Recipe 67 - an epic mini!

Well folks, we're coming to the end of the world...
No, sorry that was last week.

The end of the year!  Can you believe it?  Already!   Just last year I was with the bff who was not vegan yet, and her posse making Disney drinks!   We had so much fun!

Not only that, Jan 1st is my 2 year veganniversary!   I'm stoked.  Since I started this blog not only have I gotten some of my family members to eat a little bit vegan, but I've also gotten a few people near and dear to me to trade in their animal consumption hats for full on veganism!   Yay me!  Yay them!  <3

But..
Before the year ends, we have to make another plea to farm animals (basically I call this the 'gift yourself some farm animals' month)
So, how am I going to do that?

Let's talk about horses!
I know I have talked about them before.. remember last year when they legalized horse meat?  BIG SIGH.  I did a 'horse burger' in honor of them by making a veggie burger out of everything a horse would eat!  Yes it had grass, carrots, oats.. my goodness!  :D

So, since we've talked about the big horsies, let's discuss little horsies.
There are a couple of great miniature horse rescues out there if you google them.. but I saw the pic here and had to send you to THIS ONE.

I love horses, we all know this.  It's not a secret. 
I even got to meet a mini horse last weekend.  OMG cute! A lil pig though.. but he was SOOO CUTE!

Anyway, let's learn a little about horses and why we shouldn't eat them.  (And please remember if it's in italics it's not always my views, just edumication folks.)

"Horses are pets, companions, and sporting animals...they are not livestock. Americans don't eat horses, and we shouldn't be supplying those who do. Horses are a spiritual icon of the West and our heritage. It is cruel and inhumane to slaughter a horse. Let's address these one by one:
Some horses are pets, companions, and sporting animals. If the owner chooses, they have every right do determine how, and under what circumstances that horse is put out of its misery, and how to respectfully dispose of, or utilize, the carcass.
The simple fact of butchering a horse for food is cruel and inhumane. Regardless of the long-standing humane methods of slaughter legislation, and universal government inspection of meat processing plants. Regardless of the handling of live animals, the veterinarian approved methods of killing. Regardless of the fact that once death has occurred—quickly, and as painlessly and stress-free as possible—all sensation ends, and that what happens to the carcass is no longer an issue of animal welfare. Regardless of all of this, there is a very vociferous, well financed, and heavily orchestrated effort to legally establish that the simple fact of killing a horse for human food is cruel and inhumane in and of itself. If they can legally establish this, then those of us who make a living with livestock know that it is easy to assert that all animal agriculture is cruel and inhumane, and to destroy our way of being and our culture utterly and completely...this is what HSUS/PETA has said is their ultimate objective"

Mind you, I think butchering any animal for anyone's pleasure is inhumane.   If I want pleasure, I'll do it the PLEASING way - which is not murdering a live animal.

Regardless,
I'll get off my soap box and talk about what's on it's way to my table.

For Christmas, Jen got me a mini pie baker.  (How cute is that?)
So, it's only fitting that I, well, make some pies!!!





On NYE of this year, we'll be snacking on mini cherry and apple pies from the mini pie baker (2 each).  And YES they'll be served warm with a little vanilla coconut milk ice cream on top.
Oh HELO YUM.

So, let's do some numbers:
And we'll do this as a serving - because they logically serve one.

Apple Pie                              Dwarf Apple Pie

Calories - 512                                 272                                         
Total Fat - 26.7                               8.4
Cholesterol -  31                              0
Sodium -   241                                153                     
Total Carbs - 67.8                           45.4
Fiber - 5                                            3
Protein - 3.6                                    2.4
WW Pts -  14                                   7                                      

Cherry Pie                             Elven Cherry Pie

Calories - 490                                234                                         
Total Fat - 20                                 7.2
Cholesterol -  28                               0
Sodium -   340                              172                     
Total Carbs - 70.2                          42.5
Fiber -  8                                          2
Protein - 5                                        3
WW Pts - 13                                    7                                      

Okay!

So, my NYE afternoon will be spent figuring out this new pie baker, and making a pie crust.  And dinner is going to be epic (but I'm not sharing that with you, I'm sharing it with someone else) ;)



I guess I should find my NYE finery (cuz I have that stuff) and get a menu set up for the evening.  Suppose I'll ring in the New Year with another bite of pie?
:)

Keep it tuned here to find out in 2013!
Have a safe NYE folks!  And make it magical.


Music enjoyed while blogging:
The music inside my head (wow I miss my laptop)

Current Motivation:
Creating a MAJOR YUM NYE dinner complete with dessert!

Current Craving:
A veggie burger and fries with mustard and extra pickles..

Recipe 66 - Part two of Christmas Day Food Ideas - Fried Tempoose

Well,
I hope everyone had a good Christmas, if that is what you celebrate!
I for one had a very nice day with the family, and then came home to nurse out the rest of what seems to be a sinus type headache.
Regardless, let's talk about FOOD !




Earlier in the week I made grasshopper cupcakes for my baby mama, it was our annual holiday get-together, and we not only enjoyed Chipotle and lights, but we also enjoyed some nice peppermint cupcakes later on.
Also, I gave some to my brother and his lady friend, as well as some fudge that I made for the masses.  (I'll not forget the phone call from my boss in which she said "OH MY GOD!"  I answered, well, you got Sheri, but I'll answer to God.)
;)  She was in love with the one cookie, I nor anyone else cared for, that I made.. the peppermint chocolate swirl cookie of which I veganized from an Alton Brown recipe.
Later in the weekend, I helped super cookie woman to 'not bake' any cookies, and kinda sorta bake a carrot cake which never got all the way finished.  We worked so hard.  On top of that I got to meet some very pretty horses and take a mini trip to the new Jungle Jims!  That was the weekend. 

Then, it came.  Christmas eve.

goodies for santa and reindeer!

I'd decided to make more peppermint cupcakes (and I'm glad I did because my dad actually wanted those, instead of the plethora of other non-vegan sweets at our Christmas table)  and then I worked on the Tempoose.

Why am I calling it Tempoose?
Remember, I'm reliving a fried Christmas 'goose' w/o the goose.  Please don't eat the goose!

Now, I've done this a number of times, so this wasn't new to me.  I finished my last cupcake and started in on making flour and batter and cutting up my favorite flax tempeh.


Dip, dip, fry... sizzle
Dip, dip, fry... SIZZLE!

I wanted some then, but I couldn't have any.  So, I settled for a Gardein 'chicken' steak and some mac and teese.

The next day - food was first.   My mother halved out clean boiled potatoes for me to mash with a little coconut milk and broth, and I made up my gravy, heated up some veggies and re-heated my tempoose.

And wow was it good.
And so was the cupcake.

And all in all, we had a good day.
'cept I didn't get Once Upon A Time S1.  No worries, I have a birthday soon!

But look at how excited I am for these pants.

Hee.  They're comfy too.. I have them on right now!

Ok, we're on our last leg of holiday baking and I've got something mini in the oven for NYE!
You gotta wait and see.. I'm making use of a Christmas gift.
But - what animal will we be saving this time?

Hold on to your mini Shetlands.. I'll be back to discuss it with you, later!


Music enjoyed while blogging:
A heater

Current Motivation:
Wondering why everything is so quiet during a blizzard

Current Craving:
Good Lord, nothing.  Bleeech.

Part two of two Christmas day food ideas

"Seven Swans a swimming, Six geese a laying'  FIVE GOLDEN GOSLINGS!! (don't correct me), four calling birds, three french hens twoo turtle doves and a PARRTRIIDGE IN A PEAAARR TREEEEE!"



Well hello there again!  You're just in time for Christmas dinner!  Oh, maybe you don't celebrate Christmas?  No problem.  You can still enjoy this dinner.  

Let's have a talk.  Let's talk about geese (ducks, swans, waterfoul, birds of a feather, flocking together...).

These animals don't lay for us.  Nooo.. they lay to be mamas. <3  Everyone should be a mama who wants to be.   It's nice that the song lets the swans swim, the birds call and the other sets sit around doin' their birdly thing.  But what'cha gonna do with those goose eggs?

**Hatch em into BABIES GEESE!!!**
(Don't mind me, that's something my neice used to say when she saw goslings in the spring)

Ok, first - (and there are quite a few goose rescue places)  HELP SOME GEESE!
Second
Why the himmershcnitz am I talking about geese?
Well, I have a HUGE soft spot for geese and ducks............

 ----->  See?!  ----> Me and a goose!

Sadly, I guess that a Christmas Goose Dinner is very Olde World Dickinsianish (what a word).
Oh, and I guess you serve it with roast potatoes, and green veggies (maybe some cranberries?) Go ask Martha Stewart cuz I sure as heck don't know.

Well, I'm not going to go get a goose.. no-siree.  I'm not even going to create anything that looks remotely like a goose!
(Then what are you yapping about, Sheri?)

Wait - we need to be serious about why you should love geese!
Geese are loving animals.  They're fierce protectors, they eat bugs and weeds, they talk to you!
There actually are many more reasons not to put a goose on your dinner table.  But lets see why this is a Christmas tradition.

"People have been eating goose all over Europe for thousands of years. The association of geese with the feasts of deep winter and the Solstice's death-and-rebirth theme may go back as far as ancient Egypt, where the goose was the symbol of the creator-god Amen -- the universe itself was sometimes said to have been hatched from a "cosmic egg" produced by this deity. But leaving aside any possible religious connotations, geese were the perfect fowl for small farmers down through the centuries to raise (and later, big farmers too). They were smart, economical to keep -- since they live by grazing and don't need expensive grain -- and best of all, geese are tough, able to withstand disease and bad weather. By contrast, the turkey, which Spanish and West African traders started bringing to Europe from Mexico in the 1600's, needed a lot of coddling in Europe because it had little resistance to the avian disease histamonosis or "black head", a protozoan-borne liver disease of barnyard fowl. So disease-prone and labor-intensive a bird was expensive to raise; since that extra cost was naturally passed along to the customer, turkeys were slow to spread through western Europe.

Meanwhile as populations grew, and demand for geese along with them, prices dropped and geese became cheaper and easier than ever for even city people to enjoy at Christmas. For the last few centuries, as December approached, hundreds of thousands of geese -- sometimes wearing foot protection to help them cope with the hard roads -- would be herded from upcountry farms to cities like London in gigantic flocks, then dispersed to local keepers and breeders for their final fattening. People in city suburbs even raised geese in their back yards: the loss of a city-bred goose like this is what gets Sherlock Holmes involved in "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle." It would be nearly another half-century before the price of turkeys would drop low enough for them to start competing with geese. Until then they were seen as a pricey fad food only suitable for gourmands and rich people. This is why, in A Christmas Carol, only when the wealthy Scrooge pays for dinner is there any chance the Cratchit family will have a turkey for Christmas. Their own original choice is the traditional and affordable goose.*

These days the popularity of goose is on the rise again as people start to get tired of the tasteless meat of turkeys that have been bred for sheer size, or are simply looking for something that hasn't been intensively reared and is "greener". Geese are perfect in this regard, since there's no such thing as an intensively-reared goose. They're free range by definition, spending the majority of their lives grazing on grass in the open fields. The so-called "green goose", which comes into season around the Christian feast of Saint Michael the Archangel, or Michaelmas (September 29), is reared exclusively on grass and greenery, and is fairly lean. The later "harvest" goose, also called the Martinmas goose for its finishing time around Saint Martin's feast (November 11th), spends its remaining time being fattened on grain, usually wheat or barley, and it's fatter and meatier as a result. This is the classic Christmas goose."

Folks.. just say no - I mean, srsly.  Don't eat a goose.  Don't eat any animal..

Ok, so what am I making in honor of not eating a goose for Christmas? (um - ever - i've NEVER had goose, proudly, or duck {I did have a pet duck once though and her name was Pooh}).

Ok, considering I've never had it I'm not going to say I'm going to make something taste similar in the least bit.
What I AM going to do, is honor the geese of the world with a yummy fried 'gamey' like dish:

Fried Tempoose w/mashed potatoes & ungoosy gravy and veggies.
;)

Let's do some numbers and see why eating goose isn't good for you, OR a goose.

Real Goose                  The Gabble sistes fried tempoose
4 oz                                                 8 oz
Calories - 340                                   208                                     
Total Fat - 18.1                                  14.8        
Cholesterol -  137                               0
Sodium -   109                                   5
Total Carbs - 0                                   6
Fiber - 0                                            3
Protein - 41.5                                    10.5
WW Pts - 9                                       5

Peeps, 4 oz isn't much (and compare it to 8 oz of FRIED tempeh!?! Do we really have to argue?)  And if you want to see the numbers for my mashed taters, let me re-refer you HERE.   Do we really need veggie numbers?

So, this will be my Christmas dinner.  Family is having (I dunno, something with noodles and I asked the mom to make me noodles too). 
I'm sure there will be a salad... Ms Vegan Or Not is making a chocolate cake for me to take, too.
Either way, it'll be Merry Merry!  And if I can get through ALL the baking I've done and will be doing up until Christmas Day, it'll be yayness!


So, that being said.
No geese.
Love geese.
(They LOVE vegan caramel corn).
And, if I could emplore you to go hug a few Muscovy ducks while you're at it, please do.  Those lil guys are like nothing you've ever loved on before.  (Think dog with feathers).  
<3

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah Etc, etc... Happy LOVE ANIMALS EVERYDAY DAY!!

Music enjoyed while blogging:
The RAIN..

Current Motivation:
Thinking how much this weather is for the birds

Current Craving:
Grandma's noodles.

Recipe 65 - Christmas Breakfast Casserole - Featuring, "The Vegg"

Ok,
We all know being serious isn't my forte.. but every now and then I have to be.  However, after this serious bout, (and two more regarding geese and lambs within the next two weeks) I refuse to be serious about anything until next year.  ;)







So, let's get serious.

A few weeks ago, I answered a call from the owner of 'The Vegg' to try, and to blog about the product.  So, this is what I'm doing, right now!
 
When my 'Vegg' came in the mail I was downright excited.  I think I probably giggled and jumped a little.  Granted, I've had it before - but this one - this one was MINE!  To do with what I pleased!   (I do have to admit, I did try it in another recipe before this one.  The idea then was to make eggless noodles, 'vegg' noodles.  And it was awesome.)  But this is the one that I'm blogging about.  So let's get started.

I made Christmas Breakfast Casserole, and the non-vegan ingredients were VERY unforgiving, folks.   White bread, eggs, butter, cream, sour cream, milk, bacon, sausage, cheese.. how people can eat all of this in one sitting is beyond me.  I assume this might be where our obesity epidemic comes from?  But I digress.

I started out with my Vegg.   I blended it just as it read and let it sit for a bit.  Then - what did I do? *GASP*  I tried it - 'virgin'.  (No, this does NOT mean I had to add vodka to it later, sillypants.)
I took a piece of toasted bread and dipped it into the Vegg/water mix.  Suddenly, I was taken back to the days of yore (you know, when I was a princess in the king and queen's castle and I would sit down with toast and eggs over easy and dip my toast continuously into the yolk until it was gone? - Anyone out there remember when I was a princess? Sissy?).   Yes, for me, the Vegg was THAT good.

Of course, this was all about the casserole.   So I then had to make a scramble, and that's what I did with my Vegg.

That was the first layer - bread and 'scrambled Vegg'.  (I did NOT use white bread.)
Then it just got more artery clogging and "keeping cardiologists in business"-like.  But no, not this one.. this one is VEGAN.

Next layer was something like butter, cream, sour cream, milk.
Good lord, people!   I don't even know what web-site I pulled this off of, maybe heart attacks-r-us?!  Where are the veggies?!? (I thought I'd somewhat fix that with green onions, but still.. that's not much.)

It ended up with the bacon and sausage on the top, then the cheddar cheese.

I was instructed to let it sit in the fridge for a day - but heck no, "ain't nobody got no time for that!"  I was already starving (and so were the kids who were SCREAMING at me for Tiki Cat, yes my babies are spoiled). So I popped that thing into the oven and baked it for 15 minutes less than the un-vegan one.  It came out.. I was STARVING, but it had to sit for 10 mins.

Wha?  Seriously?  (This doesn't go over all that well with me.  I've been known to blister burn myself from eating food straight out of the oven.)

But, I let this one sit, and I frittered away my time hunting for the Christmas dishes.  (After all, you can't eat a Christmas casserole on an autumn inspired dish!)   I pulled out 'Donner'.  One of my "9" tiny reindeer set of dishes that my mother got me eons ago.  He's like, mafia Donner. (The Don? lol) Weird, check him out!

Ok.
Anyway, it was time.
I dished it out.
I inhaled it. (I'm not proud).
The next helping I actually tasted... (we'll not talk about the third helping).

It was disturbingly yummy.   I say disturbingly because nothing with that amount of butter, cream, meat, bread and eggs in it and less than one point zero veggies should be un-disturbing.  And considering I'm almost at 2 years vegan and my tastebuds have adjusted, this stuff tasted like the real thing to me.

However, I saved baby chicks, I saved pigs, and I saved baby cows in the interim.
And, if I, personally, were as rich as this dish - I'd be living in a palace in the south of France exuding my princess charm.

Thank you Vegg.
I'll also thank you again when I finally do the "Vegg Science Experiment"!  Aka, we'll be spherifying it and making it into eggs over easy... me and super scientific chef-girl.

Until then.. stay tuned for part two of my 'Christmas Meal Ideas'.. coming your way, in just a few days!

Music enjoyed while blogging:
The whistle of my phone receiving a text.

Current Motivation:
Making this quick because I have yoga night with the BFF.

Current Craving:
No.  I'm not saying. :P

Part one of two Christmas day food ideas!

Just hear those sleigh bells jinglin' ring ting tinglin'... oh HI, it's you again!?  I love that you're so diligent in reading my blog.   I should send you a gift because you might be the only one that reads it.  If so - you should comment down there and tell me.  That would give me warm holiday fuzzies, kinda like the fuzzies you feel seeing that pig in the picture there.  (Come on, TELL me you don't get fuzzies or at least an 'awwww' when you see him? I DARE you!)








Let's talk pigs.. they get a raw deal.  All y'all and your bacon jokes, bacon lip balms, bacon ice cream, bacon donuts.. you get the picture.

A pig is not bacon.. no!  It's a wonderful animal.  Check out some of these pig facts!

    "Pigs snuggle close to one another and prefer to sleep nose to nose. They dream, much as humans do. In their natural surroundings, pigs spend hours playing, sunbathing, and exploring. People who run animal sanctuaries for farmed animals often report that pigs, like humans, enjoy listening to music, playing with soccer balls, and getting massages.
   
Pigs communicate constantly with one another; more than 20 vocalizations have been identified that pigs use in different situations, from wooing mates to saying, "I'm hungry!"
   
Newborn piglets learn to run to their mothers' voices and to recognize their own names. Mother pigs sing to their young while nursing.
  
 According to Professor Donald Broom of the Cambridge University Veterinary School, "[Pigs] have the cognitive ability to be quite sophisticated. Even more so than dogs and certainly [more so than human] 3-year-olds."
  
 Pigs appear to have a good sense of direction and have found their way home over great distances. Adult pigs can run at speeds of up to 11 miles an hour.
  
 Professor Stanley Curtis of Penn State University has found that pigs can play joystick-controlled video games and are "capable of abstract representation." Dr. Curtis believes that "there is much more going on in terms of thinking and observing by these pigs than we would ever have guessed."
   
    Pigs are clean animals. If given sufficient space, they will be careful not to soil the area where they sleep or eat. Pigs don't "sweat like pigs"; they are actually unable to sweat. They like to bathe in water or mud to keep cool, and they actually prefer water to mud. One woman developed a shower for her pigs, and they learned to turn it on and off by themselves.
  
 In his book The Whole Hog, biologist and Johannesburg Zoo director Lyall Watson writes, "I know of no other animals [who] are more consistently curious, more willing to explore new experiences, more ready to meet the world with open mouthed enthusiasm. Pigs, I have discovered, are incurable optimists and get a big kick out of just being."

How wonderfully wonderful!  Now, GO - Sponsor a pig!

Now, we're going to save a couple pigs in our redux of a popular christmas breakfast.. "The Christmas Casserole"

Largely filled with eggs and meat, we're going to conjure up a casserole filled with Vegg and vegan 'meat'.  And you know what?  It's going to be AWESOME.






This is part one in my two part series of  'Christmas day food ideas'... Obviously, we'll start with breakfast.  It IS the most important meal of the day!

Let's do some numbers:

Christmas Casserole            Wilbur's Holiday Jumble

Calories - 577                                      384
Total Fat - 26                                        12     
Cholesterol -  173                                   0
Sodium -   1015                                   707
Total Carbs - 13.4                                 9.6
Fiber - 0.5                                               8
Protein - 21.5                                        8.9
WW Pts - 10                                           4


Okay!
Now, I'm not sure when this is going to go down.  I'm thinking Sunday sounds good to make a breakfast brunch, eherm.. for myself I guess. However, there is always Saturday when I go to the who knows what number annual Fuqua Holiday Cookie Bake-Off.   Wonder if the family would be willing to give this holiday jumble a try?  We'll see.
For now.. it's time to concoct the perfect recipe.

Remember - go love some pigs!

Music enjoyed while blogging:
Sheri's Shoobop

Current Craving:
Indian food - moreover, mushroom matar.

Current Motivation:
I got nothin'.

Recipe 64 - Eggnog and Donuts Ho Ho Ho!

Messy Messy Messy!

Okay!  Hi again!

Some days I have a really hard time trying to decide how to start my blog out.  Other days it just comes to me.  Today, is one of those more difficult days.   Regardless, it's time to get this show on the road.

This set, I didn't really do together because it just didn't turn out that way.

 

Thursday night I set up for the eggnog.  I'm thinking I should have done a few things differently with it, but it did have the flavor, nonetheless.  I'm convinced the actual flavor in eggnog comes strictly from the spices in it.  Sure, the milk is thick (and I had it with a nice thick coconut cream and a tiny bit of vanilla pudding mix stirred in) but the trick is adding the right amount of spice to get what you want.

*I* didn't think it was sweet enough (this could be due to all of these years making eggnog ice cream instead of the actual eggnog, or maybe because I didn't add any extra sugar?)  Anyway,  I felt like I was drinking spicy milk, so I needed cookies.  Thank goodness I made cookies last weekend.  Two chocolate chip cookies later, the stuff was GONE! :D

Again, I think I'll probably do that recipe differently, but it was the right eggnoggy flavor, so it wasn't a complete fail.

Let's move on to the donuts.

Here's where I went wrong to begin with.. I either should have done them the normal way and fried them, or I should have used my cake ball pan or something similar.  I ended up with flat bottomed donuts, and friends.. flat bottom donuts are terrible hard to fill!

Now, don't get me wrong, the flavor of the donuts turned out pretty good for what it was, and had I put about 10 layers of glaze on them, they'd have rivaled any Dunkin Donut out there, but I only put two layers of glaze on them and not much cream filling inside.

Why?

Well, everytime I went to fill, cream started coming out of every crevice.   I realized the only way to sort of fix that was fill, then to put them in the fridge and refill so the cracks could get cold. 

Even so, It didn't really make that much of a difference... so, next time I make these, I'll fry them.   My victims liked them though, and really when all else fails and you're tired of trying your own creations, I've found there are several people out there that will be happy to do so, and tell you how yummy they really are.  And how do I know?  Well, all donuts have been eaten without hesitation!  That's how! ;)

And donuts, they're a messy job.  Sticky sticky sticky, messy messy messy!  (That's from Frosty the Snowman! You know, Mr Hinkle dropping EGGS?!)

I feel short.

(Yeah I'm short - but I mean writing).

This recipe wasn't that exciting.  I wish I had more to say about it!  No crazy things happened in the interim, everything baked normally.. really the only goofy thing was my injecting the donuts and goo running out of the back, bottoms and sides.. it would have been a lot more exciting had it been filmed.. there are just some things you can't write about and make it look the way it did, IRL.

No matter.. I've got things to do so I'll close for now.

Also, I want to remind you to go check out last week's 'cheese' blog.   I helped make a version of the browned butter/mitizthra sauce in a friend's kitchen.  It was actually a three girl job!  Everyone had something to do with it, and it turned out AMAZING.  I have a small blurb about it and a photo of it in that blog if you're interested.

And what's happening this weekend?

Well, if you read my Facebook you'll know that I was sent a free package of The Vegg to try out and blog about, and that's what we'll be doing.  But how will we be utilizing The Vegg?

You'll just have to tune back in to find out.

More details coming later this week!

Music enjoyed while blogging:

The heater

Current Craving:

The OSF

Current Motivation:

I need a nap.

Something to cluck about - Recipe set 64

Happy holidays - and we're off to save another farm animal.   This time?   Chickens!   As you see, chickens are friendly and sweet, beautiful, etc.  My kitchen is decked out in chickens and roosters (even though I'm a duck girl myself, however it's hard to find duck kitchen accessories.  If you find some, you're more than welcome to send them my way!)




Ok, so why chickens?
Well let me get to the potatoes of my meal first since you asked.

Eggnog.
4 egg yolks to make enough eggnog for 6 people.
What do they say on the tradition of this drink?


"The origins, etymology, and the ingredients used to make the original eggnog drink are debated. Eggnog may have originated in East Anglia, England; or it may have simply developed from posset, a medieval European beverage made with hot milk.The "nog" part of its name may stem from the word noggin, a Middle English term for a small, carved wooden mug used to serve alcohol. However, the British drink was also called an Egg Flip (from the practice of "flipping" (rapidly pouring) the mixture between two pitchers to mix it).

Another story is that the term derived from egg and grog, a common Colonial term used for the drink made with rum. Eventually, that term was shortened to egg'n'grog, then eggnog.

In Britain, the drink was popular mainly among the aristocracy. Those who could get milk and eggs mixed it with brandy, Madeira or sherry to make a drink similar to modern alcoholic egg nog. The drink is described in Cold Comfort Farm (chapter 21) as a Hell's Angel, made with an egg, two ounces of brandy, a teaspoonful of cream, and some chips of ice, where it is served as breakfast.

The drink crossed the Atlantic to the English colonies during the 18th century. Since brandy and wine were heavily taxed, rum from the Triangular Trade with the Caribbean was a cost-effective substitute. The inexpensive liquor, coupled with plentiful farm and dairy products, helped the drink become very popular in America. When the supply of rum to the newly-founded United States was reduced as a consequence of the American Revolutionary War, Americans turned to domestic whiskey, and eventually bourbon in particular, as a substitute.

The Eggnog Riot occurred at the United States Military Academy on 23–25 December 1826. Whiskey was smuggled into the barracks to make eggnog for a Christmas Day party. The incident resulted in the court-martialing of twenty cadets and one enlisted soldier."

Erm.. the eggnog riot?  Lol.  I'm pretty sure I'm probably going to make this virgin.  But you never know with me.   I just can't see spending money on a bunch of brandy, rum, or whiskey I'll not drink.   I spose they sell the little bottles?  Nah, I need more tomatoes.

Anyhoo
Let's do some numbers:

EggNog                                 Camilla's Smart Nog
                                                  
Calories - 343                                   84
Total Fat - 19                                     2      
Cholesterol -  150                               0
Sodium -   137                                   6
Total Carbs - 34                                 12
Fiber - 0                                             0
Protein - 10                                       3.5 
WW Pts - 10                                      2

Who's got the smart noggin now?

Ok, and on to the sweeter part even.

FILLED DONUTS!

I've always had a penchant for filled donuts.  Especially bavarian cream ones.
Looks like they have origins in Austira and Bosnia.  Hrm.

"Austria
In Austria, doughnut equivalents are called Krapfen. They are especially popular during Carneval season (Fasching), and do not have the typical ring shape, but instead are solid and usually filled with apricot jam (traditional) or vanilla cream (Vanillekrapfen). A second variant, called Bauernkrapfen, probably more similar to doughnuts, are made of yeast dough, and have a thick outside ring, but are very thin in the middle.

Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia

Doughnuts similar to the Berliner are prepared in the northern Balkans, particularly in Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina (pokladnice or krofne). They are also called krofna, krafna or krafne, a name derived from the Austrian Krapfen for this pastry. In Croatia, they are especially popular during Carneval season and do not have the typical ring shape, but instead are solid. Traditionally, they are filled with jam (apricot or plum). However, they can be filled with vanilla or chocolate cream."

No matter how you fry or bake em, donuts (especially filled cuz I like stuff filled, gum, donuts, pies.. you name it) are of a yum factor.. and hey, chickens will eat them too!

Let's do some numbers:

Original Filled Donut                     Chicken Little's Veganuts

Calories -  210                                          198  
Total Fat -  9                                               7
Cholesterol -  235                                        0
Sodium - 270                                             95
Total Carbs - 30                                          2
Fiber - 1                                                     3
Protein - 3                                                  3
WW Pts - 6                                                2

Funny how the donuts are less "guilty" than the nog.  lol

Ok, so I'm going to work on this donut stuff Saturday.  I have sooos much to do this weekend.  I'm not feeling 100% but I've got stuff to accomplish, and lots of fun stuff at that, seems Saturday is my only option.  So, Saturday it is.  :)
So, keep it tuned, see how my work is going.. you know I'll update you on my FB page I'm sure, and if you watch me tonight, IMIGHT provide entertainment creating some 'nog'. :)

:P
Keep it real

Music enjoyed while blogging:
My 'ethereal' station on Pandora

Current Motivation:
Getting myself healthier for the week-end

Current craving:
Baked potato, and home-made riblet, with lots of pickles.. Mmm.. dinner!