Random things make a post

[oyceter]

ETA: Is anyone planning on going to Potlatch and/or Fogcon next March?

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Does anyone have recommendations for good vegan dessert recipes? General categorical suggestions are extremely welcome, such as "vegan cheesecakes are failproof!" or "don't even try vegan souffles, most of them are hard and don't taste good." Specific recipe recs also welcome, although they will be most useful if they are available online.

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There was a prize drawing on Kobo Books a while back, and amazingly, I actually won a Kobo wireless ereader! I've been reading ebooks, primarily library ones, over my phone and on my computer, but the LCD screen still makes my eyes hurt if I read for too long. So far, I love having a dedicated ereader, but I'm not sure I love it enough that I would have shelled out over $100 for it. There are some bugs in the software that drive me up the wall: it keeps reverting to "sort by title" after I sync it, and I hate how it divides my books between "books" (epub) and "documents" (pdf) and will not sort PDF by author, even if I've given the document metadata in Calibre. I do love that it reads epub and PDF.

I haven't browsed much on the Kobo ebook store, largely because I still refuse to pay money for an ebook I want to keep. I am still a bit of a Luddite! I love my shelves and being able to browse, and the slow refresh of the e-ink screen added with the Kobo ereader's lack of bookmarks (srsly Kobo?!) makes it very hard to flip through a book to get to my favorite parts. I am quietly rooting for the day I can buy a physical book and get the ebook with it, or pay an addition dollar or so to get the ebook version.

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I realize I have not blogged about my rats for a long time! Part of it is because Ren's death broke my heart, but a lot of it is also the move from LJ to DW, which doesn't have a handy photo-hosting option.

Anyway, Ed and Al are middle-aged or elderly rats now, and although they were pretty squishy before, they are even more so now! Especially Al. He is not quite as spherical as Bya used to be, but he is pretty close, and he does this funny waddle when he attempts to gallumph around. They are also the most prodigious chewers of all my rats, and I would poetically say that one of the rat blankets looks like a sky full of stars when I air it out and look at the light shining through all the gnawed little holes, but it seems rather silly to wax poetic about a literally ratty chewed-up blanket.

Al also has a cyst around the size of my pinky fingernail; it's been tested twice and is benign. Other than that, they've had very little respiratory problems, unlike some of my other rats. Since they are now older, they mostly like just snuggling up and sleeping (or chewing stuff), instead of running around like something is after them like they did when they were smaller. Ed! I mean YOU!! Also, now that it is getting chillier, it is super nice to have two fat rats sleeping on my lap when I read.

Al also loves to shred anything paper and drag it into his little plastic hut to nest. I know all rats do this, but Al so far is the most enthusiastic I've ever seen a rat behave, and I meanly annoy him by dragging all his carefully arranged paper scraps out of the hut so I can watch him scramble and put it all back together, one tiny scrap of paper at a time.

Witness! (sorry, terrible quality, I know)

Comments

[laurashapiro]

I marvel at their adorable rattiness. (:

Sorbet and granita are great vegan desserts and they're not terribly hard to make.

Oh, and I had been planning to attend FogCon, mostly because Vito's making it and she's awesome. It will depend on $, but yeah.

[oyceter]

Yay! I am hoping to go too, although not committed yet.

[bibliofile]

A friend also recommends the mango sorbet-thing from Trader Joe's, which could work in a pinch.

Also, my aunt made a vegan chocolate cake simply by substituting vegan mayo for the eggs + oil. Man, that was tasty! and it would work for many cake recipes. She dripped a ganache-type stuff over the top of the cake (which she baked in a tube pan), but you could probably put any sort of glaze over the top (e.g., powdered sugar + juice + a little margarine).

I'd love to go to both Potlatch and Fogcon, but they're beyond my means currently....

[oyceter]

Oooo that sounds delicious, thank you!

[robynbender]

Look for coconut milk recipes. Just a few ingredients can be killer-good.

Off the shelf: the coconut-milk "frozen desserts" made by "Purely Decadent" are amazing, even for omnivores. (Just the coconut milk ones -- I do not vouch for their generic "non-dairy" flavors)

You can make a killer chocolate syrup by melting good dark (vegan) chocolate bar with coconut milk, to the consistency of your choice.

One of our homey favorites is rice pudding made by simmering (leftover) cooked rice (basmati, jasmine, or sweet sticky rice) in coconut milk til it absorbs, mixing in sweet spices to taste, and dried fruit if desired (raisins... dried blueberries... currants... bits of apricot... whatever). A bit of orange or lemon zest is also nice.

But if it's closing off a feast, then laura's suggestion of a lighter sorbet is probably wise.

[oyceter]

Mmmmmm coconut milk.....

That rice pudding sounds awesome and I will have to try that some time (possibly not for this weekend, given the amount of food people are bringing, but for just me!!!)

[coraa]

I used to make vegan chocolate mousse this way: bring soft silken tofu to room temperature, then blend in a blender or food processor until quite smooth. Melt vegan chocolate, cool until still liquidy but not hot (you want the tofu and the chocolate to be as close in temperature as possible to keep from shocking the chocolate and making it grainy). Add the chocolate to the tofu, and continue to blend until well combined. You can add as much chocolate as tastes good, and you can always add more. (If you taste it and taste tofu rather than chocolate, melt and add more chocolate.) Taste, and add any of the following as the spirit moves you: salt, powdered sugar, vanilla extract. Chill.

If you put it in a prebaked vegan pie shell (or any piecrust recipe that uses shortening instead of butter, prebaked), you can make chocolate pie.

To give variant flavors, you can mix in fresh lightly crushed raspberries, or raspberry jam, or peanut butter, or mint extract, or crushed peanuts, or... really anything that would taste good with chocolate.

[oyceter]

Oooo thank you for the recipe! That sounds so good!

[kalmn]

I have a fogcon membership and am really hoping to go.

[oyceter]

Good to know, thanks! I think I'd like to go but am still making up my mind.

[phi]

this is one of my favorite desserts of all time, even compared to deliciously dairy-ful desserts.

[oyceter]

YUM!

[troisroyaumes]

I registered for FOGcon. I've never been to a con before but have been wanting to go for a while so I thought a local one would be nice to try.

[oyceter]

Oooo yes! First con experience! Do you think you will stay at the con hotel or just drive/bart/bus in every day?

[troisroyaumes]

I will probably BART over since the hotel looks pretty reachable by BART+MUNI. Plus, I'm a scrooge and would rather not spend the money on the hotel rooms...^^;

[littlebutfierce]

Ohhhhh I will try to remember to come back later & drop dessert links! (about to leave for work)

[oyceter]

That would be super appreciated, thanks!

[yiduiqie]

I recommend either this cheesecake recipe, or if you want something really simple, get some puff pastry, cut up some apples, cook them in a little something-that's-not-butter with a whole heap of sugar and some nutmeg, then turn them in to apple triangles.

[oyceter]

Ooooo I love apple strudel thingies, and that sounds easier than pie.

[vass]

I didn't know you had rats! I love rats, they're wonderful pets. I had to take a break because the short lifespans were getting to me, but they still have a place in my heart.

Tofu cheesecake is delicious. I would have thought it was foolproof, but a friend made the same recipe I did (from Leah Lenemann's 365+1 Vegan Recipes) and hers came out like chalk. I have no idea what she did wrong or I did right, but I'm guessing it was either the tofu selection or the blending.

Here's a chocolate cake recipe made in the Depression, and therefore vegan for scarcity reasons: http://southernfood.about.com/od/chocolatecakes/r/bl40212q.htm
I'm not sure if that's the same recipe I use - I haven't made it in a while - but it looks the same. I just googled 'depression chocolate cake'.

[oyceter]

Yes! These guys are ratties #6 and 7, and although I love older ratties because they are so mellow and smooshy, I am dreading it too. Still trying to decide if I can do another pair or trio, or if I need a break. Gah. They are so awesome, I only wish their lifespans weren't so short =(.

Oooo, thank you for the recipes!

[thistleingrey]

Fogcon: maybe--haven't registered yet nor even checked for deadlines.

[oyceter]

Yeah, me neither. And it's hard deciding when I am not sure if I will be employed or not by then.

[estara]

Ah, so that was YOU who won the Jennie Lin Sweepstakes? You ought to at least get no eye strain -which is one of my major reasons to buy ebooks almost exclusively nowadays. Also the ability to increase fontsize ^^. And the fact that I have no real room for more books in my flat and the choice of reading is larger when I take the reader with me.

But why I actually wanted to post: you can already get a hardcover book with ebook included - the new Vorkosigan book: Cryoburn. It comes - in the first printing - with all the ebooks of all the other Vorkosigan books (except for Memory, by mistake I believe, because Diplomatic Immunity is on there twice), among them the epub of Cryburn itself, as well.

[thistleingrey]

The epub content is also here in a series of menu links (upper left). Legitimate, according to the site's main page's footer.

[oyceter]

Yes! I was very amazed!

Oh man, it is too bad I am not a Vorkosigan fan (so far), but I have heard about the ebooks that come with it and wish more publishers would do that!

[loligo]

I highly, highly recommend Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World. Anything else by those authors is likely to be good too; I haven't checked out their cookie book yet.

[loligo]

Oh, hey, the authors just posted a cupcake recipe on their blog!

[oyceter]

TITLE LOVE!

[oracne]

Ratties!!!

[umadoshi]

Hee, industrious rat! ^_^

[telophase]

I made a vegan chocolate cake a couple of days ago, which turned out really good. It's from the edition of the Joy of Cooking that's not the Joy - the one where the recipes are all-new and contributed by chefs instead of being the old standards we know and love. (It's a perfectly good cookbook; it's just not the Joy.)

Dairy-Free Chocolate Cake (Vegan)

Preheat oven to 350° Grease and flour one 8x8" pan or line the bottom with wax or parchment paper.

Sift together into large bowl:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
6 tablespoons unsweetened nonalkalized cocoa*
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt

Combine and add:

1 cup cold water
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon white vinegar
2 teaspoons vanilla

Stir until smooth. Scrape batter into pan and spread evenly. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes.** Let cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes. Slide a slim knife around the cake to detach it from the pan. Invert the cake and peel off the paper liner, if using. Let cool right side up on the rack. Serve plain, dusted with powdered sugar or frost with Quick Cookie Icing flavored with rum, brandy, or coffee liqueur.

Anyway, it's wonderful with ice cream if you're eating it with non-vegan friends, and wonderful by itself with just the powdered sugar if you're eating it with vegan friends. The powdered sugar disappears into the cake by the next day, which will give you a start and make you wonder if you put the cake into storage upside-down accidentally.


* I used what we had, which was Hershey's Special Dark cocoa/ground chocolate. Tastes just fine.

** It took closer to 35-40, but I was also kludging together an 8x8" pan out of a 9x13" pan, heavy duty aluminum foil, and a 9x5" wide loaf pan, as I discovered we had no 8x8" pans at the wrong moment. So I'm not entirely sure what the final size was. It still turned out wonderfully, despite that.

[vehemently]

I've made this recipe too (more or less; I think I got mine from another source but they all use the same rising agent), and it's definitely good.

I think I did use a 9 x 13 pan, and it still took longer to bake than I expected.

[telophase]

After I posted this one, I looked at the recipe vass linked upthread, and it's similar also, with slightly larger amounts of ingredients and calling for a 9x13" pan. So it's probably a fairly standard cake, but standard for a reason!

I'll stick to the 8x8" version once I get a correctly-sized pan, otherwise I'd just eat more. XD

[oyceter]

Awesome, thank you so much!

[ellen_fremedon]

I don't have a recipe at hand just now, but I have had and made some excellent vegan carrot cakes and apple cakes.

Pears poached in port are a nice winter dessert, and vegan by design. Or a warm fruit compote-- I really like prunes stewed in Earl Grey tea with orange zest.

[oyceter]

Ooooo that sounds really good and a nice alternative to what will probably be a pretty rich dinner.

[(Anonymous)]

Rats are the best ever! Except for one thing: the short lifespans. If I could have a rat that lived as long as a cat, I would have a rat instead of a cat, I like them that much. After my last pair of rats died, though, I decided I couldn't take the short lifespans any more, and now I live with a kitty - if I ever want more rats, I'm going to need a bigger place with at least one room I can lock up that she'd never have to go into, because she acts like she'd probably be a great mouser.

As sad as rattie old age problems can be, I think I like older rats best. By that time, they've really gotten to know and trust you, they've mellowed out a lot, and (in my experience anyway) they tend to be more prone to cuddling. My rat Bear even got into the habit of sleeping in my hand - so cute! I hope you get lots of cuddle time from your boys.

[oyceter]

I love them so! I just wished they lived longer because it is so heartbreaking having to go through that every two or three years.

I love older rats! Mine have almost always been a ton more cuddly and of course mine get very squooshy because they eat a lot and don't run as much in their wheel, but it makes them even better to cuddle.

(Btw, would you mind signing future comments? I don't mind anonymous commenters at all, but I like getting to know who is commenting and it is hard to tell between anonymous commenters without a pseud ;) ).

[la_vie_noire]

Fat rats are back!

[rachelmanija]

Aww! I love it when Ed passes Al a bit of paper.

[oyceter]

I know!! And the moment when Ed attempts to stick his nose right into the camera lens.

[rydra_wong]

Ooh! I know a very lazy vegan dessert!

Peel some ripe bananas, lay them on foil, and split them down the middle as if you were going to make a banana split. Insert squares of very very good dark chocolate (dairy-free) in the split. Wrap the foil over them and bake them 'til they look done. Then you have luscious baked bananas with instant chocolate sauce.

There's also my experimental chocolate not-icecream.

[oyceter]

Ohhhhhh that sounds so tasty, thank you!

:-9

[elke_tanzer]

Mori-nu tofu pudding Mates, in chocolate flavor.

Plain, or served over fruit... strawberries, blueberries, bananas, mango slices...

http://www.morinu.com/product/mates.html

Oh, YUM.

Re: :-9

[oyceter]

Oh yum, thank you!

[lady_ganesh]

Your ratties are so cute.