My all time favourite thing is pie. It can be sweet pie. It can be savoury pie. As long as it is pie! My favourite sweet pie is blueberry. YUM YUM! After that, peach then strawberry. I even like a good strawberry rhubarb pie, but DO NOT try to give me a rhubarb or raisin pie. I detest raisins.
I grew up in a household where every Sunday night we would have pie as dessert. My mom would make her pies mostly with seasonal fruit. Every once in a while, she would make a killer lemon meringue. My Mom learned to make pie from my Grandma Betty (my Dad’s mom) and I then learned to make pie from both my Mom and also Grandma Betty. My Grandma Betty was the queen of baking.
All of the below recipes can be easily veganized.
Mom’s Pie Crust! It is the flakiest pie crust you will make. The trick is and you CANNOT skip this step, is you must add the vinegar! I’m not sure about variations for replacing shortening.
This recipe makes 2 pie crusts.
2 cups of flour 3/4 cups of vegetable shortening pinch of salt 4 TBSP Cold water (the colder the better) 1 TSP White Vinegar. (this is the only vinegar that will work)
In a large bowl add the flour, shortening and salt.
In a small bowl add the cold water and vinegar together.
With a pastry cutter or two forks cut into the flour and shortening until it is crumbly.
Once it is crumbly add the water, a few tablespoons at a time. If you find your mixture too dry, add more water. Make sure you only add a bit at a time.
Don’t over mix, otherwise your crust will be tough.
Now that all purpose flour is returning to shelves, why not bake something that isn’t bread. Everyone deserves a treat! Many of the ingredients of the cookies I’m listing below are likely in your cupboards.
Oatmeal Cookies were my least favourite cookie growing up because they always had raisin. Once I learned how to bake, I would make them and leave out the raisins or add chocolate chips. Raise your hand if you hate raisins. https://beamingbaker.com/simple-easy-vegan-oatmeal-cookies-gf/
When this all began, there was a wave of panic shopping that cleared the shelves of toilet paper, disinfectant everything and bread. We didn’t participate in any of the chaos. In fact I stood back, shaking my head in confusion, wondering why the fuck are you hoarding toilet paper? Shouldn’t you be buying non-perishable or shelf-stable foods? Our cupboards are always full of staples and canned goods. I have lots of flours and dried beans. I also grew up with a mother and grandmothers who practiced buying 2 of something when it’s on sale. They also knew how to preserve food and bake bread. Thankfully, I paid attention. Over the next few posts I am going to have helpful information on how to bake bread, cook dried beans and preserve. A series of homesteading posts if you will.
Currently, one of my favourite channels on YouTube is Glen & Friends. This channel focuses on easy to follow recipes and on Sunday’s post Depression Era recipes. Currently Glen is posting Pandemic focuses recipes, where the content focuses on using what you have in your cupboards and fridge. Glen also has several videos on how to make bread, including no knead bread. This type of recipe is for those who are new to bread making. Below is a link to that video.
If you are a little more adventurous and want to learn how to make your own sour dough starter I have written a blog post about that and the process of making sour dough bread. Click here.
Sour dough can be a time consuming process. If you want the shorter version, Glen & Friends also have a video for that.
If you want to get extra fancy, this channel has a play list you will like.
I go back and forth between using a bread machine and making sourdough from scratch. I gotta tell you, two of the things, I am really grateful that I own right now are three appliances, my breadmaker, Instant Pot and the pasta maker. Once people clued in that they couldn’t eat toilet paper, they started hoarding dried pasta as well. Below are a few breadmaker recipes, for those who have or who are going to buy a bread maker.
You can also do sour dough in the breadmaker.
Heck you can even make dessert breads in a breadmaker.
Recently we had a house party for my boyfriend’s birthday. I made an array of hot h’orrorduerves. The table was filled with many delicious vegan dishes such as loaded nachos, complete with nacho sauce, guacamole, salsa and sour cream. Cauliflower BBQ sauce wings, spring rolls, blue cheese dip, spicy sweet chili pepper sauce, cheese ball with chives, veggies, dips, hummus, cupcakes… all homemade. Did I mention… all vegan?
The one thing that caught everyone’s attention was the Cauliflower BBQ sauce wings. Everyone thought they were actual non-vegan wings. Even after I let them know they were not, they still tried them. Loved them. You know that you were successful when everything was gobbled up. All of the homemade food was gone, platters cleaned off, with the exception of some dredges of sauce and a wee bit of the cheeseball.
Quite often I am asked for the recipes for the dishes I make. Either by those who have eaten them or by those who have viewed pictures on my Instagram account. I do often use recipe books or recipes from the YouTube channels or blogs I am subscribed to. More often than naught, I do make things by just tossing ingredients together. This is a skill I learned from my Grandma Betty. A skill that can frustrate others, when you describe a recipe as a handful of that and a pinch of this. It’s definitely time to start writing these things down.
Similar to knitting, I learned to cook when I was ten. Partly out of necessity (to help out my working parents), partly because I loved to experiment with food and cooking was the ultimate experiment. I have always loved cooking and creating recipes. The end results may not always be what was expected and it’s true that our failures, even in the kitchen, teach us to be better at what we are attempting to learn or create.
I was blessed to have two Grandmothers who were amazing cooks. I learned different skills from both of them. Their passion for cooking and baking also became my passion. I learned how to bake bread, tarts, shortbread and pies. I got to watch them smile as they rolled out dough or kneaded bread. Every once in awhile I still get a waft of baking bread and nostalgia.
A few years ago my Aunt Margie copied Grandma Betty’s cookbook and my mom gave me a copy of Grandma Carrie’s recipes. Over time I have been converting them to Vegan recipes. I think it is time to start sharing these recipes.
As I mentioned above, In the beginning, I didn’t have cookbooks to guide me along. I learned how to cook by watching how others cooked. This was pre-YouTube, pre-internet. I KNOW. A time BEFORE the internet! Once I learned the basics, I needed to know more, I wanted to expand my knowledge. This is when cookbooks came into my life. Very often, I would borrow cookbooks from the library. Eventually, I started receiving cookbooks for gifts and then began my collection. A collection that continues to grow.
When I was a child, I grew up in an omnivore household. As a teen, I started to experiment with being a vegetarian and became a full vegetarian when I move out at the age of eighteen. Eventually, I became Vegan. When I did, I purged my cookbooks. I didn’t give them all away and if you looked at my collection, you will still see non-Vegan cookbooks. I still use those cookbooks… and convert recipes to Vegan ones. I have the Betty Crocker Cookbook my mom gave to me when I was a teenager. I also love to collect vintage cookbooks. These can often be vegan recipe conversion inspiration.
My personal style has usually been a horror-themed dinner party menus. The last few parties we’ve hosted have been less on the ghoulish side and I think I need to get back to being more of the horrific hostess. In my collection of cookbooks, I have horror themed or dark themed cookbooks. My next food related blog post will be of that theme. I have also started a food-related blog. You will find all of my future food-related posts at www.notvegannowvegan.wordpress.com.
Sweet Chili Sauce recipe (one of those toss items together and see what happens)
Ingredients:
¼ cup water
2 tbsp vinegar
1 garlic (minced)
2 -3 red chili pepper or tsp of chili flakes
1.5 tbsp sugar
Salt to taste
1 tsp cornstarch + 1.5 tsp water
In a saucepan add water and sugar. Heat and stir till sugar is dissolved.
Add garlic and chili pepper or flakes.
Add vinegar.
Add cornstarch mixture and stir till thick.
As it cools down it will get thicker.
YouTube Channels:
These are some of the YouTube Channels I watch. It is a beautiful mix of healthy and how to make Vegan junk food. For those of my readers who are from Toronto, I will note which ones are from Toronto (easier for getting supplies).
Hot For Food (Toronto)
It Doesn’t Taste Like Chicken (Toronto)
The Edgy Veg (Toronto)
Buddhist Chef (Montreal)
Those Annoying Vegans (the first half of the video is the recipe, second half is about Veganism)
Cooking with Plants
Deliciously Ella — (also she’s got a cute British accent)
Raw Food Not Gross (she isn’t just raw food/she is super kooky and fun)
and here as well, though her own channel is way more fun
Vegetarian Baker
The Vegan Zombie (because Zombies)
Vegan Black Metal Chef (because fun)
Be Healthy Be Happy
Sian Brown (A very talented musician)
Cheap Lazy Vegan (Canadian)
Nikki Limo’s Tasty Tuesday’s
High Carb Hannah
Sweet Potato Soul
Websites and bloggers (most of these sites you can also subscribe to their newsletters):
We’re just inviting you to take a timeout into the rhythmic ambiance of our breakfast, brunch and/or coffee selections. We are happy whenever you stop by.
Lizzie Violet 