The Inquisitive Skink

Mark has become great at making soup. Tonight we enjoyed a cabbage cauliflower soup with skillet cornbread biscuits that I hope to make more often. They were super easy, and especially good with a little bit of maple syrup. Vegan of course. Skillet Cornbread Biscuits - Vegan Makes 12 biscuits Ingredients 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour 1 cup cornmeal 1 Tbsp baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda 1 tsp salt 1/3 cup vegan butter (I use Earth Balance) or coconut oil - kept cold 1 cup almond milk 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar Stir together all of the dry ingredients. It is best to sift the baking powder and baking soda through a wire sieve if they are clumpy. Start an iron skillet on medium low heat. I used the skillet we had sauteed vegetables for the soup and only barely cleaned it out. It should have a sheen of oil. Chop up the shortening of your choice into tiny cubes.  Use a pastry blender to cut the shortening into the dry mix. It should be pebbly. Mix togethe...

I have been meaning to write about making my oatmeal yogurt for a while.  I am so happy to have discovered it.  I first read about making this in The Vibrant Table, Recipes from My Always Vegetarian, Mostly Vegan & Sometimes Raw Kitchen .  The title of this book grabbed me, as I have been vegetarian since 1975, am mostly vegan – but refuse to be religious about it – and raw foods is how I naturally eat for more than half the day.  Author Anya Kassoff has a talent I look for in cookbook writers….she tells a story while explaining her craft.  Kassoff states that she requires a high-speed blender.  Even though my blender is sort of sucky in its well-used old age, it has worked out fine here. I'm trying to squeeze all the life I can out of it before it gets replaced.  Kassoff's recipe calls for 1 cup of oat groats, 1 cup of rolled oats and ½ cup of Brazil nuts.  I didn't have oat groats on hand and substituted 1 cup of steel cut oats the firs...