Last night I made my first vegan cake from scratch. I am very excited. It is my dh birthday today and I wanted to make something that I could eat too. We won’t be eating the cake until tonight, so I will take pictures and post the recipe tomorrow if the cake tastes as good as it looks.

This hot weather makes me think of early settlers and cowboys out traveling across the country and the meals that they cooked on big open fires. Here in the U.S. Western-style gatherings are pretty common. I have some fun recipes to help you throw your own Western-style hoe-down.

You can cook these recipes on the stove on over a campfire like they did in the olden days.

The first must at any good ole fashioned hoe-down is Native American Beans. Cooked out on the range, beans were easy to store and could travel for miles. I have posted the recipe for Native American Beans before so I will just put the link for the recipe.
Corn was another staple in the old west. It is easy to grow and can be grown in hot climates. Just pull back the leaves and remove silkie threads, slather with vegan butter spread and put the leaves back into place. Wrap the corn in tinfoil and place on the grill.

Don’t forget homefries. No Western meal would be complete without them. Here is my favorite recipe for homefries:

5-6 Russet Potatoes
1 onion
4 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Slice onions into thinly sliced rings and cut potatoes into medium slices. Heat oil in an iron skillet and add onions and potatoes. Sprinkle potatoes and onions with salt and pepper and cook until potatoes are crispy on the outside and tender on the inside and the onions are nicely caramelized.

To top this delicious meal off, you must add corncakes. They are so good.

2 cups cornmeal
1/4 cup olive oil
¼ cup agave syrup
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup olive oil

Mix 1/4 cup olive oil and cornmeal in a bowl until mixture is crumbly. Add agave syrup and salt and mix until blended. Warm the other 1/4 cup olive oil in an iron skillet and pour batter into two-inch diameter cakes and fry until they brown on the outside. Flip and brown the other side.
Now if you are real country you will put a couple of corn cakes in the bottom of a bowl, top them with homefries and beans and add a little salsa to the top. This is the way my dad eats them. I personally like all of the flavors individually. You don’t have to serve meat to make others feel like they have been part of a down-to-earth homecooked country dinner.
[tags] vegan country cooking food free recipes beans corn potatoes corncakes blog blogs [/tags]