Savage Musings....

My Doctor Who marathons has brought me to the end of season 14 and the introduction of one of my favorite companions, the savage warrior of the Sevateem, Leela.

Armed with janis thorns and her handy knife, and clad in next to nothing compared to previous companions Leela kicked butt during her travels with the Doctor. What I like about her character is that she is intelligent and resourceful, but this usually doesn't surface much when the Doctor is around because he always too busy telling her to shut-up, sit down, or be quiet. Really! Sometimes the Doctor can be such a pain! 

On my DW bucket list is to learn more of Leela story. She has been a major character on her own in many Big Finish audio stories. 

This November I will have the pleasure of seeing Louise Jameson for the second time at Chicago Tardis. Jameson is a delight, and has some of the best stories about the actor behind my favorite Doctor, Tom Baker. Now, if we could just get Tom Baker to travel to Chicago for Thanksgiving weekend!

http://www.chicagotardis.com/

BBQ... I make a mean pulled jackfruit! Vegan Month of Food - Day 2

My meat-eating daughter has today off so I offered to make her anything she wanted for dinner. She picked pulled pork. I appreciate the fact that she chose a meal I could just put in the crock pot and forget. But, what would I eat?

Searching through the web I found exactly what I was looking for... BBQ Pulled Jackfruit at http://chowvegan.com/2008/05/28/bbq-pulled-jackfruit-sandwich/. 

I've tried Jackfruit carnita before and found the texture of the final product a bit gummy for my liking. So, what I liked about this recipe was cooking the jackfruit in a pan before putting in a crock pot. I cooked my jackfruit about 15 minutes, and added extra garlic and cumin. I waited until the jackfruit was a wee bit dried out and light browned in spots before moving to the slow cooker. 

In the slow cooker I added two sliced sweet onions and the barbecue sauce. Since the jackfruit has no protein to speak of, I decided I wanted to boost the protein with some beans. But, I didn't want the beans to detract from the "pulled pork" nature of the dish so, I pureed a can of dark red kidney beans with 1/4 cup water and 1/4 cup brown sugar. I added this, with a bit of teriyaki sauce, to the mix. 

Yum! I'm servicing this with homemade whole wheat sandwich roll, potato wedges, and coleslaw. 

Vegan Month of Food - Day 1

My favorite pancake recipe - Oatmeal Pancakes! I make these with flax eggs and applesauce. I've tried making the recipe with all whole wheat flour, unbleached white flour, whole wheat pastry flour, gluten-free baking mix and regular all-purpose flour. The all-purpose flour version makes the lightest recipe, if made with a cup of soy milk or rice milk diluted with a cup of water. I also find that almond milk, no matter how much water I mix it with makes the pancakes gummy.

Of course, the pancakes would not be complete without our homemade - home tapped maple syrup!

Oatmeal Pancakes


1 ½ cups rolled oats - pulsed in food processor
½ cup whole wheat flour
½ cup all-purpose flour 
1 tbsp. each brown sugar and baking powder
1 tsp. salt

½ tsp. cinnamon

2 tbsp. flax meal mixed with 1/2 cup warm water

2 cups non-dairy milk or soy milk (1 cup non-dairy milk + 1 cup water)
1 tbsp. vanilla extract 
1/2 cup of applesauce

In a large bowl, blend together oats and milk and let stand 5 minutes.

In small bowl or measuring cup mix flax and warm water. In a medium bowl, stir together white flour, whole wheat flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
To the oat mixture, add the flax egg, applesauce, and the bowl of dry ingredients.
To make pancakes, use approximately ¼ cup batter per pancake. Cook over medium-high heat on a griddle or lightly-oiled frying pan.

Adapted from: http://suite101.com/article/oatmeal-pancakes-recipe-a46578