3rd Annual Mother's Day Brunch

Sunday was the 3rd Annual Mother's day brunch. This year's guest list was 30 people, a big step up from the first brunch I hosted, and 10 more than last year. More people meant a simplified menu. I had all sorts of plans to make danishes and croissants and donuts, but I just did not have the time to pull it off. But, rather than lament what I did not make, let's talk about what I did. First up: muffins. I decided that mini-muffins would be best since they would allow people to sample a variety of food without getting full from a mega-muffin. I made a batch each night in the days before the brunch (24 mini muffins per batch) and stuck them in the freezer. I went with the lemon poppy seed, pumpkin bran, bakery-style berry, and espresso chocolate chip from Vegan Brunch. Next: cinnamon rolls from Artisan Breads Everyday. The great thing about this recipe is that it does not call for an egg in the dough and is easily made vegan. I like the recipe better than the one I blogged about before (though the pic for that post is the background for the brunch invite I sent out). I also made lemon currant rolls. I always make them for the school bake sale and so they have become a thing. I always give the people what they want. This time I just used flax eggs and did not bother with the whole tofu thing. They turned out great. You can also see some vegan apple muffins my neighbour brought over. Next up is Vegan Mom's scrambled tofu. Simple and plain, and the kids don't freak out. Next to that is a bowl of sauteed onions, mushrooms, and pepper for those who wanted to dress the tofu up a bit. In the chafing dishes (new this year--borrowed from a friend) are roasted baby potatoes and a ton of pancakes (from Vegan Brunch).
We lined up three tables and sat 20 in the dining room/living room, with a kids' table in the summer room. Guests brought juice, tea, coffee, and fruit salads to round out the menu and we all went to town (I had to blur some faces because I did not ask anyone if I could post the pic). All in all, a great success!

2nd Annual Mother's Day Neighbourhood Vegan Brunch

Last year we had two families over for a mother's day brunch. This year, we went crazy and had 20 people over. It was, if I do say so myself, a grand success! Both kids and parents stuffed themselves to capacity with purely vegan fare and no one made a single joke about bacon. So, let's take a look at the spread:
In the front on the left are two spinach and sun-dried tomato frittatas, based on Isa's swiss chard frittata from Vegan Brunch.
I had two bags of baby spinach I had intended to use in an Indian dish this week but never got around to making. I figured sun-dried tomatoes would make the perfect accompaniment (they did). I was a little worried about the whole thing holding together so I added 2 tbsp of chickpea flour. The end result was amazing: nice and tender and bursting with flavour. I scaled back on the soy and seasoned with black salt to get a nice eggy flavour.

On the front right is polenta rancheros, also from Vegan Brunch. What you are looking at is a bowl of soft polenta, a bowl of black beans in rancheros sauce, and a variety of fixins (red onion, tomato, cashew sour cream, guacamole). This is a fantastic dish. You start with some beans, add a dollop of polenta, then garnish. This one is going into my brunch rotation.

In the back are oven roasted potatoes, and piles of pancakes (also Isa's recipe from Vegan Brunch.)
I also made some whole wheat bread for toast.
Son#1 made these signs for all the homemade jams and jellies.
In addition to cinnamon buns, I made these thumbprint rolls from Reinhart's Artisan Breads for Everyday. These are a sweet roll filled with fruit and glazed with icing, and they disappeared pretty quickly. I put the fruit filling in a piping bag and I found that to be an effective way to get maximum filling in without making a huge mess.

The guests brought muffins, fruit salad and trays, juices, and coffee and tea.

Tofu "Egg" Slices

When I posted the above pic of a Tofu English Muffin Sandwich with my review of rice vegan cheese, Brandie asked/begged that I share how I made the "egg-like" tofu slice. The answer is simple. I slice the tofu, fry for a few mins on each side in a bit of oil and then remove from the pan. I then add to the pan the rest of the ingredients from Vegan Mom's Scrambled Tofu (at least doubling the creamer), and whisk into a sauce. I add the tofu back and cook for about 5-7 mins, turning regularly to coat and adding extra creamer if it gets too dry. Once the sauce nicely coats the tofu you are done.

I am also eyeing the tofu omelet recipe in Vegan Brunch and think that would work well too.

Mother's Day Brunch

To celebrate Mother's Day we invited 2 other families over for vegan brunch. While I really wished that Isa's new brunch cookbook had come out already, I was able to put together a great spread. The other families contributed a fruit tray and some vegan cinnamon buns (true friends make vegan baked goods for you when they are not vegan themselves). First, I made English muffins from The Bread Baker's Apprentice. They were awesome, and better than the recipe I posted a while ago.

I also made the pancakes and herb roasted potatoes from Vegan With a Vengeance. Joining the spread was Vegan Mom's Scrambled Tofu (we also provided tomato and avocado slices for those who wanted to make an English muffin and tofu sandwich thingy (I refuse to call them McMuffins)).

We washed down the food with orange juice and chai tea (I'm not the biggest coffee drinker), and ended the meal with the Apple Walnut Maple Pudding Cake from La Dolce Vegan (a terrible picture of a fantastic dish). I am still full.

Vegan Mom's Scrambled Tofu

I have made a lot of scrambled tofu in my day but the kids have never been overly crazy about it. It either has too many chunks of veggies, or has too many bits of spices. Enter Vegan Mom's solution: straight up scrambled tofu. It looks an awful lot like the scrambled eggs they sell in hospital cafeterias, but for kids that is a good thing. It is uniform, has no weird chunks of unidentifiable vegetables, and tastes great. The kids asked for it two days in a row, so that's a winner in my book.

INGREDIENTS

- 1 pkg firm tofu

- 2 tbsp oil

- 1 tsp onion powder

- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard

- 1/2 tsp tumeric

- 1/2 tsp salt

- freshly ground white pepper

- 1 tbsp nutritional yeast

- 1 tbsp soy creamer

METHOD

1. Heat oil in a non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Drain water off the tofu and crumble into the pan. Cook for 3-4 mins, until tofu begins releasing its water.

2. Add the rest of the ingredients except the creamer and mix well. Cook for about 10 mins, stirring regularly, lowering the heat if the tofu begins to stick. The idea here is to let the water evaporate and the tofu firm up. You want to keep the heat high enough to facilitate this evaporation.

3. Add creamer and mix well. Allow some of the liquid to evaporate, then remove from heat. Serve.

Asparagus Crepes with Super Easy White Sauce

For those wondering about yesterday's brunch crepes, here is the recipe. Not much of a recipe, really, but it is super tasty!

INGREDIENTS

- 1/2 recipe crepes (I actually forgot to put the chickpea flour in and they turned out just fine)--it should make 10 crepes

- 20 steamed asparagus stalks

- 2 tbsp olive oil

- 1 generous tbsp flour

- 1 1/4 cup soy milk

- 1/2 tsp garlic powder

- pinch nutmeg

- salt and white pepper to taste

METHOD

1. Steam asparagus while you are making the crepes. My original vision was to make smaller crepes so the asparagus would stick out of the ends. So, whatever you want. Rinse asparagus in very cold water to stop the cooking and set aside.

2. Heat oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in flour and cook for a few mins, whisking constantly. Slowly whisk in soy milk and bring to bubbling. Season to taste and remove from heat.

3. Pat asparagus dry. Place two stalks on one side of the crepe and top with a generous tbsp of sauce. Roll up. Repeat with remaining crepes. Place in a warm oven until ready to serve.

Father's Day Brunch

Highlights from Father's Day Brunch. Happy Father's Day, dads! (especially you vegan dads . . . you know who you are)

Asparagus Crepes

Grilled Citrus Tofu Skewers

Lemon Currant Rolls

Apple Walnut Sausage Brunch Bundles

Sunday brunch has now become an institution at our house. Today I thought I would try to add something new to the mix. I browsed through a few websites for ideas (non-vegan brunch is very heavy on the eggs) and put together this recipe. These are quite tasty and when I described them to the boys as "little apple pies" they got very excited. They balked a bit at the walnuts (I am not sure why since they gulp down Isa's chocolate chocolate chip cookies with walnuts with no problem) but ended up clearing their plates in the end.

INGREDIENTS

Makes 8 bundles

Dough

- 2 cups all purpose flour

- 1 tbsp sugar

- pinch of salt

- 1/2 cup cold Earth Balance margarine, cut into chunks

- 6 to 8 tbsp cold water

Filling

- 2 large cooking apples

- 1/2 tsp lemon juice

- 3 tbsp brown sugar

- 2 tsp maple syrup

- 1 1/2 cups chopped breakfast sausage

- 1/2 cup walnuts

- water and soy milk for brushing

METHOD

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

1. Make the dough. Whisk flour, sugar, and salt together in a bowl. Add in margarine chunks and work into the flour with a pastry cutter until it looks like coarse bread crumbs. Add enough water in to make a soft dough, using a fork to work the liquid into the flour. Gently knead to thoroughly mix. Shape into an 8" log, wrap in a damp cloth and stick in the fridge while you make the filling.

2. Peel, core, and chop the apples. Mix apples with lemon juice, sugar and syrup in a bowl. Add sausage and walnuts and mix well.

3. Mark out 8 equal sections on the dough log (should be 1" each). Using a serrated knife, saw off a section. On a floured surface, roll out piece of dough into a 7 to 8" circle. Place 1/8 of the filling in the middle of the circle (about a generous 1/4 cup) and brush the edge of the dough with water. Bring up edges, working your way around the circle, and seal. Pinch the dough together in the centre to make a little peak (like you see in the pic). Place on prepared sheet and repeat with remaining dough and filling.

4. Brush bundles with plain soy milk and bake for about 25 mins, until golden. Cool for 10 mins and serve warm.

Brunch Skewers

Inspiration hit today as I was rummaging through the cupboards for something to make for lunch. When I saw the skewers from the chickenless wings, the now stale crusty French rolls, the pineapple, and the leftover breakfast sausages, the clouds opened and a light shone down upon me from heaven. A voice said, simply, "ye shall make brunch skewers, and they shall be tasty." I only wish that some strawberries had magically appeared in the fridge because they would have made this dish absolutely perfect. I also tried baking the french toast--success! If you have ever made vegan French toast you know it is a real pain (unless you have a brand new no-stick pan) because the batter sticks to the pan like glue. Baking french toast is easy and hassle free and is definitely the way I am making all my French toast from now on. The french toast batter recipe is adapted from this month's issue of VegNews and has a banana-y flavour which I totally love when combined with maple syrup.

INGREDIENTS

Makes 6 skewers

- 3 to 4 stale crusty French rolls (or French bread) cut into 18 chunks

- 1 ripe banana, sliced

- 1 cup soy milk

- 1 tbsp ground flax seed

- 1 tsp cornstarch

- 1/2 tsp cinnamon

- pinch of nutmeg

- pinch tumeric

- 6 mini bamboo skewers

- 1 tsp oil

- 2 large breakfast sausages (i.e. make 6 sausages instead of the mini ones the recipe calls for), cut into 6 thick slices each

- 12 pineapple chunks

- 12 thick strawberry slices (not pictured)

- maple syrup for dipping

METHOD

Preheat oven to 425

1. In a food processor, or with an immersion blender, blend together banana slices, soy milk, flax seed, cornstarch, cinnamon, nutmeg, and tumeric. Pour into a shallow dish and add in bread chunks. Toss bread in batter and leave for a few mins to soak in, turning once or twice.

2. While bread is soaking, wet the back of a piece of parchment paper and line a baking sheet. Spray parchment lightly with oil. Shake excess batter off bread chunks and place on baking sheet. Spray lightly with oil.

3. Bake bread for 5-7 mins per side, until it starts to turn golden brown. You can broil them at the very end for a min or so of you want to.

4. While bread is baking, heat oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Fry sausage slices for a few mins, until heated through and a little crispy on the outside. Remove from pan, increase heat to med-hi, and add pineapple chucnks. Fry for 5 mins, stirring regularly, until beginning to brown. Remove from heat.

5. Assemble the skewers in the following order: french toast, pineapple, sausage, strawberry, french toast, pineapple, sausage strawberry, french toast. Serve with warmed maple syrup for dipping.

I also made the chocolate chocolate chip cookies from Veganomicon for a clean up/work night at the boys' school. I am totally making these for the upcoming bake sale and wanted try out a method that would consistently yield cookies as big as my head. So, I measured out 1/3 cup of cookie dough and pressed it into a 3 1/2 inch metal ring. I then baked for 11 mins--6 cookies per baking sheet (yes, they are huge!). They came out perfectly!

French Toast

Another recipe from Sunday brunch today. I made this one up on the spot in an attempt to use up the Italian loaf I bought earlier this week, and then promptly forgot about, and which has been getting staler by the day. I have made French toast before with chickpea flour, but I always thought it had a weird taste (I know, I am a total wuss). This recipe worked out pretty well, I think, but would be interested in what recipes other people have used.

INGREDIENTS

- 8-10 thick slices of stale bread

- 1 cup silken tofu

- 1/2 cup vanilla soy milk

- 1/2 cup soy creamer

- 1/4 cup arrowroot powder

- 2 tbsp brown sugar

- 2 tbsp white sugar

- 2 tsp vanilla

- 1 tsp cinnamon

- 1/4 tsp nutmeg

METHOD

Heat a griddle over med-lo heat

1. Blend all ingredients (except bread, of course) in a food processor or blender until very smooth. Pour into a shallow dish.

2. Dip bread into mixture, coating both sides and letting excess drain off. Place into lightly oiled (margarined?) non-stick pan and fry for 5-6 mins, flipping every 1-2 mins. The trick here is to not let the sugar in the batter burn, but to cook it long enough for the toast to firm up. Once firm to the touch, remove from pan and serve.