VeganMoFo day #17 - Bake Sale for Giving Campaign

I made some stuff for the bake sale at Andy's work.

First up: Ginger gems cookies from Vegetarian Times. They are really tasty because they have walnuts (chopped really fine), crystalized ginger and a lime glaze. Typically I drizzle it and make cool designs, but not today. I press them very flat before baking. They keep their shape well, so would be good w/ cutters. A very good holiday cookie.

I used 1/2 whole wheat flour instead of all whole wheat. I also burned 1/2 of them --- woohoo!


I also made mini blueberry scones using the Classic Currant Scones recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking. I made a thick glaze made of powdered sugar and lemon juice. They needed it because the blueberries weren't sweet enough. Next time I will use some dried sweetened blueberries so I won't need glaze.


Bringing vegan items to the sale would have been pseudo successful if the vegans out there didn't know they were vegan, so I made tags for them that had the ingredients listed. I had Andy send an email to the veg alias letting them know about the jack-o-lantern secret code on the tag so they could easily spot them.

VeganMoFo day #16 - Cooking class #5 Autumn Equinox Detox --- African Groundnut Stew

The African Groundnut Stew in The Voluptuous Vegan is the best squash type soup ever. I roast the yams and the squash because it makes it easier and no chopping needed. It also has ginger, yucca (or turnip), peanut butter, celery, roasted cauliflower, among other things. The peanut butter combined w/ the root vegetables almost makes it taste like there is a really delicious mystery bean in the stew. YUM! I guess I could freeze some of this, but I usually can't control myself and eat it all in a few days.


Class #5
I took my 5th cooking class (out of 10 for this fall session) at PCC this week. It was a detox class for the Autumn Equinox. If you live in the Seattle area, you should take this class. I learned a lot of things. Some things weren't new, but were organized in such a way that I thought about them differently. I'm definitely taking more classes taught by these instructors, Birgitte Antonsen and Karen Lamphere.

This detox was about cleaning out toxins by maximizing on foods that help the liver and GI tract. The two instructors alternated between lecture and a recipe demos. They made the best lentil soup that I have ever had.

One interesting bit of info was that if planning for and doing the detox was stressful to you, don't do it. Never do a detox if you're stressed. Also, if you incorporate more of these foods or recipes in your normal diet, a detox won't be necessary because you're already doing it. Makes sense.

Kale came up a lot because it's great at helping out the liver. Just one more reason to eat Kale ;-).