Experimenting with Soya

When I was in London last weekend I ordered Sweet & Sour Tofu and egg fried rice at a lovely Chinese restaurant, however when doing this I got asked if I was a Veggie. I explained my issues with meat (my Mom's horrible cooking!) but the more I think about it I could very well end up a veggie or a vegan.

Lately I brought Soya Milk into the house. I've not had a glass of milk in decades and try to avoid it as much as possible. When I do have something with milk I sound like I have a mild head cold for a few hours. So far I've tried Soya Milk in:

Coffee

Tea

Oatmeal

Cup Cakes

Cereal

Mashed Potatoes

I've loved it in everything! I was a bit wary baking with it, but they have a version of single cream that is Soya based and it work as a substitute to butter milk.

Since I've been on my own brand of diet from December 30th 2011 I've taken to veggies as my lunch choice on the weekend and using them as a large portion of my dinners. This means I'm eating healthier and I'm eating foods that I really do love. Peas, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, sweet potato, corn, brussels sprouts and green beans. Yes, I said brussels sprouts. I love them!

With this added veg and Soya infusion into my diet I could really see myself as a veggie. Though I will admit a nice cheese burger may be my downfall ;) Bacon actually was my downfall on the six days I was a veggie and it took me 2 hours to realise what I'd done. So maybe I'm just a bad vegetarian?

Though I do like the idea of being a vegan, there is a lot of thinking about what you're eating that would come into play and let’s face it. I'm lazy.

I have found some really great recipes that are easy and vegan. My vegan chilli for instance.

Vegan Chilli:-

1 tin chopped tomatoes

1 tin green ready to eat lentils

1 tin baked beans

1 tin chopped mushrooms

1 tsp chilli powder (you can adjust this to taste)

Pour everything into a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Then simmer for about 10 minutes.

Makes about 4 to 5 servings.

You can have it with rice as well but I find the lentils make the chilli heavy and nothing more is needed.

Root beer!

One of my favourite soda's (or pop if you prefer) of all time is Root beer. Now I'm not a huge fan of soda in general, its calorie heavy and sticky sweet but there is just something so refreshing about Root beer.

We ventured to the wilds of London for the Kapow Comic Book Convention. Specifically Islington (where I came down with the plague) one of my favourite burger joints was discovered last year called Byron (http://www.byronhamburgers.com/menu/) I highly recommend it if you are in the area. However do avoid what they call American Cheese, it's really sweat collected from real cheese and made into orange plastic slices.

The best thing in my opinion about Byron's is they serve A&W Root beer! True I paid £2.85 for a can but damn was it worth it.

There is a place in Leeds that says it serves Root beer but it's not A&W.

We also hit Pizza Express where I felt obligated to have an American Pizza, which is Pepperoni Pizza and a Chinese restaurant where I had Sweet & Sour Tofu.

I also went into a Kebab place (alone, armed with a knife as always) for some chips.

Cyber Candy was also at Kapow, however I was disappointed by the selection this year. I ended up with a 3 Musketeers Bar and a Twinky (£2.90 for both). I was hoping for odd M&M's or at least Pop Tarts.

The best thing about the weekend was the Root beer.

Red Velvet

My all time favorite cake, Red Velvet. It's a red cake batter that has an amazing velvet like texture. I've not made it in nearly 9 years. The first time was my first birthday in England. I spent it alone and made a cake for myself to celebrate. This time I made it for a cake sale at work.

The one issue I had was finding white vinegar, I'd gone to Sainsburys (local grocery store) to find it and they only seemed to have balsamic which is great but not in a cake! I ended up buying something called White Condiment and crossed my fingers that it was what I wanted (it was, nothing else on the planet smells like vinegar!).

Red Velvet Cup Cakes


2½ cups plain flour

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

1 cup buttermilk (substitute 1 cup of milk mixed with 1tsp lemon juice, let stand for 10 minutes or until curdled)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 tablespoons red food coloring

1 cup butter

2 cups sugar

2 large eggs

1½ teaspoons baking soda

1 tablespoon white vinegar

Preheat oven to 350/180

Mix butter & sugar, add in eggs, vanilla and food coloring. Mix in coca powder, baking soda and vinegar. Alternately mix in flour and butter milk.

Pour into bun cases and bake for 15-20 minutes.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

8 ounces cream cheese (this should be one standard container of cream cheese, be careful otherwise you'll have too much - as I did)

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 cups confectioners’ (powdered) sugar

Mix all ingredients together in a high sided bowl, spread onto cooled cupcakes.

Meat

I grew up in the standard meat and potatoes family. You had both at most meals. Italian food was the only time you didn't have potatoes. Or occasionally when Dad wasn't around we'd order Shrimp Chow Mien, because that was the only Chinese food my Mom had ever had.

Pretty sure I've said this before on here, Mom wasn't a great when it came to cooking. She cooked a chicken to the point once where the cats wouldn't eat it. I swear the thing could bounce.

Pot Roast? Well, my friends and I used to have chewing contests on how long it took to chew a bite. I think we got well up into the 60's. This could be one of the reasons I'm not a huge fan of meat. When I'm at a restaurant I'll 99% of the time order the veggie option, for one it's normally cheaper and I'd prefer it. I ordered my first steak (a whole 6oz one) at the Outback steak house in Delaware when I was in the US last year, first time ever I've ordered one at a restaurant it was nice. I preferred the sweet potato fries though.

Mom however could make a few things, sloppy joe for one but the one she always got perfect was Meat Loaf, which I never got the recipe for so I thought I'd never be able to make it properly. However when Mark said he'd never had it I thought I'd best find a recipe. Betty Crocker's cook book came to the rescue again (the cookbook was published the first time in 1978 and has been helping me since I was 7).

Mom's (Betty Crocker's) Meat Loaf



1.5lbs mince (ground beef)
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 garlic clove chopped
1 egg
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
1 small onion chopped
1/2 cup ketchup

Heat oven to 350/180

In large bowl mix all ingredients except ketchup. Shape in to a loaf like shape. Place in loaf pan.

Spread ketchup over top

Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes. Make damn sure there is no pink showing in the meat loaf.

Let stand a minute or two and then slice and serve.

T-Day

Usually I can get past missing Thanksgiving, to the point of I normally have something for dinner completely opposite I believe last year was either pizza or Chinese food. This year just having been in the US with my family a little while ago makes it almost unbearable. And for the first time in ages I spent most of the morning in one of the blackest moods I’ve ever had (it never lasts, I’m to chipper).

Tonight I’ll be skyping with my family after they’ve finished off the whole shebang.

Turkey
Stuffing
Cranberry Sauce
Sweet Potatoes
Green bean casserole
Home made bread

And the most important, Pumpkin Pie.

We on the other hand are having steak pie with chips. When I was back in the US and the one year we had a T-day in Nottingham I used to go overboard and I made nearly everything. I’m leaning that way at Christmas but only doing starters and deserts (which means at least 4 kinds).

One of my favourite new recipes was learned at the T-day we had in Nottingham, though I’ve modified it a bit so you can make it while completely tipsy.

Boozy Cranberry Sauce:-

1 bag whole cranberries
1 bottle of port (it can be the smaller one)
Clear honey

Empty cranberries into a sauce pan, cover with just enough port. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 20 – 30 minutes. Add honey to take the bite off it and then let it cool.

It really is a great recipe (though I still miss the congealed type you get in a can, thank you Ocean Spray), everyone loves it and I still think you could have it on ice cream.

I will have to make a special effort to have T-day next year and invite those I think would enjoy it.

Back in the USA

I'd forgotten, after four years exactly how much food is around in the USA. I spent ten days there and after the first two had to cut my meals per day down to two otherwise I'm not sure I would have been able to fit on the plane back!

It started off with the plane food, KLM/Delta like to keep you well fed, peanuts, pretzels, pasta, pizza and ice cream were on the menu across. But it didn't stop there, upon my arrival my Dad picked me up and dragged me to Duncan Donuts so coffee was none stop and then after a trip around the area we stopped at one of my favorite sub shops, Hill Top. I had a cheese steak sub (I take mine with provolone cheese, lettuce and mayo)I could barely finish it but god it was good.

Dad made me breakfast on Saturday, toast, bacon (American style and crispy) and scrambled eggs. Then we were off to the Smithsonian Air and Space museum in Chantilly Virginia. After looking at all of the amazing planes and space craft we decided to have lunch in the building classic American - MacDonald's, I had to have a strawberry milkshake with my burger and fries. Dinner however was beyond me macaroni and cheese (Dad has upgraded to Velveta), peas and American baked beans (these have brown sugar and what I believe was onion) with a hot dog - which wasn't even chopped up! I couldn't eat it all, I stayed it safe with the mac and cheese and peas.

Sunday's breakfast at Denny's, I had french toast, bacon with scrambled eggs. We went to the Baltimore Street Car Museum where we got to ride on old street cars. Then we went to a place called Valley View farms they have an awesome Christmas display that they put up every year. Dinner was Campbell's chicken and dumpling soup with ritz crackers. Thankfully my Dad's girlfriend realised by this point that I wasn't a huge eater and only had a small bowl. I made sure that desert was worthy however, and I purchased a raspberry crumb cake from Weber's Cider Farm. I also purchased a jar of apple butter and a half gallon of apple cider (this is the American version) we had it hot and it was so very good for a cold day!

Monday meant it was time to hit Chicago! It started with breakfast at the Bongo room where I had two red velvet pancakes with vanilla sauce. We walked around Chicago, went to the Field Museum and Chicago Institute of art. Dinner was chicken enchilada's. At Miller's I started with a Budweiser and followed with two pints of some beer called flywheel. I was also introduced to chocolate bars with bacon, if you haven't tried this you really should - it's deep fried awesome without the deep frying.

Tuesday started at Yolk where I had cinnamon roll french toast... it was awesome. I arrived back in Maryland and had an hour trip to Cambridge where my aunt and uncle live and they had a thanksgiving dinner, turkey, sweet potatoes with apples, green beans, fresh bread, apple sauce followed by pumpkin pie!

Wednesday started with frittata which is a lot of eggs, milk, cheese and chopped up sausages. We went to Delaware to the outlet center as stuff is cheaper and you don't pay sales tax. I went a little crazy on Halloween stuff. Dinner was steak, fries and salad at Outback Steak house. I've never ordered a steak before so it was an experience.

Thursday was pancakes made by my uncle (sadly not from scratch but Aunt Jemima does well as a substitute), we spent the day out in the middle of no where however these places normally have the best food and we had Crab Imperial at a place called Old Salties I had mine with coleslaw and a birch beer. The coleslaw was amazing!

Friday saw another batch of frittata and Cinnamon bread, we walked around Cambridge a lot and dinner was at a place called Jimmy & Sooks (the names of male and female crabs)where I had a crab cake sandwich, cream of crab soup and fries. It was beyond good, the fries at this place are second to none. We had a pit stop at the local grocery store so I could pick up some old bay seasoning and I spied Bergers Cookies, which are an old favorite and I'm not sure if they are sold outside of Baltimore - they're basically a vanilla wafer with a slab of chocolate fudge on top! We took a break later in the afternoon and made an apple pie before we went to see my uncles band play at a local school. I got teary eyed when they played The Star Spangled Banner.

Saturday was Belgian waffles made again by my uncle and dinner after a walk around the Crownsville Rennancace festival was at Mikes Crab house where I had crab stuffed shrimp with fries and cole slaw. The crab stuffed shrimp was amazing. I have to say the food available at the ren fest when from typical to insane. Turkey legs, cheesecake on a stick, crab meat pretzels, large dill pickles, pizza, chili, crab cake sandwiches, roasted anything, peanuts and sugar coated almonds...apple dumplings with vanilla ice cream.

I followed up the day having a load of stuff I really shouldn't have marshmallow and cherry snow cone, donuts (honey glazed), pumpkin spiced lattes, UTZ potato chips, mint chocolate chip ice cream (it's green) and candies.

Sunday started off with pilsbury cinnamon rolls and bacon. At Atlanta airport I had another cheese steak sub this time including fried onions and twizzlers!

The food on the flight home wasn't that great, pasta and an egg sandwich but it was nice to be back to smaller fare. Dinner was two slices of toast with a liberal amount of apple butter on top (I was really surprised a glass jar made it through but it did).

My first full day back in the UK I had two crumpets with peanut butter, coffee, apple cider and chicken and chips with gravy. I waited until I was so hungry I felt it, something I missed in the past 10 days!

Chicken!

In the US Perdue chickens come in the supermarkets with a pop up timer installed. This is to ensure you do not over cook the chicken. My mother would never trust these timers and on occasion completely ruined a whole chicken.

One notable time the cats wouldn't even eat the chicken.

So to say I can actually cook chicken isn't a big deal, it's just I use a timer and make sure I don't over cook. You know, following the instructions sometimes does work ;)

I found two things that really go well with chicken, tarragon and leek. I don't think I'd ever had leek before last year and hadn't a clue what tarragon was. However I purchased an english pie recipe book and one of the recipes has become my favorite.

Chicken, Leek and Tarragon Pie

1.5 to 2 lbs cooked and shredded chicken
1 carrot chopped
2 celery sticks chopped (optional)
2 onions chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
2 leeks sliced
200 ml stock
150 ml white wine
2tbsp plain flour
150 ml single cream or milk
pepper to taste
2 tsp tarragon (this is an estimate I just dash)
1 short crust pastry (I tend to use the stuff that you just mix water to)


In a medium sauce pan, simmer 1 onion, carrot and celery for 5 minutes. Add half the tarragon.

Add in stock, bring to boil and simmer for 30 minutes.

In another frying pan gently cook leeks and remaining onion with butter for about 5 minutes. Turn the heat up to high add the wine and simmer rapidly for 3-4 minutes until reduced by half. Stir in the flour mix well for 1 minute. Pour in the cream and about 150 ml of the stock. Add in a bit of pepper.

Mix both batches with the shredded chicken and add to the prepared pie shell.

Place pie top over. (optional - you can brush a beaten egg over the top for a better pie top)

Bake at 180 for 30 minutes.