August Vegan Food Swap and A Winner!

Sorry it has taken so long to reveal the winner from last month's giveaway for a copy of Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day! It has been a hectic few days around my house with my mom returning from vacation and getting some much needed bulk cooking out of the way. The freezer is refilled with pierogi for another few meals and we have a bunch of peach jam and butter now too. Next I am planning on making some pickled turnips and something with scapes since I picked up a bag at the Brewer Park Farmer's Market last weekend.

For the draw, I took all the names and put them in one of Mac's many hats (everyone has a hat bucket, right?) and asked him to pick a winner. He picked...Sandra of Vegan Mother Hubbard! All her sandwich work last month has paid off in the form of a free copy of Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day! thanks to the generous publishers of the book at Fair Winds Press! Thank you to all of you that entered, I hope I have inspired you to add this amazing book to your wish list and pick up a copy soon! It really is a must have!

On to my Vegan Food Swap parcel which came a little late this month but it was totally worth the wait! Thank you to Chris at And Mommy Makes Three for the amazing parcel! Mac was literally doing a happy dance when I opened it up and found a bag of Dandies. These are a favourite around here but they are not to be found in Ottawa so we have to mail order them if we get a hankering. Chris also sent along the cutest note I've received! It was a foam hand print covered in animal stickers that I'm guessing her little ones had a hand in and I love it!

 

Here's a photo of it all tucked in the box it came in. Chris also sent along a bag of Macro Kelp. I will admit I am afraid of it. I'm not very experienced when it comes to sea vegetables. I will have to look online to find out what I am supposed to do with it. Also there was a package of Indian Curry Veggie Ground which I am excited to try. I love Indian spices and flavours and I think this will make a great, quick supper some night soon! And last she included a Vega Sport Protein Bar. Thanks again to Chris! If you would like to join in next month, check out http://meshell.ca/blog/veganfoodswap/ and sign up soon!

My First All Edible Candy Land

Over the past month I think I have played Candy Land with Mac about a zillion times. Boy loves his Candy Land. Then awhile back he said "we should make a Candy Land that you can eat" and I said "sure buddy" and then I started thinking...could I actually make an edible Candy Land? I decided I would go for it and try to make it as close as I could to the board game version we have. So over the past three days I have been baking and icing and I'm pretty sure I'm literally candied now. It's hard not to lick your fingers and take a little taste here and there, right?! For the final day of Vegan MoFo, my biggest challenge yet and here's the final product...

Here's a few close up shots...don't want you to miss all that detail I went to so much trouble to put in there. And you will notice, I paid attention during Top Chef Just Desserts and I didn't forget the back so it's a full panorama experience!

At the end of all of that...I made 12 batches of vanilla cake using the cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, I used almost 4 kg of icing sugar, 1 bag of Dandies, 3 packages of Earth Balance Shortening, 3 packages of Earth Balance Buttery Sticks, 21 ice cream cones, 3 bags of jelly beans, 1 bag of Enjoy Life Brand Chocolate Chunks, almost all of my natural food colouring, 1/2 a tube of marzipan, 1 recipe of gingerbread and about all of my patience and creativity! I'm drained but it is so worth it seeing it all finished and seeing how happy Mac is to see it "in real life" as he said. My personal favourites are Chocolate Mountain, which is made of Dandies treats, covered in Chocolate Chunks then I poured melted chocolate over top of those to get some real texture to it to make it look all craggy like the one in the game and I love the Ice Palace (mostly because I had no idea what I was going to do to make it just this morning and some how I pulled it out by custom made gingerbread and icing). Now I'm off to enjoy what's left of Halloween with my family and hopefully we will get a few trick or treaters!

Thanks to everyone who has read my posts over MoFo, I'm so happy somebody is reading this! I hope you stick around, I have lots more to share and now that I have finished this big project, it's back to recipe testing and more!!

My First Homemade Vegan Chocolate Bar

It took me awhile but I have finally made my first vegan chocolate bar! I have been thinking about doing it for awhile and this firsts theme for Vegan MoFo has finally pushed me to give it a go. I couldn't find a deep chocolate bar mould (like a Go Max Go kinda bar size) anywhere but I did find a silicone mould at C.A. Paradis here in Ottawa that would do the trick. As for the filling, my mom has been bugging me for ages to recreate a chocolate bar that she remembers from when she was little. She said it had caramel, peanuts and marshmallow all layered inside a chocolate coating. This gave me the perfect way to make something with Dandies for their MoFo contest! Here's what the final result looked like...

And here's how I did it...

Dandies Bars

1 package of Dandies

2 tbsp vegan margarine

400g of vegan dark chocolate, chopped up if not chocolate chips

3 tbsp coconut oil

1/3 cup of dry roasted peanuts (no salt or seasoning on them)

1/4 cup of crisp rice cereal

1 recipe of your favourite thick caramel sauce 

(I used Dulce de Coco from Vegan Desserts by Hannah Kaminsky)

You'll need a deep chocolate bar mould as well. This is the one I used http://www.bakedeco.com/a/flexible-bakeware-c-13924.htm.

1. Combine the chocolate and coconut oil in a medium sized glass bowl and microwave for 1 minute, stopping and stirring every 15 seconds or so until it is mostly melted. Stir until completely smooth and let sit for a few minutes before using to coat the mould.

2. Meanwhile, melt the Dandies and the margarine in a medium sized saucepan over medium heat. Keep stirring and continue to heat them until they melt and come together. It will happen all of a sudden. When they are melted pour onto a greased half sheet pan and spread it out over half since you want it to be a bit thick. Using a hand held kitchen torch, brûlée the top of the Dandies, like seen below. Set aside.

3. Place your mould on a half sheet pan to help keep it stable while moving it around. Using a small spoon or pastry brush, coat the walls of the mould with the melted chocolate. Place in the freezer for a few minutes to get it to set up. Take out and coat again with chocolate. This time it will set quickly because it's so cold so you have to move quickly. Place in the freezer again for a few minutes to let set. 

4.While your mould is in the freezer get the rest of the filling ingredients ready. Spray a pizza cutter or knife with spray oil and use to cut the brûléed Dandies into slices that will fit inside of the mould. Remove the mould from the freezer. Spoon in about a tablespoon of caramel sauce, top with a sprinkle of peanuts (5-6 halves), place a slice of Dandies in followed by a sprinkle of crisp rice cereal and then another slice of marshmallow. Repeat with the rest of the cavities. Pour melted chocolate over the top of each completed bar, smoothing it out on the top. You might have to add a bit more once it settles and fills in all the space. Place in the freezer again for a few minutes to set the chocolate. Remove from the freezer and then release each bar from the mould, trying not to touch the smooth tops or sides because you will leave fingerprints. Really no one will mind if you do leave fingerprints...they will forget all about that once they have a taste of these!

My First Pop Tart...oh wait, Make That Failed Pop Tart

A little while back my in-laws were in Toronto so I hit them up with my wish list from Williams-Sonoma. I have a bit of a problem with collecting kitchen gadgets and appliances, just ask my overstuffed kitchen/make shift pantry room (that is supposed to be our formal dining room). This time, I just absolutely needed a toaster pastry press and lucky for me, my mother-in-law indulged me and picked one up for me. I kept thinking I should try it but never found the time until I dreamt up the idea to make a S'mores Pop Tart recipe up for the Chicago Soydairy Contest to win a years supply of Dandies. I pictured a graham cracker like pastry with little pieces of Dandies and mini chocolate chips inside that would all mix together when I baked it and a drizzle of chocolate on top once it cooled. Sounds good in theory right but unfortunately didn't work in practice. Here's what I got when it baked.

Tasted awesome, even had the browned marshmallow part but the presentation leaves a little to be desired. Can't see it going in the toaster either. Ryan and I grabbed a fork and dug in but obviously I would have to go back to the drawing board. I had forgotten to account for the incredible growing power of the Dandies. My second attempt involved melting the Dandies with a bit of margarine like I was making Rice Krispie squares and then putting a big spoonful of it on the pastry. It looked like it was working at first but then it exploded out again. I am stumped about how to get it to work but I did come up with a new idea to try based on this whole experience...stay tuned!

And just like the old saying goes...when life gives you failed marshmallow experiments, make S'mores! I baked the rest of the pastry like graham crackers and spooned some of the melted Dandies on, topped with some mini chocolate chips (which melted from the heat of the melted Dandies) and another cracker. Mac had his without chocolate of course and this was his first S'more! Not very original but still very tasty and especially exciting to a four year old that loves marshmallows!



Mac's First S'more

And extra Dandies of course!