White Zinfandel

Introducing Naked Grape Red Wine Spritzers!

Naked Grape is a popular unoaked Ontario wine and has just introduced spritzers to their line-up of all star wines. I was lucky to sample some before it hit shelves on Friday (at your nearest Wine Rack) and was VERY impressed. It is BEST served over ice-or frozen cranberries!

Now let's have a wee discussion, while we're talking about alcohol. I love it. But not all alcohol is vegan or vegetarian friendly- many beers and wines are filtered through animal bone, or literally have fish guts, fish eggs or chicken pieces added to the wine or beer for flavor. Companies can add these ingredients to their alcohol without having to publish *contains flesh* on the label of the bottle. Why? I don't know, but it's legal and is so the case. There are lots of great vegan wine/beer directories on the Internet, and I shall provide some links before we part.

Now I don't drink beer, do not like it. Too much yeast, carbs..all for a bad buzz-but most German beers are vegan safe. STAY AWAY FROM BRITISH BEER unless you want some chicken nibblets up in your hangover.

Anyway, moving back to the wine. It's good, go drink some-rich in antioxidants and turns you into a really hot Tori Amos singing Lush.

CHEERS!

For a listing of vegan alcohol visit: www.barnivore.com

BROWNIE TIME!

MmmMmm.

There are so many wonderful vegan brownie recipes out there, and hopefully this one is able to compete in the running. These brownies are moist, dense and chewy so don't expect hardcore fluffy crumble-in-your-mouth kind of wonder. This is a re-worked recipe I found on VegWeb.

I have to say these were a HIT in the household and I too enjoyed them. For icing I used the chocolate icing from HIAV, which I will post as well and hope that I am not in any violation of copyright laws. *HAAY SARAH KRAMER*

What You'll Need:
2 cups flour. 1 cup white and 1 cup whole wheat
1 cup water
1 cup brown sugah ("sugar" for all you non-gangsters reading this,)
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp organic vanilla extract
1/2 extra virgin olive oil
3/4 cup baking cocoa
1 very large bar of 80% dark chocolate.

Directions:

1) Over low heat, boil water and add 1/2 cup of flour stirring constantly. You want a thin glue paste mixture. Remove from heat and LET IT COOL.

2) Add sugah, vanilla, cocoa, oil and salt. Then add the remaining flour-water mixture. Stir.
3) Add the rest of the 1 1/2 cups of flour, baking powder and melted dark chocolate.

4) Then, you're going to get a dough that should look like this and be very hard to do anything with other than stick it into a greased pan. So do just that. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Let these babies cool for a good 40 minutes before you put on the icing, trust me-it'll be worth it.

How It All Vegan's: Chocolate Icing pg 149

What You'll Need:

1 cup cold water (I really hope I don't need to tell you it should be filtered water. Common people, GET WITH THE TIMES and INVEST IN A WATER FILTER! Ick)

5 tbsp white flour
1 cup raw cane sugar
1 tsp organic vanilla
6 tbsp Earth Balance
3 tbsp cocoa powder

On medium heat combine water and flour until it's a thin gluey paste like your brownies were. Remove from heat and cool in fridge. It's best to make your icing BEFORE or DURING your brownie process. I had my favorite dinner guest hook up the icing while I made the brownies so it worked out great. If you're alone and cooking these babies up-make your icing before you do anything else..you really want it to cool. In a medium bowl combine raw cane sugar, vanilla, Earth Balance, and cocoa powder until mixed. Add the cooled flour mixture to this and whisk together until there are no lumps, bumps or clumps. Stick in the fridge until your brownies are cooked and cooled.

A Brief Intermission JUST To Say:

ALWAYS WEAR OVEN MITS, AND NEVER DEAL WITH HOT COCONUT OIL WHILE TALKING ON THE PHONE!!!

Spiced Quinoa with Red Peppers in a Curried Apple Dressing

Had I SO much parsley left from the falafels I had made a few posts ago and really, really needed to use it up. I also had my favorite dinner guest over, and wanted to create a warm meal for the Mrs. when she came on over to my humble home for eats and beats (MUSIC! Not smack-downs..fyi.)

The Curried Apple Dressing is REALLY good too. I wanted the quinoa to have a nice dressing, and wanted an excuse to use the glass bottle I bought months ago in the summer.

Quinoa, like couscous is a grain and very easy to cook.

What You'll Need: (easily serves four)
3 cloves garlic
1 cup Qunioa
1 Red Pepper RAW
Curry, Thyme, Cayenne Pepper, Turmeric- to taste

1/2-1 cup corn

1 medium onion
1 cup parsley

Get a start cooking the quinoa and garlic together in pot.

How to Cook Quinoa:
I feel very safe telling you that unless you BURN it, quinoa is FOOL proof to make. But it is IMPERATIVE TO RINSE YOUR QUINOA BEFORE YOU COOK IT! SOAK it in some water and strain it a few times while you're getting the kitchen started for this feast. I cook my quinoa by bringing together my water (1 cup for every cup of quinoa) with my spices and garlic. Bring this to a boil-reduce heat, add veggies and cook covered for 10 minutes.

In a food processor combine parsley and 1 medium onion, add to the qunioa-combine your spices&corn and simmer simmer.

Curried Apple Dressing

What You'll Need:
1 sauteed onion until translucent
1/2 cup apple juice
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp water
Curry-to taste (I'm NOT SHY w/my curry!)
1/2-1 tbsp cilantro
pinch of black pepper

Throw it all together in a food processor and BAM you're good to go! Drizzle a little bit on the quinoa once it's cook to moisten, serve the rest for your guests to put on themselves.

I made this dressing up as I went along and was really, really pleased with it. VERY refreshing-makes about 1 cup. Easily serves two (it was gone after dinner guest and I had dinned, while there was plenty of quinoa leftover)

Heavy Metal Couscous

Finally have the chance to sit down and blog, upload all my pictures (I HAVE been cooking!!)-went to go cook dinner and have managed to burn my hands with HOT coconut oil. OUCH. So I am typing to you know with only my two middle fingers and both thumbs. ALWAYS WEAR OVEN MITTS NO MATTER HOW MUCH OF A HURRY YOU'RE IN!





Couscous is a grain and cooks very easily like rice. It is the perfect base to ANY dish and it depends on YOUR TASTE BUDS how you want to dress it up-what you want to make it do. I whipped this baby put when I had to feed some guests and zip across town to see Motley Crue in concert. Hence the name.

Heavy Metal Couscous

What You'll Need:
- 1 cup couscous
- 1 cup water
- 3 carrots
- 1/2-1 cup corn
- 5 cloves garlic
-1/2-1 cup parsley
thyme, tarragon, curry,cloves,salt, black pepper to taste (I forgot to write down my own measurements, did this all to personal taste)
1/3-1/2 cup olive oil

Chop your carrots and boil them in some water so they're soft. Lightly saute diced onions in pan. Bring 1 cup of water to a boil with garlic and other seasonings. Add tender carrots and onion, add couscous, stir everything all together-reduce heat and cover for ten minutes.