Full Disclosure: Prize Winning Chili

ChiliBrew strikes again! Though it was a smaller crowd than last October's beer week event, it was awesome. ChiliBrew is a semi-annual chili cook-off and homebrew competition. Chili and beer? Umm, yes please.

Last October I brought my espresso-chocolate chili. It was a little spicy. OK, it was a lot spicy. So this time I made it a little more family-friendly and seasonally appropriate with a thai-inspired chili. 

I promised that I'd post the recipe to the blog. Problem is, I have no idea what exactly I did when I was making a triple-batch of chili at 2 AM after I'd worked an 18 hr shift at Labor and Delivery. All I can say is: I was strongly influenced by the following recipe from the PPK. If you follow these directions, you won't be disappointed.

Enjoy!

Celery Soup: adventures in CSA abundance!

Last weekend I escaped from the cold, rainy north to visit my mom in Florida, where they're already nearing the end of their peak growing season. My mom's fridge was packed to the gills with gorgeous organic CSA produce. We spent a lot of time cooking greens, turnips, beets, squash, tomatoes. It was pretty heavenly.

Her bounty included a few MASSIVE stalks of celery. Celery's one of the "dirty dozen," meaning the conventional stuff is high in nasty chemicals. Not good. This local, organic celery from the farm was tender and sweet. After seeking advice from the internet, we settled on making some Cream of Celery soup. The result was creamy, smooth, and a  gajillion times better than the nasty Campbell's crap that was only fit for mixing into some preservative-laden casserole recipe.

(This recipe is re-posted from the IVU website and is from Nava Atlas's book Vegetarian Soups for All Seasons.) An immersion blender works wonders on this!

Cream of Celery Soup!

• 10 large celery ribs
• 2 T margarine or oil, divided
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 8 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 T unbleached white flour
• 3 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
• water or broth
• 2 tsp salt-free herb-and-spice seasoning mix (Mrs. Dash, i.e.)
• 1/4 c mixed chopped fresh parsley and dill
• 1/4 c celery leaves
• 1 to 1-1/2 cups soymilk, as needed
• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• Chopped fresh dill or parsley for garnish

Trim 10 stalks of celery and cut into 1/2-inch dice.
Heat a tablespoon of the margarine in a large soup pot.
Add the onion and garlic and saute over moderate heat until the onion is lightly golden.
Sprinkle in the flour and stir it in until it disappears.
Add the celery, the potatoes, and just enough water to cover.
Bring to a boil, then add the seasoning mix, fresh herbs, and celery leaves.
Simmer over low heat until the vegetables are tender, about 25 minutes. Remove from the heat.
With a slotted spoon, transfer the solid ingredients to the container of a food processor or blender and puree, in batches if necessary, until very smooth.
Stir back into the soup pot.
Return to very low heat and add enough soymilk to achieve a slightly thick consistency.

Supper Club!

Our first ever Baltimore Vegan Supper Club took place Sunday night. Kevin and I spent the weekend planning and getting the menu together. We're pretty happy with how it turned out. The food came together without any major catastrophes, and it was shared with great company.

The menu included:

• Peanutty Yam Soup
• Baby greens salad
• Cornmeal-crusted mustard seitan (Bryant Terry's recipe)
• BBQ Mango Baked Beans (AFR, Isa)
• Mac & Shews (PPK)
• cornbread
• Kevin's gravy
• Braised kale

Dessert:

• Chocolate Chipotle Sweet Potato Pie with Whipped Cream Topping
• Chocolate Mousse

Recipe Adultry

Remember when there was MySpace, and you've have a heading or a one-line 'About Me?' Mine used to read, "my banana bread brings all the boys to the yard." I have a tried and true vegan recipe that I've been making for almost 10 years now. And! I'm really humble when I talk about it.

After 10 years of loyalty to my 'nana bread recipe, I've decided that I really have a thing for oat bran. It adds grain diversity, and is lower cal and higher protein than rolled oats. Hello, handsome! In order to accommodate my new romance, I again veganized a banana bread recipe that my mom gave me years ago. It's full of health-store-chicy goodness without tasting too granola.

Oat Bran 'Nana Bread

1 T flax meal
2 T water
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla
3 very ripe bananas
1/4 cup nut milk
1/2 cup dates

Dry:
1/2 cup oat bran
1 cup flour (I used white whole wheat)
1 heaping tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

Preheat to 350

In a food processor, whir the flax and water. Add the sugar and oil. Whir again.
Add bananas and nut milk. Whir until bananas are pureed.
Add dates and pulse until roughly chopped
Combine dry ingredients in a bowl and add to food processor, then gingerly pulse until JUST combined. 
Stir in the vinegar.
Spoon into a greased loaf pan. Bake for 45 mins, or until a poker comes out clean.
Invert to remove from pan and let cool on a wire rack.

Baltimore Vegan Supper Club

Have you heard of supper clubs? The idea is that people gather at a rotating location for an underground dining experience. You're served a top quality meal for a donation. In conjunction with Baltimore Supper Club and Baltimore Vegan Drinks, we're excited to have the first Baltimore Vegan Supper Club meal next Sunday.

Sunday, March 6, at 6:30 PM

Four course meal (theme will be soul/southern) and will include drinks
Suggested donation of $20 to cover cost of ingredients and materials.

RSVP here.

Location will be announced a day or two before the event, but it's in Baltimore City.

Happy Valentines!

After spending the day providing prenatal care for Baltimore's pregnant teen population (yay, young love,) I came home to my Kev who presented me with a gorgeous bunch of red roses. They smell so pretty.

Here's what I made for him. They're red velvet cupcakes. Most red food coloring isn't vegan, and I'm not really into food dye anyway. These are dyed with beets and are the careful work of Hannah Kaminsky. Her process involved a fair amount of food chemistry, which is fun.

Yay for us making it to Valentines Day #3. Look forward to more!

Biscuits n Gravy!

We made biscuits & gravy this morning for the monthly Baltimore Foodmakers potluck. The theme today was home-roasting coffee, and the potluck was timed for brunch. I used this recipe, from the Chicago Diner, for the biscuits. They reminded me of KFC's buttermilk biscuits. You don't get much more southern than that!

I'll let Kevin write up his gravy making. Take it away, Kevin:

I cooked up a double batch of mushroom sage gravy and a single batch of tempeh "sausage" crumbles and combined them. Easy peasy!

The tempeh sausage crumbles are from Vegan With a Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. The recipe is straightforward, and I followed it exactly. However, I got the gravy going first because I wanted to make sure not to burn the tempeh.

Now, the "I Can't Believe It's Vegan" Gravy recipe from vegweb is really amazing, but I've modified it some. As I said, I made a double batch to accommodate all the tempeh.

Ingredients:

4 cups water
1/2 cup flour (you can use white or w. wheat, but wheat is "grainier"

8 oz cremini mushrooms

Canola oil

2 tsp Better Than Bouillion Vegetable Base (expensive but fantastic, saves lots of time)
2 tbsp Earth Balance
4 heaped tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 tsp onion salt
a few good dashes of soy sauce or tamari, to taste
a few dashes of garlic powder
ground black pepper to taste
ground dried sage
Gravy Master!

This is my secret weapon.

*If the result is too thick, you can dilute it with some more broth or stock or whatever you'd like. I used mushroom broth because I had some on hand.

1. Slice and chop the mushrooms. Saute mushrooms gently with oil, and keep them on the side for now.
2. In a saucepan, combine the rest of the ingredients except for the sage and the gravy master. Simmer, stirring often.
3. Taste. Add some gravy master, whisk, and taste again. Be careful, a little bit goes a long way.
4. Add sage. I'm liberal with my sage usage. This is the other secret ingredient. Taste again.
5. If you're happy with your gravy, add the mushrooms and the tempeh sausage.
6. Adjust the viscosity by adding broth.
7. Find something to douse in delicious gravy!