2020 Done....

one of my favorite 2020 sunrise pics

no filter

I almost never filter the sun shots here...

with natural beauty like this, would you?

Although I set the bar pretty low for 2020 goal-wise, I still didn't hit them all. I'm usually manic about goal setting and achieving any set goals, I'm not fretting too much though because other things came up that demanded my time which were far too important to back burner. Presently it's not in my best interest to speak much of those issues. Instead, as I round up 2020 on a computer screen, I'll focus on good things. 

Firstly, I am still alive, obviously I am still alive. For your information, 2020 has not been the worst year I've been through, not by a long shot, which is one of the reasons I feel positive. If Irma had not happened here so close to the time that Covid came into all our lives, I may have had a different perspective. However, since recovery from Irma is ongoing I've been able to cope with quite a lot of pandemic related issues that others seem to be struggling with. I never want to lose sight of the difficulties our community (and myself) all faced in the aftermath of that catastrophe. The year after Irma was probably the worst year of my life, and I've had some crappy years under my belt. Since 2018 is still so fresh in my life, I can say 2020 was doable, workable, but not without challenges of course. Our area was closed to non-residents and non-essential workers for hmmm.... 3 months? During that time, here we did lots of work. Any business always needs attention if you want to keep a good business running well, even when it's seemingly not running. We cleaned, we organized, we painted, we created. We reimagined our business for operations during the Covid pandemic. As essentially a social type of business needing to move temporarily into a less social model in order to be sustainable, we've succeeded.

When the Keys did reopen, we didn't know what to expect, but we felt we were ready. Overall things have been going as well as can be expected. Business is down, but as I look around as to what's going on with other places I am nothing but thankful. We are here, we are healthy, our guests are pulling their own weight with understanding and mindfulness. I am privileged and thankful.

This year was also one of great loss, just weeks ago our sweet tuxedo girl Luciana Luna Bean crossed the Rainbow Bridge. Her passing was expected, yet not. Only a very few short months ago she was a happy healthy girl living her best life. Once we received her diagnosis, her health deteriorated rapidly and right before my eyes. We supported her, loved her, cared for her and did our very best along the way. Of course it wasn't enough, nothing was going to be enough to save her. I am profoundly grateful that she came along with us for a little camping trip we took shortly before her diagnosis. For someone so tiny (her weight upon passing was barely 4 pounds) the space she took up in our lives was enormous and I'm struggling daily with her absence. I'm not the only one struggling, as Diesel has a very troubled heart right now as well. Early this morning we went out to pick up Luciana's ashes. She was cremated on Christmas Eve. She was actually a "Christmas" kitty. Her shelter name was "Holly" because she was born around the holiday. I hadn't thought much of that until I saw her cremation date. Maybe there's some significance to this, perhaps not.

We still have Dorian "empty the shelter" foster kitties who we named Biscuits & Gravy. With the pandemic, the shelter has been very supportive to all foster families, and we feel very fortunate because we are all still hopeful for their adoption, together.

This was the first year in many years that Vegan MoFo didn't happen. Even my feeble goal (4 food posts in 1 month) was one I couldn't pull together. Maybe 2021 will be the year I decide to go back to sharing more things on the blog, I've been considering this for quite a while. It's been difficult though because there's been a lot of challenges that I'm coping with that I probably wouldn't write about. I want to be authentic, so I am still working through if I can find a balance for writing here more often, or not.

I understand there is a lot of pain, anguish, anxiety, violence and negative in this world. We all are subjected to challenges, that's a given. It's important to limit the amount of energy we absorb from others when we are dealing with our own recoveries and survival, but just as important to help those we are able in whatever ways we are able. Mostly I feel that if there's a better, more compassionate and kind way of doing something, then we have the moral obligation to do so. This includes living vegan, of course.

My hope is that as we move into 2021, people will understand the connection of zoonotic diseases, which will finally be a lightbulb moment for the ETHICAL reasons to live vegan, and we'll be just that much closer to a vegan world. As long as I have breath in my body, I will never stop being a voice for the voiceless. Animals are not here FOR us, they are here WITH us. I've seen good things happening that I never thought would occur in my lifetime (there's actually mainstream ads on media for plant foods!!!) but as Covid showed us all... we have a HUGE way to go. In fact, as I write this, texts are coming in from a dear friend about preparations going on next door to her for a "celebratory" pig roast. Her heart is broken, as she is one who lives with compassion living a vegan life. There's nothing celebratory about a pig roast, it's cruel and unnecessary. This is not a judgment, this is a fact.

If you've taken time to read this post, I thank you. I wish us all a better and brighter world in 2021, and a vegan world at that. We must help others learn, to help pre-vegans understand that veganism is not a personal attack on themselves (oh the irony, right?) and instead to show those in need how to be vegan.

Thank you. Happy New Year.

www.howdoigovegan.com

Not VeganMoFo 2020: Birthday Cake

I didn't hit goal. I hoped to have a post up every week for you in October, but only managed one. Well, I suppose if I get this published today, that will make 2, so I'm batting .500, in sports not bad.

My friend turned 50. I have been so pressed for time I couldn't do what I would've liked, but I managed a chocolate fudge cake with American Meringue buttercream. To decorate, I made 50 chocolate caramel hearts, and homemade Twix bars. It's the Twix that are the star on the cake, the recipe is at the end so scroll down. I stopped caking after Irma and essentially mostly only bake for friends and fun. I truly wish I had more time to do things for friends when there's a memorable occasion. This cake was decorated very quickly. I stuck all the vegan Twix bars all over the top at random angles and spaces. There was a lot of them, they covered the top. The Twix bar cookies shattered when I took them out of the pan, but the components tasted so great on their own I still wanted to use them. I was right... once they were all assembled and coated, they were fabulous. This is a "decorate and run" cake, which has basically been my theme for the last year. The goal is just get it done. We were headed out of town for a few days, so I had to deliver the cake 2 days before the party. I have no idea how the cake tasted, what it looked like after 2 days, nor what it looked like when sliced. I was long gone by the time the celebration was on. I hoped for a photo, but nothing has come through yet, so here's what you get:

9" double layer chocolate fudge cake

AMBC frosting

50 chocolate caramel hearts

homemade twix bars

vegan sprinkles

drizzled in salted caramel

Once again my kitchen counter looked like an autopsy

had occured after I was done with the cake.

I am not known for being neat while baking.

This sad bit of avocado was leftover from breakfast service.

I'm no fan of avo, but still had plans to use it in my lunch.

I never had lunch, and the avo was in the wrong place

at the wrong time.

RIP avo.

I jammed all the twix bars of random sizes all over into the top of the cake after icing. I had no plans for how to fit 50 chocolate caramel hearts on this cake, so I just started sticking them anywhere. I had just enough space for 50. When all was said and done with the vegan sprinkles from Sweetopolita, I filled a pastry bag with quick salted caramel, and drizzled the entire batch over the cake. I figured if a little salted caramel is good, more is even better.

Vegan Twix Bar link: https://mayihavethatrecipe.com/vegan-twix-bars/

For what it's worth, the finished ones on the link above looked a bit fatter or fuller. Perhaps it was my pan size, I used an 8" square pan. Mine also baked way faster, check them at 15 minutes and then every 5 minutes there after. My caramel was soft, but firmed up enough after chilling.

The salted caramel sauce I made for the drizzle was at this link: https://www.yumsome.com/simple-4-ingredient-vegan-salted-caramel-sauce/

I thought this was a great recipe, very simple. Don't "force" this recipe and try to cook it faster, your sugar will scorch and you'll need to start over. Be patient, your sugar will melt and soon enough you'll have a great caramel sauce.

I used Chef Chloe's chocoalte celebration cake from her dessert book (I think that's the one it's from).

I used Meggan Leal's American Meringue Buttercream for the frosting, I love working with this recipe. It's not too sweet. When it's hot, go for at least a 50/50 split of shortening vs. vegan butter. At least where I live, the vegan butter is way too soft to hold up to piping and transport in the warm weather. We're still in the 80s here temperature wise. I actually did a full vegan butter recipe, so the piping was much softer than I wished (but the flavor was far superior doing it this way). When time is not on your side, you just do the best you can with your cake and do it with love.

Sprinkles are from the vegan offerings at Sweetopolita, as well as some of the special vegan sprinkles my friend who passed away sent me before she died. My supply of them is dwindling.

I have a few other things I hope to post about, I'll do what I can to get a few posts up in the next few weeks.

Go vegan, stay vegan.

xo

(Not) VeganMoFo Day 1 2020 - Latex Food Allergy

Completely in line with the dumpster fire that 2020 has become, there doesn't seem to be an "official" Vegan Month of Food blogging/vlogging event this year. I still hope to get at least four posts up this month. I meant to do one every week, but we're already on the edge of the third week, while this is my first MoFo post.

I recently learned about latex food allergy syndrome, never heard of it before but had to ramp up quickly as a guest arrived with this, and I had no advance notice. After speaking with the person and taking some onotes, I felt a bit overwhelmed. I immediately got to researching and started a safe meal plan for them. I should point out that not every person has the same level of sensitivity to every "no" item for any allergy syndrome, and this was the situation I was faced with too. My writing here by no means represents a "one size fits all" when dealing with latex food allergy, but what I'm talking about today worked for the person I cooked for.

Right after she checked in, I immediately set to making plenty of unsweetened almond milk as soy was off the list (simply almonds and water, try it!) Next I set to making "Better Butter" from the Gentle Chef's Non Dairy Evolution Cookbook with the almond milk. These are 2 fast and easy items to make, but I am unable to share any of Chef's recipes as they are copyrighted. I'll share what I can at the end (none of his recipes).

Today is a rainy, windy and gray day. I saw the forecast and knew comfort food would be a good choice. I settled on "Bangers & Mash" with a side of marinated kale salad for one of the breakfasts. Here's a picture, and afterwards is what I did:

Vegan Bangers & Mash with crusty bread

Marinated Kale Salad on the Side

I made the "bangers" using the Gentle Chef's recipe from The Gentle Chef cookbook. Prep ahead, these come together quickly, but after steaming they need overnight to set up. I used the Chef's spuds recipe from the same book, as well as his savory onion gravy... same book. For the spuds and gravy, I used the almond milk and Better Butter I had prepped previously. The night before I also made a marinated kale salad. Apparently peas are a very traditional side dish for bangers and mash, but I have a big aversion to peas, and sometimes my preferences slip through to the public menu. I went with the kale salad because I had 3 beautiful bunches of organic red and green curly kale plus it's a solid recipe. I did, however have to make my own fast vegan "parm" because the commercial one I had on hand had an ingredient contrary to the latex food allergy concerns. All I did was process almonds, nutritional yeast and sea salt in my food processor. No, it's not parm, but it's good enough as an ingredient for the recipe, as you'll see below.

Marinated Kale Salad (my recipe is veganized, original non vegan recipe published by Katherine Martinelli)

1-2 bunches kale (I prefer curly

juice of 2 lemons

1/3 cup olive oil (I'm out, I used non GM safflower)

2T dijon mustard

1/4 cup grated vegan parm*

salt & pepper to taste.

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and whisk well. Wash and chop your kale into small pieces, place in bowl. Pour dressing over the kale and massage well. Do your own add ins if desired, I like dried cranberries and pumpkin seeds. Sometimes I add chopped pecans, not this time

*vegan parm (recipe from Forks Over Knives)

1 cup almonds, cashews or walnuts (I used almonds, cashews were a no go w/latex food allergy)

1/2 cup nutritional yeas

1T salt free seasoning (I used scant amount of sea salt as I did not have salt free seasoning)

Process in food processor with the "s" blade til powdery.

I also baked a loaf of artisan overnight bread to sop up the extra gravy. The little picture above shows a small plating I made for the other happy vegan, but for guests their food was tucked into the most eco-concious takeaway packing I can currently source.

For this particular situation, I was still able to use gluten and nuts. Cashews are off the list, but remember technically cashews are a fruit so that does make sense to me. I also used flours made from legumes to replace any eggs. Being able to work with nuts gave me lots of latitude to create, including a sunflower seed based "cheeze" which I used in place of cashew cream.

For me, I took advantage of being in a position to challenge myself again when faced with yet another food allergy syndrome someone else is living with.  It's almost like when someone is a new vegan, we just need to discover new ways of doing old habits.

Pick up any of the Gentle Chef's books, or at the very least make the kale salad, it's delicious.

Vegan love!

xo

I'm Still Here and We're Going to Celebrate Vegan Food!

Hi. It's been a while. How have you been? I'm ok, but like the supermajority of people around the world, I have concerns about Covid, social justice reforms, politics, the economy, healthcare and so much more. Since we last talked on this blog, we reopened our business for a total of 5 1/2 months after being closed for 2 years due to Hurricane Irma, and then had to shut it down because of Covid. In fact, the entire Florida Keys shut down, there was a checkpoint in place at the top of the Keys where apparently you had to prove your residency or if you were doing business, had to prove you were essential. I cannot say I did anything of merit during the months the Keys were all closed, rather I stayed home with the other happy vegan and worked very hard on all the loose ends we didn't get to finish when we were reopening from the 2 year Irma closure. I reimagined a vintage armoire into our new coffee bar (that was a much larger undertaking than I thought it would be). I painted some dressers for our own personal use. I organized piles of things to donate to different places. I did the biggest deep cleaning of the kitchen and whole back of the house since my post Irma death cleaning. Not once did I go out for months. It was an odd time in our lives to say the least.

I've been wondering what happened to VeganMoFo for 2020, I know I'm not the only one. I sent an email to the administrator weeks ago, but it went unanswered. There's no clues at all on line as to the status, and the website is not working either. I cannot help but have concern for her under the circumstances, and I have been channeling positive energy for her. Tomorrow marks October 1, and I've decided to at least do a weekly post celebrating vegan food. Although it seems like we will not have an international organized event this year, I feel like even after all these years, I still have so much to offer. Last year I did not follow the suggested prompts, you may recall instead I did 31 cakes in 31 days. I'm not sure what I will do this year, but it will be food, and there will at least be 4 posts for October, maybe more. I don't think I'll be doing videos this time around, they take a lot out of me and I'm never comfortable in front of the camera. I will have pictures, recipes and tips for you, likely with a few shenanigans tossed in for good measure.

If there's anything you're interested in, feel free to comment below and I'll do my best to address your ideas in a post.

Thanks so much!

Vegan love, 

Jen xo