Vegan Punk Cooking

Two big stand outs I got for Christmas are:

DNA Ancestry kit (which I asked for, and Ancestry sent me an email recently saying they got my saliva sample but it takes 6-8 weeks to get the test results; very long wait-list I guess).

And the other, which I didn't know existed, is the vegan cookbook, "Bake and Destroy", subtitled, "Good Food for Bad Vegans". The forward is by a pro-wrestler champ named CM Punk.

The back cover says (in quotes) the author of the cookbook, Natalie Slater (she has her own website of the same name, Bake and Destroy) is said to "have been described as Martha Stewart meets Iron Maiden". In making the book, Slater was "influenced by slasher films, pro-wrestling, punk rock and heavy metal." She has lots of delicious recipes but "along the way, her off-color humor, irreverent rants and density of pop-culture references will make you laugh out loud."

I haven't really delved into the book yet, but I love to bake (I make phenomenal vegan banana nut bread), so I'm looking forward to reading it and preparing some terrific vegan dishes.

Vegan Blueberry-Banana Bread

Yesterday, I made this Betty Crocker bread but "veganized" it. The bread taste fabulous! Here's what I did:

Ingredients

Olive Oil to grease pan
4 very ripe medium bananas
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup vegan Smart Balance, softened
2 servings Ener-G egg replacers
1/2 Silk PureAlmond Milk--Vanilla
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup frozen (or you can use fresh, as long as you do not use thawed) blueberries

Recipe

Move oven rack to low position so that tops of pan(s) will be in center of oven. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease bottom and side of pan with olive oil. I used just one large pan, as shown, to make my bread just under 1 1/2 inches in height. Use whatever size pan you want. The Betty Crocker recipe called for 2 loaf pans, 8 1/2x4 1/2x2 1/2 inches, or 1 loaf pan, 9x5x3 inches. I prefer to make flater breads so it is cooked throughly in the middle.

Peel bananas and place in medium bowl. Mash bananas with a potato masher or fork.

In a large bowl, stir the sugar and vegan Smart Balance "butter" until well mixed. Stir in the Ener-G egg replacers until well mixed. Stir in the bananas, almond milk, and vanilla; mix until smooth. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt just until moistened. Stir in blueberries.

Divide batter evenly if using two pans, using a spatula to scrape batter from bowl. Smooth top of batter.

Bake about 1 hour or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. My bread was ready in 55 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes in the pan(s) on a cooling rack.

Loosen the sides of the bread from each pan if necessary, using a spatula. I placed the cooling rack on top of the bread (with bread still in the pan), then turned the bread upside down on the rack. Then I used another cooling rack, placing on top of the bread so the bread was now in between the two racks, turning the bread again sandwiched bewteen the racks so now the bread is top-side up on one cooling rack, to cool it faster.

Cool completely, which is about 2 hours, before slicing. Wrap tightly and store at room temperature up to 4 days, or refrigerate up to 10 days.

Enjoy!

Did John the Baptist Really Eat Locusts and Wild Honey?

There's a longstanding confusion in the etymological origin of the word locust. Locust is both a bean from the carob plant and an insect. The Greek word for cakes or bread made from the flour of the carob bean is 'egkrides' and the Greek word for locust the insect is 'akrides'. The insect locust is approved to be clean for consumption in Leviticus. It was a delicacy in those days and was mostly consumed by the upper and/or priestly class.

John the Baptist belonged to a group of ascetics who believed in repentance and in leading an austere lifestyle. The carob bean was seen as the diet of the lower class who normally endured hardship and exploitation from the priestly class. So most likely John the Baptist ate locust plant seed from the carob tree.

Also, regarding honey, it could be anything from saps of certain trees to juice of the crushed dates. Carob flour and crushed dates made a good damper or sweet rustic cake, hence the word 'egkrides' in the Greek version of the Bible.

Some Church Fathers circa 400AD put forth an injunction to change the word 'egkrides' in the Bible meaning cakes to 'akrides' the insect locust, not realising that locust the insect was a delicacy enjoyed by the priestly upper crust, from whom John the Baptist and people like John distanced themselves from.