Stephen's Day

Happy St. Stephen's Day Everyone!
St. Stephen's Day is a traditional christian holiday celebrated in many countries on the 26th of December. My husband is Irish ( from Ireland) and seeing as how we lived there for several years, St. Stephen's Day became one of my favorite holidays.

In Ireland, Stephen's Day is a national holiday, which is also sometimes called Wren's Day, because of a tradition called "Hunting the Wren" (wren often pronounced as 'ran').

I've a horrible inkling that actual wrens were involved in the past. But gladly, it doesn't involve any poor little wrens today. What it does involve is good fun! The old tradition was to dress up in costume and go from house to house singing at the door, with the hopes of getting a handout...preferably in coin.

Nowadays, the tradition involves going from pub to pub. Groups of friends dress up, often as a theme, and go around  playing music and singing songs while passing around a hat for tips. Many people donate the money to charities...others use it for drink...but either way it makes for a good solid fun-filled day after Christmas. One of my favorite group costumes one year was a bunch of guys going around dressed up as Diana Ross and The Supremes.



When we lived in Ireland, a typical Stephen's day for us would comprise a long walk in the woods outside the town--regardless of how bad the weather was. Then, we'd head into town and hit the pubs to enjoy the fun and have a pint, which goes down a treat after a couple hours out walking in the cold winter weather.

Carey's Castle, Co. Tipperary, Ireland (in Summer)

Although it's not nearly as fun here in the USA, today we're still celbrating with a nice glass of 2° Below, which is delicious and vegan friendly.

Here's wishing all the best of the season!

Hot & Sour Mushroom Soup with Bok Choy and Sweet Corn

This was dinner the other night. Of course the sweetcorn sank to the bottom for the picture, but I promise it was all there and pretty tasty too.

I used homemade veggie broth, which at my house, usually turns out kind of dark. The broth was lightly salted before adding it to the recipe, so depending on how much salt you like and/or how saltly the veggie broth you use is, you may want to adjust the amount of soy sauce you add.

Hot & Sour Mushroom Soup

6 cups veggie broth
1 stalk lemon grass
1/2 tablespoon of hot red chili flakes (or to taste)
1/2 inch fresh ginger (or to taste)
1/2 pound shitake mushrooms, sliced
1 large bunch of enoki mushrooms
 1 cup sweet corn kernels
1 large carrot, sliced in 1/4 inch peices (or as desired)
3 small (baby) bok choy, leaves separated
2 tablespoons soy sauce (or adjusted to saltiness of veggie broth)
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon rice vinegar (or more to taste if you like it really sour)
1 teaspoon agave
1 teaspoon sesame oil ( I used toasted)
cilantro for finishing

Remove the tough outer leaves of the lemon grass and slice the stalk into very thin little rounds, and shred the ginger medium to fine with a grater. In a large pot, add the veggie broth, sliced lemon grass, shredded ginger, and the chili flakes, bring it to a simmer and allow it to simmer for 15-20 minutes.

Add the carrot, shitake, sweet corn, soy sauce, agave, and sesame oil, and allow to simmer for another 15-20 minutes. About 5 minutes before serving, add the lime juice and vinegar and toss in the bok choy.

To serve, put some enoki and cilantro in each bowl and ladle the hot soup over it. Garnish with more enoki and cilantro.

The enoki make a tender and delicious addition; to me, they taste kind of like soy bean sprouts.

Tofu Happy Friday

Happy! Friday!