Product Review: Nacheez - It Even Fools the Cats!

At Berkeley Vegan Earth Day, I had the opportunity to sample and bring home two jars of Nacheez - a vegan "queso" style cheese to pour over nachos.  I had all sorts of ideas about steamed broccoli and mac-n-cheese but to be honest - both jars of Nacheez Spicy ended up on Nachos.  My friend Scott (an omnivore) & I had nachos with 1 bag of organic tortilla chips, 4 chopped up spring onions and some spicy organic salsa - that made a pretty good dinner.  The Nacheez is mostly nutritional yeast based, and pretty low calorie - 1 jar is 7 servings, at 20 calories per serving that's 140 calories per jar.

To be honest - I didn't even sample the mild version.  The spicy version isn't too spicy but it has a nice flavor with bits of peppers in it, smoky, cheesy and rich.  My cats went loco when I heated up the nachos and while my friend & I were eating them.  George, especially, was all over my lap, begging for cheesy goodness. 

Right now, it's available at Never Felt Better Vegan Boutique and at Food Fight! (they do online orders).

This is totally NOT the sort of thing that I would have bought based on anyone's review or seeing it on a shelf.  I never bought the non-vegan versions but this stuff is way better in flavor than the horribly oily orange non-vegan queso stuff that gets slopped on tortilla chips. 

I'm all over Nacheez - looking forward to getting my hands on some more - but it does seem kind of silly for me to order it from a Portland store when it is made 100 miles away in Sacramento... so I guess I'll have to wait for it to show up here.

Plant Sale in Oakland on May 7!

Thanks to Girl on Bike for excellent news about an upcoming North Oakland plant sale

Spring Plant Swap in the North Oakland Golden Gate Community. 

Have plants you need to prune? Extras that don't seem to fit in with your home or garden? Started too many seeds this year? Why not bring them all down to the North Oakland Plant Swap and trade them with your neighbors for some new-to-you plants and gardening supplies.

At the plant swap you can bring plants, cuttings, seedlings, starts, foraged plants, and seeds of edible & non edible plants.
This is also a great place to bring any extra gardening supplies you have: pots, natural fertilizers, vermicompost/worms, garden tools, stepping stones, etc. 
Pass them all on to a new home and come pick up some new-to-you plants for your garden and home.

Need to donate your plants earlier than the swap date? No problem. We will be accepting donations at the swap location May 4th, 5th, & 6th. 

The only entrance fee is something brought to add to the swap.
*Please remember to label each of your plants with these Plant Information Sheets

Spring Swap:

Saturday May 7th

12-3pm

5927 San Pablo Ave.

Oakland, CA 94608

(on the Berkeley/Emeryville border)

Marshmallows

Vegan marshmallows are the height of decadent vegan junk food, right?  I've always been a big Sweet & Sara marshmallow fan since they are easily picked up at Whole Foods.  Vegan Essentials had a discount, so I picked up some Dandies with my last order.  I also took advantage of a Groupon for Sweet & Sara and bought a bunch of stuff I haven't tried yet from them.

There are some distinct differences between the two marshallows -- the Dandies are big, round & puffy like their gelatin-derived cousins.  Perfect for putting onto a stick and melting.  They are lighter and fluffier.  The Sweet & Sara marshmallows are denser, chewier & have a richer vanilla flavor - their strawberry marshmallow is pretty fantastic, too!

THE S'MORES TEST:   The shape of Sweet & Sara's marshmallows makes it really easy to use scissors to cut it in half across the middle for two flat squares to lay out on a graham cracker, with chocolate on the other side.  I just slide that into the toaster oven on "broil" and by the time the marshmallows are puffing up, the chocolate is melted just enough and I snap the cracker in the middle and press the two sides together.  The lower profile of the Sweet & Sara marshmallow works better in the toaster oven.

The Dandies marshmallow got kind of crispy (still delicious) and works better for the outdoors s'smores, toasted on a stick version.

THE FONDUE TEST:  Since they are so big, I usually find myself snipping up the Sweet & Sara marshmallows into little squares to dip into melted chocolate & chill as a super yummy treat!  They are just too big to eat whole with fondue.  As they are fluffier and not quite as rich, the Dandies work really well in fondue.

RECOMMENDATION:  Buy them both!  I like Sweet & Sara for toaster s'mores and Dandies for fondue, but both have excellent & distinct flavors.

Other Sweet & Sarah treats I tried included the Cinnamon & Hazelnut biscotti - they were delicious - they had a rich crumbly texture like pecan sandies, weren't too busted up in shipping and went really well with my coffee.  I'm half-Italian by heritage, so that makes me a dunker - these cookies stand up pretty well to the dunking test (just don't dunk the same area more than twice or you will have mushy coffee).  I also tried a sample of the Rocky Road - that was quite delicious but I prefer making that kind of treat at home since it's so easy to toast some pecans/almonds, chop up marshmallows and melt chocolate.

Singer Sewing Machine Table

Singer Sewing Machine Table, a photo by jennconspiracy on Flickr.

I am so happy to share a picture of my new table! My grandmother had an old Singer treadle operated sewing machine - which worked (I used it often as a child). Unfortunately, I didn't acquire it in the break-down of her household (or my mom's) but have always harbored an interest in having an old treadle machine base for a table.

A few weeks ago, I found this gorgeous slab of cocoa-colored granite streaked with caramel and flecks of chocolate/espresso - already mounted on plywood with a slab of particle board on the back. It was so heavy that it was all I could do to wrangle the thing into the back of my friend's Toyota Tacoma pickup truck and it stayed there for nearly a month while I fantasized about making it into a table.

Two days ago, someone offered a Singer treadle sewing machine base on Freecycle and I happened to have use of my friend's truck and went out and got it. Since I had left the table top in the truck for so long - the particle board was ruined and it took me 2 hours to pry and chip it off, but after much work, a little sanding and four #16 1.25" screws, I made my new table! Click through for more pictures of the nice slab of stone. This goes so well with my antiques!

Happy Birthday!

Happy 64th Birthday day to my Mother -- she's reading my presents to her: "Eating Animals" "Becoming Vegan" on her Kindle, and "The Vegan Diet as Chronic Disease Prevention" in paper.  She says that it's not easy to read "Eating Animals" and she may just go more vegetarian (cheese!) but she's finding that she's buying more for her money by not buying meat at the grocery store, and eating very well!  Yay mom!

Cheesy Broccoli Rice Casserole

A conversation with my mom yesterday gave me a brilliant idea that pulled together the Daiya cheese I picked up to try for the first time a couple weeks ago and the giant bag of broccoli crowns from last week's Mariquita Mystery Box.  This is a recipe in development as I didn't exactly measure everything and it worked out perfectly!

Before throwing this together, I looked up some recipes for Broccoli Rice casserole - most of them use the same basic ingredients: broccoli, rice, cheddar cheese, a can of UBI (universal binding ingredient aka Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup).   Being the snob that my brother accuses me - I don't have any Campbell's (or any other packaged soup) in the house.  I do, however, have a variety of dried wild mushrooms and Road's End Organics Savory Herb Gravy packets.  As always - save the water that you use to soak the dried mushrooms - don't worry if they still feel firm - they will soften up after they are mixed in and baked.

INGREDIENTS:

• 4-5 cups cooked rice - I used brown basmati & Louisiana wild rice cooked w/veggie stock
• 1 qt stock/mushroom water
• EVOO or untoasted sesame oil, as needed
• 1.5 c white wine
• 1/2 c nutritional yeast
• 8 oz package Daiya cheddar shreds
• 3 to 4 c raw broccoli crowns cut up into tiny florets, thinly slice the stalks
• 1 red onion, quartered & thinly sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced & roughly chopped
• 1/2 red bell pepper in 1/2" dice
• 2.5 cups mushrooms, fresh or dried
• 1 Tb dried thyme
• salt, pepper, red pepper flakes to taste
• 2 packets Road's End Organics Savory Herb Gravy (you could possibly substitute this by making a little almond butter gravy or mixing up flour/tapioca starch/corn starch to gravy-fy the mushrooms & onions)

PROCESS:

I used my two largest cast iron skillets (10" and 11 3/4"), a large stainless still mixing bowl for combining everything and a big Pyrex casserole dish.

1. Using the smaller skillet, heat a few tablespoons of oil and add the onions, cook until transluscent.  Add the garlic.
2. While the onions & garlic cook, use scissors or a knife to cut up the dried mushrooms into small dice.  You can leave fresh mushrooms in larger pieces but I think dried mushrooms turn out better if you cut them smaller.  I used scissors to cut up dried porcini pieces into little bits, and a knife to cut up the dried shitakes (which come whole).
3. After the garlic starts to soften and liquid in the pan is reduced, add the mushrooms.  Cook until reduced and then deglaze with a generous amount of wine.  Continue cooking until the wine reduces then add more until you have added all the wine.  
4. Remove mushrooms & onions from heat, stir in thyme, nutritional yeast & contents of gravy packets, stir until well mixed. 
5. Put the larger skillet on high heat with enough olive oil to coat - add broccoli stalk pieces first, stir fry til bright green, add florets and red pepper flakes.  Squeeze in juice of 1/2 lemon if desired.
6. Once florets are bright green, start adding the quart of stock - about 1/4 of the quantity at a time to simmer/steam the broccoli a bit.  Even better if you are using the mushroom soaking water!
7. After using 1 qt of stock and reducing to about 1/2 c liquid, turn off flame.
8. Transfer rice to large stainless steel mixing bowl and break up any lumps.  
9. Transfer broccoli to mixing bowl and toss with rice.
10. Add  Daiya cheddar shreds and toss with broccoli & rice.
11. Spoon in raw diced red bell pepper along with the mushrooms & onion mixture and toss gently.
12. Taste and season with salt, black or white pepper, or Nama Shoyu as needed.  A little vegan worcestershire or peanut sauce might not hurt either.
13. Transfer to your lightly oiled Pyrex casserole dish, bake at 450 for 30-40 minutes.
14. Remove from the oven and let cool before you eat it and burn your fool mouth!

It tastes even better the next day and slices into servings wonderfully!  The Daiya cheddar shreds tasted really good out of the package and melted really well.  The edge along the casserole dish got crispy chewy cheesy, making me wish I had saved some of the shreds to put on top to make it more bubbly & cheesy.

Tonight, I'm going to make garlic cheese bread with the Daiya mozzarella shreds that are in the fridge.

Tiny Bubbles

I'm pretty sure that the USDA home canning website would NOT approve of the "funghi trifolati" recipe that I received a while back from another mushroom forager.  Last December, after picking a small amount of chanterelles & blewits, I decided I wanted to try my hand at it.

First - here's the recipe as I received it:

With all the chantrelles you have, I thought I would pass on my favorite way to store them.  I learned this from my Italian friend's mom. It is a variation of funghi trifolati.  This stuff goes fast!

You need basic glass jar canning supplies.

Ingredients:

• A LOT of rough-chopped chanterelles (or other mushrooms--honey mushrooms, porcini and oyster are great).  It is cool when you get little ones to leave them as whole as possible.
• thinly sliced garlic
• chopped flat-leaf parsley
• chopped thyme
• a lot of good olive oil
• pickling brine:
  Fill a very large stock pot (big enough to accommodate this brine and a good quantity of your mushrooms) about half-full of water. Add enough quality salt so it tastes about like sea water (saltier than you think). Add quality cider or white wine vinegar to equal about half the volume of the water. Add bay leaf, peppercorns and whatever else you like to taste.
  
  Method:

1. Sterilize jars.
2. Bring brine to a strong simmer.
3. Add mushrooms and let them cook for two minutes after the brine comes back to a strong simmer. Strain the mushrooms from the brine as you jar them (you want them hot). Keep the brine, it is awesome in salad dressings.
4. With a sterilized slotted spoon or tongs add a layer of mushrooms, straight from the hot brine, to the bottom of a jar.
5. Add a layer of your chopped herbs and garlic.
6. Then add a layer of olive oil. repeat this process until you are about half-inch fro the top of the jar and fill this space with olive oil.
7. Tap the jars on a hard surface to try and coax excess air to the top.
8. Put the lid on the jar and store for at least a couple of weeks in a cool, dark place.

The mushrooms take on an amazing, oily-crunchy texture after time and all the flavors blend. the stored mushrooms are beautiful, in layers of gold and green. I have kept them like this for over a year. Some people worry about the addition of raw herbs and garlic and blanch them.

After reading a bunch of recipes, looking at the Ball Blue Book for canning mushrooms, this is basically what I did:

1. Prepare brine of vinegar & salt with spices, bring to a boil.
2. Add peeled & coarsely chopped garlic to brine, return to simmer for several minutes
3. Once garlic is soft, add mushrooms and simmer til liquid seems to be released from the mushrooms (several minutes).
4. Strain mushrooms & layer mushrooms in sterilized quart jar with steam blanched chopped green herbs (parsley, oregano, rosemary) and olive oil.  Cover with olive oil.

I let the jars sit on the counter for about 6 weeks, opening them up to try them in late January - delicious!  I shared some with other friends, the mushrooms were delicious and nobody suffered any ill effects. Two nights ago, when I opened the jar the lid made a slight "pop" like there was a build up of gases when I opened the chanterelles and it made a slight pop when I opened the jar.  My friend and I ate some anyway and they tasted good, we didn't get sick.

Today when I was cleaning in the kitchen, I noticed that the gas had built up again in the chanterelles.  I also noticed some very tiny tiny bubbles coming up, continuously, through the top layer of olive oil which had turned  a darker color.

On closer inspection (and in daylight, not like two nights ago), I noticed that there was some milky white sediment in the bottom.  There also seemed to be a LOT of air bubbles, pea size and bigger.  I had carefully used a butter knife to remove air bubbles and a fork/spoon to press down the contents when I filled the jars.

I pulled out a bamboo chopstick to explore and release some bubbles and noticed some of the larger pieces of garlic felt a bit firm and when I pushed on them - they released  alot of milky goo.    I also noticed, much to my surprise, that the bottom 2-3" of the jar was not olive oil but liquid (brine? juice?). 

Not wanting to risk botulism, I chucked just over 1/2 jar each of chanterelle & blewit pickle. Very sad.

Has this ever happened to you with this process?  What did I do wrong?  Was I wrong to chuck the mushrooms?  Is this an issue with the garlic? 

I had a similar experience with some tomato sauce I made last fall -- unlike the previous 20 years, I decided to put in some herbs and garlic.  The sauce cooked at a simmer for over 12 hours - it was damned hot!  I canned it in a hot water bath for 30 minutes.  However, when I opened the jars from that batch - there were tiny rising continuous bubbles in the sauce.  I reheated the sauce and simmered it for over an hour, after it cooled - it still had these weird bubbles (so I chucked it).

What's up with the carbonation?  Any canning mavens out there got any ideas?

The Raw & The Cooked

SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY! Hey Stalkers!   Bay Area!  If you haven't yet tried a RawDaddy cone, I want to encourage you to come look for me at the Temescal Farmer's Market on Sundays!  After trying RawDaddy last  fall at the Eat Real Festival, I was hooked.  I was very excited about RawDaddy being at the East Bay Raw MeetUp in January, and jumped in to help out - now, I'm helping out every Sunday at the Temescal Farmer's Market.  You can come and try a delicious RawDaddy cone and meet moi.

MARCH: "An Evening With Colleen Patrick Goudreau" at Millennium Restaurant on March 20!  Great opportunity to meet the author of "The Joy of Vegan Baking" and enjoy Chef Eric Tucker's vegan snackies at a book release party for the author's new book "Vegan's Daily Companion."

APRIL:   Berkeley Vegan Earth Day!  What a great idea, right?  It'll be a great time - catered vegan food, a film & speakers.  Go sign up and meet me there!

REVIEW: "Eating Animals"

"Eating Animals" by Jonathan Safran Foer is a fantastic book with critical information presented well. The author doesn't overload you with statistics and figures, and writes with a very easy to read style that flows well - resulting in retention of important facts that he uncovered in his research. Could you imagine a label on a pound of shrimp that says "26 pounds of other animals were killed for each pound of this shrimp"? That's a tremendous image.

His discussion of fish revealed a lot that I did not know about the industry - and added to my recently acquired information The Zen of Fish: The Story of Sushi recently. What was particularly highlighted to me was that there is absolutely no requirement for humane killing of fish.

There are also no standards for chickens, turkeys and pigs. The author uses great images to convey information about numbers of animals and their confinement.

As a vegan for 5 years, a vegetarian eating fish only occasionally to rarely for the previous 10, and only eating "white" meat when socially compelled or required by personal relationships for the previous 20 -- I rather thought I was doing my part. I write a food blog that provides recipes for friends and strangers, feed everyone I know, help provide information about how to eat compassionately and do what I can to support others in this choice. After reading this book, I am thinking that perhaps that isn't enough - though there are so many problems in the world, one might think that working to educate people about veganism is low on the list of priorities.

However, if you look at it like this - 1/3 of all available surface land on our planet is dedicated to animal agriculture, and 30% of global warming is due to animal agriculture. This doesn't even address issues of pollution & contamination caused by animal agriculture or the devastation of species diversity in the ocean.

If our increased demand for more & cheaper animal flesh as food products is one of the largest leading causes of the destruction of our planet - what sort of legacy is that for future generations? I think the future generations can live better without a steak, hamburger, ham or turkey if it means more equitably distributed nutrition and less disease - and a better, more well fed, happier & healthier planet - for all animals, including humans. Now I just have to figure out my role in all this better than just changing my own diet and encouraging folks in my limited sphere of influence.

Green Smoothies

Recently, a friend who has a kitchen that consists of a mini-fridge & microwave (I'm not sure she has a stove!) asked me how she could get more vegetables, especially leafy greens, into her diet without all that pesky cooking & eating of solid food.  Since I am a huge fan of green smoothies, I put together my notes on green smoothies for her and after a few weeks she reports that she wakes up craving her green smoothie and her day is not the same without it!


There's a TON of information on the internet about green smoothies - lots of "recipes" and recommendations for the "correct" proportions of leafy greens and fruit and lots of information on the correct "order" to put things into the blender.

Here's my take on the Green Smoothie:

1. Put 1 cup of cold water into the blender.
2. Depending on size, add 3-6 leaves of kale, chard, collards and/or a handful of spinach, parsley or cilantro.  
3. Process until all the green stuff is pulverized.
4. Add fresh or frozen raw fruit/avocado/zucchini.
5. Process til pulverized, adding enough water to bring up to 4 or 5 cups.
6. (optional) Add some freshly squeezed lemon or other citrus juice (I usually keep a jar of lemon juice in the fridge)
7. (optional) raw cacao powder, raw protein powder, psyllium husk powder

You might say "I hate kale, I can barely eat it!" but the truth is - once you make a smoothie - you won't notice the taste of the greens because they blend right in with whatever fruit or other veggies you make.  If you want it creamier, use some frozen fruit or a small zucchini/courgette.  Zucchini adds some good protein and makes anything creamy when blended.   

My favorite fruits are fresh mangos and strawberries (which I froze last fall on cookie sheets).  Here in California, mangos are cheap - you can get them 5 for $5 at Whole Foods, even.  Avocados are pretty cheap out here too - sometimes you can find the little small avocados for under $1 each, just the right size for a smoothie.  Avocados are a healthy source of fat (and you do not have to buy organic because the skins are very thick - just try to get California avos, or Mexico but stay away from stuff imported from other continents generally). Personally - I stay away from most tropical fruit.  Fresh pineapples hurt my mouth, bananas just don't taste as good here as they do in the places where they are grown. 

I try to put mostly greens into my smoothies - and I have a ton of parsley growing in the yard, so this morning is probably going to be:  chard, parsley, 1/4 avo, 3-4 frozen persimmon cubes (about 1/2 c persimmon puree) and 1 scoop raw vegan protein powder (brown rice based).

Most smoothie recipes don't include protein powder because you are getting all the natural enzymes from the raw greens to make protein - but I do this personally about every other smoothie or when I am going to make the smoothie all I eat for most of the day (and then I make more than 1 qt and drink it while I am working).
 

Take advantage of your raw dessert recipe leftovers for smoothies!  Recently,  I made a key lime green smoothie the other day after making up the filling for a raw key lime pie (which I was making with a recipe from the Cafe Gratitude dessert book "Sweet Gratitude") - with young coconut milk & water, avocado, lime and collard greens, plus a handful of locally harvested pineapple guava that someone gifted me at an East Bay Raw Foods MeetUp.  It was incredibly delicious!

Green smoothie keeps well in the fridge - so you could drink half and bring the other half to work to have for a mid-morning snack.  Unlike fresh green juice, it doesn't oxidize and become some awful unappetizing color.

Here are a couple of my favorite green smoothie websites -- get some ideas but don't get hung up on details, just throw some good greens into your blender, add water, whiz & enjoy!

• Green Smoothie Recipies by Victoria Boutenko http://www.rawfamily.com/recipes
• Green Smoothie Recipes http://www.greensmoothie.com/blend/green.html