recipes – Going beyond transition

Aging Whiskey (day 0)

Posted on January 3, 2014 by Linus Posted in Daily life, recipes .

The start of a new whiskey?

So today, after let the small barrel swell with hot water for the last 4 days, I finally could put the “white dog” whiskey in. Now for those unaware, “white dog” whiskey is a kind of unaged whiskey. Think of it as a raw whiskey, almost a moonshine kind of alcohol. The aging process in a barrel will infuse the various flavours that the barrel gives off. For example, one of my favourite whiskeys (really hard to get outside of Nova Scotia) is Glen Breton’s Ice Whiskey, which is aged in ice wine barrels.

Since my barrel is a simple small oak barrel and has limited flavours to what the oak offers, I decided to try a bit of an experiment. The water I used to swell the barrel (this has the effect of making the wood increase in size, ensuring no leaks or “bleed” or alcohol through the wood) was also mixed with raw agave. And as part of the aging process, I had to add additional water — which also had more agave in it. It’ll be interesting to see what comes out of the barrel in a couple of months.

Most larger barrel aging process (for the 53 gallon drums) takes months to years to age adequately. This smaller process will likely take 6-8 weeks and I’ll lose about 30% (or more!) of the raw whiskey to evaporation (aka “the Angel’s share”). Since we live in a very arid area, this will primarily be water which could mean a higher than normal alcohol content for the whiskey when all is said and done.

Either way, this will be an interesting exercise.

Cake recipe, plans, dreams and 40th (good grief!)

Posted on November 12, 2009 by Linus Posted in Daily life, Finances, Life, recipes, vegan stuff .

I doing some prep work for an upcoming class and feeling rather confident about it. But still worried. No matter how much you prepare there are always little things that you miss here and there. It had been a while since I had been at my trans support group so going last night was good. The atmosphere had changed a bit in some ways but the good heart and support that the group aims to provide was still there. I worry about not being able to find that in Los Angeles when we move there next year.

And I must say I am rather excited about it. The idea of a new adventure is sometimes enough to jump start things. I’m still hopeful that I might get surgery before then but hard to say. So in the meantime, I’m contemplating options that would allow me to pay off all/most debt, cover surgery or both. And I think I might have an option. If I can’t get surgery covered before leaving NYC, then I’ll put this other plan in motion and sometime late next year (end of 2010) or beginning 2011 I’ll look into that option.

And recently, I feel like I’ve been waking up again emotionally and spiritually. Not sure what it is. Perhaps it’s finding a new zest for life elsewhere and a new adventure. We’ll see. I’m still working on the fight against the red tape of the Ontario government and that’s still no easy task but I’m hopeful that I may have found what they needed. I should have remembered that whatever you figure it will take for something to complete, double the time you expect it to finish. Maybe I can have my IDs in my new name before my 40th in the spring.

Oh ya. And speaking of my 40th, I had wanted a party (and I still do) but I know fiscally it may be impossible to get everyone together for my 40th since a lot of friends and family are north of the border. Perhaps I should do something like a 2-4 for the 44th or something like that. I think the reality is may need to wait until we’re settled in L.A. or do something else. Not sure yet. It’s been so long since I’ve celebrated any birthday as a party I’ve forgotten what’s involved with the whole process. In some ways, I’d almost want to wait until I get my dream house but that’s a few years down the road. For those curious, my dream house would be a decent sized house (3-5 bedrooms) on 1-2 acres with neighbours that are about a 2-4 min walk away. A small community ideally (weird for a city boy, I’m sure), living off the grid (weirder for a geek) but with internet (the geek demands it) and a garden that is nearly self-sustaining (reality is we’d probably need a lot of variety of things so west coast living can help supplement some of this — maybe I could barter IT expertise for various fruits and veggies). I still want to be debt free (the credit cards and loans gone) and just have a house and car to worry about. Oh ya. That driver’s license thing.

I can honestly say that I’m tired of the noise of leaf blowers, the yelling in the street, the honking, etc. I crave the quiet of the leaves rustling, the sound of birds, the awe of a starry night sky. It’s the romantic in me but also the little boy that grew up often at a cottage in a small town on the St. Lawrence where big bonfires, roasted marshmallows and lots of friends with bellowing laughter ensued. Or visiting a cousin where she grew up and lived in the same place all her life, where she knew where home was. Home is where your heart is but sometimes it’s also where peace is; batteries can be recharged and meditation can happen without competition.

More things for the bucket list. On the plus, I have realized that I’ve paid a small chunk off of one credit card and if I continue at this rate, this one should be paid off sooner than later. I’m still working on the others and still believe I can do this.

And for those who asked, here’s the link to the recipe I used for the Vegan Red Velvet Cake. By the way, it’s all gone. I may make another or something else for our Vegan thansgiving and our 3rd anniversary together.

Vegan Recipe: Vegan Spicy Comfort Hashbrowns

Posted on March 26, 2009 by Linus Posted in recipes, vegan stuff .

Ok. I admit it. I’m lazy sometimes. But even in my most laziest mode, I do think I can come up with some neat recipes. Here’s one that K loves with the vegan mayo or a bit of ketchup or both.

A little too much mayo but still, oh-so-good.

2 medium onions, diced

1-2 cloves of garlic, minced

2 Mexican Chipotle Field Roast Sausages, sliced (you can order them from Vegan Store)

1-2 red bell peppers, diced (optional)

1 bag of Cavendish Farms Hash Browns

1-2 tablespoons of vegetable/olive oil

salt and pepper to taste (optional)

In a large wok or pan, heat the oil. Sautee the onion and garlic until the onion is translucent (about 2-5 min, depending on your stove). Add the red peppers and stir fry about 3-5 minutes. Add the sausage and cook covered about 5-7 min, stirring occasionally. Finally, add the hash browns. Cook covered, stirring occasionally. This will take the longest, especially if the hash browns were frozen. Ensure that the mixture is well mixed (the hash browns will absorb some of the chipotle flavour and colour so don’t be surprised if they appear a tinge red). Add more a touch more oil if the hash browns are burning too quickly. Cook covered, stirring regularly. Add salt and pepper if you want. This will take between 15-30 minutes depending if the hash browns are frozen or not.

Once all of it is cooked, serve in bowls or on a plate with a side salad. Should feed about 6-8 servings (depending on the size of your “serving” 😉 )

Enjoy.

Vegan Recipes: Spicy Black Bean Soup and Vegan Chicken Soup

Posted on January 13, 2009 by Linus Posted in recipes, vegan stuff .

I thought, since I’m at home this week, I’d make most of the dinners. I am, however, a rather lazy cook and often look for things that are simple, easy and will last a while (or so I hope). So crockpot/slow cooker recipes as well as large stew/soup recipes are favourites of mine. It also helps stretch that ever shrinking dollar. K and I had been talking about what soups she likes and she does sorta like Amy’s Black Bean but said that often they lack a “omph” as far as flavour/spicyness goes. So I thought why not make a nice spicy black bean soup for her? The internet happens to be my favourite recipe book ever. And in my searches I found this simple recipe: Black Bean Vegetable Soup. I pretty much stuck to the recipe with two exceptions:

I used a slow cooker at the end rather than a soup pot. I stuck it on low and let it simmer away for a couple of hours. The apartment smelled great!
I add in some cajun spices my aunt gave me over the holidays. Lots of ’em!

It wasn’t enough to cure K’s cold but was good enough for her to have two huge bowls of it. The recipe technically feeds 8 but I think K ate enough for 4! (I also had two small bowls myself along with some bread and vegan mayo I made). K’s cold, however, got worse over night and she canceled a date with a dear friend to stay at home in bed. Of course, everyone knows what the fix is for that: chicken soup. But since we’re vegan, that’s a definite no-no so I searched for some nice vegan “chicken” soups. And found this one on About.com. Again, I stuck with the recipe as is but made a few minor changes:

The local grocery stores have “vegetable soup kits” in their produce aisle. I got one that cost me about $3.25 and had all the basics needed for soup: turnip, leek, onion, celery, fresh basil, fresh parsley, carrots, parsnip. I used that to replace some of the ingredients listed. I added a couple of potatos.

Used pre-minced garlic and added a couple of large slices of ginger
Used Whitewave StirFry Seitan Strips and coated them with salt and pepper (next time will marinate over night in No Chicken Broth)
Used 8 cups of No Chicken Broth
Used 2 cups of vegan vegetable sea salt and herb bouillon
Add a couple of sprigs of fresh thyme to the parsley/basil bundle
ground in the fresh pepper and added in about another 1-2 tsp of black pepper
added sea salt
added cajun spice (about 1-2 teaspoons)
used 2 tbsps sunflower oil (didn’t have any olive oil on hand)
let it simmer for two hours and served with saltines (salted kind)
added 2 cups of water after removing the bundle

This is comfort food. It’s not about diets and losing weight. And it definitely seemed to help K a bit.

Vegan Recipe: Vegan Mayo with a kick!

Posted on December 31, 2008 by Linus Posted in recipes, vegan stuff .

After doing some research I think I found one of the keys to a decent vegan mayo recipe: safflower oil and proportion. This, at least, creates a creamy vegan mayo. I’m still trying to figure out how to make a thicker version but for now this is actually pretty good. One of the important factor is the ratio of about 2.25 parts of oil to 1 part soy milk (unsweetened, non-flavoured kind). Basically, my recipe is this:

1/2 cup of unsweetened, unflavoured organic soy milk
1 1/2 cups of safflower oil
2 tbsp of apple cider vinger
2 tbsp fine sugar (avoid using raw sugar or other larger sugar types as they will not disintegrate properly)
3/4 tsp of mustard powder
3/4 tsp of sea salt
1/2 cup of extra firm silken tofu
pinch of cajun spice (optional — or other spice; fresh chopped garlic also good alternative)

Make sure the soy milk is chilled. I suspect this helps thicken the mixture even more. Add the milk to a blender or food processor and blend it well. It should be rather “frothy”. S-L-O-W-L-Y add the oil. This may take upwards of 10-15 minutes to do but it helps ensure that the oil is blended thoroughly with the milk. Stop the blender/processor and carefully scrap the sides down. Add the vinager, sugar, mustard and sea salt. Blend all of those with the liquid. Once thoroughly blended, chop up the tofu, add it to the mixture and blend until smooth and creamy. At this point, the mayo is ready for serving. Store your mayo in a mason jar and mark when it was made. I suspect it’ll last (if not eaten too quickly) for about 7-10 days in the fridge. If you want it to have a “kick”, make the last ingredient mixed in (after the tofu) your spice of choice. You can also stir this in afterwards to make a creamy dip for things like chips, veggies, etc. This also makes a nice alternative to soy spread on things like toast and/or in sandwiches.
Enjoy!

Love Story: K and Linus 2 Years later (& Vegan Thanksgiving)

Posted on November 22, 2008 by Linus Posted in Daily life, Gratitude, Life, recipes .

Wow. Hard to believe that two years have passed. K and I first met online just over two years ago. And two years ago on Thanksgiving I asked her out officially. Our first year was hard because of distance and life’s challenges but we survived it. Every day I realize how lucky I am to not only have a job, a roof over my head and a path to where I’m going but also have this beautiful woman beside me. There are times where her beauty makes me want to cry in joy and love. Most people are shocked at our age difference but quite honestly, I’ve never noticed. With K I feel totally alive, younger than I am and whole. We laugh lots. We’re silly at times. We have great “adult fun” and we even just enjoy being with each other. I’m totally thankful that this woman walked into my life when I least expected it. And hope that it lasts the entire rest of my lifetime.

I love you, K!

Tonight I made a tofurky for us as well as mashed vegan sweet potatoes with a mushroom gravy since we won’t be together for Thanksgiving (she’s visiting family back in Los Angeles).

Linus’ Vegan Mashed Sweet Potatoes:

4 regular yams/sweet potatos
2 Idaho potatos
2 small onions, chopped
4-5 shitake mushrooms, thinly sliced and chopped
4-5 garlic cloves, diced
olive oil to coat pan in
soy spread
mushroom broth
ground sage
1-2 tbsp of vanilla soy creamer
salt
pepper
garlic powder/salt
onion salt

Clean and cut the potatos into chunks. Put into a pot of boiling water and let boil until all are soft. In a pan, sautee and brown chopped onions on med-low heat in olive oil. I use a heavy iron skillet and add water when the onions potentially stick (about 4-5 min). Stirring often can lessen sticking problems When the onions are browned, add garlic and sautee until brown (about 2-3 min). Finally, add mushrooms and sprinkle salt, pepper and sage. Mix it thoroughly and turn heat to low and cover.

While the mushrooms/onion mix is cooking, draining the potatos and put back into the pot. Mash with fork or wooden spoon if masher isn’t available. Add soy spread, 1/4 cup at a time. In regular mashed, milk is used to make them creamy. In vegan option, soy spread can be used. Add soy creamer to help. As the mixture becomes more and more creamer, add salt, pepper, galic powder/salt and onion powder to taste.

Once mushroom/onion mix is cooked, mix into potatos. Serve hot.

Linus Mushroom gravy (modified from Tofurky recipe):

4 cups of organic mushroom broth
1/2 cup of unbleached flour (although I used wheat flour)
2 tbsp of olive oil
4-5 shitake mushrooms, thinly sliced and chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
sage
salt
pepper
5-6 drops of Louisanna Hot sauce

In a pan, sautee and brown chopped onions on med-low heat in olive oil. I use a heavy iron skillet and add water when the onions potentially stick (about 4-5 min). Stirring often can lessen sticking problems When the onions are browned, add garlic and sautee until brown (about 2-3 min). Finally, add mushrooms and sprinkle salt, pepper and sage. Mix it thoroughly and turn heat to low and cover.

In a pot mix the olive oil and flour, heating at low-med heat. Add broth. Cook thorough, mixing with a whisk to ensure all the lumps are gone. As it heats it will thicken. Once thick, add mushroom/onion mix. Cover and heat on low-med heat, stirring out lumps occassionally. This should take about 10 min. Then add hot sauce and continue to cook on low for another 10 min.

Vegan Recipes: Spicy Seitan Wings and “Chicken” Seitan

Posted on September 30, 2008 by Linus Posted in recipes, vegan stuff .

In an effort to make the kitchen more interesting, I’ve been experimenting with various seitan recipes. Seitan is turning out to be easier to make than I thought. And even tastier than I expected. My previous seitan experiment was ok but rather bland. Yesterday’s experiments turned out better than I expected and today I had an even better surprise.

First I started with this chicken seitan recipe. I found that as I was making it, I couldn’t help but think of when I used to eat chicken. Today, I wouldn’t be able to stomach it (physically, mentally and ethically) but I now began to realize where the taste really came from: the herbs added and how it was cooked. If you really want to get down into it, chicken is a bland flesh to eat so you have to season it. The same can be said of seitan. Once I had prepared the seitan, I took out about a third of the recipe and let the rest cool in the pot, marinating further in the seitan broth. It’s interesting how this recipe uses kelp to “salt” the seitan, an nice alternative in my opinion.

I then did the Spicy Seitan Wings as per this recipe. Now, I have a huge sweet tooth and often find spicy meals too much. My taste buds tend to be overly sensitive and aware of spices. This mixture was actually ok and we used a plain hummus as a dip for the “wings” and fresh cut tomatoes. I also had a Corona (a vegan beer!) on the side, in addition to my usual water. It was really good. Texture wise it wasn’t too rubbery and actually had a good sensation to it. After dinner, I took about a third of the remaining seitan and put it into a container with the left over spicy sauce, shaking it vigorously to ensure that all pieces got a good coating. I figured marinating overnight in the sauce will add further flavouring to the seitan the next day. How right I was.

This morning, as a late breakfast/early lunch, I took some romaine lettuce, topped it with some diced tomatoes and a bit of Goddess Dressing. I took some of the spicy marinated seitan (about 3-4 strips) and sliced and then diced them. I then sauted and cooked them for about 5-8 minutes before adding them as a topping to the salad I had made. It was perfect. The balance of the creamy (vegan) dressing with the fresh, cold veggies against the spicy hot seitan was perfect.

A great alternative to the usual.