meansoybean

I was on vacation recently and had black forest cakes on the brain. But being stuck at home, without convenient transport to the grocery store, I had to pull a MacGuyver and use what I had on hand.

I had all the cake-making ingredients, a jar of blueberry preserves from IKEA and, luckily, had a box of Soyatoo in the cupboard. It was purchased a year ago, in the hopes of making a vegan crème brulée, and was nearing the its printed shelf life date. I’ll admit that this is not a stock pantry item and, without it, I would have had a hard time making a fancy-looking cake like this. I say “fancy-looking” because I had to use thawed blueberries, which were wrinkled and not pretty. In hindsight, I shouldn’t have used them to top the cake as well.

The chocolate cake recipe I used was from The Joy of Vegan Baking. I switched the suggested pan type to a square dish and watched it like a hawk while it baked in the oven. Once it was cooled, I sliced 1 inch off the edges then divided it in half, resulting in 2 rectangles. I then split each one horizontally to produce the 4 layers that would be stacked to make the cake. I tasted the discarded edges and was a little worried; it wasn’t very sweet or chocolately. But I continued on.

That morning, I had put the Soyatoo in the fridge. I also put a stainless steel bowl and mixer beaters in the freezer. Just before cake assembly, I whipped the already somewhat fluffy Soyatoo at high speed along with some white sugar to help keep the stiffness. I’m actually impressed by this product, but I felt guilty eating it. Consider this a special treat.

The layers went on like this: cake, preserves, whip, bluberries, cake, preserves, whip, bluberries, cake, preserves, whip, bluberries, cake. After all that, it was smothered in the remaining whip. The sides were covered in shaved semi-sweet baking chocolate and the top was decorated in piped whip and blueberries. It sat in the fridge for a few hours before the first slice was served — and the remains held up pretty well for several days.

In the end, it was good that the cake layers weren’t sweet because the entire thing put together was sweet enough. While it was fun making this I think it’s strictly a special occasions thing, ya know? Still, it’s not bad for a MacGuyver cake…

If you were to look at my kitchen counter, you would have seen no more than 7 patty pan and yellow squash (squashes? squashii?). I won’t say that I’m sick of them, rather, I tired of looking at them.

I’ve been making white pizzas with the yellow squash. Halved length-wise, de-seeded, then thinly sliced and tossed in olive oil. Spill them on some rolled out dough then sprinkle generous amounts of chopped green onions, organic oregano and nutritional yeast, finished off with a little salt and freshly cracked pepper. Sliced leeks could work nicely, now that I think of it.

The some of the patty pans were used to make a moist cake, but I found this recipe not sweet enough and a bit grainy. Probably because I omitted the raisins and the fact that it calls for whole wheat. I’ll have to work on an adaptation of my own in order to polish off the remaining squash.

At least the farm says the plethora of zucchinis is over.

So what else did we get these past two weeks? Well, let’s see… Frizzy lettuce, field and cherry tomatoes, orange and purple carrots, fresh onions, kohlrabi (blech!) as well as ground cherries (yum!). I might try to make a jam or something with the last one.

Speaking of canning, I placed a special order with the farm for 600 grams of basil and 5 kilos of plum tomatoes. While I’m waiting, I’m starting to gather the equipment and am reading up as much as possible. I’ll probably make pesto and freeze it, but the tomatoes will be canned. I hope this trial works out because next year I would love to try and preserve a year-long mix of diced and crushed tomatoes. The key word is try since I’ll have to successfully grow them first (eek!).

Looking for a cool canning site? Check out Tigress in a jam or Tigress in a pickle. Pretty neat!

Recently a local group put out a petition to demand that chicken rearing for egg production be permitted in Montreal. At first, I thought “finally…”, since I’ve read stories about urban chickens popping up in various US cities. Let me elaborate…

For a long time, while waiting for the day I would buy a house, I’ve wanted a few hens of my own. But, contrary to everyone else, to me, they would be more like companion animals who also happen to help out with the garden; eating unwanted pests in the garden and working the soil. You might think that chickens are a strange choice, but I think a tarantula is a strange choice of pet.

Also, if ever I could raise chickens on my property, I would possibly consider eating eggs again, once in awhile. Possibly. Before I continue, let me just say that eggs were the last thing I gave up before going vegan. There’s a reason why they were the last to go; I like(d) eggs. If I were able to care for the hens myself I’d be sure of the quality of the eggs produced. But a chicken-owning vegan could just as easily barter those freshly-laid eggs for something else.

The bottom line is that, no matter what, I would let them live out their lives. Just like my cats.

But are Montrealers ready for their own hens? I don’t know.

The push for chickens in Montreal is solely based on being able to have fresh eggs easily. But given that a hen will lay for about 5 years and can live up to 18 years, this brings up a question no one has addressed in the media: what will these urban farmers do once their hens stop laying? Will we find abandoned chickens on the streets? This would cause strain on already swamped animal shelters. Will a black market of backyard-chicken butchers develop? I have an unsettling feeling this would happen. Because this question hangs in the air, I’m sure I would feel compelled to go chicken-crazy and open a rescue in order to save as many of them as possible.

While I’m obviously a proponent being able to raise your own chickens, I question if others are actually responsible enough to do it in a humane way, in an urban environment, that won’t burden the network. There needs to be set regulations that stipulate the number of chickens allowed on a certain sized piece of land, and to ensure that they’re raised in proper conditions. We cannot have people raising these birds in apartments. We cannot have dirty coops that attract rats. But who will enforce these regulations? The municipality already doesn’t have enough inspectors for all of the restaurants in the city, how will it be able to handle this?

Maybe there’s a more structured way to include chickens in urban farming… The city already has a slew of community gardens, why not add community chicken coops too? This will allow the chickens to be raised in a proper environment and people will be able to share resources and care costs. I think this is definitely the better option for most of the island of Montreal where lawns are rare and apartments abound. I hope everyone comes to their senses and considers this.

So while I know I’d be an ok chicken owner, I have my doubts about whether opening the flood gates on chickens is a good idea for the city. Just like any other animal, they require a lot in order to thrive and be happy. Let’s not make this decision in haste.

I’ve been getting some awesome hot house tomatoes from the basket lately. It reminded me about the cream sauce I found over at Vegan Yum Yum a couple years back. Back then, I was keeping Grapeseed Oil Veganaise in the fridge and I figured out I could substitute the cream cheese called for in the recipe with that. This time, however, I did happen to have some cream cheese so I thought I’d dust off this old chestnut. It was tossed with some fettuccine and served with blanched organic tatsoi. I think I like the sauce made with vegan mayo.

Other basket items were these orange cherry tomatoes, yellow/green beans, carrots, more zucchini, mesclun, fresh onions and dill.

Busy, busy, busy. That’s all I have to say about the last two weeks. In terms of organic baskets, we saw mesclun, carrots, tomatoes, cucumber, yellow and patty pan squash, yellow and green beans, kale and (pointy) green cabbage.

The beans went into a fried rice, the yellow squash topped some white pizzas, the cucumber was tossed into a tahini salad, the kale was a last minute addition into a thai curry, the cabbage was made into slaw and also tom yum soup. Needless to say, it’s been good eatin’ round here.

Actually, I’ve been very good with the basket this year and haven’t wasted or thrown anything rotted out. Now that I have a backyard composter, all the trimmings go there instead of the garbage — I was amazed at how little garbage this house produces now, what with recycling whatever else we can. For the longest time during the apartment-renting days, I would find myself saying “I wish I had a backyard so I can have a composter!”. How many people actually wish for something like that?

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So.. who’s been keeping me so busy? Meet Upgrayedd (“the double d is for a double dose of pimping”).

Funny enough, I was supposed to adopt a little girl cat, and was told by the couple who fostered the mom that Upgrayedd was a girl. I brought him home and thought his rear looked funny for a female and spent the next few days before the vet visit questioning myself. The vet confirmed that he was indeed a boy.

He’s a bit of a handful, but his cuteness makes up for it. He’s very sweet and he’ll fall asleep in your arms, something my other cats won’t do. He absolutely hated being in quarantine and started to climb the windowed doors, all the while howling and howling. It’s hard to believe, but this little 3-pound body can be LOUD.