Cooking for the holidays is good for the soul, but not for the waistline :)

Well, it has been a long time since we posted to this blog.  I haven’t been cooking much, not from a lack of interest, but from a lack of time.  Amazing how the month of December fills up so fast.  Between activities with Gudrun’s family and our friends, Christmas shopping, the occasional Couch Surfer (www.couchsurfing.org), and end-of-the-year work craziness (on man, I hate reading patents and master thesis drafts), there has been little time left over.  When I did happen to be at home in the evening, the house was so cold, that I often opted to make a quick sandwich to eat under the comforter (fun fact:  I love the Dutch word for comforter – “dekbed.”  It rolls so easily off the tongue. I love it so much, it is now my default word for this item no matter what language I am speaking. Ha!).  I’ve been making some interesting "under-the-dekbed" sandwiches, though, which I intend to make the subject of another blog entry… stay tuned. 

This isn’t to say that I haven’t been cooking at all.  In fact, I have done quite a lot of “holiday” cooking (I just haven’t really had time to write about it). I made cranberry sauce (belated Thanksgiving), I spent a whole weekend making Christmas cookies and I’ve made two cakes for two different family gatherings.  ALL of these recipes came from dear friends, which I feel is incredibly appropriate for this time of year.  If I am separated by distance from the people I hold dear, at least I can make their food and remember them.   I’m going to tell the stories of making the food, and at the end of this post you can find the recipes themselves (or links to the recipes).

Part 1:  Cranberry sauce!!

The cranberry sauce recipe came from my dear friend Gina, who makes it every year for her own family Thanksgiving.   I have never ever before in my life had homemade cranberry sauce.  For me, the very name “cranberry sauce” conjures images of a gelatinous purple-red blob, served with a *schlop* out of the can… ridges and all.  Like Miracle Whip and Green Giant canned peas, canned cranberry sauce is a beloved friend from my childhood.  You know, one of those nostalgic things you grew up with, and while you know you shouldn’t even like it, you still love it.

*schlop!*

 One of the few downsides to living in Belgium is the obvious lack of such “American” food, like canned cranberry sauce.  I had done without cranberry sauce every Thanksgiving for the past 5 years until last year when I found jarred “cranberry jelly” from Stonemanor, the (pretentious sounding) British grocery store in Brussels.  The taste was comparable to the congealed cranberry mass that I remember as a child, but it lacked the signature *schlop* (it must be delicately spooned out of its glass jar – with one pinky raised)… more disturbingly, it costs about 6 dollars per (little) jar.    

This year, I had pretty much resolved to do without the expensive cranberry jelly, when Gina casually mentioned to me one day over gmail-chat that she was making cranberry sauce.  *GASP* “You can MAKE cranberry sauce?!?!”  The thought had, seriously, never crossed my mind. Gina proceeded to outline the extremely simple method of making your own gelatinous glob, and I listened with intense consideration.   

I promptly bought a bag of cranberries and proceeded to make my very own cranberry sauce for the first time ever.  For being a beginner, however, I was incredibly cavalier in not actually measuring the amount of water I used.  I just poured water over the cranberries until it looked like enough - my post facto analysis is that I probably used close to double the correct amount.  So, while my cranberry sauce set a little bit, it was more the consistency of gravy, not so much the congealed jello-mold consistency I wanted.  However, it was still INCREDIBLY delicious mixed up in my mashed potatoes (don’t you dare judge me, we're talking nostalgic food memories here. Haha).  Next year, to approach perfection, I will use the correct amount of water.  I also plan to keep an old can (washed, of course) in which to let the sauce set, and have it *schlop* out, ridges and all.  I can't wait until next fall!

Part 2:   Cookies!!

The cookies I made mostly came from a friendly competition that I posed on Facebook.   I promised that the person sending me the recipe for the best vegan cookies would be rewarded with a small gift card for iTunes. Several friends sent excellent looking recipes, but the winner of the competition was seasoned cookie baker and friend, Stephanie.   She sent a recipe for the most delicious vegan peanut butter – chocolate chip cookies.  They were SO delicious and SO easy! The batter of these cookies was so good, that they ran the risk of never actually getting baked (but rather eaten, spoonful by embarassing spoonful, raw).  I was strong, however, and only ate about 6 cookies worth of raw batter. Haha.  The rest made it to the oven.   

Together with 4 other varieties, these competition cookies were intended as presents, but except for a few that Gudrun gave to her sister and a few that ended up going on the table when some friends came for an early Christmas celebration, the rest were (ashamedly) eaten by me and Gudrun.  They were THAT good!  My apologies to the people who were supposed to get cookies but didn’t. (Luckily, you don’t know who you are, so you don’t really know that you are missing anything. Haha.)  Aside from the peanut butter-chocolate chip cookies, Stephanie also sent a recipe for spiced apple cookies (which could have also won the facebook competition, but lost only because the other ones were slightly easier to make).  I also made oatmeal-rasin bars and ginger-shortbread cookies (also both delicious!).   I had also planned to make iced sugar cookies, but I ran out of time (and steam).  Maybe, if I attempt this again next year, I will include the sugar cookies.  But I will need someone who comes into my home and removes the cookies to a bank safe to keep me from eating them (boy, my pants are getting a little tight).

Part 3:  Don't worry, I'll take care of dessert! 

‘Tis the season for parties.  Whether it is a Sint-Niklaas dinner (see here), or getting together with extended family to Christmas exchange gifts early.  It is the time to eat, drink, and be merry.  We’ve been fortunate enough this season to be invited all over the place for dinner or cocktail parties.   The fear we create when we accept invitations and promptly tell the host, “sure! But, Kelly is a vegan now” is almost amusing. 

Most people have been extremely accommodating, immediately trying to figure out what they can serve.  Main dishes are not so difficult – veggie burger with vegetables, pasta with vegetables, mashed potatos with soy milk.  It is a completely different story when you start talking dessert.  You can’t serve a vegan guest a pie or cake from the store or bakery (I guarantee you they contain at least eggs or butter, probably also milk, and often, at least in Belgium, gelatin).  Ice cream is, obviously, also out of the picture.  Crème brule, rice pudding, chocolate mousse…. ALL the traditional Belgian deserts are chock full o’ dairy.  

Oh goodness, what is a Belgian host to do?  My suggestion to date – “I’ll bring the desert!”  This has been, for me, an incredibly fun suggestion.  I have tried out two completely different chocolate cake recipes (recipes from my good friends Jeff and Judy), found a good source for (mouth watering) raspberry sorbet, and scoured the ingredients list at various stores to find vegan sprinkles, chocolate sauce, and other delicious toppings. 

These activities have not been good for my waistline (yes, I would have been a healthier person convincing myself I could no longer have chocolate sauce), but they have served to illustrate to my hosts (and myself) that veganism need not be difficult, and certainly not bland!  For Christmas dinner, which is this coming Sunday, Gudrun’s sister Joke will make pears sautéed in wine, sugar and oil, served with ice cream.  I am bringing my own soy ice cream so that I can, with minor adjustments, eat the same as the rest of the table.   This vegan thing really isn’t that hard! 

Recipes:

Cranberry Sauce (Gina’s recipe, complete with scientific procedure!): 

Ingredients:

12-16 oz. whole cranberries

2 Cups Water

2 Cups Sugar

Mulling Spices (optional)

Procedure (how scientific!)

1.  Place the cranberries and water into a medium saucepan.  Bring the water to a boil and let it boil until the skins on the cranberries burst at the sides.  Then remove from heat.

2. Using a slotted spoon (or something similar), take the cranberries out of the water and put them into a food processor.  Process the crap out of them so that you are left with a bright red puree.  The more you process, the smaller the seed pieces will be, so the texture is up to you.

3.  Put the puree back in the water and add the sugar.  Put the mulling spices in some sort of tea infuser or a mesh bag.  Place it in the pot too.  Bring the whole shebang to a boil again and BOIL THE CRAP OUT OF IT.  The longer you boil it, the stiffer the final product will be.  If you want an actual cranberry sauce, then you only have to boil it for a few minutes (resulting in a slightly viscous liquid).  If you want sliceable cranberry jelly, boil it for several minutes, until the mixture is visibly very thick.

4.  After you have achieved your desired consistency, pour it into a greased mold of your choice.  I usually use a ring pan (like a Bundt or tube pan.  I know Kelly wanted to use a cylinder of some sort so she could get that canned cranberry jelly slicing satisfaction!

5.  Place the mold in the fridge for several hours (I usually chill it overnight) to set.  After it is set, remove from mold (you will likely need to sit the mold in hot water for a while to get the stuff out).

And there you have it!  

[Kelly's note:  I strained the pureed mixture through a fine sieve... this was a considerable amount of work, but it removed seed pieces and left a very smooth jelly.  I'm sure Gina won't mind me messing with her process, we wouldn't be true scientists unless we improved on each other's methods! ;)...]

Peanut Butter – Chocolate Chip Cookies (Sent to me by Stephanie): 
http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipes/9982?section

These are supposed to be made with "exotic" spelt flour and a LOT of maple syrup.  I hear that Trader Joe’s and Costco are good sources of cheap maple syrup, and I believe that regular flour could be substituted for spelt if you don't happen to keep weird flour around the pantry (although I made them with spelt and they were, as I've mentioned a few times, amazing).

Spiced Apple Cookies (Sent to me by Stephanie):
http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipes/11408?section

Ginger-Shortbread cookies (brainchild of my friend Jeff):

White Sugar: 100g

Brown Sugar: 150g

Margarine: 500g

Oat Flour: 750g

Salt: 2g

Ginger powder: 5g

Cinnamon: 7g

Nutmeg: 1g (adjust to taste for Belgians)

Allspice: 3g

Vanilla extract: 5ml

Molasses: 50ml

Sift together the flour, salt, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice and set aside.

In a large bowl beat the margarine and sugar until they're just combined.  Add the molasses and vanilla and beat until smooth. add the flour and beat until the dough comes together.

The dough will be stiff; more like pie dough than cookie dough.  At this point the dough can be rolled out and made into gingerbread persons; be sure to make little screaming noises as you eat them.  Alternatively you could roll golf-ball sized balls and press them flat on a cookie sheet to make a more traditional shortbread cookie.  If you were to use this for a gingerbread house, I would make the dough at least 1cm thick.  
[Kelly's note: I think these cookies could have used a little more sugar, and maybe more moisture - after the first batch, I started rolling the cookies in sugar crystals before flattening them.  I considered adding some oil or applesauce to make them more moist.  I decided to leave them as they were, and just ate them as a dunking cookie.  They went really well dunked in soy milk or coffee :-) ]

Sugar Cookies and icing (not made this year, although I'm still thinking about it):
http://www.vegan-nutritionista.com/vegan-christmas-cookies.html
Note: I was looking for a sugar cookie recipe that didn't require exotic ingredients.  I saw a lot that called for fancy egg replacement products, coconut oil, soy cream cheese, etc.  The most "unusual" product in these cookies is silken tofu, which you can find anywhere these days (even in Belgium. haha.)

Chocolate spice cake (Jeff sent the original recipe, I adapted it):   
http://www.instructables.com/id/The-BEST-chococlate-cake-ever...that-happens-to-be/

Note: I added cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and ground black pepper to this recipe (which seemed a little bland to me).  It ended up AMAZING!  I can’t give you amounts of spices; because I just added them with a flourish until the batter tasted good (nice thing about vegan cake recipes is that you don’t have to worry about raw eggs in the batter!)

Crazy Chocolate cake (A specialty of Judy Trachtman, a dear friend and advisor, without whom I could not have survived Materials Science at Drexel):
http://www.jewishfood-list.com/recipes/cake/crazycakechoc01.html

Note 1:  Judy keeps a Kosher kitchen, and she tells me that all of the ingredients can be Kosher (look for Fleishman's and Mother's margerine) 
Note 2: I served this with a scoop of delicious raspberry sorbet, and the plate decorated with chocolate sauce and powdered sugar.  YUUUUMMMMM.

Gluehwein (‘tis the season for German spiced wine!!!):   

http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/gluehwein/Detail.aspx

Glühwein at the Christmas Market in Aachen, Germany