Happy National Escargot Day!

What did they say when the snail drove by in the race car?

LOOK AT THAT S CAR GO!

(Say it out loud - you'll get it.)

This was one of my sister's favorite jokes throughout childhood.  I am telling it absolutely wrong - there is some portion where the snail paints an S on his car.  But at any rate, this joke is why I've always known that the fancy french dish known as "escargot" is actually cooked snails.

What I didn't know until poking around for this post is that it involves a surprising amount of cruelty to the snails (that is, beyond boiling them alive).  Apparently the process takes weeks.  They're made to fast, and then cleanse - which would be all fine and good if it was just for their personal health... which of course it isn't.

You will be unsurprised to discover that I vote to leave the snails in their shells, alive and happily exploring the world.  And so, Happy Snails are Awesome Day!  Go make yourself a snail friend today.

Happy National Taffy Day!

Here in New Orleans, we have our own kind of taffy - it's called Roman Candy, and it has been brightening the lives of children throughout the city for over a hundred years.

I believe I've mentioned this before.

Today is also World Turtle Day, which is just cool. :)

Happy National Vanilla Pudding Day!

Vanilla pudding is a simple, comforting, delicious and creamy treat.  For me personally it brings back fond childhood memories of post-dinner desserts.

There are accidentally and intentionally vegan pudding mixes out there.  But here's the really cool part: you can make your own vegan pudding mix!  You'll have to cook it.

If you are an awesome lazy jerk like me, you might go the Jello pudding mix route.  YES.  Using a combination of coconut milk and almond milk (one cup of each), vanilla Jello pudding mix (one box), and an immersion blender, delicious vanilla pudding can be yours.  You can also of course just use a whisk like a normal person.

(Apparently I am not the first person to think of this.)

And if you've just made a delicious chocolate cake, you can even make a parfait.

Also, Happy International Harvey Milk Day!

Ten reasons that I freaking love New Orleans, Part 9: the flowers.

Yes, we do live in a subtropical paradise - thanks for asking.

Happy National Quiche Lorraine Day!

 Quiche is one of those foods that seems like it would be impossible to veganize.  And yet, it's actually quite easy to make a vegan quiche.  Likewise, both bacon and cheese seem that they would be restricted to omnivores, and yet really tasty vegan versions of each are now readily available.

Behold!  Vegan Quiche Lorraine is within our grasp!

Quiche Lorraine is considered the "original" or "classic" quiche.  While the vegan version is a pretty far cry from healthy, it can still be considered healthier than the animal-fat and cholesterol filled non-vegan version - being that it's made of eggs, cheese, bacon, and heavy cream.

Ours is made with vegan bacon, vegan cheese, tofu, and vegetable stock.  A bit better right?

I say ours, but I really mean my husband's.  He makes quiche using a pre-made crust from Whole Foods, one block of extra-firm tofu, and about half a cup of stock all blended in the vita-mix and well seasoned with the usual suspects (garlic salt, some pink salt and turmeric for that eggy feel, and so on).  For the Lorraine effect, we mixed in one package of chopped Upton's seitan bacon and one cup of Diaya shreds.

The whole mess is poured in the pie crust and baked for 40 minutes on 350.  Awesome bonus: it makes an awesome breakfast quiche straight from the fridge the next morning!

Happy National Devil's Food Cake Day!

It's hard for me to name a "favorite" cake.  Cake is just so delicious.  So I suppose you could say that the my favorite cake is the one in front of me, ha ha.  But I will say that when given a choice, I'm often swayed by chocolate.  So what could be better than devil's food?!

I used this recipe, subbing apple sauce for the flax, and the results were delicious.  I mean really, really delicious.  I didn't even put icing on it.  I just ate that freakin delicious cake with nuthin.  I brought it to work, and my whole (non-vegan) office freaking loved it too.  YEAH.  CAKE.

Due to its lack of icing, it wasn't very photographable.  So here's a picture of my kitten.

What's your favorite cake?

Happy National Cheese Souffle Day!

Happy Cheese Souffle Day!  I must admit, I was initially stumped by this day.  Not only have I never eaten a souffle, much less a vegan cheese souffle - I've certainly never tried to make one!  So I was skeptical.  But then I found this recipe, and then this one, and thought, well maybe.  If they can do it, why can't I?

Well, I have yet to try.  I went to a graduation and then sang karaoke instead.  I'll tell you what - why don't you give it a shot and let me know how it turns out?

Happy National Cherry Cobbler Day!

So, not that surprisingly, cherry cobbler is very similar to peach cobbler - a sort of bastard pie.  Oddly though, recipes suggest baking the peach cobbler crust down, and cherry cobbler crust up.  Thus is the way of the world, I suppose.

This recipe seems ridiculously easy to veganize, and when cherries come into season this summer I plan to try it out!  (Don't forget to find organic cherries - their high sugar content and thin skin leads to excessive pesticide-ing in conventionally grown crops.)

Ten reasons that I freaking love New Orleans, Part 8: The Music.

You heard it here first: There's great music in New Orleans!!  Just kidding.  You've been hearing it your whole life, and it's been true for a lot longer than that.

I come from a musical family, and have sometimes wondered whether I missed the boat with this here desk job.  My grandfather played Dixieland Jazz and repaired instruments, and used to woo crowds at the Peristyle in City Park back in the days when it was used as a dancing pavilion.  My mom plays and tunes pianos, and my dad plays trumpet.  My sister and I both dabbled when we were young, but that's a story for another day.

There's no question that Nola is saturated with amazing musicians.  Where would the world be without Irma Thomas, the Neville brothers, the Marsallis family, Quintron and Miss Pussycat, the Bingo! Show, and all those fantastic brass bands?  It would be a colder duller place, there is no doubt.

But I must say, my favorite piece of our musical culture is its accessibility.  It is everywhere, permeating our daily lives.  Beyond the numerous festivals that pepper our springs and falls, there are the plethora of musical acts large and small that can be found around town on any given night, many for free.  Wednesdays at the Square brings free performances throughout the spring.  Our music is ubiquitous, and powerful, and available to all who wish to partake.

It has come to my attention...

...that today is also National Chocolate Chip day.  And with a preliminary note about the importance of buying fair trade chocolate, I offer you the following without further ado:

Melissa Bastian's Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies
4 tsp ground flaxseed
4 Tbsp warm water
2 cups white flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
Optional: 1 tsp cinnamon
1 1/3 cups margarine (yes, almost three sticks... it's a lot of cookies!)
1 1/4 cups white sugar
1 cup light brown sugar, loosely packed
4 tsp vanilla extract
8 to 12 ounces {vegan, fair trade} chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Set out your margarine to soften. Line at least two large cookie sheets with parchment paper. (You don't have to use parchment paper for these, but it just makes cleanup so darned easy! If you're not using it, use nonstick sheets or better yet a combo of a nonstick sheet with a very light coating of baking spray or oil. Very light!)

The first thing you're going to do is make your flax "eggs". If you haven't done this before, it's awesome. Apparently you can just mix the ground flaxseed with warm water and let it sit, so if you don't have a vegetable chopper no worries. But if you do have one, well that's my preferred method. Combine the water and ground flaxseed in the chopper, and pulse/blend for a few minutes until the mixture basically reaches the consistency of egg whites. It really will! It's kind of creepy, but very good for your cookies. Set aside.

Combine your dry ingredients minus sugars (flours, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon if you're using it).

In a separate, large bowl (and if you're making the full recipe, I mean LARGE), cream the sugars and softened (not melted!) margarine together until they reach a nice creamy even consistency. I find that sometimes this is a two spatula job - as in hold one spatula (or spoon) in each hand and work the mixture into itself by pushing the implements together. Just do it and you'll see what I mean. Then mix in your flax eggs and vanilla extract. Mix until completely homogeneous.

Now begin adding your drys. Sift some and mix, sift some and mix. The more you add the more difficult it will become to stir (duh), so I hope you have a strong shoulder. Mix until consistent - if you find any brown sugar lumps crumble them with your fingers. If they're too hard for that, probably better to just toss them out. (And if there are many that are too hard, you probably need new brown sugar!)

Now for your favorite part - chocolate chips! Fold those suckers in. Remember that if you OD on chips, your cookies may not hold together - you want to have a good cookie-to-chip ratio. This looks like a crazy amount of chips, but considering how much dough is under there it's just about right. Don't cheap out on your chips. Good chocolate chips is one of the secrets to good chocolate chip cookies. Like, duh. And when buying chocolate, consider your sources - there's some wicked stuff going on in the chocolate market (and I mean that literally).

This dough refrigerates well. So if you're like me, and you do something silly and short-sighted like start making cookie dough at eleven o'clock at night, and then need to go to bed, s'ok. Just cover it up, stick it in the fridge, and put off the fun part until tomorrow. If you pre-heated your oven thinking you were gonna power through, you probably wanna turn that off. It's a little pricey and not terribly safe as a heater.

Moon... stars... sunrise... TIME TO BAKE!

I have to say, baking cookies is an awesome way to start the day. Don't know if I could do it every day, but it sure put a smile on my face this weekend.

Alright. So what you want to do here is roll your dough into (to steal a PPK-ism) "walnut" sized balls and place them at least two inches apart on your baking sheets. These suckers spread like whoa. When placing them on the sheet, I also squish them down just a little bit with my palm. You can spoon them out instead of rolling, but they come out in nicer rounder shapes if you roll. Rolling, of course, is far easier if the dough has gone into the fridge for a while.  And I do use a spoon to help me get the right amount of dough for the balls.

Bake for 12 minutes in your pre-heated oven. Let them cool for at least five minutes before you eat them - they come out VERY soft. Actually, they come out downright puffy, and you'll think something has gone terribly wrong. But within a couple of minutes they sort of collapse, which unlike when your souffle does it is a good thing, and become just like you want them to be. DELICIOUS.