Solas na Cruinne

“Believe me! The secret of reaping the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment from life is to live dangerously!”
~ Friedrich Nietzsche, German Philosopher

Okay, a weird name for a vegetarian casserole, I admit, but so tasty!

The name comes from the fact that the recipe that I tweaked had already been named “Dragon’s Pie” by someone else and also that the name of the restaurant which I first ate this at was the Hundred Monkeys.

So simple, a bit weird, but worth raving about! Dragon and Monkey Pie is completely vegan.

This is a vegan and very healthy answer to Shepard’s Pie, and the flavor is very satisfying, with lots of different tastes and textures.

I’m off to Paris for my birthday so I say: Bon Appetit!

Dragon and Monkey Pie
Makes: 6-8 servings
Prep Time: 45 minutes
Cooking Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes

Ingredients:
*large casserole dish (ie. 9″x13″)
1.5 cups lentils
4 medium-large tomatoes, diced
1 head of broccoli, cut into pieces
2 carrots, sliced thin
1/2 large onion, diced
1 large (or 2 medium) parsnips
small butternut squash, cubed
4 large potatoes
3 medium-large sweet potatoes
2-3 cloves garlic, diced
1/2 teaspoon basil
salt & pepper to taste
4 tbspn water



Directions:

1. Soak lentils for 30-40 minutes, then drain.

2. Boil and mash the potatoes and sweet potatoes together.

3. Par-boil the parsnips, carrots and squash cubes for 6-8 minutes, then drain.

4. Preheat oven to 350°f (175°c.)

5. Cover the base of the casserole dish with spaghetti sauce.

6. Add an even covering of soaked lentils.

7. Make the next layer one of diced tomatoes, and sprinkle evenly with the water.

8. Now add a layer of small broccoli pieces and diced onions.

9. Layer evenly with the carrots, parsnips and squash.

10. Sprinkle on garlic, basil and salt & pepper.

11. Finish with a thick layer of sweet potato/potato mixture.

12. Cover with foil and bake at 350°f (175°c) for an hour to hour and fifteen minutes.

This is a very hearty meal so there’s no need to serve it with any extras, but a salad is always a nice appetizer!

“Nothing on Earth so beautiful as the final haul on Halloween night.”
~ Steve Almond, American Fiction Writer

This is the mother of all cakes, made for my favorite season, Autumn. And for me the best spiritual harvest of the year is in the cool and leaf-strewn time between my two favorite holidays, Halloween and Thanksgiving. :-)

As for the cake itself, I cannot begin to tell you how proud I am of this gooey monstrosity of a tasty sweet treat!

Anyone who knows of my cake baking/decorating exploits of the past knows that I have tried several times to master the tall, round and flat cake of picture books and cooking magazines, but to no avail.

Well, this is it! Rich, fruity, spicy, sweet and perfectly shaped! I think I’m in love.

The secret to that perfect depth and shape is in ditching your regular baking pans for a good old-fashioned saucepan instead. ;-)

Sadly, it’s perfection brought such tears to my eyes, and it’s smell such grumbles to nearby bellies, that photos were inadvertently missed out. :-(

I’ll make this one again next year, for Thanksgiving, and get some good snaps then.

This cake has all of the leading ladies of yummy and some quite tasty co-stars as well. So be decadent, get into the harvest-time spirit, and use up some of those pumpkins and apples from your autumn garden-picking adventures!

Harvest Haul Cake
Makes: 10 (or more) servings
Prep Time: 20-30 minutes
Cooking Time: 30-40 minutes

Ingredients:
*large stainless or non-stick saucepan

Cake Base
2 cups apples, sliced and peeled
.5 cup sugar
1 tbs flour
1 tsp cinnamon
3 tbs butter or margarine
1 tbs water
1 tbs lemon juice

Cake Batter
1 cup pumpkin puree
1.5 cup brown sugar
2.25 cups white flour
1 tbs corn starch
.25 cup soy milk
.5 cup buttermilk***
.75 cup butter or margarine
2-3 large eggs
3 tbs olive oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
.5 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
.5 tsp nutmeg
.5 teaspoon allspice
.25 tsp powdered ginger
.12 tsp ground cloves

Optional:
.5 cup ground walnuts
1 cup dried raisins or cranberries

Directions: (for base)

1. Melt butter over medium-low heat in the saucepan.

2. Add sugar, water, cinnamon and flour, mixing until it is lump-free.

3. Continue cooking on low until it becomes quite thick and caramel in colour.

4. Place apples in mixture, let sit over heat for just a minute.

5. Remove from heat, arrange evenly in the bottom of the pan and set aside.

Directions: (for cake batter)

1. Preheat oven to 350°f (175°c.)

2. Mix all ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

3. Slowly spoon batter into the saucepan, over top of apple base.

4. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until cooked all the way through.

5. Let sit for up to an hour before cutting, this helps to keep it cooking evenly while cooling.

*6. You can sprinkle the top with powdered sugar as a decoration if you’d like.

This may sound a bit like a simple apple upside-down cake, but it is so much more! This is a very rich and flavorful cake that is nearly a meal in itself! Great for big family get-togethers.

“The truth is that life is delicious, horrible, charming, frightful, sweet, bitter, and that is everything.”
~Anatole France, Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, 1921

Somehow, it didn’t seem appropriate to call this a bread.

I tried that tact when I first made it but Serge agreed that it was far too sweet and moist to be a bread and must, therefore, be a cake.

Still it is often listed as a “bread” in cookbooks, and it is made in a bread pan.

It’s heavier than most cupcakes or iced cakes though, so I went with it being a loaf. The Victorians would probably call it a tea cake. ;)

Admittedly, as a child I hated anything even remotely lemon flavoured. But, oddly enough, as I got older the taste grew on me. I still favor a cherry cake or a zucchini bread over lemon, but occasionally I get a craving for something sweet and lemony.

All citrus flavours seem very refreshing and invigorating to me, but lemon is the most refreshing of all. Even the kids will like this loaf and you may have to beat them off of it like leftover birthday cake.

It does have quite a fair amount of sugar in it but you could substitute agave or honey and still get lovely results. Some people glaze this loaf and some don’t. I do, of course, but you don’t have too. ;)

Lemon Poppy Seed Sweet Loaf
Makes: Two Medium Loaves

Ingredients:

Loaf-

3 cups flour
1 tbs baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
4 tbs poppy seeds
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tbs lemon zest
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups of lemon or vanilla yogurt
1/2 cup soy milk
1/2 cup water * (The amount of liquids you need will vary, just check the consistency of your dough.)

Frosting-

1 cup confectioners sugar
2 capfuls of lemon extract
Enough lemon juice or soy milk to make the frosting liquid

1. Mix all dry loaf ingredients, except the baking powder and soda, together in a large bowl.

2. Add the liquid ingredients and mix thoroughly until the dough is evenly mixed and not too lumpy.

3. Last, mix in the baking powder and soda very thoroughly.

4. Grease two medium-sized loaf pans and distribute the loaf batter evenly in them. Alternatively, you could use a bundt or cupcake pan instead.

5. Bake the loaf for 30 - 40 minutes at 375° Fahrenheit or 190° Celsius.

6. Remove the loaves and let cool for 30 minutes. Begin making the glaze.

7. For glaze mix all glaze ingredients and be sure that the final result is wet enough to pour, but not too liquid, or it will all run off of your loaf.

8. Be absolutely certain that the loaf is cool to the touch. Warm loaves will cause the frosting to become more liquid.

9. Pour the glaze very slowly over the top of your loaf and let it runs just slightly over the edge.

10. Allow the glaze too harden over the next couple of hours and garnish with lemon peel.

Enjoy this loaf with some nice warm tea or a glass of soy milk. :) Just don’t eat it all in one sitting.