This morning, I realized how overwhelmed I’ve been for the past year when it occurred to me that it’s July 1st, and I’d completely forgetten to make Em an “Advent” calendar for the three weeks leading up to her July 21st birthday!

I felt like a terrible mother, though she assured me that, at thirty-five, she didn’t need a gift a day for twenty days. I started the tradition for her thirtieth birthday–it was meant to be a one-off, but then she had a bit of a rough year leading up to her thirty-first, so I did it again, and then, well…it became a tradition.

Until today. Sigh.

In my defense, the dog issue (which is really just a Poppy issue) has been going on for fifteen months now, and the constant vigilance has worn my nerves pretty thin.

And the three winter months of “camping” without a septic system didn’t help matters, nor did frustrations with undelivered furniture and other issues with our new place in town.

Ah well, just life, I guess, but I still feel like a bad mum.

But we’re back at the cabin for a few more days, and when I’m cooking, I can forget about Poppy’s issues with aggression…and West Elm’s incompetence…and a ridiculously outrageous septic-system bill.

A couple of days ago, I came across a recipe called “Comeback Sauce” on the ATK website and was intrigued. According to ATK, Comeback Sauce is…

“…the perfect accompaniment to fried food, or catfish as it is traditionally used, but is also perfect spread on sandwiches, dolloped on burgers, tossed with salad, or served alongside meat and veggies. The spiciness of hot sauce, raw onion, yellow mustard, black pepper, and garlic give this sauce a surefire kick, while the mellowness of ketchup and kick of chili sauce balance it out for the perfect flavor.”

I tried it, but subbed vegan mayo for mayo, barbecue sauce for chili sauce, and Maggi sauce for Worcestershire sauce. It turned out to be a rich, delicious dipping sauce for vegan chick’n strips. James loved it even more than I did because it has that sweet-savoury combo he adores.

So I decided to make it again, but a bit healthier. To that end, I replaced the vegan mayo with blanched silken tofu and the vegetable oil with blanched almonds. We did a side by side comparison last evening and barely noticed a difference between them!

So here we go–a healthy vegan version of Comeback Sauce!

Vegan Comeback Sauce

• 1 12-ounce package silken tofu, blanched
• 2/3 cup chopped onion
• 1/4 cup blanched almonds
• 1/4 cup BBQ sauce
• 1 TBS ketchup
• 2 TBS Maggi sauce
• 2 TBS Frank’s hot sauce
• 1 TBS yellow mustard
• 1 TBS lemon juice
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1.5  tsp pepper
• 1/4 tsp paprika

Blanch the tofu and combine with the rest of the ingredients in the Vitamix and blend until smooth.

I also made Greek-salad focaccia to accompany our feast:

And here is our evening’s feast–vegan chick’n strips with Comeback Sauce, focaccia, and dill-pickle salad:

I should say that while I was in town waiting for the STILL outstanding West Elm furniture, I did have one triumph: I actually received our balcony furniture from Wayfair and occupied myself for a couple of days assembling the pieces and arranging them on our tiny balcony. I was quite chuffed with how it turned out! I’m particularly thrilled with the mirror that looks like a window (though it was a bugger to lug back from Home Sense through downtown.

And the song of the day is Zach Bryan’s “Something in the Orange” because it is playing as I write this!