Almond Milk and Rice

I made this rice dish a few days ago and realized I never posted the entire recipe!  I did mention it way back in 2012 - and I've made it every year during lent since then.

So, first, the various period recipes.  There are a lot:

• Rice with Almond Milk, Forme of Cury 
• Rice in a good manner, 14th/15th c Italian 
• Rice with Almond Milk, 15th C Italian 
• Rice, 15th C English 
• Yet another Rice dish, 16th C Netherlands 

Trust me, there are even more. They are all basically the same - rice, boiled in almond milk, with sugar. Sometimes you add more things, like cinnamon or raisins, sometimes you don't. For me, I add a lot of stuff because it's delicious.


Recipe:

1/2 cup Rice
2/3 cup Almond Milk
2 tablespoons sugar or to taste
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ginger
2 carrots
a couple handfuls of raisins or as much as you like


Boiling the rice is pretty basic - I tend to boil it over a medium heat.  Just boil it in the almond milk - our rice is WAY fresher than what they got in the middle ages so that boil and reboil thing isn't necessary.   Add the sugar to the almond milk.   Add the chopped carrots about halfway through it being cooked.  I like using the heritage carrots (if you look at the photo, you'll see a white carrot!) but regular modern carrots are fine.  About a couple of minutes before it's done, add the spices and the raisins - you don't want the raisins to swell up too much.

I eat this a lot.  It's sweet (because of the sugar) but it's also pretty good for you.  It has raisins, carrots, and almonds.   I made this on Thursday and it's just as good as I remembered.  ;-)

Sweet Potato Pudding

I made some sweet potato pudding for thanksgiving and it was one of the few dishes that did not contribute to the leftovers pile.  Everyone ate the entire thing.  It was funny to see my sister in law's sisters making each other try the sweet potatoes (I was told it tasted like cake!).

Ingredients:

• 2 apples, peeled and cored
• 1/4 cup Earth Balance Soy Free Buttery Stick
• 1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup Vanilla Flavored Almond Milk
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• dash ground ginger
• 4 medium sweet potatoes (I used purple ones that were one sale for an extra kick but regular orange sweet potatoes work just as well)
• 1 bag of small Dandies marshmellows (corn free marshmellows)
• 2 spoonfuls of Ricemellow Cream

First, boil the sweet potatoes until the skin starts to peel off on it's own. This makes them so easy to peel and easy to mash. Once they've been boiled, just put the potatoes to the side and boil the apple slices until they are cooked.

When the potatoes are cool enough to touch, peel off the skin and throw the potatoes in a bowl. Smash 'em.

Put the apple slices in a blender.

In a big bowl, mix together the buttery stick and the sugar first. Then add the almond milk, apples, and spices. Add the mashed up potatoes. The last ingredient is the Ricemellow cream. Just add a couple of spoonfuls. When it's all blended together well, put this evenly into a cake pan (13" x 9") and cook for 40 minutes at 350F. When you take it out and it's still hot, put the marshmellows evenly on top of the sweet potatoes. Right before you serve it, heat it up slightly just so the marshmellow melt a bit.

This was a huge hit.

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup olivio coconut spread (you can use Earth Balance coconut spread but I've found olivio is typically softer)
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 apples, peeled and cored
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (Enjoy life has the dairy free allergy friendly kind)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F.

In a pot, boil the apple slices until they are mushy. Drain them and then mash them up into a sauce. Leave to the side for now.

Mix in a large bowl the coconut spread, the white sugar, and the brown sugar until it's blended. Add in the the applesauce, the baking soda, and the vanilla extract. Then add in the salt, chocolate chips, and flour. Once this is mixed together, put small spoonfuls of the dough on an ungreased cookie sheet. Cook for about 15 minutes (check them at 12).




These cookies are perfect for anyone with dairy or egg allergies. You could probably sub the flour for rice flour to make them gluten free as well. I think these make about 4 dozen cookies - I was eating them as I was baking so I have no idea. :-)

Sekanjibin!

Sekanjabin in it's simplest, medieval form is sugar and vinegar put together to make a syrup.  I decided to take a play on that to make a new corn free syrup that was both cheap and good in a soda.  The one I made ended up tasting most similar to a cream soda - which is what I was aiming for.  :-)

1 1/2 cup water
3 3/4 cup sugar (I used a mix of brown sugar and white sugar but anything that is pure sugar is fine)
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
a little less than 1 cup of Vanilla infused Balsamic Vinegar (if you don't have a store that carries this, try apple cider vinegar instead and increase the amount of Vanilla Extract to taste)

I put everything in the sauce pot and brought it to a boil.  I then stirred it, while it was boiling, for a couple of minutes, only to turn it down to low and leave it for about 10 minutes.  I then took it off the stove and let it cool.

Once it was cool, I put about a tablespoon in my cup and poured sparkling water over it (from my Sodastream).  I was worried it would be too bitter but it's surprisingly light and gives just the right amount of flavor for a soda.  Since sugar isn't exactly expensive (you can buy a box at the dollar store), this is a pretty easy, cheap soda flavoring syrup recipe.  

Interesting Medical Study on Omnivores versus Vegetarians

The link to the actual study

An excerpt:

Population-based studies have consistently shown that our diet has an influence on health. Therefore, the aim of our study was to analyze differences between different dietary habit groups in terms of health-related variables. The sample used for this cross-sectional study was taken from the Austrian Health Interview Survey AT-HIS 2006/07. In a first step, subjects were matched according to their age, sex, and socioeconomic status (SES). After matching, the total number of subjects included in the analysis was 1320 (N=330 for each form of diet – vegetarian, carnivorous diet rich in fruits and vegetables, carnivorous diet less rich in meat, and carnivorous diet rich in meat). Analyses of variance were conducted controlling for lifestyle factors in the following domains: health (self-assessed health, impairment, number of chronic conditions, vascular risk), health care (medical treatment, vaccinations, preventive check-ups), and quality of life. In addition, differences concerning the presence of 18 chronic conditions were analyzed by means of Chi-square tests. Overall, 76.4% of all subjects were female. 40.0% of the individuals were younger than 30 years, 35.4% between 30 and 49 years, and 24.0% older than 50 years. 30.3% of the subjects had a low SES, 48.8% a middle one, and 20.9% had a high SES. Our results revealed that a vegetarian diet is related to a lower BMI and less frequent alcohol consumption. Moreover, our results showed that a vegetarian diet is associated with poorer health (higher incidences of cancer, allergies, and mental health disorders), a higher need for health care, and poorer quality of life. Therefore, public health programs are needed in order to reduce the health risk due to nutritional factors.

This is interesting for a lot of reasons. Yes, vegetarians are skinnier in general and don't destroy their livers as much but...that's it. They tend to have higher cancer rates (probably because our bodies were built to eat fish and meat) and allergies (dear God, like I would need anymore! Meat and potatoes please after Lent. For right now, Salmon and rice, please!). What I find interesting though is the mental health disorders part. Possibly due to not getting certain proteins needed to make various chemicals in the body? I'm not sure.

At any rate, the study is an interesting read and does prove one thing, being fat and happy isn't necessarily a bad thing. ;-)

Food Product Review! So Delicious Holiday Drinks

They also have pumpkin spice but I haven't tried that yet.   :-)

So, first, the 'Nog.  My west coast Mom (who is really my cousin and is probably reading this right now!) and I saw the dairy free holiday themed coconut milk at the grocery store.  As we both of dairy allergies, we knew we had to try some.  We decided the eggnog had to be sampled.

It's good.  Very good actually, taste wise.   It tastes exactly how eggnog should - and pretty much how I remember it tasting.  The only slight downside is that it's off texture wise.  That is to be expected, really, but it has a watery texture rather than the super thick texture I'm used to with eggnog.  It doesn't taste the least bit watery but it sort of confuses you as you are drinking it.   Not that it stopped me from drinking it!  I'm definitely buying more.

The mint chocolate tastes great while you are drinking it and has the same texture a 2% chocolate milk does.   However, it has a chalky aftertaste that is a bit off putting.   I'm going to finish the carton but I doubt I'll buy it again. 

Both are also corn free - which is awesome for me.  Or, I didn't see any corn ingredients and I haven't had a reaction so, that's good.  

More 'Nog, please?

Vegan Chocolate Fudge!!!!!

Ingredients:

240 ML Vanilla Flavored Soy Milk
7 oz Ricemallow
1/4 Teaspoon of salt
4 tablespoons of Coconut Spread
1 bag of Chocolate Chips (non dairy)
1 1/2 cups of walnuts (optional)
1 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract (optional if you use vanilla soy milk)

Directions:

You want to reduce the soy milk to about half.  Just pour the soy milk into a medium sauce pan and put it on low heat.   You'll need to stir it every so often as the soy milk gets that "film" on top.  If you stir it back in, it's fine.  I'm not sure how long it took, but I had my burner on "3" (out of 10) and was able to eat lunch plus write a couple of emails so I'm guessing a half hour.

Once the soy milk is reduced by half, add in the coconut spread, salt, and then the ricemallow.  Stir it all together over a medium heat (my burner was between 5 & 6).   Once it's pretty well blended, wait for it to boil.  It doesn't take long.  I got the chocolate chips & walnuts out at this point & cut open the bags so I would be quick once I was ready to add 'em in.

When the mixture starts to boil, stir it for a good five minutes.  Make sure it is still boiling as you stir.  This may mean you need to turn the heat up.  The mix will turn from a frothy off white to a caramel color - it's okay, it should.  Technically, the mixture should be at 240F after those five minutes but I don't have a candy thermometer and I know you don't need one to make fudge. 

After five minutes, take the sauce pan from the heat and add in the chocolate chips, walnuts, and vanilla (if you need it).   It will turn into a lovely dark chocolate goo pretty quickly as you stir everything in.  Once the mix is well blended, pour it into a 8" by 8" sized pan.  (Or any small cake pan, really)  Let it set by leaving it out at room temp or putting it in the fridge for a while.

This will make a nice bit of dark chocolate fudge.  Perfect for those of us that can't have dairy!

Edit:
Now that I've been eating some of it and it's set, I thought y'all might want to know what it tastes like.  It is good.  It tastes like a fudge flavored chocolate chew.  It doesn't taste exactly like regular dairy fudge but it certainly isn't bad either.

I admit I had a bit of an issue getting it to set. I simply didn't have the heat hot enough when I was mixing it. If you run into this issue, just pour the fudge back into the saucepan, turn it up, and make sure it is boiling. You'll know it's ready when the chocolate no longer sticks to the sides of the pan. I did add a bit more ricemallow (the rest of the can)and a small bit of olive oil since I was worried part of the reason it wasn't setting was the lack of fat. I also added some powdered sugar once I removed the mix from heat. It set pretty quickly after that.


Postus Editus:

My family tried it. And even a few family friends. :-) My dad thought it tasted too much like candy - we agreed on chocolate taffy. Mom seemed to agree. My baby brother really liked it - he had two pieces. His best friend also tried it as was surprised it wasn't quite as sweet as he thought it would be - it's a true dark chocolate fudge taste. He liked it too. So, if my very much bacon loving family liked something vegan, my guess is it's decent. :-D

I'm going to play with the recipe some more - I think almond milk might help- but I also want to learn how to make a few other confections without milk or corn...

Apples, apples everywhere, but none for me to eat....yet!

Last week, I went to Butler's Orchard here in Maryland to pick some apples. I ended up with two bags in under ten minutes. Each of the bags weighed about 10 pounds each. In other words, I ended up with a lot of apples, very, very quickly.

This is not a bad thing since I love apples. Apple pie has become a staple for me during Lent since I like doing the medieval Lent thing. However, this does mean I needed to find a way to keep the apples until I actually want to use them. With around 60 apples, there is no way I could even begin to just let them sit around until I need them - like I normally do with a bag of apples. Instead, I decided to freeze them.

Yes, canning 'em would be period correct but I simply do not have the time, money, or room to go out and buy a ton of canning equipment and then store all the canned apples. I could borrow some of the canning equipment from Mom but, really, freezing apples is very simple and you end up with apple slices that are ready to be cooked.

First, you peel the apple. This is pretty standard for any long term storage of apples. I then used my apple corer/slicer to end up with nice, little pieces of apple quickly. I then took the apple slices and put them in this:

This is a bath of lemon juice and water. Technically, it's about 1/4 lemon, 3/4 water but I kept adding fresh squeezed lemon to the solution so I have no idea what it ended up being. Anyway, it worked. Bath the apple slices in this and you don't get brown apple slices.

After that, I put the apple slices in small containers. Each container or bag ended up with roughly four apples in them. Today, I have seven containers filled with apples. Tomorrow, I plan on peeling,coring, and freezing the other bag I ended with.

A not cheese I can eat

So I bought some of the daiya cheddar cheese that happens to not be cheese. I've had bad experiences in the taste department with non cheeses before. A lot of the ones many people say are good are for the lactose intolerant - not the no dairy whatsoever community. Even if it says its almond cheese or soy cheese, it often has milk proteins in it still. I cannot have them. At all.


This not-cheese said it doesn't have any dairy or corn. Woohoo! Perfect for me. I figured giving it a try couldn't hurt. I sampled a bit today and...it tastes like cheddar flavoring and not like real cheese. But it did taste decent enough to attempt to make my version of nachos.


I put some black bean chips on a plate, sprinkled the not-cheese on top, and put it in the microwave for a little over a minute. It smelled...burnt. But it wasn't. It tastes sort of like cheddar flavored Velveeta. Not as good as real cheese but it might be a great alternative to all those recipes that call for cheese when I need it.


In related news this article is excellent for anyone who would like to know more on life threatening allergies. My dairy isn't life threatening - yet- although it is debilitating (I will be out of it for three days). My tomato and my buckwheat allergies are life threatening. Both have sent me to the ER more than once. Yes, those of us who have allergies - or have loved ones that have allergies- tend to be a bit militant about it. It's for a very good reason. The article explains some of those reasons well but it comes down to this; many people believe that food allergies aren't that serious. That you are just "making it up" or that you simply are a "picky eater" (I got that one a LOT growing up).


Because of people not taking food allergies seriously -as a life threatening illness- most of us who do suffer from food allergies become very defensive. Food is important in every culture and most cultures have food served at various holidays and other events. Food is the stuffs of society - because of that, many of us that cannot eat what is served often feel that we are "left out" of culturally important events. For Thanksgiving, for example, I need to bring my own turkey, my own stuffing, and whatever veggies I want because I can't eat the turkey that was basted in butter, the stuffing that has cornmeal, or any of the veggies that are covered in butter. This is not my choice - unlike with vegetarianism- but it would make my life - and many other food allergy sufferers lives- so much easier if people would make a list of every ingredient they put into a dish that they intend to share with others. I don't need to know the amount or the order, just what is in the dish. Even if I can't eat the dish, I will be thankful for someone taking the extra minute to help me make that informed decision.

Food related post

While the 1790's dress goes and sits in the corner to think about what it's done (currently known as laying across the ironing board), I started to think about what I wanted to snack on before moving on to my next project.  Unfortunately, it's the same thing I've wanted to eat for the past couple of weeks - smoked cheddar. 

I love smoked cheddar.  The kind I'd get at the Amish market was perfect with some smoked sausage on crackers.  I'd happily eat it up and it worked really well at SCA events. 

The problem?

I developed a dairy allergy in the past couple of years.  I won't go into the details of what happens - if you have ever had a serious case of food poisoning, imagine going through that for a good 3 days.   It's really that bad.  So, I need to avoid dairy.

Although I've talked some before about all things that have dairy in them (and how hard it is to explain to people that butter/yogurt/cream cheese are all dairy) what I haven't talked about it how much I still crave dairy.  There isn't a good vegan substitute for cow's milk cheese.  Strike that.  There isn't even a mediocre substitute for cheese.  I tried vegan cheese once and I will never make that mistake again.  It tasted like smooched up Bernie Bot's every flavor beans -and only the bad flavors.  It was supposed to be cheddar.

For butter, I've found some fabulous subs.  There is the expensive but oh my goodness perfect butter substitute from Under the Olive Tree.  Although regular olive oil will work too, this tastes too awesome.   There is also the coconut spread I've discussed before when you need not melted butter.  

For milk, I love almond milk.   Soy is okay too but I've really come to love almond milk.   It tastes great with cereal.  Plus, it has the added benefit of having about the same amount of fat as whole milk meaning it works perfectly in any recipe that calls for milk.   Oh, and it has more calcium. 

But cheese?   Nothing.  And I want cheese and crackers.  I can find perfectly fine vegan crackers that taste great - but not cheese.  

Some people have stated that at least I got to know what cheese tasted like but I truly believe ignorance is bliss on this subject.  If you've always been allergic to something, you have no idea what you are missing and don't want it when you are thinking about snacks or dinners.   I constantly want spaghetti- O's and cheese but the tomato allergy and dairy allergy (and even the minor corn allergy) tell me that I should only have that if I happen to be on Death Row.  This is why having allergies sucks. 

Baking Experiment! White Cake Recipe

Although I am not vegan, I do have a pretty serious milk allergy so I need to avoid milk at all costs.   Otherwise, it's crying in a corner for three days with intense gastrointestinal distress.   I don't want to do that, again.  It's basically like having food poisoning for three days.  Not fun. 

So, I've been learning about all sorts of milk and dairy substitutes from vegan websites.  It's been immensely helpful.  However, since I also have a corn allergy, sometimes I have to get very creative.   It means I've been baking a lot ever since back in March when I figured out that the reason for most of my problems was butter.  Grr....

Today, I wanted to try to bake a white cake.   Baking one from scratch isn't very hard and it makes sure that you know EXACTLY what is in it.   You wouldn't believe what is in a cake mix box....

I found this recipe on allrecipes.com that looked really good:

• 1 cup white sugar
  
  
• 1/2 cup butter
  
  
• 2 eggs
  
  
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  
  
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  
  
• 1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
  
  
• 1/2 cup milk

The problem is that I can't have butter, I need to make my own baking powder unless I buy the special stuff at the organic market and I can't have milk.  To add to the fun of this experiment, I decided to make it vegan which means no eggs either.

Here's what I used instead:

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup of Coconut Spread
• 4 tablespoons of applesauce
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose organic King Arthur's flour (it's much better than the other generic stuff I get at the store)
• 1 3/4 teaspoons of my baking powder (1/2 baking soda, 1/4 cream of tartar, 1/4 arrowroot powder)
• 1/2 cup of Vanilla Almond milk

I followed the rest of the directions but with the subsitutes:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x9 inch pan or line a muffin pan with paper liners.
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Finally stir in the milk until batter is smooth. Pour or spoon batter into the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven. For cupcakes, bake 20 to 25 minutes. Cake is done when it springs back to the touch.

Let me just say I'm baking it now but I tried the batter. YUM!!!  I really hope that the cake is fluffy and not flat.  The batter itself (no eggs so take that FDA!) was absolutely delicious.  I was worried because I've never used the coconut spread before however, based solely upon the taste of the batter, I think I need to buy stock in the stuff.   It didn't taste like coconut at all.  I did taste the apple sauce a bit - it was spiced apple sauce- but really, it's a fall cake.   It's fine.  Spicy cinnamon sorta white looking cake is still perfectly edible. 

I've used the almond milk many times before.  I got addicted to the stuff back in Feb and March when I was doing the Lenten Medieval diet thing to figure.   It's great to make hot chocolate with.  :-)   The baking powder is something I read up on online.   A lot of baking powder is just baking soda with cornstarch.  Since I have a corn intolerance (it's a borderline allergy really but I can have a small amount without my system going out of wack), I can't have the cornstarch.  There are some cornstarch free baking powders available but making my own is a lot cheaper.   It's easy to make; just shift together a mixture that is 1/2 baking soda, 1/4 arrowroot powder, and 1/4 cream of tartar.   I have a nice big plastic cup of the stuff right now that should last me through the New Year. 

I promise a follow up post on how the cake actually tastes.  I'm taking it to work tomorrow so we'll see how everyone at work reacts.  :-)

EDIT: I used this recipe for the vegan chocolate icing because what is white cake without chocolate icing?

Ingredients:

• 2 cups organic powdered sugar
• ¼ cup (½ stick) dairy-free soy margarine, softened
• ¼ cup plain unsweetened almond milk or soymilk
• ¾ cup unsweetened pure cocoa powder
• ½ t. vanilla

Preparation:

1. In a medium-large mixing bowl, using an electric hand mixer, cream the powdered sugar with the soy margarine until mixture is thick but well combined. Add the almond milk, cocoa powder and vanilla, and continue to mix until smooth.

I used the coconut spread rather than soy margarine party because it's what I had on hand but also because the soy margarine has corn in it.   The coconut spread doesn't which is why I decided to try it to begin with.

I've iced the cake now using this recipe for chocolate icing.  Oh my!  If you like dark chocolate fudge, then you will LOVE this.   It's ridiculously yummy.   Seriously, if my dairy allergy disappeared tomorrow, I don't think I could go back to normal icing after this.    It's very thick, creamy, and tastes like fudge.    I hope the guys at work like it too!