Monday, July 18, 2011

Adventure on the High Seas

My brother took my niece (5) and two nephews ( 11 & 12) down to the beach to camp in a tent for the night. Until a giant thunderstorm rolled in off Lake Michigan....

Grandpa to the rescue!

My brother calls my cell phone as grandpa heads that way. "Dad is on his way," I sleepily say. "Good!" says my brother, "because the tent's about to blow! I'll wake the kids."

How were they still asleep if this storm woke me up and I'm in a house?

I'll get stories from the kids tomorrow....

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Coffee Cake - Vegan Style

OK, I woke up this morning and thought, "I know! I'll make a coffee cake to share with my friends." (Mandy and Brian are staying with me this weekend; they're going to see U2 tonight here in Nashville.) My original idea was to make one using the Pioneer pancake mix in the cupboard but when I got there, I realized that I didn't have enough of the mix to make the recipe.

Turn on computer and search Google: "vegan coffee cake recipe." And up popped this. It's baking in the oven now....

East Coast Coffee Cake:

INGREDIENTS:
Topping:
1 C. flour
1/3 C. brown sugar
1 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. nutmeg
1/4 C. canola oil, plus up to 2 T. more if needed

Cake:
3/4 C. non-dairy milk (I use almond milk here.)
1 t. apple cider vinegar
1/3 C. sugar
1/2 C. canola oil
1 t. vanilla
1 1/4 C. flour
2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt

PREPARATION:
Preheat over to 375 degrees and grease an 8-inch square pan. Mix the milk and vinegar together and set aside to curdle.

Mix topping by combining flour, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add canola oil and mix until crumbs form. You want mostly large crumbs.

For the cake, mix milk mixture, sugar, canola oil and vanilla. Add flour, baking powder and salt, and mix until smooth. Pour batter into pan. Evenly sprinkle the topping over the batter and pat down just a bit.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes (I baked for 30 minutes). Let cool one hour before serving and sift powdered sugar on top before serving, if you like (I like).

***This took less than 10 minutes to stir up and what I love about vegan recipes is that they are such basic ingredients that you are bound to have them in your kitchen if you cook or bake at all.

***I found the recipe here. This person found it in Vegan Brunch by Isa Chandra Moskowitz, which sounds like my kind of recipe book. I'll have to check that out.