Vegan MoFo Day 22: Some of my favorite things...

... Louise Hagler recipes, french fries, and the American Miso Company!

Louise Hagler lives just down the way at The Farm in Summertown, Tennessee. She has been churning out creative vegan food, and cookbooks, for almost 40 years! At a class a couple of months ago, she told us how excited she and her colleagues were, in the early 1970s, when they first figured out how freezing tofu would change the texture. It is hard to believe that such knowledge is so recent, and that the innovators are still working on vegan cuisine today!

Above you will see the Spicy French Fries from Louise's book, Miso Cookery: miso, garlic, chipotle, and other things, smeared onto french fries and baked in the oven until crispy. Need I say more? To make it even better, we used local organic miso from the American Miso Company in Rutherfordton, North Carolina, not far from Asheville.

Vegan MoFo Day 15: Cookies and Wine

So, Terry is a genius. We made a biscotti test recipe for the cookie book that she and Isa are working on. I have to take some of these to work today before we eat them all.

We enjoyed the biscotti last night after dinner with a glass of muscadine wine. Muscadines are a thick-skinned grape that is native to the southeastern United States. They come in red/purple, and in a greenish/bronze variety called scuppernongs. My great aunt had muscadine vines in her back yard, and I ate many of them as a child. It is a different experience from eating other grapes, as the skin is too thick to eat, so you are only after the innards. It can get messy, but it is fun.

Aunt Cora was a strict Baptist so she only made jelly and juice from her muscadines. However, many other people in the South turn them into wine. The kind Bryophyte recently procured some local North Carolina muscadine wine for us. It's fresh, grapey, sweet, and best when chilled. If you like dessert wines, you will enjoy it.

Bonus MoFo: Wild Mushrooms

If you have been around Asheville's food scene, you have probably encountered Alan Muskat, who teaches classes and conducts tours about wild mushrooms. Alan has put the 4th edition of his book, Wild Mushrooms: A Taste of Enchantment on-line for free download, with a suggested donation of $5. The 5th edition is in the works for next year. If you are interested in wild mushrooms, check it out!

Vegan MoFo Day 12: Black Walnuts

If you are the foraging sort, this is the season for black walnuts. I picked up the ones in the photo (and many more) along the side of my street in Asheville. The opposite side of our street is public right-of-way, as it falls down a sharp hill to the street below. There are several walnut trees, a couple of green apple trees, and a crabapple in the neighborhood right-of-ways - the produce of which is all free for the taking. Thank you, Asheville: City of Trees.

Black walnuts have a strong, distinctive flavor. If you haven't had them, they are not like English walnuts at all, at least to my taste. The first chore is removing the green husk. This is a pain, and the husk (which is used in some traditional dyes) will stain the beejeesus out of your hands and clothes. The best method I know is to put them in your driveway, and drive over them for a few days. Seriously. Once you are free of the husks, you have to break open the nuts, which (again) is none too easy. It can be done with a very sturdy nut-cracker, although a hammer comes in handy and is my weapon of choice. And then you will need a good nut-pick, as the nut-meats are not particularly easy to extract. Did I mention that black walnuts are so delicious that humans have been willing to put up with all this nonsense for centuries, to get at them?

Black walnuts are one of my mother's favorite foods, so we used to gather large quantities from my grandparents' farms. While not as passionate as my mother, I do enjoy them. They are wonderful in any chocolate concoction - chocolate chip cookies, cake, brownies, or fudge. Black walnut ice cream will bring all the boys (and girls) to the yard. And they are delicious in faux-chicken salad (made with tempeh, loosely following the recipe here) and vegetable stir-frys.

Black walnuts are very nutritious, but you'll eat them because they taste good! If you see these strange green globes along the roadside or in your yard, pick them up!

Vegan MoFo Day 11: Amazing Savings

I'm in Asheville, and it is a beautiful Saturday. This morning, I went to a place that is maybe 5 minutes from our house, on Sweeten Creek Road, not far out of Biltmore Village. It is called Amazing Savings, and is a close-out grocery that specializes in whole/natural/health food. As you can see from the photo above, it is not much to look at from the outside. I have driven by it at least 100 times and never noticed. But Bryophyte from The PPK told me I had to go, and I did. Lord, have mercy. It's a wonderland of cheap food! MimicCreme for 99 cents! A big container of pistachio oil for $4.99! Avocado oil, soba noodles, organic produce, flax seeds, mung beans, local sorghum molasses, quinoa cookies (99 cents for the box) and the list goes on. If you spend over $50, you get an extra 10% off. Like any close-out place, you have to keep an eye out for any visible problems and the expiration date, but this place is truly amazing.

When I got home, one of my elderly neighbors said, "I trade at Amazing Savings a lot. They have the good vitamins." He also reports that there is another close-out grocery in Asheville which draws from conventional stores, called GO Grocery Outlet, and that the prices there are even better than at Amazing Savings. I am definitely going to check it out for items that I buy from the "regular" grocery store.