Coooooooookies!!! If some of you are still in a sugar-induced coma following the  Sugar Mama Vegan Cookie Swap we won’t blame you. We asked entrants to bake 6 dozen vegan cookies each. There were a few entrants with less than 6 dozen and a few with more than 6 dozen, but with 24 entries, the Sugar Mama Cookie Swappers swapped at least 1,500 vegan cookies last Thursday!

About 50 people attended the holiday-themed swap, and many brought all types of vegan goodies, including Coconut Macaroons, Chunky Peanut Butter & Banana Oatmeal, Chewy Chocolate-Raspberry, Almond Cranberry, Wood Stove Baked Mint-Chocolate-Chip cookies, Oatmeal-Raisin, Gingerbread Hanukkah cookies, Gluten-Free Gingerbread, Cookies & Cream truffles, Chocolate-Peppermint Graham Cracker, Oatmeal Pumpkin Walnut, Magik Bars, Peanut Butter Cookie Sandwiches, Oatmeal Jam, Espresso Chip, Snickerdoodles and many more! Vegan cookies do not contain any nasty animal products such as milk, butter, eggs, or gelatin. There are plenty of vegan alternatives to animal products and the cookie swap showed just how tasty they can be! There were also vegan snacks, apple cider, soy milk and other vegan “milks” to try.

Contestants voted for the first prize award of “Sugar Mama” for best tasting cookie overall. Jennifer Kunz took home the prize for Sugar Mama with a vegan handbag donated by Bello Iris. Her prize-winning cookies were the delicious Princess Squares.

RECIPE for Vegan Princess Squares
Cream together:
1 ¼ cups Vegan Margarine
1 ¼ cups Sugar
1 ½ tsp. Vanilla Extract
Egg Substitute for 2 eggs (such as ¼ cup Tofu or Ener-G Egg Replacer, etc.)
Combine:
4 ½ cups Flour
¾ tsp. Salt
12 oz. Shredded Coconut
Directions:
• Mix all together until crumbly.
• Press ½ of mixture onto a large baking tray (11 ½ x 16 ½)
• Flatten with hands or rolling pin.
• Spread a layer of fruit jam (10 – 12 oz.).
• Top with remaining crumb mix.
• Pat down lightly.
• Bake @ 375 for 20 – 25 minutes, or until lightly browned

Second prize was “Cute Cookie” for the most attractive or interesting looking cookie or display. The prize was a copy of the book My Sweet Vegan. Cute Cookie was won by Elena Cruz for her creative Calvin and Hobbes – inspired vegan cookies.

RECIPE for Gingerbread Snowmen Cookies

Ingredients:
1/2 cup earth balance
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1/4 cup water
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon allspice
Directions:
Cream margerine and sugar. Blend in molasses, water, flour, salt, baking soda, ginger, nutmeg and allspice.
Heat oven to 375F. Roll dough into small balls and place on ungreased baking sheet.
Bake 10 to 12 minutes. Immediately remove from baking sheet and press slightly with a spatula. Cool.

Icing:
1 tablespoon organic extract: almond, vanilla, lemon, coconut, etc.
1 16-ounce bag of confection powdered sugar, sifted
8 tablespoons soy milk
1 tablespoon Karo Syrup, light

Decoration:
Add a vegan marshmallow and decorate with gel frosting and silly toothpick signs!

The prize for most ugly sweater or best holiday attire was won by Anne Lewenberg for her sweeeeeet holiday sweater! Her prize was also a copy of My Sweet Vegan.

 

 

Although there were several fantastical holiday outfits and ugly sweaters, Anne’s sweater won by a spirited show of hands for its mom-inspired style.

 

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The event was held at Worcester Photo Studios and featured a holiday photo booth where participants took photos with vegan Santa. Check them out at UnityMike Photography’s Facebook . Please support his work by purchasing a high res print of your cookies and santa photo from UnityMike’s SmugMug.

Also check out Kaitlyn’s awesome review of the Sugar Mama Cookie Swap on The Tie Dye Files Blog.

The widely popular MacDaddy Vegan Mac N’ Cheeze Cookoff was the inspiration for the Sugar Mama, and it will be returning in early 2012. Keep an ear out for news of the MacDaddy. The title and belt is sought from all over Worcester County, the competition is fierce and the cheeze is bubbly. Be ready!

Post a comment with your tastyyy vegan cookie recipes from the swap!

Here’s what you’ll find in this month’s e-newsletter:

• Upcoming Events
• Why did VegWorcester give away free vegan donuts in downtown Worcester?
• New Book by Melanie Joy: Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows
• The Prizing-Winning Vegan Mac & Cheese Recipe from the Mac Daddy Competition
• What’s Wrong With Dairy?
• 5 Vegan Meals for Under $5 from Worcester restaurants
• Save the date: Worcester VegFest April 17, 2010
• Connect with VegWorcester

Why not sign up?

The VegWorcester e-news list gets 1 or 2 emails per month and they’re usually pretty good. There are photos and reportbacks from the last month and a list of upcoming events. Sign up now.

Mac Daddy’s Veggie Mac

Greg Opperman, Winner of 2010 Vegan Mac Daddy Competition

Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients

For the Veggie Beef

Vegetable Oil (optional)
1 cup TVP (available at the Artichoke Co-op)
2 cups water
2 tablespoons mild chili powder
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 veggie broth cube (or equivalent)
Sri Racha hot sauce (aka Cock Sauce – optional)
1/2 package fresh Sage leaves, finely chopped (reserve other half for the topping)

For the Mac & Cheese

1 pound rotini pasta (the multi-colored kind is best)
8 ounces peas
8 ounces corn
1/2 cup vegetable oil (Earth Balance works, too)
1/2 cup white flour
4 cups almond, soy, or rice milk (unflavored)
1 cup nutritional yeast flakes (available at the Artichoke Co-op)
1 1/2 tablespoons turmeric
1 1/2 tablespoons madras curry powder (or any run-of-the-mill curry)
1 tablespoon garam masala
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 veggie broth cube, or equivalent
A healthy squeeze of yellow mustard
1″ chunk of fresh ginger, chopped
Several cloves of garlic, minced (depends on your preference – I use about 4-5 big cloves)
Salt to taste

For the Topping

1/2 package fresh Sage leaves, finely chopped
Panko bread crumbs
8 ounces Earth Balance or other butter substitute (8 oz = 1/2 a tub)
Paprika (optional)

Instructions

1. Veggie Beef

Coat the bottom of a medium-sized saucepan with vegetable oill place on medium heat. The more you add, the better the beef will taste. If you’re concerned about your health, you can skip it altogether. Add the remaining ingredients, stir thoroughly. Bring to a slight boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, allowing the TVP to absorb the flavors. If the TVP is tasting bland, add more spices to compensate. The beef will provide the majority of the spicy kick in this dish, so I like to make liberal use of the chili powder and Cock Sauce. The veggie beef will be done when all of the water is absorbed, but if you need more time, add more water and continue to simmer.

Note: This veggie beef recipe also works great as an easy meat substitute in other dishes. Use it in tacos, lasagna, or wherever else you need a little bit of texture in your meal. Experiment with other spices.

2. Make the sauce

Pour 1/2 cup of vegetable oil (or vegan butter, if that’s your thing) into a large pot on medium heat. Allow the oil to heat, then mix in the flour, stirring constantly. Once you’ve got your roux (that’s the oily flour goop you just made), add 4 cups of your milk of choice, as well as the veggie broth. Add soy sauce, mustard, turmeric, curry powder, garam masala, ginger, and garlic. Mix well, and bring to a bubble, allowing the flavors to blend. After it bubbles, add nutritional yeast and mix thoroughly. Now that you’ve got your sauce, taste it. If you feel like it’s a bit lacking, punch it up with more curry powder or garam masala. For a cheesier flavor, add more nutritional yeast. Add the peas, corn, and veggie beef, cover, and continue to simmer on low heat. Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees.

3. Get the pasta going (and some sage butter)

You do know how to cook pasta, right? Put on a big pot of water, bring it to a boil, dump the pasta in. You’ll want the pasta a little ‘al dente’, or tastefully undercooked, so shave a minute or two off of the regular cooking time. Meanwhile, in a small pan, melt your butter with the remaining chopped sage on medium-low heat. When the butter begins to bubble and brown (about 5-8 minutes), pour it into a bowl. Toss breadcrumbs in the butter mixture, enough to lightly coat each breadcrumb. If you haven’t forgotten about your pasta (don’t), take it off of the heat and drain it.

4. Assemble, Bake

Pour the pasta into the sauce and mix well. Make sure to dredge up enough peas, corn, and veggie beef from the bottom to create an evenly delicious spread. Don’t worry if there’s way more sauce than solid ingredients – the juicy liquid will reduce in the oven, and your veggie mac will come out perfectly moist. Fill a large baking pan or casserole dish with your veggie mac, making sure the liquid fills up to the top of the pasta. Generously sprinkle your casserole with an even coating of paprika, then cover entirely with breadcrumbs. Place on the top shelf of oven; bake at 400 degrees. After 30 minutes, turn your oven up to ‘Broil’; Broil for about 5 minutes, or until breadcrumbs are golden-brown. Remove from oven, and enjoy!

Download a printable copy of the recipe

Want to keep this with your other recipes in your kitchen? Download the pdf and print it out.

Download the recipe as a printable booklet (pdf).

This recipe is the best vegan mac & cheese recipe in America, possibly the world. Think you have a better one? Put your macaroni where your mouth is. See you at the 2011 Vegan Mac Daddy Competition.

Come to the cook-off/taste-off today at 6pm-8pm in Worcester. It’s going to rock! Bring a few bucks because this is a fundraiser for the Worcester VegFest. (But no one will be turned away for lack of funds.) To be clear, you can definitely come even if you’re not entering the comp. Try all the entrees and vote on the best.

The prizes are so cool

Grand prize: Seriously iced-out MACNCHZ belt buckle with sweet non-leather belt
Runner-up: Vegan Soul Kitchen Cookbook by Bryant Terry
Everyone gets a free copy of the Easy Vegan Recipes Cookbook

The grand prize is amazing. It’s a custom-made silver belt buckle, covered in fake diamonds. It reads: MACNCHZ and is engraved with “Winner of the 2010 Vegan Mac Daddy Competition”. You want to win this. You need to win this.

More info: http://VegWorcester.com/MacDaddy
Here’s the facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=267140166864

See you tonight at 6?

Soy cheese, nootch, or cashew cheese? Casserole, mixed or broiled? Is your vegan mac & cheese better than all the rest? Are you the vegan mac daddy?

On Jan 30, 2010 at 6pm Worcester will see the 2010 Mac Daddy Competition, a vegan mac & cheese cook-off/taste-off. Cook up your best recipe and enter it.

PRIZES.
FAME.
BLING.

Competition Rules

1. All dishes entered must be vegan (duh). That means don’t use any animal products. Forego dairy, meat and eggs. See http://VegWorcester.com/MacDaddy for links to recipes and some cooking tips.
2. Dishes must include some kind of pasta and some kind of cheese-like thing. The rest is up to you. Let’s see some really creative and delicious dishes.
3. One entry per person. You can only enter one dish in the competition.

Also, bring a few dollars. This is a fundraiser for Worcester VegFest (which is on Saturday, April 17, 2010). $5 at the door (but no one will be turned away for lack of funds).

Judging

Winners will be decided by popular vote. The details of voting will be explained at the event.

Other stuff

• Printable flyers & more info: http://VegWorcester.com/MacDaddy
• Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=267140166864

Isa Chadra Moskowitz, the woman who brought you Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, Vegan with a Vengeance, the Veganomicon, Vegan Brunch, has just published a new cookbook. Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar has 100 original animal-product-free cookie recipes. The book is all finished, but has not yet been release. However, it is available on pre-order from Amazon.com.

To announce the new book, Isa has release a quick video recipe. Here’s the video:

From the post-punk kitchen (Isa’s blog):

OK so I am getting back into the video world with a very appropriate, prim and proper little video about cookies! Mexican Hot Chocolate Snickerdoodles, to be exact. And I blather on about the Aztecs and autumn a bit in the video so I won’t overdo it here. But let me just say that they are one of my absolute favorites in the book, you probably already have all the ingredients, and I hope you make them!

I am definitely pre-ordering this book. We’ll see how Isa’s cookies compare to the yummy vegan cookies from Barely Legal Treats.

Here’s another upcoming Boston Vegetarian Society event. On the afternoon of Saturday, December 13 BVS is hosting another series of vegan cooking classes, featuring Chef Didi Emmons. It’ll take place at the Haley House Bakery Cafe located at 139 Washington Street in Dudley Square, Boston.

It’s a little pricey, but you get to take home the food you make.

Email Evelyn B. Kimber to signup: ekimber at juno .com

From the Boston Vegetarian Society:

“Holiday Entertaining” is the theme for the next in our series of vegan
cooking classes with vegetarian cookbook author, Chef Didi Emmons!  You
will learn two savory warm appetizers, and you will each leave this class
with three sizeable and very special cakes that you made, to give as
holiday gifts.

Didi Emmons has cheffed at some of Boston’s finest restaurants, is author
of the award-winning cookbooks “Veggie Planet” and “Entertaining for a
Veggie Planet,” and studied at La Varenne Ecole de Cuisine in Paris.  She
will share with our class not only her original recipes, but techniques
that will be the foundation for your adventures in plant-based cooking.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2008

3:50 PM – Arrive, check in, greet classmates
4:00 PM – Class begins, and will go till 7:30-ish

Come to a fun combination demonstration and participation class, and go
home with three cakes!  Chef Didi will demonstrate two warm holiday
appetizers, with plenty of sampling included.  We also will move into the
cafe’s big kitchen for a hands-on session, where we will all learn to
make Didi’s holiday vegan fruit cake, which is nothing like any “fruit
cake” you have ever experienced before.

“Holiday Entertaining”

• Shiitakes Stuffed with Tempeh, Pecans, Shallots, Cranberries, and Sage. A meal in a bite, these succulent and elegant stuffed mushrooms are designed to wow.

• Light Corn Cakes Topped with Homemade Guacamole and Pomegranate Seeds. These delicate mini griddle cakes of stone ground cornmeal provide a moist and satisfying base that compliments the cool guacamole topping.

• Didi’s You’ve-never-seen-anything-like-it Fruit Cake

Over the years, Chef Didi has developed a vegan fruit cake that defies
all that we know about holiday fruitcake.  Her fruitcake is healthy,
moist, attractive, and void of the ubiquitous candied fruit.  Her cake is
loaded with cranberries, poppy seeds, figs, currants, toasted pecans,
orange, spices, etc., using a base of pumpkin cake.
We will not only learn how to make this cake, but each student will make
3 fruitcakes that serve 8-10 to take home for gift giving.

Cool hibiscus tea and berry ice tea are included.

Happy Holiday Price  -  $38  - includes recipes, instruction, generous
sampling, and three sizeable cakes to take home that would easily sell
for $15 each in a store… and we’ll have fun!

Non-refundable pre-payment required.

Free parking lot on site;   Silver Line T stop nearby.

LOCATION:

Haley House Bakery Cafe
2139 Washington St.
Dudley Square, Boston

View Larger Map

The Cafe is set back in a parking lot, opposite the Hamill Gallery.  It
is 1.5 blocks from the intersection of Washington St. and Melnea Cass
Blvd.

Free parking lot on site.  Silver Line stops 1.5 blocks away at Melnea
Cass Blvd.

Everyone keeps asking me for my gravy recipe. Well, sorry but I just don’t have it written down yet. I do it from memory and, for the most part, I just guess at the measurements. I’ll document my vegan gravy recipe some day, but if you need to make gravy for your Thanksgiving dinner tonight to go with the Tofury that you bought from the Artichoke yesterday, try this one. It’s a good recipe to get you started.

Alternatively, you could just buy a packet of insta-gravy, like Hain’s. They probably have them at Price Chopper or Shaw’s. They definitely have it at the Living Earth on Chandler Street.

Erik from Vegan.com just published his Top 10 Recipes of 2008. Check it out! Impress your friends with some fancy Chickpea Curry from The Asian Vegan Kitchen or with some tasty Root Beer Float Cupcakes from Hannah Kaminsky’s My Sweet Vegan.

Here we go:

Entrees:

1) Plantain Omelet – From Mark Reinfeld and Bo Rinaldi’s Vegan Fusion World Cuisine.

2) Thai Coconut Corn Soup – From Nava Atlas’ Vegan Express.

3) Indonesian Coconut Rice – From Robin Robertson’s Vegan Fire & Spice.

4) Baked Ziti – From Beverly Lynn Bennett’s Vegan Bites.

5) Moroccan Phyllo Rolls – From Dreena Burton’s Eat, Drink, & Be Vegan.

6) Italian Stuffed Crepes – From Bryanna Clark Grogan’s Nonna’s Italian Kitchen.

7) Chickpea Curry – From Hema Parekh’s The Asian Vegan Kitchen.

Desserts:
Banana Chocolate Bread Pudding – From Isa Chandra Moskowtiz and Terry Hope Romano’s Veganomicon.

9) Root Beer Float Cupcakes – From Hannah Kaminsky’s My Sweet Vegan.

10) Fresh Mango Cobler – From Ani Phyo’s Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen.

Yield: Approx. 6 cups

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound Soba noodles
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 2 teaspoons ginger, minced
• 4 large cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 4 leaves bok choy (leaves and stems) cut into chiffonade
• 1 red pepper, cut into julienne (thin slices)
• 1 bunch scallions, sliced into 1/4 inch diagonal slices
• 1 1/2 cups bean sprouts
• 1 jalapeno pepper, minced
• 1/4 cup shoyu
• 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
• salt

Procedure

1. Cook noodles, rinse in cold water, drain, and set aside.
2. Heat large wok, add oil, ginger and garlic. Cook 1 minute.
3. Add bok choy stems, then add leaves, red pepper, and scallions. Cook until pepper is just tender. Add sprouts and jalapeno.
4. Add shoyu and toasted sesame oil. Season with salt to taste. Add noodles. Mix well and serve.