I’ve been MIA for a few days and didn’t think I would get around to posting anything else for VeganMoFo. Busy at work, lots of stuff to do at home, getting ready for vacation to Beijing, and avoiding getting the sickies doesn’t leave much time for anything else.

But – I saw a link on Twitter today of a list PETA Kids put together of vegan Halloween candy. This is a great reference those of us who need something like this, especially if we’re gonna get the wee ones (and not so wee ones) showing up at our doors tonight. But, if you have the time, I think it’s way more fun to make your own goodies with your kids or make a bunch to hoard all on your own. So here’s a run down of the yummy vegan candy recipes I came across (and there are loads of other ones out there):

Candy Corn (via The Urban Housewife)

Vanilla Caramels (via The Dog Hill Kitchen)

Peanut Butter Cups (via BitterSweet Vegan)

Chocolate-covered Peppermint Patties (via Epicurious)

Carmel Apples (via The Dog Hill Kitchen)

Sponge Candy (via Epicurious)

Popcorn Balls (via Kittee from Cake Maker to the Stars)

Molasses Taffy (via about.com)
(just substitute Earth Balance for the butter)

Chocolate Fudge (via Shmooed Food)

Egg- and Gelatin-free Nougat (via the Duchess of Kircaldy)

Peanut Brittle (via Go Dairy Free)

And a whole bunch of easy vegan candy recipes from Bryanna Clark Grogan.

For a looooong time now I’ve wanted to go bonkers in the kitchen on a weekend afternoon and make an obscene amount of seitan. And since I’ve found out what the differences are between vital wheat gluten and gluten flour (thank you, Bryanna!), I’ll never again waste another batch of seitan. You see, for a few years now I’d not been aware that vital wheat gluten is a much different monster than gluten flour. I’ve tried several different boiled seitan recipes and despite sticking to the recipes’ directions (a hard thing for me to do) I’d always be left with either a pot of dissolved seitan or seitan so spongy and falling apart it wasn’t even fit to cook or eat with. Now I know why. Yeesh!

My take at the PDX Vegan Cooking Club's Seitan Bacon.

And so, with my man being a bacon aficionado (vegan bacon, that is), I thought it was about time I tried out the seitan bacon recipe posted by the PDX Vegan Cooking Club. The look is bang on, though for me the recipe needs a bit of fiddling with. The entire recipe was a tad too wet to be kneaded without it falling apart, so I added more vital wheat gluten and chickpea flour to both the red and the white gluten mixtures. And I used liquid hickory smoke in lieu of the smoked paprika, though I still included the full amount of paprika. The bacon also could use a bit more flavour, so I’ll increase the amounts of seasonings next time. Don’t skimp on the maple syrup if you can – I used agave and though this worked fine I think the maple syrup could have made the bacon taste even more bacon-y. Lastly, this recipe is surprisingly easy to make – most of the work is in waiting for it to cook in the oven. I’ll definitely be making this more often and stashing a bit of it in the freezer since the amount it makes is perfect for two people. The lovely smell coming from the oven is good enough reason alone to make a batch of seitan bacon.

The Vegan Dad's Hickory Smoked Veggie Turkey lunch meat.

I also decided that the making of sandwich slices was in order since all of the Field Roast slices we bought from Karmavore in August are gone and, well, just because I want the satisfaction of knowing I can make this stuff any time I like and make it any flavour I like too. And so, I must thank the Vegan Dad for his kitchen wizardry with seitan. His recipe for Hickory Smoked Veggie Turkey Lunchmeat is sublime, and the wet mixture for the recipe smells amazing even before it’s made into seitan. I dare say this seitan even whiffs of Field Roast a little bit. Now, despite the awesomeness of this recipe, I found the cooked result surprisingly bland. I would definitely double the seasonings the next time I make it, as well as add two to three times the amount of hickory smoke since I couldn’t even smell or taste it in the baked roll. But the texture and lovely crust on the outside of the seitan are perfect. And it makes a massive bunch of the stuff, though it seems to deflate quite a bit after coming out of the oven. Make sure you wrap it really well and use heavy-duty foil if you can.

Seitan Sundried Tomato Sausages (recipe via The Vegan Dad).

And then I just had to make seitan sausages since there just happened to be a stray can of pinto beans sitting in the cupboard. Again, thanks to the Vegan Dad – I made his homemade sausages, but instead of the fennel and chili flakes, I put in 3/4 cup of minced sundried tomatoes, two tbsp tomato paste, and two tsp of onion granules. I’m not such a big fan of Italian sausage-style vegan sausages that have sage and fennel in them, so with this recipe I thought it would be more fun trying to experiment with different sausage flavours. His recipe is s tiny bit similar to Julie Hasson’s sausage recipe, at least in that they’re steamed and they use some of the same seasonings. These sausages were the best out of the bunch of seitan that I made. Even without the usual seasonings, they were quite sausage-y and very moist with an excellent tender texture.

I ran out of vital wheat gluten after all of this, but I also mean to make up my own seitan bacon bits recipe, and well as try a seitanized version Don’t Eat Off the Sidewalk’s tempeh wingz one more time. I also want to make some pepperoni and other odds and sods. And though it is not of the seitan variety, I also am going to be making The Urban Housewife’s jackfruit tacos, as well as trying to create a veganized version of pulled pork with jackfruit.

For din-din, we’ll likely be feasting on pretty much everything I’ve made here. Praise seitan! Yay!

I got a little ahead of myself and the frying pan last night. And what ensued after one dinner disaster and one potentially ruined frying pan was the worst dinner I think I have ever put together as the result of another ruined dinner. My honey other thinks otherwise, and I’m not sure whether that’s a compliment or not. Apparently, I have made worse. No, I’m not going to tell about exactly what I made. And I’ll never make it again. It was embarrassing, though edible.

Enthusiastic about my newly found frying pan freedom, I boldly decided to make tofu omelets. I thought that if delicate slices of sausage didn’t stick to the pan (they’ve always stuck to my pans in the past), I just might be able to turn out an omelet or two. This decision was the most epic of fails for me. I decided to fry mushrooms to go with the omelets in the pan.

Worst. Decision. Ever.

A word to the not so wise – don’t pan fry mushrooms in your cast iron pan unless it is really hot. I tried frying mushrooms for our omelets when pan wasn’t hot enough and the water from the mushrooms seemed to strip any seasoning from my pan rendering it completely dry and dull.

I did try to make omelets after this, and both times they partially stuck, though they looked very promising before I tried to flip them. I thought the omelet batter would make great scrambled tofu turned out to be nothing but a thick, pasty mess that coated many parts of my pan.

I was convinced I’d ruined the pan, and determined not to wash it with soap I patiently and carefully chipped away at the browned, crusted tofu and eventually was able to wipe all remains of the first dinner disaster away. The pan still looked dry and dull, and it seemed to me that it needed to be seasoned all over again. So I re-seasoned it and popped it in a hot oven for an hour and a half.

And just when I though I couldn’t possibly do anything else to ruin my new pan, I did.

It turns out that my thin layer of oil wasn’t as thin as it could have been, and once the pan was cool enough to touch I discovered that the new layer of seasoning I’d put on the pan (canola oil) turned the entire pan into a shiny but very sticky/tacky mess.

I really thought all was lost.

I spent the day today mulling over whether or not I’d ruined the frying pan and how I could fix it. When I got home, I heated the pan up and with a damp cloth wiped away as much tackiness as I could. Then I carefully coated the pan with a fine mist of oil and let it cool. The surface was glossy and reflective again. Phew. Total annihilation of the pan averted.

Pan-fried broccoli.

So the pan and I agreed to take it slow tonight. I promised not to get ahead of things and try and make dishes I knew would stick to the pan and she promised to be a little more non-stick. We settled on pan-fried broccoli to go with the cashew-coconut alfredo sauce I made. The broccoli turned out to be a yummy success (as you can see).

So again I have a lovely glossy and smooth  cast iron frying pan on my stovetop. Am I ever relieved.

As for the alfredo sauce, I think I am on to something in terms of a soy-free alfredo sauce. My honey can’t drink or eat most soy products, though he can eat tofu. Most of the time, when vegan alfredo sauces call for soy milk, soy cream, or some other soy-based item, he can’t eat the sauce. A while ago I discovered the amazingness of cashews in creamy pasta sauces. But many of the sauces I’ve tried have tasted great on a spoon and pretty weak spread out onto pasta. Looking around for a new recipe to try, I decided Lolo’s “Hurry Up Alfredo Sauce” from her new book, Vegan YumYum, looked promising. But what would I do about the soy milk? We have only rice milk in the house, and that has vanilla in it. Ewww. Not so good in a savory pasta sauce.

What could I possibly use instead of soy? Coconut milk! And it works beautifully. Yes, it’s quite a bit higher in fat than soy milk, so this makes the alfredo I made something that can’t be eaten every day. You can’t really tell there’s coconut milk in it, though, and the richness the coconut milk lends to the alfredo makes it even more like a cow’s milk-based sauce than the soy-based version does.

So here are my modifications/suggestions/observations about Lolo’s recipe, which you can see for yourself on her blog: www.veganyumyum.com

Epicurvegan’s Soy-free Coconut Alfredo Sauce

• Use 1 cup regular or low-fat coconut milk instead of soy milk
• 1/2 cup of finely ground cashew pieces
• You may need to add 1/4 or 1/3 of a cup of water or salt-free vegetable broth to thin the sauce
• Omit the Earth Balance (there’s more than enough fat in this sauce already)
• Leave out the nutmeg (I don’t know why this is in most vegan alfredo sauces, and it really doesn’t improve the taste)
• Add even more garlic if you like – I used 4 fresh cloves and couldn’t taste any of it
• Definitely use low-sodium tamari – regular tamari or soy sauce will be too salty
• My sauce seemed quite beige (mostly due to the tamari) – it won’t really look like this on your pasta

And when my vertical photo of the pasta I made with the pan-fried broccoli decides to upload properly, I’ll post it here.

My new love.

Would you believe that over the last few days I went to no less than five stores looking for a simple black cast iron pan and I came up empty-handed every time? After some rather disappointing hunting yesterday that had me sulkily indulging in some chocolate mouse cake, today I made my way home after work with my much sought-after prize. I haven’t named her yet, but I think she’s deserving of a name. I’ve been going on about this for a few posts and maybe it’s a teeny bit annoying, but if you’ve ever ended up with a cooking disaster because all of your eagerly anticipated dinner stuck to your cookware, you’ll know why I’m excited about this new frying pan.

With a tasty loaf of bread and the last two Tofutti cheese slices in the whole house sitting in the fridge, I knew exactly what to test out the new pan with – a vegan grilled cheese sammie! *cheering!* What a waste of cheese and bread, I thought, if this doesn’t turn out. But I oiled the pan, set the heat to just higher than medium-low, and set to buttering my bread. When the pan was warm enough, I laid the bread in the pan and a whisper of a hiss rose from it. I waited, patiently, for a few minutes. As I waited, Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries erupted in my mind. Then came the first test – would the spatula slide easily under the bread? Yes. Yes, it did. Next was the fateful flip. One, two, three – and there, smiling up from me from the pan, was a perfectly golden and crisp little bread face (cue the big sigh of relief). There was still the other side of the bread to crisp, though. So I waited and flipped again. And once more the grilled cheese sammie and I smiled golden smiles at each other. It really was that exciting.

Test subject 1: a Tofutti grilled cheese sammie.

The sammie taste test ended in me snarfing down the crispest grilled cheese sammie I’d had since my mum used to make them for me. And that was a quite a long time ago.

But that wasn’t even dinner. No, dinner still had to be made. Calling my name from the depths of my frosty freezer were dreamy Field Roast Mexican Chipotle sausages. Now, this is really a test of the frying pan because these were the last of anything Field Roast we had, and none are likely to be had again soon since there’s no one in Canada selling them on a regular basis (we have the fine folks at Karmavore to thank for our Field Roast joy). Seitan forbid if the sausages stuck to the pan. There would be many tears over this, most of them shed by the man of the house.

The sausages were sliced, the pan heated up, and then we were all systems go. Again a slow, quiet sizzle escaped from the glistening pan as I slid the sausage slices off the cutting board and onto its inky surface. Once more I patiently waited. I thought to myself, “If this is a success I’ll be getting very friendly with some French toast on Saturday morning.” When it was time to flip the sausages, I reached for my spatula with trembling fingers. With a few small flips their perfectly browned bottoms surfaced, and then I swear there were angels singing – right along to Beethoven’s Ode to Joy. (and while looking for a sound clip of the symphony, I came across this totally priceless video of the Muppets’ Beaker meeping Ode to Joy.)

Today turned out to be a very happy day. There is a new kitchen goddess in my house, and she can grace my stovetop whenever she likes.

Yesterday we wandered over the Earthsave Canada’s annual Taste of Health. A might disappointing I must admit (aside from the guest chefs and cooking demos) – last year’s show was decent, but this year it was a mere fraction of what it was previously. It’s a bit surprising that Vancouver can’t muster a vegetarian festival comparable to some our neighbours in the south enjoy.

There was one redeeming highlight at the Taste of Health. I blogged recently about our upcoming trip to Bejing, China (just 21 days now!) and my distress at not being able to find a copy of The Vegan Society’s Vegan Passport to take with us. I had called the Earthsave Canada office to see if they had any more copies, to which they said they were certain they had no more. Lo and behold, I found two copies at their bookstore booth at the Taste of Health. Obviously, I snapped one of those gems up. So, if any of you out there need a page or two of the book copied until it’s back in print, lemme know what language you need (send me an e-mail) and I would be pleased to send you a page.

I’m also finally going out to get myself a cast iron frying pan today. In preparation for the food bonanza to come, I was ogling my copy of Vegan Brunch again and deciding what to make first. Then I came across Kittee’s post on potato crepes and dosas at Cake Maker to the Stars. I’ve had the pleasure of eating dosas only once and I certainly think that many more need to be consumed as soon as possible. In the meantime, check out Kittee’s post and get yourself up to some dosa makin’.

Oh, and one last thing. If you happen to be in downtown Vancouver and you’re hankerin’ for some delicious vegan Lebanese food, check out Nuba on West Hastings. We’ve been there only once so far, and The Vegan Spoon won’t post a review until we’ve been there at least one more time. But Nuba gets a preliminary 4 out of 5 tofu puffs. For a non-vegan restaurant, there is an impressive amount of damn tasty vegan options on the menu. And the mjadra (available as a mezze, a full plate, and a pita plate) has got to be the most incredibly delicious concoction of lentils I have ever tasted. We also tried the najib’s special and the veggie hushwi. Everything tasted like heaven.

Many of us have probably heard a veganized version of the “stranded on a deserted island” question, specifically “What would a vegan eat if they were stranded on a deserted island with only animals?” Well, should the day ever come, I’ll worry then about foraging for wild berries, roots, or how to open coconuts.

I have, however, asked myself what of the things I eat and drink would I loathe to be without. And though I thought that this would be a really easy question to answer, I realized that with the infinite number of things vegans can eat I wasn’t really sure what it was that I would pine for if it were gone. And so, as I mulled over this for the last week, here is a short and totally incomplete account of what floats my vegan boat.

Wanna to pontificate on what goodies you cannot do without? Leave a comment with your top five or post your own blog post. Tag – you’re it!

Numi Aged Earl Grey Tea (organic and fair trade).

Earl Grey Tea

I’ve been drinking tea since I was a wee eight years old, and in a family of tea drinkers I lead the pack from as little as 2 to as many as 6 cups of black tea a day (I have rather large tea mugs). It must be a hereditary thing, as I am Scottish and the Scots love their tea. I started out with Tetley’s black lemon tea, as that is what my mum drank until it was discontinued. We moved on to Tetley’s strawberry tea and drank copious amounts of it until I discovered Tazo’s Earl Grey tea (before they sold out to the man). My holy grail of Earl Grey tea was discovered over a steamy cup of Numi’s Organic (and fair trade) Aged Earl Grey tea, though I don’t often buy it – there’s just 18 bags to a box for no less than $5.99 a box in most places in Vancouver. It’s the perfect balance of lovely bergamot flavour that most Earl Grey haters complain is too overwhelming in this kind of tea. Then at some point I happened upon the motherload – Ridgways’ Organic Earl Grey tea (made by the massive English tea company know as Typhoo). Ridgways is 40 bags of Earl Grey bliss for between $4.99 and $6.50. And I’ve found that you can easily get two cups of tea out of one bag since it seems that the bags are either made for two cups or the tea is ridiculously strong. Although I don’t drink it too much now due to anemia (it’s an anemia not due to a vegan diet, but it’s only made worse by my wanton consumption of tea), I would be bereft of my favourite tea should it disappear from store shelves. My mad plans for experimenting with tea in other foods would be dashed.

The new soy-free Earth Balance buttery spread.

Vegan Buttah

Is there really anyone who hasn’t heard of, tasted, or seen this stuff somewhere? My family’s been using it since the original buttery spread in the tub first came out – it’s as much a staple as cow’s milk or white bread or granulated sugar would be in other not so vegan homes. While most of my kin love to slather Earth Balance on their toast, muffins, and anything else that seems fit for a a pat of it, what I would miss the most are the buttery sticks (not pictured here). Many of us have used the spread for baking and with good results, though the product website doesn’t actually recommend the spread for baking. And this would have been nice to know three years ago when I attempted to veganize my family’s whipped shortbread recipe. That was the single most disastrous baking experience I’ve ever had – the buttery spread resulted in flat, oily, caramelized “cookies” that had to be peeled off the cookie sheets and promptly tossed. Obviously the spread was far too soft for baking such delicate cookies. Since then I’ve used only the sticks in baking, and with fabulous results. If these sticks were to disappear, cookie making would be a hopeless endeavour for the most part and any veganized recipe calling for “butter” to be cut into a floury dough would be pretty much impossible for me.

The lovely yellow onion.

Yellow Onions

Yes, onions. You can get ‘em nearly anywhere, and you can grown them almost anywhere too. We would really be in dire straits if onions were nowhere to be found – it’s likely nothing else edible would be around either. Now, I just don’t understand the hate-on for onions. To me, hating onions is like saying you hate water – both of them are pretty essential. I cook with them at least four times a week, and my favourite way to play with these golden beauties is to slow saute half-moon slices until the onion is a translucent agave-coloured mass of caramelized nirvana. This takes a little practice, patience, and time (if you’re not in a hurry) – about a good 10-15 minutes.

So, other than their divine yumminess, onions are awesome for other reasons too: they’ve been cultivated for more than 5,000 years and most likely originated in central Asia. According to the National Geographic’s Edible: An Illustrated Guide to the World’s Food Plants, onions are the single most depicted vegetable in ancient Egyptian art. They have some pretty stellar health benefits, notably the ability to improve cholesterol levels. And there are few things as amazing as a freshly harvested onion. Whether it is white, yellow, or red, the crispness and flavour of an onion just pulled from the earth is indescribable. And these fresh babes won’t make you cry either.

Vitasoy's unsweetened milk (left).

Plain Unsweetened Soy Milk

Being such a black tea enthusiast, I have tasted far and wide for the perfect soy milk for my tea. Original and vanilla-flavoured milks are fine for many things, but not for tea. And when you need a little splash of milk in mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, or some other savory nibbly, any hint of sweetness or vanilla can ruin a dish. Trust me on this – without a second though I once splashed some original-flavoured milk in my nearly perfect mashed potatoes only taste what I’d done and not be able get past the tinge of vanilla in my dijon-peppered potatoes. I’ve never done that again. Similarly, when you’re settling down to a nice cup of tea, or even coffee, sometimes the vanilla flavour used in most milks becomes the predominant flavour throughout the cup. Although there are many decent offerings of plain unsweetened soy milk available in markets, I always turn to Vitasoy’s Unsweetened Soy Beverage. Although it may still taste slightly “beany” to folk who don’t drink soy milk, this stuff is golden – it’s smooth taste and texture make it perfect for use in pretty much anything.

My version of pico de gallo salsa.

Salsa

I love salsa however I can get it. Traditional home-made from scratch, green, red, and even the pressure cooked jarred stuff in the stores. I put it in scrambled tofu, over baked potatoes, in tofu omelets, on burgers, in tacos, fajitas, burritos, or I eat it on its own with chips or pitas. More than any recycled glass jars in my cupboards, you’ll see salsa jars. And though I like the hotness of some salsa, especially salsas with chipotle peppers or pickled jalapenos, I generally go with mild salsas when I’m using it with something more than chips. But it’s gotta be chunky. The chunkier, the yummier.

Home made salsa and jarred salsa are dramatically different from one another, and it really depends on the mood I am in. More often than not, though, I turn to jarred salsa for its zesty, vinegar-y, salty, onion-y goodness and because I don’t have to take the time to make it. I really think it’s actually a comfort food of sorts for me, because I always seem to have a jar of it and it’s one of my go-to foods whenever my hangry monster needs appeasing.

For some odd reason, store-bought salsa is not cheap. I usually buy it on sale if I can, and most of the time I buy it organic because looking at a jar of non-organic gets my mind going about the GMO-ness of non-organic tomatoes.

This is a recipe I’d already posted about a few years ago, but it’s so good and so easy to make it’s worth crowing about it again. It’s satisfying comfort food heaped on top of pasta, rice, steamed veggies, potatoes, or whatever else you can think of. and it’s well-suited to the cool fall weather. The original recipe was published by the Vegetarians in Paradise in Los Angeles, and my version is a slight adaptation. Check out their extensive and knowledgeable article on broccoli at the link above, as well as the rest of their numerous in-depth features at On the Highest Perch.

Broccoli miso sauce on rotini rice pasta.

Broccoli Miso Sauce

Makes 4-5 servings

1 large bunch broccoli (with the stem) or 2 medium broccoli crowns
1/4 cup vegetable oil (or use 1/4 cup vegetable stock for a low-fat sauce)
2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
Juice from 1/2 of a fresh lemon
1 cup water (reserved from steaming water)
2-3 tbsp mild miso
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste

Directions

1) Cut the broccoli into individual florets and steam until just tender.

2) Drain the broccoli, but set aside 1 cup of the steaming water.

3) In a food processor, combine the broccoli, oil, water, garlic, lemon, and miso, and process until mostly smooth.

4) Add salt and pepper to taste.

5) Heat the sauce briefly, if necessary.

6) Serve immediately, or freeze for later use.

Growing up, we used Telfon frying pans a lot in my mum’s kitchen. Back then, hardly anyone questioned the safety of the compounds used in non-stick cookware. And I didn’t think too much of it when one frying pan we used began to peel – I simply picked the little black bits of Teflon out of my food.

Vegan Brunch.

It’s been several years now since I’ve used a non-stick cookware in my own kitchen, and I’ve never been able to get the hang of not having my pancakes and French toast stick to my frying pans. When I got my mitts on Isa’s Vegan Brunch, I was so excited about trying the Banana Rabanada (Brazillian French Toast). And just when I thought that all my French toast dreams were about to come true, I tried to flip my bread and half of each of the slices stuck to the pan. So much for Sunday morning breakfast. I was pretty sulky.

I was gifted a lovely enameled frying pan a few years back that I thought would be the answer to my sticky woes. Alas, though the directions said never to use the pan on heat above medium, apparently even the medium-low setting on my stove was too much for the pan. It didn’t stay non-stick for long. And at a whopping $40 each, eco-friendly ceramic non-stick pans aren’t so eco-friendly if I have to keep buying them.

Crepes, fluffy pancakes, tofu omelets, latkes, hashbrowns, pretty much anything that sticks to a pan is out of the question in my kitchen. And so, I was seriously thinking of going back to the dark side again, even if it meant using a non-stick pan only once a week (knowing me, it’d be a lot more than that despite my intentions).

I’d heard of the benefits of using cast iron cookware (and particularly how it benefits people with anemia), but it was only recently that someone told me that cast iron could become non-stick. For various reasons I’ve waffled quite a bit about buying a cast iron frying pan. Cast iron is also expensive and darn heavy for the size I would want to have. And, I once washed several of a friend’s cast iron pans with soap and water and wondered later on why they all rusted. So I wasn’t sure I was up for caring for one of these pans.

Original Lodge cast iron.

Curious to know about how to season a pan, and I came across some information about the various kinds of fats used by companies selling pre-seasoned pans. Not all of these fats are vegan, and a quick Google search with “vegan seasoned cast iron” doesn’t turn up a lot of helpful info. Lodge Cast Iron Cookware is the brand I’ve come across most often in stores around Vancouver, and considering how many vegans use this brand (and others) I was really concerned about the vegan-friendliness of Lodge’s seasoning fat.

I was about to send the company an e-mail when I decided to check out their FAQs on the care and use of their products. This is what they have to say about the oil used to pre-season their cookware:

What type oil is used to season Lodge Seasoned Cast Iron?

We use a proprietary soy-based vegetable oil to season our cookware.  This oil has been Orthodox Union Kosher certified.  The oil contains no animal fat or peanut oil.  The seasoning is functional application  and slight inconsistencies may appear in the seasoning finish. The inconsistencies will not affect cooking performance.

Phew! It’s vegan friendly, and I’m not gonna quibble about whether or not the soy oil is non-GMO. Once I get my frying pan, hopefully several weeks of intense use and seasoning will get it halfway toward non-stick heaven.

With 25 days to go until we leave for China, I still have to book a hotel, figure out where Stephen and I want to go in Bering, and decide where to eat for seven days in a country whose two primary languages neither of us speaks. I’ve heard some people say that when vegan and in doubt, look for a Buddhist Chinese restaurant to eat at; at least you don’t have to worry about meat. And this seems to me a good rule of thumb, as long as I know how to tell the staff I don’t drink/eat cow’s milk either since some Buddhists do consume cow’s milk.

Earlier this year, when we were at Food Fight in Portland, we’d planned to pick up copies of the Vegan Passport to take with us on our trip. There were no copies in the store, so I figured I’d buy copies from the Earthsave Canada office. When I called two weeks ago, they didn’t have any either and suggested I check out Amazon (which I did just out of curiosity, but I’m not buying anything from Amazon). I really dragged my feet on this one – when I finally get around to seriously looking to buy copies of the passport, it seems there are none to be had because they’re out of print. I did find copies available at The Vegan Society, but with only one mailing option that isn’t express mail, it’s possible the passports might arrive in Vancouver after we’ve already left for Beijing.

Somehow I found my way to a page on the International Vegetarian Union website called “Vegetarian Phrases in World Languages“. In 67 different languages from Scandinavia, Iberia/Latin America, Western Europe, Central/Eastern Europe, East Asia, West Asia/Africa, South Asia, and also in Esperanto, you can find vegan and vegetarian phrases translated from English. For Beijing, there’s an image of a page of simplified Chinese for mainland China that includes phrases that can be used to tell others you don’t eat meat, poultry, lard, any marine products, and even “I love animals, so I don’t eat them.”

But what about telling people we don’t consume cow’s milk? Veggie Voyager has an amazing reference guide complete with vegan phrases in English and their corresponding Mandarin characters (as well as somewhat phonetic pronunciations). Vegetarian China has a really extensive guide that includes a list of vegetarian dishes to look out for, their Chinese names in both Mandarin characters and in pinyin, along with a description of what the dishes are. There’s also Happy Cow’s Beijing page, though I’m not so sure how up to date this page is.

I’m not so worried about being able to eat in Beijing. Even the famous snack street in Wangfujing has vegetarian options amongst the many non-vegetarian offerings. And worst come to worst, we’ll just eat fresh fruit, nuts, plain tofu, and simple greens. But just in case, I’ll pack a bunch of Larabars in my suitcase.

Christa Trueman, the baking goddess behind Vancouver’s VeganMania, recently took some time away from crafting her delicious nibblies to share with us what inspires her, tell us about her life-long love affair with delicious food, and how her bed, not food, is her most cherished indulgence.

Starting December 5th, you can catch Christa at the Vancouver Farmers Markets Winter Market at WISE Hall. You can also keep up with Christa by becoming a fan of VeganMania Kitchen on Facebook and by following @veganmania or @zaftigvegan on Twitter. Christa also has a new food blog: duchessofkircaldy.wordpress.com. And don’t forget to check out www.veganmania.com for her amazing selection of vegan treats (she does Canadian mail orders!) and her extensive and mouth-watering recipes page.

Wanna see more VeganMania goodness? Keep posted this week for a review of VeganMania on The Vegan Spoon!

Christa Trueman of VeganMania.

Where did the name “VeganMania” come from?

In a very roundabout way, it came from the show Seinfeld, but I have to give most of the credit my dear friend Akshara. A long time ago, my husband and I lived in a communal house with a bunch of friends, and Thursday nights were potluck dinner and sitcom nights for us. There was an episode of Seinfeld where Jerry and his nemesis, Newman, are planning competing Y2K New Years Eve parties. Newman was considered to have the advantage, because he sent out his invitations first and because his party had a cool name: Newmania!  Well, we thought that was hilarious, since our last name is Trueman. From then on we called all our parties Truemania and it was a kind of in-joke between us, our roomies, and our friends.

One day I was sitting with my friend Akshara and telling her about how I wanted to start up my own vegan recipes website. But I was stuck for a name, and I was considering (the rather unwieldy) “Truemania’s Vegan Cookery” when she just blurted out, “You have to call it Veganmania! You have to.” And so it was.

Of all the things you could have chosen to do, what inspired you to become a vegan baker?

It just kind of happened. I actually went to school to study art, but didn’t have the motivation at that time to really go anywhere with it. I ended up taking a series of dead-end jobs, living a kind of college drop-out party lifestyle for a few years. Then I suddenly found myself married and knocked up!  (Well, it’s a much longer and more detailed story than that but I’m not sure how much space you have for this interview, so you get the jist of it).

Once I had my son, I became a very dedicated mother. I threw myself into the whole housewife and full-time mommy thing. I really had no time or inclination for any real creative or artistic endeavours beyond finger painting and homemade play dough, you know?  But I still had the urge to make things; beautiful things that would be appreciated by others. Food was the easiest way to do that, and it wasn’t long before I began to really take pride in my gastronomical creations. My favourite thing was to bake friends their birthday cakes, cook huge meals, and throw dinner parties. Food is really the best kind of art, in my mind, because it is instant and palpable gratification. It hits you on all levels, on all senses. It’s practical, it’s so easy to share, and it’s so very appreciated by just about everyone.

After about six years of doing this, hosting the parties and giving away vegan goodies every Christmas, someone suggested I start selling my cookies online to make a little extra money. That turned out so well that I was encouraged enough to apply to the Vancouver Farmer’s Markets as a vendor of vegan goodness there. And the rest is history.

I’d have to say my fascination with cooking and food started young. My mom was actually a renowned cook (among her circle of acquaintances, that is) while I was growing up. Even though we weren’t vegetarian, she cooked a lot of vegetarian meals – often out of economic necessity, but also because we just plain liked it. She was always trying new things in the kitchen. I had a very adventurous palate as a result of all her creative endeavours there. I would get really weird looks from kids at school when I’d open my lunch kit because she’d fill it with roasted soy beans (long before they were available commercially), blue cheese on crackers, mushroom blintzes, and other weirdo stuff.  Remember, this was the 80s, everyone else had baloney sandwiches and hostess snack cakes.

She worked for a couple of years as a chef in a Mexican restaurant, to help put herself through university, and she really honed her abilities there. She always had a great collection of cookbooks and they were always well-worn. When she threw dinner parties, people would flock to our house for them. I just loved seeing how much attention and praise she got for the meals she made – all of it totally justified.

I know it’s kind of gauche to say you do something because you love hearing how great you are at it, but honestly that’s what keeps me in this business. It’s a level of appreciation I wouldn’t have achieved as a painter, or a sculptor, or even as a notorious party girl. On the non-egocentric side, however, cooking is great because you get to play with ingredients, you get to learn chemistry, you get to flex your creative muscles, and you get positive reactions wherever you go (if you know what you’re doing). I just love it.

I have a vast and varied collection of music in iTunes, and I just generally hit shuffle and go with whatever it throws at me. If I have to pick, though, I’d say that these days I’m listening to a lot of Van Morrison and Sparklehorse. And I’ve been really digging the new Flaming Lips album now that it’s streaming online.

I can’t pick just one! I have nearly equal love for my KitchenAid stand mixer and my food processor. I use both of them multiple times a day. The reason I love my KitchenAid should be obvious to any cook worthy of their salt – it’s one of those machines that does just about everything, and does it well. I have been able to make so many different things that I never would have been able to achieve with a piddly little electric hand mixer, never mind a whisk. And it’s going to last forever, right? That’s the beauty of it. The food processor does all my pureeing and nut grinding, a lot of my mincing, and a good deal of cutting fat into flour for various pastries, too. I could probably live without it, but it would be a miserable existence indeed.

My bed! I know, you thought I was going to talk about my favourite food, right? And believe me, I love food. But these days, quality sleep and lengthy luxuriating amongst pillows and quilts are in short supply for me. I am looking very forward to my next opportunity to lounge and nap with impunity for a day or, dare I dream, even a weekend.

You know, I’m still asking myself that. I love what I do now. I have a great deal of autonomy over my schedule, and I can make sure I’m around for my kids most of the time. But they are growing up so fast, and I’d be lying if I said VeganMania is the same business it was when I started it five years ago. I’d like to branch out from doing just baking (and the occasional catering job) and provide Vancouver with some other interesting vegan food options. I know the demand is there, and I know I’m good at making a lot more than just cookies, cupcakes, and dips. Right now the challenge is to really think hard about what I want to do with VeganMania, and focus on it. As soon as I figure it out, I promise I’ll let you know.