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Vegan MoFo 2012: Vegan Family Bitchin’
Often, and despite the fact I absolutely love doing it, I will gripe about having to make dinner. I’m too tired, I’m too hungry, I’m too sleepy, I’m too into playing this video game, I’m too many pages into tumblr to stop now… etc.
Often, The Husband will gripe about how many dishes he has to clean. ”That’s it!” I cry, “I’m done! No more cooking!”
“No… no.. no!” He’ll look at me, then a half-smile appears. ”Just do it without dishes.”
Of course, I’m too drama for the complisult and it becomes a crazy fest of arguing and the clash of dishes (being furiously washed and/or cooked from) until dinner is served and we both settle in.
It’s a system that works. A crazy one, yes…
The book: Vegan Family Meals by Ann Gentry
Why do you have it? Well, the thing is this. I was a big Food Network/Cooking Channel junkie which has waned over the past year or so. There was one show on Veria, however, that piqued my interest for a really long time because it was vegan! That show was Naturally Delicious. While I was annoyed that she never really gave measurements for anything (they’re available on the website, but c’mon), I became fascinated just watching her cook. I almost made a drinking game where you’d have to finish your drink if she referred to Tamari as a high-quality soy sauce. I really did love that show.Well, why hadn’t you cooked from it yet? So I flipped through the book several times, as before. As before, I could not find one single, solitary thing that I wanted to cook. Further, I’ve never cooked anything I’ve seen on her show. I came close once… but ultimately, everything is complicated. Takes thousand upon thousands of ingredients… excepting recipes that I didn’t think should be recipes in the book, which were simple and things I’d done before. OK, and she has a section of the book called “Simple Meals”… but I felt that was a lie! The loaf (which was under consideration) that’s in this section has a confession of having “a few more steps than most of my Simple Meals”… and even those had a lot of steps!!!(Sorry. Had to bitch a moment.)
Did you have difficulty deciding on a recipe? Yes. While many looked good in theory… I became so tired just reading through what had to be done I thought this would be a book that actually got skipped entirely… but it didn’t.What did you make? Nutty Raspberry Muffins. I skipped this several times, considering that raspberries aren’t really in season at the moment. Upon what must have been my 1000th perusal of the book, I did read that one variation on the dish, which is a raspberry and pecan muffin, that was enjoyed was banana and walnut. And so it went. My Nutty Raspberry Muffins were made with bananas and walnuts. And not raspberries.How did the cook go? Not bad. I did lament having to separate out 8 oz of a 12 oz package of Mori Nu… but also was greatly intrigued by… tofu in a muffin? So far this had been outside the realm of my experience, so I thought, why not? I also had the spelt flour called for, and thought it’d be a grand time of trying new things. This likely is one of the simplest recipes in the book outside of oatmeal (and not counting sides or condiments… though I didn’t look too hard at those).
Did you modify? Because we know you can’t help yourself. Aside from the raspberry and pecans turning into bananas and walnuts, I did halve the sugar called for (as I believe in the sweetness of fruit and if I added that much sweetener to my muffins I would have bounced away). I halved the nuts. I increased the milk (almond instead of soy as this is what I have) to compensate since it was a liquid sweetener. Oil became apple sauce.How did the eat go? OK, the 12 muffins this recipe says it makes actually made 15 muffins. How is that even possible? Perhaps the measurements do not account for any variation on the fruit (the recipe says to blend the banana in with the tofu)? My muffin tins were swimming before I stopped being stubborn about it and got out a second pan. I likely could have made 18 muffins in truth.But this isn’t commenting on the eat. They were actually delicious. Very moist (hmm, I wonder why… I certainly didn’t need to increase the milk due to the decrease of sweetener). Not too sweet, a hint of banana, had the walnut come though. It didn’t taste like tofu!
And The Husband? He really liked them! I asked him to describe it to me and he said, “they taste… muffiny. There’s walnuts in these.” Hmmm. I asked him if they were not sweet enough, and he said they were. ”They wouldn’t be good if they weren’t sweet enough.” Fair enough. He was sad that I used a second muffin pan however. More dishes.Will you cook from this book again? Despite my bitching and griping… there’s a small possibility. For all the complaining I do about Ann Gentry… I find it hard not to be fascinated by the recipes. Perhaps there will come a time where I have the time and all of the things needed to try another dish. Who knows?So, what’s your favorite vegan family meal? Chana Masala. Particularly this one.And my favorite family moment captured for Tumblr. The dish that looks to dethrone pizza (which doesn’t qualify quite yet until I learn how to make them well… then let the battle royal commence!)
A Brooklyn, NY transplant in her mid-thirties woman who lost 176 pounds, whinges on about not having time to knit, cooks food, became a veganist, loves pizza and hates everything (though now she's trying not to).
