Uncle Deb's Meatless Meatballs

by Cindy

Uncle Deb is actually my oldest daughter Betsy's adorable (in a manly way) husband, Jimmy. He gave himself the nickname eight years ago, the day his nephew Jack was born.

The whole family held an all-day vigil at the little hospital, pretty much taking up the entire waiting room in the maternity section, for my daughter Megan to give birth to the first of the next generation of our family. When Jack was finally born, we were all giddy with excitement and crammed into her room to congratulate her.

Jack was being examined down the hall, but we were allowed to go see him through the nursery window. As Jimmy was headed that way, a nurse caught up with him, smiling, andsaid "Are you Dad?"

What Jimmy heard was, "Are you Deb?" He couldn't figure out why on earth anyone would be asking him that, but mumbled that his name was Jimmy. Later he realized what she had actually said, but by that time we had all begun calling him Uncle Deb so it stuck.

Anyway here is his excellent recipe for mini meatless meatballs:

• 1 roll of Gimmee Lean or other brand of meatless "sausage"
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup shredded mozarella
• 1 top of an English muffin
• 1 cup bread crumbs
• Pinches of Basil and Oregano, salt and pepper

Mush all together, form smallish balls and brown in olive oil. Then toss into spaghetti sauce and simmer a little, even though the meatballs are already all cooked.

Austin Giddy Ups

By Cindy

The Giddy Up is a vegan wrap offered in Orlando, FL at Dandelion Cafe, where my son Christopher used to cook. It was his invention, and he has since brought it to his new culinary endeavors in Austin, TX. (Find the recipe on his blog, Farm Austin.) 

The Giddy Up (don't ask, I don't know why it's called that) is a whole wheat wrap with greens, broken blue corn chips, tempeh chili, vegan queso, fresh tomatoes, green onions and green goddess dressing. 

The list of ingredients is long but worth it. Also worth it is buying organic, local and unprocessed foods, as Chris discusses in his Austin food blog, Farm Austin.

The Giddy Up is famous in both cities among dedicated organic foodies, and these yummy pictures may convince you to try it yourself!

Yummy Fresh-Mex Wontons!

By Cindy

My family loves to eat and loves to cook. One of my children, Christopher, is a professional chef. And another, Betsy, won a Food Network Magazine monthly contest with an original creation based on our joint love of Mexican food and anything in a wonton wrapper.

Here are Betsy's award-winning Fresh-Mex Corn Wontons

Makes 36 wontons

3 ears of corn, husked
1 small lime
1-1/2 c sour cream
1/4 c fresh cilantro, finely chopped
2 tsp hot sauce
Kosher salt
36 square wonton wrappers
2 plum tomates, diced (about 3/4 c)
1 medium avocado, diced (about 3/4 c)
1/2 c finely diced red onion
Vegetable oil for frying

- Steam the corn for 8 minutes
- Grate lime zest into a small bowl and squeeze in 1 Tbsp lime juice. Add sour cream, cilantro, hot sauce and 1/4 tsp salt and mix well; set the dip aside.
- Remove corn from steamer and cool slightly; cut kernels off cobs and combine with 1/2 tsp salt in a bowl.
- Line a large baking sheet with paper towels, then arrange the wonton wrappers on top in a single layer. Place 1 tsp corn, 1/2 tsp tomato, 1/2 tsp avocado and 1/4 tsp red onion in center of each wrapper.
- Heat 1-1/2 inches of oil in large pot until a deep-fry thermometer registers 375 degrees (or place a wooden skewer in oil to test; bubbles should form around it).
- Moisten edges of each wonton wrapper with water, then fold in half diagonally to enclose the filling and form a triangle; press gently to seal. Working in batches, lower the wontons into the hot oil with tongs and fry about 1 minute. Flip and fry another 30 seconds or until light golden. Transfer to paper towels to drain.
- serve with the cilantro-lime dip.

Award-Winning Brownies (Really!)

By Cindy
If you bought a container of Ovaltine from 2004 to 2006, you might have seen the recipe that earned me (most of) a ticket to Hawaii.

"Ovaltine Aloha Brownies" were born in my daughter Megan's apartment kitchen in Maui, in 2003. I had gone to visit her for her 20th birthday, spending $800 for the roundtrip ticket from Baltimore. As we stood talking in her kitchen, I picked up a container of Ovaltine - curious, since no one in our family had ever liked it. It was her roommate's.

I saw the notice of a contest on the label for new and innovative recipes featuring Ovaltine. The top prize was $500. Well, I thought, that would pay off more than half my credit card bill for the ticket.

So I got to work. I reasoned that the more Ovaltine the recipe used, the better. And I know that lots of chocolate chips make anything taste better. And macadamia nuts and coconut would just scream"Hawaii." I made up a recipe as I put ingredients in the bowl. What resulted looked pretty good, and I made chocolate frosting using the rest of the can of Ovaltine.

A few months later I got a nice letter and a check for $500 in the mail. Now, you might say that my field of competitors was small: how many people even read Ovaltine labels, much less enter a contest? But I like to think I won because they're so delicious. You decide.

Ovaltine Aloha Brownies
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1 cup flour
1 cup margarine
2 eggs
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup Rich Chocolate Ovaltine (I bolded and italicized the name everywhere in the recipe)
1/3 cup macadamia nuts
2 tbsp sugar
4 ox semi-sweet chocolate chips

Frosting:
1 cup Rich Chocolate Ovaltine
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
3 cups confectioners sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1-1/2 cups shredded coconut

Combine margarine, eggs and Ovaltine until creamy. In a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients. Add Ovaltine mixture and beat together. Stir in chocolate chips. Spread batter in a greased 8 x 8-inch baking pan and bake for 25 minutes. Cool brownies for 45 minutes in the pan. Mix up all frosting ingredients and spread over the pan of brownies.

Mandy's Pasta Sauce

By Jayne
Three of my four children are vegans.  This is Mandy's pasta sauce that is now my favorite.  You make it in a pressure cooker.  Now this is not our grandmother's pressure cooker--the one we all lived in fear of because it might explode.  This is made in the ultra-modern electric Cuisinart pressure cooker.  Once you try cooking in a pressure cooker, you will use it on a weekly or daily basis.  So here is the recipe:

1 big can of diced tomatoes

1 big can of tomato sauce

big yellow onion

big yellow or red pepper

carton of portobello mushrooms

garlic to taste

tablespoon of dried fennel

Brown the onions and garlic in the pressure cooker.
You can use olive oil or water.

Pour in tomatoes and add the rest of the veggies and fennel.
I sometimes also add chunks of eggplant or zucchini squash.

I also add a little sweetness--maple syrup or honey. 

Put lid on pressure cooker and cook for 20 minutes on high.  Once the pressure releases, I throw in fresh basil and oregano chopped up--or dried--to taste with some salt and pepper.

I continue to simmer it until it is thick enough for pasta.  If it is too runny,  I will add a tablespoon or two of tomato paste.

This sauce only gets better with time.   Put it over pasta or over zucchini cut in a spiralizer like pasta.