Goodbye Tilly

This is a great big thank you to all of my friends and family for the support, love, prayers, and thoughts sent our way during this time with Tilly. Wednesday morning I had held Tilly before work and asked her to please let me know when she was ready to go. I don't know why I asked except that I felt she would and I was right she did. Today we let her go. The vets office staff were so good to us. They gave us a quiet room to enjoy our last few minutes with her. I sensed she knew what was going to happen and was ok with our decision. She went peacefully and I sensed happiness in her eyes. We believe we will see her again. We put her to rest at my parents house. They have a large lot and she is with the rest of the family fur babies that have gone on before her. We will always love and miss her. She was a really good kitty. She gave us 13 wonderful years of companionship. We love you Tilly!

Tilly resting on Thanksgiving day.

Shiloh knew something was wrong and when I told her Tilly was sick, she licked Tilly's jaw, mouth, and ear as if to try and help her or make her feel better. I believe it was Shiloh's way of saying good-bye. She really loved Tilly.

I will miss my baby so much.

Brandie you were a so loving to Tilly. Thank you for your love and support

during this really rough time.

Kellie knew her friend would be gone soon. They said their
good-byes early Friday morning.

Again, Thank you all for your support and love. I am so thankful to have you all in my life.

Leftovers, emergency food, and life changing news!

I can't believe this year is almost over. There has been so much going on that it seems like the days are slipping through my fingers and I have not had a chance to enjoy many of them. With all the adjustments I am having to make in my life I have felt a bit lost, like walking through a maze in search for the correct turn to bring me back to my life. I am working part time again since my back injury, which is a good thing, but balancing my time with work, home, and blog have been difficult. Hence fewer posts, which I plan to change. I just miss blogging and having visits from all my friends in blogland. Brandie getting married was an awesome time, but I miss her dearly and it is hard to cook for just one vegan in the house. Don't blame DH he is so supportive and tries everything I cook, but he is still an omni and at times wants his kind of food, which leaves me with a never ending amount of leftovers. And then my dear Tilly being sick has put me in a slump for sure. I watch her everyday get a bit slower. She is sleeping quite a bit, but does not seem to be in any pain. She gets wet food now because dry is hard to eat. The tumor on her jaw is impeding the ability to chew hard food too. Our prayer now is that she goes peacefully at home with us. *tears* ....... I am trying hard to prepare myself, but it is difficult as many of you know. Thank you for lending me your shoulders and now for the star attraction, FOOD! Like I said leftovers have played a big part in my meals and with Thanksgiving approaching I did not want to cook any other large meals. Brandie and I love Susan's Baked Macaroni and Cheese. When Brandie was home it was ok, because the two of us would enjoy this for lunches all week, now that she is gone I have been enjoying it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I try to jazz up the leftovers into something else. Here we have the macaroni and cheese turned into a type of "hamburger helper". I took ground seitan, added chopped broccoli, tamari, more nutritional yeast, along with the mac and cheese and there you have it. I know it does not look like much, but it is really good. Of course fried potatoes, fresh zucchini and corn along with more broccoli topped off my meal with a lovely variety of flavors and textures. The mac and cheese is gone now so I told my DH I won't be making anymore until next year. :o)

Bigmouth Vegan made a sausage flavored Seitan O'Greatness, which I tried. It has good flavor, but when I ground it up is is a bit dry. I think it will work great on a pizza with sauce or in your favorite pasta sauce. I wanted to surprise DH with one of his favorite meals, a potato bar. I cooked up the "ground sausage" in a tiny bit of oil and it burned almost immediately. Lets try again. This batch I cooked it in a non-stick skillet, which worked perfect for a tiny bit of crunch warming it up nicely. We had our baked potatoes topped with seitan"sausage", corn, and green onions. Along with it was my favorite vegetable in the whole world, broccoli, fresh zucchini and spinach. Another favorite of mine is cranberry sauce. I couldn't wait until Thanksgiving. :o)

DH wanted burgers for dinner. I keep some easy to prepare foods in the house for emergencies and when the cupboards and fridge are a bit bare. I did not want to shop until time to get the Thanksgiving fixings, so I pulled out my "Nature's Burger Mix". It is easy, quick, and tasty. It is even good as leftovers. This product is a mixture of Brown rice, dehydrated yellow peas, green peas, onion, potatoes, garlic, tomatoes, celery, carrots, and red bell peppers. It also contains barley, organic Bulgar wheat, whole oats, sesame seeds, soy flour, wheat gluten, wheat flakes, soy sauce powder, yeast, sea salt and other spices. I use mix 3/4 cup of the dry mix with 3/4 cup of boiling water and let it sit for about 15-20 minutes. Then shape the mixture into 3 patties and fry them in a non-stick skillet. Here you have quick burger served on a sprouted wheat bun, with tomato, lettuce, red onion, mustard, and organic ketchup. OH, and some maple flavored baked white beans. How I love baked beans. You can tell the cupboards are bare when I cook up fried potatoes twice in one week. DH loves them and is lucky if he gets them more than once a month. Needless to say dinner was a success thanks to my emergency food storage.

Last Saturday Brandie and Micah invited both sets of parents to the Olive Garden as a thank you for helping them with the wedding. We each got a thank you card and flowers. Inside the card was an envelope, which we both thought was a gift card. NOPE! It was a sonogram picture of our first grandbaby. Yes, they are pregnant. They are saying it was a successful honeymoon. I can't believe it happened so fast. They got married on September 15th and conceived on the 25th. I am sure it must be a record. Needless to say we are very excited. Both of the kids are excited too, but right now Brandie is so sick she can't enjoy much. I made her some "chicken seitan" from Bryanna's recipe, which you can find on the Everyday Dish DVD and gave her some Brussels sprouts, which agreed with "baby bean". This is the baby's nickname since he looks like a little kidney bean in the sonogram picture. So I leave you with a very happy couple and grandparents. :o)

Southern Blackeyed Pea Croquettes and Sweet Potato Biscuits

If you haven't stopped by fatfreevegan.com you should. Susan is having a "Can this recipe be saved" contest. I thought I would give this a try. I searched through my cupboards, freezer, and refrigerator and realized I had very few of the ingredients her recipe called for so I decided to get inventive. Here is my loosely and I mean loosely based version of Susan's recipe.

I served mine with simple vegan gravy, sweet potato biscuits , recipe from Chris and Darlene, and freshly steamed spinach. True these are far from Susan's Thai Pumpkin Croquettes, but I so enjoyed using her recipe for inspiration, making them, and eating them.

Enjoy!

Ready to bake

Dinner is served!

Southern Black eyed Pea Croquettes

15 large croquettes

12 ounces of fresh green beans

1 cup of fresh kale

2 cups of cooked black eyed peas

2 T. tamari

1 T. "no chicken" broth

1/2 cup vital wheat gluten

1 T. flax seed meal mixed with 2 T. boiling water

2 T. nutritional yeast

1 1/2 teaspoons poultry seasoning

1 t. pepper

1/2 t. sea salt

1 t. garlic powder

1 t. onion powder

Bake at 425 degree oven

Clean and trim the green beans. Pulse them in a food processor until coarsely chopped. Pour them into a large bowl. Next remove the thick stems of your kale, place the leaves in a food processor and pulse them until chopped fairly fine, but not mush. Add the kale to the bowl of green beans. Next place your cooked black eyed peas into the food processor and pulse until they are well chopped. I think you could use a potato masher for this step too. Mix all the ingredients together until well mixed and let sit for about 5 min.

Spray your non-stick cookie sheet with oil. I used a cookie dough scoop to measure out my batter then formed them into nice even rounds. Place them on the cookie sheet about 1/2 inch apart. Bake for 20 minutes, turn and bake another 15-20 minutes.

UPDATE ON TILLY

For the past two nights our sweet Tilly has had trouble keeping her dinner and medicine down. I have cut her portion in half hoping that this will help. Otherwise she is doing well, sleeping more, but appears in no pain. She looks like a peek-a-boo kitty. :o)

Vegan food month and update on Tilly

A big thank you to all for your kind words and support during this rough time. You are all so nice and caring. I hope each one of you is blessed abundantly for your kindness and love. Tilly is doing well and taking all her medicine like a good girl. She has 3 more days on her antibiotic and then the doctor can put her on steroids to help keep the tumors from growing and hopefully give her more time with us. Here she is sitting on the bed. She is such a wonderful kitty. I have taken about 30 pictures this past weekend so you will be seeing more of her than usual.

I am doing my best to show as much vegan food as I can during this Vegan Month of Food. Vegans can have a hearty breakfast too. Here we have flax seed waffles (I cheated these are the frozen kind) with earth balance and maple syrup. Fried potatoes with onions and red and green bell pepper, and my favorite breakfast food in the world, scrambled tofu. I mix all kinds of veggies with them. This day I have green pepper, scallions, and tomatoes.

As many of you know, my hubby is an omnivore and he wanted hamburgers for dinner. I too can be a part of this BBQ with Garden burger chick'n patties, and homemade russet and sweet potato fries. I love these fries. I cut my potatoes into fries, steam them for about 10-15 minutes, place them on a cookie sheet, mist them with olive oil, and under the broiler they go until golden brown. Delish!

Mexican is big in our family. I try to keep fast boxed vegan food for emergencies. These tacos are made from a box of Fantastic TVP taco meat that was about to expire. Like I said this is emergency food. Anyway it has great flavor and makes a great taco. Added to these are onions, carrots, tomatoes, lettuce, and fresh homemade guacamole. My mom bought me some avocados this week that were amazing. Creamy avocado butter, I could eat them all day.

My husbands car had to have new tires. We knew it, but it hit us harder and quicker than expected. It seems like one crisis after another these days, but my sweet hubby wanted to make me feel better. Next to our mechanic's shop is a gym with fantastic healthy cafe. He bought me an Acai smoothie and veggie wrap. He said he wanted to make sure I was getting a good healthy meal. The smoothie was Acai berries, mango, pineapple and apple juice. The wrap was hummas, spinach, cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, and corn on a flour tortilla. He made sure that everything was vegan before he ordered. He is so thoughtful. He asked me how it was and I said really good. He was concerned it was not a whole wheat tortilla and I told him the only way they can improve this is to change to whole wheat tortilla and fresh corn, of course more hummas is always welcomed. Yes I am addicted to hummas. Well that is all for now, but I leave you with one more photo of our Tilly. Love to all!

Joshua and Tilly taking a nap together. What wonderful memories the kids are giving me.

A very sad week to be comforted by favorite foods

Hi everyone, This is my 13 year old fur baby Matilda, whom we call Tilly. We have had her since she was 6weeks old. She woke up last Saturday with this huge lump under her chin. We thought it might be an allergic reaction so we gave her benydryl. No luck the lump stayed there. She went to the doctor on Tuesday and they tried to drain the lump and sent it off to be tested. I got the said news on Thursday that my baby has cancer. I almost can't type through the tears. They said this is not the primary tumor so we don't know how long she has. We have her on antibiotics, kitty Motrin, and they gave us kitty morphine if she appears to be in pain. She takes her medicine twice a day and seems happy as a lark. She is still running after her laser light, playing in the sheets, and wants her daily brushing. It is so hard to know that she will be gone much sooner than we ever hoped for. I just hope that when the time comes she goes peacefully at home in my arms. For now she is the princess of the house.

Through all the tears, which will most likely be with me for quite sometime, comfort food seemed like the answer. The top of my pizza. Who needs cheeze with all these yummy ingredients.

Yes there is a crust under all those goodies.

Cookies! I got this recipe from Celine . They are so fast to make and have an incredible taste. Celine makes 3, but I made 6, which gave me and my hubby 3 each. I substituted almond butter in my first batch. Yes you heard me right, my first batch. The second batch was the same as the first, the third was almond butter and currants, and finally the fourth batch was almond butter and raisins. Every night we ate cookies. Sweets to comfort the soul. We did make a vow not to make anymore for awhile because I was totally sweetied out. My sweet hubby is the sweet craver in the home where I am the savory. I only got pictures of the first batch. After that they were gone to fast to think about taking pictures. Oh, by the way they only take about 15 min to make including baking time. These are a RED LIGHT food in our home. :o)

"Meet loaf from Diann. These are so good. I made 3 smaller ones 2 for the freezer and 1 to eat. This recipe is a combination from Laura and the magic meatloaf.
I love these meatloaves. I had not made one in a very long time and I am so thankful to Diann for lifting my spirits with another favorite of mine.

BBQ sauce on the meetloaf and under the broiler for a few minutes gives them that crusty texture. Yum! Something else I rarely indulge in is a baked potato slathered in Earth Balance, but once again it was all about comfort food this week. On a healthy note, broccoli and sugar free organic applesauce were also components of this meal.

Thank you all for letting me shed some tears and share my week with you. I will keep you all posted on my fur baby's time with us. Love you all!

Cooking, cooking, and more cooking!

Bored beyond belief without the internet. Crazy! What on earth did I do before it exsisted? I miss everyone. You are all like best buds. Thank you for checking in on me. We do have our internet back and hopefully for good this time. I have been cooking like crazy so please forgive the long post, but enjoy!

Couscous and roasted veggies. How can one go wrong? You can't! Fast, delicious, and healthy.

I have been very lazy lately when it comes to making bread; therefore we have not eaten sandwiches, french toast, and I have had no breadcrumbs to use in my casseroles. Sure you can buy bread at the store, but the price and the long unidentifiable list of ingredients just turns me off. This meant I had to get out of my lazy stage and make some bread. Come on, I have a bread maker for Pete's sake. In the end here is my multigrain bread recipe that became almond butter toast shortly thereafter. I am back in the good graces of the family.

I have been lucky enough to do some recipe testing for Melody. This is her new Marinara Sauce. I have been making the same spaghetti sauce for almost 25 years and dear hubby would have it no other way, that is until this came along. It is simple, flavorful, and has a nice little kick to it. My DH loves it. He says it is a HOME RUN! Here we added ground seitan to it for our spaghetti dinner. I have already made it twice and have 3 jars of it stashed away for calzones and lasagna. Way to go Melody!

I found this great recipe from an article, but forget which one. I found it on the internet! It is called, Dana Sly's Blue Ribbon Vegan Cornbread. The recipe does have 1/4 cup of canola oil in it, but it is so worth it. I substituted whole wheat pastry flour and sucant, which in my opinion made it wonderful. Even 4 pts on Weight Watchers and I am still game. The found flax seed in it produces such a wonderful taste and texture. It is so moist that there is no need to add Earth Balance. What a yummy lunch, broccoli and cornbread. My kind of lunch, simple and satisfying.

Sometimes nothing hits the spot better than a nice big bowl of fresh, homemade vegetable soup. This is a take off of another wonderful recipe from Susan. I added black beans this time and I love the contrast of colors. mmmmm good!

When I make vegetable soup it makes a ton. Here is another yummy bowl with the addition of brown rice, Swiss chard and some of that yummy cornbread!

Comfort food is the best thing ever. No Internet, no TV equals comfort food. Susan over at fatfreevegan.com has some great recipes. I know I have posted my version of her macaroni and cheeze before, but this time I added ground seitan. Oh my Gosh! The most wonderful flavor and satisfaction came out of this meal. Thank you Susan for your great macaroni and cheeze and Joanne for your great seitan recipe!

Were having a heat wave, a tropical heat wave! Bring out the grill! Once again a family favorite, Susan's BBQ Ribz. We were watching Emeril Live on the food network the other night and Emeril was making homemade ketchup, which he turned into a spicy and I mean spicy BBQ sauce. It is time consuming, but so worth it. The recipe calls for 3 Tablespoons of red pepper sauce ( we used Sriracha) along with a Scotch Bonnet pepper, also known as a habinero pepper. Let me tell you, with the combination of these two hot ingredients, you have one very spicy BBQ sauce. It is fantastic. Here is our meal with spicy ribz and grilled pineapple. If you have never tried grilled pineapple you should!

Yes, we are still having a heat wave so back to the grill we go. This time along with leftover Ribz, we had broccoli, potatoes, and grilled zucchini. I am so in love with grilling and roasting vegetables. The wonderful sweetness of them really comes forth. Boy I can make myself drool, just writing about them.

With the Internet down I have been able to cook from a cookbook, which I love. Joanne Stepaniak's, Table for Two. This cookbook has a variety of dishes, which are very low in fat and most recipes make only 2 to 4 servings. Beware some of her recipes that serve 2 are very large servings, of course whoever cried over leftovers. Leftovers make some of the the best breakfast and lunch meals. Here we have Cabbage and Pasta Bake. It is a mixture of whole wheat pasta, green cabbage, spices, and seitan. The recipe calls for tofu, but I am in love with the ground seitan from this same cookbook so I used some of it instead. This meal gives you the since of peace, a real comfort food. I did increase the spices and nutritional yeast, which gave it more pep. I think an addition of green beans or peas would help give the dish more color, texture, and flavor.

We were given a whole bunch of very ripe bananas. Who in their right mind would turn them down? They are so versatile, but baked goods are my favorite way to use them. This recipe is another yummy creation from Joanne Stepaniak's cook book, Table for Two, Banana Nut Muffins. These muffins are made with whole wheat pastry flour and sweetened with organic apple juice concentrate. I love them. Their fragrance is amazing! I don't feel guilty at all when I eat them. The recipe gives the option to use raisins or currants along with the bananas. I left them out this time because DH requested that I do. I think if you soak the dried fruit before adding them it will make the muffins more moist. I will definitely add them and see if my theory really works.

The smell of sweet ripe bananas in the house makes my dear hubby crave banana bread. When he saw the muffins he was a very sad boy. You ask yourself, "How do you know he is sad?" It is the droopy eyes, the pouting lip, and the quiet hints of how he loves banana bread. What else is the dutiful, peace making wife to do? Make delicious, moist and not so healthy banana bread for the love of her life. My man loves white flour and white sugar, which is a rarity in this home. He says the sweeter the better. This recipe comes from The Vegan Family Favorites a comfort food cookbook, which is very omni friendly.

Whenever I come home our fur kids get a treat. We have been out for a couple weeks and the kids were not happy. I mean they really pout when they do not get a cookie. It is all about routine with them. Needless to say, thanks to Vicki they once again have goodies. I don't have a cute "bone" cookie cutter, but I don't think they mind. Although the picture is not so great, my new son-n-law said, "Momma, these smell really good." Brandie said, "Honey, momma made them go ahead and have one. Pretty cool that we can eat the fur kids goodies, 100% vegan and healthy.

I just couldn't leave out our precious Joshua. He always has such a thoughtful look on his face.

Internet Down

Hi everyone,
Thank you all for the wonderful words of support and comments on Brandie in her wedding dress. To keep you all up to date the happy couple are doing great. The photographs have not yet arrived, but have been ordered so they should arrive soon. Our internet is out at home for another week or so, which sucks since I can't do much blogging at work. I have been cooking and can't wait to post and share. Our whole area is without internet. It has been so slow we can't even post or email, but at least it is not our fault or expense. The cable company has to run new lines under the street. They said is should be back up in perfect running order in another week maybe sooner. What is one to do without the internet, and tv since the cable works both? I think a good book or a board game are in order. I am trying to visit everyone during my break at work, but if I don't post a comment know that I am visiting and miss you all.

Love to all and (((((HUGS)))))

Brandie is married!

Hi everyone!

First let me tell each and everyone of you "THANK YOU" for you kind words of love and encouragement as I went and am going through my empty nest syndrome. The day of the wedding was emotional and full of joy. The morning began with me walking out into the kitchen at 6am to find Brandie sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor rubbing Joshua. I started to cry knowing this was the last time she would wake up in our home and play with our fur baby. Then dad came out and the two of them were hugging in the kitchen and more tears followed. I know, I am a sap. In fact our whole family are saps, but that is ok because tears are cleansing those tear ducts of ours. I can't wait to get the photo's from the professional, but until the couple I took with my digital will have to do. I will give more details in a week or so, but I have a really busy schedule today. I just needed to touch base with everyone and say hi and thanks for checking in on me. I hope this coming month will be an eventful cooking one and blogging one. I miss all of you and I miss my kitchen! Love to all of you.

Brandie and her flower girl Krysta

What a happy bride!

Crunch time and missing all of you

Hi everyone,

First I want to tell everyone that I am alive. Thank you to all of those who have sent me kind words and concern since I have been only partly here. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be the emotional wreck that I am with our baby girl getting married. She went away to college, she moved out and has lived on her own, so why is this hitting me so hard? We have come to the conclusion that all the other times she would or could come back home, but marriage this is final or should be. She is not coming home again. I guess that might be the reason. Please don't get me wrong. Her father and I are so excited, happy, and overjoyed with the wonderful man she is marrying and look forward to her new life, but then the other part of us both feel the apron strings being untied ever so slowly. We are truly blessed to have had her home with us for the past year and are grateful. Needless to say this is why I have not posted.

Food has been mostly leftovers with the exception of a few meals I have tested for Melody and Julie, which were fantastic, but in my state of ahhhhhhh I deleted the photos I took. Oh, darn I will have to make another fantastic pie (Julie's recipe) and cream cheese and burgers from Melody. I promise to post pictures and tell everyone how the wedding went. It is crunch time. The wedding is in 5 days. This Saturday our baby girl will start her new adventure in life as her dad and I will. I miss reading all your posts and miss you visiting me. So don't give up on me I will be back in a week or so. Until then keep posting all your tasty meals so I can keep myself busy catching up.

((((hugs to all))))

How do you start your day & how do you end it?

Planning a wedding is very stressful. I have been cooking, eating, and even taking pictures, but have not had the time or should I say energy to post. I am also back to work 3 days a week, 4 hours a day. I know it may not seem like much, but when you don't move very well and you have to leave for work an hour and a half before you need to be there, just to find a parking place, the day is long and tiring. So for your enjoyment :o)

"Breakfast of Champions"

Here we have Susan's fantastic "Mini Crustless Tofu Quiche", fresh mango's, blueberries, and hash browns. Our family loves these quiche. If you have not tried them, what are you waiting for? Go for it and you will never turn back. I added cooked broccoli to them this time and they were gone in a matter of minutes. I can't even explain how good they are and this is coming from someone who has always had a great dislike for eggs. Give them a shot. No eggs equals incredible yumminess! Here are 2 of the best salads I have had all summer.

"Quinoa Spring Salad"

The first one is Quinoa Spring Salad from Dreena in her book Viva la Vegan on page 71. She had suggestions of amounts and ingredients. I used 3/4 cup roasted red bell peppers, toasted pine nuts, and left out the parsley, cilantro, or basil because I did not have any. It calls for 3-4 Tablespoons of a simple vinaigrette. I once again looked to Dreena and used her simple dressing on pg 57. What a fantastic dish! I can't say enough about it. I took it to a dinner with the ladies from my church and it disappeared almost instantly. Poor Brandie, she was so sad when I showed her the crumbs that were left.

"Cowboy Coleslaw"

Salad #2 is Cowboy Coleslaw from Alanna. I of course had to fool around with the recipe and it was a hit. Thank you Alanna for sharing it with us. Here is my adapted version:

COWBOY COLESLAW
2 cups grated carrot
2 cup thin-sliced red cabbage
1/4 cup chopped green onion
1 apple, peeled and grated
2 tablespoons toasted sunflower seeds

DRESSING
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, white or red
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon agave nectar
salt and pepper to taste
Gently combine the cabbage, carrots, and apple. Whisk together the dressing and add to your salad mix. Add the toasted sunflower seeds just before serving.

"Dreena's Tofu-Lovin Sandwich"

Have any of you seen the August issue of VegNews? Dreena has a couple wonderful recipes in there. Potato-Spinach Salad with Pine Nut Dressing, which I have not yet made and Tofu-Lovin Sandwiches, which are wonderful. The tofu is lightly fried with balsamic vinegar and tamari and mixed with garden goodies. Here I had it on sprouted grain bread, corn on the cob, and broccoli. DH loved it and mixed it with his green salad the next day for lunch. This recipe is very light and refreshing on these hot summer days. Thank you, Dreena for another wonderful recipe.

"Veggie Pizza"

A good old stand by! "Veggie Pizza" cheeseless of course. I love the mixture of roasted veggies, pineapple, and olives. So, so, good! This is a wonderful way to eat your gifts from your garden! If you have never had a cheeseless pizza you don't know what you are missing.

"Bumbleberry Crumb Pie"

What a better way to end a post than with dessert. Julie has graciously asked me to test, yet another one of her soon to be famous pies for her upcoming book. Friends you won't be disappointed. The lovely pie is a mixture of different berries ( I added extra fresh blueberries), with a whole wheat and oat crumb mixture. The smell, the taste, the drooling, and the final product with a side of Soy Delicious Vanilla. Thank you, Julie!

Nectarine Upside-Down Cake

Susan at Fat free vegan is such an awesome cook and photographer. She made the most amazing Peach Upside Down Cake. I had an overload of nectarines that needed to be used so made her recipe substituting the peaches with nectarines. I learned the following. You must use a 9 inch skillet. You must seal all fruit with the cake mix and you must laugh at your not so eye pleasing results and just enjoy the awesome flavor.

I only had an 8 inch iron skillet, but was afraid it would not be deep enough so I switched to my 8 inch iron skillet dutch oven. Wrong! My dutch oven is tapered so the bottom is not 8 inches. It is a bit smaller. Therefore my filling was too deep for the amount of cake mix. The cake came nicely out of the pan, but the amount of juice went pouring over the sides of the plate and the cake seemed more like a dumpling than "cake".

Even with all my minor problems this cake is wonderful. I followed the recipe exactly except for the sub of nectarines for peaches. The flavors and sweetness were perfect. Next time I will make sure to use a 9 inch skillet ( I think I just thought of a wonderful birthday present, which is only a week away), and try and be a little more fancy like Vegan Yum Yum . I know the taste is the same, but oh so cool looking.