I don’t usually make vanilla ice cream from scratch – why bother when you can buy it somewhat inexpensively by the quart? and at your local Wal-Mart even! – but I had some soy creamer and vanilla beans that needed to be used up simultaneously, and there you go. With both vanilla beans and vanilla extract, this is a doubly rich, doubly vanilla dessert that’s sure to please the vegan vanilla lover in your life. And really, who doesn’t like vanilla?

Fwiw, I had to hit the internets to figure out how in the ‘verse to use a vanilla bean. Yes it was my first time! (Honestly, I’m not even sure where they came from. It’s like vanilla beans just appeared in my cabinet, yo!) This tutorial at Zoe Bakes was somewhat useful, though I wasn’t clear on whether I was supposed to toss the emptied bean pod in with the ice cream batter while it was simmering on the stove, or simply set it aside for later use. I cooked it with the batter and discarded it when I was done, with no adverse reaction. So I guess that’s one way to use a bean pod?
 

Very Vanilla Ice Cream

Ingredients

1 cup vanilla soy milk, divided
2 tablespoons arrowroot powder
2 cups vanilla soy creamer
3/4 cup sugar
1 or 2 vanilla beans
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. In a small bowl or mug, combine 1/4 cup of the soy milk with the arrowroot powder. Whisk briskly and set aside.

2. In a saucepan, combine the remaining 3/4 cup of the soy milk with all of the soy creamer and sugar. Heat on medium.

3. While the batter is warming up, slice a vanilla bean(s) lengthwise and carefully scrape out all the seeds. Add them to the batter and whisk well. If you’d like, toss the emptied bean pod(s) in as well. Bring to a slow boil, stirring constantly.

4. Once the mix begins to boil, remove from heat. Remove the bean pod and add the arrowroot “slurry” immediately. This will cause the batter to thicken noticeably. Add the vanilla extract and mix well. Chill in the fridge for four to six hours or more. (Usually I prefer to let the batter chill overnight.) Process according to your ice cream machine’s instructions.

Hey people! I’m giving away a copy of Jo Stepaniak’s The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook over on fuck yeah vegan pizza. Enter here! The contest closes Thursday night, so get to it!* This is the first of many giveaways I have planned in the next few months, so follow me over there if you aren’t already. (Clearly I’m not above bribery, nosiree.)

* A tumblr account is a bonus, but not necessary – you can enter via email as well. The more you know!

My Thanksliving Day eats, in all their carbalicious glory! The Thanksgiving Pizza came out smashingly; I’m super-glad we decided to do a test run, since this gave us a chance to tweak the recipe. The assembly was still a little messy, but not the hot mess of last week.

Anywho, this pizza features a layer of garlic and chive mashed potatoes mixed with gravy, followed by hickory smoked Tofurky slices, more gravy, and carrots, sweet corn and green beans. As much as I would have loved to have thrown some stuffing directly on the pizza, Shane and I couldn’t figure out how to properly cook it together with the pizza – since the breadcrumbs need to marinate in vegetable broth and all – so instead we gave the crust a hint of stuffinf flavor by infusing it with veggie broth. And, for bonus points, we served stuffing on the side, along with extra gravy, homemade cranberry sauce, and mashed potatoes and mixed veggies (both left over pizza toppings). For dessert, we dined on razzleberry pie topped with vanilla ice cream. Both store-bought, since we were exhausted enough after cooking the main course to even think about making the sweets by hand!

You can find recipes for all of the homemade items (PIZZA INCLUDED!) here.

 

Two slices down, six to go!

 

Shane’s plate; he slathered his stuffing in cranberry sauce.

 

Personally, cranberry sauce – being sweet and sugary and all – strikes me as more of dessert item. Which is why I enjoyed a few spoonfuls with a bowl of vanilla ice cream while waiting for the dough to rise! But I digress…

 

My plate! “Gravy” is the word of the day, dontchknow.

 

The only time it’s acceptable to eat a pizza with a fork is when it’s
a) covered in mashed potatoes or b) a deep dish pie of some kind.

 

Licking my plate clean!

 

Bring out the pie!

 

Pizza & ice cream, could a more perfect pairing exist?

You heard me right people! Shane and I made a holiday pizza tonight and it was YUM-TASTIC! Gravy, Tofurky slices, garlic and chive mashed potatoes, carrots, even a crust flavored with veggie broth – this pizza has it going ON! If these pies were able to withstand the vagaries on the US postal service, I’d send several each to every lucky Jane and Dick on my x-mas list come December. AND LEAVE THEM BEGGING FOR MORE!

Unfortunately, our execution was less than stellar – my Facebook status from earlier tonight was full-on panic mode, to wit: “emergency alert: pizza disaster in progress!!!” – so I don’t yet have a recipe to share with y’all. BUT. The good news is that we know where it all went wrong and are trying again come Thursday! So probably you’ll have a proper recipe by the weekend.

Until then, feast your eyes:

(The final product will be topped with a variety of mixed veggies; if this pizza looks a little sparse, it’s because we had all but given up by the time we got to the last layer. The dough gave out on us and we needed to get the pie in the oven, asap. NOTHING THAT TWENTY MINUTES AT 425F CAN’T FIX!)

omgs you guys, I’m working on a “breakfast” pizza right now and jkshdgds!

I’d still like to experiment with a few different prep methods before posting a proper recipe, but the first try (pictured above) consists of a fluffy white pizza crust, brushed with a few tablespoons of margarine (softened at room temp) and topped with garlic salt, a layer of cheddar Daiya cheese, fried Lightlife Smart Links (diced, of course), hash browns, and a second layer of cheese on top. Bake at 425 degrees F for 15 to 20 minutes and then fall into your soft bed of carb-on-carb pizza action. (Pssst! Daiya is your comforter!)

Warning: do not operate heavy machinery while eating this pizza! You WILL shoot someone’s eye out.

* I would totally change the name of this place to Junk Food Vegan if www.junkfoodvegan.com wasn’t already taken! But there’s nothing up there! FOR THE LOVE OF DOG GET ON IT PEOPLE!

Updated to add: AND WE HAVE A WINNER!

Vegan Bacon & Cheddar Potato Soup, y u no photogenetic?
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Ever since I first saw the adorably silly “proposal” commercial for Progresso’s Loaded Potato Soup With Bacon

(You know which ad I’m talking about, yes? “What is that?” “That’s a big chunk of potato!” I would embed it, but it doesn’t yet seem to be available on the you tubes. Boo! Hiss! Boo!),

I’ve been craving bacon potato soup like a mofo. Which is funny, ’cause I’ve never had it before – not even in my pre-vegan days. (So many of those processed soups contain milk, to which I’m allergic. Good times!) Anyway, I decided to modify the Creamy Potato -n- Corn “Spowder” recipe I so love, making it creamier and soupier (if that makes any sense), while also adding some vegan bacon …and cheddar cheese!

I know, I know, Progresso’s version doesn’t have cheddar cheese, and this makes the dish so much more unhealthy, but I just couldn’t help myself! Plus I had a brick of cheddar Follow Your Heart that was set to expire, and surely this is a sufficient reason for adding cheese to yet another dish that doesn’t require it? Yes? No? Maybe?

As you can probably imagine, this is one delicious dish! Kind of like liquefied cheddar mashed potatoes, with extra chunks of potatoes and greasy fried bacon for supercalifragilisticexpialidocious goodness. Next time I’ll try the loaded bacon potato soup, minus the cheddar. Hopefully I’ll even one-up Progresso, though that’ll be a hard one to judge since I’ll never taste the competition. (Or does vegan always win? Yeah, that sounds about right!)

Bottoms up!

 
Vegan Bacon & Cheddar Potato Soup

Ingredients

1 medium onion, chopped
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
6 medium white potatoes, divided
2 cups plain soy milk + extra to taste
2 cups water + extra to taste
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
4 tablespoons margarine
5 ounces vegan cheddar cheese, shredded (1/2 package cheddar Follow Your Heart)
5 ounces vegan bacon (1 package Lightlife Smart Bacon)

Directions

1. Wash and peel the potatoes. Set three aside for later. Cut the other three into quarters. Fill a medium saucepan three quarters full with water; bring to a boil on the stovetop. Toss in the quartered potatoes and cook on medium high for about fifteen minutes, or until the potatoes are tender. Drain the potatoes and, in two batches, process them in a blender or food processor: blend one half of the potatoes, along with one cup of soy milk and one cup of water, until the “batter” is smooth and creamy. Repeat with the second half of the potatoes. Transfer back to the saucepan (or a large mixing bowl) and set aside.

2. While the potatoes are boiling, slice the bacon into small, bite-sized strips. In a large skillet or frying pan, heat two tablespoons of olive oil on medium-hot; once hot, reduce the heat to medium and add the bacon. Cook on medium for approximately ten minutes, or until the strips are brown and crispy, like so:

Stir frequently to keep them from burning! When done cooking, set aside.

3. Peel the onion and dice it into small bits. In a large soup pot, heat two tablespoons of olive oil on medium-high heat; once hot, reduce the heat to medium and add the onions. Cook on medium for ten minutes or so, until the onions turn golden brown. Add the potato “batter” and continue to cook on medium.

5. Dice the remaining potatoes into small, bite-sized pieces and set aside.

6. Once the soup has heated up and started to bubble, add the margarine, spices and shredded cheese. Stir constantly so that the cheddar cheese and potatoes don’t stick to the bottom of the pan. Add extra water as needed.

7. Once the cheese has melted, sample the soup; add any extra seasonings to taste. Toss in the rest of the potatoes and the bacon – grease and all! – and continue to cook on medium for about ten minutes, or until the potatoes are tender (to your liking). Serve hot!

Optional: for crispier bacon, you can add it to the soup closer to the end of the cook time – or use some or all of it as a topping!

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I am really digging this newfangled, frozen-bananas-in-the-food-processor method of ice cream making, y’all! Unlike with an ice cream machine, you can be so much more spontaneous. As long as you have a supply of overripe, diced bananas sitting in the freezer, you’re free to make a batch of ice cream any time you like. A mid-morning snack? BAM! Afternoon delight? DONE! Dessert after dinner? YOU GOT IT! 2AM munchies? NO PROBLEM, SISTER! Not that I don’t love my ice cream maker, but there’s something to be said about ice cream on demand, you know?

So yesterday I was craving something coco-nutty (I’m probably still in withdrawal from those Iron Chef-inspired, coconut buttercream-frosted chocolate chip brownies!) and BOOM!, just like that I decided to make a bowl of coconut banana ice cream. AND IT WAS DELICIOUS, with TRIPLE THE COCONUT: coconut milk, coconut extract and shredded coconuts. (Though you can skip the coconut milk if you don’t have any on hand. The extract and shreds are really the most important part!)

So good, and good for you too! You can’t say that about the store-bought stuff. (Okay, so you totally could – but you’d be lying. Liar liar hemp pants on fire!)

 
Coconut Banana Ice Cream

Ingredients

4 or 5 diced and frozen overripe bananas
1/4 cup coconut milk, chilled if possible
1 teaspoon coconut extract
1/2 cup shredded coconut
Sugar to taste

Directions

Combine the frozen bananas, coconut milk and coconut extract in a food processor and mix until smoothly blended. Sample the batter and, if it’s not sweet enough for you, add a tablespoon or two of sugar (or other vegan sweetener) and the shredded coconut and process until blended.

Try not to overprocess the batter, as this can result in soupy ice cream. If the soft serve is too much on the soft side, transfer it to a covered container and store in the freezer for an hour or until it’s thickened up a bit.

 

The resemblance is spooktacular!
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Earlier this week, I feeling hungry and lazy and craving some pizza, but the husband – oh maker of all things pita pizza ’round these parts – was at work and thus unable to service me the way I so often required servicing (i.e. WITH FOOD. I’ll pause for a sec so that you can picture that, mkay.) The horras, right? After a little moping and low blood sugar-induced faintness (I know, such a child!), I realized that I had some white rolls sitting in the fridge. Perfect for mini toaster oven pizzas, just like dad used to make me as a kid!

The first few batches came out looking like angel wings to me, at least when you touched them tip-to-tip, like so; but, after further noming, I saw that the shape of the rolls was just the slightest bit curvy, and vaguely reminiscent of a ghost. And so Casper the Friendly Ghost Pizzas were born! (Also: an excuse to eat more mini pizzas!)

These are super-simple and quick to make, with maybe five minutes of assembly and ten minutes of cook time required. You just need:

one ghostly roll, cut down the middle (mine is from a megachain store which shall remain nameless but rhymes with “Mall Fart”; each roll makes two pizzas)

red sauce

vegan mozzarella cheese, sliced or shredded

something round for the eyes and a mouth. I used black olives and cherry and Juliet tomatoes, but you could just as easily use any round fruit, veggie or vegan meat. Think: carrots, zucchini, sausage or hot dog links, etc.

Start by cutting the roll down the middle. Add the red sauce, followed by the cheese, “eyes” and “mouth.” Bake in a toaster oven at 425 degrees F for ten to fifteen minutes, or until the cheese is nice and melty. Eat and repeat!

(Fyi, if you can’t find any ghost-shaped rolls, use something round – like a soyburger bun or English Muffin – and make a mummy instead!)

For the cheese, I went with Vegan Gourmet’s Follow Your Heart. Rather than shredding it, I cut thin strips from the block, thinking that layered pieces would give more even white coverage. I also added a few shreds towards the bottom of each ghost’s body, for that ragged, ripped sheet effect. Pre-cooking, they looked more like goatees than anything else. Pubescent Casper, represent!
 

 
As it turns out, the cheese got so melty that everything just kind of melded together. So use that Daiya if you’ve got it! As long as the cheese reaches maximum ooziness, you should be safe with cheese shreds or slices. (Plus I find that I pile on less cheese when I stick to shreds. I fail at thin-slicing things.)
 

 
Clearly, Casper is the ghost on the left; as per the line drawings, he’s white with sparse black facial features. Plus I fashioned him outta the top piece, so he’s fluffier and so much the better for hugging and cuddling. (It’s Casper the FRIENDLY ghost, yo!) But who is his red companion on the right?
 

 
An evil twin? His lady friend, if you know what I mean? (AND I KNOW THAT YOU DO.) Casper’s pizza boss, perhaps?

Kelly food. Yeah, that’s what.

 
* Sorry for the caps, I JUST LOVE PIZZA SO MUCH!

 

 
I noticed a few recipes for sweet & salty chocolate-covered pretzel & caramel ice cream floating around the internets this summer, but they all looked too complicated to attempt – at least to my heat-addled brain. So I decided to make my own! This dessert is super-simple; basically it’s a mashup of a caramel ice cream recipe I previously tried and enjoyed, combined with chocolate pretzel bark. (Like chocolate-covered pretzels, but lazier!)

One word: omnomnomnom!
 
Caramel Ice Cream with Chocolate Pretzel Bark

Ingredients

…for the ice cream!

1 cup soy milk, divided
2 tablespoons arrowroot powder
2 cups soy creamer
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup caramel sauce

(I used the Soft-Set Caramel recipe found in the December 2010 issue of VegNews, mostly because I had some left over from a previous batch of caramel ice cream. But you can just as easily use a recipe from the interwebs, such as this one from The Spooky Vegan.)

…for the chocolate bark!

4 cups pretzels
12 ounces vegan chocolate chips
1 teaspoon pretzel salt

Directions

…make the ice cream batter!

1. In a small bowl or mug, combine 1/4 cup of the soy milk with the arrowroot powder. Whisk briskly and set aside.

2. In a saucepan, combine the remaining 3/4 cup of the soy milk with all of the soy creamer and sugar. Bring to a slow boil, stirring constantly.

3. Once the mix begins to boil, remove from heat and add the arrowroot “slurry.” This will cause the batter to thicken noticeably. Add the vanilla extract and mix well. Chill in the fridge for four to six hours or more. (Usually I prefer to let the batter chill overnight.)

…make the chocolate bark!

4. Using either a tightly sealed plastic bag and a rolling pin or a food processor (or your own hands), crush the pretzels into small bits roughly 1/5 of their original size. Set aside.

5. In a medium-sized, microwave-safe bowl, microwave the chocolate chips on high for one minute. Stir and heat again, in fifteen- to twenty-second increments, until the chips are all melted.

6. Add the pretzels to the chocolate chips and stir well. Spread out on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper using a large spoon. Try to spread the mix as thin as possible; pretzels layered two or three high will be harder to break apart once hardened. Sprinkle the pretzel salt on top for an extra-salty treat, Let chill in the freezer for at least a half an hour. When cold, break the bark apart into smaller pieces. Store in an airtight container in the fridge.

…make the ice cream!

7. Combine the ice cream batter and caramel sauce, mixing well with a whisk. Pour the batter into your ice cream machine and process according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

8. When done, transfer your ice cream into an airtight container. Enjoy immediately as soft serve or chill in the fridge for an hour or so for a thicker, more frozen dessert.

9. You can either add the Chocolate Pretzel Bark to the batter as it’s dispensed (or scooped by hand) from the ice cream machine, or as you serve the ice cream – just mix a little in as you scoop it, or use it as a topping. Unless you’re going to scarf the entire quart of ice immediately, I recommend the latter: the pretzels stay fresher on their own in the fridge than when mixed in with the ice cream and frozen.
 

My poor little lady Kaylee was brutalized at the vet’s yesterday. She went in for a dental cleaning and ended up having two teeth extracted. To be fair, this was no real surprise, what with her past dental issues. But her one remaining fang, GONE! The horror and injustice of it all!
 

Kaylee circa 2007, after her second round of dental surgery. If you look closely (or click through to flickr for the notes!), you can see how her mouth is lopsided: many of the teeth on the left side of her mouth were removed, making her look adorably silly, but also kinda sad. As of yesterday, the “fang” on the right side of her mouth is now history, too.
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At our request, the vet also removed some rather large fatty deposits – which had been growing progressively larger over the past few years – from her left shoulder and right side. The one near her rib cage was especially stubborn coming out, and she’s got the 2″-long, ragged, angry red incision to prove it. Her shoulder looks even worse: because she had two lumps there (don’t worry, all benign, thank dog!), he had to make two separate incisions, which kind of meld together visually for an especially horrifying effect. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

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