The Friday Five
Favourite foods.
Back in the day, when online blogging was a relatively new thing, I used to hang out at a place called LiveJournal. I loved that site so much. I loved all the different interest groups and the wonderful sense of community. To this day, I am still good friends with a couple of women I met there. The site remains, but sadly the LiveJournal I remember no longer exists. The Friday Five was one of the pages I followed. I loved the different sets of questions offered each week. It was such a good way to get to know people. This is the latest FF from the LiveJournal sister site, Dreamwidth.
1. What is your favourite vegetable?
My favourite vegetable to eat as a side dish is green/yellow beans. I like carrots, too, especially the colourful heirloom carrots. My favourite vegetable to cook with is cauliflower. Cauliflower is amazing. It makes beautiful creamy sauces and soups. I use it to replace fatty, expensive cashews in vegan cheeses and cheese sauces. It works perfectly.
2. What is your favorite fruit?
I love fresh cherries, but they tend to be quite expensive, and therefore a rare treat. When I feel like splurging, I will buy a bag of frozen cherries and mix them with frozen berries or apples to make crumbles and cobblers. I can get a few desserts from a bag of frozen cherries. One day when I was cleaning the odds and ends out of the freezer, I made the most amazing pie with the remains of a bag of cherries and a bag of peach slices, and some fresh rhubarb from my garden. I topped the pie with a cinnamon streusel and it was so good. Oh my gosh!
3. What is your favorite cheese?
Because of my leg and the Peripheral Artery Disease that I inherited from my father's side of the family, I eat an extremely low-fat, cholesterol-free diet. A plant-based doctor who I have followed for decades, Dr. John McDougall, is fond of saying that genetics might load the gun, but diet pulls the trigger. I completely believe that. I can feel the difference in my leg when I eat too much fat. Most of the cheesy-flavoured things I eat are homemade as commercial vegan cheeses are loaded with fat and salt. However, I am not a purist and I do indulge occasionally with Violife cheddar or mozzarella, but even then, I tend to use them in small amounts to accent the dish. I also really like Daiya's vegan four-cheese Mexican blend. For everyday meals, I love my smoky Provolone cheese sauce made with cauliflower.
4. What is your favorite dessert?
I don't really eat desserts. I prefer savoury foods. But when I am in the mood for something sweet, it's usually a sweet roll, homemade with less sugar, that I can have with coffee or tea. On a more desserty note, I do love a lemon loaf cake soaked with a tart lemon syrup and served with fresh strawberries. And at Christmas, I will never say no to mincemeat pie or plum pudding.
5. What is your favorite beverage?
I drink coffee in the morning and tea at night. I know I'm going to come off as really strange here, but I actually only like instant coffee and it has to be Nescafe Rich Blend. My favourite teas are Stash double bergamot Earl Grey and Stash double spice chai. I am a big fan of Stash teas and I think I currently have about nine different flavours in the cupboard.