a voice for the voiceless
Early this month, a friend mentioned a blog meme that she wanted to start. House Favorites: Vegan.
As food bloggers, sometimes we get so caught up in trying new things that we forget about the dishes that we make all the time. These are the recipes we make repeatedly for house guests and potlucks. The ones our families won’t let us skip on the holidays. Our beloved signature dishes. Our house favorites.
What are your house favorites? This will be a monthly blog event where you can show them off. It will run from the first day of the month to the last.
Now, no one would mistake me for a food blogger, though of course I do eat food, and sometimes I even take pictures of it. The truth is that I’m not very good about either talking about or taking pictures of food. But I’m more than willing to help a friend with a cool meme, even if it means writing a food post! (And even if I put it off until the last possible moment!)
I have a hard time resisting new cookbooks, which means I’m often making new recipes to justify my (ever growing) cookbook collection rather than making certain recipes multiple times. Despite that, I do have a few recipes that I go back to again and again.
Unfortunately most of them are desserts. A couple of them are alcoholic drinks! Really, what would the children think?
Luckily I remembered Kale Chips!
I’d heard many people raving about kale chips, so I finally made a batch in January to see what the fuss was about. And wow! To call them addictive is an understatement. Shortly after that, I was visiting Mary, and kale came up in conversation. Last year when I visited, we had some kale, a green that she hadn’t ever really eaten, and which she wasn’t too sure of. She liked what we made with it, and even added it to salads, but once that bunch was gone she never bought another.
So we tried the kale chips this year. We used the recipe from 500 Vegan Recipes for the first batch, and then refined it to our tastes a bit afterward. The kale chips were a hit, and Mary has made these many times since my visit.
I’ve made this recipe often enough that I am not even sure how many times I’ve made them – they are approaching chocolate chip cookie status! It has even been suggested that I bring them every week to the sanctuary for an after chore snack…
So, after that absurdly long introduction, here is the recipe:
Ingredients:
1 bunch kale – rinsed, torn into bite size pieces, dried with a salad spinner
2 Tablespoons Nutritional Yeast
1 Tablespoon toasted sesame oil (or any other oil)
1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon soy sauce or tamari
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix nutritional yeast, oil, vinegar and soy sauce in a small bowl or measuring cup. Put kale in a bowl, pour the mixture over kale, and mix well (with hands is easiest). Spread kale on a cookie sheet in a single layer.
Bake for 10 minutes, check crispiness, and bake for 5-10 minutes more as needed.
Jake is optional.
Jake
Truman, Mr. August in the 2011 PSAS calendar
One of my friends and fellow volunteers, Sheryl, unabashedly plays favorites with the animals at the sanctuary. Truman, one of the younger pigs, is her absolute 100% favorite. She brings him special treats, and boy does he know it! She shows up, and he’s right there, hoping it is another donut day.
She was on vacation recently, and missed two weekends at the sanctuary. “Make sure Trumie gets treats!” she told us. “Do you think he’ll forget me?” she worried.
As if anyone could forget those vegan donuts!
I promised I’d take pictures…and I did, but of course they sat on my hard drive, so they didn’t do Sheryl much good!
So this is a Truman post. And to prove that I really did take pictures of him each weekend, I’ll point out that the pig barn’s roof is being replaced, so you can watch the progress on the roof for proof!
Truman, March 26, 2011
The line dangling down the roof is something the roofers seem to tie themselves to, I assume in case they slip.
4-2-2011
The interesting thing about the roofers being there is that they were afraid of the pigs! And the cows and horses and mules. I’m pretty sure they were completely baffled by us. This past weekend I was taking a bunch of pictures of Truman, and one of the worker kept glancing over.
Perhaps he was read to jump the fence and save me if Truman decided that I was a donut!
Truman 4-2-2011
Truman is such a sweet pig that he doesn’t even pick on the newer, smaller, younger pigs. Pigs form a very strict hierarchy, and when new pigs are introduced there’s always a bit of drama. Low-key drama, but drama nonetheless, while the new pig tries to find where he or she fits in the hierarchy.
The further up the ladder they want to climb, the more drama there is. Some pigs, like Truman and Harley, are content to be low-ranking, and so they just get out of everyone else’s way.
Last weekend I did see Truman nudge one of the three babies away from where he was eating. When I told Dave he said, “you have to tell Sheryl!”
"You're not Sheryl, but maybe you have donuts?"
Truman’s story is fairly unusual. He was bought by some young men for a pig roast. Yet, they couldn’t bring themselves to kill him. Not knowing what else to do, they released him along the C&O Canal. Through one of those odd quirks of fate, Terry heard about this fourth or fifth hand, and so animal control was on the lookout for him before he was even spotted.
Those boys eventually heard that Truman had been rescued, and that he was living safe and sound at the sanctuary. They expressed interest in coming to see him. I’m not sure if they ever did, or how serious they were about it, and if they’ll visit him in the future.
Apparently, though, there’s just something about Truman.
I was in the chicken yard last Saturday, near the fence bordering the cow/horse/mule pasture, when I heard the thundering hooves of…pigs? I looked up to see Patsy run by on the other side of the fence. Patsy, the pig, followed closely by Truffles.
“The pigs are out!” I called.
Luckily it was just Patsy and Truffles who had gotten out, and luckily getting out of the pig yard just means they’re going to explore the horse/mule/cow area. There is a fence around the entire perimeter of the sanctuary, so it was a minor escape on all levels. An adventure for the pigs.
Truffles and Patsy headed straight to the hay feeders that are in the woods for the cows, and then they headed to the creek. They were having a great time exploring! After they made their way back up from the creek, Dave and Leesa herded them back to the pig yard.
It is hard to believe that it was barely more than a year ago that Patsy and Truffles were rescued from that small family farm, where the majority of the animals had already died…and that the judge awarded all the animals back to the farmer despite the neglect. The farmer allowed a few of these animals to be rescued only because they were sick enough he didn’t think they’d live anyway. Patsy was so weak from malnutrition and freezing temperatures she didn’t even move. Truffles had a wound that wasn’t healing.
Vet care and some TLC had them on the mend, and it wasn’t long before Patsy was displaying her spunky personality, and Truffle’s wound was healed. We described Patsy as a street-smart little piglet, because she would scoot in and out around the big pigs, grabbing food, but moving too fast for them to bother to put the smack down on her. I think that’s how she survived as long as she did under the harsh neglect of the farm she was born on.
Knowing their history, and that they survived the small family farm against all odds, it makes me smile to think of their little Saturday adventure. What they want is simple: food, water, shelter, grass, mud, companionship. Life.
We can give that to them. At the sanctuary, of course, but also as individuals with our everyday choices.
Almost everyone, if asked, affirms that they are compassionate, and that they love animals. We can put this compassion and love into practice when we go vegan. Colleen at Compassionate Cooks has some great resources to get the aspiring vegan started.
All proceeds will be donated to the sanctuary.
Coupons: http://www.lulu.com/current_specials?cid=eng_advent_specials_112210
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