Sorry for such the long absence…

Here’s a quick and super easy recipe.  It makes about 6 waffles- so be sure to double/triple/quintuple it to make enough!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour
• 1 Tbs baking powder
• Pinch kosher salt
• 1 cup soy milk
• 1 Tbs melted Earth Balance
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 Tbs maple syrup

Steps:

1. Plug in your waffle iron to preheat it.
2. Mix the dry ingredients in one medium sized bowl.
3. Mix the wet ingredients separately (I use a 2 cup measuring cup to mix them all).
4. Add the wet into the dry and mix briefly! Its ok if there are still some small lumps.  Let the batter sit for about 5 minutes as the iron is heating- it should bloom a bit.
5. When the iron is hot, scoop enough batter to cover about 2/3 - 3/4 of the waffle area, it will fill nicely when the iron is closed.  If some spills out the side, reduce the amount you spoon in for the next ones.

Super easy and delicious!

Enjoy!

-JD

Another food challenge!  This recipe is actually super simple.  As long as you have the ingredients, you really can’t mess it up…  It is great for salads, or you can make it a little thicker for a great dip for vegan buffalo wings!

Ingredients:

• 2 tsp finely chopped onion (Cipollini is best)
• 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 garlic clove, finely minced
• 1/4 tsp salt (kosher is best)
• 1 and 1/4 cup vegenaise
• 1/4 cup vegan sour cream
• 1/4 cup plain (or unsweetened) soymilk
• 1/4 cup vegan parmesan cheese
• 1 heaping Tbs freshly ground pepper (black or rainbow)

Steps:

1.  Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Whisk well until completely combined.  Adjust the amount of soy milk to make your desired thickness.

Enjoy!

-JD

Summertime is great for harvesting huge quantities of basil.  There are so many great varieties with subtle taste differences, the most common variety is simply known as sweet basil.  Basil is my favorite spice and I try to put it in everything.  Here’s a quick recipe that I put together to use the heaps of basil growing from my garden.  The lemon basil really adds a sweetness to this recipe. If you can’t find lemon basil in your garden or local herb dealer, you could always double the amount of sweet basil.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup lemon basil leaves (loosely packed)
• 1/2 cup sweet basil leaves (loosely packed)
• 2 Tbs olive oil
• 1 Tbs warm water
• 1/4 cup walnuts
• 1/2 tsp Kosher salt
• 1 garlic clove
• 1/2-1 tsp red curry paste depending on how spicy you want it
• black pepper to taste

Steps:

1. If you grew the basil in your own garden rinse it gently to remove any dirt.  Be careful not to wash to vigorously or you will start to lose some of the essential oils from the leaves.
2. Put all the ingredients into a food processor and blend thoroughly.  You will likely have to stop several times and push down the bits that climb up the sides.
3. Add enough red curry paste to create your desired level of heat.  1/2 tsp will be enough to just taste the kick.  1tsp (or more!) will give it a nice heat.
4. You can add more olive oil and water (2:1 ratio) if needed to thin it out some.

Add a small amount of the pesto over your favorite pasta.  Fresh grape tomatoes are an excellent compliment to the heat of the curry.  This recipe makes enough for about 4 servings- double it to make more. 

Enjoy!

-JD

We have a Sunday tradition- pancake breakfast.  Never fail.  Usually they are just basic pancakes.  Sometimes I’ll change things up with a variation, but always the same basic items- pancakes, veggie bacon, and french pressed coffee.

Vegan pancakes can sometimes be too chewy, flat, or brick-like.  I’ve been messing with this recipe for a while, and it is pretty solid. 

Ingredients:

• 1 and 1/4 cup flour
• 1Tbs baking powder
• 1/2tsp salt (kosher is always best!)
• 1 and 1/4 cup plain soy or almond milk
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 2Tbs maple syrup (the real stuff, grade B if you can get it)

Steps:

1. Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium sized bowl.  
2. Measure the soy/almond milk in a 2 cup glass measuring cup.  Warm it up by putting it in the microwave for a minute.  This will allow the batter to bloom faster.
3. Add the vanilla and maple syrup to the soy/almond milk. Stir it up!
4. Add the wet ingredients into the dry and stir a few times.  DO NOT OVER STIR! It should remain somewhat lumpy.  Too much stirring will make a tough batter.  If the batter is too thin, add a little more flour (1Tbs at a time).
5. Let it sit for about 10 minutes before adding the batter to a pan.  This gives the batter some time for bloom and will make the pancakes fluffier.  A heavy cast iron skillet is the best to use.  Pour the batter onto a slightly oiled pan over medium low heat.  Cook for 3-5 minutes on each side- until it becomes golden brown.

Alternatives:

Chocolate Chip Pancakes:

- Add 1/2 cup of chocolate chips right before you stir up the batter (make sure the batter is cool- otherwise it will melt the chocolate chips, making chocolate swirl pancakes (which may be awesome)).

Cinnamon Molasses Pancakes:

-Add 2Tbs Molasses, 1tsp cinnamon, and 1/8tsp ground nutmeg and only use 1 cup of soy/almond milk.

Stack them and crush them!

-JD

Its been a busy summer- studying for boards, then enjoying a relaxing vacation at the beach.  After boards, I spent my free time making these two handplanes to get them ready for vacation.  They weren’t too hard to make and ended up being super fun.  I’ve been following the blog from Brownfish Handplanes (http://www.brownfishhandplanes.com) for a few months now- his work has been the major inspiration for these designs.

What you’ll need:

Cardboard for creating design template

- A thruster design. [Its easier to draw half of it and flip it for perfect symmetry].

Transfer the design to your favorite hardwood.  I used maple (available at Home Depot), but Paulownia is regarded to be the best.

I then used a hand plane and sander to help shape it.  The nose had a rounded bottom and the rear 2/3rds also gently curves up.  I shaped two channels on the bottom to give it a keel.  The side rails are curved up, and smoothed out.

2nd design was a pintail:

After painting, I sealed the board with 5 coats of waterproof polyurethane (Spar-Urethane).  I made the strap using a used bicycle tube, industrial strength water resistant Velcro (purchased at Ace Hardware), stainless steel screws, neoprene washers, and a D-ring.  I used nylon suture (perks of being a Vet) to sew the bicycle tube flat and attach the Velcro to the tube.  A small section of tube is used to secure the D-ring to one side and a longer section of tube with the velcro attached was screwed to the other.  The strap secures by sending one end through the D-ring, then using the velcro to secure it to itself.

The result- they were super fun to body surf with! Great to get more people in the water to thrash some waves!  Build your own!

-JD

This is such a simple recipe- it takes less than 10 minutes to make.  It is so good, it can also take less than 10 minutes to eat.  I was never a huge fan of regular egg salad, but this tastes pretty great.  Try it on a sandwich, on top of toast, or as a dip with crackers or tortilla chips.  So good!

Ingredients:

• 1lb firm tofu- crushed
• 1 dill pickle spear (1/4 of a whole pickle)- minced with skin removed
• 2 green onion stalks- sliced thin (remove the white portion and the tough green end)
• 1-2 garlic cloves- minced
• 1/2 tsp spicy mustard
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 1 tsp Braggs
• Pinch of dill
• 1/2 tsp tumeric
• 2 heaping tablespoons Vegenaise (serving spoon size, not the measuring spoon)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Steps:

1. Crush the tofu in a medium sized bowl- a potato masher works great for this.
2. Add the green onion, pickle, and garlic.  You can adjust the amount of garlic to suit your taste- it gives it a sharp taste.  I personally like to remove the skin of the pickle with a paring knife to give the egg salad a smoother consistency, but most people probably won’t care either way.
3. Stir things up well, then add the mustard, dill, tumeric, Braggs, and nutritional yeast.  Stir again.
4. Now add the Vegenaise.  I use two spoons for this- one spoon to scoop the Vegenaise into the tofu mixture, and the other to stir things up.  I add two heaping spoonfuls and then stir it well.  You can add more to help create the consistency that you want- less will make it stiffer, more will make a more watery consistency.
5. Add salt and pepper according to your taste, then crush it!

Enjoy!

-JD

This recipe is pretty much straight out of Vegan with a Vengeance.  It can be used anywhere you would use ricotta cheese.  I use it in stuffed shells, lasagna, pizza, even eating on its own with tortilla chips.  It was delicious in ravioli.  You can tailor the texture a bit by adjusting the tofu- extra firm tofu will make a crumbly texture, medium more like ricotta itself.  Its such an easy recipe- perfect for summer.

Ingredients:

• 1 block extra firm tofu, crushed (potato masher works great)
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely minced
• 2 tsp olive oil
• juice from 1/2 lemon (or 2Tbs)
• 10-15 fresh basil leaves, cut into tiny slivers with shears
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• large pinch of salt
• fresh ground black pepper to taste

Steps:

1. Crumble the tofu well in a medium sized bowl.  If you don’t have a hand held potato masher a large fork will do.
2. Add the olive oil, lemon juice, and garlic- mix by mashing up the tofu a bit more.
3. Add the basil and thyme, stirring well to disperse them evenly.
4. Add the nutritional yeast, salt and pepper.

Enjoy!

-JD

Its been a while since anything other than food was posted here…  I could post photos of studded bike tires and beards iced over from the -10 degree morning commute, but where’s the fun in that?  Hopefully this spring/summer will bring about more surfing trips (there was only one last year) and returning to nature.  Here’s an epic video to help get you psyched!

1967- 31.5 miles swimming.

This is my slightly tweaked version of Grandpa K’s biscotti- a great old family recipe.  He updated it to make it vegan, and I’ve changed it to be just a bit healthier (but it still tastes great!). You can change it by adding sliced almonds, chocolate chips, or anything else.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups flour (50:50 white and whole wheat works great, but white will do fine)
• 1/2 tsp salt (coarse kosher is always best!)
• 1 T baking powder
• 1 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup applesauce
• 1T melted Earth Balance
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2-1tsp anise extract (depending on how strong you want the taste to be)

Steps:

1. Combine flour, salt, and baking powder in a large bowl.
2. Combine sugar, applesauce, EB, vanilla, and anise in a separate bowl- mix well.
3. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir well, finally combining all the ingredients with your hands.
4. Divide the dough into two and make rectangular loaves.
5. Bake on an oiled cookie sheet at 325 for 25mins.
6. Let cool for about 15 minutes- let the oven cool to 300 degrees.
7. Slice the loaf with a sharp knife into 3/4-1 inch thick slices.  Put sliced side down onto the cookie sheet and bake for another 10 minutes.  Flip and bake for another 10 minutes.
8. Let cool for 15-30 minutes to let it harden (or eat them right away when they are soft and warm!)

Best served with a hot cup of french press coffee or loose leaf tea!

Enjoy!

-JD

Ravioli is one of those meals that we vegans just do not get the opportunity to enjoy that often.  Sure- there is the frozen package in the health food store that costs about $6.99 and can only feed 1.  There really aren’t any good options…

So I was challenged to make homemade Ravioli- turns out it is not hard at all!  It just takes some time to prep everything; so don’t start making this when you are already hungry (give yourself about an hour prep time or so).  This recipe is for the ravioli dough, you can fill it with anything you would like.  I filled half with tofu basil ricotta (recipe to follow soon) and the other half with fresh local spinach and Daiya mozzarella cheese.  You can add mushroom, asparagus, or just about any other vegetable (however any veggie that would require more than about 5 mins to cook should be prepared in advanced).  If you have a standing mixer, it will make things easy, but you can do everything by hand.  Instead of buying a $150+ pasta roller/ravioli maker, just use a rolling pin.

Ingredients:

• 1 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour (unbleached)
• 1 and 1/2 cups Semolina flour (available at your local health food store)
• 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
• large pinch of salt (coarse Kosher is best)
• About 1 cup warm water

Steps:

1. Mix the flours and salt together in a large bowl, or in the bowl of you mixer.
2. Add the olive oil and about 1/2 cup of the water.
3. Start mixing (use a dough hook on the lowest setting if you are using a machine).  You want the dough to be dry, but still form a solid mound.  Keep adding water in small amounts until all the flour is picked up and you have a nice stiff ball of dough.  It should be much stiffer than bread dough, without much give. 
4. Knead for about 10 minutes and then let sit for about 10-15 minutes, covered with a towel.
5. Prepare your fillings.
6. Move the dough to a clean dry counter top.  Divide in half and start kneading with a rolling pin (put the other half to the side and work with that after the first half is finished).  Apply pressure to roll the dough into a really thin sheet- as thin as you can make it without it tearing.
7. Use a pizza cutter to make long rectangular strips in the dough (about 1 1/2 -2 inches wide), then divide these further into strips about 5 inches long (you can get an idea of the size of the ravioli by folding the strip of dough in half- adjust the size as you desire).
8. Dip your finger in a cup of warm water and run it along the up side edges of the strip of dough.  Mentally divide the strip in half and put a SMALL amount of the filling in the center of one half.  If you put too much in, it will be hard to close.
9. Fold the dough in half, pinching the edges together- be sure to remove as much of the air as possible.  Also pinch along the crease to move the filling into the center of the square.
10. When you have filled that half of the dough drop the ravioli one by one into a large pot of (rolling) boiling water (with a large pinch of salt).  Boil for 5 minutes, then remove to cool.  Start rolling, cutting, and filling the second half while they are cooking.  Pour some tomato sauce or pesto over and dig in!

The recipe makes about 20-25 ravioli, depending on the size that you cut them.  If you have extra, you can freeze them to eat later, but why would you possibly have extra?

Enjoy!

-JD