Author: charles

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Labor Day Vegan

Karalee was out of town, so I decided to challenge myself and live the vegan lifestyle for the Labor Day weekend.

Being vegan is quite a bit different than being vegetarian. Vegetarian is a diet, you eat plant-based foods and avoid meat. There’s no ethical restriction to keep you from eating butter and eggs, or even the occasional hot dog. Vegan, on the other hand, is a lifestyle.

Vegans choose to eliminate all animal-based products from their lives, including products that aren’t made of animals, but might exploit animals in their production. No meat, no leather, no gelatin-capsule medicines and no Elmer’s Glue.

It’s a strict lifestyle, stricter than I care to live, but for three day I gave it a try. Eating vegan wasn’t difficult for me, we prefer a plant-forward diet anyway, but there are certain elements of the diet that would have tasted better with butter instead of oil. The bigger problem was eliminating animal-based products from my life. I stopped carrying my wallet, but I wasn’t about to sit on the floor to avoid my leather couch. There are medicines I take in gelatin capsules, so I couldn’t avoid animal products, but I did my best.

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2024 Trip to the Philippines

Karalee and I work for the same company, and it just so happens that a large part of our teams live and work in the Republic of the Philippines. We have been fortunate over the years to visit many times. Each time our friends take us to different locations and to enjoy different experiences.

This year we got to see some old friends and with them we journeyed south to the countryside of Quezon Province and the plantation/resort at Villa Escudero.

When we made our first trip in 2015 the only special experience I wanted was to ride on a Jeepney. Jeepneys are the eclectic public transit vehicles that owners personalize to suit their varied tastes by painting them with murals and decorating them with various bits and bobs so that each one is a unique work of art.

With the passing years we’ve seen fewer and fewer jeepneys on the road. Air quality restrictions and safety concerns, along with consumer demand for comforts like air conditioning and Wi-Fi, are sending the jeepney the way of the dodo. On this trip we took some time to visit the Sarao Jeepney factory, just a short drive from our office, to see how these beauties are built.

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Dry July is over! let’s have a Hot Toddy

Hot Toddy

  • 16 oz hot tea
  • 4 oz cheap whisky
  • 1 teaspoon honey
  • Lemon wedge

Reserve half the tea in a separate vessel.
Stir in the honey and squeeze the lemon directly into the mug. Pour in the whisky and top with as much of the reserved tea as will fit.
Grab a good book. Drink and enjoy.

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Meatloaf

Ingredients

  • 2 pounds of ground meat. I usually use 1 pound of lean ground turkey and 1-pound lean ground beef.
  • 2 Tbsp (1 lid full) Onion Onion (Tastefully Simple) 
  • 2 Tbsp (1 lid full) Garlic Garlic (Tastefully Simple) 
  • ½ jar Sweet Pepper Jalapeno Jam (Tastefully Simple) 
  • 1 egg 
  • Heaping 1/3 cup bread crumbs 

Directions

Mix all together in a big bowl with a potato masher. Put in a greased loaf pan, Smooth flat (better cuts for sandwiches) 

Bake in a 350-degree oven for 50-60 minutes, drain any fat off and enjoy. 

If you like our content and want to support the channel, stop by Karalee’s Tastefully Simple store: https://www.tastefullysimple.com/web/kjohnson

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Mother’s Day Cream Puffs

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup butter or margarine
  •  1 cup boiling water
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  •  1/4 tsp salt
  • 4 eggs

Directions

Melt butter in 1 cup boiling water.

Add flour and salt all at once; stir vigorously until a stiff dough forms

Roll the ball around the inside of the pan until it becomes a smooth ball.

Remove from heat; cool.

Form a well in the dough and add the eggs, one at a time, mixing until each is incorporated.

Drop heaping tablespoons of dough, 3 inches apart, onto a greased cookie sheet.

Bake at 400 degrees until golden brown and puffy, about 30 minutes.

Cool on a rack before splitting and filling.

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Kahlua Barbecue Sauce

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup Kahlua
  •  ½ cup chili sauce
  • 3 tbs pineapple juice
  •  2 tbs cornstarch

Directions

Combine first three ingredients in a sauce, mix well.

Dissolve cornstarch in a small amount of cold water to make a thin paste.

Warm ingredients in saucepan, slowly add the cornstarch mixture, stirring constantly.

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Making Maps for Your Travel Journal

A travel journal is on of the best artifacts you can bring home from a journey. A good travel journal captures all the pictures, drawings, scraps of paper, thoughts and memories of your experience.

I like the idea of writing everyday, but at the end of a long day at work, it’s one of the last things I want to do. A trip away from the office frees me the burnout of the daily grind and gives me the energy to write daily.

just looking forward to an upcoming expedition gets me excited about journaling and I want to start laying down pages. A great place to start is with the map.

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Grammie’s Famous French Toast

2 Eggs
½ cup milk
½ tsp vanilla extract
1 cup crushed corn flakes
6 slices (frozen) Texas toast (with cheese or garlic)
Sprinkle of salt
¼ cup melted butter

Preheat oven to 450°
In a shallow bowl whisk eggs, milk, vanilla and salt until blended
Place corn flakes in another shallow bowl.
Dip both sides of bread in egg mixture then in the corn flakes – both sides. (you may need to pat a little to cover)

Place in a sprayed oblong pan. rizzle with the melted butter (or add when it comes out)

Bake 10-12 minutes it will golden brown.

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How to make a basic soufflé

We made a fancy breakfast last Sunday. Karalee made Eric’s Potatoes and Charles made an egg soufflé. The soufflé is coming soon, but in the mean time, here’s the recipe for soufflé.

2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
Pinch of pepper
3/4 cup milk
4 egg yolks
2 egg whites
1/2 cup parmesan cheese 
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Preheat oven to 375° F.

Prepare soufflé dish by coating with butter and bread crumbs.

Melt butter in medium saucepan over low heat. Stir in flour, salt and pepper. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture is smooth and bubbly. Stir in milk all at once. Continue stirring until mixture boils and is smooth and thickened.

Separate eggs. Beat yolks well and add ¼ cup of warm sauce mixture to egg yolks.

Combine yolk mixture with remaining sauce, blending thoroughly. Add parmesan cheese, stirring into white sauce until blended. Set sauce aside to cool slightly.

Beat egg whites and cream of tartar in large bowl, until stiff but not dry. Fold some of the egg whites into sauce to make it lighter, then gently but thoroughly fold the sauce into the remaining egg whites.

Carefully pour into 4-cup soufflé dish.

Bake in preheated 375° F oven until puffed and lightly browned, 20 to 25 minutes or until done.

*for the original recipe visit the Eggs Farmers of Canada website.