Enjoy Those Schweddy Balls

Anyone who remembers the Saturday Night Live skit with Alec Baldwin and Molly Shannon talking about the Schweddy Balls will love this!

Ben and Jerry's have immortalized the skit with a new ice cream flavour called—"Schweddy Balls".

Note: according to Ben and Jerry's web site, all their ice cream is vegetarian-no meat products used in production.

Nutritional Yeast

I friend at work told me about using nutritional yeast as a protein supplement. I've been using it for about 1 and half years now and I must say it took a bit of getting used to.

First strike against it: The name!
YEAST...that you eat...come on! This doesn't sound palatable at all. When you add the word Nutritional in front it sounds even more gross.

Second strike: The look!
Have you ever had tropical fish as pets? I have. I would feed the them flake food, I think it was called Tetra Min. It smelled like very strong fish. Well nutritional yeast looks exactly like that fish food except it's a pale to bright yellow colour—thankfully without the strong, fishy smell.

Third strike: How it's made!
Nutritional yeast is an inactive yeast and is grown specifically for its nutritional value. Like edible mushrooms it a fungus, howver this type is grown on molasses. It is produced by culturing the yeast with a mixture of sugarcane and beet molasses for a period of 7 days and then harvested.(Wikipedia)

Despite all that, it has an OK flavour, reminiscent of nuts or cheese. High in B12 and protein, it makes a great vegan substitute for Parmesan cheese.

Tomatoe Pie

If you grow tomatoes and find yourself overwhelmed with excess...this is an great recipe to use em up. It's reminisant of a deep dish, cheese pizza. I've had people pile on the compliments, even when they normally don't comment recipes.

Tomatoe Pie
1 9-inch pie shell
1 large yellow or red onion, chopped
3 cups roughly chopped tomatoes, squeezed to remove excess juice
1/4 cup choped fresh basil
3 cups grated cheese (any mixture of vegetarian sharp cheddar, parmesan, monterey Jack, Gruyere or Mozarella)
3/4 cup low fat mayonnaise
1 teaspoon Hot Sauce (or Tabasco)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preparation:
The recipe calls for the pie shell to be baked and then cooled first. Since the pie is going to be baked in the oven for about 20-30 minutes, I figured that I could used a slightly cooked shell. I'm certain a raw crust would be OK but I havn't tried it yet.

Spread the onions evenly on the bottom of the shell. Next, layer the drained, chopped tomaotes and finally spread the fresh basil on top.

In a bowl mix the mayonnaise, cheese, hot sauce, salt and pepper. Spread this mixture, as the final layer over the pie.

Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes at 350 degrees C.