Breakfast Benedicts

Sorry for not posting lately. I have been cooking new recipes, but all I can share are pictures so far because I was fortunate enough to be chosen to be a recipe tester for an upcoming cookbook called "Vegan Diner" by Julie Hasson.

Julie is the incredible video chef and baker at Everyday Dish TV so I was thrilled at being chosen to help test her recipes for her next cookbook.

I can tell you beyond any doubt this will be her best ever. If you haven't seen her making her wonderful recipes on the videos at her website, check them out. She also has a subscription option for some of her more incredible recipes, but many are free.

I wrote about one of those a few posts ago when I mentioned her Spicy Italian Vegetarian Sausages recipe. This was the one that was so good and yet easy to make that it swept the internet when she posted it last year.

This is Julie's first all-vegan cookbook, and will use comfort/diner food as the theme. How fun is that!

So far I've made two different kinds of pancakes using variations as Julie has refined them with her testers' input, breakfast sausage patties, and these Breakfast Benedicts, which have no eggs (natch) and I made using three of her recipes.

First, I started by making her Fluffy Biscuits, an option she gives in the recipe.

This batch was pretty fluffy, but I've since learned to follow her guideline on dough thickness before I cut them with a glass turned upside down. Her recipes are FULL of tricks and hints like that.

With the biscuits finished, I moved on to the making the bennies and one of her simple and healthy Hollandaise sauces (this was a Lemon Garlic one before I thinned it out a bit) to top it off. Here's the final product:

This was so good I ate two of them.

Bird Update:

On my last post I wrote about our back patio dartboard cabinet that had been used by at least two bird families so far this Spring. Grace told me it was actually four by that time and a fifth was looking at moving in on the nest.

She described as though it was bird house hunting. One day, the empty nest was spotted and looked at by one bird. Shortly thereafter, we cleaned the empty nest off and the dartboard inside to make it usable again. For us, I mean.

The next day, she swears she saw the same bird come back with another bird and it was like, "I swear, Alice, the nest was right here!" "Sure, Ralph, you made me come all this way to see an empty lot with no improvements. Honest, you have the worst sense of direction! And you call yourself a bird?"

- The Honeymooners as played by doves.

It Happens Every Spring

A momma and her babies on our dart board cabinet

A little different post this time...

We have a dart board on our covered, but open back patio. Every spring, birds, like this gray dove, see the flat top and build a nest.

For several weeks, Grace and I watch as eggs are laid and the momma perches on top to keep them warm until they're hatched.

When we go out the back door, the bird may first fly away while building the nest. When they realize we are no harm, they eventually just sit there and watch what's going on.

Talk about dedication, too - the momma never leaves her eggs. And amazingly, after a couple of weeks, the eggs hatch and we watch as the babies get strong enough to fly away.

The daddy bird (I assume) helps out by bringing food to the momma while she's sitting and helps feed the babies later as well.

After the birds fly away so do the parents, but within days - minutes, it seems sometimes - another momma has found the nest left behind and it starts all over again.

We've had at least two families there already this year, but I think we're all done as the season winds down.

It's good to know that during this struggling housing market our home is going to the birds.

Yogurt: High Culture

It's creamy. It's healthy. I think it can even be raw!

It's Little Miss Muffet's favorite dish - yogurt. (Well, what did you think curds and whey was anyway?) Turn it into yochee (yogurt cheese) and it will even be healthier, tastier, and more versatile.

I know you're used to buying non-dairy yogurt for a dollar or more per 6-ounce carton, but you can make it yourself for less than half that cost.

Yogurt contains very healthy bacteria (probiotics) used in the digestive system, it's high in protein, and it concentrates the vitamins and minerals present in whatever milk you use.

I use this yogurt maker to make a quart at a time, but you can do the same thing by wrapping a heating pad set to low or medium around a one quart mason jar and holding it in place with rubber bands.

It's just a warmer that holds a container.

To begin with you need a starter yogurt. You can use the yogurt you make to start the next batch though it will lose its potency after two batches. Put three or four tablespoons into your very clean measuring cup (wash very well if you used anti-bacterial soap).

Make sure your starter yogurt has active, live cultures.

You can use any milk. I used a combination almond and soy milk for this batch. You need to warm one quart of milk up to 110 to 120F, then thicken it with powdered milk equivalent to another two cups (2/3 cup powder).

I use powdered soy milk to thicken.

When I was making this I realized raw foodists can use almond nut milk if they make it very thick. It will stay raw because the temperature will remain between 105F and 120F. You'll need a yogurt starter, but the "live" part of yogurt is in the active cultures so I'm guessing that allows it to technically remain a living food. (My apologies to raw foodists if I've got this wrong.)

Now that I'm thinking about it, I suppose an Excalibur dehydrator would be perfect for this!

The milk, once brought up to temperature, gets the powdered milk and yogurt mixed in.

The mixture is poured into the very clean container...

...and the container goes into the warming unit overnight.

In the morning, yogurt is born!

Well, technically, it's yogurt, but it's so warm that it's still kind of runny. It needs to refrigerate several hours so it can firm up.

Once chilled it's hard enough to eat as yogurt, but it's not quite the same as the store bought stuff because it has no additives like gelatin to firm it up. However, there's a trick to making it not only thicker, but also tastier.

Strain it using a yogurt strainer.

Here are two types of yogurt strainers.

The box type of strainer is a lot more convenient in having a cover and holding so much more, but they both accomplish the same task. They get covered and refrigerated to strain out the whey.

After just three hours, quite a lot of whey has drained out.

Whey is a component of yogurt that has very little nutritional value and has the bulk of the sour flavor. Drain it out and the yogurt is much smoother tasting.

Three hours is the max if you want to keep it the usual yogurt consistency, but I recommend waiting at least 12 - 24 hours and letting it thicken to yochee, or yogurt cheese.

Yochee is a yogurt equivalent of cream cheese and can be used in much the same way. You can flavor it up in any number of ways or use it straight.

I even have this book dedicated to yochee uses. For instance, top a potato, make a spinach dip, or cook up a pesto sauce. (The Yochee pesto sauce eliminated 50 percent of the fat, 40 percent of the calories, and tasted great.)

Remember, you already added extra protein, vitamins, and other nutrients by making it 50 percent stronger than plain milk. By straining the whey, you're throwing out almost all of the carbs and doubling the concentration once again. Even just one heaping tablespoon of homemade yochee probably adds as much as 4 grams of protein to a smoothie (my favorite use). It also makes it smoother!

Two Easy Pieces

I can follow a complicated recipe okay, but I really love simple cooking.

It's so much easier when I can put all the ingredients in a pot or an oven, and let the cooking do all the work. Here's are a couple of easy dishes from two of my favorite websites that I recently put together.

First, I used Abbie's Roasted Veggies recipe from Foods That Fit. This is just as simple and wonderful a dinner as you can make. Cut up veggies and toss it with a sauce (teriyaki, spaghetti, or enchilada sauces work great) in a large mixing bowl.

I often use Kikkoman's regular teriyaki, but sometimes use the spicy miso for a little extra kick.

I just use my hands to toss the veggies with the sauce.

Then roast it in a pan lined with parchment paper for 40 minutes at 450F. Abbie usually adds cubed tofu or tempeh for the protein, but I had a different idea this time.

In the top photo, you'll notice some cut up vegan sausage. This isn't just any store-bought sausage, however. It's the famous "Spicy Italian Vegetarian Sausages (aka 'Julie's Sausage')" from another one of my favorite websites, Everyday Dish TV.

Julie's Sausage hit the internet and spread through the vegan world like wildfire about a year ago for its authentic flavor, texture, and ease of making.

You simply mix the ingredients in a bowl, scoop it out into aluminum foil to roll them up into links (or patties), then steam them for 30 minutes. Easy and just amazing. I like them after they've been refrigerated. It makes the texture a little firmer like authentic Italian sausage.

I love them with pasta dinners, but this time I added it to some roasted sweet potatoes, mushrooms, green peppers, and zucchini.

Two easy dishes combined for a bunch of healthy meals all week.

No Need To Knead

A couple of years ago, The New York Times created a foodie sensation when they published an article about creating Artisan Bread without kneading.

Since then it has been slightly refined here and there, and this is the version I have found best.

Mix the following into a bowl:
2 1/2 c bread flour
1/2 c whole wheat flour
1 t salt
1/4 t yeast (yes, just 1/4 teaspoon!)

...so that it looks like this.

Add 1 1/2 c warm water to it and stir. You're going to think this is WAYYY too much water because it will be a gloopy mess that sticks to everything - the bowl, the spoon, you name it.

Cover it in plastic wrap and let it sit for 12-24 hours.

Hey, I didn't say it wasn't going to take some time, just that it wouldn't need kneading. I usually shoot for 18 hours. Keep it in a warm place so the yeast can do its thing until it looks like this:

Here's the part where things get really sticky and gooey. Flour a board thus:
and dump that wet lump of dough onto it. (No pictures here because my hands were full of wet, doughy yecchhh.) Sprinkle some flour on top. Fold the sides over a few times. I generally do it from all four sides. This isn't kneading, it's just knocking a bit of air out of the dough and remixing the stuff so the yeast gets active again.

Put a well-floured, cotton (non-terrycloth) tea towel in a bowl (or just on the counter if you want) and toss the lump o' dough in it.
Drop the corners of the towel over the dough to cover and let it sit for two more hours.

With 30 minutes of rising left, put a covered, enameled cast-iron, dutch oven in a 450 degree oven to heat up. Anything from 3 1/2-quart size on up is fine. I've read the perfect pot is a French-made, Le Creuset, 5 1/2-quart size, but that's like a $225 pot! No thanks. I and my bank account are perfectly satisfied with my $39, 6 1/2-quart one.

Carefully toss the ridiculously sticky blob into the VERY HOT dutch oven, cover, and bake for 30 minutes. Then take the lid off and bake for another 15 - 20 minutes. It will look something like this:

It doesn't stick to the pot at all. Remove it carefully to a cooling rack.

This may be the coolest part of all! LISTEN CAREFULLY TO THE BREAD. IT'S CRACKLING! Because the crust is so hard, it condenses as it cools allowing the molecular structure of the crust to slightly break down.

Let it completely cool before trying to slice it. It's going to be sticky no matter what, but if it's warm the job will be even tougher.

The crust will be difficult to crack, so I recommend using an electric knife or a very good, serrated, bread knife. Also, because of the high water content the crust won't always stay hard so I slightly toast my slices before eating.

I've made lots of bread machine bread before, but it's NOTHING like real, artisan bread. This bread is holey and chewy and "rugged" in both its taste and appearance.

I made some creamy, creole white beans while baking the bread today and ate them together. Talk about good!

Crescent City Classic: More Of A Fun Than Serious Race For Me This Year

Here's how the New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper photographed the start of today's 20,000-runner Crescent City Classic 10K race. Do you see me there? ;-)

I suppose it's all how you look at it.

Three weeks ago I was limping with a Grade II Right Calf strain, threatening to keep me from running today's Crescent City Classic - not my longest race at only 10K, but my favorite race of the year because of the no-other-race-like-it, carnival-like atmosphere. I wrote about my injury here.

I took a full two weeks off from running hoping it would heal on its own. It got somewhat better, but it didn't heal completely.

I made it through three runs this week just to get some blood flowing through my legs and hoping that I wouldn't re-injure myself.

Well, I made it through the race today, but the lack of recent running and the tenderness of my hurt calf showed. I was hoping I could still run something around 45 minutes (7:15 per mile). In fact, I was on pace for that through the first two miles, but as I felt the tenderness growing in the third mile I couldn't maintain it.

For miles 4, 5, and 6.2, I had to drop to about 8 minutes per mile finishing around a disappointing 48 minutes (7:44 per mile average). I was afraid to push it to a painful re-injury so I just maintained that 8-minute pace to the end.

I know, I know. I should be happy I was able to participate at all. And I am.

But since going vegan in May '08, every race I've run has been a PR (personal record) or very close to it, and with no different training than I had ever done. A month ago I had high hopes for this, my first 10K race since then, but instead this one broke the streak.

With the disgustingly sweltering New Orleans summer heat and humidity coming soon, I won't be able to do any fun long runs for quite awhile. That's probably a good thing as it will let me heal. And as area races soon dwindle down to 5K, 3 miles, and during the worst months, just 2 miles, I'll still have some fun times ahead.

Several people have suggested over the past three weeks I look at taking up biking. It's low-impact, easier from an endurance standpoint, and uses different muscles to allow for healthy cross training. New Orleans had a Half-Ironman Triathlon (swim, bike, run) last week. I suppose Triathlons, or more likely for me, Duathlons (run, bike, run) are things to think about for the future.

I guess I'd need to get some kind of road bike though, huh? Well, we'll see.

VitaMix vs. Blendtec: Comparing the High-End Blenders (Part 2 of 2 Blender Showdown Articles)

Having tried and been disappointed with the so-called "best" of the moderately-priced blenders, I knew the choice was clear – VitaMix or Blendtec. These were clearly the two best known and heavily marketed high-end blenders available. In fairness to both, the major smoothie chains – Jamba Juice, Planet Smoothie, Smoothie King, and Starbucks to name a few – use one or the other of these machines so I knew there was no going wrong with either.

A good friend of mine who had unfortunately just moved away had gotten a VitaMix as he ventured into the raw food movement – an interesting idea I have read quite a bit about, but have yet to try.

There was no question the VitaMix was a good machine, but Blendtec’s “Will It Blend” videos and “Today Show” demonstrations caught my eye as they directly named and compared their blender to the VitaMix.

Here are the truthful comparisons as stated by Blendtec:

The Blendtec has a 3 horsepower (HP) motor. The VitaMix has a 2 HP motor.

The Blendtec is 5 inches shorter allowing it to fit under most cabinets. The Vitamix does not fit under most cabinets, although a smaller, optional wet-jar does fit under cabinets fine.

The Blendtec fit under the glass shelf easily.

The Blendtec weighs 4 pounds less. The VitaMix at 11 pounds is more difficult to move.

The Blendtec draws 13 amps on a 1500-watt motor. The VitaMix draws 11.5 amps on a 1200-watt motor. (Note: not really an advantage - see below.)

The Blendtec has 30 automatic cycles and shuts itself off at the end of the cycles. The VitaMix must be manually run and shut off.

The Blendtec has two prongs on its blade allowing it the versatility of blending wet and dry ingredients. The less cluttered bottom also makes it easier to wipe clean and dry. The VitaMix has a four-prong blade design that requires the additional purchase of a jar with a slightly different blade design for dry ingredient blending (grinding wheat, coffee beans, etc.).

The VitaMix has four pointed prongs on its standard, round, wet-jar container while the Blendtec has two blunt-end blades in its one, square-jar container.

The Blendtec warranty on the coupling and blade is for a lifetime. The VitaMix warranty on the coupling and blade is for seven years.

The Blendtec was slightly cheaper. The VitaMix is currently $50 more expensive and that’s without the optional dry ingredient jar purchase costing up to an additional $99.

The Blendtec square jar allows pouring in three directions (any corner except on your hand!) while the VitaMix only has its one spout.

I also found the black printed measuring markings on the Blendtec jar easy to read. The VitaMix uses transparent raised markings that aren't as obvious. The optional, smaller VitaMix jar does have easy to read, black, printed measuring markings

When I found the Blendtec on a special sale for $75 off their already lower price I was sold.

For two years I have used and enjoyed the Blendtec. It has blended the toughest frozen smoothies and nothing has ever gone wrong with it. It has performed admirably, but, as you’ll see, I wasn’t convinced it was the perfect blender either.

BLENDTEC RATING – a stellar 9 / 10.

Last week, I went to the New Orleans Home and Garden Show in the Superdome where VitaMix had a demonstration booth. After talking to the people there, checking it out for myself, and getting their “show-only” deal I bought the VitaMix knowing that one of the blenders would be immediately be sold or returned.

After the first smoothie in the VitaMix, I knew I would put the Blendtec on ebay.

Because Blendtec directly compared the two machines to show its advantages, it's only reasonable that I list the VitaMix advantages that swung me to their side.

First and foremost, the VitaMix is fairly loud, but noticeably less so than the Blendtec. Do you remember the ear protection I needed with the Oster blender? I still needed it for the Blendtec, but I’m comfortable without it for the VitaMix. Obviously, this was something I sensed immediately at the demonstration booth.

When I wanted to run the Blendtec and my wife was watching TV nearby, I would warn her and make sure it was OK to blend so it didn’t interfere. She hated the noise! If the dogs were in the room where I blend, I would make them leave because I feared it might hurt their sensitive ears.

The VitaMix isn’t nearly as much of a problem. Blendtec falsely claims in their comparison chart that the VitaMix is louder, but it most assuredly is not.

The “show-only” deal for the VitaMix (brand new models, not refurbished) sold them with a special, longer, eight-year warranty (instead of seven) while the Blendtec’s warranty (except for the blade and coupling) is only three years. I had one year left on the Blendtec warranty.

The “show-only” deal also included a coupon for $40 off any blending jar accessory, bringing the optional dry blade container cost down to $59.

The “show-only” deal also included an extra book not even offered on the Vita-Mix website called, “Beating Cancer With Nutrition” – not a big deal, but a nice lagniappe anyway.

Speaking of books, Blendtec’s recipe guide is rather lackluster while VitaMix’s is more complete.

I had long ago discovered Vita-Mix’s excellent smoothie web page at VitaMix Smoothie Recipes. Blendtec has more recently added a smoothie page at Blendtec Smoothie Recipes, but it’s not as good (an orange juice smoothie without fresh oranges?).

Also, it’s just a marketing decision, but Blendtec appears to have largely ignored the raw food community whereas VitaMix actively encourages its use for those practicing a raw, live-food diet. I'm not often a raw-foodist and I'm sure Blendtec will change this in time, but it is a bit surprising.

Besides the noise factor, the Blendtec also named some “advantages” in their advertising I mentioned above that aren’t really advantages at all. The amp and wattage “advantage” only means that the Blendtec uses more electricity to run than the VitaMix does, and has no performance boost as a result.

The 3 HP versus 2 HP is true regarding the higher top strength of the Blendtec motor, but the higher strength doesn’t mean better blending because of other factors, such as blade speed, blade design, and jar design.

The Blendtec has automatic cycles that shut off by themselves when they’re completed, but how often will you need or even want to walk away for some period of time after turning on a blender? And if you do, how will you know the blending finished without needing to be run some more to complete the job?

The Blendtec advertising claims that its 2-prong blade and square jar construction mean that the ingredients are always drawn into the center and that cavitation (the blade running with cold ingredients not getting mixed) won’t occur. This, they claim, means it doesn’t need a tamper to move ingredients around while it’s running like the VitaMix. This is not true. Their instruction booklet even mentions what to do when it happens. When it occasionally occurred, I had to shift the contents (usually by lifting up and shaking the air bubble out) and run some additional time in the Blendtec after the smoothie cycle ran.

The tamper makes the VitaMix even taller, but it easily pushes ingredients safely into the spinning blades below.

The Blendtec experiences cold ingredients freezing up and staying away from a fast spinning blade just as any blender, including the VitaMix, does, but the designed inclusion of the VitaMix tamper is an essential addition and a huge advantage over the Blendtec. Third party manufacturers of tampers (strongly recommended) for the Blendtec offer them for sale on ebay to even this out, but Blendtec’s claim that they’re unnecessary is decidedly incorrect.

The tall VitaMix blender jar also means that there is a reduced chance of ingredients being thrown against the capped lid than on the shorter, wider Blendtec’s, which keeps things a little cleaner. The Blendtec’s wide, airy, jar bottom maintains a very slight edge in cleanup of the bottom around the blades. Even on the VitaMix, it’s just a slightly tighter rinse and wipe operation, though.

The manual, 10 speed setting on my model of the Blendtec was sometimes awkward if you wanted to stop it on a specific number under 10, say, speed number 8, because the numbers ramp up rather quickly and you pick the speed by releasing the button when it reaches the number you want. More recent models have a speed up and speed down option to make this easier to accomplish. The VitaMix, on the other hand, has a variable-speed knob and a special high setting above the top knob setting which is used to work on tough blending jobs like frozen smoothies. I strongly prefer the easy manual control of the VitaMix.

Blendtec’s smoothie cycle is pre-set (listed as button #3 on some models like mine) on its front, but that cycle only goes up to speed number 8 and for only 6 seconds at the end of the cycle. This isn’t enough for many frozen smoothies even if cavitation hasn’t occurred at the earlier, slower speeds programmed into the smoothie cycle. It sometimes takes a few more seconds holding in the pulse button at the end.

Blendtec’s top speed of “10” spins its two, wide blades at 28,000 RPM. VitaMix’s top speed of “High” spins its four blades at 37,000 RPM. This, more than anything, provides faster and better blending ability by the VitaMix despite Blendtec’s additional horsepower motor. Blendtec’s 3 HP motor may provide additional strength, but I’m not trying to blend hot tar or congealed glue so VitaMix’s still awesome 2 HP motor is perfectly adequate for my tasks.

Again, don’t consider this a put-down of the Blendtec’s ability. It is an awesome blender and has some advantages, but simply not as many as the VitaMix. The excellent reputation of the Blendtec was shown by me nearly getting my original purchase price back in selling the two-year-old machine because of the great sale price I found when I bought it.

Having now bought the VitaMix means I will have no further significant blender investments for the next eight years of my warranty, and have not found any major drawback to the VitaMix’s performance whatsoever. Sure, it’s a significant cash outlay, but I’ve compared it for myself and found the investment worthwhile.

12 –CATEGORY SHOWDOWN

(The first five categories scored are rather minor, the next three can be important for some, and the last four are the most important to me.)

Cleanup – Even (but Blendtec with VitaMix's smaller blender jar.)

Strength of Motor – Blendtec slightly, though I couldn't tell

Speed of Blade – VitaMix slightly, though I couldn't tell

Measuring Markings - Blendtec (but Even with VitaMix's smaller blending jar)

Accessories/Extras – VitaMix (especially if purchased at a Live Demonstration)

Size – Blendtec

Versatility – Blendtec (but Even with VitaMix’s dry jar added)

Cost – Blendtec

Noise – VitaMix

Control – VitaMix

Warranty – VitaMix

Blending – VitaMix (but Even if the Blendtec is used with an added Third Party Tamper, especially on the Manual settings)

If the cost factor or the size of fitting a blender under a cabinet or shelf were in your most important category section, I wouldn't hesitate to buy a Blendtec and get a Third Party Tamper. Otherwise, for me, the VitaMix clearly wins.

VITAMIX RATING – an almost perfect 9.9 / 10 (improve the visibility of the measuring markings on the regular blender jar to make it perfect).