I forgot where I found the inspiration for this dish, it wasn’t vegan. We fixed that of course. If you want the recipe for this stupendous treat, you might have to harass my husband on twitter. @stemartaen may be coerced into repeating this dish (bonus for me) and sharing it with the masses (bonus for you). Harassment, coercion, manipulation??? It just might work!

Here it is…Tortilla chips, Avocado, Tomato, Cilantro…Nacho cheese sauce. The tasty glue that brings all of the aforementioned together. Look at it! Drippy, mouth watering fabulousness! Forget the runway, give me a seat and some nachos!

My oldest daughter came to spend the winter break with me and this is the first meal/snack we had. It was midnight, but the glory of these nachos lit the sky.

I could blab on and on about these, but let’s get to the recipe so you can start blabbing (where did that word come anyway…blab?).

Veggies:
8 cloves garlic, slice thin or minced
1 jalapeno (2 if you aren’t scared), diced
2 green onions, diced

Cheese:
No other than our Ste Martaen Colby and Olive (8 oz of each). However, you can pick whatever combination you desire

Spices:
1/2 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon salt and more to taste

And:
2 cups of unsweetened soy milk

Let’s start the madness!

Heat 1/2 tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil on medium. Add veggies and saute for 5 minutes.

Add one cup of milk and heat to near boil.

While the milk is heating. Get the vegan cheeses ready. As seen above, we are using the Colby and Olive styles.

Rough chop the cheeses.

Add one half of the chopped cheese.

Whisk until smooth. Add the second cup of milk, heat, add the last half of cheese and whisk again until smooth.

Add the spices.

Whisk again.

This is the type of whisk I am using. I don’t know if it has a technical name, but the bottom is flat versus the traditional rounded bottom. This helps act as a masher. When the cheese is added, I mash the cheese in order to help break up the chunks. If you’re using a different kind of whisk, work it out.

There it is, creamy cheesy goodness. Now, stop admiring your nacho sauce and get some chips together. I emptied a whole bag on a pastry board. And let the magic begin…

Pour your sauce all over the chips. Don’t be stingy.

Yeeeeaaaah. Nice and covered.

Top off with some diced tomatoes and avocado. Maybe a little chopped fresh cilantro and your in there.

Right at ya!

How did the crowd react?

Deep concentration…

And happiness (that’s my daughter on the right…isn’t she lovely?) The elated guy on the left you ask…my friend, the Soul Veg East juice bar extraordinaire.

After 5 minutes…the remnants still being gobbled up!

OK, one more beauty shot.

I went on my Lasagna binge the end of last year and created this recipe along the way. It’s a pretty quick formula and adds great flavor to many dishes.

This is what you will need:

1 block extra firm tofu
1 recipe Creamy Soy Cheese (with some adjustments)

That’s it…basically.

Putting it together, let’s start with the creamy cheese base.

Follow the Creamy Soy Cheese recipe with these adjustments to the ingredient list:
1. Increase lemon to juice of 1 whole lemon

2. Add 1 and 1/2 Tablespoons of dried Basil

3. Add 1 Tablespoon of Dried Parsley

4. Increase salt to 2 tsp. This will make the mix a little salty, but you’re adding it to flavorless tofu, so it will even out.

And no jalapeno! Finish processing the cheese according to the recipe and put to the side.

In a large mixing bowl, crumble a block of extra firm tofu. Use a masher to break up the crumbles into smaller pieces.

Add about half of the Basil infused creamy soy cheese and mix.

Keep adding the cheese mixture until the ricotta is a cottage cheesy consistency. You do not want it too runny or liquidy.

And there you have it! Use for lasagna, stuffed shells, manicotti or as a dip. Be careful though, your children or love ones may get forceful when asking for seconds.

Abba, give me some more! Don’t think I don’t know how to use these. Gilbert Arenas taught me how!

See what you did Arenas? It’s all fun and games until the youth get inspired by you. Note to self, don’t make Tofu Ricotta while the children watch the Wizards play.

And the Winner is…well, you’ll have to read a little bit more. This past weekend, Sunday, December 13, 2009…a date that shall live on in our minds and taste buds for eternity. Julia, aka the Snarky Vegan, had the most brilliant idea that culminated in the Vegan Pizza Smackdown at Delisi’s Pizzeria and Bar. The premise of the smackdown was to compare how two vegan cheese’s would compare side by side. The competitors were Chicago Soy Dairy’s Teese and Canada’s own Daiya. These two vegan cheeses have been regarded as the best “melty” vegan cheeses in the country. Well, Chicago has put them to the test.

Delisi’s is basically a dive bar on the north side of Chicago. It’s a no frills, no top shelf kind of joint with super friendly service and enthusiastic local regulars that don’t mind drinking and buying you drinks. The perfect spot to find Vegan Pizza, and deep dish pizza at that. In my experience, joints like this are the jewels of the culinary world. Forget the chandeliers, cloth napkins, Grey Goose, 100 year old scotch and dudes uncomfortably dressed in tuxes. Give me a place that forsakes posh, serves well drinks and puts all of its energy into creating delicious food…in this case, Vegan Deep-dish Pizza! It’s my understanding that Delisi’s just recently started serving vegan pizza and it has caught Chicago by storm. As you know, once a vegan finds a great product, word spreads like wildfire. The most effective form of communication known to man…not the the telegram or the telephone…it’s Tell-a-Vegan. Within days, the whole world will be up to speed.

See, a place packed full of Vegans! Anything to do with pizza, you know I couldn’t leave the children at home. If I did it might have been the last time any of y’all had seen me.

Look how serious Lil’ Z is. Now imagine if I had left him home! He would be posted up at the house ready to use that knife and fork on me.

Baby boy ridding his slice of any vegetable content. Just cheese and crust please. Well, he did add ketchup…does that count as a vegetable?

Our lion cub, pretending to eat with sophistication and patience.

Father, this deep-dish pizza is extraordinary. I am thankful for you allowing me to accompany you on this outing.

Yeah right! Believe me, once the camera went down, so did the fork and the pizza at a record setting pace.

Don’t forget about me. Pizza, in my mouth? Pizza, in my mouth?

Sorry, not this time, baby girl.

Awww . Don’t worry, she got some of Chicago Soy Dairy’s Temptation pineapple ice cream and was very happy.

Alright, stop the yapping, can we eat? Yes, let’s all dig in.

Here’s the scoop from my perspective:

Both Teese and Daiya were similar in how they melted. Both claim to veganly emulate the stretchy, gooey, meltiness of dairy cheese. They both melted, but I didn’t see any close similarity to dairy cheese. Maybe right, right, right out of the oven. Hey, that’s not my hang up though. I’m all about taste.

So the winner, according to my taste buds, is….?

That’s right, Chicago’s finest…Teese from Chicago Soy Dairy! Why Teese? I felt it had a milder flavor that combined much better with the other ingredients on the pizza. Teese did not over power only enhanced every bite. Now Daiya, on the other hand, had an after taste. Maybe its from the tapioca or arrowroot flours, maybe the cultures. I don’t know. All I know, that after taste was more dominant than the flavors of the pizza as a whole. Daiya did seem a little creamier than Teese, but that wasn’t enough to take the crown.

So Teese it is for me. Also, the unsung hero of the day has to be Upton’s Naturals faux meats. Along with the vegan cheese, Delisi’s offers a variety of faux meat products produced by Upton’s. My hands down favorite was the vegan pepperoni. So next time I get back to Delisi’s (next time being every week), I’ll be getting my deep-dish with Teese and Upton’s pepperoni.

Who ever said being a vegan lacked taste, has evidently never been to Chicago. Chicago is producing some of the best new vegan products on the market. I looked forward to when the rest of the world catches up with what we know.

The Mercy For Animals’ 2nd annual Celebrating Compassion Gala was amazing! This has been such a hectic holiday season and we prepped ourselves for this event, however it’s been a while and we don’t get out much…together. I had so much fun being around grown ups, dressing up, serving our cheese, taking pictures, hanging with friends (Kevin & Chelsea) and spending time with my Silver Fox!

The man behind the Ste Martaen brand.

Our spread. Many people came back not only for seconds and thirds, but fourths and fifths. We were flattered!

We shared the table with other vegan Chicago local talent–Karyn’s and Great Taste Cafe. Their food was so beautifully presented!

Karyn’s Raw Sushi Rolls

Great Taste Cafe Roasted Sweet Potato with Chipotle Cream & Green Onions

So Pretty!

Early on in the evening before we were swarmed…

The decor was quite beautiful! The room where we ate dinner was amazing, however it was so dark in there I didn’t attempt pictures. The dinner meal was provided by the lovely people from Chicago Diner, dessert was Delicious Cafe, Raw Creations and Great Taste Cafe, the Late Night meal was provided by Uptons Naturals (someone stole our sandwiches) , Pattycake Vegan Bakery (They had so many vegan desserts to choose from, it was a true dessert buffet!) and Turtle Mountain.

The cast from Oh Brother Where Art Thou showed up! j/k

Kevin auditioning for the new Bond movie.

Not really.

Food, friends and fun!

Marinated Tofu w/ Ste Martaen Smoked Gouda vegan cheese

Sandwiches may possibly be the world’s most perfect meal.  Two slices of bread bookending an endless array of combinations.  I can eat anything between two slices of bread…and I mean anything.

R U serious…anything?

Let’s see…I have eaten spaghetti sandwiches, mac n’ cheese sandwiches, beans n’ rice sandwiches, Vegenaise and ketchup sandwiches, cucumber and cheese sandwiches, hummus sandwiches, bean curd sandwiches, lasagna sandwiches, seaweed and couscous sandwiches…the list goes on.  I think you get the point…I love sandwiches.  But besides eating whatever is leftover from last night’s dinner in between two pieces of bread, I can make some rather wonderful sandwiches – really, I can.

The Marinated Tofu sandwich is definitely one of my favorites.  It is full of flavor and great to send to school in your vegan child’s lunchbox.

You’ll need:

• One block of Extra Firm Tofu sliced in 1/4 inch pieces – this should yield about 12 to 13 pieces

• Layer and arrange in a dish to await the marinade

The Liquids:

• 3 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 3 tablespoons Bragg’ s Liquid Amino

• Drizzle olive oil and liquid amino over the sliced tofu

The Dry Seasonings:

• 1/2 tablespoon Nutritional Yeast
• 1/8 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil

• Add your dry seasonings to the party and work into the tofu.  You’ll need to flip, rotate and massage the tofu to distribute all of that luscious flavor.

Now that your flavors are all mixed in, you can serve immediately or marinate overnight to intensify the flavors.  I usually serve right away because I am impatient…and greedy!

For your sandwich assembly:

Alright everybody…STOP!…It’s veggie time!

• Lettuce leaves – washed and dried (I am using red leaf here)
• Plum tomatoes – sliced
• Green onions – finely sliced

And of course, Vegenaise.  We are using the Grapeseed variety, or purple label, because it utilizes the healthiest oil.

Let’s put this sammie together, shall we?

• Spread a little or a lot of Vegenaise on your bread and sprinkle some dried oregano and granulated kelp.

• Add your marinated tofu to one side of the bread and drizzle some of the marinade on the other side for that extra punch of mouth watering, spectacular sandwich flavor

• Add some green onions

• Slice up some Ste Martaen Smoked Gouda vegan cheese

• Add the Smoked Gouda vegan cheese

• Add tomatoes, then lettuce.

Another masterpiece.  Job well done!  Serve with some of your favorite chips or some Goodness Rice Cakes and you have yourself a terrific lunch or light dinner.

A bonafide winner!  For you and your children.

Now that’s good eatin’!

Nahum St. Martin

So, um things around here will be changing. I found a theme I like that may or may not be permanent, based on whether or not I get expert help OR I become the expert. Whichever comes first.

Last week I was in the south visiting my grandparents. Of course my grandparents don’t have the internet. They don’t have the faintest idea how to use a computer. They have never even used their DVD player! At any rate, I love the fact that my husband stayed with three of our children while I traveled with the infant to check on the health of the grandparents. So of course it was a no holds barred manfest here! As you can see with the previous post.

For the record, I think the idea of a pizza with fries and burgers and nuggets on it is pretty gross. However, the children were happy and I guess in the end that is all that counts.

Kids:

You have to try it! It was so good!  It was the best dinner ever!

My husband:

C’mon you know you want to try it!

Me:

Trust me, I don’t.

That being said, I love the positive feedback about our cheese, about our blog, about our site. We look forward to sharing our journey with you!

Boca Burger with our Pepper Jack Cheese

Ever since we did a tasting for the Chicago Vegan Meetup, things have been moving quickly. Our website was barely set up + ordering and shipping = forgetaboutit! All in stride! This all adds to our charm of course. Doesn’t it? Anyway, I am overwhelmed at how positively, things are moving! We met up with the ultra kewl peeps from delicious cafe. They were not bothered by the fact that we showed up to a business meeting with four kids in tow. They loved our cheeses and meeting with them was so positive that when we stepped outside to our car and the meter man was writing us a ticket, we didn’t get upset. We said more to each other than to the meter man, “I guess it’s too late.” He exclaimed that it wasn’t, stopped writing us a ticket and moved on. Awesome!

Right now, we are setting up meetings and gearing up for production to go into the stores. We get the proofs back tomorrow for our labels and soon, very soon, we will be busier than even we can imagine! I am currently searching out another template for our website. I like this one, but it has some encrypted code that I cannot figure out (doh it’s encrypted). Also, at present I can only adjust one of the sidebars, how bonkers is that? So if anyone can suggest a nice clean theme, easily adjustable that I can incorporate my logo into, that would be awesome.

How many times am I going to say awesome? I don’t know, I just know that it is…

Scene of the Crime

Someone has actually confirmed that we are a business…she bought some cheese from us!  Lady R (I don’t want to use her real name because she might not want us to or sue us or something) contacted us last week after our May 2nd tasting.  She, of course, wanted to buy some cheese and we, of course, weren’t really ready to take orders.  We are trying to be professional…you know, labels for our products, a working website – those small details.

However, we were elated to have a potential sale…so we accepted, with conditions.  The conditions…meet us Saturday at Foster Park at about 1PM…we’ll take cash or credit.  That’s how all the legit companies do it…isn’t it?  Kraft, Coca-cola, Heinz…all the big boys slang their goods out of a dirty, run down mini-van at some random park.

So, this afternoon, I load the fam in the sales car, lumber up Lakeshore Drive and settle in at our parkside sales venue.  The park is full of cars, mostly soccer moms watching their kids play at one of the 300 soccer games currently being played.  The perfect cover for a vegan cheese transfer…nobody will suspect a thing.  It probably doesn’t help that of all the spots I could have parked, I park next to a police barrier that reads ‘Police Line – Do Not Cross.’  Can this sale be any shadier?  Lady R is going to see this, if she even shows, and is going to keep on driving.

I could read the potential regretful email in my mind…

• ‘Sorry for not showing, I had a last minute emergency and could not make it.  Please let me know when you will be available in stores.’

In other words,

• ‘I doubted you guys from the minute you said meet me at the park, I saw you two questionable business people in that hoopty and I got away from that park as soon as possible.  Ooh, and sorry for the 911 call, I hope the police didn’t arrest you.   If you ever do get legitimate, maybe I’ll purchase something from a store.’

Well, back to reality.  I call Lady R and she is actually on her way!  What? OK? Great!?   Hard to believe she agreed to such scetchy circumstances and is following through with it.  I guess not all people have lost their faith in humanity or believe a couple like us may make it for real one day.

She arrives as my wife and I are fumbling with our newborn.  I pass the little princess off to my wife {good catch honey} and greet Lady R.  Now the BIG moment…she gives me cash and I give her a bag with one each of Ste Martaen’s vegan cheeses.  She only wanted 3 of the 5, but I figured, she was our first customer and actually met us in the park…she deserved the other 2 on the house.

Despite the unprofessionalism of the whole sales process, we are super elated to have made our first sale.  Thank you to Lady R for having faith in Ste Martaen and enjoy your wine and cheese night.

Roasted red pepper and pepper jack cheese panini bliss!

Okay, it’s viral.  I got e-mails coming left and right.  Not only am I the photographer, I am the blogger, the homeschooler, the coder (not very good might I add), the mommy, the wife and business partner.  This company is the brainchild of my wonderful husband.  We are running this business together and today I am a little frightened and overwhelmed.  Frightened because I love this theme, I am just finding it harder than I thought to tweak the code for this theme.

To do list for the day:

• Give final approval for the cheese labels.
• Get logo up on the website so we look like professionals (instead of parents homeschooling 4 kids crazy enough to run a business from home while homeschooling)!
• Get PayPal buttons up on the site (we are in business aren’t we?)
• Respond to every single e-mail of everyone who wants a piece of our fabulous cheese
• Post pictures from our homegrown photoshoot of our cheese (photographing food is harder than I thought)!

I can do it!