Christmas is over. I didn’t cook as much as I had planned on, we were going to do cookies, ice cream, and a few other things. At the last minute I decided to make Figgy Pudding. That was all I had time for with a busy day of people coming and going. After hearing “Bring us some figgy pudding.” a few times in the past weeks I decided I wanted to know exactly what it was and if it was really good enough to demand “Bring it right here”.

It is.

As with other British puddings it is actually a cake with a sauce to accompany. Very figgy, very spicy with cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon and I made a brandy sauce (with 1/2 cup of brandy not cooked after adding) that made it very tasty. I didn’t take any pictures for those who have a thing for food images, sorry. I’ll post the recipe in the recipe section of the messageboard. I used a standard dairy filled recipe and adapted it, nowhere could I find a veganized one already. So, there will be one now.

Call it Ice Cream, call it Soy Cream, call it the best stuff ever.

Peppermint Ice Cream

2 cups soy milk
2 cups soy creamer
2 TBS arrowroot
½ cup evaporated cane juice
1 TBS vanilla extract
4-5 peppermint sticks, crushed

Whisk 1/4 cup of the soy milk with the arrowroot. Heat the remaining soy milk and soy creamer to a simmer. Add the evaporated cane juice to the soy mixture and stir until completely dissolved. Add the arrowroot and stir until thickened, about 2 – 3 minutes. You are not looking for a “pudding” consistency, just a light thickening.

Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Add vanilla and cool completely in refrigerator.

Prepare accordingly using your ice cream maker.

When the soy cream reaches the point where it is almost finished add the crushed peppermint and turn the ice cream maker back on/keep cranking/etc for 3 – 4 more minutes.

RELATED:  If you don’t have one of the Cuisinart Ice Cream Makers, then go now and get one.  It makes recipes like these too simple to finish up.

Fresh RumNog Pecan Cookies, I love these things. They were just made today and I have just delivered a few tins, supplemented with fudge, to some of my clients. They were baked fresh this morning and I made certain a few were left over for me to munch on for the next few hours, that’s about all they will last. In fact I have eaten two as I am writing this. We picked up fresh pecans on our way back from Atlanta earlier this week just to make these. I can’t say much more about these except DELICIOUS!

I usually get two or three nights per week where I cook only for myself. I usually just get in a hurry and want something quick and filling so I just eat a couple veggie burgers and some tater tots or a baked potato. I’ll fry up an onion and sometimes a bell pepper and then put the patties on top of the fried onions and cook it for about 15 minutes before frying it. Steamed buns on top of the burgers and onions, potato, yum, sure. All of this is just junk food to me and I eat it far too often. I just don’t want to cook a big deal of a dinner for myself. I know I should move to something else, veggie burgers aren’t all bad but when you eat them constantly you’ll fall into a vegan junk food slump, as I have. Given the onions and peppers are a fresh addition but still, fried and all the time, not good. The cooking has almost become mechanized and scheduled. I can cut up the onions, set them on to fry, do something else for the allotted time, come back add the burgers, do something else, come back and flip, you get the idea. I think that’s where I got hooked, it is easy for me to do among other things and tends to be my first choice at the end of the day, when the day isn’t really over.
I think next week I am going to try to add something new to the mix. Maybe stir fry with brown rice. Should still be just as easy to prepare and may turn out to be quicker. It should end up being a little lighter and I’ll mix up the sauce so I can give myself more variety. I already have Five Spice and Sweet and Sour sauces from Trader Joe’s. I’ll can make up teriyaki sauce in advance as well as orange sauce.

Veggie burgers once a week won’t be so bad.

We were at the new Whole Foods in the Hill Center at 8 am yesterday, many more people were there than I expected. The line doubled around the corner for the free breakfast.  After the bread breaking (Whole Foods’ way of doing a ribbon-cutting), we were the first in the door. Everything was as I expected from the other Whole Foods locations. One standout is the Olive Oil/Balsamic Vinegar tasting station, bottles line the shelves and slices of bread are supplied for you to try almost any vinegar or oil available.

One thing that I really liked was finding Organic Valley Unsweetened Soymilk and finally not having to purchase Silk any longer. I even spoke with one lady for a few minutes and noticed she had about 10 half-gallon cartons of Silk in her cart I told her about Dean Foods which owns Silk.   I saw her soon after putting all of her Silk back on the shelf, right beside the Silk representative that was there! I get laughs in silly, vindictive ways.

I spoke with Laura Button, owner of Journey To Bliss Foods, who was giving out some great samples of her products. My daughter loved the Carrot Cake.

For those wondering, plenty of local products can be found throughout the store and a brochure is even provided to give more information.

One thing I saw that was unlike any other Whole Foods was the cafe was located outside of the cash registers. As well, there was far more outside seating available than I have seen at other locations.

When we were leaving (after returning for the third time) we walked by a lady who was complaining to management about the traffic and parking situation. She went on and on and just would take any explanation as good enough. One management member even walked her through the parking garage to help her understand the best way to enter and leave. We made it a point ot walk up to the same management and thank them for bringing Whole Foods here and told them we had zero complaints. My mother said she went back inside 30 minutes later and the same lady was complaining to someone else about the same thing.

Of course, this will be my new hangout when I have nothing better to do.