One Week

Till company arrives.

Kitchen progress:
trim painted
backsplash tiles done
curtains made (by my friend)
breakfast nook assembled (by my husband)
holes filled
walls washed

Today, I begin the primer.

What are your Thanksgiving plans?

My Sweet Vegan Cookbook Giveaway

If you didn't win Hannah Kaminsky's e-cookbooks last week, now is your chance to win her dessert cookbook, My Sweet Vegan. My review of it is here, and Hannah agreed to let me share our favorite recipe with you.



Bananas Foster Cake

Banana cake is often a disappointing, dry mess as many people think it’s perfectly all right to use any old banana bread recipe, slap some frosting on top, and call it a cake. Step it up a notch with a sweet treat that is actually meant to be a dessert, and you will understand what a huge difference it makes. Modeled after the traditional flavors of bananas foster, the layers are soaked in rum before assembly and topped with a caramel frosting that pulls the whole dessert together. In the typical showy fashion of traditional bananas foster, the banana slices used for garnish could be made with the addition of some rum, and then set ablaze to let the alcohol cook off. Knowing my personal ineptitude with fire, I think it is safer to recommend a simple sauté. The end results are still extraordinary, even without the stovetop bonfire.

Banana Cake
2½ Cups All-Purpose Flour
2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
2 Teaspoons Baking Soda
½ Teaspoon Salt
⅔ Cup Plain Soymilk
1 Teaspoon Apple Cider Vinegar
½ Cup Margarine
¾ Cup Granulated Sugar
½ Cup Dark Brown Sugar
5 Ripe, Medium-Sized Bananas
1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract
6 Tablespoons Rum (Any Variety)

Caramel Frosting
1 Cup Margarine
3½ Cups Confectioner's Sugar
⅓ Cup Brown Sugar
1½ Teaspoons Water
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Sautéed Bananas
1 Firm, Large Banana, sliced into ¼ inch rounds
2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
1 Tablespoon Water

Preheat your oven to 350ºF (175ºC) and lightly grease and flour two 8 inch round cake pans. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, and set aside. In a separate small bowl, combine the soymilk and vinegar, also moving this to the side. In your stand mixer, cream together the margarine and both sugars until light and fluffy. Mash the bananas well and mix them in, along with the vanilla. Add the flour mixture, alternately with your now curdled soymilk, into your mixer. Ensure that everything is fully combined before equally dividing the batter between your two prepared pans.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of each layer comes out clean. Remove from the oven, and while they are still warm, poke the cake tops numerous times with your testing toothpick. Evenly pour 3 tablespoons of the rum over each of the layers. Let the cake layers cool completely before turning them out of the pans to frost.

For the frosting, cream the margarine well and incorporate the confectioner's sugar slowly. Microwave the brown sugar together with the water for approximately 30 to 60 seconds, just until the sugar dissolves and it begins to bubble a bit. Let the brown sugar stand for a few minutes to cool off, then pour it into the margarine mixture. With the mixer on high, beat the frosting vigorously until all of the ingredients are fully incorporated. Stir in the vanilla, and frost the cake as desired.

For the banana garnish, combine the brown sugar and water in a non-stick skillet over medium heat. Cook until the sugar dissolves. Add the banana, and stir to coat all of the pieces well. Cook for about 2 minutes, until the sugar bubbles and darkens into a golden caramel, stirring gently every so often. Remove the bananas from the skillet and transfer them to a silpat. Separate each slice so that they do not stick together. Let them cool completely before garnishing the cake.

Makes 10 to 12 Servings


My Sweet Vegan includes lots of other holiday-appropriate recipes, including:
Pumpkin Pecan Pie
Zesty Cranberry Crumb Muffins
Pfeffernusse
Chai “Cheese” Cake
Pomegranate Ginger Cupcakes
Autumn Harvest Pie
Baklava Tart
Cherry Chocolate Truffles
Five-Minute Coconut Fudge
Matzah Toffee
Pumpkin Toffee Trifle

To enter, leave a comment telling me about your favorite holiday dessert. Comments will close on Sunday, November 21. U.S. contestants only. Sorry!

For more cookbook giveaways, check out One Frugal Foodie every day this week!

Sniffin' Fumes

Have I mentioned that we're hosting Thanksgiving again? With an all-time high attendance level of fifteen people and a dog? (Yes, and you, Kevin.) And that our house is...not big? And that some of my in-laws want to exchange Christmas gifts the day after Thanksgiving and some do not, but I figured I'd better have their gifts purchased and wrapped just in case?

Clearly this week is the appropriate time for me to start redoing our kitchen that I've hated for six years. Especially because it is parent/teacher conference week and we have half days of school Wednesday through Friday. I tiled the backsplash on Monday (with self-adhesive tile) and I could have stopped there. But yesterday I started painting the trim. As my OB/GYN said to my husband and sister after I ordered him to just BREAK MY WATER ALREADY, I'VE BEEN ON PITOCIN FOR TEN HOURS, "We are committed."

Now I am committed to getting this project done. Well, mostly. When my husband asked if I planned to sand and paint the cabinets before Thanksgiving, too, I said, "Oh no, that would be insane!" He just smiled. And maybe the entire enterprise is insane to someone who didn't grow up in a house where her parents wallpapered the bathroom on Thanksgiving morning. (Hi, Mom and Dad!) But come on, our kitchen is the size of your pantry or mudroom. I can do this, right?

RIGHT?

And the Winners Are...

Numbers seven and forty-five, Beck and Yasharian! I have the screenshots of the numbers Random.org chose on my desktop, but I have NO IDEA how to post them. Please get me your info and Alisa will send you a bunch of vegan e-cookbooks!

Cereal and Elephants

My e-cookbook giveaway is here.

One Frugal Foodie's awesome cereal giveaway is here.

Enjoy Life Foods has a new blog.

The Food Allergy Support Group of Minnesota emailed me about a Food Allergy Resource Fair going on this Saturday in Hopkins, Minnesota. I have been to their beautiful state exactly once to visit a friend one October. We went to the first U.S. performance of this musical that was written and introduced by these guys and I saw Garrison Keillor in the audience. It was fabulous. And freaking cold.

Tomorrow I am going to the circus with hundreds of second graders. I'll just have to think about Water for Elephants to amuse and distract myself on the long bus ride.

Vegan E-Books Giveaway!

When I reviewed Hannah Kaminsky's Wicked Treats e-book, I asked Alisa if I could give away a copy, and she said "No."

Instead, she said I could give away TWO SETS of Hannah's FOUR vegan e-books:


Wicked Treats


A La Mode


Mission: Impossible Pies


Lunchbox Bites

I have all four of these e-books, and I cannot tell you what a perfect giveaway this is for this time of year. OK, I'll try.

Need some crustless pie recipes for Thanksgiving? Mission: Impossible Pies
Like your pies with dairy-free ice cream? Want to serve an easy dessert on Christmas Eve? A La Mode
Burned out on packing school lunches and out of ideas? Lunchbox Bites
Looking for holiday candy recipes? Wicked Treats can either be served as they are or slightly altered. I'm thinking that the Ghostly Vanilla Fudge will convert to Candy Cane Vanilla Fudge quite nicely....

*Many of the recipes are soy free or can be made soy free, and many are gluten free as well!*

To enter: Leave a comment here telling me which cookbook you are most excited about.

For one additional entry: Help to spread the word about this giveaway! Tweet it, share it on Facebook, or blog about it. Then come back here and leave a second comment telling me that you did!

Entries will close on Sunday, November 8th at midnight.

THIS GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED.

Spokesmodel

I bought a case of soymilk at Aldi today, as I often do. Ounce for ounce, Aldi soymilk is almost exactly half the price of Silk soymilk where I live. As I was leaving, an older gentleman stopped me to ask question after question after question about my case of soymilk. "What does it taste like? Why do you buy it? Is it good for you? I bet it's low in cholesterol and fat, right? You know, I had a neighbor in Texas who drank soymilk...." This exact same scenario happened the last time I bought a case of soymilk. Today I had an impatient toddler with me and was late for preschool pick up. And yet I COULD NOT not answer him, or just say, "Dude, it's wicked cheap. Go buy a quart and try it for yourself."

I had the same problem at second-grade orientation. I simultaneously resented being introduced as The Allergy Mom (my college friend D. suggests "Allergy B*tch on Wheels" as a more appropriate title) and being asked questions about ALL food allergies ("Are the pretzels I have at home processed in a plant with peanuts?") and yet could not SHUT MY TRAP when other parents were complaining about the new food allergy policies.

OBVIOUSLY, I don't mind talking about food allergy issues. I want our local stores to keep carrying dairy-free items, so the more people who buy them the better the chances of that happening. I want other parents to understand my daughter's situation. But I'd also like to go pick up a carton of soy yogurt and not have the lady in line behind me and the teenage checkout person play Twenty Questions with me about it.

I don't even know what my point is. Do you feel like the spokesperson for an issue? How do you handle it? Maybe I should start wearing a lapel pin:

I drink soymilk and you should, too! If you want! Or don't! Whatev! I gotta go.