Monday, December 24, 2007

Sorry it's been so long! I promise to make it up to you with recipes for Mango Salsa, Minty Dog Bones, Maple Corn Fritters and Cedar Smoked Tofu.

I apologize for not keeping up with blogging, but I have a good excuse!

I am not even done yet!

Here it is, Christmas Eve, and I still have baking, knitting and wrapping to finish. It seems I do this to myself every year. I think I am on schedule, but I always end up running out of time!

Anyhow, we went to my mom's house over the weekend to celebrate an early Christmas out on her ranch in Tehachapi. She really does deserve a special mom of the year prize for making sure there was enough for me to eat. She also introduced me as "the Vegan daughter" to her friends and neighbors. I guess that beats some other names she could've given me, right? In Tehachapi, in was an average of about 30-40 degrees while we were there. For me, a SoCal native, that was pretty darn cold. But even in the cold weather, my mom's true nativeness came out and she made a wonderful Mango Salsa that I am going to share with you now. It was so very yummy!

Mom's Mango Salsa

Mango Salsa
Ingredients:
1 cup mango, diced
½ cup finely diced cilantro
½ cup red onion, finely diced
1 teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon salt (use more if needed)
½ teaspoon black pepper
1 serrano chili, seeded and veins removed, finely diced
Directions:Mix all ingredients and refrigerate overnight to enhance flavor. Serve with tortilla chips.


Since we brought the doggies up with us to her house, she thought it would be a good idea to bake them some treats too. Here is my mom's secret recipe for Yummy Minty Doggie Bones. She even wrapped them in festive little celo bags and made them in the shapes of gingerbread men. Isn't my mom just the best?


Minty Dog Bones

Minty Dog Bones
Ingredients:1 Tablespoon Vegetable Oil
1 Cup Water
2 ½ Cups Whole Wheat Flour
½ Cup Oatmeal
2 Tablespoons Dried Mint
1/3 Cup Chopped Parsley
Directions:Mix oil and water, slowly add flour and other ingredients. Roll dough out on a flat surface.
Cut with cookie cutters. Bake 35 minutes at 325 degrees. I usually turn them half way
through to make sure they don’t brown too much on one side. Makes about 2 dozen depending
on the size of your cookie cutter.

For breakfast on Sunday (aka Christmas) morning, we all gathered around the tree to open presents and then we all had a hearty breakfast of Maple Corn Fritters. Yep, I made the manly men eat vegan fritters. Gasp! They actually liked them!

Maple Corn Fritters

Maple Corn Fritters (from Cozy Inside)
makes 4 HUGE fritters or 8 smaller ones
Ingredients
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup all purpose flour
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp sea salt
1 cup soy milk
¼ cup pure maple syrup (I use Grade B)
Equivalent of 2 eggs (flax eggs or ener-g works well here)
1 cup frozen or canned corn kernels
Directions
Whisk together corn meal, flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl mix together soy milk, syrup and egg replacers. Add wet to dry and mix well. Fold in corn kernels. Let mixture sit about 5 minutes before cooking. Heat a cast iron or heavy bottomed skillet on high heat with about 1 tbsp of oil. Ladle in the batter. Cook as you would a pancake, flipping when the bubbles are popping and the edges are curling. No longer than 1-2 minutes per side. Serve warm, drowning in Earth Balance and maple syrup. Grade B, of course.


And finally, here is a very easy way to prepare tofu. Cedar Smoked Tofu. So simple.

Cedar Plank Smoked Tofu

First, find yourself a food safe cedar plank. Soak it in water for at least an hour, more if you have time. Preheat your ofen to 200 degrees. Slice up a block of extra firm tofu and arrange it on the plank. Place the plank in the oven and bake for at least 90 minutes and up to 3 hours. The outside of the tofu will brown and become firm. The inside will stay moist and chewy. Use the tofu in any recipe. I just diced mine up and mixed it in with some green beans and garlic. YUMP!

9 comments:

Melisser; the Urban Housewife said...

OMG, those fritters! I need to make them sometime, I'm not sure I've ever had a fritter!

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

wow, you've certainly been up to a lot of cooking!! aww, the minty dog bones are so cute - I'd love to make those for my little dog!! :0)

happy holidays!!

julie hasson said...

Hey Joni! Wow have you been busy!

Your fritters look so good that I think I have to make them for breakfast in the morning. Yummy!!

Happy holidays!

Julie

mustardseed said...

Finally you're here! Yay...I had a sleepover at my vegetarian Indian friens's house from yesterday till just now. Her mom does really nice authentic Indian food and she stuffed me so full!

I'm gonna ask her for recipes and post on myblog, then everyone can enjoy Indian vegan cuisine too!

I had:

thick dahl with rice and curried cauliflower stir fry,

pau bhaji(mixed veggie mash stir fry) with EB-ed burger buns,

dosas with dahl chutney,

tofu in curried spinach puree with phulka(Indian whole wheat flatbread),

okra stir fry and tomato chutney on phulka

Ashasarala said...

Sounds like you had an awesome Christmas! :)

I made your peanut butter fudge recipe. It was excellent! Thanks for posting it.

mustardseed said...

Oh Joni keep us updated with burgers too! I just got burger buns, I should try your burgers soon...it's such a pity school holidays are ending for us and I alreasy have to go for orientation in my new school!

It means I'm so short of time...

Oh maybe an idea for your future cookbook after justtheburgers can be hurried-student themed...(: just a suggestion.

Anonymous said...

those fritters are calling me!!!!

yum.

jd said...

Hi Joni!

Thanks for the great corn fritter recipe. I just made them yesterday, & plan to post a link to your blog.

(In fact, your recipe will be the first of my new Saturday postings of recipes that I've made from other people's food blogs.) :)

It's funny because I ended up stacking the fritters up for my photo, too. However, my picture didn't turn out as pretty as yours did - but they still tasted good!

Happy New Year!

Margaret said...

Oh my what a wonderful post. Thank you. I also wanted to lick the screen as I'm on day 22 of my 30-40 juice cleanse. Always looking for inspiration for meals to fix my family. Thank you!!
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All recipes written by me, Joni Marie Newman, unless otherwise noted. Please feel free to refer to or link back to any of my recipes, but please ask for permission, and remember to give credit when reprinting recipes in their entirety. I do provide links to affiliate programs (such as Amazon) in which I receive a small commission for items purchased. I do not provide paid reviews. All reviews done on products or books are of my own unsolicited opinion. On occasion I may receive a book or product to review. I will note when this is the case, but rest assured, it will not affect the authenticity of my review. Thanks!--Joni