Vegan Blueberry Crisp

Today is Spirit Day. I didn’t realize it until yesterday when I saw a friend post about it on Facebook. I don’t even think I knew about it until yesterday, but regardless, I was inspired to do this post. A post about blueberries and suicide.

In a nutshell, today is supposed to be about trying to stop lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning kids from killing themselves, and standing up to bullying. You might see a lot of purple t-shirts and sweaters and dresses today. Purple means that you’re standing in support of LGBTQ youth. I, too, am wearing purple.

Spirit Day 2011

But earlier this week, before I knew about Spirit Day, I saw in the news about another gay teenager who killed himself. I watched some of his videos (all singing – and seemingly happy), and I visited his Tumblr site – full of depression, talking about self-harm, being alone, and many posts tagged with “suicide”. The last one had the tag of “suicide note”. He said he didn’t want to wait for it to get better. Three years would be too long.

You probably remember a few weeks ago a gay teenager who committed suicide, even after he had made his own It Gets Better video. He seemed to be a stable kid, but apparently his classmates egged him on to kill himself until he finally did a few months after making that video. Then they went on to continue bullying his sister.

Of course, we can’t forget all the other teens who killed themselves. The kids who felt like they weren’t loved or worth it. The kids who weren’t gay, but straight, and who were killing themselves because they felt alone. The kids who were killing themselves despite the efforts they, their families and their schools were making.

What bothers me in all of this, aside from the caustic and lethal bullying, is that any of these human beings decided that they were not loved enough, either by themselves or anyone else. Well, let me tell you – as soon as I watch one of these videos or read one of these news stories, all I feel is love. Well, and loss, too. We will never know what brilliant things these people could have done with their lives, rather than having to have society be reactive in their fight against discrimination because someone else was a casualty of a complex and hard world.

The thing is that teenagers hear us adults railing on about how much we love them, and how difficult things were for us when we were that age, but they don’t always understand that we really mean it, that we really have been there. I could recite a whole list. All of my education happened at Christian schools, but I was bullied in elementary school and in high school. I’ve been called a bitch, told that I was ugly and worthless, and had people tell me I was going to hell. I, too, have thought it would be easier to kill myself than to have to deal with the stress of real life, but I think that I never wanted that enough. Life was always more appealing. Still, I have, time and again, felt like no one would understand my situation, whatever I was going through. Yet I’ve discovered that more than enough people, perhaps too many, understand.

I’ve come a long way, a very long way, and so have they.

I want to share three things that have saved me from my feelings of hopelessness and depression.

• Love. I finally learned to focus on me, and to be spiritually aware of my place in the Universe. Life is a roller coaster ride no matter what age you are. But I know that I’m here, awake and alert and conscious, because my life is valuable. No matter what you believe, if you are a Buddhist or Muslim or Christian or atheist, you cannot discount the amazing opportunity you have to make the most of this existence. So I love myself, and most importantly, I give myself permission to accept the love of others.
• My talents. I don’t just bake and cook – I write, I draw, I play with clay. Depression took its toll on me for quite a while, but then I took some art classes and I felt amazing. It was as if I had trapped my creative self deep down and had forced it to stifle, until I was losing oxygen. It was a huge relief to finally allow my imagination to run wild. Some of my pieces have already shown up on Novel Eats. A whole bunch more are soon to make an appearance. It feels good to hold onto – and show off – physical manifestations of inner healing.
• Therapy. For a long time I wanted to work things out on my own, but there came a time not too long ago that I realized that I couldn’t solve all my challenges by myself. I think that a lot of people believe that they are weak or stupid or shameful if they see a therapist. I am here to tell you that it is okay, more than okay to get help and talk to someone, someone who has seen other people like you or me and helped them become happier and healthier people. I have been seeing a therapist regularly since the beginning of this year and I can tell you that while it isn’t easy to go to each appointment, I am better for it.

There are amazing people in my life who I am grateful to have met. I have met and worked with some wonderful gay men who I still consider friends. I recently had the privilege of digging into an apple crisp next to a warm fire with a lovely lesbian couple. One of the people who is most dear to me is a transgender woman. There are also amazing straight people in my life who have struggled, but who are better for the struggle. Mothers, fathers, family members, old friends from college and high school and new friends from the past few months. They are each finding their way, regardless of what has hit them full force in the gut or heart. You can, too.

So I decided to make blueberry crisp for the people who are considering suicide, whether they are kids, teenagers, adults, gay or straight, bi, trans or questioning. If you are considering suicide, I know that blueberry crisp isn’t going to change your mind, but I want you to know that people like me do love you. I’m just a silly food blogger who tries to make things better with some berries, sugar and cinnamon. Sit down, have a bite with me and let’s be friends, if not in real life, then virtually. Then, as a friend, I’m going to ask you to please get help, and if that help isn’t enough, then get more. Get so much help that you finally realize that it’s okay to stick around until that day that we all die, when we haven’t planned it, but when the cells in our body and the Universe say it’s time.

• LGBTQ Youth – If you are considering suicide, please call The Trevor Project at 1-866-488-7386.
• Everyone and anyone – If you are considering suicide, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255)
• Visit GLAAD’s website for more on Spirit Day.

Blueberry Crisp
This recipe is taken from the Blueberry Crisp II recipe on Allrecipes.com

• 4 cups fresh, frozen or canned blueberries
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup vegan sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup vegan mayonnaise, like Vegenaise or MindfulMayo
• Vegan whipped cream, like Soyatoo, or vegan vanilla ice cream (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

If using canned blueberries, drain and rinse them.

Rinsing canned blueberries

Place the blueberries into an 8-inch square baking dish, or smaller if cutting the recipe in half.

Spread the blueberries evenly in your baking dish

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, and cinnamon.

Mixing together the dry ingredients

Stir in the vegan mayonnaise until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. If they don’t turn out like crumbs, it’s okay.

My topping didn't turn out like it was supposed to, but that's totally okay

Pinch little pieces off the dough and place them on top of the blueberries until the berries are covered. Otherwise, just sprinkle the drier mixture over the top of the berries. (Either way will taste pretty good!)

Adding the topping for the blueberry crisp

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven, until the top is lightly browned.

Yum.

Let cool for a few minutes before serving, then top with vegan whipped cream or vegan vanilla ice cream.

A spoonful of goodness

I’d love to end the ills of the world with a few helpings of blueberry crisp, but I know that more needs to be done. What ideas do you have to make the world a more loving, respectful and compassionate place?

Let's have another serving of love please!

Vegan Blueberry Muffins

For the last several weeks, many farmers at the Union Square Greenmarket in New York City have had a sea of organic blueberries covering their tables. They’re both good looking berries – a purplish blue – and have a lovely flavor when you pop them into your mouth. If you are luckier than I, you will be able to go to a pick-your-own farm and get to harvest your own bounty. If you’re in that situation, you may already have a list of blueberry-themed foods you can make, but hopefully at least one of those you plan to have are good old blueberry muffins.

This is a very easy recipe and doesn’t take long to make, plus it just tastes good. If you top your batter off with a good sprinkle of sugar you’ll wind up with a crunchy top, which adds to your texture experience as you’re eating the muffins.

Blueberry Muffins
Based on VegWeb.com’s Very Simple Blueberry Muffins

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 cup vegan milk
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup frozen blueberries (if you don’t have frozen, you can use fresh)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.  Place baking cups in a muffin pan.

Combine flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder together in a mixing bowl.

Mixing dry ingredients

Add vegan milk and oil, and mix.

Adding vegan milk and oil

Fold in blueberries. (Hint: If you mix the blueberries first in a little bit of flour, the blueberries will not sink to the bottom of your muffins.)

Folding in the blueberries

Add the batter to the baking cups.

Adding blueberry muffin batter to baking cups

Sprinkle some sugar on top of each muffin prior to putting them in the oven to make the tops crunchy. Or you can leave them as is.

Adding sugar to muffins

Stick in the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes prior to serving (if you can wait that long!).

Fresh Homemade Blueberry Muffins

What’s your favorite muffin? And if you have a nice bounty of blueberries in your neck of the woods, how have you been using them?

I normally try to post at least once a week, but sometimes life gets in the way. I realized (with a nearly audible gasp) only this week that it was nearly THREE weeks since my last post.

Here’s my laundry list of excuses. First of all, I think I was lazy. Plain and simple. Then the in-laws (all of them) came to visit, and as much as they cooed over my blog, I didn’t lift one finger to type out a blog post in their presence. I also barely lifted a finger to cook for them aside from a fruit crisp.

And today, I am sick. My throat is sore, my face feels warm, and I have a headache. As such, I am not consuming sugar today except for what comes naturally in the fruit I’ve been eating (just look up “sugar and immune system” and you’ll see why I avoid it when I’m sick). So what better thing to do when I am not sick enough to be lying down than to write a blog post about something that has so much sugar in it I should have a weak immune system for at least a week after consuming it?

Several weeks ago our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) group supplied us with A LOT of plums. I mean A LOT – and especially so since we purchased two fruit shares this year.

Believe it or not this picture doesn’t even show all of the plums we had on hand that day.

So anyway, we were racking our brains on how to creatively use these things and finally one weekend I decided to make a rustic pie (pretty much a crostata). I’m not that good at making pies, but I thought that I could probably create something like this. I was nearly right.

Plum and Blueberry Pie
This recipe is based upon the Nectarine Plum and Blueberry Crostata recipe found on FoodNetwork.com.

Pie Crust:

• 1 cup flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 8 tablespoons vegan butter, cold
• 2 tablespoons cold water

Pie Filling:

• 1/4 cup flour
• 5 cups plums, peeled, seeded and sliced
• 1 pint blueberries
• 1 cup sugar

Mix flour, sugar and salt in a mixing bowl.

Work butter into flour mixture with hands or a pastry blender until it resembles coarse meal.

Add enough cold water to bring dough together into a ball, handling dough as little as possible (if you add too much water, just add more flour until the dough does not feel too wet). Wrap dough ball in plastic wrap. Chill at least 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Now here’s where you are supposed to roll the dough out into a 14-inch diameter circle. See the rolling pin? I tried.

Didn’t work. So what I did instead was press the dough with my hands onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper (you will be glad of parchment paper if you make this, so I suggest you use it – you’ll see why later on).

Sprinkle center of dough with 1/4 cup of flour.

De-stone the plums, and preferably skin them as well (another step I skipped), and put the plums and blueberries into a large bowl.

Mix the sugar and fruit.

Make sure to use a slotted spoon when you transfer the fruit to the pie crust as it will have become a very soupy mixture (maybe reduce the sugar?).

Spread mixture in center of dough to within 3 inches (more or less) of edge.

Fold dough border over the mixture.

You will likely have some of the syrup drip out, but this is okay. Just look at it from a side that looks perfect, and you won’t notice a thing.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until the dough is golden brown and fruit is tender.

This turned out very well. The pie crust, even though I struggled with it, was delicious. The filling was fantastic aside from the fact that the plums were very tart. It was really quite good.

Some observations…

See the syrup, now purple, that escaped out of the pie? This is why parchment paper rocks. Some syrup still wound up underneath the parchment paper, but not so much that it was overly difficult to clean.

Secondly, that syrup is basically like candy and can be almost as addictive as the pie.

Another observation, which I’ve already shared, is that I should have peeled those plums. This was amazingly tart, and if you like amazingly tart, then leave those skins on. If you’re like me, peel the plums or use a different fruit (peaches, nectarines, apples, etc.).

Finally, I really do think that you can use less than one cup of sugar. I’d suggest trying 1/2 cup or even going as far as 1/4 cup. Since I used a slotted spoon much of the sugar was left in the bowl so it seems fruitless – hehe – to use a whole cup.

I’m definitely making this one again. In the meantime I’ve gotta get over this sore throat. :(