Mama GiGi's Back Porch Corn Bread (oh you know what I mean)

I am not necessarily prone to exaggeration. At least not the way my sister, who we call Heidi Hyperbole is. If Heidi tells you she found a $100 bill outside an AT&T store that enabled her to pay the remainder of her cell phone bill for the month, she most likely found five bucks outside Trader Joe's and was able to buy a burrito. Heidi is an embellisher not a liar-liar pants on fire. So when I tell you that this cornbread is the best you ever had, remember it's me talking not Heidels. When I tell you that people travel far and wide for this sweet moist cornbread I mean it! Far and wide might only be fifteen to twenty miles but since I am presently without a car, far and wide takes on a whole new meaning. To me far and wide is like living in the Old West. It could take me and my posse  twelve days to reach San Francisco from Oakland in a stage coach...(just once I would like to be upgraded from coach...bahaha). They'll be no Wild West campfire cooking today, unless I can getta hold of some Dandy marshmallows. No sirree boy, we're talking bayou cornbread cooking. Step aside Paula Deen. Here's some sauteed mustard greens, with hearty 'shroom gravy and Mama GiGi's mouthwatering cornbread "graced" with a pat of Earth Balance.
You have to say "grace" when you partake in Southern fare. It makes baby Jesus happy. And for some reason the cornbread tastes better.

Mama GiGi's Back Porch Cornbread 

2 1/4 C Flour
1 C sugar
3/4 C cornmeal
1.5 T baking powder
1 3/4 C rice milk or any vegan milk even vanilla flavored is fine
1/4 C water mixed with one T Ener-G egg replacer
1/2 C canola oil
1/2 stick + 1 tsp EB (hey it's Southern Cooking) melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease an 8" by 8" pan. I line it with parchment and regrease lightly.
Combine flour, sugar, cornmeal, baking powder in a medium bowl.
Combine rice milk, Ener-G slurry, canola oil and melted EB in a small bowl.
Add liquids to flour mix. Stir with wooden spoon til just combined. Lumps are cool. Pour into prepared pan.
Bake for about 50 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Warm cornbread....the stuff that food dreams are made of. Y'all come back now ya here. You too, Paula.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Marshmallows Pillow Talk

I have had numerous posts where I've chastised outdoorsy mountain people for roasting globby white stuff on a stick. I am an activist about this stuff! I mean business here. I feel so vehemently about this that I've even been a lone protester outside little nine year old Hannah's sleepover.

"I know you're in there Hannah!"
"I can smell the S'mores from out here on your corner".
"You and Brownie troupe 522 are killers"! KILLERS. Do you hear me? Those marshmallows are tragic!
A megaphone works wonders here.
KILLERS!
It worked until I had to pay my $5.00 fine for disturbing the peace. What's 5 bucks when you got a mission?
Marshmallows are unseemly. They are deceptive little buggers. Marshmallows seem so cuddly and soft and pillowy and chemical-ee. And they shmush so nice. And when they're drenched with chocolate and, and see, you see how those marshmallows draw you in. Damn candy crack. It's not right. But I don't need to tell you again what they're really made of.

A couple of weeks ago I had a hankering for the kind kind of marshmallow but my local health places were not cooperating. I was about to order some from several suppliers online and everybody was out of stock. Larry's the man. He happened to be picking up some ingredients at WF and lucky for us WF just started carrying Dandies there the day before. Yay!

Remember how the marshmallows of yore tasted like powdery yuk? A Dandies marshmallow has none of that powdery junk on it and is delicious. It might be a little smaller than the old- timey mallows but it's not a marshmallow midget. In addition to gobbling these from the bag, my buddy Mo and I whipped up some bark.

Mallow Bark

We had this on hand:

1 12 oz bag vegan chocolate chips

12 Dandies

1 Cup walnut pieces

1 Cup crushed Jojo's

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Melt chocolate chips in double boiler. When completely melted, stir in remainder of ingredients. Pour onto prepared cookie sheet. Level it out with a wooden spoon or heat proof spatula. Freeze for about an hour. Break into pieces and eat as much as you can and if you can't sleep read the rest of my blogs. 

This bark would rock with dried cherries and roasted almonds but alas we did not have any.

And that's enough pillow talk for tonight.

A MoFo Calendar Day 4

Day 29, I mean 4- MoFo. You ever see those old black and white flicks where a newspaper spins or a calendar flips to indicate the passage of time? The time never crawls. If it did movies would last 2 years instead of 2 hours, but that's beside the point. I think there should be a MoFo advent calendar. You know with pithy sayings and pictures of pretty vegan tartes and taters, and well, an annual calendar too, which would include me of course, (Just a reminder, I am not a tarte).

Here's an idea for September, "National Vegan Tater Month".
Caption, "Hey This is No Small Potatoes". "Top Your Tubers With Earth Balance, Chopped Chives, and a Dollop of Vegan Sour Cream".

Or, "Let's Take August in My Neck of the Woods", (Northern California). It's, "National Save The Climate and Eat Vegan Cookies Month".

In "National Vegan Cookie Month", I'd remind newbie vegans to forgo real marshmallows, (Horsies), and real white chocolate and tell them they could order these vegan items from  happenin' places like:
Food Fight, http://www.foodfightgrocery.com/ 
and Cosmo's, http://www.cosmosveganshoppe.com/

Of course I'd throw in some delectible cookie recipes and a contest or two. Check back and I'll promise to do both those things during MoFo month. And I'll keep you abreast of the calendar too. See you Day 5, but who's counting?