Literary Post: The Boxcar Children. Jessie’s Stew.

By the end of last week, I was mostly back to normal, but here are two things that perplex me:

• I have a massive sugar addiction.
• I think Lou Who has a peanut allergy.

Regarding the first thing, I have such bad withdrawal symptoms if I try to just completely stop eating sugar that I’ve yet to make concentrated efforts to completely stop. I can go all morning if I need to. But then I get kind of grouchy and cranky and stuff. So I have a cookie (or two, or ten).

The solution that has worked in the past is to just stop making sweets that go into the freezer, because it’s too easy for me to run out there and grab cookies. I need to make them, take them somewhere, and make sure they don’t come back home with me. And then I’m fine. If it’s not here, I stop feeling like I have to eat it, and the withdrawal symptoms are almost nil. Interesting.

So, that being said, this week’s church potluck is getting a lot of cookies from yours truly, because there are a lot of cookies in the freezer at the moment.

As for the second thing, I have to let the rash around her mouth clear up first and then eat some peanuts again just to make sure it is indeed the peanuts and not something else. I’m bummed because peanut butter-jam sandwiches are about the best thing in the world, and I really just don’t like almond butter. It’s like tasteless paste in my mouth. Bleh. I like the crunchy, chunky, salty flavour/texture of peanut butter. So, I have to keep reminding myself: it could be worse. It could be gluten. I’ll either have to start salting my almond butter or try some other alternatives.

At any rate, it’s time for another LITERARY POST. It should have gone up last week, but I was just too stressed and didn’t have time to prepare it, so here it is today instead.

I was a huge Boxcar Children fan as a child. I read all of the 19 books in the original series, but many of the later ones I only read once. The first 6 or so were my favourites; they seemed to start repeating themselves more and more as the series went on (burning question: did Henry ever make it through college?) My all-time favourites were easily the first book, Mike’s Mystery, The Woodshed Mystery, Mountain Top Mystery, and Snowbound Mystery. I had a stuffed dog I named Jessie and always thought, “What FUN it would be to live in a BOXCAR and have to be INGENIOUSLY CREATIVE.”

No, the irony has not been lost on me.

To me the illustrations in the first book are iconic. I’ve never seen this kind of art in any other book and always was a little sad that this (as I recall) anonymous illustrator did not continue doing the rest of the series. Does anyone know otherwise? Please correct me if I’m wrong.

At any rate, I decided to replicate the stew described in The Boxcar Children.

I didn’t use baby vegetables, although for authenticity you’re welcome to do so if you are lucky enough to have them available. For my “meat” I used some basic gluten steaks chopped up. It had been in the freezer and I just put it into the crockpot frozen, but you could thaw it first if you want to or use it fresh – or substitute whatever your preferred beef sub might be.

Note on crockpots: I used my smallish Rival crockpot that is about 10 cup capacity. If you use a larger one or smaller one, cooking times may vary, but this is what worked for that size.

Stewy stew.

Jessie’s Stew

1 lb faux meat, cut in pieces
2 large turnips, cut in chunks
4 medium carrots, cut in chunks
2-4 green onions – I used 2 because mine are huge
1 tsp salt
1 tsp beef-like seasoning of choice
1 T tapioca flour (or cornstarch)
2 1/2 c  water

Layer the faux meat and veggies in your crockpot in the order given. Sprinkle salt, beaf seasoning, and tapioca flour on top. Pour water over all.

Turn the crockpot on high and cook 5 hours. (I stirred mine just once after 3 1/2 hours).

Vegan MoFo #23: Creole Wieners

As I was digging something out of our big freezer the other day I noticed my Tupperware container of homemade vegan sausage that I made several months back was sitting in there, so I decided to ask Betty what to do with sausage. (I usually just completely gloss over the pig section, I must admit.) There were two options that were doable and only one that looked actually like it could be good (and easy, because the other one involved making a sub for cream of mushroom soup). This was it.

I honestly don’t remember what sausage recipe I used; I’m pretty sure it was Vegan Dad’s. Whatever recipe it was, my sausages were a bit larger than the typical hot dog, so I sliced them up to make this. I served it on brown rice with a side of the Creole Lima Beans you read about yesterday.

It was very tasty. My only complaint is regarding the sausages: they simply weren’t flavourful enough, but that’s not directly relevant to this recipe.

This recipe was originally found on page 55 of the 1978 Betty Crocker cookbook.

1 tsp liquid smoke
2 T olive or other veggie oil
3 c finely chopped onions
1 16-oz can whole tomatoes (or 2 cups fresh)
1/2 tsp salt
1 lb vegan sausage, either homemade or purchased
4-6 T bacon crumbles

Fry onions in oil and liquid smoke until tender. Add tomatoes with their liquid and salt. Heat to boiling; reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes. Add sausages and simmer 10 more minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve as is or on rice.

Vegan MoFo #20: Split Pea Soup… or Chunky Baby Poop?

When I was growing up, my mom used to buy cans of split pea soup because she liked it. I didn’t like peas of any kind, especially from a can*, and I declined to ever eat that green slop until I got older.

Like a lot older.

Like, probably not until I even left home older. I think I was 24 when I left home. (Math is not my strong point.)

AT ANY RATE, I like it now, even though there’s really no way to make it NOT look like chunky baby poop.

We both really enjoyed this soup; GooGoo just picked the fakey bacon off the top and asked for carrot sticks instead. I’m not really going to force poop soup on a child who’s willing to eat raw carrots, so she had about 3 carrots for lunch instead. And some bread.

Split Pea Soup

This recipe was originally found on page 125 of the 1978 Betty Crocker cookbook.

8 c water
1 lb dried split peas (about 2 1/4 c)
1 T liquid smoke
1/2 c chopped onion
1 tsp salt
1 c chopped carrots
1 c sliced celery

Heat peas and water to boiling; reduce heat.

Stir liquid smoke, onion, and salt into peas. Cover and simmer until peas are tender. (An hour, give or take.)

Stir carrots and celery into soup and simmer until they reach desired tenderness.

____

*We visited an elderly lady one time for dinner and she served us canned green peas as part of the meal. I was really fascinated by the way they squished so easily with a fork. My mom leaned over and whispered to me that it was really rude to squish my peas. I couldn’t comprehend how it could possibly be wrong to squish** peas.

**Squish is a fun word to say. It also starts to look weird after you’ve typed it three times.

Vegan MoFo #19: Stuffed Green Peppers

I’ve only made stuffed peppers once or maybe twice before, and it was early on in our marriage, and I honestly don’t remember much about them except that we weren’t really thrilled with them.

But, I thought I’d give it another whirl when I saw a recipe in my Betty Crocker cookbook for stuffed peppers. I was a little alarmed when I saw you were supposed to steam the peppers for x amount of minutes before baking them for an hour. Positive there would be absolutely nothing left of nutritive worth after that much cooking, I decided to eliminate the steaming part and only do the baking part.

The end result was a pepper that was still quite crunchy, which was nice from a nutrition standpoint but not so nice from an ease-of-eating standpoint. We had to pull out the vegan equivalent of steak knives – our nice, sharp paring knives – to cut up the pepper and eat it. Mr Pine Nut and I both agreed that it was okay, not out of this world, the filling was good, having to cut the pepper not so good.

I think peppers must have increased in size since 1978, too. I used 1 1/2 times the filling called for for the amount of peppers. (Granted, I did pick the biggest ones the store had, since they were charging per pepper, not per pound. *cough*)

Stuffed pepper in all its glory.

This recipe was originally found on page 38 of the 1978 Betty Crocker cookbook.

6 large green peppers
1 lb ground “beef” (about 2 c of non-taco bulgur beef)
2 T chopped onion
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1 c cooked rice
1 15-oz can tomato sauce
3/4 c mozzarella-type vegan cheese such as Daiya, or drizzle with a nut cheese sauce, or omit entirely

Cut thin slice from stem end of each pepper; remove seeds and membranes; rinse.

Stir together ground “beef” and onion in a skillet with a little oil until onion is tender. Stir in salt, garlic powder, rice, and 1 cup of the tomato sauce.

Stuff each pepper with the above mixture. Stand peppers upright in an 8×8″ baking dish. Pour remaining sauce over peppers. Cover with tinfoil and bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Uncover and cook 15 minutes more. Sprinkle or drizzle with vegan cheese of choice and serve.

InquisiCat+Pepper. Because the internet was about to implode if I didn’t give it another cat picture.

Vegan MoFo #17: Hearty Vegetable Soup

This is a cheap, easy soup. Particularly cheap for me because most of what was in it came out of my garden and I didn’t make the effort to purchase veggie juice: I just reconstituted tomato powder to about the same consistency. I’m still using up the bunch of organic celery I got at the beginning of the month specifically for MoFo.

I enjoyed it a lot because it was just really basic, and sometimes it’s nice to not be all exotic and just get down to basics. Mr Pine Nut liked it too.

This recipe was originally found on page 171 of the 1978 Betty Crocker cookbook.

2 12-oz cans vegetable juice cocktail (I used dilute tomato sauce)
2 c water
1 lb green cabbage, finely chopped
1 medium onion, sliced
1 c sliced carrots
1/2 c chopped celery
2 T beeflike seasoning such as Beaf or mock chicken seasoning
1/2 tsp salt (if using unsalted tomato sauce like I did as opposed to veg juice)

Heat all ingredients to boiling. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until veggies reach desired tenderness. (The original recipe says an hour. I think not. I did 10 minutes.)

Vegan MoFo #16: Chickpea-Rice Casserole

Cat and casserole.

This recipe was originally Chicken-Rice Casserole, found on page 88 of the 1978 Betty Crocker cookbook.yyyyyyyyyyyt<—that was the cat.

1/4 c vegan margarine
1/3 c white flour
1 tsp salt
1 c chickenlike broth
1 1/2 c unsweetened nondairy milk (I used just water)
1 1/2 c cooked brown or wild rice (I used 1 c brown, 1/2 c white)
2 c or 1 can garbanzos
1/3 c chopped green pepper
2 T pimento
1/4 c sliced or slivered almonds

Melt margarine in 2-quart saucepan. Whisk in flour and salt. Remove from heat. Slowly stir in milk and broth a little at a time until smooth. Return to heat. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute.

Mix remaining ingredients in an ungreased 2-quart casserole or 8×8″ pan. Pour broth mixture on top and stir together. Cook uncovered at 350 until bubbly, 40-45 minutes. Garnish with parsley if desired.

GooGoo wanted me to take a picture of her casserole, on this stool, in her acorn bowl. She was very particular about these points. Here is the picture in all its glory.

Vegan MoFo #14: Bulgur-Bean Bake

This was brilliant, gleaming, and beautiful as I stirred it up in the pan, and I was in love with the sight of it. Then Mr Pine Nut walked by and said, “That’s really pretty.” Then he added, “It looks gassy.”

Ha ha.

I have always loooooved lima beans. Not dried ones, not canned ones, but frozen ones. OMNOMNOM FROZEN LIMA BEANS. Well, frozen lima beans COOKED, that is. Anyway. Therefore this recipe looked really yummy to me.

In the end, though, it left me a little cold. Partly because the celery hadn’t been sauteed quite enough to suit my celerycrunchphobia, but mostly it just seemed not that spectacular. It was good enough that I’ll eat the rest of the pan, but I don’t know that I’ll make it again. BUT! If you want to try it, here’s the recipe.

This recipe was originally “Hamburger-Bean Bake”, found on page 33 of the 1978 Betty Crocker cookbook.

1 1/2 lb bulgur “beef” (about 2 cups’ worth; see the note for plain “beef” in this post)
1 1/2 c finely chopped onion
1/2 c chopped celery
1 tsp beaf or other beef-like seasoning
1/3 c boiling water
1 clove garlic, crushed
3/4 c tomato sauce
1 T lemon juice
3/4 tsp salt
1 lb frozen limas
1 15-oz can kidney beans, drained
2 T vegan bacon bits

Cook and stir burger, onions, and celery together until onions are tender.

Dissolve beeflike seasoning in boiling water. Add with garlic, tomato sauce, lemon juice, salt, and beans into burger mixture.

Pour into 8×8″ pan or 2-quart casserole. Cover and cook at 375 until hot and bubbly, about 30 minutes. Sprinkle fakey bacon on top to serve.

Vegan Month of Food #8: Chick…pea à la King

Today I’m having a bit of an off day and I’m not in the frame of mind to be witty or wordy. Let’s just say that I’m emotionally unbalanced and stressed and Lou Who decided that 2.30 am was a great time to be Very Alert Baby(tm). She’s always been a wonderful night sleeper, so that was unusual and unwelcome since I have a hard enough time getting back to sleep anyway. So I’m here, and I’m posting, but my brain is still in bed.

My mom’s chicken à la King recipe of choice was not the one in the Betty Crocker cookbook, but in my experience they all end up being about the same. This one was excellent: thick, saucy, colourful, and packed with flavour despite my cutting the margarine in half (an entire stick of butter, seriously, is what the original called for. I think not.)

But this fiesta of colourful peppery confetti IS very appealing to me despite my blahs.

This recipe was originally found on page 89 of the 1978 Betty Crocker cookbook.

1 small green pepper, chopped (about 1/2 c)
1/4 c vegan margarine
1/2 c all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp chickenlike seasoning
1 c water blended with 1/2 c cashews OR 1 1/2 c unsweetened nondairy milk
1 1/4 c hot water
2 c garbanzo beans
1 jar pimentoes (4 oz), 1/4 c chopped red bell pepper, or rehydrated bell pepper granules

Cook and stir green pepper in margarine over medium heat until tender. Remove from heat and add flour and salt. Stir in chickenlike seasoning, milk, water (if using blended cashews, rinse blender with the hot water before adding to pan). Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute. Stir in garbanzos and pimento. Heat through. Serve over toast, brown rice, hot mashed potatoes, waffles, or whole-wheat pasta.

Lovely.

Colourful pepper confetti makes any dish visually acceptable. Adding fresh chopped tomatoes made it even prettier.

Vegan MoFo #5: Northern Bean Soup

I love fall and winter because soup is one of my favourite things to make, and it’s really not always fun to cook or to eat soup in the heat of summer. I have to admit, I rarely use soup recipes, because a lot of times soup is just an easy way to use up all those bits and pieces of leftovers in the fridge that are useless for much else. But occasionally I do follow a recipe.

This is a soup recipe that you can use if you have leftover mashed potatoes from a previous meal. It does take a long time to cook, but it’s very tasty and warming for a cool day. It originally called for pork hocks; I’ve replaced that with extra beans and liquid smoke.

This recipe was originally found on page 125 of the 1978 Betty Crocker cookbook.

8 cups water
1 T liquid smoke
1 lb dried Great Northern beans (about 2c)
1/4 lb dried lima beans (about 1/2 c)
1 8-oz can tomato sauce
1 c onion, chopped (or green onion)
1 T beaf or other beeflike seasoning
1/2 tsp salt
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 c mashed potatoes
2 medium carrots, cut into 1/2″ pieces
2 medium stalks celery, cut into 1/2″ pieces
2 T cashews blended to cream in 2 T water (optional)

Soak beans in enough hot water to cover for 1 hour; drain water and rinse beans at the end of the hour.

In a soup pot pour the beans and the 8 cups of water, liquid smoke, tomato sauce, onion, beeflike seasoning, salt, and garlic. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer until beans are tender, about 2 hours (do not boil or beans will burst [I did accidentally let mine boil, and the beans did burst. (I also had to let it cook another 30-45 minutes beyond the 2 hours specified.)]).

Add potatoes, carrots, and celery to soup. Simmer until vegetables are tender. Stir in cashew cream (if using) and serve.

Definitely this is a soup I would make again. I nommed these two bowls right up after my photo shoot. I’m in luck, though; there’s plenty more where it came from! I made a double batch for serving guests tomorrow, and no doubt there will be Leftovers.

Which begs the question, can soup be made out of leftover soup?

All right, that’s all for this week. Taking off for Sabbath, but I’ll be back Sunday with something else tasty!

Vegan MoFo #1: Savoury Seitan Pie

It’s an absolutely gorgeous day outside today at our house. It started off being pretty cold, but it’s pleasant out now, and GooGoo and Mr Pine Nut are out doing things like grinding up food refuse to feed the garden while I have a lot of other things going. Today I made homemade laundry soap, the powdered kind, because I needed it immediately and didn’t have time to wait for the liquid kind to gel overnight. I had an astonishingly small amount of laundry today – only two loads!

And then after I got the laundry going, it was time to make tasty MoFo food. GooGoo wanted to help.

GooGoo the helper

Savoury Seitan Pie fresh out of the oven

This recipe was originally “Savoury Beef Pie”, found on page 14 of the 1978 Betty Crocker cookbook.

1/4 – 1/2 c chopped onion
2 T chopped green pepper
2 T oil
2 cups beefy seitan (I used my mother-in-law’s gluten steak recipe, chopped it into cubes and stirred up with 1 T of Bill’s Best Beaf seasoning)
10 oz frozen mixed veggies
1 c “beef” gravy of your choice (here’s the gravy recipe I used)
1/4 c water

Cook and stir onion and green pepper in oil until tender with seitan chunks. Add veggies, gravy, and water; heat until hot (about 5 minutes).

Preheat your oven to 450 and pour the above mixture into ungreased 8×8″ or 12×7.5″ pan and set aside.

Prepare Sesame Drop Biscuits:

1/3 c vegan margarine
1 c white flour
3/4 c whole wheat flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 c non-dairy milk
2-4 T sesame seed

Combine flours, baking powder, and salt. Cut in margarine until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Stir in milk just until soft dough forms (it will be sticky). Drop dough by 12 spoonsful onto casserole and sprinkle with sesame seed.

Bake uncovered at 450 for 15-20 minutes, until biscuits are light brown.

And then you eat it.

Mr Pine Nut and I were both very happy with the way this came out and it’s definitely one I’m going to be making again. I used just peas as my veggie, because I didn’t have mixed veggies on hand, but you could really use any kind of veggie. Corn and carrots would make for a vibrant pop of colour. You could even use chopped-up cabbage, so there are lots of variants you could try. It was really yummy. We decimated the entire pan here for lunch and GooGoo even ate some.