In the latest McDougall Newsletter, Dr. McDougall compares the health of the presidential candidates, based on reports of their diet, exercise routines, medications, and other factors. To be fair, the conclusion isn’t too surprising: “While it is impossible to predict with certainty any person’s future health, time of death, or degree of disability, the evidence at hand clearly says John McCain is in relatively poor health and Barack Obama is in excellent health. All politics aside, no one could conclude otherwise. To McCain’s credit he appears to be holding up well during this grueling campaign, but his current appearances do not negate the medical facts.”

McDougall also reviewed his recent Advanced Study Weekend, including a photo slideshow.

And, of course, some more recipes. The Garden Potato Medley sounds great.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) is soliciting diet-change success stories. They write:

Have you been able to improve your health with a vegan diet? Or, do you know someone who has?

Have you lost a significant amount of weight and kept it off? Have you had success in treating diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, arthritis, migraines, acne, or some other condition? Well, we need you!

Please share your experience with us so we can share it with others. We often hear from journalists looking for success stories and we may want to put them in touch with you, feature you in one of our publications, or post your experience to our Web site.

If you have a compelling story you’re willing to share with the press, please submit your story here.

You can watch the success stories of Vance Warren (Quicktime) and Nancy Boughn to give you some ideas/inspiration.

I wasn’t quite sure how to review The Joy of Vegan Baking by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. The biggest hurdle is that I don’t tend to make a lot of baked goods or desserts, because I’m following the McDougall Program (whereby baked goods aren’t really a staple), and living alone, so whatever the pace of eating is, eventually I’ll be eating the whole thing (which is bad news).

But recently I had an out-of-town relative in for Easter and there was a dinner planned, so I decided to use that opportunity to try some of the recipes. The Friday before Easter, we had dinner at Millennium in San Francisco, which is the pinnacle of high-end gourmet vegan dining. My plan all along was to bake the Meditteranean Olive Bread from the cookbook and take it to the dinner, but the plan kept building from there.

At that dinner, my cousin randomly mentioned vegan cookies, and how on several occassions he bought some at the store and they were dry and awful. I told him that’s usually how it goes, because vegan cookies don’t use all of the hydrogenated oils and such that give other cookies their shelf life (and often times stay on the shelf too long). So, I just happened to inquire what his favorite cookie is. He said Oatmeal Raisin. Mission one.

The second thing I heard incorrectly, but I was under the impression that his wife was a fan of the chocolate soy pudding they sold in the stores, but they were underwhelmed by that, too. I also knew that Goudreau’s book had chocolate pudding in there, so this dinner kept expanding as far as what I planned to bring.

I made all three at the same time, more or less, starting with the cookies, then on to the loaf, and finishing with the pudding.

I was a bit concerned that I didn’t have an electric mixer for the cookies, although the recipe didn’t explicitly require one, but I recalled from Christmas how well that folded the vegan butter and sugar together. It still worked fine without one, and the cookies came out great. Initially, I made them slightly rounder, but after the first batch started flattening them out a bit more.

The olive loaf was also my debut run using a silicone loaf pan, which turned out nicely, except it lacked that darker tinge that comes from using metal. It was so strange seeing bread that looked the same from all angles that I cut a piece off the end to make sure it was done, and it tasted fabulous.

So far, so good. The pudding is where things went a bit wrong. I’d never cooked with kudzu root before, so I can’t quite pinpoint where I went off-course. The recipe called for ground kudzu, and my local hippie co-op had kudzu chunks. But, since the recipe called for you to dissolve the kudzu in water, I didn’t really bother grinding it up. This could be the point of failure.

All I know is that the pudding never really set, but seemed to have congealed chunks floating around in it, making me think that the kudzu (having not been ground) didn’t fully dissolve as much as it disappeared into the liquid and when folded into the chocolate, was unable to affect the chemistry of the chocolate.

Again, all guesswork. That said, the quality of the chocolate was so good, that it vague state somewhere between solid and liquid didn’t prevent its consumption.

Overall, the entries were pretty stellar. The cookies redeemed my cousin’s notion of vegan cookies being dry and bland, a sadly well-earned but incorrect reputation. The Olive Bread was the hit of the dinner, and well on its way to be a staple when I want something easy to bring to dinner parties. The pudding was the weak entry of the bunch, but I’m going to blame my lack of ground kudzu for now. Certainly, the recipe made some great-tasting liquid chocolate, despite its lack of congealing.

The strange part of the vegan baking experiment was that I was not cooking for a vegan meal, or a vegetarian meal, but in fact, an annual tradition of grilled lamb. The bread featured fresh rosemary and was heralded with the phrase, I’m sad to say: “This will go perfect with the lamb!”

So, yeah, that was a bit strange.

On the whole, I have a great vibe for the rest of this book. Having listened to every episode of Goudreau’s podcast, I know her passion and knowledge first-hand. It was good to put her recipes to the test, and I would totally fly blind and bring any of her dishes, untasted, to any event without worry.

The book, which won last year’s “Cookbook of the Year” from VegNews magazine, is divided into sections for every sort of baking you can imagine, as well as a few that sort of stray from the ‘baking’ moniker (sorbets, smoothies, beverages, etc.)

The book has an exhaustive introduction about vegan baking not being an oxymoron, although I’m not sure why this notion exists (maybe it’s all those hard, dry baked goods in stores?). If there’s anything on which I can fault the book, it is Goudreau’s notion of experimentation, such as challenging people to try different non-dairy milks to see how it will change the taste of the dish. I think she could have recommended which she found to work best for each dish, but suggest we try others, as well.

Of course, that’s a minor ding in what is bound to be a vegan staple. Of course, just writing that is limiting. As Goudreau writes toward the front of the book, many people can’t believe that delicious baked goods are possible without butter, eggs and dairy, when it is more accurate to say baked goods rely on fat, moisture, and leavening, all of which are available without animal products.

So, whether your guided by compassion, lowering your cholesterol, or don’t care about any of that stuff and just want some kick-ass recipes, this is a great book to add to your collection.

—

(At some point in the future, I will be doing podcast reviews and other stuff that will feature Goudreau on the site, but by all means check out her podcast. Unlike a lot of vegan podcasts that are too scattered, too preachy, or just boring, Goudreau really puts a lot of effort into hers, and it is always worth your time to listen.)

Going to a party tonight, so prepared a “traditional” vegan cheeseball for the party. I got the recipe over at my friend Josh’s new site, myvegancookbook.com. His site will be featuring recipes that don’t have any hydrogenated oils or isolated soy proteins, which is music to my ears.

Of course, almonds, pine nuts and tofu don’t make it fat-free either, but it’s the holidays so I’m still ahead of the game with this entry.

Couldn’t find any vegan crackers (though I didn’t have much time to look at the store), since I’m not much of a cracker person I don’t really have any go-to brand. I got some Kashi whole grain crackers, but they do contain whey, so that is the slight damper on the otherwise vegan offering. I’ll still probably have the healthiest cracker, but it’s not hard to win such a competition over the holidays.

Recipe worked out good, though. Things I was skittish about before making it, like, would I know when “clumps start to form” with what is essentially nuts, salt and sugar in a food processor, but sure enough, they were clumps. I doubled the recipe since it was going to a rather large party, and it doubled well. I don’t think the food processor could have handled a triple batch, though.

So, I’ll report back how it goes over at the party. It is nice to bring what would otherwise be an artery-clogging monstrosity of a cheeseball to a holiday party and know you’re bringing a healthier, cruelty-free version of holiday decadence… well, at least until everyone starts their diets in four days anyway.

Made up four different vegan cookies for the holidays, all from Vegan with a Vengeance. I made single batches of Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies, Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies, Sparkled Ginger Cookies, and Chocolate Chip Cookies.

The Pumpkin Oatmeal cookies were the clear favorite of everyone who has sampled. On both the ginger and thumbprint cookies, the dough came out more runny than it was supposed to, though I’m not sure why, so rolling them in a ball was not much of an option.

Just had to ladle what seemed to be the right amount onto the cookie sheet. On the first sheet, the thumbprint cookies were too big (as pictured), but the second batch was fine.

I’m a strong adherent of The McDougall Program, and each month the arrival of their newsletter brings new recipes. I always make at least one of the dishes soon after receiving it. The McDougall Program does focus on health and weight loss, and therefore no oils are generally used, which is why the saute here is with water, not oil.

While I like pushing myself and trying new and exotic recipes, this is what you’ll find in my refrigerator more often than anything else. It’s only met with favorable reviews across the board.

Without further adieu, I bring you:

CARIBBEAN VEGETABLE STEW

This spicy bean stew reheats well so it can be made ahead and refrigerated until needed for mealtime.

Preparation Time: 35 minutes
Cooking Time: 60 minutes
Servings: 8-10

• 1/3 cup water
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 red or green bell pepper, chopped
• 3 cups peeled & chunked sweet potatoes
• 1 15 ounce can tomato sauce
• 1 15 ounce can diced tomatoes with jalapenos
• 1 20 ounce can pineapple chunks with juice
• 2 cups chunked green apples (unpeeled)
• 1 4 ounce can chopped green chilies
• 1⁄2 cup vegetable broth
• 1 15 ounce can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 15 ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 15 ounce can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground oregano
• 1⁄4 teaspoon cinnamon

Place the water in a large pot. Add onion and bell pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Add sweet potatoes, tomato sauce, tomatoes, pineapple, apples, chilies and vegetable broth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and cook over low heat for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add beans and seasonings, mix well and continue to cook over low heat for another 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve over brown rice or other whole grains.

–

This recipe is found in the January 2004 newsletter. All of the McDougall newsletters/recipes are archived on their website, and you can sign up to receive their free monthly newsletter here.