Outrageous Vegan Muffins

Lately I have gotten into cooking vegan food.  Admittedly, I'm no vegan, but I certainly enjoy trying new things and learning about different types of diets.  Even though I like eating some meats, I have also been noticing how good I feel when I eat yummy, filling meals that have not been touched by the meat industry.  Not only have I found some wonderful dishes and new things to try, but I'm finding a sort of clarity in vegan food that I don't find in dishes made with meats.  It feels more "pure" to me.  My body feels good when I eat it.  Perhaps it's a psychological thing, or maybe energetic, regardless something feels right.  I'm excited!

When our vegan friend Jack came over for dinner a few times in the last couple of weeks this new world of cooking opened up to me.  Because I'm Greek (and Greeks like to feed people), I got inspired to dig through the internet and find some scrumpdidalyumptious looking vegan blogs, . . . Oh She Glows and Post Punk Kitchen to name a couple.  Who knows where this little culinary experiment will go, . . . eating less meat is a good thing!  (I'm sure my Greek ancestors are rolling in their graves!) 

 I made these muffins the other day.  If you feel inspired, try them, you'll see that eating vegan can be super yummy.  The original recipe, Outrageous Muffins, was on the back of some Bob's Red Mill Soy flour, and I've been wanting to try it for a while.  When I realized that we were out of eggs, I thought, "hey, why not make some flax eggs and try and convert the recipe to be vegan!"  Instead of yogurt, I used coconut milk and voila, you have these super yummy, fluffy, raisin muffins.  Plus, they are packed with protein and fiber.  Bon-Appetite!

"Outrageous Vegan Muffins"

Ingredients:

1/3 Cup Whole Soy Flour

1/3 Cup Medium Grind Cornmeal

1 Cup Whole Wheat Pastry Flour

1/4 Cup Wheat Germ

3/4 tsp. Salt

1/2 Cup Salt

1 Cup Ground Almonds

1 tsp. Baking Soda

2 Flax Eggs (see note below)

1 Cup Coconut Milk

1 tsp. Vanilla

1/3 Cup Canola Oil (plus a little extra for greasing tins)

1 Cup Raisins

To assemble:

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  

-Make flax eggs.

-Grease muffin tins with oil, or use cupcake papers.

-Mix dry ingredients and raisins in a large bowl.

-Mix wet ingredients and add to dry ingredients.

-Fill muffin tins 2/3s full.

-Bake for 20-25 minutes.

-Enjoy!!

Note: To make a flax egg:  Mix 1 Tablespoon of ground flax with 3 Tablespoons of water in a small bowl, put in fridge while preparing other ingredients.

Bougatsa: Eating Dessert For Dinner, . . .

Ahhh, big sigh.  Bougatsa.  One of my very favorite Greek desserts, made with phyllo dough and custard.  As a child, I spent many summers in Greece.  Some mornings my Dad would drive down to the center of town and bring back fresh Bougatsa.   We would devour it for breakfast.  Now, as an adult, when I go to the Island, I still go back to that same cafe my Dad went to and enjoy some of this delicious sweet.

My dad was born on the Island of Lesvos, much known for Sappho and her school of women, which is where the word Lesbian originates from.  Yes, my Dad is a tried and true Lesbian.  As a lot of you know, my greek heritage is a large part of me, and also an inspiration for many a blog post, particularly in regards to food.  So, back to Bougatsa.  Mmmmm.  Can you tell I'm salivating?

Today I had the pleasure of hanging out with my Dad and his girlfriend, Vangilitsa.  She is a great cook and in order to expand my Greek food repertoire, a while back I asked her to teach me how to make Bougatsa.  Today we finally got around to it and I was surprised at how easy it was, don't be afraid to give it a try, . . .

Bougatsa

Ingredients:

4 eggs

1 cup of sugar

5 cups of milk

A piece of lemon peel (about the size of a silver dollar)

1 cup of semolina flour

1/2 stick butter

1 pack of phyllo dough

Powdered sugar and cinnamon (for sprinkling on top)

The Custard:

1) Beat eggs in a bowl, add sugar and beat some more till well mixed and slightly bubbly.

2) Pour Milk into a medium sized pot, add lemon peel.  Heat till hot, but not boiling. 

3) Add Semolina flour and stir stir stir!  Keep stirring till thickened (like the consistency of polenta).

4) Slowly add the eggs and sugar to the pot, don't stop stirring.  The custard will form. 

5) Pull it off the heat and keep stirring till custard settles a bit.

To Assemble:

1) Pre-heat oven to 355 degrees

2) Melt butter

3) Center one layer of phyllo down in a 9x13 inch square pan, let phyllo dough come up and over the edge of the pan.

4) Brush the layer with melted butter

5) Do steps 3 and 4 five times

6) Put custard filling on top of phyllo layers and spread evenly.

7) Fold the edges of dough over filling. 

8) Lay five buttered layers of phyllo dough on top of filling

9) Trim edges, but leave enough dough to push down the side of custard to encase filling.

6) Cut portion lines with a knife

7) Bake for 40 minutes

8) Sprinkle with powdered sugar and cinnamon.

9) Enjoy!

Of course we munched on some after it came straight out of the oven, and, unfortunately for my waste, Vangilitsa insisted that I take a generous portion home with me.  Typical Greek.  How could I resist?  Anyway, after the long day that I had; 2 Dr.s appointments (1 for a kid, 1 for a cat), hubby being out of town, toting kids everywhere, grocery store, pharmacy, doing dishes, cleaning, bla bla bla), I found myself digging into this delicious dessert once again as I scrambled to get cats and dogs fed and clean up the days mess.  Although I don't make it a common practice, today I quite enjoyed eating my dessert for

 dinner.  Why not?  You only live once!  

Ευχαριστώ Vangilitsa!  

Play Dough Fun!

Serafin and I had fun with play dough today.  I found a great recipe from this blogging mama, it's super easy.   After making it, we had an afternoon of experimenting! 

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Serafin loves to help me in the kitchen, today was especially fun because of the "pretty colors"!  Seriously, what would I do without food coloring?

We started with Aqua (above) and then moved to pink.

And of course, . . . it wouldn't be me if we didn't add orange!

After the dough cooled, I set up the table for some fun.

First, she made me "a cup of tea" (she's definitely my daughter!).

Then she practiced kneading.

"Let's try some other colors!"

And how about some "spaghetti"!

Pretty soon Silas wanted in on the fun, he wasn't so sure about it.

More experimentation and "color blending".

"Here ya go Mommy!  All done!"

Baklava!

Yet another family tradition! Every year my Dad would get out the baking pans and make a huge portion of Baklava to enjoy during the holidays. He would give it to friends and family as a delicious treat when they came over for visits as well as gobble up one himself. Mmmmmm. I always enjoyed this undertaking and when I could, I helped him make it.

A couple of weeks ago my hubby sent me a link to the the Honey Harvest Hootenanny on October 1st ( link ), a fundraiser for an awesome place in downtown Oakland that teaches people how to live more sustainably. They put on fun events and also have interesting classes, everything from farming, rainwater harvesting, bee keeping and even arts and crafts. If I wasn't pregnant, I would have really enjoyed partaking in their bee-keeping series. You can check out their website at http://aplaceforsustainableliving.org/

During this "Honey Harvest Hootenanny" they are holding a competition of foods made with honey that don't have any refined sugars in them. Gary then suggested some Baklava. At first I rolled my eyes and thought, "Yeah right, at 8 months pregnant? You got to be kidding me!" But as you've read in previous posts, somehow my nesting instincts have strayed away from cobwebs and dusty corners and been more geared towards cooking and crafting. I bought the ingredients and I decided to put it together.

Now Baklava has a reputation of taking forever to make, it really wasn't all that bad. Overall, from beginning to end, I think it took about 3 hours. The original recipe that came from my grandmother's cookbook was not an option because it uses white sugar, not only that, but to be honest, I always had trouble understand what the heck she was talking about. A lot of times her measurements would be along the lines of, "a spoonful of this" and "a shot full of that". Without my Dad to help me, I decided I needed a more "legit" recipe to follow. Sorry Yayoula! I started looking for alternative recipes and found this awesome blog called The Nourishing Apron. I CAN'T WAIT to try other recipes that she's posted. This Baklava recipe was inspired by hers, although not without my own tweaks and knowledge of making this scrumptious dessert.

Here ya go!

Baklava:

-The night before, thaw out phyllo dough in the fridge. Keeping the dough in the box, set out an of hour before assembling Baklava so that it will come to room temperature.

- First, make the syrup

Ingredients for syrup:

2 cups of water

1 cup of dates, pitted and quartered

2 cups of honey

1 Tbs of cloves

-Simmer all ingredients, except the honey, in a covered pot for about 1/2 hour.

-Pull syrup off stove and ad honey, stir and set aside to let cool.

Ingredients for pastry:

1 lb box of whole wheat phyllo dough

2 sticks of butter

1 Tbs allspice

1 1/2 lbs of pecans

Small hand-full of whole cloves for decoration

-In food processor, coarsely grind pecans

-Add allspice to pecans and blend a few seconds more

-Melt 2 sticks of salted butter in a pot.

-Butter bottom of a 9x13 inch platter

-Take phyllo out of package and put on baking sheet, usually the phyllo sheets are large and can be cut in half to fit almost directly into your 9x13 inch platter. Important(!): Cover dough with a damp kitchen towel so that it doesn't dry out between uses.

-Add a layer of phyllo dough to bottom of platter, then drizzle and brush butter on.

-Add 6 more layers of dough the same way.

-Take a handful of pecans and spices and put a thin layer on top of doe, a bit heavier than a "sprinkle".

-Cover with another layer of phyllo dough, butter, and pecans. Note: In the beginning you may have to cut the phyllo do to fit the pan.

-Repeat process three or four times.

-Re-enforce with an extra layer of phyllo dough and butter (no pecans). Then start process again till all the nuts are gone.

-Add 4 more layers of butter and dough.

-Cut diagonally and put a clove into each square.

-Cook in oven at 350 degrees for about 30-40 minutes till golden brown.

-When baklava comes out of the oven, poor syrup between pieces of baklava, you should hear a nice sizzle. Be careful not to cover entire piece with syrup as it will make it soggy.

-Set aside and let it cool! It's usually best eaten room temperature after it has "firmed up" a bit and the honey has been sucked into the pastry.

Mmmmmmm! Salivating again!

Greek Easter Bread! Yum!

In honor of my sweet Mom, you taught me well (!) . . .

(to the left is one of my favorite pictures of my mom and I, on the docks of Hotel Bora Bora when I was nine)

Easter was hard for me this year. Not only was it the last time I saw my mom before she died last year, but it was also always one of "her" holidays. Normally I don't even give it a thought because my mom always asks me what we are doing. Of course, since we didn't "traditionally" celebrate the holiday we always used it as an excuse to hang out all together and have a good meal, usually something amazing that my mom would cook.

This year, even though I was sad, I used it as an opportunity to start a new tradition. I decided to make some Greek Easter Bread. It is a long process, not too difficult, but just takes a while. My mom used to love making it for my Dad as there are some foods he gets hankerings for being away from his homeland. I remember helping her when I was younger and then eagerly awaiting the fresh cooked bread to come out of the oven. Now it was Serafin's turn to help and enjoy the outcome!

For those of you who didn't know my mom, she was an AMAZING cook. She actually had taken lessons from Julia Child at one point. Her food was mouthwatering, diverse, and, of course, NOT non-fat. A year before she passed away she asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I told her how cool it would be to have a compilation of her huge (and very messy) cookbook. I don't know how she knew where things were in that binder of recipes, it was a huge mish-mash of hand written pages and magazine clippings. Somehow though, that Christmas, my mom produced a neatly typed binder of all my favorite recipes. Included were old family dishes, Greek food, and my childhood favorites. It was also prefaced by a sweet letter from my Mom, words that I have read many times since she passed. This cook book is a treasure to have and I am especially grateful that all the wonderful foods that my mom once cooked are not lost forever.

Straight from my mom's cookbook and into our mouths, please enjoy making some Greek Easter Bread (Tsoureki). It is most definitely worth the time and effort.

Tsoureki

Makes 4 twists

4-5 lbs white flour, sifted with 1 T. salt

4 yeast cakes or 4 packages dried yeast, dissolved in 1 cup of warm water

10 eggs beaten, with 1 1/2 cup milk

1 tsp. allspice

1 1/2 tsp. anise or 3 tsp ouzo

3 egg yolks

1/3 cup sesame seeds

1/3 cup sliced almonds

Boil the allspice and anise (ouzo) in 1 cup water and set aside, reserving water. Place 4 lbs of the sifted flour and salt in a large bowl, and make a well in the center of the flour. Add the yeast with water, eggs with sugar and mix, but do not knead; add the melted butter and milk, and the reserved liquid from the allspice and anise (ouzo); mix with your hands to blend ingredients thoroughly, adding more flour as needed (you will end up using all the 5 pounds of flour).

Then knead until the dough is smooth. Place dough on a floured board and knead until firm, smooth and not sticky. Brush the dough with melted butter, cover with towels , and set in warm place to rise until double in size. Knead again, brush with butter, and allow to rise until again twice in size. Repeat this process one more time (3 times altogether).

When dough is ready, divide it into 4 balls. Divide each section into 3 small balls and roll out each ball with your hands into a long narrow rope. Take the ropes of dough, press them together at the top and braid them, then press the ends together to form a wreath or leave straight. Brush twists with egg yolks, sprinkle with sesame seeds, place in greased baking pans and bake at 325 degrees (350) until golden brown. (45 minutes plus)

Yum!

I love my bread machine!

Just throw the ingredients inside!

Wait a few hours! . . . .

and, . . . .

VOILA!

Home baked, whole wheat flax bread!

Yum!