A New Chapter: One Year Later

Yes, it has almost been one year since I updated this blog. Not since I updated ANY blog, just this one. Things have changed, certainly. I moved to Germany- see, the last post said I would be busting out, and I did. Living abroad has taught me a lot about avoiding meat... and living in a host family has taught me a lot about compromise. So, in the host family, my compromise has been to be an organic vegetarian who avoids most animal products but will eat eggs to avoid forcing the family to change their whole lifestyle. So, there you have it. The next blog posts will be about my mostly-vegan life in Germany. And next year when I am at uni, it will be about my fully-vegan life in Göttingen? München? Bielefeld? Hannover? Somewhere snazzy. So, there you have it. I am thinking of embarking on a 30 day thing, like a 30 days program of Indian or Turkish or something. It depends on how my guest-mother feels about it. I haven't cooked for the family yet (IN THREE MONTHS I HAVEN'T COOKED FOR THEM?!). I need to do something more communal with them, so that might be the ticket. An exploration of new spices and flavors. Except that the dad and son are infinitely picky... so, we'll see how that goes. And the potato salad here is awesome. Especially with Tapatío from my mom and dad. :D They mailed it to me last week. German potato salad is luckily normally made with vinegar and oil. So, I will think about what kind of journey I want to embark upon and update soon.

I am probably the worst blogger ever

But I think that might mean that I am pretty busy doing stuff in the real world, for which I do not apologize.

Anyway, I got some soy ice cream from Trader Joe's and it's pretty bangin. Cherry chocolate.

Alright, well, Rhombie took my photos for my yearbook yesterday, which was nice. I am not sure I liked the white background in the end, and I might have preferred gray instead, but overall it was full of pleasantries.

This post is nearly unrelated to vegan food except for the soy ice cream, and the fact that my mother has officially purchased the tofurkey for Thursday.

Oh, the joy of busting out.
Next year I will be gone from this house.

Organic Laundry Starch Recipe

Today my grandmother asked me to go to the store and get some non-aerosol starch for the laundry, and got to thinking: "Why should I buy another bottle when there is probably a really easy way to create this on my own?"

Lo and behold, it was one of the easiest homemade creations I have ever made and my parents have been buying it from the store for over 20 years.

I searched around and compiled a few tips and tricks to create this cornstarch "recipe," tested it out, and it works!

1 pint (2 cups) filtered water
1-3 tbsp. organic cornstarch
5-10 drops of your favorite essential oil (optional)

Mix the cornstarch into the pint of cool water, then add 5-10 drop of essential oil, shake, spray, iron.

If you are planning on not using your starch for quite some time, pop it in the fridge. Shake before every use.

An Adventure Through the Pages of Genius: Cooking Through Veganomicon.

I've decided to do a cook-through of my very first vegan cookbook. It's still my only actual vegan cookbook, along with two bake-books. I borrow Vegan With a Vengeance when I need it from the S.O.

I am going to try my hand at each and every recipe in Veganomicon, and through as many of the variations as I can. The hardest part will be the tofu nori rolls and the soy ice creams, I think. The rest are made with more familiar methods, I believe. But how does on advance if they never push themselves out of his comfort zone, right?

I am not sure I am going to start on page one and move forward, or skip around. I feel like starting on page one will hold me more accountable to pushing through every recipe, even those I am less inclined to do due to fear or lack of interest. Then again, lack of interest merely masks fear for me; nothing in Veganomicon is uninteresting.

I will chronicle the pages here, without spoiling the recipes entirely. Maybe my journey through this amazing book will encourage someone else to also buy it, because it is well worth it. It's got everything from the super-simple to the very advanced and addresses a wide range of cooking styles from different parts of the world.

After Veganomicon is conquered, I think I might move on to an all-Indian vegan cookbook and see what happens!

So, how did it work out?

The cornbread turned out a little too dense in the middle. I am going to make another type tonight, possibly increasing the ratio of cornmeal (or polenta) to whole wheat flour. I may use whole wheat flour this time instead of white whole wheat, and do .5 cup whole wheat flour with 1.5 cup cornmeal/polenta mix and keep most other factors the same.

My favorite part of the cornbread had to be making it in the cast-iron skillet. It was beautiful and had a truer feel to it than my family's "tradition" of making cornbread from a box of Jiffy mix in an 8 inch round pan.

I will also preheat the cast iron more this time around, as I don't believe it got enough time in the oven beforehand when I baked it the first time. The crust didn't begin to form immediately for me, at least not visibly, and that's a characteristic that I was looking forward to experiencing.

All in all, the cornbread turned out just fine. A little dense/moist in the middle, more than I would have liked, but still delicious and sweet.

Also notable, in my version of the recipe, I added a tbsp. or so of agave nectar to give it some more sweetness and omitted the peppers.

I'll give it another go this evening and take some photographs to share.

Cornbread!

My mother is inviting some friends over tonight for a vegetarian dinner, and we're having a somewhat "traditional" meal, as it goes in my midwestern family.

Chili beans, corn bread, baked potatoes, and salad. It's nothing short of a miracle that we could pack so many carbs into one meal.

I'm preparing some cornbread to do my part, and the recipe I'm using is here. The chili beans, which my mother bought, are coming from... a can! (Cue scary music.)

Because I've already eaten tofu scramble and roasted broccoli since arriving home from volunteering at the tutoring center, I won't be enjoying too much of tonight's dinner, but the cornbread will definitely be a part of my evening meal. I could even write poetry about cornbread.

Soft, yellow crumbs stick in my throat
Sweet corn flavor fills my olfactory senses
Cornbread, oh cornbread
Forget me not on your long journey into the dark
as I ingest what I cannot detest
Cornbread

How is that for some true artistic ability?!



I am actually going to cook it in my cast iron, if it's large enough, which is exciting. It presents very well in cast iron, as cast iron is beautiful. The skillet also adds iron to the food, making it great for an meek and anemic vegan like myself! (This is not true; I donate blood, and one must have high iron levels for that!)

So I bid my lone reader farewell as I head off into the evolving world of my kitchen to cook up come cornbread, true Oklahoman style: VEGAN!

chronicles of turai.

Last Sunday while I was at Food Not Bombs, I picked up a new kind of vegetable on my way out. It was described by an Asian woman as what I can only phonetically describe as "Musswah," but I managed to find it on Google by searching ridged cucumber.

I have discovered, tentatively, that it is ridged gourd, in fact, and that it is called Turai.


This is what the vegetable actually looks like, and it's a beautiful hue of green. Less typical than a cucumber or something of the like.

I am going to try my hand at this recipe, which I found on Food.com, because I actually have all but one of the ingredients on hand, and the missing is only a garnish.

From Food.com:
# 2 cups ridge gourd, peeled and sliced (turai)
# 1 cup onion, sliced
# 1/2 teaspoon cumin seed
# 1 teaspoon chopped gingerroot
# 1 teaspoon chopped garlic
# 1 green chilies, chopped
# 1/2 cup yellow moong dal, soaked and drained (split yellow gram)
# 1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
# 1 cup tomato, chopped
# 1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil
# salt
# 1 tablespoon fresh coriander leaves, chopped, for garnishing



1. 1 Heat oil in a non-stick pan.
2. 2 Add cumin seeds and allow to crackle.
3. 3 Once they stop crackling, add onions and saute until lightly browned. Sprinkle few drops of water to prevent onions from sticking to the bottom of the pan.
4. 4 Add garlic, ginger, green chilli and stir-fry until the raw smell of ginger and garlic is gone.
5. 5 Fold in the turai and saute for 3 minutes.
6. 6 Add the moong dal, turmeric powder, salt and 1/2 cup of water.
7. 7 Cover and cook on medium heat till the turai and dal are soft.
8. 8 Add tomatoes and mix well.
9. 9 Simmer for 5 minutes so that the tomatoes soften.
10. 10 Garnish with corriander leaves.
11. 11 Serve hot.

Once I've prepared the turai, I'll post an update. It was such a find!