Rob was out of town on Sunday, so I got to have one of my little “Leslie days.” It was extremely pleasant. I started it with a delicious breakfast of popcorn popped on the stove. There’s nothing better than eating popcorn at dawn. As I ate, I read a cookbook …
I’ve had the nicest morning. I got up obscenely early, which is really fun for me (I feel like I’m stealing time, cheating the system). I was sitting in the sun room in my pajamas when I saw a big barred owl in the backyard, …
Yesterday there was a little rainstorm in the afternoon, so I came inside and stirred up some vegan gingerbread. I made a huge mess. Molasses and syrup dripped off the edges of the counter, and sugar sparkled on the floor as the lightning flashed. Of course there were cats all around. Carl stared at me while I worked (his eyes are so big they look like goggles), and Buntin played privately under the table with her okra (sometimes she acts like she’s embarrassed of her okra games). . . and pretty soon the whole house smelled of gingerbread.
For breakfast this morning I had a piece of gingerbread topped with a huge blob of vegan whip cream, and Rob reminded me of something funny Sophie said when she was little. Rob had made gingerbread, and Sophie said she wanted some. She said she had had gingerbread many times before in her long and storied life (she was four). Of course, the gingerbread was too much for her; it was too spicy. (She was such a fussy eater.) But she didn’t want to admit she had lied about being so experienced. So she said, thinking fast, covering for her little self, “Um, actually, Rob, I like brown gingerbread, not black gingerbread. This is black gingerbread, Rob.”
It was not.
Vegan Gingerbread
Ingredients:
1 Tbls ground flaxseed
3 Tbls water
1/2 cup vegan butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp orange extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup light molasses
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 cup hot water
Directions:
Blend the flaxseed and three tablespoons of water with an immersion blender until frothy. Beat the flaxseed mixture and sugar together. Melt the butter and let it cool. Beat it with the flaxseed and sugar. Beat in the orange extract. In another bowl, sift together the flour, soda, spices, and salt. Whisk to blend and set aside. In a third bowl, whisk together the molasses, syrup, and hot water. Add the sifted and liquid ingredients alternately to the butter/flaxseed/sugar mixture until well blended. Pour into a greased baking pan and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Serve with vegan whip cream on top.
For lunch last Sunday, we made our favorites, Thai Tofu Burritos, but this time we improved them by adding some homegrown sweet potatoes to the filling. I’ve included the revised recipe below, along with our recipe for purple cabbage slaw, which is what we always …
This weekend we did most of our spring vegetable planting. Rob planted 17 tomato plants in brightly colored cages. He planted four Romas, one Arkansas Traveler, one Japanese Black Trifele, one Sweet Baby Girl, one Park’s Whopper, one Red Grape, one Yellow Pear, one Red Brandywine …
Last Sunday when Jammer was still with us, when he was still resting in his little bed next to my desk in the Little House, we harvested a couple of fine cabbages, glittering with raindrops, and we made a cabbage salad. We’d check on him, maybe brush him (softly), maybe try to feed him some baby food, and then we’d do some more cabbage-chopping, in tears. The resulting salad was strangely, sadly delicious–sweet and salty and crunchy. We didn’t know Jammer was going to die, so we made a cabbage salad. We didn’t know what else to do, so we made a cabbage salad. And now it’s the same way, now that he’s dead: I don’t know what to do, so I’m writing about making a cabbage salad.
Cabbage Salad with Ramen Noodles
Ingredients:
1 large head cabbage, chopped
5 green onions, chopped
2 carrots, shredded
2 pkg. Ramen noodles (just the noodles, not the flavor packs)
½ cup sunflower seeds
½ cup slivered almonds
½ cup vegan butter
Dressing:
1 cup canola oil
2 Tbls soy sauce
1 cup sugar
½ cup apple cider vinegar
1 tsp salt
Directions:
Break up the Ramen noodles. Brown the noodles, sunflower seeds, and almonds in butter and set aside.
In a large bowl, toss noodles, sunflower seeds, almonds, cabbage, onions, and carrots together.
Combine dressing ingredients. Toss into salad.
Last night I had a very nice little cozy evening making peach cobbler in my pajamas and watching an NCIS marathon with little June Baxter curled up in my lap. Then this morning I got up in the freezing cold and picked some of …
On Sunday we cleaned the house from top to bottom and made a few little improvements. We’ve now got a chalkboard in the kitchen, a slightly–no, very–tacky tall lamp on the sugar box in the living room, and a fancy, frilly brass and marble plant …
I really can’t resist posing shiny peppers for photos.
1 cup vegan “butter,” softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup finely chopped pecans (use the blender)
Powdered sugar
Directions:
In a large mixing bowl, cream butter, sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Sift in flour. Stir in pecans. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill for about an hour. Shape the dough into small balls. Place 1 inch apart on parchment paper-lined baking sheets. Bake at 325 degrees F for 20 minutes or until the bottoms are lightly browned. Roll in powdered sugar right after you take them out of the oven.
