Raid The Cupboard Vegan Christmas Cookies

Mom baked all year long, but only
at Christmas did she turn out an array
of cookies that made we three
sisters drool.

It seems that every family has it's favorite cookie. My sister-in-law adores Snickerdoodles and two of my seven grandkids think they are the only cookie worth making. My husband loved all cookies and it mattered not what they were made of. Somehow, he managed to get his large hand in and out of our cookie jar with great dexterity. My daughter-in-law makes the best oatmeal cookies in the world. I kid you not. She has won several Blue Ribbons with that cookie and lucky me, she shared the recipe so I could make them too. But that's another post.

Church suppers were the norm in the
tiny town of my youth. I think we went
to every one of them, no matter what the
denomination.

Growing up in Minnesota, our family ate a vast array of Norwegian and Swedish cookies that appeared only during the Christmas season. Since my dad was a business owner, we got invited to any and every church Christmas supper for miles around our little rural town. My mom got some of those recipes and they became our favorites too, even though we had to wait a whole year for them to show up once more on our table. But that's another post too.

Shortly after I was married, I went to
mom's and copied all her recipes I'd
grown to love. The cards were stained
and the print had grown dim. Now my
cards look just like hers.

With the holidays upon us, it seemed like the right time for me to share tried and true cookie recipes that I grew up with and love to this day. During the coming month, I'll share the best of the best recipes that I've veganized successfully and I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. I also hope you print out or write down the ingredients and stash that piece of paper wherever you keep your treasured recipes. I also hope that over the next many years, your recipe cards become as stained and wrinkled as mine are.

RAID THE CUPBOARD COOKIES

These are NOT the most beautiful cookies you'll
ever make. Nor do they travel well. But they do
stay fresh a long time and chances are,
they won't last long enough to get stale anyway.

1 stick of vegan margarine, room temperature

3/4 cup of sugar

1/4 cup plus 2 Tbs. of unsweetened applesauce

2 Tbs. non dairy milk

1 cup flour

1 cup rolled oats

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup diced nuts, your choice

1 cup flaked coconut

1 cup raisins

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup dried mixed fruit

This is my personal favorite brand
of mixed dried fruit

You can change the ingredients to whatever you wish. Just make sure that if you eliminate 1 cup of one thing, you make up for it by using 2 cups of another ingredient. Since I'm not a big fan of chocolate chips, I change the mixed fruit and chocolate chips around. Sometimes I exchange the raisins for chopped dates. The recipe is quite versatile. Just keep the quantities as given.

Preheat the oven to 350.

In a medium sized bowl, beat the margarine and sugar until it is light and fluffy. About 2-3 minutes. Add the applesauce, vanilla, and non-dairy milk. Mix to blend.

Use any uncooked
oatmeal you have on
hand.

Now add the flour and oatmeal along with the baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Mix till just blended. Do not overbeat or you'll have a tough cookie.

Stir the remaining ingredients into the dough by hand and then drop the dough by teaspoonfuls about 2 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake 12-15 minutes or until the edges are nicely brown. Allow the cookies to cool a bit on the sheet before moving them to a rack to finish cooling. Small pieces will fall off each cookie. Don't be alarmed. I've made this recipe at least a hundred times and that is the norm. Once cool, the cookie hardens a little so they can be transferred to your cookie jar. They can also be frozen for up to a month with no noticeable difference in taste.

I love this cookie. Not only because it is easy to make but because I don't feel guilty giving them to my grandkids. All told, they are a healthy alternative to most cookies out there.

Whoever thought of drying cranberries
to they could be used in assorted
treats goes down in my book as
a genius. 

Eggplant And The Best Caponata Ever

I love eggplant. Always have. Mom used to slice it into circles, sprinkle with salt, set the slices in a colander and let the " bitterness" run out. I don't mess with all that. I don't know, maybe eggplant growing has changed since I was a kid. Maybe the vegetable isn't bitter at all and mom just thought it was. Once the slices were ready for cooking, she'd give them a good rinse under cold water, dry them well, dip them in beaten egg then into crushed cracker crumbs and fry them in a whole lot of butter. My sisters and I always fought over who got the most and if but one slice was left on the serving plate, we had to draw straws to see who got it.

In all those years since the 1940s, we've learned a thing or two about cooking healthy. And while I would dearly love to eat eggplant fixed mom's way, I don't allow myself to do it. What I have discovered though is that eggplant is just plain good the way God made it. I do tend to peel it because to me, the peel is difficult to chew. Other than that, the vegetable is good baked or stewed or grilled or roasted.

I've tried caponata before and truthfully, never thought it was anything to rave about, let alone take the time to make. That is until I saw Chef Anne Burrell cook it up on the Food Channel. Doggone, the recipe was vegan and the only thing I tweaked was to add some tofu to make the dish a complete meal. I could barely wait to get into the kitchen and if you've known me long, you know that I absolutely hate cooking. But something about this recipe called to me. And guess what? It is undoubtedly the best caponata I've ever eaten--bar none. Thanks, Anne.

1 large eggplant, peeled and diced into 1" cubes
3 Tbs. olive oil

Fennel has a licorice taste and while some
like it raw, I prefer it cooked.

Salt and pepper

1 large red onion, cut into medium dice
1 pinch of red pepper flakes
1 fennel bulb, cut into half-inch dice
3 celery ribs, diced
6 garlic cloves, sliced thin
1 red and 1 yellow bell pepper, cut into medium dice
2 zucchini, cut into medium dice
8 oz. firm tofu, drained and pressed, cut into half-inch cubes
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup tomato paste
2 Tbs. sugar
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup golden raisins (I used regular since I was out of the golden ones)
1/4 cup capers, drained
1/4 cup pine nuts (I used almonds as that's what I had)
1/2 bunch of fresh mint, cut into slivers

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Toss the cubed eggplant with the olive oil, salt and pepper and lay it in a single layer on a sheet pan. Roast it for 15-20 minutes.

Coat a deep pot with olive oil. Toss in the onion and crushed red pepper. Season with salt and pepper. Cook over medium high heat until the onions are soft. About 8-10 minutes.

Spend the $ for fresh mint. It makes
all the difference in the world.

Add the fennel, celery, garlic and tofu and cook another 5-6 minutes. Stir in the peppers and cook another 6 minutes. Add the zucchini and season with salt and pepper once more. Cook over medium heat until all the vegetables are soft. Toss in the eggplant, the water and the tomato paste. Cook until the water is evaporated. Dissolve the sugar in the vinegar in a small bowl and add it to the mixture. Stir in the raisins, capers, nuts, and mint. Cook another 5-6 minutes.

Serves 6-8 and while I served it hot with garlic bread, it's good cold too.

You know how some recipes just get better and better the longer they sit?
Well this is one of them. It was great on day one. Better on day 2. But
by day 3, what little was left, had an incredible depth of flavor.

Tipsy Baked Caramel Apples--Oh My!

Sometimes when I'm experimenting in the kitchen, things go terribly wrong. I just don't tell you about them. Yet every so often, my experiments turn out better than I'd expected and today's recipe is one of those.

Last week I baked some apples. They were plain old apples done the plain old way. And while I thought they were delicious, I began wondering if I could step them up a bit. Later in the week, I bought a caramel apple and enjoyed every sticky bite. Then I got to thinking. Could I come up with a baked caramel apple? How would I go about it? Would it be successful or toss in the garbage bad? The only way to know was to give it a try.

I thought on it for three or four days before I decided to try my luck. Surprisingly, I came through with a happy discovery that I'm passing on to you. And even though I'm still trying to figure out how to step-up the caramel taste, this is as close as I've gotten for now.

I would have to say that if you are a baked apple lover, you're going to like this recipe. Those wanting more caramel can experiment themselves or wait for me to come up with a better plan. In the meantime, try these apples that are stuffed with fruit and nuts, topped with gooey caramel, and baked in rum-infused apple cider. You won't be sorry. I promise.

This is NOT my baked caramel apple but a stand in. I cannot find my camera, though I've looked everywhere. Imagine this apple covered in caramel. Can you see it?

BAKED CARAMEL APPLES

Mix  together in a small bowl:

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup chopped nuts of choice, lightly toasted

1/4 cup raisins

Zest of 1/2 lemon

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. cloves

Core 8 apples of your choice; I used Fuji. Stand them in a baking dish that is no more than 2" high. Fill each apple with the brown sugar/nut mix. If some falls to the bottom of the pan, leave it.

Pour 2/3 cup of apple cider into the bottom of the pan along with 1 jigger of rum. I used spiced rum. Toss about 6 whole cloves into the liquid. They won't be edible, but they'll give the juice a lovely fragrance.

Top the apples with a spoonful of the vegan caramel sauce (recipe follows)

Cover with foil, bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Uncover and bake another 15 minutes. To serve, ladle some of the cider/rum sauce into a bowl, add the apple, and top with a bit more of the caramel sauce. Add vegan whipped cream or ice cream if desired.

Serves 8

VEGAN CARAMEL SAUCE

Into a saucepan put:

2 cups white sugar

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup agave nectar or white corn syrup

Bring to a low boil, swirling to keep things moving. Do NOT stir with a spoon. Cook about 12 minutes.

When the mixture is a golden brown, stir in:

1/2 cup coconut milk

2 Tbs. vegan margarine

pinch of salt

Stir carefully as the golden caramel mixture will bubble up. That is how it should be. Turn off the heat and let the caramel cool a bit before using.

Have a blessed Thanksgiving!

"Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name."

Psalms 100:4

Quinoa with Raisins and Nuts

Quinoa.

What?

Quinoa.

How do you spell it?

Q U I N O A.

How did you say it?

Keen wa. 

Oh. I always wondered what that word was.

And so it went. Before she ate it she had to know what it was. I explained that it was an ancient grain, eaten by the Incas, now grown in the US, packed with protein iron potassium magnesium and lysine. By many it's considered one of the Super Foods. JUST TRY IT.

I was getting impatient with her reluctance to dig in. Her fork finally made it to her mouth and she was surprised. Quinoa is really mostly about the texture. The flavor is mild nutty and easily embellished with herbs and sauces. I admit that the little pop quinoa makes when you bite into one is a surprise at first. And yes, they get stuck between your teeth. Alone it taste a little like nothing, why bother. You must bother, with herbs and spices and fruit and whatever it takes, because it's so good for you. Aren't you tired of the same old same old? 

This recipe has a little Indian twist to it. Because I had a guest with a certain resistance for things new, I went easy on the spices. You could easily adjust the recommendations here, doubling them even.    

3/4 cup quinoa, rinsed

salt, pepper

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 small red onion, diced

1/4 teaspoon cumin, ground

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, ground

1/4 teaspoon ginger, ground

1/4 teaspoon coriander, ground

1/8 teaspoon turmeric

1.4 cup chopped cilantro

1/4 cup raisins (or currants)

3 tablespoons toasted pine nuts or almonds

1 teaspoon grated lemon or orange zest

Cook quinoa in 1 1/2 cup water with 1/4 tsp salt.

Saute onion in olive oil with the spices until soft

Drain quinoa and toss with the onion, spices and cilantro, raisins, nuts and zest.

Serve on a bed of the salad green of your choice.