Anniversary Cajun Style

Last night was my 20th wedding anniversary. To celebrate I decided to take us back to the place where we spent our honeymoon: New Orleans. So I put on some Zydeco music and made a big pot of gumbo for dinner and bread pudding for dessert. I am the first to admit that I am not very good abut following recipes. I use them more of a guideline. I like to look over a recipe then take it and tweak and make it my own and that is what I did with my vegan version of gumbo. I took an old favorite recipe from a very old cookbook,

Nibbles Cooks Cajun, veganized it, tweaked it and made a delicious pot of gumbo.

Ingredients

6 Tbls. flour 1 sm. can tomato sauce

1/2 cup oil 1 cup red wine (any cheap wine will do)

4 Tbls. vegan margarine 1 tsp. thyme

5 cloves garlic 1/2 tsp. chili powder

1 onion, chopped 1/2 tsp. oregano

1 bell pepper, chopped 3 bay leaves

2 cups frozen okra 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper

2 cans veg. stock 1 1/2 tsp. Pickapeppa or A-1

2 cans diced tomatoes 1 tsp. Louisiana Hot Sauce or Tabasco Sauce

1 tsp. garlic powder

In a large pot mix the oil and flour together to make the roux.

In a separate pan sauté garlic, bell pepper, and onion in the margarine.

Place vegetables in roux.

Add the remaining ingredients and stir together. Cook for approximately 2 hours.

Serve over rice.

Next up is the bread pudding. I have to say that there really is no recipe for this. My grandma told me her recipe which was very vague; some of this, a little of that and of course it contained milk and eggs. So with her recipe in mind, I made my own vegan recipe. I am not very good at the measuring thing when making my own concoctions. I just put the stuff in until in looks, feels, smells right. So, this is my first attempt at putting on paper something created in my head.

Ingredients

1 loaf cinnamon raisin bread (or just raisin bread and you can add in the cinnamon)

3 tsp. cinnamon

2 cups soy milk

1 tsp. vanilla

1/4 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spray a 9 inch cake pan with nonstick spray. Break the bread up into small chunks and place in the pan. Mix 1 tsp. of cinnamon with the chucks.

In a separate bowl mix together the soy milk, vanilla, sugar, and 1 tsp. of cinnamon.

Pour liquid mixture over the chunks of bread. With the back of a spoon, smoosh down the bread chunks so that the liquid is evenly distributed through out the bread. There should be liquid remaining in the bottom of the pan. You want it to be wet so that your pudding will be moist. If it doesn't look moist enough, add in some soy milk. Sprinkle the top with the remaining 1 tsp. of cinnamon.

Bake at 350 for 20 - 30 minutes. Do not over cook or it will be dry. Serve warm. For an extra touch mix together some powdered sugar and soy milk to make a sweet icing to drizzle over each piece as it is served. Enjoy with a mug of hot tea or coffee.