HAPPY BIRTHDAY GOODS!

His favorite carrot cake made in the heart pan his Mom use to make his birthday cakes in it, since his b-day was the day before Valentine's Day. I haven't had a chance to veganize the recipe so it's all his, as he was eating it off the serving plate this morning.

Happy Birthday Goods! You are my treasure at the end of the rainbow- come on, I had to say something corny - the photo screamed it!

....... Lots of Love - Dee

Door to Door Organics

This is my score from my first delivery from Door to Door Organics-

As you know, organic food is pricey, and around my area, quality produce is hard to find. On a vegan meetup website message board I saw a thread on a local organic co-op. This is an excerpt from the thread:

"Door to Door Organics is Michigan's home, office, and co-op delivery service of fresh organic fruits, vegetables, herbs and select groceries. Each week of the year we deliver the freshest organic goodies directly to your door at competitive prices. We have close relationships with a number of Michigan farmers and we work around the clock to make sure that we bring you locally grown produce whenever it's available. Unfortunately, for much of the year in MI local produce is not commercially available. With that being said, we always strive to ensure that we bring you the freshest, organic produce from only the most reputable of farms. The reason we focus on local produce when possible is because it's fresher, requires less fuel to transport, and we get to support our neighbors making it easier for them to support us. We have chosen to shop locally and we hope that you do the same!"

So....I signed up! Received my goodies on Weds. Pictured above is a medium mixed box of fruit & veggies. I am pleased to say that everything looked beautiful. So far we've partaken in the fruit but oh...so yummy. Much better then at our local fruit market. Besides health benefits, I like the option of being able to change the size of your order each week if needed. Also you can change items on your order, add items, put a hold on your order if you go out of town, and you cancel anytime.

If you live in Southeastern Michigan - I highly recommend you check it out.

http://www.michigan.doortodoororganics.com/

January 28- Flowers of the week

I make no strides to hide my love of flowers. Since our remodeling is under control- I've been buying fresh flowers, weekly, for the house. I thought it would be fun to post the flowers of the week...and they would be Spider Mums.

Has Spring Sprung???

We could only hope....but I think this Robin has been hanging around all winter. The cowbirds were feeding in the yard yesterday, so that is a good sign is intending to come this year.

Then this Coopers Hawk decided to visit the "bird buffet" in our yard today...
Sometimes it's hard to believe we live 10 miles from Detroit.

And one last thing to leave you with, an appetizer I made last night

Helen's Extraordinary Tofu Spinach Dip

This was a recipe I found on Fat Free Vegan site http://www.fatfreevegan.com/appetizers/tofu_spinach_dip.shtml

I pretty much followed the recipe for once. Except - I cut the recipe in half, THANK GOODNESS! Just half made a ton. Then I added some grated carrot and finely chopped red pepper. I also used the whole can of water chestnuts- because I love them. I would definitely make this again, but I would add some chopped onion, add more garlic, and maybe use the whole packet of soup mix. I give the recipe 3 out of 5 forks.

On the next addition - I will be serving Mangotinis. I just can't bring myself to write about that today - oy.

POMEGRANATE SUNDAY

I've had a thing for pomegranates recently. I've been wanting to make pomegranate martinis recipe that I printed off the Internet- AND COULDN'T FIND yesterday. Well I came up with a recipe from Oprah's site. I opened the bottle of pomegranate concentrate I bought at our local Mediterranean store- brown goo came out. Yes, it tasted like pomegranate but there was NO way I was drinking a foofoo martini that was brown. So I did what I do best- improvise- and it turned out delish! Just look at the delish-ness!

The improvising went as follows

juice of one fresh pomegranate
juice of one fresh lemon
juice of one blood orange
enough orange juice to make total of 1 1/2 cups of total juice

2 oz of Vodka
1 oz of Grand Marnier

Combine in shaker with ice- and of course- shake!
Serve in sugared rimmed glasses with few pomegranate seeds in the
bottom for an extra treat! Makes 2 servings.

So as I was enjoying the above beverage, I made dinner. And to follow the theme of things; I made BBQ Pomegranate Tofu (pg 149) and Coconut Rice with Toasted Coconut (pg 109) from Vegan with a Vengeance.

I threw in the tofu some veggies I had on hand - broccoli, red peppers, carrots and onions. Oh- I ate more then I have shown in the photo! Both Goods and I went back for seconds. It was not only delicious, it was fairly easy to prepare.

Overall rating out of 5 forks - if I could it would be 6 forks- but 5 it is!

Sweet Potato Burritos

Before you go ewhhhhh- read the recipe, try the recipe, you won't be sorry.
Both Goods & I have a love for sweet potatoes, so when I saw a few recipes on the net for Sweet Potato Burritos, I knew I had to make them. Along with the fact I had a container of baked sweet potatoes in the freezer left over from our Christmas feast.
So let's get to the goodies......

Sweet Potato Burritos

1 cup chopped onion
4 garlic cloves – finely chopped
3 or 4 jalapeño
Little oil for sauté

3 cups cooked sweet potatoes (skin removed)
1 cup kidney beans or black beans
1 cup of cooked corn
2-3 teaspoons cumin
1 tablespoon dried parsley
2 teaspoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon oregano
Salt & pepper to taste

package of tortillas

Saute onions, garlic and peppers in a little oil, until soft. Add potatoes, beans and spices. Simmer for 15 mins, making certain all is hot.While cooking mash to desired consistency.

Fill tortillas with potato/bean mixture.You can also add fake sour cream or fake cheddar cheese if desired
Or.....An excellent addition in the burritos is this following mango salsa...reading other recipes, someone suggested a Mango Salsa – but I modified the recipe for our tastes.

Mango Salsa

1 mango - chopped
1 roma tomato - chopped
1/2 c of dice cucumber (peeled)
juice of 1 lime
1/4 c. chopped cilantro
1/4 c of jalapeño or other chili pepper
Salt & pepper to taste

Mix all together in bowl. The more it marinates the better it is. Great with tortilla chips too!

What the stuffing looked like- very colorful

And here is an action photo of Goods rolling up his burrito

We both agreed, the fake sour cream is a must. We didn't try fake cheese on it, I didn't miss it either. As I searched my pantry for kidney beans or black beans, I found that I've been neglecting my bean stock and didn't have either bean, so I had to use Northern Beans. They were good in it but Black Beans would have definitely added to the flavor of the stuffing.

So because of my neglect, I'm giving this 4 1/2 Fork Rating (out of 5)

My first old recipe I successfully veganized

Black Cherry Coffee Cake

Cake Batter:
1/4 c. vegan shortening
3/4 c. sugar
1 tbls. egg replacer
3 tbls. water

1 c. rice milk (or soy)
1 ½ c. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. sea salt
1/2 heaping tsp. cinnamon

Fruit Mixture:
1 heaping cup of fruit - in this case I used chopped black cherries
(use any fruit - blueberries are what I usually use)
1/2 c. water
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tbls. arrowroot powder

Topping:
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/3 c. flour
4 tbls. soy margarine soften (I'm a fan of Willow Run- bad me)
1/2 c. chopped walnuts

Now lets mix stuff up-

We can start with the fruit mixture since it needs to cool a tad after cooking. a tiny bowl,
mix the arrowroot powder w/ a little water just enough to dissolve it.
In a saucepan, mix fruit, water and vanilla- heat to a light boil.
Put the arrowroot mixture in the saucepan and remove from heat.
(make sure the fruit mixture thickens, so you might have to add more arrowroot - your fruit might be juicer then mine)

OPTION 1: If you don't want to go through all this, just fold JUST THE FRUIT into the
batter at the end (do not add arrowroot, water or vanilla)
OPTION 2: double the fruit mixture concoction- I will be next time.

Cream shortening, sugar, egg replacer and water (I used had mixer)
Sift flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon into small bowl.
Add sifted ingredients to creamed mixture, alternately with rice milk.

Pour batter (and it will be thick) into 8 x 8 greased pan.
Smooth it out, then pour fruit mixture on top. I take a knife and fold over a few spots to
work gobs on the fruit mixture into the batter.

Finally the topping. Mix the topping ingredients in a bowl, and mix until crumbly.
Sprinkle the crumbly mixture ontop of batter.

Bake for 45-50 minutes @ 350 degrees.

Overall rating- 4 out of 5 forks
* So overall it turned out excellent, the cake part was nice a fluffy & very tasty.
* The topping is - oh so bad for you, but sooooo extremely yummy.
* The reason I'm not giving this a 5
* The fruit topping-really needed to be doubled, which I will deff do next time.

A December Day at the Detroit Zoo

Yesterday was an unusually warm day here in the Detroit area - it was in the high 40's and sunny, and the Zoo was screaming our names to come visit it. We often visit the zoo, especially on cool days when the animals are most active, and I always take loads of photos.
I invite you to my Flickr set to see what we got to enjoy....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/43276385@N00/sets/72157594450054878/

hummm......what very few posts that I have done, have been about animals....this was not my intent- it was to be about vegetarian / vegan cooking- but I guess animals do play a LIVE ROLE in it.
So I have been cooking up some tasty food, learning the vegan way- I'll be back with more on that!

Happy New Year!!

VICTORY

We Won!
The morning doves are free to fly safely in the state of Michigan.

67% voted No on proposal 3

33% voted Yes

1% forgot to flip the ballot over to continue to vote

VOTE NO ON PROPOSAL 3!

.

Baby doves that blessed our yard in 2005

On November 7th, 2006, Michigan residents have the opportunity to reinstate the ban on shooting Morning Doves.

There’s NO good reason to shoot morning doves:
(from http://www.stopshootingdoves.org/ website)

• Doves are beautiful and have a lovely “coo” (this reason was from me, not the website)
• Doves are NOT overpopulated…hummmm…but people are, what should we do with them?
• Doves are shot for target practice, NOT for food.
• Doves are NOT harmful to humans, property or crops.
• There are already 40 game bird species in Michigan and there’s NO reason to add doves...don’t even get me started on the other birdies (TOFU IS EXCELLENT!)
• It has been Michigan’s tradition to protect mourning doves since 1905, and there’s NO reason to change that now.

Did you know that Morning Doves mate for life?? Both parents raise their offspring. The killing of one parent is known to cause unnecessary suffering of dependent young who will die in the nest of starvation.

Doves are not a viable human food source. As small birds, even if shot properly, doves have very little "edible" flesh (GAG) on them. However, doves are an important source of food for protected birds of prey such as eagles, falcons, hawks, and owls.

Please see http://www.stopshootingdoves.org/ for more information.

Please Vote NO on Proposal 3!

Ali

Heaven's the place where all the dogs you've ever
loved come to greet you..............
Angel Ali - may you be playing with all the other angel puppies.
xoxoxoxo

Good-Dees to follow........

.....until then- enjoy a little Bear-