"alternative" news and stories

In all the hubbub over super bowl treats, we can't forget the vegan(s) in our lives. Thankfully, Gail at Cooking at the Pacific Outpost has us covered: here's her recipe for vegan sugar cookies, that can be cut out with football-shaped cookie cutters and decorated with vegan frosting to signify the team of your choosing. Y'know, because you will suffer humiliation when the team from my town defeats the team from your town.

Vegan Sugar Cookies
Makes: About 24 cookies

You will need:

¾ cups Earth Balance, softened (FYI: Earth Balance is just a butter substitute - it won't kill you, I promise)
1 cup sugar
½ cup soy yogurt
½ tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp almond extract
2 ½ cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt

In a large bowl, cream the Earth Balance and sugar with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Beat in the soy yogurt and the extracts. Sift in the flour, baking powder, and salt and stir until well combined. Cover the dough and chill it in the refrigerator for at least one hour.

Preheat the oven to 400 F. Shape the cookies and place them 1" apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake for approximately 8 minutes. Cool completely before icing.

Makes approximately. 24 cookies.

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Of all the households in the US, 99.5% have refrigerators. About the same percentage have some way of heating food. We've seen some great gadgets for keeping things hot and cold here on Slashfood, but I want to show you an ancient technique for keeping food cool. It's called a zeer pot. The vessel itself may be third world, but it's playing a timely role in the continuing recovery of northern Darfur and other African nations. Science in Africa magazine states that a zeer can keep tomatoes edible for 20 days, as opposed to two, and meat two weeks, as opposed to a few hours.

A zeer pot is quite simple. It's basically two large earthen pots, one nested in the other. The space is filled with sand and water is added. A damp cloth covers the top. As the water evaporates, the inner pot containing the perishables is kept cool in the same manner that a mechanical refrigerator operates -- water evaporation draws heat from the inner vessel. Water is added twice a day.

Muhammed Bah Abba is credited with reviving (some say inventing) use of the zeer and has his own instructions on theory, application and making one. I am going to make one of these myself and see how long basic vegetables will keep at room temp. You can see from the picture how easy it would be to improvise a zeer with regular flower pots. I will then give it a taste test after one week.

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As was discussed on Slashfood recently, stevia is a great alternative to the White Demon, refined table sugar. One method of refining sugarcane involves a step where the liquid is filtered through a cattle bone charcoal mixture, with a little albumen thrown in. Not remotely vegan. While stevia is a good, strong, sweetener for that shade grown soy latte, you might also try: Brown Rice Syrup, less sweet than honey and bakes well. Sucanat, organic sugar cane juice with the essence of the sugarcane sans water. Sucanat is good in hot liquids, but lumps up oatmeal and is not ideal for baking. Maple Sugar/Maple Syrup, organic, pure, expensive, but worth it. Pure maple syrup is graded A-C, A being lightest, C the most robust and similar to restaurant grade corn syrup knockoffs. Nothing wrong with C, it's just meant to be the dominant flavor of the food.

Then, there's always Blackstrap molasses. Anyone who's trained with triathletes, especially in the '90s, knows that Blackstrap is believed to (lots of potassium, B vits.) help flush lactic acid from muscles and speed overall recovery from heavy exertion. Whatever your sweet needs, don't turn to the White Demon-- it's no good. Period. Check all this out, and more here.

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I have my suspicions when it comes to cheese substitutes or alternatives. Cheese is a dairy product, through and through, and I don't think that making a comparison to "real" cheese with any alternative "cheese" is really fair. A non-dairy "cheese" should be evaluated on its own merits of flavor and texture, not as though it were cheese, but as though it is similar to cheese.

I was a little reluctant, but my curiousity about the alternative cheese one out in the end and I bought a package at Trader Joe's. I went with the sliced, packaged variety because it seemed as though it might not be all that different from the sliced, packaged "cheese food." As it turns out, I was right in my assumption. The soy cheese from Trader Joe's does taste a lot like the processed cheese, if perhaps a bit more bland. Does it taste like cheddar? No, and it's not bad, just unremarkable.