Caramel Apple Heart Galettes

This idea for "free-form" mini-pies comes straight from the Veganomicon cookbook, but I wanted to add my twist to it - caramel!

Easy Chick'n Parmesan

This couldn't get much simpler ~ take your favorite brand of thin spaghetti or other pasta (I like Smart Taste because of extra calcium and fiber, plus plenty of protein - the garden veggie kind is another good one!) covered in your favorite marinara (you can doctor up canned sauce) and put it in a baking dish. Top with lightly microwaved Boca vegan chick'n patties and Daiya mozzarella-style cheese, pop into the oven until melted. Healthy as well as hearty, and it takes less than 30 minutes!

Boeuf à la Bourguignonne

This is another of my new favorite dishes, because I've quickly fallen in love with wine in my cooking, as well as traditional French food in general! From what I understand, this began as a peasant plate (wine was needed to tenderize tough, cheap cuts of meat) and evolved into haute cuisine. This is a pretty simple version due to the beefless tips being too tender to cook for long in the wine, so they are sauteed separately with the onions and mushrooms. The red wine sauce is prepared with herbs and spices and some Not Beef broth and served over everything. Just about any red wine will do, but I am learning the nuances that come in the flavor and dryness of them - pinot noir is the most delicate, merlot is a nice medium-body, and cabernet is very dry and strong. Bon appetit!

Vegan Sausage Balls

I had some vegetarian friends getting married on 4/20/2012, and they requested I bring a dish as they had attended my 2011 vegan Thanksgiving feast and enjoyed it. The sausage balls are a surprisingly uncanny replica of the traditional heart-attack-in-delicious-round-form. It's just a tube of Lightlife brand vegan "sausage" with added sage, pepper, and a couple tablespoons of vegan shortening because the sausage substitute itself has no fat, plus 2 cups of cheddar-style Daiya and some heart-healthy bisquick mix, baked for about 25 minutes. Even the older skeptical family enjoyed these as well as our group of vegetarian friends, and the whole batch was gone shortly after the reception began!

                                                       Sam & Sarah, the happy couple!

Relay for Life Vegan Bake Sale

On 4/16/2012 I had a vegan bake sale at Concord University in Athens to benefit Relay for Life. My best friend and my stepmom are both cancer survivors, so I wanted 100% of the proceeds to go to the American Cancer Society. We ended up making $144 total, including a donation my stepmom sent in! We had a really nice display and had a ton of fun - not to mention we sold out of almost everything! I kind of low-balled the prices because a. it's for charity and b. these are college kids we're talking about. I decided to change my Facebook page I made for my award-winning Vegan Baked goods (for public events & possibly small-scale private catering) and Eco-Friendly arts, and called it "Mark it with V":

http://www.facebook.com/MarkitwithV

There were orange rolls, Chocolate Chip Cookies, gluten free rice krispie treats, gluten free peanut butter cookies, friendship bread with golden raisins, mocha brownies, and vegan rainbow cupcakes. For the rainbow cupcakes, they came out more like tie-dyed. I usually just make them vanilla with vanilla/coconut buttercream frosting, but this time, I made half of them fruity by adding kool-aid powders in flavors corresponding to each of the colors! Can't decide on which are my favorite, though. There also seems to be a growing interest for gluten-free items, which I'm going to have to put more research and experimentation into to build my baked goods repertoire! The day was an absolute success.

Vegan Königsberger Klopse

I love to experiment with new ingredients and spices in the kitchen, as well as push the limits of what original recipes I can convert to vegan. So far, I haven't found anything I can't do! This was definitely new and interesting, and I was surprised by how much I liked it. In fact, it got me on a kick for cooking with wine! The main source for new experimental & foreign recipes that I've been looking at is a 2012 calendar my French professor gave me, that is comprised of international recipes from the staff that produce the Vista Higher Learning books we use in class.

This is the recipe for Novembre, and is a famous traditional German recipe served with boiled potatoes as a side. Instead of making the meatballs by hand, I used my favorite prepackaged vegan ones by Nate's & fried them in oil with pepper & salt until crisp on the outside. The sauce is a basic roux I made with some leftover coconut milk in place of the cream, pinot grigio white wine, capers and caper juice, and parsley and lemon. I was not sure I'd like the capers in it, as I didn't really care for them by themselves, and thought of leaving them out - but I wanted to give the original recipe a chance. Indeed, the sauce tastes a bit funny on its own, but boy, was I bowled over when I tasted the complete dish! Absolutely fantastic ~ and led me to decide to prepare more of the German dishes from this calendar (and more wine dishes!).