Yes,
The ELF is BACK, Baby!!
We
are so sorry we’ve been away for a while but other cool things have been
happening. You may have noticed that we changed the name of the blog from “To V
or Not to V” to “The Elf in the Kitchen”. We have also been shamelessly
promoting the blog as well as establishing a Facebook page, aptly named The Elf
in the Kitchen. If you are new to this blog, please check it out and ‘like’
us. You know by now that our purpose is
to chronicle the vegan lifestyle we chose on June 30 2013 at the tender age of
67. It’s been one of the most exciting and challenging times of my life and I
am richer for it (not money richer but person richer). We are also trying hard in this NEW YEAR to
simplify our lives…so what if we eat the same thing for breakfast for a week.
It actually makes life easier and less stressful when one doesn’t have to fret
over “WHAT TO FIX FOR SUPPER” or “WHAT TO WEAR” of “WHERE TO EAT”.
~~~~~~~~~~
A
while back we mentioned that we wanted to find and share the stories of people
who decided to eat a plant-based/vegan regiment after the age of 50. Well, this
week, we introduce our first VENERABLE
VEGAN!! MEET
JERRY
DAUM
WATER
VALLEY, MS—IN HIS OWN WORDS:
My
Ascent into a Plant Base Diet
I do not have
a noble reason for entering into a vegan diet or in my case a plant based
diet. It was not to save animals (except
myself) or some other noble cause.
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| Grand Canyon BEFORE |
In March of
2013 I went to see a cardiologist in Jackson, Mississippi. My EKG was a little abnormal and a CRT scan
was performed. The result was that I had
three partially clogged arteries. My doctor wanted me to get a DVD named “Forks
over Knives” and a book named “Eat to Live” while we waited for the results
from blood tests. This I did and on
April 1, 2013 I went on a plant based diet.
Note I say a plant-based diet and not a vegan diet.
The plant based diet that I follow has more restrictions than a vegan diet. I do not use much if any extra oil, refined sugar or grain and very little salt. My diet consists of whole grains, tree nuts, vegetables and fruit. I seldom eat a dessert even if it meets the requirement of the diet. I keep saying diet meaning things I eat because to me this is a change of life style and not a diet to lose weight.
In
the first three months of eating a plant based diet, I lost 30 pounds and
reduced my cholesterol by 120 points. By
the end of the first year I had lost 60 pounds and maintained my lower
cholesterol. Other benefits have been:
Greater sense
of taste
Less arthritic
pain in hands and knees
More energy
Less back pain
The biggest
reason this change has not been hard for me is because of my wife,
Margaret. She also went on the
diet. She lost 20 pounds and stop taking
cholesterol medicine. We plan on staying
on with this change of life
style. In another year and a half, I
will find out if my arteries have cleared (or at least very little
blockage). In the meantime, I will enjoy
trying new foods and old foods prepared differently than the way I was raised.
My wife,
Margaret and I, travel a couple of months every year. When we eat in a restaurant, we say we are
vegans because they are familiar with what a vegan is. We then select items to adhere as close as we
can to the plant base diet. Some vegan
items (such as some vegan cheese made with palm oil) do not meet my requirements. We have found restaurants very
accommodating. I have never called ahead
to request a meal. When we travel, we
rarely have hotel reservations because we may change our direction twice in a
day if we see or hear about something that sounds interesting. We never know where we will be when meal time
comes.
I wish I had
done this earlier in my life. I know I
most likely would not have had some minor but annoying health problems. I am not a person that can do something like
this halfway. I am in all the way or not
at all. As I have said, I am not into this for any ethical reasons, just
health. Whatever reason a person has, I
do believe this is the way to eat.
BON APPETITE!!
~~~~~~~~~~
The Elf and
Mr. Elf (aka Big Solid) appeared for the second time on the Gallo Show on
SuperTalk MS (97.3 FM) to talk more about being vegan and Big Solid about
living with one. We also prepared what we called a ‘veganbord’ or a potpourri
of vegan goodies for the kind folks at the station to sample. Keeping in mind
that all sampled foods were, of course, vegan, here’s what we offered. Cookies (chocolate chip and dried
cherry/coconut/walnut oatmeal), muffins (pear pecan and apple, raisin, walnut),
Andouille ‘sausage” (ala The Gentle Chef), ‘sausage’ rolls with two dipping sauces.
It appears we surprised the samplers with the tastiness…the sole exception
being the Andouille, which rated a B+ instead of an A. And, that was more from
a texture sense than taste. I’m tellin’ you right now that the sausage rolls
(see recipe and pictures below) are my new ‘go-to’ appetizer. What a terrific recipe…once I
remembered to follow the directions correctly, which I did NOT do in the
initial batch. Again, sometimes I get in such a hurry I forget to read the
directions all the way through before diving in for which, I pay a price
of screwing up the preparation OR the outcome.
~~~~~~~~~~
We
attended a conference put on by the MS Abolitionist Vegan Society on Sunday
November 16 at St. Columb’s Episcopal Church. Organizers Matthew and Alyssa
Sikora put together an excellent program to bring information about veganism to
the community. The weather was horrible which impacted the size of the crowd.
However, it did not dampen the enthusiasm of the speakers (Matthew Sikora, Gigi
Carter, Brenda Sanders, and Doll Stanley) or attendees. Plus there was a great
cooking demonstration by Alyssa Sikora. There are plans in the works for
another conference in the spring.
~~~~~~~~~~
NEW
FEATURE!! -- Recipe of the Month!!
This
Sausage Roll recipe is absolutely delicious. I screwed it up the first time by
not reading all the directions. That was actually a serendipitous event, as I
learned several things. The original
recipe was not spicy enough for us…we like REALLY spicy food, so I kicked it up
on the second effort. Better but STILL needed more kick…so this weekend, MORE
KICK (noted in the recipe with the italicized/bolded type). Another thing we
experimented with was making the ‘rolls’ into ‘bites’ by slicing the rolls into
half inch rounds. The next experiment will be to freeze the uncooked rounds to
see if they can be made ahead of time and then brought out as needed. Whereas
the original recipe makes 10 3-3 ½” rolls, the ‘rounds’ option will make
considerably more. I am also going to try to figure out the nutritional values
as well and will post those at a different time.
As
you can see, we had plenty of help from our ‘sous-Elf’ Oskar. Starting with gathering all the ingredients (AFTER YOU HAVE READ THE RECIPE) until the end result...here you go!
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| All lined up for preparation! |
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| Oscar is keeping a watchful elf eye |
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| Such good h-elf |
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| dough is ready for the 'frig |
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| Rolled out with 'sausage filling' |
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| The end result and they are SO GOOD! |
In
any event, here is the recipe as well as the link to it:
SAUSAGE ROLLS
Makes
10 rolls
INGREDIENTS
5 oz. (about 1 1/2 cups) raw walnuts or
pecans
1/2 cup breadcrumbs or stale bread
1 medium yellow onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
12.3 oz. (1 pkg) extra-firm silken tofu
2 teaspoons vegan beef stock powder
3/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
3 tablespoons soy sauce or tamari
1 teaspoon liquid smoke
1 teaspoon gravy enhancer
1 teaspoon assorted seasoning…chili, Cajun,
jerk, barbeque (to taste)
1/2 teaspoon pepper, or to taste
1 cup rolled oats
2 frozen puff pastry squares or sheets
Non-dairy milk, for brushing
Sesame seeds, for garnish
(Note-the ingredients listed above in bold are additions that I made to this recipe. We
thought the initial trial of this recipe just a tad on the bland side, so we
added stuffs to spice it up.)
DIRECTIONS
·
The
night before, take puff pastry out of freezer and let defrost in the fridge overnight.
·
Either
chopping by hand or in a food processor, process the nuts until they are the
size of small pebbles
·
Put
the nuts into a large mixing bowl. If using stale bread, put the bread into the
food processor and process until the bread turns to fine crumbs, then add the
bread crumbs into the bowl with the chopped nuts.
·
Half
the onion and then cut each half into quarters; add them to the food processor
along with the minced garlic. Process them until they become finely chopped,
then mix them into the bowl with the other ingredients.
·
Puree
the tofu, along with the beef stock powder, smoked paprika, soy sauce, liquid
smoke and pepper until completely smooth.
·
Add
the tofu mixture to the bowl along with the oats, and mix everything until
evenly distributed. Cover and store in the fridge until ready to use.
·
Preheat
oven to 425 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
·
Remove
your puff pastry from the fridge, take one square and roll out into a 16 x 6
inch rectangle.
·
Spoon
the filling lengthwise down the center third of the puff pastry rectangle;
lightly brush the opposite boarder with the milk.
·
Roll
the pastry and filling lengthwise towards the brushed boarder like a log,
sealing with your fingers to close the seam.
·
Slice
the roll into 5 3-inch long pieces and place them on the prepared baking sheet.
·
I
cut mine into 4 but I recommend cutting them into 5.
·
Make
2 or 3 diagonal cuts in the top of each roll to release steam. Brush the tops
of each roll with more milk and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Repeat with the remaining filling and
pastry (This my friends is where I screwed up. I kept thinking I had WAY too
much filling for one puff pastry but the directions don’t say spoon half the
filling, so I didn’t).
·
Bake
the rolls for 20 to 30 minutes, or until they’re golden brown and flaky.
·
Let
cool slightly and serve with spicy honey mustard sauce, marinara sauce and/or
BBQ Sauce.
This
recipe can be found with additional pictures at http://www.cookbookaficionado.com/virtual-vegan-potluck-sausage-rolls-with-a-trio-of-dipping-sauces/
What
The Elf (who is of course ME) has learned after several efforts at this recipe
is you can make smaller logs/rolls and slice them into 1 to 2 inch bite sized
pieces and have a great appetizer. Of course, when you slice them into smaller
bites, you do need to adjust your cooking time to make sure they don’t turn
into charcoal. AND perhaps the best thing of all is that you can freeze the
logs and use when needed. In fact, the logs are much easier to slice if they
are semi-frozen. I now make a double recipe so we always have a surplus of
frozen logs to pop out for sudden needs….like hunger.
So,
it appears that 2015 has gotten off to a good start, food-wise. Even Mail Order
Annie was tooting her horn over the possibilities of joy and goodness that come
from fresh year.
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| HAPPY 2015 from Mail Order Annie!! |
So
with that, we will sign off and say we’ll see you in a couple of weeks. In the
meantime, y’all,
breathe deep, eat plants and love life.
The
Elf
