Vegan MoFo 27: Cake

One thing that just grinds my gears is when someone decides to write a review to publish on Amazon of a vegan dessert book, and complains that there's sugar, oil, or flour being used. They always say the same things about being vegan for health and looking for healthy desserts.

If you want a healthy dessert, eat some fruit. Cake, cookies, pies, candies, ice creams - these things are not healthy by definition. Listen, my sister is a total health nut, and she's always making lovely healthy desserts out of sweet plants. I'm less motivated to eat by health, so I just eat my 22.2 tsp. of sugar each day and mind my own business.

What really bothers me about these reviews though is that it perpetuates the myth that vegan=healthy. I eat a lot of healthy food, but the first week or two of MoFo was nothing but grief eating for this blog.



Whiskey and ice cream for breakfast, pizza from down the street, and lots of brownies composed the bulk of my intake. All were vegan, all were distinctly not healthy.

Even when I righted things by eating foods that were light and nutritionally dense, I kept eating my desserts. I always reduce the amount of sugar that I use in recipes, but even still I know what I'm getting into.

Even when I make something in the fruit crisp/crumble/cobbler spectrum, and even when I reduce the amount of sugar, and EVEN when I add oats, I know that the word "healthy" has no business lurking around my post-entree ritual. In fact, I don't even want to get close to it by claiming that any of my desserts are "healthier" than the non-vegan versions. Mine are better for other living creatures, but I'm not about to be a guest of Dr. Oz for my groundbreaking work in diets.

Or maybe I will be ...

Well until then, I'll continue doing my current job, which requires me to bake a cake for a celebration for the students. I love making cake, and I have the library to do it well. But to be honest, I don't want to be bothered. I don't want to mix all of the ingredients and do all the fancy groundwork for a cake that will be won and eaten (probably in a few messy bites) by a school age kid.

And so for the first time in years, I bought a box of cake mix and a can of frosting. I never realized that some varieties from Duncan Hines were accidentally vegan. On top of it, I don't even have to do much more, since soda replaces all of the other ingredients.

I can't help but think this is a little gross. I try to avoid soda as a rule. I once had a serious Dr. Pepper problem, and having a soda kicks off a lot of cravings and sugar intake. These cake mixes can't exactly be low in sugar either. So while this kind of cake won't become my regular Saturday night thing, it'll do its job for an event like this.

I did learn that with this method, you have to bake it significantly longer than the box times, and that the toothpick test seems a little less reliable.

Obviously, I couldn't resist the urge to at least zhuzh it up a little, so I added a little orange food coloring to the can of frosting and a handful of chocolate chips. I wanted to do some Quick Melty Ganache from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, but I ran out of time. I had to run the the grocery and everyone in Baltimore is doing the same for hurricane preparedness, so lines were long. Additionally, there wasn't good light for the picture.

Today, I'm going to health it up with an apple crumble.

Vegan MoFo 19: How to Pick a Peach

One thing that I had been meaning to do after my move to Baltimore was get a library card. That was taken care of for me when I started working for The Village Learning Place. Once I had my card, I found the cookbook section and started to browse. Sadly, there are no vegan cookbooks, but there are vegetarian ones that seem to be perpetually checked out - bittersweet I suppose. I also found a particularly vegan-friendly book, thanks to a recommendation from a coworker.

How to Pick a Peach by Russ Parsons is a book that approaches everyone's favorite buzz phrases about eating seasonally and locally and attempts to cover the "The Search For Flavor From Farm to Table." Parsons approaches this search by weaving together several aspects of produce selection.

One thing that struck me immediately was the organization of this book. Following the Table of Contents, there was a list of the fruits and vegetables alphabetically, and then all of the recipes divided into course categories. This bodes well for a book that has several functions. It's all well and good to provide recipes, but for we meal planners, a merely chronological list just won't do it.

The introduction provides a brief primer on the history and economics of American agriculture. Parsons explains how a modernizing nation changed its habits, how grocery stores came to be, and how farmers' markets went from being common to scarce before enjoying a renaissance that seems to be getting stronger. He also highlights how convenience and availability have hurt our enjoyment of food, and how the organic movement isn't exactly what we think it is.

The other "modern irony" he discusses was more thought-provoking. Parsons points out that we have access to more ingredients than ever, but that most of them are not very good, and certainly not worth spending money on. He specifically points to how foodies may have obscure knowledge of techniques or fancy vocabulary, but they still don't know how to choose produce at the market. This is important because, "when you start with good ingredients, you finish with great dishes."

This makes me wonder how many people who claim that they could never give up meat/cheese/whatever really just couldn't give up such heavy flavor. How many of those people would be won over if they could choose and prepare amazing plant-based dishes for themselves?

What I really liked though was that the tone of the introduction inspired me to think about these things without being too assertive. I like assertive, but a lot of people are turned off by food politics because of arrogance, condescension, or outright cruelty. "I'm not one of those preachy vegans," is a cliché for a reason right? The introduction basically says that there are some things that people could benefit from knowing, and that's a great way to start a conversation.

From there, the book is organized by season, each one having several fruits and veggies under it. For each plant (or sometimes groups of similar plants), Parsons provides several pages of general information and then summaries under the headings: Where They're Grown, How to Choose, How to Store, How to Prepare, and One Simple Dish. All are very informative, but One Simple Dish is the most interesting to me because it would come in handy when you have something that needs to be used NOW, or when you have last minute guests to feed.

In addition to these quick dishes, each food has a few simple recipes to showcase it. These recipes aren't all vegan, or even vegetarian, but for the most part, the recipes are meant to feature vegetables and fruits, so making them vegan is simple.

Also interesting to the vegan who loves food politics (don't we all?) are the essays between each season. In the first, "The Plant Designers: Factories in the Field," Parsons uses the strawberry as an example to discuss how scientists and farmers mutate and manipulate breeds over time to produce new varieties of produce. GMOs as a serious issue are touched on briefly, but the focus is on the goals and the results of efforts to make produce that is robust, and ultimately profitable. While you may or may not agree with Parsons on everything, you can probably learn something or become interested in learning something thanks to these.

Finally, throughout the book are pages that are like sidebars; they aren't listed in the table of contents and they provide helpful bits of information. Some of them are about produce, like "When It's OK to Buy Unripe," while others talk about recipe concepts like Clafoutis or Souffles. As a lover of the sidebar, I'm all in with these.

Now nothing drives me crazy like a person who writes a cookbook review having never made any of the recipes, but this isn't strictly a cookbook. Plus, I won't review the cooking aspects yet. However, I will say that this is a book worth having, or at least reading. The tips on selection lined up with what I already knew, but I still learned quite a bit. I'm excited to go flex my new muscles at the Farmers' Market this weekend. Additionally, the information about agriculture reminded me why farmers' markets and food education are so important. Not only can you cook better food, but you can do right by your local farmers and community by making an effort to send your money directly to them.

I've selected three recipes from the fall section to make this week. I should be able to pick up most of the ingredients at the farmers' market. I will naturally report back. I know I can't really review this book completely until I've sampled all the seasons, so I'll revisit it throughout the year.

If you can't stand the suspense, take a sneak peak with this 2007 NPR story, Russ Parsons: In Search of Quality Produce. It excerpts the section on Artichokes, complete with recipes.

Quickie Book Review: The Animal Activist's Handbook

Do you have a free afternoon? Then read this book.



All at once, this book upset me enough to feel that I had to take action, and gave me a profound sense of hope and optimism. The Animal Activist's Handbook is a concise primer on the art of animal activism through outreach. Initially, the prospect of approaching strangers about animal welfare turned my stomach, but after reading this guide, I felt not only that I could do it, but that I should do it.

Authors Matt Ball and Bruce Friedrich provide background and justification for choosing to advocate for animals; methods, strategies, ideas and tips for animal advocacy; and a discussion on the the possibilities for animal liberation. The text is clear and concise, and I was able to move through this book in one sitting. When I went to leaflet, I found that I had confidence in my actions and in approaching other people. Though I ran into no opposition, I was prepared to discuss my position with even the angriest and meanest of adversaries.

At several points in my reading, I would think, "well, yes, that is pretty obvious," but the fact is that these were things I'd never thought about before, and though they made perfect sense when read, I don't know that I would have thought of them in preparing on my own.

This book is well-researched and in addition to offering tips on how to interact with people, Ball and Friedrich suggest other resources for the budding activist including The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and Stumbling on Happiness . The authors recognize that activism is not just what happens when we're handing out leaflets, or volunteering our time, but rather, it is a component of a lifestyle. The most effective advocate is one who is prepared in mind, body, and soul to tackle these issues.

Even if you have no plans to do any outreach, I encourage you to read this book. The information is valuable, and it'll make dealing insufferable anti-vegans much easier. Besides, it's my hope that the overwhelming call to duty will hit you too, and you'll hop online to order some booklets.