Domestipithecus

Well, Happy Ape really. My mother-in-law got me an awesome gift (she got my name in the name draw)!

How cool is that? I have a littler one on my sidebar now. Heee…

Have a safe and happy holiday season!

I am so crazy excited. Vegan Essentials just notified me that the Angel Food kits are in and I ordered some! YAY for vegan meringue!!!!!!

My favoritest cookies I used to make were meringue surprise cookies. Meringue with chocolate chips “hidden” inside. Oh good gravy I cannot wait to make these vegan-wise

*dances*

Well, I am back from a pretty dern horrible week. Last Monday I received a call telling me a family member had died in a horrible car crash. He was only 21. He was the most adorable child and seemed to be growing into a pretty awesome guy. It was a difficult couple of days, watching his mother have to deal with the loss of her child and watching my grandmother get just a bit more sad and angry as she continues to watch people she loves die.

His sisters and friends got up and spoke. I think that was the hardest part of all. Watching these young people in so much pain. It was heartbreaking when his mom went up to comfort one of his closest firends, who looked like he wasn’t going to make it through the pain. It brings tears to my eyes just writing about it now.

This is how I will always remember Joshua Robert. The smiling, beautiful, little boy.

This is the young man he was at the time of his death. The young man I never really got to know, living so far away, but someone who was loved very much by all who knew him.

I flew back east on Tuesday to be there for the Wed. afternoon calling hours. The funeral was Thursday and I came back (just barely) on Friday.

The ‘just barely’ is because of the ice storm they had that brought down trees, power lines and telephone lines. We lost power on Thursday evening and my sister just got it back today, and she is one of the lucky ones. Everyone around her is still without.

All in all, it was a miserable trip.

That said, we got our Vegan Essentials shipment while I was gone, so yummy vegan stuffs to come.

I have some pics that I haven’t uploaded, but will hopefully get to this weekend. Just wanted to post a glance at Boo’s Xmas stocking.

This is done with the two handed technique I learned at The Philosopher’s Wool website. I hope it gets better with blocking. Yeah yeah, it’s wool… I never claimed to be a full blown vegan yet. Babysteps ok?)

When Boo and I would get back from our long runs while marathon training, I would cook up a tofu scramble to help feed our depleted bodies. It worked quite well except for the getting home from running anywhere from 10 to 18 miles and having to freaking chop veggies and cook.

One day I decided to get tortillas and make the scramble and assemble breakfast burritos the night before so we could just nuke them. They were fine like that.

Then, when I was having my mother, sister and cousin in the house the morning of the wedding (my family stayed here, his family stayed at his parents’ house) I made them up a week ahead of time and froze them.  That worked even better.

Now, I make a double batch when we are running out (about 3 or 4 left) and put them in the freezer so we always have a quick breakfast (or even a lunch or dinner if we feel like it). This is based on the tofu scramble in How it All Vegan.

I take two blocks of extra firm tofu, not silken, and wrap and press before even starting the fauxsage mix.

For the inside, I make a fauxsage (scroll down to see). I used to chop it up into small bits, but since we got a KitchenAid grinding attachment as a wedding gift, I am able to grind the thing up. This works so much better as it distributes wonderfully throughout the mixture. Much better than the chopped pieces.

This time I made an apple-sage sausage. Basically I used the pumpkin-sage recipe linked above, but used apple sauce instead of pumpkin puree and I upped the sage a little.

Once the sausage was done baking, I put it on a rack to cool and started preparing the veggies. This will vary depending on what we get in our box scheme and what I have already prepared, but frozen.

This time
1 large yellow onion - chopped small but no need for full on dicing
1 large green pepper - this was frozen this time so was already chopped
3 medium red potatoes - diced
4-5 cloves of garlic - crushed (though Boo and I love garlic so I usually throw in even more)
3 small vine tomatoes - chopped
Approx 1Tbsp curry

After I finish the veggies, I grind up the sausage - about two-thirds of it. It should be cool enough by this time. I save the other third for other things like country sausage gravy or pizza topping.

I lightly spray a large (I use this one) pan and put the potatoes in. Once they seem near done, I take them out and set aside.

Then the onions and peppers go in. Cook them for a little bit, you don’t want them all the way done or they will get crazy mushy. Once they seem cooked but still firm, add the crushed garlic. Stir that around for a couple minutes.

Add ground sausage. Cook for a couple minutes.

Add potatoes back in. Cook for a couple minutes.

Take the tofu and crumble it in. Cook for a couple minutes and then sprinkle in curry. I usually just add this from the container so the measurement is a guesstimate. I sprinkle some on, mix and if it looks like it needs more, add some.

Once the curry has been thoroughly mixed with all the ingredients, add in the tomatoes (juice and all). Mix it up and then let it cook a bit. I put the cover on to keep in the moisture, but it’s not necessary.

After that is all done I set the mixture aside and cook the tortillas. I just buy flour ones at the store. I cook them briefly over my gas flame on the stove, just enough to soften and brown in spots. Then I roll. Boo taught me how to do this well - he worked at Del Taco when he was younger.
Place a good amount on the tortilla (ignore the bit of filling I dropped on the counter)

Fold it in half and with a little pressure slide the top towards you, compacting the filling

Fold the sides in slightly diagonally so that the open part is a little slimmer than the bulk of the burrito

Et voila! A nice looking, tightly packed burrito.

I stack ‘em while I make ‘em

Then spread them out to cool before putting into freezer bags to await being eaten!

To cook after freezing
Wrap loosely in a paper towel on a microwave safe plate. Nuke for 1 1/2 minutes. Flip. Nuke for 1 1/2 minutes.

MMMM good eatin’.