Peachy Keen Green

It's lemon season! When the frost comes they go bad, so Larry is bringing in scores of meyer lemons and limes. After success with key lime yogurt , I got a craving for lemon cake. Larry said yes, please! (And Sandy says lemon cake is one of her favorites - good to know!) I tried this  loving it vegan recipe , and the cake was delish. The powdered-sugar frosting was sweeter than we liked, though. Then I tried a vegan cream cheese frosting from Vegan Richa , which was pretty good.  It's yummy without any frosting, just as a lemon bread -- which is probably how I'll use this recipe in the future Ingredients Dry: 1 C + 1 T whole-wheat flour 1 1/2 C white flour 1 1/2 C sugar  1 1/2 tsp. baking soda 1/2 tsp salt 1/3 tsp turmeric for color (optional) Wet: 1 T vinegar 1 1/2 C non-dairy milk (oat, soy, or almond) 1/2 C canola oil 1 tsp vanilla Zest and juice from 3 lemons Cream cheese frosting (OPTIONAL; don't need it for bread): 8 oz (vegan) cream cheese  1/3 C maple syrup z...

Pat brought over more persimmons! We sliced and dried a dozen unripe ones. We still had half a dozen ripe ones, and I owe cookies to some members of our movie-review SupPort group, so time to try persimmon cookies! (The group recently watched the original Ghostbusters movie; I offered cookies to anyone who also watched the Ghostbusters 2016 remake with SNL women, and two couples took up that offer.) This makes about 4 dozen cookies. I froze half the dough and halved the glaze for those I cooked, using the juice and zest from one tangerine with the powdered sugar. Ingredients 1 cup Hachiya persimmon pulp (2-3 ripe persimmons) 1 tsp baking soda 1 C sugar 1/2 C vegan butter, at room temperature 1 flax egg (1 T flaxmeal, 3 T warm water) 2 C flour 1/2 tsp cloves 1 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp nutmeg 1/2 tsp salt 1 C chopped walnuts 1 C raisins Glaze: 2 C powdered sugar 1/4 C fresh orange or tangerine juice 1 tsp orange zest  Instructions Peel the skin off the persimmons, and blend the pulp in...

Pat and Allen shared at least a dozen persimmons with us from their bountiful harvest, along with their persimmon bread recipe. Here's a slightly tweaked, vegan version of their bread; turned out yummy! Ingredients 1 tsp. baking soda 2 T lukewarm water 1 1/2 C persimmon puree 1 1/2 C sugar 1/2 C salad oil 2 flax eggs (2 T flaxmeal, 6 T warm water) Dry: 2 C flour 2 tsp. baking powder 1 tsp. cinnamon 1/8 tsp. cloves 1/2 tsp nutmeg 1/2 tsp. salt 1 tsp. lemon juice 1 C walnuts Instructions Remove skin and puree persimmons in a food processor. Mix baking soda and warm water. Add persimmon pulp.  Let sit a few minutes. Mix sugar, oil, and flax eggs.  Mix flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, cloves.  Combine persimmon and sugar mixture.  Add flour mixture with lemon and walnuts. Pour into loaf pans. For a regular large loaf, bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes; then reduce temperature to 350 degrees and bake for 45 minutes or until done.  For small loaf pans (what I us...

Vegans eating meatloaf? Impossible! Until Trader Joe's starting carrying Impossible Burger. My first foray into fake beef cooking, C'mon Man! Sloppy Joes , turned out well, so I decided to give meatloaf a try. I googled "impossible meatloaf" and tried a mashup with Market Street Meatloaf from my New Basics Cookbook (an excellent, classic omnivore cookbook). Larry contributed some needed-to-use scallions from our backyard;  I think the onion and veggies were important components. Would totally fool and omnivore, I bet.  Super delicious with mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce! Update 1/2/21: Larry asked for more veggie to meat ratio, so I increased the veggies and bread crumbs, below. Use the upper range for more veg heavy; lower range for more meat heavy. Ingredients 2 T vegan butter 1 tsp cumin seed (or 1 tsp cumin powder later) 1/2 tsp hot pepper flakes (or 1/4 tsp cayenne later) 1 cup scallions/onion, chopped 1/3 - 1/2 C carrots, chopped 1/3 - 1/2 C celery, choppe...