Americana

Although I'm from the USA, I have never been patriotic.  I cringe whenever I hear a US president say something about his 'best country on earth', or 'God bless America'.  I think it was a fine country to live in, but I just can't manage to get teary-eyed over the star spangled banner -- not even close.  Even when I lived there, the 4th of July was probably my least favourite holiday.  Sure, it was a day off, but it was during the summer, so between school and the kind of jobs I had when I lived there, that was never an issue.  I think fireworks are loud and not that exciting.

I realise I'm a grinch, which is why I surprised myself on July 3rd this year, when I thought 'Oh, tomorrow is the 4th.  Maybe we should have hotdogs'.  I think the real reason is that I had been toying with the idea of making vegan hot dogs for a while, but just hadn't gotten round to it.  In any case, I went off googling and came up with this recipe.  They were pretty easy to make, and following one of the suggestions in the comments, I steamed them in the pressure cooker which took less than 10 minutes.

But unlike in America, where the 4th of July is a summer holiday with cookouts and beach visits, it is winter here.  And while Townsville is warm, it still feels like winter.  So instead of hot dogs in buns with salads, we winterised this most American of meals.  We covered our hotdogs in a warm, fluffy blanket.

Basically, I wrapped them in pizza dough, with a bit of tomato sauce (ketchup) and vegan cheese inside.  Since we had the oven on to bake these, we had roasted potatoes, and spicy baked beans on the side.

I didn't feel any more love towards the USA than I ever do while eating this meal, but it was yummy anyways.  Regardless, you should make those hotdogs because they are easy to do, ridiculously cheap, and taste like hotdogs, with no scary ingredients.

And of course, I just had to make apple pie for dessert.  But again, I winterised this, following the recipe for Gingerbread Apple Crumble Pie (or something similarly titled) from Vegan with a Vengeance except with a splash of brandy mixed in with the apples.

This was really yummy, but the filling was so juicy, even with a generous dose of cornflour mixed in, that the bottom crust was pretty soggy.

The only thing that would have made this meal feel more 4th of July for me is corn on the cob, because that was a summertime staple when I grew up.  In my new family, corn on the cob is still very popular.