Vegan Upside-Down Pear Gingerbread Cake
This very festive recipe is adapted from Jeanne Lemlin's Vegetarian Classics (which I'm pretty sure I scored off the free book shelf when I worked at HarperCollins circa 2002). The pear/caramel topping is a wonderful and (relatively) unexpected way to serve gingerbread. I'm posting it now to go with my Vegan Thanksgiving 2022 video on the No Bones at All playlist!
The topping:
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted vegan butter
1/2 cup firmly packed light or dark brown sugar
2 ripe but firm pears (Lemlin prefers Bosc or Anjou but Bartlett is fine too)
The cake:
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 vegan egg replacer (over the years I have tried Ener-G, Vegan Egg, and Bob's; all are fine, but in my experience Bob's results in the fluffiest cake)
1/2 cup firmly packed light or dark brown sugar
1/3 cup unsulfured molasses
1/2 cup plant milk soured with one tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice
4 tablespoons melted vegan butter
Preheat the oven to 350º. Grease the sides of a 9-inch round cake pan. To prepare the topping, melt the butter in a small saucepan, adding the brown sugar and stirring until blended. Scrape into the cake pan and spread evenly.
Peel, core, and quarter the pears and cut each quarter into thinner slices, arranging evenly around the pan.
Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves in a large bowl. In a separate bowl mix the vegan egg replacer (prepared according to package instructions), brown sugar, molasses, soured plant milk, and melted butter. Scrape into the flour mixture and mix until well blended.
Pour the batter over the pears. Bake for 30 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then invert onto a plate. Serve slightly warm or at room temperature. Non-dairy whipped cream optional!
Although this cake is best served the day it is made, Lemlin writes, it will still be delicious if made one day in advance, covered, and kept at room temperature. (I can vouch that it's almost as good even a few days later!)
Fridays at Mealey's: Recipe Roundup!
Hard to believe it's already been more than a year since I got to Washington, DC—a COVID-prompted move that has allowed me almost-daily quality time with my sister and her family. 🥰 Elliot helped me unload the U-Haul on a Tuesday morning, I invited everybody over for dinner that Friday, and they've been coming every Friday night ever since. I've used many excellent new-to-me recipes over the past year, and will (of course) be updating this post periodically.
My New Favorite Cookbook
Every single dish I have made out of Sweet Potato Soulby Jenné Claiborne is out-of-this-world delicious:
Coconut collard salad (page 74)
Quick-pickled onions (page 75)
Tender mess o' collards (page 103) — definitely double this
Happy hearts "crab" cakes (page 129) — Elliot's favorite; I whip up a dressing with vegan mayo, Dijon mustard, and fresh dill
Pan-fried butter beans & greens (page 118)
Lentil loaf (page 138) — I have tried so. MANY. Lentil and nut loaf recipes over the years, and this is one of the best
Ooooh Mama mushroom gravy (page 205) — I sometimes add a small tin of tomato paste for the sake of variety
More Main Courses
French Onion Skillet Lasagna (Vegan Richa) — I "reconstructed" this lasagna by tripling the white sauce and adding layers of roasted butternut squash. Kate's all-time favorite!
Chickpea Seitan Cutlet (Isa Chandra) — served with the mushroom gravy recipe from Sweet Potato Soul
Seitan Gyros (Lettuce Veg Out) — I used this recipe before I found Isa Chandra's chickpea cutlets, and I prefer the latter, but this recipe is good if you prefer baking to frying. I serve it with BBQ sauce from Trader Joe's.
Vegan Pot Pie with Herby Biscuits (Shanika Graham-White via Food52)
Lentil Shepherd's Pie (Rainbow Plant Life)
Penne alla vodka (Miyoko Schinner, The Homemade Vegan Pantry, page 148) — uses homemade cashew cream
A dinner plate with plant-based macaroni and cheese, collard greens, barbecue seitan, and biscuits.
Mealey's Old Reliables (ICYMI)
Tater-Tot Casserole (Vegan Stoner)
Quiche (using my vegan onion pie recipe, but mixing up the filling; Kate's favorite combination is sundried tomato, onion, artichoke, kalamata olive, and Daiya cheddar)
Scottish-inspired handpies (sign up for the mailing list to get the recipe link in your welcome email; lately I've been using the quiche pastry for these handpies—two quiche crusts = enough pastry for four handpies)
Side Dishes
Best-ever roasted potatoes (Serious Eats) — quite time- and labor-intensive, and TOTALLY worth it!
Best Damn Vegan Biscuits (Minimalist Baker)
No-Fuss Vegan Cornbread (Gena Hamshaw for Food52) — I sprinkle canned or frozen corn on top of the batter
Lemon Vinaigrette (Minimalist Baker) — I always double this and use the second half in the next salad I make, often one with massaged kale.
Macaroni and cheese — I don't use a recipe. The essential ingredients are raw cashews, broth, steamed or roasted butternut squash, lemon juice, miso, a boatload of nutritional yeast, and other seasonings to suit your preference, sauce-ified in a high-speed blender.
Air-fried French fries — highly recommend getting yourself an air fryer if you love fries and or/fried tofu enough to make them at homeon a regular basis.
Desserts
Cranberry upside-down cake (so easy and absolutely scrummy)
Oatmeal raisin cookies (Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, The Joy of Vegan Baking, page 120 in the original edition)
Chocolate peanut-butter buttons (Vicki Brett-Gach, The Main Street Vegan Academy Cookbook, page 212) — best eaten straight from the oven!
No-bake cookie dough bars (Rainbow Plant Life)
DIY sorbet — frozen berries or mango with fresh mint and a bit of plant milk and maple syrup in the frozen dessert setting on the Vitamix.
Comet Party Summer School: the Vision Statement
What are the two most powerful words in this or any language?
I am.
I’ve been thinking about this ever since Jill Louise Busby dropped me a DM after reading Life Without Envy. Thank you for being a vessel, she wrote.
I am a vessel, I thought. I said it out loud. And the more I said it, the righter it felt.
In the beginning, I only wanted to tell stories. I wanted to be clever and I wanted to be recognized for my cleverness. The other day I cracked a journal I kept in 2007, scanned one entry, and felt a sweet surge of relief that I am not that person anymore. (This is why I keep my notebooks.)
The evolution out of a desire to prove oneself into a desire to contribute is the central tenet of Life Without Envy, and for me that first twinkling happened in the summer and early autumn of 2010 when I volunteered on my friends’ homestead farm in Vermont. I have never been quite so content as I was those days I spent planting and weeding and watering, sleeping in a platform tent, rising before six to watch the sun coming up over the treeline as the fog withdrew from the rolling meadow before me. Best of all were the people: Gail and Paul and their neighbors, their daughters, and my fellow volunteers. That summer we all felt like Gail and Paul’s brood. Nature + making myself useful + community as close as family, that’s all I need to be happy.
The meadow at Harmony Homestead Farm.
My experiences at Sadhana Forest and Squam Art Workshops the following year brought the new desire into focus: more nature, more community, plus ethical veganism, art, and handicrafts. At Sadhana Forest I helped with meal planning and prep for something like 35 to 45 people, and I became my grandmother’s granddaughter (more fully than ever before) even though the cuisine couldn’t have been more different than the lasagnas and salmon loaf of my childhood: food is one of my love languages. It’s how I love my family and friends, it’s how I love myself, and it’s how I express care and concern for people I don’t know all that well yet. And I loved the feeling of being at sleep-away camp and making beautiful things alongside new friends who had also come to make beautiful things and bask in the tranquility of Squam Lake.
I thought of how one of my grade-school friends had gone to music camp every summer; I remembered the name of the organization, so I Googled it, curious as to how much it cost. Well, I don’t know how much it was back in 1995, but in 2013 it was $8,000 for a six-week program. I started to think, wouldn’t it be great if kids (whose parents could never afford a typical sleep-away camp) could have an experience like Squam? And what about kids who didn’t have parents to come home to?
I’ve been to Squam many times now—as student, teacher, and staff—and each time it bothered me how white and upper-middle-class we were as a group. More recently, Elizabeth has done a wonderful job of highlighting and supporting the work of artists, artisans, and teachers of color, but the economic inequities remain; I’m sure many knitters would love to spend four days taking classes at a lakeside cabin but will likely never have that $1,400 to spare.
On one trip I stopped at the general store in Holderness and found a rack of greeting cards with quotes attributed to Rumi: “Live your life as if the universe is rigged in your favor…because it is.” I had a flashback to a church my family and I visited above Lake Kivu in Rwanda, where 11,000 people were murdered during the genocide. Slavery, lynchings, civilian casualties. I felt this fury any time somebody brought up the Law of Attraction. The universe is rigged in your favor: this was a message appropriated by and intended solely for privileged white women like me.
I met Rachael Rice at Squam in 2014, and I referenced her excellent blog post in Email Marketing and "Authenticity," but the message is too important not to share again here:
“Can we imagine the impact of our work beyond those who can afford it?”
Nowadays the summer camp in my mind is primarily for grownups—at least to start with—purely for logistical reasons. During quiet afternoons at the Providence Athenaeum I would dream of a library in the forest with cozy carrels where writers of all stripes and sensibilities could focus on their manuscripts. Everyone would see themselves represented on the shelves in this library. Attendees who could afford to pay for their retreat-time would subsidize those who could not; or maybe it would be a pay-what-you-can model? Filling vegan lunches packed with care, just like the ones that fueled the Bones & All revision at Hawthornden. Childcare. Hammocks and more hammocks, hammocks everywhere, and a home-sewn quilt on every bed. Writing workshops, painting and drumming workshops, workshops on foraging and herbalism and anything else people want to learn about. Safe spaces for members of marginalized communities to come together (“safe” meaning that every soul in the place understands why “no white people in this room for the next two hours” is not racist). A food forest. A swimming pool. Campfires and jam sessions. Tiny houses, perhaps—though after reading Sunaura Taylor’s wonderful book Beasts of Burden, these spaces I was dreaming of became ADA-compliant. And because white saviorism is something else I’ve been thinking about a lot, I saw myself asking, What do you actually want and need? How can I help make it happen and then leave you to use and enjoy it?
Every day—up until just a few months ago—I’d been asking myself, how the heck am I going to get from here—making next to no money off my writing at the moment, without much saved—to there, that pretty plot of acres with architectural blueprints in hand?
I’m not sure what’s shifted, exactly, I just know that I don’t need a bridge, I AM the bridge. I’ll bring this retreat into being one plank at a time. The workshops? I can make those happen now. That’s why I wanted to publish this post on the day I launch The Bright Idea Kit and finally hang my shingle as a writing coach. The course is a $200 investment and coaching is $100 an hour, perhaps a tad ironic given the vision I’ve just shared with you, but I’ve poured all of my twenty years of experience into this class and I’m feeling confident that it’s going to catalyze a lot of creative awakenings. In terms of walking my talk, I am making myself informally available for aspiring writers who can use the mentorship, and I’ll allot more bandwidth (creating an actual program, perhaps?) as I get myself sorted financially. I'll also be hosting free workshops starting later on in 2021 (first up: the power and potential of private writing!)
I see myself—white hair, liver-spotted hands—working away in one of those carrels. I am a writer. But my greater work for this lifetime is to “take up space” by holding space for others, to create a warm, welcoming retreat and inhabit it for the rest of my life without ever claiming it as mine.
If you’d like to be a part of this community (virtually for now and eventually IRL), you can join my mailing list to watch it all unfold and participate as much as you feel like. Thank you for reading this, and I wish you a healthy, joyful, and fulfilling 2021! ✨
EDIT: Adding the link to Be Seen Project founder Mindy Tsonas Choi's relevant and insightful piece from March 2021, "The Cost of Selling Belonging."
A Bright Clean Mind Corrections and Clarifications (Please Comment Below!)
My new book on veganism and creativity will be out in the world very shortly, and as I line up promotional whatnots I've been thinking a lot about something author Maya Gottfried said in our conversation that appears on pages 226-229:
Even as vegans we’re not perfect—a book we write that’s totally vegan may not be reflective of other values we develop in the future, and it’s always going to be that way. We just have to acknowledge that things have changed and move on from there.
I have made mistakes in this book—I have no doubt of it!—but at a certain point a writer has to know when to let go. I'm publishing this post to acknowledge the issues I've already spotted (and will add to this as needed), and also to create a space for readers to articulate any questions or concerns they may have. If you have any constructive feedback to offer, I prefer that you offer it here, publicly, so that other readers can benefit from your perspective and reply with any reactions you may inspire. (Please note that I will not approve or respond to any anti-vegan defensiveness, no matter how subtly you manage to articulate your hostility. Arguing with you is not a productive use of my time.) Thank you in advance for your input!
Future "transparency reports" will serve a different function: reporting the amounts I've been able to donate to animal rights and vegan social/food justice organizations (20% total from each royalty check, a different charity or charities each time).
[Update, Fall 2022: unfortunately I still don't have any earnings to report, but I remain optimistic that this book will eventually find a broader audience!]
If you've arrived at this page because I have referenced your work in A Bright Clean Mind—whether you are vegan or "future-vegan"—I would be glad to send you a copy. Email me with your address.
Now on to the corrections and clarifications:
A Note on the Illustrations
I am not happy with the print quality—it does not do right by the artists—but there is nothing I can do about this beyond requiring a QC safeguard in all future publishing contracts for illustrated books.
Recalibrating Your Language
I ought to have included the singular “they” in this callout. My apologies for the cisgender brain blip!
FOMO or Faux Moo?
After I turned in the manuscript I found out that according to the Food Empowerment Project, FoMu does not use Fair-Trade chocolate. (If you click here you’ll see them listed under “Cannot recommend but at least responded”). I decided not to cut the chapter because I believe the message outweighs my embarrassing hypocrisy. I emailed the owners to ask for an explanation, but they never replied.
To Learn Something is to Lose Something
I am disgusted by J.K. Rowling's transphobia and will be rewriting this chapter in the event of a revised edition.
Jane O'Hara
When you check out Jane O'Hara's Sacrifice on page 109 (click here to see it properly), do note that her Instagram handle is now @janeoharaprojects.
Where's Wilbur?
It didn't make sense to mention this within the chapter (it would fall under "TMI" even as a postscript), but I would like to clarify that after I wrote it Chrissy and I decided we'd both be happier not being friends, and as a result I am no longer volunteering at either Maple Farm Sanctuary or Unity Sanctuary. To the best of my recollection I volunteered four or five times total, which isn't much, I know, but I hope to volunteer again at these or other farm animal sanctuaries when I eventually have my own car (getting there by public transportation just isn’t realistic, alas).
"Vegan for the Future"
I'm embarrassed to have drawn upon Shaw's exploration of Nietzsche's Übermensch without acknowledging the eugenics connection. This failure is inexcusable, and of all the items on this list it's the revision I'm most anxious to make.
Also, my friend Steve tells me "vegan for the future" does not make sense given the animal-centered definition of veganism, but I don't see why I can't be "vegan for the future" as long as I am also for animal rights. (Otherwise, yes, one would be eating a plant-based diet as "an environmentalist for the future.")
The Back Cover
Especially-careful readers will note that sixteen vegan artists have been interviewed in this book, not fifteen. We caught the error too late not to delay printing, but it will be corrected in the event of a reprint.
A Bright Clean Mind preorder bonus!
Oh, hello! I've had a knitting-and-sewing post sitting almost-finished in my draft folder for ages, and I will get to that soon—in the meantime here's an excerpt from and fun little preorder bonus for my next book, A Bright Clean Mind: Veganism for Creative Transformation:
A Forest on My Shoulders
Oh, hello! It's been a long time since I've blogged about a craft project, so I do have a bit of a backlog. (Also, how wild is it that this blog is over TEN YEARS OLD?!?) There's a chapter in my next book about making my own clothes, so I really needed a good pic of my most recent FO: a lace shawl in Vegan Yarn Albireo, a fingering-weight blend of bamboo and organic cotton. The color thrills me to the bottom of my soul!
My friend Dan and I spent the day in Newport recently, and he was kind enough to take these photos on the cliff walk. Newport is one of those places you've got to admit is deservedly touristy. We did a lot of browsing in the shops (including an antiques mall in an old armory), paused for a round of delicious cocktails, drove by the Newport mansions on Ocean Drive, and wept and gnashed our teeth when we discovered a local vegan restaurant had closed.
I used to think shawls were old fashioned in a way that wouldn't work for me, but after seeing so many beautiful ones at Squam and online over the years, I eventually changed my mind. I wanted a garment I could feel embraced by, and I don't care if that sounds corny. A shawl is perfect for a cool summer evening, and in the fall and winter you can wear it more like a scarf.
A few project notes: I don't necessarily recommend the pattern I used even though it's a nice mix of easy lace and even easier garter, because if you're going to charge for a pattern like this (and you should, don't get me wrong), you need to include stitch counts. That's just basic. Thank goodness another Raveler took the time to count and write them out! And of course, the yarn was an absolute dream from start to finish. (I adore Heidi so much I've interviewed her for A Bright Clean Mind.) For full details, see my Ravelry project page.
Still need to identify this plant! [Edit: a kind reader informed me that it is Canadian goldenrod.]
Alec's Favorite Vegan Recipes
Readers of The Boy From Tomorrow will notice that Alec and his mother are newly vegan—as Mrs. Frost says, "if you have to make two major life changes, you may as well make three." So here's a recipe round-up! Some dishes are mentioned in the novel, and others are just recipes I imagine Alec and Danny would enjoy as much as I do.
Weekend Breakfast
Pumpkin pie pancakes from Robin Robertson's Vegan Planet
Fruit salad: banana, pineapple, mango, strawberries, blueberries, with whipped coconut cream (GF)
Chickpea-Flour Omelette (with tomato and red onion) with tempeh bacon and hash brown haystacks (GF)
Weekday Lunch
On a sandwich: "chuna" salad, tofu "egg" salad, peanut or almond butter and fig jam, or Tofurky deli slices with lettuce and tomato (to make GF, omit deli slices and use gluten-free bread)
Carrots with hummus; a banana or apple; and a leftover cookie! (see below) (GF)
Dinner
Tater-tot casserole (it's healthier than it sounds, especially with a side salad) (GF)
Pizza from scratch (with marinara, caramelized onions, pre-sauteéd mini-bella mushrooms and broccoli rabe, and tofu ricotta)
Macaroni 'n cheese (add peas, chopped tomatoes, and/or broccoli to make it healthier) (to make GF, use gluten-free pasta and breadcrumbs)
Classic chili with cashew sour cream and cornbread (GF if using gluten-free flour in the cornbread)
Snacks
Baba ganoush with pita chips (dip is GF)
Banana-peanut butter smoothie: frozen over-ripe bananas, peanut butter, cinnamon, vanilla powder, almond milk (GF)
Desserts
Lavender-chocolate cupcakes (using maple syrup instead of honey) (GF)
Gingerbread People (GF)
Mrs. Frost's Veggie Chili
Does the Internet need another recipe for veggie chili? NOPE! But I’m planning a kid-friendly vegan recipe round-up as part of my resources for The Boy From Tomorrow, and I figured it would be better to tell you exactly how I make it rather than linking to some recipe I’ve never actually tried. This chili is as minimalist as I can make it, mild while still flavorful; I don’t use a spice mix, just chili powder and cumin with a pinch of cayenne. It’s basically the chili of my childhood with soy crumbles instead of ground beef, and in this version, there’s enough salt in the (store-bought) veggie broth that you don’t have to add any. If you’re skipping the soy crumbles, add another tin of beans or a cup of green lentils (which will require extra water).
Serve with Gena Hamshaw’s no-fuss cornbread recipe. Simple cashew sour cream recipe to follow.
Vegan Chili
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. minced garlic
2 onions, diced
1 ½ tsp. chili pepper (or to taste)
2 tsp. ground cumin (or to taste)
pinch (or more) cayenne pepper
2 large potatoes, diced
4 cups veggie broth
2 bell peppers, diced
2 15.5-oz. cans of beans (black and kidney, but any kind will do)
1 large can (28 oz.) of crushed tomatoes
1 6-oz. can tomato paste
1 package soy mince crumbles (I use Light Life)
Sauté garlic and onions in olive oil until translucent, adding spices and stirring well. Add chopped potatoes and continue cooking. When potatoes have softened, add the veggie broth followed by the rest of the ingredients, and simmer for a good while. The more times you reheat the pot, the tastier the chili will be! Serves 8-10.
Cashew Sour Cream
This recipe is tweaked from DIY Vegan by Nicole Axworthy and Lisa Pitman (they offer the garlic and mustard as a suggestion for extra zing, but I say these ingredients are essential; add even more if you want!)
1 ½ cups raw cashew pieces, soaked in hot water (the longer they soak, the less you’ll need to process them)
2 tbsp. lemon juice
2 tsp. apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp. minced garlic
1 tbsp. mustard
½ tsp. salt
Drain soaked cashews, preserving ½ cup of the liquid, and blend well, adding remaining ingredients. Chill in the fridge for at least an hour to let the “cream” firm up, and the flavors mingle. Yields a full pint jar and is also delicious on baked potatoes.
Compassionate Creativity Beta Coaching FAQ
When I announced that I'd be offering a creativity coaching beta program early next year, several lovely people replied to communicate their interest. I'm going to keep this group small so I can give you more bandwidth, and so that you guys can actively learn from and inspire each other. Here's what you can expect from this six-week program beginning Monday, January 8th:
weekly presentations followed by Q&A and informal group discussion (75-90 minutes total; if you can't attend live, you can watch the replay any time)
fun assignments to integrate each module, usually a combination of journaling exercises, worksheets, and trying something new (in or outside the kitchen)
Recipe roundups based on you and your family's preferences and needs, meal planning resources, and personalized suggested reading lists
a private Facebook group to make it easy to share questions, experiences, and resources with your cohort
Now it's time to tell you "the catch"—it's the awesomest catch ever, though. In order to participate in this six-week program, I'll ask you to commit to a vegan diet (or as close to it as you possibly can) for the duration. I experienced the most amazing boost in productivity that has continued uninterrupted since the day I went vegan (going on seven years ago), so I can tell you that adopting a more compassionate diet will enhance your creative output and outlook big time.
Got questions?
What does my diet have to do with my creativity?
Apply to the program and find out! Seriously, though, I'll explain this in my first presentation. In the meantime, read this post and watch this video of slam poet Saul Williams explaining why he required his students at Stanford to eat vegetarian for the semester.
I'm really interested in trying out a plant-based diet, but what happens if I cave and eat a slice of my mother's meatloaf? Will you kick me out of the program?
I will not. Let me tell you about my friend Teri, who set a goal of eating vegan during the week we spent at Rockywold-Deephaven Camps on Squam Lake in New Hampshire, eating three meals a day in the dining hall. At one point she articulated that she was so tempted by the macaroons on the dessert table (which were made with egg whites) she didn't think she'd be able to resist, and I said, "If it's between eating the macaroon, feeling guilty, then going back to eating meat and dairy, and eating the macaroon and returning to eating vegan at breakfast tomorrow, then go for option #2." I haven't felt a single craving for non-vegan food since I stopped eating eggs and dairy almost seven years ago, but I do understand that for many people, "weaning" oneself off animal products is the more sustainable method. I simply ask that you make a good-faith effort. I'll provide you with all the resources and support you need (unless you need official nutritional or medical advice, which I am not qualified to give you, though I can refer you to someone who is.)
Can't I just try Meatless Mondays, to start with?
I totally acknowledge that going vegan won't be as seamless a transition for everyone as it was for me. That said, it is much too easy to bolster our current habits and worldview with a framework of self-reinforcing excuses. I'm looking for a six-week good-faith commitment from you. If you embarked on a new relationship, you probably wouldn't say, "but I can date other people while you're at your bowling league on Wednesday nights, right?" If you started an exercise regimen, you wouldn't work out once or twice a week and sit on the sofa eating junk food all the other nights, would you?
If you're feeling more stressed than excited at the prospect of going plant based, then it's probably safe to say you're not ready for this. Don't worry, I will offer some version of this program again, and in the meantime, remember that every resource you could ever need is literally at your fingertips. Google "vegan 101" or "easy vegan recipes." When you throw up your hands and say "this is just too complicated," notice how you are buying into one of the narratives of mainstream carnist culture. The livestock, dairy, and pharmaceutical industries profit from you eating the same foods you always have.
This program sounds like a lot of work for you. Why is it free?
I received a vegan lifestyle coach certification back in 2013, but for the past four-plus years I've been focused on book projects. Now I'm finally ready to move into this new phase of my professional life! By participating in this beta program, you're helping me hone my content for future (paid) programs as well as a book I'm writing about veganism and creativity. Some testimonials will be nice to have, too!
I'm already vegan. Can I still participate? Yes! While this program is geared toward making veganism feel do-able for (current) omnivores by exploring the creative benefits of compassionate eating, it'll still be helpful for current vegans in terms of moving through creative blocks, creating a solid foundation for a new artistic practice, or adding another dimension to your animal-rights advocacy work. And your knowledge and insight will prove invaluable to everyone else in the program.
Want in? Look for the application link in the email update I'll be sending on Monday morning (December 11th).
Vegan Onion Pie
After I went vegan I looked back through all the recipes I'd posted on the blog, either making a note on vegan substitutions or removing the post until I could veganize it to my satisfaction. My grandmother's onion pie recipe is one of these. For Thanksgiving I thought I'd try to veganize this simple quiche using VeganEgg from Follow Your Heart.
[Update, 2024: alas and alack, FYH has discontinued this product. I’ve made this quiche with JustEgg and it turned out great. I’ll eventually rewrite this recipe using tofu and/or chickpea flour and/or aquafaba.]
I was feeling even more sentimental than usual when baking this onion pie; my grandmother is not herself anymore, she hasn't been for a good few years now. I want to get back into making (vegan versions of) her recipes to remember all the good times, back when she was still cooking and baking and decking the whole house with hundreds of snowmen decorations at Christmas. She doesn't remember any of that now, so our family will have to remember it for her.
Here's my vegan update. For the pie filling:
4 cups sliced cubed onions (I used red and white)
1/4 cup Earth Balance butter
2 VeganEggs (4 tbsp. powder whisked with 1 cup cold water)
1/2 cup non-dairy milk + 1 tsp. arrowroot [see note]
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
2 tbsp. nutritional yeast
1 pastry shell
[NOTE: to make a liquid as thick as the evaporated milk the original recipe calls for, I took Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's suggestion in The Joy of Vegan Baking, whisking 1 tsp. arrowroot into half a cup of homemade cashew milk. Cornstarch is another thickener option.]
I haven't made the pastry recipe from A Platter of Figs since I went vegan, but it's easy enough to tweak, and I added some extra ingredients for a more flavorful "co-starring" crust:
2 cups flour
2 sticks (1 cup) vegan butter (cut into thin slices)
1 tsp. salt
1 VeganEgg (2 tbsp. powder whisked with 1/2 cup cold water)
fresh and/or dried herbs/spices (I used 1 tbsp. dried chives, 1 tbsp. black sesame seeds, and 2 tsp. coriander)
This recipe yields two 9" crusts, so freeze the second for later.
Mix the flour, butter, and salt, then add the VeganEgg mixture and herbs. Refrigerate dough for at least an hour.
Now to the filling instructions:
Sauté onions in Earth Balance butter with salt and pepper until tender, stirring in nutritional yeast toward the end. Pour in pastry shell. Whisk VeganEgg with water, mixing in the thickened milk. Pour mixture over onions. Bake at 425º F for 25 minutes or until golden brown. (I left mine in for 30 minutes and the crust is a little crispy.)
Does it approximate a traditional quiche? Not looks-wise—the baked VeganEgg is dry-looking compared to a quiche made with eggs—but taste-wise it is very good indeed!
Next time I'll add mushrooms to the filling and fresh herbs in the crust, and maybe some poppy seeds.
Fancying up that crust was a very delicious idea; when we had late-night leftovers this was the first dish I reached for.
More scrumptious holiday recipes I used at Thanksgiving this year:
The Best Vegan Stuffing Recipe
Cabernet-Cranberry Sauce with Figs
Read my post about my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary here.
Five Years Vegan
As I love to remind you each year, April is my veganversary month. I know I haven't done a proper vegan-themed post in ages, but it's not for lack of passion or interest. Between various other writing projects and commitments, I just don't have the bandwidth at the moment. (I know, I've been saying this. It's still true.) I'm stockpiling links and pictures and recipe ideas and philosophical musings (heh) for when I have more time to blog again.
And in the meantime, you can follow me on Instagram—my #vegan-themed posts are mixed in with Ireland travel pics and the occasional "yay, it's my book in the bookstore!" photo.
A photo posted by Camille DeAngelis (@cometparty) on Apr 10, 2016 at 8:38pm PDT
Sunday baking for a #vegan potluck at @mirandashearth. @joyfulvegan's classic recipe for chocolate chip cookies. (Pic of coconut cupcakes coming next!) A photo posted by Camille DeAngelis (@cometparty) on Apr 10, 2016 at 1:24pm PDT
A photo posted by Camille DeAngelis (@cometparty) on Apr 9, 2016 at 11:24am PDT
Made goji-berry pecan granola this morning especially for @elliotsomethin & @crazyliberalkate! #breakfast #vegan A photo posted by Camille DeAngelis (@cometparty) on Mar 22, 2016 at 4:06pm PDT
Comet Party Yoga and Writing Retreat
[Update, 5/5/16: Alas, we haven't gotten the numbers we need to be able to run this retreat. If you're interested in participating the next time we try to run this thing, drop me a line!]
This is the last week to get the early-bird price ($300 instead of $350) on the first-ever Comet Party yoga and writing retreat with my dear teacher Anne Wichmann! Since I've been posting information about the retreat rather piecemeal, I thought I'd do one more post to gather all the info in one place.
When: Friday, May 20th (afternoon) to Sunday, May 22nd (afternoon), 2016
Where: Bethel Farm, Hillsborough, New Hampshire. Get psyched for long walks in the woods and the wood-fired sauna (maybe alternating with dips in the pond!)
What: Jivamukti yoga classes, meditation, and kirtan paired with intuitive writing sessions
Why: to relax, learn more about yourself, and meet lovely new people!
Meals: 100% vegan, baby! All allergies and dietary restrictions catered for (just let us know.)
Accommodation: small dorm-style with shared bath. (I know this set-up won't be for everyone, but I love the cozy summer-camp feel of the Bethel Farm guesthouse.)
Retreat schedule: here.
Transportation from Boston: we'll be organizing ride shares.
More about Jivamukti: it's an athletic yet well-rounded style of yoga, including chanting, breathwork, dharma talks, and meditation along with the asanas. I've found Jivamukti teachers to be the warmest and most giving yoga instructors I know. Oftentimes you'll get a quick warm-up shoulder massage with china gel (a menthol-based cream, very tingly and refreshing), and/or another little massage during savasana. Jivamukti teachers walk the talk when it comes to ahimsa, the principle of non-harming. Anne is a very chill and loving teacher.
More about Stephen Bethel (owner of Bethel Farm and another awesome Jivamukti teacher!) here.
What is "intuitive writing"? Good question! We'll be taking journaling to the next level with exercises designed to lift you out of your ordinary way of thinking, priming you for a transformative experience. Everything you write during this retreat is for your eyes only. You can get a sense of the type of writing exercises we'll be doing here. There's also a sneak preview of Life Without Envy in your retreat workbook!
You can register for this retreat either through Bethel Farm or by emailing me. Anne and I are so looking forward to it!
Launch Night!
Well, it was another glorious whirlwind of a launch weekend! Porter Square Books did a great job, as always, and even though the crowd was a bit smaller than last year (lots of friends were out of town for Easter weekend) there were more unfamiliar faces in the audience, which was really neat. And Mackenzi, of course, gave me the sweetest introduction.
Launching @cometparty's Immaculate Heart.
A photo posted by Porter Square Books (@porter_square_books) on Mar 25, 2016 at 4:15pm PDT
I have a bunch of favorite moments, but here are a few. I decided to read the poitín passage on pages 152-158 (beginning with Síle's journal entry and ending with the nightmare at the end of the chapter), and since I always love hearing how a seed of an idea grows into completion, I started off by reading a text message Seanan sent me on December 22, 2007:
Had a poitín tasting tonight. 20 year old bottle and more recent vintage. One tasted like whiskey made from battery acid and the other tasted like vodka made from battery acid. We'll keep some for your next time.
I'm always a little surprised (delighted, but surprised!) when people tell me I'm funny. I got a lot of laughs throughout. (Credit for the funny text message goes to my friend, of course, but I did deliver with good comic timing, if I do say so myself.)
"she's probably my favorite person in the world" Congratulations Camille!!! @cometparty#immaculateheartpic.twitter.com/4R8waf2Pvp — Tina M Giarla (@tinamariegiarla) March 25, 2016
My other favorite moment came at the end, when I was signing stock—there was an internet order from my fourth-grade teacher on the top of the stack! I have such happy memories of her reading historical novels to us after recess each day. That was a sweet moment. And needless to say, there were no more cupcakes left by the end of the night.
@cometparty at her Immaculate Heart book launch with her disappearing gluten free vegan cupcakes. 🍀 A photo posted by spatialh (@spatialh) on Mar 25, 2016 at 4:21pm PDT
I've promised to post the cupcake recipes, so here they are:
Gingerbread cupcakes with lemon icing from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World
Carrot with vanilla icing from the Babycakes cookbook (though the icing recipe is from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World)
Chocolate lavender with coconut cream topping (using maple syrup instead of honey)
Vanilla with butterscotch icing and coconut bacon (but again, I used the basic frosting recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World with 3/4 tsp. butterscotch extract in lieu of vanilla extract; I tried the original recipe for Kelly's birthday picnic last summer and the frosting melted all over the place, so I'm sticking with what works best!)
I would have taken a picture of my cupcake at @cometparty's book launch but I ate it too fast. #priorities— annie cardi (@anniecardi) March 25, 2016
I made all the cupcakes gluten free this time—just subbing Bob's Red Mill gluten-free flour plus one teaspoon of xanthan gum for regular flour in the gingerbread and vanilla recipes. (The other two were already gluten free.) I am super pleased with how the vanilla/butterscotch/coco-bacon cupcakes turned out—I'd tried a bunch of vanilla cupcake recipes and none of them were light and fluffy as promised until Kathy Patalsky's version. She is a genius!
Vegan cupcakes and lollipops and a great reading = a perfect book launch party @cometparty@PorterSqBookspic.twitter.com/V8BsdqoJL2— Barbara Rhodes (@librarygirl56) March 26, 2016
Details on the launch dress coming in a future post. ;)
Chickens are People Too
One of the very shiniest highlights of 2015 was the Boston Book Festival on October 25th: I got to do a panel ("The Kids Are Not Alright") with Jennifer McMahon and Rupert Thomson and moderated by the lovely Rachel DeWoskin. I read everyone's most recent novels to prepare, and all of them were wonderful in very different ways. Rachel's novel, Blind, explores the rocky emotional terrain and evolving relationships of fifteen-year-old Emma, who loses her eyesight in a fireworks accident. It is beautifully written, and (surprise, surprise) I particularly appreciated Emma's reasoning for going vegetarian:
...I actually stopped eating meat three years ago, after my parents took us to a farm and I saw some chickens snuggling each other and realized that chickens are actually just people, except bumpier and smaller and covered with feathers. They snuggle their family members, is what I'm saying, and that was enough for me—I could never eat anybody's body again, not even a chicken's.
It's the eating-someone-else's-body thing that really clinches it for me—the "if I weren't already veg, I would be now" moment; and this also reminds me that I must write a post on the concept of non-human personhood.
Thank you to Rachel for letting me share this passage from her work!
Judgment and Complacency
(Here's another chapter from Can-Do Vegan.)
“Don’t judge me. Eating animals doesn’t make me a bad person!”
How can I judge you, when I used to eat animals myself?
I’m going to say something that might sound mean at first. Hear me out, okay? (I did promise you tough love!)
You will believe whatever you need to in order to see yourself as a good person.
Now, I’m not saying you’re not a good person. I’m saying that we are all terribly adept at making excuses for our behavior. Being vegan certainly doesn’t exempt me from this; I’m as guilty of wishful thinking as the next person. It’s called being human, right?
That said, we shouldn’t let “being human” lure us into complacent decision making. If we can do better, then by all means, why don’t we? It makes no sense to say, “I’m a good person, I really am, but you know what, actually, I’d kind of prefer not to know where my food comes from. It’s too upsetting.”
Here are a few more things we try to convince ourselves of on a daily basis:
“No one suffers so that I can drink this milk and eat these eggs and bacon.”
“It’s what my parents and grandparents eat, and all my ancestors before them; it’s what I feed my children; therefore it’s the right and proper diet.”
“A diagnosis of cancer, heart disease, or diabetes is a matter of genetics and good (or bad) luck.”
“I’m just one person. There’s nothing I can do to help create a better future for this planet.”
Here’s the rub about complacence: by definition, we can’t see the thing we’re oblivious to. As the novelist Junot Diaz says, “We all have a blind spot around our privileges shaped exactly like us.” In the world we live in, not being born a cow, pig, or chicken is very much a privilege. Most of us were born into the assumptions I’ve listed above, and it takes a great deal of courage to question them.
One of the most profound benefits of the vegan lifestyle is the rigorous intellectual inquiry it sparks. You start asking the uncomfortable questions so that you can align your behavior with your values. This process of opening your heart and reframing cultural assumptions may very well transpire over a period of years, but once you reach “critical mass,” as it were, your life becomes more joyful than you ever thought it could be.
* * *
In fact, you can be a very honest person and yet not be living a truthful life. And not even realize it. This matters because stripping away all the inaccuracies, misunderstandings, and untruths that surround you is exactly how you can overcome anything at all. Truth is accuracy. Without accuracy, you can’t expect to manifest large, specific changes in your life. It’s not enough to believe something is true.
—Augusten Burroughs, This is How: Surviving What You Think You Can’t
The Deprivation Myth
"Vegan food is bland and boring."Sometimes people will have a lackluster experience at a vegan restaurant and leave thinking that plant-based cuisine can’t be out-of-this-world delicious. Or they go to a coffee shop, order a vegan brownie that turns out to be dry and not that flavorful, and they say "Vegan baked goods are terrible." But let’s be honest: you could say “bland and boring” about a lot of meals with meat and cheese in them, too, couldn’t you? I look back on my childhood and shudder at the sort of things my parents used to feed us. And yeah, I bet being vegan in the 1980s was quite the challenge.I feel really lucky to be alive and cooking for myself in the early 21st century, with so many terrific vegan food products, cookbooks, and eateries to choose from. The only time I have a “bland” or “boring” meal is when a chef at an ordinary restaurant doesn’t put much thought or care into the plant-based menu options. Going vegan gives you a terrific opportunity to exercise your creativity and get more adventurous in the kitchen (and in turn, this newfound willingness to experiment enhances your creativity in every other aspect of your life—more about this later.)The assumption underlying this “bland and boring” argument is that a vegan diet is a diet of deprivation—that to go vegan you have to give up all the most satisfying foods in life.I never deprive myself. As a matter of fact, I sometimes look at a dairy cheese platter at a cocktail party and think, “Do I want that?” And for the past four and a half years, the answer has always been “no, definitely not.” As my friend Zachary says, “It’s just not food to me anymore.” Because he has educated himself as to precisely how a cow suffers and dies, a hamburger can never tempt him again. He would no sooner consume a steak than he would a beach ball or a pencil sharpener.Of course, the most natural question now is: “What do you eat?” Here’s a very partial list of my favorite foods:
Mediterranean tapas with sundried tomatoes, mushrooms with rosemary marinated in umeboshi vinegar, hummus and homemade pesto for spreading on seeded crackers, French bread, or focaccia
Butternut squash “bisque,” roasted with garlic, onion, and sage and blended with almond milk
A breaded seitan cutlet with mashed potatoes and roasted Brussels sprouts (from my favorite restaurant, Veggie Galaxy)
Roasted red pepper cutlets (you can use that recipe to make eggplant-faux-parm as well)
Pasta with avocado “alfredo” (a super-easy sauce made in the blender with avocado, veggie broth, and fresh herbs)
Kale chips baked in the oven with olive oil, salt and pepper, and nutritional yeast (which gives whatever you put it on a rich, cheesy taste)
Cashew chèvre out of Miyoko Schinner's Artisan Vegan Cheese (cheesemaking post coming soon!)
Dark chocolate (my favorite brand is Taza, which makes awesome flavors like cinnamon, gingerbread, rum raisin, guajillo chili, and lots more) and schmilk chocolate, made in Vermont. The toffee crunch is unbelievable.
Sorbet or coconut-based ice cream (which, by the way, doesn’t make me feel queasy afterward the way dairy ice cream used to do)
You’ll notice that many of these foods are analogs—you can often tweak your favorite recipes to create something just as delicious, as I did with a classic potato salad recipe my mom asked me to veganize for Christmas Eve dinner. (My version was even tastier than the original, and no chickens or cows were harmed in the making of it.)A very important fact to keep in mind as you transition to veganism is that our tastebuds take two or three weeks to reprogram. A big healthy salad might taste “too healthy” to you on day one, but by day twenty-one you’ll find yourself craving those greens with that yummy tahini dressing. Look back over the foods you’ve eaten a lot of in the past, and you’ll see how your tastebuds have already evolved. For instance, I’d rather have nothing but water all day than consume a Pop Tart or a handful of Doritos now. Eating a half dozen Brussels sprouts was a total chore when I was a kid, and now I can’t get enough of them—just roasted in the oven with olive oil, salt and pepper.As you can see from the list above, I eat whatever I want, and savor every bite. Going vegan doesn’t mean giving up loving your food—it means growing to love new and better foods.
Roasted Red Pepper Cutlets
This cutlet is healthier without the breadcrumbs—the combination of oats, cornmeal, and nutritional yeast offers a surprising amount of protein!—and it also works well for “breading” eggplant, zucchini, tofu, or seitan. Serve with marinara sauce over pasta, quinoa, or a vegetable stirfry, and the leftovers make hearty sandwiches with hummus, pesto, or vegan mayo. Or cut the peppers into smaller nugget-sized pieces to serve with a dipping sauce.
1 16-oz. jar roasted red peppers (four peppers)
¾ cup steel-cut oats
¾ cup cornmeal
⅓ cup nutritional yeast
1 tbsp. onion powder
1 tbsp. garlic powder
1 tbsp. dried herbs (any combination of basil, thyme, rosemary, and sage)
1 tsp. salt
black pepper to taste
½ cup flour
3 tbsp. Ener-G egg replacer + ¾ cup warm water (the equivalent of 6 eggs)
½ cup vegetable oil
Drain the water from the pepper jar, carefully pull out the peppers and halve them lengthwise to form cutlet shapes, and remove any stray seeds. To make the cutlets, you’ll dip the pepper first into the flour, then into the egg replacement mixture, and finally in the oat-and-cornmeal coating before frying. Pour out the flour evenly onto a plate, and in a medium-sized bowl whisk the egg replacer with water until fully dissolved and frothy. Put the oats in a food processor and grind for a minute or so, then add the cornmeal and seasonings and pulse until fully mixed. Pour coating mixture into a second bowl.
Heat the vegetable oil in the frying pan as you begin the three-part dipping. Once the pan is heated, cutlets will brown nicely in seven minutes, flipping halfway through.
Yields approximately eight cutlets (though size will vary).
(I wrote up this recipe for a Bob's Red Mill recipe contest last summer figuring I could blog it regardless, and then naturally I forgot all about it!)
A Garden or a Slaughterhouse?
“Plants have feelings too!” is a joke men make so they can avoid addressing the problem of flesh eating in a substantive way. (Not to be sexist, but I have yet to hear a female omnivore make this joke. I imagine this is a direct result of our culture’s equating meat consumption with virility.)
There is scientific research to indicate that plants react to their environment in complex ways, but a plant is not sentient the way an animal is. A carrot does not have a nervous system; it feels no pain when you tug it up out of the earth. Animals, on the other hand, feel intense pain and fear and grief when they are imprisoned, forcibly impregnated and then separated from their children, and if you were allowed behind closed doors at the nearest factory farm you would not doubt their suffering. Make all the strained jokes you want about a zucchini screaming on the chopping board, but you’re not actually making a point—you’re just obfuscating the real issue.
You might want to consider it this way. A wise man posed the question in a recent Compassion Over Killing Facebook thread:
Would you rather work in a garden or a slaughterhouse?
(This rationale also appears on a Mercy For Animals list of The Top 12 Excuses for Not Going Vegan And Our Responses to Them. That post is pretty entertaining actually—check it out.)
The Top-of-the-Food-Chain Argument
(Here's another little chapter from Can-Do Vegan.)
* * *
"It's normal and natural to eat animals. We're at the top of the food chain."
Let’s look at the logical inconsistencies of the “food chain” argument.
We consider ourselves “above” the animals when it suits us—chickens can’t perform calculus, cows can’t speak in a human language, therefore we do what we like with these creatures—yet we are animals when it suits our various other purposes, as with the actual consumption of animals, sexual infidelity, letting young boys get away with aggressive and even violent behavior, and so on.
The “food chain” is a human construct. You are not a part of the wildlife cycle that involves the pursuit, capture, and consumption of another animal, as a lion or tiger will do. Look in the mirror and you will see you do not have the teeth of a carnivore, made for piercing the neck of a gazelle and masticating her thick muscle tissue. You have the teeth of an herbivore, intended for grinding down nuts, seeds, and vegetation.
This is the sad paradox of the human omnivorous diet: we are predators who do not capture our own food. Instead we rely on heinously maltreated and underpaid slaughterhouse workers to kill our dinner for us.
You may argue that you are a hunter, that you shoot deer in the woods and that this places you within that “food chain” after all. You may say that by hunting your own meat you are not a part of the cycle of cruelty and corruption that is the American factory farm. But answer me this: is venison the only sort of meat you eat? Do you ever consume anything you haven’t killed yourself? (Not to mention that you're still being cruel by taking an animal's life when you don't need to eat it to survive.)
Let’s be real here. If you’re driving down a lonely highway with a rumbling stomach, and McDonald’s is the only “restaurant” for miles, you are going to stop and order a hamburger. Flesh eating is just too slippery a slope to stand on.
* * *
(And in case you missed it, here's a little thought experiment on this subject by way of the Twilight Zone.)
"But I love animals!"
My first ebook project, Can-Do Vegan, has been a long time coming, and it's still nowhere near ready to publish. Right now I have to focus on book projects that are actually going to make me some moolah! (The first-pass pages of Immaculate Heart arrived yesterday and are clamoring for my attention before the Ego Management editorial letter shows up next week; and there's the first chapter of my new novel to write, and The Boy from Tomorrow to revise...)
Some of the ebook chapters started out as blog posts—like Are You Addicted to Cheese? and What is "extreme?"—but many are new writing. It's only recently occurred to me that I should be blogging the new stuff!So here's the first chapter—the main section of the ebook answers the most common excuses and rationalizations I hear from people who are still eating animals.
* * *
When a meat eater talks about how much they “love” animals, perhaps they ought to say they have a particular affinity for dogs or cats.
If you love someone or something, you treat them as well (or better!) than you treat yourself. If you love someone, you don’t make them suffer in a cage before slaughtering and consuming them.
Here’s something else to consider: people in other parts of the world eat dog flesh the way we in the West consume pigs, cows, or chickens. How can you logically make a distinction between animals who are sacred and animals who are not?
Vegans believe that all sentient beings deserve to be happy and free. We want to treat pigs, cows, and chickens with just as much consideration and affection as we do “house pets.” (In general, vegans believe we shouldn’t “own” animals at all, but many people I know make an exception for rescue animals. They treat these dogs as family, not property.)
In vegan philosophy, each of these sentient beings has its own part to play in the great cosmic pageant. We humans don’t have an exclusive on the concept of a “life purpose”: each and every being wants to exist in a state of peace and harmony, to experience him- or herself moving through the world, to make full use of his or her senses to appreciate his or her environment. This is true of everything, every living thing. Lilies and daffodils don’t grow for our pleasure. Mosquitoes don’t exist to annoy us.
You may have noticed that I haven’t used the word “it” when talking about “non-human people.” When animals become people to you, you can see yourself as part of something much, much bigger than your own limited brain and ego. This shift takes some getting used to, but it’s so worth it—for the animals and for your own spiritual and physical health.I have an awesome T-shirt I got from Herbivore Clothing Company. It says, “I love animals too much to eat them.”