Hello!

Its been an industrious afternoon here.

Auntie Gloria and I put our heads together earlier this week and I've spent the last few days tackling Vegan Amish bread... and I think I won! The recipe for you vegan-folk will follow this post. I made a traditional sourdough starter that uses water instead of the Amish Bread starter that requires milk. I substituted tofu for the egg and then used coconut milk for the milk that the recipe calls for. The final product tastes a bit tart... a little more sour than regular Amish Bread but its still delicious! I'm so glad that this is something my vegan friend and I can enjoy together!

Church this morning was good. Thank goodness people were so good about leaving me be about my seizure. I had a few words with our minister who swore that cameras would 'be as far as the east is from the west' from me from now on. Its a good thing to hear, lets hope its true. Sunday school was good. We had two kids and did a great Mother's Day card craft while we talked about all the rad mothers in the bible.

Jill and I just got back from taking mom a nice, big white chrysanthemum at work. She was surprised and tickled pink. She loves 'mums! I told her that every mom needs a mum and she agreed!

I'm on my way to bed.

Moving Forward with Joy!

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Vegan Amish Bread

Mix well:
1 cup warm water
1 Tbsp sugar
1 cup flour

Add:
1 Tbsp yeast

Let sit two days, stir once every twelve hours to prevent a crust from forming. (I didn't stir it often enough and ended up with a crust so I just peeled it off and threw it away. No harm, no foul)

Will smell tangy, watch for bubbles and foam

After two days, stir down (mine was pretty flat by this point), and add:
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 tsp sugar

Let sit twelve hours

Stir down and add 1/3 cup white sugar

Let sit for 20 minutes, then

Whip:
3/4 cup tofu plus 2 tbsp water until all lumps disappear (I found I still had little itty bitty lumps but over all, just make sure the water and tofu are well blended)

Add:
Yeast mixture
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup applesauce (I'm allergic to apples so I used another 1/2 cup oil)
1/2 cup coconut milk (make sure to stir the milk before adding it to the mixture)
1 cup white sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp baking soda
2 cups flour
1 large box vegan instant vanilla pudding (I found that the Jello brand vanilla pudding is vegan, so I used that).

Mix well

Prepare two loaf pans with either vegan cooking spray or vegan margarine (I used margarine).
Mix 1/2 cup white sugar with 1 tsp cinnamon and coat bottom and sides of loaf pans with it.

Pour batter into loaf pans, coating the tops with remaining sugar/cinnamon mixture

Bake at 325*F for 1 hour