- A Collection of Holiday Recipes
- Flavour of the Month: Classic Cinnamon
- Article of the Month: Soy isoflavones and cholesterol levels
- Recipe Update
- General News and Site Update
- Christmas Pudding (ovo)
- Broken Leg (vegan)
- Cranberry-Apple Cider (vegan)
- Irish Cream Liqueur (lacto-ovo)
- Mulled Wine (vegan)
- Vegg-Nog (vegan)
December 2000
In this issue:
Well, I was going to write an article about vegan-friendly and socially-responsible gifts for the holidays this year. But alas, the season has got the better of me and I find myself out of time and without having done the necessary research. Instead, in the spirit of the season, I present my Ode to Eating with a collection of holiday recipes.
Enjoy and Bon Appétit
Holiday party fare
and treats
A few recipes
from
Amanda's Kitchen. Look for more to be added in the next
few days.
Appetizer,
dessert, and beverage recipes for all your holiday parties,
from About.com:
Vegan fudge, candy, and cookies for last-minute holiday baking.
Vegetarian Party recipes from About.com:
Tasty
Christmas Parcels - Delicious
little pies and delights that
promise tasty surprises:
38 great vegan holiday cookies, collected by About.com:
Not all vegetarian but a nice collection of holiday recipes from Minute Meals.
Classic Christmas
and Yuletide Recipes
Christmas is the Christian
celebration of the birth of their saviour, Jesus Christ, on December 25th.
Many of the modern Christmas traditions are based on old European Yule
customs which celebrate the Winter Solstice and the rebirth of the Sun.
This year, Yule will be celebrated by many Wiccans and Pagans around the
world on December 21st.
The
Holiday Roll complete with stuffing and gravy - A vegetarian
alternative to that traditional turkey with
all the "fixings" from
Natural Land Cooking Village.
A
festive Holiday menu with enough food to feed 6 people from the
Vegetarian Resource Group.
A complete country-style
Christmas meal the vegetarian way.
You don't need a bird to enjoy stuffing.
Some delicious recipes from
Natural Land Cooking Village.
Hannukah Recipes
Hannukah, the Jewish Festival of Lights,
celebrates the victory of the Maccabees against the ancient Greeks, and
the rededication of the Jerusalem Temple. It also honors the miracle of
the Jews' small flask of oil, which lasted eight days. This year Hannukah
starts at sundown on December 21st.
A collection of vegetarian Hannukah recipes from About.com.
More links to vegetarian Hannukah recipes.
Kwanzaa
KWANZAA is an African-American spiritual
holiday celebrating Black
heritage. The holiday combines the
African harvest customs and the social history of African-Americans. It
is celebrated for a week starting on December 26th.
A collection of vegetarian Kwanzaa recipes from About.com.
Japanese New Year
Oshogatsu is the Japanese Lunar New
Year. The celebration lasts for five to six days and this season starts
on January 2nd.
A recipe for traditional
New Year's Dumplings with a vegetarian (ovo)
substition.
Classic Cinnamon
Although probably originally a native tree of Sri Lanka, cinnamon first made its known appearance in China around 2700 BCE, and was traded in Europe by 500 BCE. The ancients Hebrews and Arabs used it as a perfume spice and the Egyptians used its preservative action in embalming. Once extremely valuable as a trade spice, cinnamon had the almost the value of gold or frankincense. Cinnamon was one of the spices with which Moses anointed the Ark of the Covenant, and in Roman times, Pliny deplored its wonton use by Nero, who burnt a whole years supply at his wife's funeral, thereby depleting the precious Roman reserves of the spice.
In Chinese mythology, the cinnamon tree brings eternal life to anyone eating of it. The Romans considered it an aphrodisiac. Now it is commonly used to treat high blood pressure, fever and colds. It is especially useful for chills since it stimulates the circulation. Small amounts of cinnamon may help digestion and diarrhea, as well as stop vomiting and relieve nausea. A small dab of the essential oil on insect bites brings instant relief and cleansing (warning: some people are extremely sensitive to this oil and only small amounts should be used since it may burn the skin of even people who are non-sensitive). The aroma of cinnamon helps stimulate the appetite.
Cinnamon is used in the kitchen as both a savoury and a sweet spice. In North America it is most commonly used in sweet dishes like rice pudding, cinnamon toast, creams, custards, cakes, biscuits, doughnuts, apple pie and fritters. In the Middle East, where it's antibacterial properties probably helped to stop meat from going rancid, its primary uses are savoury. Cinnamon can be found as a flavouring in soups, stews, some vegetable dishes, Indian pilaus and curries, pickling mixes, Chinese five-spice powder and spiced wine (also a Northern European favourite). Cinnamon is also commonly combined with coca and sprinkled over Italian cappuccino coffee.
Cinnamon is the dried, pale-brown bark of a laurel-like tree, a tropical evergreen, which is rolled into quills or sticks. It has a distinctive sweet and spicy aroma. Cinnamon is difficult to grow and currently is best grown in plantations in the West Indies and harvested only during the rainy season.
Article of the MonthMerz-Demlow BE et al. Soy isoflavones help control cholesterol levels. Am J Clin Nutr 71:1462-9.
Isoflavones are substances found in plant foods, including soy products, which have an estrogen-like effect. Researchers at several universities recently fed 13 women varying levels of soy isoflavones and measured the effect on the women's blood cholesterol levels. At the beginning of the study, the women had blood cholesterol levels that were within the normal range. The high-isoflavone diet (around 129 milligrams of isoflavones per day) lowered LDL [commonly known as bad] cholesterol by 8 - 10% and improved the lipid profile. This is not a large change in LDL cholesterol levels, but, over a lifetime, the improvement in blood lipid levels could help to reduce risk of heart disease.
(Reprinted from "Scientific Update" by Reed Mangels, PhD, RD, FADA in the November/December issue of The Vegetarian Journal, published by the Vegetarian Resource Group.) Recipe Update
An abbreviated version of the newsletter this month. Enjoy the season's offering of culinary delights. And have a wonderful Holiday Season with best wishes for the new year.
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