December, 2010

  1. Vegan Snack Mix

    December 17, 2010 by Tarrant Figlio

    I must confess, I have a bad record with Chex Mix. I never quite get it right. This comes from my stirring and tending abilities, not from recipe issues I am sure.I have this problem with every version of Chex Mix.

    But, riffing off of Haldechick’s truly excellent Crack Mix (err Chex Mix) here is how I made it for the vegan child and the rest of the family:

    Vegan Chex Mix

    1 box of Cheerios
    1 box of Rice Chex
    1 box of Corn Chex
    1 box Honey Nut Chex
    1 pound almonds
    1 pound pecans
    1 bag of small twisted pretzels
    8 sticks of Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks
    1 bottle A1
    1 small jar of hot sauce
    1 jar of Vegan Worcestershire Sauce
    Old Bay
    Garlic salt
    Onion salt
    Seasoned Salt
    McCormick’s Spicy Montreal Steak Seasoning
    1 cup sugar
    Cinnamon
    Sweet Smoked Paprika

    The sugar and cinnamon because Crispix doesn’t seem to exist here.

    Beware when melting the buttery sticks–too high of heat and they start with a toxic fume and smoke and scorch the side of the pan. (not that I did that or anything ;-) )

    Ok, so mix the dry ingredients (I used a kitchen garbage bag because I didn’t have a large enough container–next time I am at IKEA I am buying a GIANT lidded plastic bin for Chex Mix making purposes.) Melt the butter, mix in the A1, hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce. Dump dry ingredients into about three disposable roasting pans. Divide the butter mixture among them. Stir well.

    Cram the roasting pans into your oven. If you have a smaller oven, only add wet ingredients to the ones that will fit. Cook at 300 for 3 hours stirring top to bottom every HALF HOUR.

    Otherwise you end up with burned parts, clumped seasoning parts, and wet parts and sigh–you end up with Tarrant Chex Mix. Fortunate thing: your family will eat it anyway.

    Leave someone else to figure out what to do with the Chex Mix overload storage and err dispersal to gullible people who will eat it like an addiction.


  2. Vegan Day 2

    December 17, 2010 by Tarrant Figlio

    Michelle eventually woke up and ate the Mock Chicken Salad and was super touched and pleased.

    Day Two-
    Mama and Denise polished off the Mock Chicken Salad for lunch before Michelle got a chance at it. She satisfied herself with more fake corn dogs. She also has written it on the whiteboard for our next grocery run. LOL.

    I made vegan chex mix–more on that in another post.

    For dinner I made the Penne with pesto and sundried tomatoes but failed to follow directions. I had non-jarred sun dried tomatoes. I didn’t have the flat leaf parsley. I used some dried but why bother really? I tossed everything in the chopper/grinder thing except the chopped fresh tomato. I left the salt out–letting people salt at table. For my mother and the non vegan among us, I got out the crumbled feta.

    The black olive pesto was ugly but tasty. Everyone enjoyed it quite a bit. Day 2 went pretty good.


  3. Cherry Bonbon Cookies

    December 15, 2010 by Tarrant Figlio

    This is a recipe that Rebecca has picked without fail for about five years in a row. She loves them but I am not entirely sure why. They are tasty but not my favorite to die for cookie.

    They might be yours though. For reference-they are the pink topped ones in the picture.

    1/2 cup butter, softened
    3/4 cup powdered sugar
    2 tablespoons milk
    1 teaspoon vanilla extract
    1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
    1/8 tsp salt
    24 maraschino cherries

    Glaze
    1 cup powdered sugar
    1 tablespoon butter, melted
    2 tablespoons maraschino cherry juice

    In large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add milk and vanilla. Combine flour and salt, gradually adding to creamed mixture.

    Divide dough into 24 portions (or just guess as you go along like R does); shape each around a cherry, forming a ball. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 18-20 minutes or until lightly browned (ON BOTTOM-the tops don’t really brown unless you really cook them too long) Remove to wire rack to cool.

    For glaze, combine sugar, butter and cherry juice until smooth–drizzle or spread on cookies.


  4. Vegan Day One

    December 15, 2010 by Tarrant Figlio

    We stopped at Trader Joe’s on the way home for flat parsley, lettuce, vegan mayo, vegan bacon, nutritional yeast, vegan jello. They had none of the above. Really.

    We did walk out with Tofurkey (cringe) and vegan corn dogs (which Denise laughed at) and I don’t know what else. Not much.

    Kid comes in door and fixes corn dogs. LOL. (This mommy knows her kid.) She then wandered, went through the cupboards, and said, “I am going to take a nap, wake me for dinner.”

    I went to WF. I got vegan mayo, nutritional yeast, vegan bacon, a vegan chocolate bar thing, lettuce and a loaf of on sale sourdough. The parsley was in the cart but VANISHED before checkout and I couldn’t deal with going back through dinner hour WF again for it. So I left without it.

    I came home and made the curried mock chicken salad, tried to wake kid. No dice.

    However, Mama, Denise and I enjoyed it quite a bit.