Sugar High: The Dark History and Nasty Methods Used to Feed Our Sweet Tooth
We love sweets here at Allison’s Gourmet, but the difference between using all natural sugars and the processed refined genetically modified stuff most common in junk foods and sodas is profound. We never compromise on how we sweeten our brownies, fair-trade chocolate, vegan cookies, and other confections, and you shouldn’t either as this week’s highlighted story illuminates the issues with refined sugar from how it’s sourced to its effects on your health.
Sugar High: The Dark History and Nasty Methods Used to Feed Our Sweet Tooth by Jill Richardson
Sugar is now 20 percent of the American diet, but it’s not just our health that suffers from its pervasiveness.
Americans think an awful lot about sucrose — table sugar — but only in certain ways. We crave it and dream up novel ways to combine it with other ingredients to produce delectable foods; and we worry that we eat too much of it and that it is making us unhealthy or fat. But how often do Americans think about where sugar actually comes from or the people who produce it? As a tropical crop, sugarcane cannot grow in most U.S. states. Most of us do not smell the foul odors coming from sugar refineries, look out over vast expanses of nothing but sugarcane, or speak to those who perform the hard labor required to grow and harvest sugarcane.
Of course, sugar can be made from beets, a temperate crop, and more than half of sugar produced in the United States is. But globally, most of the story of sugar, past and present, centers around sugarcane, not beets, and as biofuels become more common, it is sugarcane that is cultivated for ethanol. What’s more, some conscious eaters avoid beet sugar as most of it is now made from genetically modified sugar beets.
While I do not fool myself that sugar is “healthy,” if I am going to satisfy my sweet tooth, I prefer cane sugar, maple syrup, agave nectar, or honey over the other choices: beet sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and artificial sweeteners. Of the bunch, most Americans can find only honey and perhaps maple syrup sustainably and locally produced, but cane sugar is often the most versatile product for baking.
As a major consumer of cane sugar, I was disturbed to learn the realities of cane sugar production when I visited a sugarcane-producing area in Bolivia.
Sugarcane grew as far as the eye could see on the degraded soils of the deforested industrial agricultural area in Bolivia’s lowlands. At one point, the van I was riding in got stuck in a traffic jam of enormous trucks, each full of sugarcane, delivering their loads to a refinery. The area around the refinery smelled terrible, and the locals told us the smell came from oxidizing ponds that hold the refinery’s wastewater. When the refineries are washed out, typically once a year, the wastewater is dumped into local waterways, resulting in fish kills. This spurred me to learn more about how sugar is made, both in the U.S. and around the world, and how it impacts the land and the people who produce it. Sadly, the story of sugar is also the story of the African slave trade. Today, sugar production still uses exploitative labor practices and can cause serious environmental problems.
Read the entire article on Alternet.org
Fridays with Friends: Dynise Balcavage, the Urban Vegan
Dynise Balcavage, aka the Urban Vegan, believes that vegan cooking should be held to the highest standards and should always be superbly decadent and healthy. I couldn’t agree more!
Allison’s Gourmet: When/how did you become vegan?
Dynise Balcavage: I went vegan “cold tofurkey” in 2006.
AG: Nice. Did you enjoy cooking before you transitioned into a more compassionate lifestyle?
DB: I’ve been cooking since age 7 and have always loved puttering around the kitchen; I associate cooking with fond memories of the women in my family. I actually grew up in a house with an old-fashioned coal stove, so there was always a pot of soup simmering or a plate of something yummy warming on its shelf. We used to stand around the stove to keep warm. My older sister, Debbie, taught me to bake– and to lick the beaters and spatula (which is safer now that I’m vegan).
I’ve always enjoyed experimenting in the kitchen, as a result of my innate curiosity, travels and restlessness. Although I now own close to 200 cookbooks, most of which are omni books, I read them more for inspiration and ideas. I rarely follow recipes. Even with my own cookbooks, I think recipes should be a conduit to creativity, and not a set of rules to be followed blindly. I like recipes that have flexibility, so I try to structure my recipes so they are improv-friendly.
AG: “Improv-friendly.” I like that. You are known as The Urban Vegan, which is also the title of your first cookbook. Is there a difference between an Urban Vegan and one who is suburban or rural?
DB: I’m sure there is, but being an urban vegan, I’m spoiled. I live in Philadelphia, a large herbivore-friendly city, and am just a short ride from NYC, perhaps the world’s most vegan-friendly city, so it’s easy to find vegan-friendly restaurants, plant-based foods and like-minded people in my own backyard. I’m sure being a suburban or rural vegan is more challenging.
AG: Ah, I see what you mean. Being a rural vegan, I can attest that herbivore-friendly restaurants are too few and their ability to impress is even less frequent. Luckily our home kitchen is a good stand-in. I do admit there are times I’d love to get good take-out though! What’s the biggest challenge in creating exciting vegan meals for urbanites?
DB: Now, it’s continually upping the “wow” factor. Vegan used to be a fringe term; now it’s a bona-fide cuisine. I try to continually keep my recipes fresh and exciting, a little healthy and a little hedonistic.
AG: People may be surprised to know that there are indeed opportunities for edible hedonistic pleasures within a vegan menu. Your second cookbook, Celebrate Vegan: 200 Life-Affirming Recipes for Occasions Big and Small is out now, can you expand more on how you create celebrations to remember?
DB: Every day should be a celebration of some sort. And of course, every celebration begins with memorable foods. Dining can become so dull if you’re eating the same thing day after day, though–and so can noshing on the same old holiday foods year after year. My book is a bit unlike other holiday cookbooks in that I include recipes for some quirky holidays, like Festivus, Guy Fawkes Day and “Girls’ Night In,” instead of just the traditional biggies.
But at the same time, it’s fun to mix, match and cross-polinate your holiday menus. Old traditions are important, but it’s also essential to keep on creating new traditions. Why not make Tsimmes, a traditional Jewish side, for Christmas, for example? Or a King Cake for a child’s birthday party instead of just waiting for Mardi Gras? It’s certainly got the wow factor. Don’t be afraid to venture beyond, whatever “beyond” represents to you.
AG: You have a theme of encouraging people to reach beyond, both in your approach to food and in your literary escapades. Do you have any advice for people making the transition into veganism?
DB: Go at your own pace and be easy on yourself. Just like every recipe is customizable, so is every transition to veganism. What’s right for someone else might not work for you–so do it unapologetically your way.
AG: Well-said. What are some of your favorite simple vegan meals/recipes that keep you supercharged through your day?
DB: I’m a smoothie nut, even in the winter, and I’ve just gotten into the habit of tossing baby spinach into my shakes. 
I am also an unabashed pasta freak. I coat my pasta with sauce made with seasonal veggies, olive oil and an obscene amount of garlic–it always works and it’s always easy. When I am too tired or busy to cook, I have been known to order vegan take-out or pick up a slice of vegan pizza.
AG: Do you have a favorite Allison’s Gourmet product?
DB: I adore the caramels, especially the salted chocolate ones, and also I’m a huge fan of the peppermint creme patties. But I would eat anything from Allison’s Gourmet.
Thanks Dynise, this rural vegan loves keeping up on your urban vegan adventures. 
For more of the Urban Vegan, follow Dynise on Twitter.
2011 in Review: Surprise Sellers
The holidays are by far our busiest time of year. And, as much as we’d like to say that we’ve been doing this for so long that we have everything completely figured out, each year is a little different. As our product lines and people’s tastes change, we’re always a little surprised by which items are our best-sellers each year, especially in the holiday season. 
In the lead-up to the holidays this year we introduced our new line of Artisan Chocolates, as well as re-formulated vegan peanut butter cups, peppermint bark and peppermint creme patties which we had been working on for most of 2011. And, as a bit of an afterthought, we also added a Salted Confections Gift Set to our offerings to showcase our newest salted caramels and salted chocolate brittle. While all of these new products did very well and received rave reviews from excited recipients all over the country, the surprise top seller in the latter part of 2011 was the Salted Confections Gift Set. We’re so glad to discover that there are legions of dessert lovers out there with palates as salty as ours!
Of course, after 15 years in business, not everything is a surprise. 
The other popular sweets over the holidays were vegan toffee, especially the chocolate-covered variety, and hot cocoa, both the classic and peppermint drinking chocolate varieties. Given their classic nature we weren’t at all shocked by their doing so well.
As I and my staff catch our collective breath before unveiling a new chocolate pleasure for Valentine’s Day in just a few short weeks, I’d like to extend my heartfelt thanks for allowing us the privilege of providing your compassionately decadent gifts for the holidays and throughout the year. It is my pleasure to delight and serve you. And I know everyone at AG shares my gratitude for you. Here’s to a fabulous year-ahead!
2012 New Year’s Gifts
I hope everyone had a warm and happy holiday weekend. I know I feasted on some really wonderful savory dishes, and indulged in multiple desserts including organic cookies, peppermint creme patties, and some vegan toffee topping on coconut ice cream! 
Despite all that decadence, I always feel a bit of a let-down after big holidays; getting up the next morning and it’s just business as usual again. Lucky for us, however, just when we think the holidays are over, there’s another one on the horizon!
New Year’s 2012 this weekend, gives us a little wiggle room in the holiday gifts department. Did you forget someone on your list, or maybe just didn’t get around to those last few presents? Ring in the New Year with decadent compassionate sweets! Whether it’s a corporate holiday gift for your boss or a sweet treat for your significant other, help those important people in your life start the New Year right!
New Year’s resolutions are always full of eating better, getting fit and staying healthy. You can help with all those things and give your colleagues and loved ones decadent treats they can feel good about enjoying. 
Although sending sweets may not seem like the best way to help someone achieve their fitness goals, my experience has been that I gain greater enjoyment from and eat less of high-quality, pure and exquisitely delicious desserts, than I would from cheaper or “healthy” tasting alternatives. Those imitations spur me to eat more, trying in vain to attain the satisfaction I’m craving. Encourage conscious and compassionate indulgence with a personal or corporate food gift that will nourish the mind, body and taste buds while encouraging less devouring and more savoring.
Final Day to Order!
I know, I know, last week I said it was your last chance to order holiday gifts online. But now I’m really serious. Today is your last day to order decadent and compassionate presents for all those very special and most deserving colleagues, friends and loved one. 
(Okay, I guess you could order tomorrow, but you’d have to choose Overnight shipping, which is an extra cost.) It’s a big day here at Allison’s, marking the winding down of our holiday rush. We’ve been happy, busy elves these past few weeks, and loved every minute of it. Please, please, please order more peanut brittle, fair-trade chocolate and vegan gift baskets to wrap lovingly and ship off to you and yours. We don’t want it to be over yet!
I know getting all your holiday shopping done is just the beginning, and for most of us, “relaxing” this weekend will mean spending hours in the kitchen preparing elaborate vegan holiday meals, but that’s not such a bad thing. If you’re still wondering what to make, especially if you have omnivorous family or friends coming over, the VegNews Holiday eCookbook is a handy option. It includes all kinds of holiday recipes from the traditional to the unique and fantastic including Allison’s recipe for holiday wellington puff-pastries. 
For slightly less traditional but no less delicious meal ideas take a moment to peruse some of Allison’s other recipes published in her “Veganize It!” column in VegNews, also featured in the Monday Yumday series on this blog. Highlights for the season include Pumpkin Cranberry Scones, Coconut Nog and Vegan Meatloaf (a great replacement for the traditional Christmas roast).
Thank you for the immense pleasure of creating your decadent holiday gifts. Once you’ve done all that cooking and baking, don’t forget to savor and enjoy every compassionate bite of the holidays. Happy Winter Solstice tomorrow!
Post-ThanksLIVING Day Inspiration: Compassion in Action
We hope everyone had a wonderful ThanksLIVING—giving and receiving love and great vegan food yesterday. Now begins the traditional mad rush countdown to Christmas, and no doubt many of you are out shopping already. Good luck!
While we certainly have lots of great gifts here at Allison’s—from our new vegan artisan caramels and truffles to our monthly memberships—we’re most excited to offer the gift of compassion every day.
Probably many of you sat around a table yesterday with people you love and care for deeply while having a very different experience as they poured more gravy over dry turkey and you tried not to think about the life sacrificed…it’s not easy being the sole vegan or vegetarian at any table, but especially on Thanksgiving.
As a more than 20-year vegan myself, I know that this movement of compassion is only getting stronger. We can see it now more than ever as more celebrities speak out for animals, more restaurants and supermarkets include vegan options, humane standards become more widely adopted, and plant-based diets become more desirable to the ailing, unhealthy Americans eating processed junk food. That doesn’t mean we’ll ever live in a world that’s entirely vegan, but it sure feels like we’re too far down the road towards a more compassionate culture to turn back now—whatever lies ahead of us is closer than what lies behind.
Whether or not you’re adding Allison’s fine products to your gift-giving this season, you may want to consider other compassionate giflt choices like ‘adopting’ a Farm Sanctuary animal, supporting one of PETA’s programs, making a donation to a local animal shelter or buying a foodie friend a vegan cookbook. As the planet continues to transition, gifting compassionately helps us to continue to be beacons in a world that is indeed on its way towards something better for all of Earth’s creatures. And that is certainly something to be thankful for.
Fridays With Friends: Snarky Vegan’s Julia Moran Martz
We were so excited to have two featured guest bloggers last month making Allison’s “Veganize It!“ recipes for Vegan MoFo month! Julia Moran Martz, aka, Snarky Vegan was one of our amazing contributors and answers some questions this week in our Fridays with Friends episode.
Allison’s Gourmet: Were you always inspired to cook/bake or did that happen after you adopted a vegan diet?
Julia Moran Martz: I’ve been baking since I was a kid back in the mid-70s ”helping” grandma make grape jelly and complaining about having to help my aunts string beans from the garden. Back then I was also making Christmas goodie boxes for friends and family. They always contained soft pink peppermints, cookies, glazed lemon nut bread, turtles, Mexican wedding cakes, and one year I even made peanut brittle. 
I do remember becoming a much less picky eater after going to college and realizing how handy it was to make a huge vat of something cheap to eat throughout the week. That’s when I expanded to things other than candy and baked goods.
AG: What’s the biggest challenge in running a food blog?
JMM: Finding the time and energy after running my business all day, every day. When you own a company, as Allison knows, it doesn’t shut down for you at 5pm. This also poses an issue with photography because I do most of my cooking in the evenings after work. Natural lighting is non-existent at this time and my house is too small for professional lights.
Also, I should note that my blog is really about both vegan food AND vegan gardening because as vegans, we often grow our own food. Ethical vegans are also concerned about the animal farming by-products used in regular organic farming (all the meals: blood, bone, feather and then manure). My goal is to bring awareness to the entire vegan food chain: soil to plate. There are veganic options for an ethical and healthy edible garden; it’s just an unpopular topic with media so it rarely gets any mention.
AG: What do you love most about it?
JMM: Getting feedback from people who try my stuff and then post photos of what they did. That’s sooo cool! So far my most visited posts have been the quick and easy White Trash Tater Tot Casserole and the higher-end, more time-consuming, fermented cashew cheese.
AG: What was your favorite ”VeganizeIt!” recipe you made for Vegan MoFo and why?
Photo by Snarky Vegan Julia Moran Martz
JMM: The Shepherd’s Pie hands down because DH liked it. He’s so picky and hardly ever eats anything but salad or peanut butter sandwiches but he really liked the shepherd’s pie. Obviously, I have to work on my mashed potato ghost technique.
AG: What was it like to participate in Vegan MoFo? Do you think you’ll do it again?
JMM: I try to do it every year but it always seems to coincide with some big trade show we have to do for work. So it’s a struggle to find the time.
AG: Are there any whole-food staple grocery items you can’t live without? (Favorite fruits, veggies, beans or grains?)
JMM: OMG there’s so much that I consider critical to have on hand. Stuff that we keep in large quantities in the kitchen are: vegan mayo! always at least 2 big jars in the fridge; jumbo Tupperware containers of flour, rice and pasta; huge tubs of raw oats, nutritional yeast, dried black-eyed peas and black beans, pecans, sunflower seeds, and dried cranberries; unsweetened soy milk; lots of cans of garbanzo beans; a really good balsamic vinegar; and romaine, onions, potatoes, lots of bags of frozen peas and broccoli. I also keep a stash of homemade apple butter in the basement. Oh–I do keep some plant-meats in the fridge but it’s limited to just vegan sausages and also lunch meats for quick sandwiches and roll ups.
I did kinda go overboard this summer and grew enough garlic to feed 2 families for a year. Of course, I’m planting more this year. I plant a mix of early, mid and late-season varieties then keep them braided and hanging next to the bag of home grown shallots in the cool basement so they last longer throughout the winter. Storing home grown alliums at 55ºF max is the best way to make them last into winter. Store bought garlic has been treated so once brought above 32ºF won’t store as long. If you want to keep home grown garlic longer, peel, mince and freeze it double bagged and in small amounts that you can break off for soups or whatever.
There are a few things that can be harder to find and I snag several whenever I get the chance even though I don’t use them every week: vegan worcestershire sauce is a must have, organic chili sauce is handy, vegan cheeses (I like the ones that really melt), Ceylon cinnamon (from Penzeys), and vegan marshmallows of course. Whole Foods carries most things but are not always located in everyone’s neck of the woods.
AG: Do you have a favorite seasonal meal idea or recipe you’d like to share?
JMM: My hands-down favorite seasonal item is not one of my own unfortunately but it’s my most favorite recipe ever: Vegan Vanguard’s pecan pie. I grew up on traditional pecan pie and since becoming vegan, I’ve tried a lot of very bad vegan versions. VV’s version is the best I’ve ever had, including the ones I used to make in the 70′s with 6 eggs.
If you want one of my own recipes, it’s gotta be my version of black-eyed peas and collards for New Years good luck. By using chorizo seitan crumbles and a good veggie broth, it’s pretty amazing. Took it to an omni party one year and no one asked if it was vegan.
AG: Where do you find inspiration for new meal ideas?
JMM: I like looking at the food sections of news sites to see what trends would be fun to veganize and I try to stay up-to-date on other vegan blogs. I also have this really cool ancient 3-inch-thick cookbook that was my great grandmothers and it’s really fun to see what trouble I can cause with that. It’s falling apart of course but everything in it is the stuff our grandmothers and great grandmothers made. All traditional ideas just waiting to be veganized.
AG: Which Allison’s Gourmet goodie is your favorite or would you most like to try?
JMM: This year for our client presents, I’m ordering a testing box of vegan toffee, peanut brittle and caramels for myself. Of course she doesn’t have a testing box per se so I’ll likely be ordering “extras,” it’ll be my own little Christmas bonus. ;-P
Are you a vegan foodie or know one we should catch up with for the Fridays with Friends series? Drop us a line on Facebook and Twitter!
Holiday Meals: Dinner and Dessert
In search of the perfect centerpiece for a holiday meal? In years past we’ve done both Vegetable Pot Pie and Lentil Shepherd’s Pie for Thanksgiving at our house, each with great success. Other staples of our holiday tables each year include David’s outrageous cranberry sauce, dinner rolls, garlic brussel sprouts, greens, mashed potatoes with rich brown gravy and stuffing. 
For a complete gourmet holiday menu all in one place and with plenty of options, look no further than the VegNews Holiday eCookbook with everything from pumpkin soup to crispy latkes and my own special Roasted Vegetable Pastries. You’ll find delicious and festive recipes here to feed the whole family in scrumptious style. Planning holiday meals for the people you love can be stressful, but with so many decadent and delicious compassionate choices, it doesn’t have to be.
Finish off a big family meal with your favorite decadent dessert whether it’s a tray of organic brownies, a platter of gourmet cookies, or something more involved like a coconut ice cream and double chocolate chunk brownie Sundae topped with caramel sauce and vegan toffee. 
Complement your dessert with a perfect cup of organic fair-trade tea or fair-trade organic coffee. For holiday-inspired sipping, we like Peppermint Drinking Chocolate or Coconut Nog.
Now, for the other nights of the holiday week, or if you have kids who won’t eat anything green, these “VeganizeIt!” versions of classic pasta favorites (like amazing Mac ‘n’ Cheese) 
are cholesterol-free and even include some hidden veggies, but still have the rich and creamy flavors that everybody loves. For Italian-style family meals try Baked Ziti or Lasagna (available in the current issue of VegNews). Or, for an easy meal for kids or kids at heart, whip up some Alfredo sauce, pour over your favorite pasta and serve with a side of steamed veggies.
For those loved one too far distant to share a holiday meal, consider our many elegant and delectable holiday gifts for the season. Happy Compassionate Thanksgiving!
On Winning, Winners and Monster Candy
It’s always refreshing to know that you’re appreciated. Allison felt a big rush of that this week as she learned that her 
“Veganize It!” column was the winner of the VegNews award for best column! If you haven’t checked it out, it’s a deliciously fun way to learn how to turn non-veg recipes into scrumptious vegan meals. And, the recipes are so easy and malleable that our two Vegan MoFo bloggers are tweaking them all month long. You can read the latest from Julia and Heather on Mondays and throughout the week on Facebook and Twitter.
This week we also announced the winners to our first-ever Tee and Tote Design Contest! Congratulations to our Grand Prize 
winner Erika Themaras, our 2nd prize winner Jonathan Day and our third place winners—it was a tie—Karen Rosenstein and Devin St. Clair! All the entries were inspired and creative and we loved getting to know all of the artists. We hope you love the designs as much as we do, and we look forward to more contests in the future.
Speaking of the future, Halloween is right around the corner, and we’ve got a special batch of hard caramels that just melt in your mouth in four yumtastic 
flavors: vanilla, mocha, chocolate and butterscotch pecan. The creamy organic vegan goo is perfect for any ghouls, goblins and monsters who prefer healthy treats in a scary world. Until next time!
Vegan MoFos Meet Vegan Monsters!
October is Vegan MoFo month and already just a week in our incredibly talented guest vegan chefs have recreated several of Allison’s “Veganize It!” recipes in mouth-watering detail. 
Congrats to Heather Blackmon and Julia Moran Martz (aka Snarky Vegan) for their commitment to make at least 20 vegan meals this month! We’ll keep you updated on Twitter and Facebook as they submit new recipes and we’ll feature their faves here on the blog too.
This week Allison also announced a very special limited edition Halloween candy: Hard Caramels. They come in four ghoulishly good flavors for your little vegan monsters: Vanilla, Chocolate, Mocha and Butterscotch Pecan, and make the perfect Halloween treat for tricksters of any age. The all organic ingredients are a much healthier choice than the corn syrup laden junk sure to be the
predominant option as door bells are rung across the country by costumed kids this year.
We announced this week that we’ll be officially moving from our Facebook friend page to our Facebook fan page. Many of you already “like” us there, and we hope many more of you will join us! The shift happens officially on November 1 and will allow us to better manage our time and interactions with you in one Facebook home. We look forward to seeing you there and on Twitter! Until next time….
