It had been my intention to celebrate VeganMoFo by eating vegan this month... We all know how plans go! So, to make myself feel better about the turkey burger, whitefish, Lawry's pasties, and Tonkatsu I've had I have been reading vegan blogs.


This survey has been going around the vegan blogs for VeganMofo and I feel the need to share..

1. Favorite non-dairy milk?
I’m not picky. I use Silk unsweetened a lot because it is available, but the local Meijer’s has a nice soymilk. When I can get to Ypsilanti to shop I buy Rosewood unsweetened soymilk.


2. What are the top 3 dishes/recipes you are planning to cook?
Soy Chorizo Empanadas are in progress right now… I also have plans for a tofu cheese cake and Adventist “Meat” Loaf … of course I am also out of cupcakes!

3. Topping of choice for popcorn?
OK, I know this is weird… I really like plain popcorn. If I feel adventurous I like a bit of garlic salt and nutritional yeast.


4. Most disastrous recipe/meal failure?
There are too many to think about, but one that happened after I started cooking more vegetarian/vegan recipes was first time I tried to make the Italian Layered Vegetable Casserole from the Fat Free Vegan Blog. I stood over the food processer, recipe in one hand and a can of white beans in the other. I re-read the recipe…Am I supposed to drain these? No? Trusting that this recipe would not let me down… What do I know about making white bean filling? I pour the entire contents in. I prepared the recipe as directed and watched it turn into a brown slurry as it baked. My son says it turned into Italian bean soup and he likes bean soups now.

Since this disaster…this recipe has become a favorite with either the bean or tofu filling!


5. Favorite pickled item?
Duh… pickles! Sweet, dill, garlic! It doesn’t matter I love them all!

I would also like to put in a plug here for Dill Relish. I love dill relish for sandwiches, on veggie burgers, in veggie burger mixes, on top of Sloppy Steve’s… but why does it only come in the smallest of jars!


6. How do you organize your recipes?
I have a cook book stacked on a shelf with no order, but on the computer I have a file for recipes and in the file are folders:
Fondue (Christmas 2008 theme)
TOFU
Meat (I live with meat eaters… and cook for them); Muffins & Cupcakes (my latest food obsession)
Vegan Burgers (We eat Bento style lunches almost every day and go through a lot of mini burgers… my son likes mine better than any store bought brand)

I also have a file box at Epicurous.com… I think I’ve tagged every vegetarian recipe!

7. Compost, trash, or garbage disposal?
COMPOST! Made my own kitchen waste composter using a large rolling trash can!


8. If you were stranded on an island and could only bring 3 foods...what would they be (don't worry about how you'll cook them)?
Coffee… carrots …. Hey, I was wondering if this is all I’m going to have… because I could probably live off the land if I had to… but live without coffee… What would be the point!

9. Fondest food memory from your childhood?
I have two…

First – Across from my elementary school was a Sir Pizza and when I was older, fifth or sixth grade, some of us would go there for lunch. We went home for lunch back then and this was a treat for me and my friends. I always got my favorite pizza, anchovies and black olives! It grossed my friends out, which was an added bonus! The anchovies were salt packed making them dry and crumbly. I have never been able to find anchovies like that.

Second – My grandmother always had the most delicious spicy gingerbread Christmas cookies. They were decorated with a royal frosting in pastel colors with silver balls and colored sugar. The cookies were firm and crisp, but not hard. I have never been able to find a recipe that tasted quite the same. Now, Grandma has passed on and I may never know how to make those cookies.
10. Favorite vegan ice cream?
Sorry… I have tried several without success. Real ice cream upsets my stomach and I have stopped eating it. I have tried several of the varieties available around here and found them to be too sweet and more than a little nauseating.


11. Most loved kitchen appliance?
That is like making me choose my favorite child! If we eliminate the stove and refrigerator, than it would be a tough contest between my husband’s Kitchen-Aid mixer and the bread machine…If I had a fuzzy logical programmable rice cooker (http://www.amazon.com/Zojirushi-NS-WAC10-Fuzzy-Logic-Cooker-Warmer/dp/B0014JCY1E/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1255542596&sr=8-11) then there would be not question!


12. Spice/herb you would die without?
Cruel questions… I buy cumin, cinnamon, garlic salt, and Italian seasoning in big boxes! But I also love and use often nutmeg, turmeric, cayenne, curry … for crying out loud! I have three baskets with spice jars in the cupboard by the stove…

What about the Seasoned Salt… Vanilla… do lemons count?

13. Cookbook you have owned for the longest time?
Joy of Cooking… just replaced the one that fell apart! Recently, I have purchased the Veganomicon and Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World!


14. Favorite flavor of jam/jelly?
Keweenaw Kitchens blueberry jam


15. Favorite vegan recipe to serve to an omni friend?
Italian Layered Vegetable Casserole (http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2009/05/italian-layered-vegetable-casserole.html) from the Fat Free Vegan blog… excellent!


16. Seitan, tofu, or tempeh?
Tofu… there is just so much you can do to it! I buy Rosewood in the bulk containers and Nasoya when it is on sale. My omni eaters love my tofu too!


17. Favorite meal to cook (or time of day to cook)?
Bento lunches! I love the planning and pampering while preparing. Dinners can be rushed or come at the end of the day when I’m whipped… I do a lot of the bento lunches in advance and find it relaxing!


18. What is sitting on top of your refrigerator?
Tubs! You know, those tubs for sour cream, margarine, yogurt….


19. Name 3 items in your freezer without looking.
Edamame. Peas. Boca Burgers.


20. What's on your grocery list?
I haven’t finished the list for this weekend… but so far I have the fixings for a tofu cheese cake and a vegan nut loaf from Vegweb.com. Oh, and I’m out of soy-yogurt!


21. Favorite grocery store?
Hiller’s – I like to shop at the one on Washtenaw in Ann Arbor. Wonderful selections and a great produce department

Hua Xing – wonderful Asian selection and I’m getting really good at picking things out

Trader Joe’s – a lot of my prepackage items come from this store but I really dislike their produce section

Horrock’s (http://www.shophorrocks.com/) – Wish I got to Battle Creek more often!

Marquette Food Co-op (http://www.marquettefood.coop/) - Wish I could shop there year-round

22. Name a recipe you'd love to veganize, but haven't yet.
I would love the make a pasty that tasted just like Lawry’s (http://www.lawryspasties.com/ ) and I would like to make a sausage that tasted like cuddighi.


23. Food blog you read the most (besides Isa's because I know you check it everyday). Or maybe the top 3?
Fat Free Vegan
Vegan Dad
Just Bento
Chocolate and Zucchini


24. Favorite vegan candy/chocolate?
Do Lara Bars Count?


25. Most extravagant food item purchased lately?
Pure Yooper maple syrup!


26. Ingredients you are scared to work with?
These aren’t vegan, but I am curious and a bit scared of the fish balls at the Asian market where I shop a lot. There are at least three cases of the different fish balls. Some are packaged and some are just in a plastic bag in a cardboard box. I am intimidated by their unknown quality.

Where have you been? ... Mystery Solved!

For the last couple of years my studio has been plagued with leaks. One problem spot was in a built-in shelf unit that stuck out from the rest of the addition. This was covered with a flat roof that butted up against a wraparound porch and the roof of the main portion of the house. My darling husband has kept this patched, and most of the time under control. That ended this winter.

The shelf unit became very mouldy and mildewy. I could no longer work in there and resorted to storing a lot of my beads in other parts of the house. Not an easy thing to do and no one was happy with me!

Last Spring, right around tax time and toward the end of my final forensics season (another sad story), the leak got worse. My darling husband looked into re-roofing that portion of the house, but there were other leaks, too. We finally decided that the whole thing needed to be done.

This became one of those home repair nightmares where everything keeps getting worse.

Tear off, which should have taken a day or two took a couple of weeks. There were four roofs up there... four! Deck-shingles-shingles-deck-shingles-shingles.... A new deck had been placed over an existing and rotting deck. In places, the roof was rotting from the first deck out. The valley where a phony roof line was created had been tarred through to the first deck beneath the final layer of shingles... this was a mess that has consumed most of our summer.

We now have a new metal roof. The roof line has been extended over the entire length of the house taking in my studio. I now have a covered porch. No more shoveling snow from my oxygen tanks in the winter.

The roof over my studio spans the entire width of the house. My studio, which is only half the width of the house, will connect to an addition...but that is a project for another day.

So, I am remodeling some. I lost my office at the college and have decided not to pursue another coaching position. I have a new (old bookshelf) for my communication texts and am sorting through the years of office supplies I have accumulated. I'm a couple of behind schedule as far as getting my act to together with the jewelry and beads... but I have a new dry roof over my head and more time than I know what to do with... Time to get to work.