A Little Baking, A Little Cleaning, A Little Puking.....

It was a typical Sunday until the vomiting incident. But we'll get to that....

The day started out routine enough with banana pancakes with real maple syrup. Despite trying to be a cheap old bag, I do splurge a bit on real maple syrup. Not only do I live in maple syrup country, and I want to support the industry, but there are some dishes that you simply need the real deal...nothing else will do!

Then the weekend baking began. First, I want to tell you about my brownie recipe. There are two schools of brownie lovers- one likes a heavy, fudgy brownie, the other a light, cakey brownie. I belong to the second camp, and if you do too, I have the recipe for you! I'll give it to y'all, but first, I have to tell you the story behind it.

I got this recipe off a card that came many years ago, (when I still had perky bosoms) in my junk mail. It is the best, best BEST brownie recipe ever, in my opinion. I've taken it to work quite a few times in the past five years, and I've even got a gent from my husbands company absolutely hooked on these. (He calls them Brownie Crack.) A nice lady at work asked me recently if I thought it was possible to make these in cupcake form, to make sharing even easier? I tried it today. Tell me what you think.......

These are light and fluffy, and the icing is decadent beyond description. I estimate that you've gained a pound just from reading this. I offer this recipe to you today, but don't mistake it for health food!

Tracy's Chocolate Brownies (Veganized!)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Combine: ½ cup full fat soymilk (don’t use rice milk)
1 tsp vinegar or lemon juice
Let sit until curdled, about 5-10 minutes

In a large bowl, combine:
2 2/3 cups white flour
2 cups white sugar (yes, two cups!)
¼ cup cocoa
1 tsp baking soda

In a small pot on the stove, combine:
½ cup vegetable shortening
½ cup margarine
1 cup water
1 tsp vanilla extract

Also have ready:
Egg replacer for 2 eggs

When ingredients in pot are melted, mix it into dry ingredients along with sour soymilk and egg replacer. Beat for two minutes.

Pour into either one 11 by 14 cookie pan with a raised edge, or divide between a 8x8 and a 9x13 pan.

Bake. I can’t tell you how long, as it depends on the pan used. But start watching at 10 minutes, and check with a toothpick. The inner part will puff a lot more than the outside edge, but that’s par for the course. The outer edge becomes the “ugly parts” that you snack on right away without feeling guilty. :0)

These should be frosted while still a bit warm. Here’s how you make the frosting:

In a medium pot, melt ½ cup margarine over medium heat. Stir in ¼ cup soymilk, 1 tsp vanilla extract, and 2 Tbsp cocoa powder. Beat in with a spoon about 3 ½ cups icing sugar. Spread on brownies. Let cool before cutting.

*****

Eat! Moan! Suffer from the guilt!! Try to wiggle unsuccessfully into your "fat pants." And then email and say thank you.

After the brownie cupcakes, I made some seitan "turkey" for supper, using the same dry-bake method I used for the vegan pepperoni yesterday. I used spices up the wazoo this time:

It turned out great, a little salty, but WHOA, spicy! My daughter, who is so fond of hot food I suspect she has no discernible taste buds left, loved it so much she had to have some for afternoon snack with some whole wheat crackers and some soy pepper-jack cheese.

Since I suspected we might have leftover "turkey' that will be good for sammiches, I made some "turkey stuffing" rolls- a regular dinner roll recipe with added garlic, poultry seasoning, sage, salt, pepper, and celery salt for flavour. It also has a bit of cornmeal added for texture.

I also made some jalapeno corn bread, since I had one lonely jalapeno that needed to be used, along with some soft tofu (which I used as an egg replacer. ) This cornbread smelled so damn good while cooking that it was worth the cost of the ingredients just for the smell.

I just used my usual corn bread recipe, and added the jalapeno, (diced fine), a tiny bit of red bell pepper, some hot spices, and a half-cup of corn niblets. Mmmmmm....oh....yes....oh yes....mmmm. Wow, that was good...

And then Daniel vomited. On the sofa. A lot. And it was pink. He wasn't feeling right all day, and some sort of bug is cruising the community, and man, it wasn't smart to give him that stawberry popsicle....

Luckily, he was all curled up like a homeless person in a big pile of little blankets. All the blankets had to go in the wash, but the sofa was OK. Just when you think that it's safe to come out of the laundry room.....I ended up stepping with my bare feet in the pink puke, leaving little barfy footprints across my freshly-scubbed living room floor. Joy.

Supper was a full-service "turkey" dinner using the turkey loaf I made earlier. We had mashed spuds, gravy, carrots with just a soupcon of turnip (on it's last legs and needed to be eaten) and of course, the gobble-free turkey. Daughter and I both took pictures of our plates (oh God, this is what I have to deal with now, competition?) and we could not agree on which was more artistically pleasing. So here you go, feel free to vote...

Here is Courtney's dinner, photo taken by her......

and here is mine....

This "turkey" cost me about $3.00, and was enough for dinner for four , a snack for the Spice Queen , soup for me and a co-worker tomorrow, and sandwiches for tomorrow....and it only took 90 minutes to cook! Woot! Love that gluten! Now I need to find me a source for bulk commercial gluten flour....can you buy this stuff in 10 KG bags???? Hmmmm....If you know a source, contact me.....

Night everyone!