta give a "thanks for the Jell-O" shout out to my momma. See, I have A LOT of childhood memories involving the low-calorie jiggly little treat. Every Christmas my mom would make this layered dish with lime, cherry and lemon Jell-O dish (the lemon was whipped with cream cheese so it would appear white). Very festive. But more importantly, that dish was the shit! I mean, I would sneak into the fridge and polish off half a tray, ensuring she would have to make a second one for whatever holiday party it was planned for.

There was also a lime Jell-O cream-cheese pineapple salad I remember frequenting summer dinners, the standard strawberry Jell-O with strawberries and bananas, and once, right after the blue raspberry flavor came out, she made little cups of blue jell-o with gummy sharks strategically placed throughout. Cute, huh? But this Jell-O fascination wasn't just limited to my mom. It was like a bad gene that everyone on her side of the family inherited. My cousin and I used to joke that when you'd go to our family reunions, you best like Jell-O, since 3/4 of the food there was gonna be Jell-O salads. Seriously.

So, I raise a toast to my childhood and offer you my adaptation of “Frozen Fruit Salad,” (WSCC pg. 132) an interesting "salad" that originally include unflavored gelatin, mayo, and canned fruit cocktail. oh, and whipped cream. Truth me told, I was a bit scared when I saw the recipe, but I dove in head first and in the end, while this fruit salad isn't a true Jell-o salad, it is reminiscent of those old Jell-O pops that used to be served after school lunch in the spring. Only fruitier.

1 tbs agar agar flakes

½ cup boiling water

2 tbs cane sugar

1 16 oz can fruit cocktail in syrup (don’t drain it)

½ cup veganaise

1 can soywhip

In a small saucepan, place the agar agar flakes and the water. Let it sit for at least 15 minutes. Trust me on this. I have heard that “agar agar is scary!” It’s not. Not if you let it just soak for a while. While you agar agar is soaking, mix your fruit cocktail (with syrup) with the veganaise (I know, right! Gross! Who the hell mixes mayo and fruit cocktail?) and place in the fridge. After your agar agar has soaked, bring the mixture to a boil, turn it down to a simmer and stir until the flakes have dissolved. Add the sugar and stir until that has dissolved as well. Pour the mixture into your fruit cocktail/ veganaise mixture until full incorporated and place in the fridge for 5 minutes. While your mix is chillin’, shake the shit out of your can of soywhip (mad props to my roomie Jen who shook that bottle like a polaroid picture). Take your mixture out of the fridge and empty that can of whip into your fruit cocktail/ veganaise mix. Fold the soywhip in, fully incorporating it. Once your mixture is a smooth creamy mix, pour it into a container, cover, and freeze overnight.

The result? The center was a little icy, the salad melted a bit fast, and if I ever make it again, I may up the agar agar, but for a first try it ain't that bad. And the taste? Pure bliss. Really. Cold sticky sweetness tangoing on your tongue. Add some sweet ice tea and it would be perfect for a hot humid day in July, sitting in a rocking chair on the veranda. Whoda thunk?

Blue Plate Special #1: BBQ “Chicken” Nuggets and Slaw

First of all, I didn’t realize tonight’s dinner would make my whole house smell like apple cider vinegar. It does. Nor did I realize that I was going to have to stock up on cider vinegar and vegan Worcestershire sauce to make it through the Whistle Stop Café Cookbook. I do. But as I sit here with my belly full and the tang in the back of my jaw beginning to soften, I’m perfectly happy to stock my cupboard full with both if it means I’ll be eating like this!

First, I made the “chicken”, using Sarah Kramer’s faux chicken recipe from La Dolce Vegan. It was first foray into making seitan, and it was much easier to make the “chicken” chunks than I had imagined. Excluding a few mock meats, I will be using seitan for the bulk of these recipes. Tastes good, is pretty easy to make, and is seriously about 5 times cheaper than buying premade mock meats. I then laid out the chunks in 2 quart glass baking pan, poured the below BBQ sauce over them, covered the pan in foil, and baked in the oven at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.

Modified “Aunt Bess’s Barbecue Sauce”

Whistle Stop Café Cookbook (WSCC pg. 70)

½ cup water

¼ cup apple cider vinegar

¼ cup soy free earth balance

2 tablespoon cane sugar

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons vegan Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon prepared mustard

1 ½ teaspoon salt (I used black lava, gave for a more earthy taste)

¼ teaspoon chili powder

1 small drop liquid smoke

1 thick slice lemon

1 thick slice peeled white onion

½ cup ketchup

Combine all the ingredients except ketchup in a medium saucepan and bring to boil. Reduce and simmer halfway covered for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and take out lemon and onion pieces. Stir in the ketchup.

This is not a thick BBQ sauce, and while it is quite good, I think a dash of chipotle, and adding in 1-2 tablespoons of agave at the end would really just take it over the top. Maybe molasses. I also used yellow mustard, as that’s what I had in the house. That was a huge mistake. Likely should have used dijon. Will try that next time.

For the slaw I quite simple made Fannie Flagg’s slaw as the recipe instructed (WSCC pg. 135) which I’m not sharing, as I think it’s rude to just post other people recipes, but it’s pretty close to this. There’s half an onion blended in the sauce, and the sauce is blended in the blender, so it’s not quite the same, but you get the idea. Prior to making this slaw, I had no idea people even made slaw without miracle whip, but I’m sure glad southerners got it right first and left me nothing to improve. This stuff rocks! Especially when it’s served with tater salad, corn on the cob, and on an actual blue plate. Yum!

Potato Salad

This isn’t a true southern potato salad, but I’ve spent a few years trying to perfect a vegan potato salad like the one my mom used to make. And I think I have. Even my mother-in-law loves it. That’s sayin’ a lot.

For the salad:

4 lbs baby red potatoes, cooked and cubed  
½ med purple onion, chopped  
¾ cup finely chopped Italian parsley  
5-7 dill pickle spears, chopped  
½ tsp black sesame seeds (optional)  
½ cup finely cubed extra firm tofu (optional)

For the sauce:

1 ½ cup veganaise  
2 tbs dill pickle juice  
1 ½ tbs mustard  
1 ½ tbs nutritional yeast  
½ tsp black pepper  
¼ tsp garlic salt  
1/8 tsp sea salt  
Dash chili powder  
Few dashes paprika

Mix all the sauce ingredients together. Add the onion, Italian parsley, pickles and tofu (if you want- totally optional, they just act as a replacement for those egg chunks in traditional tater salad).  Pour the sauce over the cubed taters, mix everything to kingdom come, sprinkle on the sesame seeds and RESIST THE URGE to wolf it all down. Instead, cover the bowl and place it in the fridge for at least a few hours. I try and leave mine overnight to let all the flavors get kinky with each other, but it hardly ever makes it that long.

Proof this project is crazy!

So (confession time) when I picked up Julie Powell’s book Julie and Julia a little over a year ago, I was inspired. Not because she decided to cook her way through Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, but because she had finished cooking her way through the beast of a book. When my wife and I saw the movie, she looked me in the eye and said “You should veganize that cook book.” And in truth, I mulled it over, but the fact is, I really hate French cooking. Not all of it, but on principle it’s just so damn stuffy. No thanks.

So, here I am a year later, still wanting to veganize a cookbook. The Joy of Cooking? Maybe, but I want something more... regional. I want an adventure like being a north-westerner transplanted into the Deep South (not once but twice) has been an adventure. See– there’s just something about the south… and if I’m living in the US and not in the Pacific Northwest, this is where you’ll find me.

What do you do when you are a lesbian foodie living in the south looking to for a good challenge of a cookbook to veganize? Well, you do what I did of course. You remember Idgie Threadgood and Ruth Jamison and The Whistle Stop Café, and you order a slightly used copy of Fannie Flagg’s Original Whistle Stop Café Cookbook and think, “I can do this!”

Of course, then I actually opened the cookbook and boy, are we in for one hell of a ride. Now, I’ve already decided to make most of my own mock meats, and I know I have a good base of recipes in my cupboard to use as a spring board, from Soy, Not Oi to Venganomicon; La Dolche Vegan to Great Chefs Cook Vegan and more. And I feel confident most of these recipes I can do. But when I get to veganizing “roast possum” and “sunshine salad,” which, as far as I can tell is Lemon Jell-O with carrots, pineapple, and walnuts served on lettuce with mayonnaise, well, I get a little bit scared (not to mention nauseous) but I know, armed with my deep fryer, the wealth of knowledge in my cookbook cupboard, and the spirit of Idgie, I can do this. Stay tuned.