Seitan Said Dance

Interfood

2012-02-14T09:00:00.000-05:00

That's like a food interlude. Edibles are still taking a back seat to other things, but I wanted to pop in to mention how thoroughly awesome I think Vegan Eat World, Terry Hope Romero's next book, is going to be. I've only tested about a dozen recipes so far, and have no photos to show for it, but almost all of them have been serious winners.

My coworkers are still talking about the This is Sparta! Spinach Pie that I made a few months ago. If you like dill (and spinach), you will LOVE that pie. My mother has wanted to eat nothing but the Pho Noodle Soup with Sizzling Seitan and Bok Choy all winter, while my brother inhaled an entire batch of Thai-style Jungle Seitan Curry (which was too spicy for me) and I want to eat Roasted Broccoli with Lemon and Sage by the pile. There's a scrambled tofu Bahn Mi in there that has me completely rethinking brunch, too. I'm out of town right now (more on that later), but I have another pho recipe waiting for me when I get home and I can't wait.

Who Should Advocate for Animals?

2012-01-23T22:46:00.003-05:00

The short answer: Everyone who wants to.

The long answer: Seriously, everyone who wants to. Everyone considers different things acceptable. If you eat meat, but think wearing fur is wrong, and it bothers you enough for you to want to take action, go for it*. Write a letter. Attend a demo. Do whatever you can to end the suffering you've witnessed.

You may be afraid others will consider you a hypocrite if you advocate for some animal issues and not others, but fuck them. You're not doing it for the dude with the shoes made out of recycled condoms** and the Leaping Bunny tattoo. You're doing it for the animals and they need all the help they can get. If the animals could only depend on vegans to speak for them, they'd be pretty well fucked; there aren't that many of us.

That being said, Martha Stewart's promo for Farm Sanctuary pisses me right the fuck off. Not because she's not vegan, but because she directly profits from animal exploitation and abuse. Whole Foods is one of her sponsors. She's not speaking out against factory farms out of concern for the animals, but because she profits when people buy "happy meat" instead.

Should we be glad more people are converting to cage free/free range/grass fed/raised-in-a-spa animal products? Maybe. Probably not. Organically raised animals may suffer less than factory farmed ones, but there's no doubt that they still suffer. And die. If there are people who are currently eating happy meat who would have gone vegan if they didn't have this "more ethical" option, then more animals are suffering than would have if people like Martha weren't pushing these farming methods. And that's fucked up.

*But maybe also take a moment to sit down and think about why.
**Can we make this happen? Please?

WVBS T-Shirt Contest!

2012-01-22T21:11:00.000-05:00

Remember the Herbivore Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale t-shirts? They were awesome, but now they're gone. So we want to print a NEW WVBS t-shirt. Designed by YOU. Here's how it works:

1. Send your design to info@veganbakesale.org by February 19, 2012.
2. One week later, we'll announce two winners!
3. We'll create tee shirts (and maybe other products down the road, such as aprons) emblazoned with the winning design, and sell them on the new WVBS Zazzle store (in progress). We'll proudly and enthusiastically mention the designer and link to their websites or portfolios in the product descriptions. Of course, the winners get free tee shirts.
4. Profits from the sales will go to Compassion for Animals, to help with the cost of running and promoting the WorldwideVegan Bake Sale.

All the fine print and details are here: <CLICK> and if you have any other questions, just email info@veganbakesale.org! Happy shirting!

Whalentine's Day Bake Sale

2012-01-06T11:49:00.001-05:00

Yes! Sea Shepherd NYC's annual(?) vegan bake sale is on its way!

Come on down, get some sweets for your sweetie (or yourself. or myself) and support Sea Shepherd's many amazing marine conservation campaigns (currently, Operation Divine Wind has our crew interfering with illegal whaling in the Southern Ocean (no whales killed yet this season!) while the Cove Guardians are in Taiji, Japan for the annual dolphin slaughter).

When: February 12, 2012 from 12:30 to 5:30 PM
Where: Mooshoes, 78 Orchard Street
Who: Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, NYC Chapter
RSVP: Facebook Event Page
Sign up to participate: Google Doc

We'll have plenty of merch and be happy to answer any questions you may have about our campaigns. They’re also the people to talk to if you want to become a member or sign up for the Direct Action Crew. Last year, Sea Shepherd cut the Japanese whaling fleet's quota by 80%. Let’s help them cut it by 100% this year. All while hanging out with fabulous people and eating delicious food.

The Boring Details:

MooShoes will be opening its doors to us at 12 PM to set up. If you are bringing food, supplies, etc. PLEASE arrive at the store by 12 PM. We will need time to set up the bake goods as well as our merchandise and literature table. Once you’ve dropped off your stuff, room might be tight, so please don’t hate us if we ask you to step outside until we’re ready for the shopping to begin. Weather permitting, we’ll have chalk on hand for people to write things like BAKE SALE FOR OCEAN CONSERVATION on the sidewalk.

LABELING: Please prepare a card or print out with the name of the baked goods you have prepared and a note of anything special about it (gluten free, soy free, nuts, etc.) Additionally, please label its container with the same information and attach a piece of paper with the ingredient list, including the ingredients of the products you used to make the baked goods. That includes either the name and type of your ingredients (e.g., Whole Foods Vegan Chocolate Chips, Earth Balance made with olive oil, etc.) or include the ingredients of that product.

CONTAINERS and UTENSILS: If you want your container back at the end of the bake sale, please label it with your name. If your baked good requires cutting, scooping, tonging, flipping, spatulating or anything else, please bring the appropriate utensils. Please label them if you want them back and please either pick up the containers and utensils around 5:30 PM or make arrangements for someone to pick them up for you.
Hope to see everyone there!

Doccupy Wall Street

2011-10-31T13:28:00.000-04:00

Darwin Animal Doctors brings the animals of Occupy Wall Street their creature comforts.

Yesterday, volunteers from the Galapagos-based veterinary clinic Darwin Animal Doctors came to Occupy Wall Street with food, medications, beds and hugs for the animals living in Zuccotti Park. Since the occupation started on September 17, the population (human and non) has increased dramatically. The Kitchen, Medical and Comfort working groups mostly cater to the needs of the two-legged occupiers, so DAD president and co-founder Tod Emko rallied the troops to make sure our furry friends were taken care of as well.

Veterinarian Jodi Kuntz and vet techs Lucy Chou and Adrien Zap spent the morning consulting with dogs and a pet rat, provided food, information on local low-cost vet options and making care suggestions (most dogs occupying Wall Street could do with some booties).

Darwin Animal Doctors hopes to return soon to check up on more of our animal occupiers soon.

If you would like to donate animal care products to Occupy Wall Street, bring them downtown whenever you can, or comment here or email me and we'll work something out.

The Best Laid PLans

2011-10-24T10:51:00.000-04:00

Often go awry.

So there we were, all ready to cook our way through Appetite for Reduction, when Terry started testing for her upcoming international cookbook: Vegan Eats World (working title). So I told my mother I'd like to incorporate some of Terry's new recipes into our plan and if she was disappointed by the idea of supplementing her diet of Low Fat Healthy Vegan Food with dishes from the person who brought her Sancocho and Quinoa Roasted Pumpkin Risotto, she hid it well.

At this point, we'd already had the AFR Sanctuary Dressing (kind of like ranch, but better), Spinach Lasagna with Roasted Cauliflower Ricotta (delicious, but my mother thought the dressing was too thymey), and the Quinoa, White Bean and Kale Stew (perfect for a chilly fall night). The Ginger Bok Choy Soba was up next, so we topped it with Terry's Pressed Baked Tofu.

Terry suggests pressing the tofu after slicing, which is way faster than doing it before. 35 minutes was more than enough for perfect firm, chewy tofu. The marinade was delicious, too. It was a bit too spicy for me to eat the tofu alone (I'm a huge baby), but it was perfect over noodles and on toast with a bit of Veganaise (so perfect that I wanted to make another sandwich today, but didn't want to hog all the tofu because my mother really liked it).

In other news, my tester copy of Vegan Pie in the Sky arrived this weekend. It's beautiful. Lowfatcookingwhat?

Back to Food

2011-10-18T12:31:00.000-04:00

I'm no sure if I've mentioned this in the past, but both of my parents are extremely overweight. As a bonus, my father is diabetic and has heart disease. My mother is hypertensive with high cholesterol and degenerative disk disease in her back. I can't remember the last time she stood up without exclaiming "Oy!" I hope to change that.

Starting this Thursday, we're eating our way through Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Appetite for Reduction. We won't be eating from there exclusively, but I'm trying to encourage them to keep it vegan in the house, and save the animal products for restaurants. Make eating out a real "occasion".

With some work, I hope to bring down my father's blood sugar and my mother's cholesterol and blood pressure. I'd also like to see her get some weight off of her back and joints. I don't know if it will actually happen, but it's worth a try.

This is one of those times where most "real" bloggers would start breaking out the menu planners, scales and measuring tape in order to document everyone's progress for the whole Internet to see. (Un?)Fortunately, I don't have that kind of time, but I'll try to post occasional updates, even if it's just a heads up of which dishes people like best. And if my mother starts doing cartwheels down the hallway, I'll be sure to post video.

Occupy Wall Street 2.0

2011-10-17T10:30:00.000-04:00

Just a quick drive-by post to suggest that if you don't want to listen to me, at least listen to Will Potter. Or Josh Harper. Or the Vegan Police.

Then point your Internet at this and join in.

I'll be at Zuccotti Park this evening and probably tomorrow night too, if anyone wants to talk about issues surrounding animals with two, four or twenty-four legs, economics, politics, vegan recipes, comic books, knitting or what it's all about, really, when you get down to it.

Ethical Dilemma

2011-10-11T10:00:00.000-04:00

Last week, I attended a couple of protests against the Jewish ritual of Kapparot. Kapparot is an attempt to "kaper" (atone) for one's sins by transferring them to a live chicken or money, then giving it to charity. When chickens are used, they are picked up either by the feet or wings and waved over or swung around the head of the person performing the ritual three times while they recite a prayer. The chicken is then slaughtered and her flesh goes to feed poor people. There is some variation in how that happens, but that's the gist.

I'm going to skip over the experience of the protests themselves and how I feel about the whole thing in favor of one point: the chickens are transported in boxes too low for them to stand in and given no food or water from the time they're packed up until the time they're killed. The boxes are also stacked so if a chicken in the top box relieves herself, everyone below her gets a surprise.

Almost everyone I pointed this out to said it was wrong (there are specific laws in the Jewish bible to protect animals from "unnecessary" suffering) and something should be done to change it. They also felt there was nothing they could do about it. One even asked me to open a humane, organic Kapparot chicken company, saying that almost everyone would go to me, even if it would cost more, to keep the chickens from suffering.

One person said he had contacted the people who order the chickens, trying to get them more humane conditions, but it didn't work. He said he also contacted PETA, to see if they could help, but they did nothing. He then asked if I would be able to get a few people together next year to supervise the chicken transport, see that they're in comfortable crates, feed the chickens during the day, and do everything else necessary to make their last day on earth easier on them. I gave him my phone number, but I'm 99% sure he won't call.

But what if he does? I hate the words "abolitionist" and "welfarist" and generally think they're used by people who spend too much time philosophizing and not enough time acting, but that's really what this comes down to.

I don't want to help these people kill more chickens. I want the practice to end completely. I think we may be able to end it in our lifetimes, but I know it won't end next year. So why not help the chickens spend their last hours comfortably, with love and attention? I think this is different from the "happy meat" issue, since more chickens will not be used just because people feel better about how they're treated. The people who perform this ritual will do it, and those who don't won't, regardless of the chickens' well being.

In addition to caring for the chickens, I think developing a decent relationship with the People In Charge, may encourage them to give us more chickens to take to a sanctuary (they gave us a few this year). Also, most of these people have probably never seen chickens treated as anything more than an object. If we are able to stay with the chickens while people are performing the ritual and let them see us caring for them the way they care for their dogs, or their children (maybe even wearing t-shirts with a message about using money instead, maybe printed in English, Hebrew and Yiddish) it may drive the point home, especially for the young people.

So. What do you think? Would this be enabling people to murder chickens or would it be an act of mercy? What would you do?

Occupy Wall Street

2011-10-05T01:40:00.000-04:00

We're in week three of Occupy Wall Street and I still don't know exactly what I want to say about it here. No wonder the General Assembly has had so much trouble coming up with a specific demand or manifesto. I guess I should start with the basic info:

On September 17, people took to the streets of lower Manhattan, set up beds, kitchens, peaceful barricades and started to occupy Wall Street until the changes they want are made or they're removed by force. Inspired by the movements in Egypt, Greece, Spain, and Iceland, the plan is to use the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic of mass occupation and nonviolence to restore democracy in America.

"Occupy Wall Street is leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions. The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%. The original call for this occupation was published by Adbusters in July; since then, many individuals across the country have stepped up to organize this event, such as the people of the NYC General Assembly and US Day of Rage. There'll also be similar occupations in the near future such as October2011 in Freedom Plaza, Washington D.C."

I have a lot to say about this, but think I'll just try to stay on topic for the blog and address one issue: why animal rights activists should give a shit.

If you look at the flag above, you'll be hard pressed to find a logo belonging to a company that hasn't intentionally supported animal cruelty.

If not for corporate personhood, the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act would not exist.

Thanks to bailouts from these big banks and financial companies, hellholes like Huntingdon Life Sciences have managed to stay open, despite activists getting it delisted from the NYSE.

G overnment subsidies keep factory farmed, toxic meat cheaper than healthy vegetables.

Even the first official release brings the grievance that "They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless nonhuman animals, and actively hide these practices."

Will Occupy Wall Street fix everything? No. Will it fix anything? Maybe. But so little of what we do works anyway. So if you're going to spend time at a futile protest, why not try a new one instead of the same old thing? If this is actually successful, it will change things not just for carriage horses, or fur-bearing animals, but for everyone, no matter how many legs, fins or wings they have.

So if you're near New York, come down to Zuccotti Park. Even if you're just curious. The best way to learn more is to see for yourself, especially considering how unreliable the press has been on this.

If you're not near New York, don't worry. There are solidarity rallies sprouting up worldwide. http://occupytogether.org/ is being updated pretty regularly with new events.

At the very least, talk about it. Post links on Twitter, Faceplace, whatever. Talk to people: "Hey, did you hear about those people who are trying to hold the people who stole our 401Ks accountable? 700 arrests? That's some crazy shit, right?"

And if you're not an animal rights activist, this all still applies...except the futility part.

What are you going to do about it?

2011-09-13T16:00:00.000-04:00

By now, everyone on the Internet has oohed and aahed and laughed and cried over the video of the lab chimps seeing sunlight for the first time. In case you missed it:

Most people watched that video and thought "Oh, how sad. I wish we could free all the chimps, but there's nothing I can do about it." Fortunately, that's not true. There's a really easy way to help free the chimps: stop using products tested on animals.

I don't mean your cancer medication or your antibiotics. I mean your shampoo and your bathroom cleaner. Your dental floss. Your disposable razors. Your chocolate (yes, chocolate).

I'm not gonna lie: this can get a little tricky at times, depending on how strict you want to be. For example, Toms of Maine doesn't test on animals. But Colgate-Palmolive partially owns ToM and they do. So every time you buy a ToM product, some of your cash is going to fund C-P's animal testing. BUT every time you buy a ToM product, you're also telling C-P you're willing to spend a little more for a product that hasn't been tested on animals. My personal preference is to buy products that aren't in any way related to animal testing (I'm enjoying Jason's toothpaste at the moment), but I'm a spoiled brat living in New York (though I think every Whole Foods carries some fully cruelty free products and there's currently a coupon going around the Internet to get your stuff half price).

One easy thing to do is look for one of the following logos on packaging:

If you see one of those, odds are good no one's had anything jabbed in their eyes so you can have thicker, shinier hair. Just saying it without the logo is good too. If, on a product or website, they have a whole paragraph explaining that they don't test on animals "except when necessary" or some other such balls, someone, somewhere is being tortured so your toilet can glisten.

PETA keeps two lists: companies that do test on animals, and companies that don't. Take that second list with a grain of salt, though, because it includes brands like ToM that don't test but are owned by ones that do. It's useful in a pinch, but if you've got the time, a bit of Googling will tell you what you want to know. Or if you're lazy, ask me and I'll Google it for you. Seriously. Help me help you.

If we do this, maybe the next video will be of hundreds of chimps, rabbits, beagles, rats, mice and cats being released and adopted because the labs have been shut down once and for all.

Oh, Hello!

2011-09-13T11:00:00.000-04:00

Are you still here? Sorry about that. I've got two important things to talk about today.

Thing the first: PIE. Yes, pie. Vegan Pie in the Sky is due out next month and it's amazing. If you have tastebuds, you should go preorder it. Go on. I'll wait.

Got it? Good. You're welcome. All the recipes are delicious, most of them are easy and some of them are fast enough to make after work (maybe with a bit of advance prep work). Here's a small sampling of the ones I tested. Do not judge them by my photos, because if there's anything I'm worse at than baking pretty things, it's photography.

Blueberry cheesecake

You know what's so great about that cheesecake (aside from its deliciousness)? It's Tofutti-free. None of the cheesecake recipes in this book use cream cheese. It's an amazing combination of bananas, tofu and soaked cashews that's light, creamy and delicious.

Chocolate cheesecake

Apple pie

I doubled up on these for a friend's birthday and everyone loved them. Classic and delicious.

Pear cranberry galette in a buckwheat crust

It took me a while to get used to the buckwheat crust, but I'm digging it now. Also, galettes? Too cute, easier to shape than pies and no pan to wash when you're done!

Peach basil pie

Possibly the best thing I ever ate. No lie.

Sweet potato orange ginger cobbler

And with ice cream:

Figgy apple hand pies

Made those for a bake sale. They didn't sell so well. Maybe because they didn't look particularly tidy. Maybe because people don't trust figs. I was surprised into liking them myself.

Speaking of bake sales...Sea Shepherd represent!

Which brings me to thing the second: I'm not very good at writing about food. I like it, but not enough to do it all the time (obviously). In order to keep this blog active, I think I'm going to start posting about other things that interest me. Probably animals and other things related to veganism. I don't really have a plan or anything, we'll just see how it goes. In the meantime, enjoy your pies!

No Brooklyn? No Problem!

2011-05-09T17:21:00.000-04:00

Can't make it to tomorrow's benefit but want to support Japan Earthquake Animal Rescue and Support and AmeriCares anyway? We can help!

Tuesday, May 10, 8 PM to midnight (Eastern), we'll be live streaming the show! Featuring performances by Gretchen Witt, Yukari Roja and Terry Hope Romero! You can watch it below, or if the embedding doesn't work, click here.

To lend a hand, you can donate directly on JEARS and AmeriCares' websites, or PayPal may10benefit@gmail.com.

Hope to see you tomorrow, but if I can't, at least you can see us!

Benefit for Japan

2011-05-03T16:06:00.001-04:00

Is it just me, or is the shit hitting the fan more and more frequently lately? The latest fan was firmly situated over Japan and once we stopped freaking out about whether or not the island would just fall into the ocean, a bunch of people got together to try to help out. This is what we came up with:

Flier by Theresa Sarzynski of for the Animals sanctuary

Loads of people are getting together to raise money for AmeriCares and Japan Earthquake Animal Rescue and Support. Seriously, people's generosity has been overwhelming. From graphic designers working on the fliers and buttons to restaurants and caterers donating food, not to mention local musicians and DJs playing the show and so many businesses contributing raffle prizes, people's dedication to helping the human and non-human animals impacted by the disaster is just amazing.

Tuesday, May 10 at Southpaw, doors at 7 PM, show starts at 8

Upstairs, Dj3dg of the Ulster County SPCA will be spinning between sets by Gretchen Witt and Yukari Roja.
Downstairs, DJ Megan Rascal will set the mood for a screening of Oscar-nominated Japanese film Kwaidan.
There will also be a webcast by Terry Hope Romero and some special guests.

We'll be serving food from The V-Spot, Terri Organic Vegetarian, Vérité Catering, I Eat Grass, Gone Pie Vegan Bakery, and Rescue Chocolate.

And check out these fabulous raffle prizes!
Gift cards from Sustainable NYC, Lula's Sweet Apothecary, Red Bamboo, Curly's Vegetarian Lunch, Loving Hut, Threadless.com, MOMBUCHA and Caravan of Dreams!
Signed copies of Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World and Viva Vegan!
Gift sets from Pretty Monsters NYC and meow meow tweet!
Photos by Max Ocampo!
Hand made totes by Panda With Cookie!

You really don't want to miss this. Get your tickets here! ($15, 18+ w/ID)

Flier by Danielle Mathieux

Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale 3.0

2011-03-29T11:39:00.000-04:00

I swear I cook for more than just bake sales. For example, last week, I tried my hand at Vegan Dad's Puff Pastry recipes and ended up with a delightful batch of pain au chocolat (bonus points for added raspberries). I'm also testing for Isa and Terry's upcoming pie book (raspberry pie! chocolate pudding pie!). And I'm working on my friends' birthday cake. So it's not that I've stopped doing kitchen things, I've just stopped making real food. Oops.

Anyway, this is a thing that's happening:

If you're going to be in the NYC area that day, RSVP to the Facebook event here.
And if you'd like to bake, table or get into any other kind of wacky volunteer hijinx with us, please sign up on the spreadsheet here.

And watch this space for news about an upcoming benefit for Japan. I promise it won't be a bake sale.

Another Bake Sale!

2011-02-03T10:23:00.000-05:00

Thanks to everyone who came out and helped make Sea Shepherd NYC's vegan bake sale a fabulous success (especially MooShoes, Babycakes, Lifethyme and Terri). We raised almost $4,000 for Operation No Compromise! I'll post a wrap up of that one soon, but first, in case you couldn't make it, or it whet your appetite for another one, Darwin Animal Doctors is holding a Valentine's Day bake sale at MooShoes on Saturday, February 12! I won't be there, but my famous pepperoni pizza pretzels will be, so get there early.

Darwin Animal Doctors provides comprehensive veterinary care for the animals of the Galapagos Islands. We're committed to saving animals, and the Galapagos. Our veterinary clinics span the islands of the Galapagos, and we are strategically located on the most populated island, the largest island, and the capital city island. On San Cristobel Island, the capital city island of Galapagos, we sit as a board member on the office of invasive species control.

Also, they're kind of awesome. So stop by next Saturday and get some sweets for your sweetie (and yourself...Friends...Family...Coworkers...Enemies...).

BAM!

2011-01-20T11:47:00.000-05:00

(click to embiggen)

See all you sexy, sexy people Sunday!

Oops

2011-01-18T10:13:00.000-05:00

I suck at this, sorry. I have all sorts of posts half written, but I have something far more important to post about right now:

A BAKE SALE!

Sea Shepherd NYC will be at MooShoes this coming Sunday, January 23, raising money for Operation No Compromise, Sea Shepherd's 7th Antarctic whale defense campaign. We'll have vegan baked goods galore, merch, and the answers to all the questions you may have about Sea Shepherd. Stop by and find out how YOU can help Neptune's Navy defend our oceans.

All the tiny details are over on the Facebook event page, and if you'd like to bake, just add yourself to this Google Doc.

See you Sunday!

Hey Look!

2010-12-21T11:15:00.000-05:00

More cookies!

Vanilla and chocolate thumbprints from The Vegan Cookie Connoisseur.

I love the holidays because they give me an excuse to bake all the time. This batch of cookies was meant to be a Christmas present for one of my coworkers and the baked goods I promised people who sponsored me in Farm Sanctuary's Walk for Farm Animals (I'm slow but I'm getting there!). Turned out the two batches made so many cookies I was also able to share some with my friend in the hospital, her mother, my family and still have some for breakfast. And they took under an hour to make! Win.

The chocolate cookies are amazing. They're so rich and fudgy! I used raspberry preserves and chocolate with raspberry is pretty much my favorite flavor combination ever, so I may be biased about how good these cookies are, but I really think you need to try this recipe.

The vanilla ones are really good. Not as amazing as the chocolate, but light and nice and look kind of Christmassy since they're red and white.

I've made four recipes from The Vegan Cookie Connoisseur in the last two weeks. I think that's a record for me (not counting recipe testing). I'm really glad I didn't skip it! Overall, the recipes are good, with the chocolate ones being downright excellent. If you or someone you love likes cookies, pick it up (and yes, I have Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar as well, and it's not too many cookie recipes, honest).

If you're worried that woman cannot live on cookies alone, fear not! I've been eating real food as well. But it's December in NYC, so that's mostly soups and stews and this is so much prettier and more bloggable. I recently made the veggie lentil soup from Appetite For Reduction, and it was great. It was my first time working with French lentils and I love them. Definitely going to work those into more things. I also made Isa's Red Lentil Thai Chili which is fucking awesome. Picture chili with Thai red curry paste, coconut milk and sweet potatoes. Sound weird? It's not, it's awesome. I made it three days ago and my mother has already requested more, which is high praise indeed these days (she's been eating more meat since breaking her arm because she thinks it's easier. I think it's just more familiar).

In case I don't post again before then, happy holidays everyone! May your days be full of love and deliciousness!

Tis the Season

2010-12-17T13:58:00.000-05:00

For cookies!

This week, I attended a cookie swap and reading for the Zinester's Guide to New York City (which everybody with any kind of interest in NYC should pick up), featuring pieces (and a whole vegan section) by Melissa Bastian. Sadly, she and I were the only people to bring vegan cookies (and someone brought - and wrote a song about - bacon brittle), but that didn't keep us from eating a whole hell of a lot of them.

Melissa made her famous chocolate chip cookies (if they aren't famous, they should be; they are DELICIOUS!) and I made the dark chocolate truffle cookies from The Vegan Cookie Connoisseur.

Hells. Yes. The cookies are nice and crispy on the outside, soft, a bit fudgy and super chocolatey on the inside, thanks to the melted chocolate in the dough. I was afraid all the powdered sugar would make them too sweet, but they were just fine. The rich, chocolate combined with snowy sugar make these a great winter cookie. They're also lovely for breakfast with some peppermint tea (not that I've been eating cookies for breakfast or anything, but how can you go wrong with chocolate and mint, right? Of course right).

Cookie Time!

2010-12-07T12:01:00.000-05:00

If you've read any part of this blog ever, you know I'm really awful at making food look good. I can't do pretty plating or decorating or anything like that. I'm lucky if I can make food appetizing enough to eat. So I don't really bother trying to model my food after cookbook photos. And I certainly would never dream of trying to copy a cover photo. Until now.

Hypnosis Cookies from The Vegan Cookie Connoisseur

Despite my personal rule not to buy any cookbooks that are only sweets (and aren't IsaTerry books), I picked VCC up at the same party I got The Vegan Girl's Guide to Life. Everything in it looked delicious and I didn't know what to make first. Then I was invited to a birthday. I wanted to make something festive, but that didn't need tons of ingredients because I still wasn't in my kitchen. The more I looked at the book and thought about the birthday, the more I wanted to make the cover cookies. With the sticks and the ribbons and the bows and everything (this may have been the first time in over twenty years that the desire for bows crossed my mind). But, being aware of my inability to make anything attractive, I put the idea aside in favor of something simpler.

Turned out I was going to miss the party, and meet up with the birthday girl at work instead. My mind returned to the pretty cookies because while getting cookies on your birthday is great, someone showing up at work with a cookie bouquet is fucking awesome*. So that's what I did.

Obviously, these cookies are really easy to make. They're a bit time consuming, but you can spread it out over a few days, and I got over 40 cookies out of the batch, enabling me to give them as a birthday present, serve them at my family's Channukkah party, share them at Farm Sanctuary's screening of Forks Over Knives, and share them with a few random friends. So yeah, totally worth the time.

On the first day, I made the two doughs:

On the second day, I rolled them flat, laid the chocolate dough on top of the vanilla and rolled them up...

...with the plastic wrap still inside. I unrolled it, took out the plastic, re-rolled it and it still looked good! This recipe is VERY forgiving. After that, it's just slicing and baking. Or, if you want to get fancy about it, slicing, shoving sticks in them and baking (of the 40+ cookies, I only made five the fancy way; if it's not your birthday, you don't get bows).

Everyone oohed and aahed over the pretty spirals. They're definitely impressive presentation cookies. As for the flavor, they're good, but not awesome. The chocolate dough is great, but the vanilla needed a bit more extract or something. This was the first time in history that something I made looked more impressive than it tasted. But if you don't want something really sweet or overpowering, these are good. They'd also be lovely with a strongly flavored tea, or stuck in ice cream.

I'd definitely make these again, especially trying some of the variations in the book, and am looking forward to breaking this book out for future birthdays and bake sales. Recommended!

* Provided the person isn't some sort of weird, creepy stalker.

Get a Life!

2010-11-30T16:09:00.000-05:00

The Vegan Girl's Guide to Life, that is.

I had the chance to hang out with Melisser and pick up her book (and Kelly Paloza's The Vegan Cookie Connoisseur) at their signing at Champs Family Bakery, a few weeks ago. Yup, NYC got another vegan bakery. I sampled a small fraction of what they had on offer and while I didn't LOVE everything, I really liked most things (hellooooo pumpkin cream cheese candied nut other crazy business crumb cake!), which is more than I can say for most places.

Check out VGGTL's 3-bean chili:

It's a pretty basic chili, yummy and hearty, just like it should be. And I don't usually put carrots in my chili, so that's something new. It's probably not the best recipe to represent the book (which is fabulous - you should totally check it out. In addition to recipes, it's got knitting patterns, crafty things, interviews, makeup tips and all sorts of other awesome info. It's amazing for new vegans or people trying to incorporate more vegetables into their diets, but could also be useful for more experienced vegans. AND DUDES! It's definitely not just for vegan girls), but this was the first meal I made in this kitchen, so I wanted to keep it simple, fast and relatively tidy. This recipe can't be beat for that.

The signing was totally rad. I got to reconnect with some people I hadn't seen in ages, meet some new people whose names I'll never remember and eat vegan strawberry cheesecake brownies. What more could one want? If your answer is karaoke and Mexican food, you're in luck because we afterpartied at Papacitos. That's the place to go if you want vegan chimichangas at 2 AM.

Awesome times.

Thus concludes VeganMoFo 2010. I guess I have a thing for closing MoFo by talking about how great it is to hang out with the local vegan crew (and imports). That's definitely a tradition I'd like to continue! I can't believe we made it all the way to the end already. Though I've been kind of shitty about reading and commenting. I'll probably be catching up on that until mid-2011, but I'm going to try!

The Home Stretch

2010-11-29T13:00:00.000-05:00

We're in it. There are just two days left to VeganMoFo, so I'm going rogue! Yes, there will be no theme this week! I'm just going to post...stuff!

Today's stuff: pumpkin gingerbread cookies I made for Halloween:

Wow, that photo didn't look nearly as blurry while on my phone. Sorry about that.

I used this recipe. It was good, but the bake time was a little long for me, so my first few batches (the recipe makes a LOT of cookies) were pretty burnt. I didn't have time to wait for the cookies to cool, make icing and wait for it to set, so I used toasted pumpkin seeds for my decoration. All the cookies looked like surprised anime characters (there were also cats and a couple of other shapes). In case you're wondering about the helmet and football, those were for a friend who missed watching his game to hang out. As for the dinosaurs...everyone loves dinosaurs. Are you really questioning dinosaur cookies?

OK, fine. I have a bucket of 101 cookie cutters, and I'm determined to use them all, regardless of whether or not they're appropriate.

We also had lollipops from http://www.lollyphile.com/

Yum.

Then, once we were full of sugar, we ran around Manhattan dressed like gangs from The Warriors:

Good times.

The Unphotographable

2010-11-26T12:00:00.003-05:00

That's my lunch from Madras Mahal. It's delicious, but the photos came out so poorly I'm not even going to bother posting them. They're even terrible by my standards. Here's a picture of a guinea pig instead:

That's Pepper. Her spiky black hair makes her the most punk rock guinea pig I've ever known.

Madras Mahal is the first Indian restaurant I ever ate at. And now that Madras (totally vegan) is gone, Madras Mahal (vegetarian, mostly vegan) it's my favorite. Dairy items are indicated on the menu. Minimum Seamlessweb order is $20, which I get many meals out of. They don't use Seamlessweb's "eco friendly" option.

Sadly, they don't have a vegan mango lassi, but they do a REALLY sweet mango juice. Their samosas are spicy and delicious. Papadams have a bit more caraway than I'd like, but the texture is perfect. I could live on their alu gobi with broccoli and tofu gobi matarwla. Their dosas are huge and perfect. I also recommend the alu paratha, chappati and pretty much everything else they file under "bread".

I think I'll conclude Midtown Manhattan week with a few other vegan-friendly tips:

Just Salad - I ate almost nothing but this all summer. They specify vegan dressings on the menu and the sesame tofu is also vegan. I usually order hummus instead of dressing, WITH chickpeas because I have no self control. Also, they offer a reusable bowl and you get a discount every time you use it, but it doesn't work with delivery.
Maoz/Crisp - Semi-decent franchise falafel, but there are so many falafel options in NYC that you can probably do better (much like bagels, independent restaurants > chains. This isn't just my anti-capitalist bias, it's actually true.).
Kyotofu - I went there for dinner once and wasn't crazy about the food, but they were out of a lot of things, including the soft serve, which I've heard good things about
Queen of Sheba - Ethiopian, not vegan but plenty of options and if you go to eat there with a group, they'll offer to plate veg stuff separately from the meat
'wichraft - The chickpea sandwich is vegan

Amish Market - They have vegan lunch options in the fridge (those macrobiotic noodle things, packaged sandwiches, etc.), Amy's frozen stuff, Sweet and Sara products, vegan ice cream, etc. but watch the prices; some are OK, but then they charge $30 for a bottle of maple syrup you can get for $19 at Whole Foods
Grand Central Market - Good for emergency grocery shopping and you can usually get vegan cookies and chocolate there. GC also has a Two Boots and a few other places with vegan options in the food court
Health Nuts (2nd Ave between 44th and 45th Streets) - In addition to a decent bulk selection (for midtown), they have a decent range of vegan cheeses, chocolates, convenience items and other options. They're also the only place I've been that sells vegan popsicles individually, in case you just want one serving of ice cream, just like everyone else.

Have a great weekend, everyone! I'll be back next week, maybe with actual home cooked food!

Build a Better Bagel

2010-11-25T12:00:00.003-05:00

If everything goes according to plan, this entry will post itself on Thursday. Happy Thanksgiving to the people who celebrate it! I'm not cooking Thanksgiving dinner this year and I have my blog posts set up in advance, so my Thanksgiving writeup will happen one day next week, probably to close out MoFo.

If I had a nickle for every time someone getting ready to visit or move to New York asked me where to get the best bagel, I'd have...at least a dollar. I spent most of my life confused by the idea of the "best" bagel because I grew up in Brooklyn, where (as far as I knew) all bagels were pretty much the same. And by "pretty much the same", I mean "the best thing in the world". In fact, I didn't even know bad bagels existed until I was in my 20s and working in midtown Manhattan. So instead of tips for finding the best bagel, here are a few ways to avoid shitty bagels:

Don't buy them from street trucks.
Don't buy them from (inter)national chains. This includes Starbucks, Tim Horton's and Dunkin Donuts. They may taste fine, but they're still not the same as a "real" New York bagel.
Actually, to simplify, don't buy them any place that doesn't have the word "bagel" in the name. Or at least in big letters on a sign in the window. Or, failing that, carry at least eight different kinds and clearly does the bulk of its business in bagels.
Don't buy them if you're really far from NYC. Make your own, instead. It's not nearly as difficult as you'd think.

This bagel breaks the first part of the third rule, since it's from Milk 'N Honey:

Milk 'N Honey carries three types of tofu cream cheese: plain, scallion and vegetable. They also have water challahs (which are eggless) on Fridays, an assortment of knishes, veggie sushi, a salad bar, and if you call ahead and order a whole pie, I think they'll make you a cheeseless pizza. This is one of the few places I've been to in midtown that remembers your preference once you've been there a few times, so you don't have to keep saying "No bag, thanks" every time you pay.

My standard order is a sesame bagel with plain tofu cream cheese, lettuce, tomato and pickles. Yes, pickles. I know. It sounds barfy. When a friend suggested it to me in high school, I thought he was crazy, but no matter how much I hate to admit it, the dude was right. Pickles just straight up make everything better. I could eat this every morning, but I don't because my body wouldn't be happy about it. I limit myself to one every (other) week or so.

This is Peanut. It's hard to tell in this photo, but she looks like a peanut!

I have no idea what caused that shadow that looks like an alien's hand, and frankly, it's freaking me out. I guess it comes in peace, though.

She's been living with my friends for years. She has some sort of brain damage from her previous life, that causes her to bop her head once in a while. Especially when she's excited. She's a totally metal guinea pig. She will also steal your carrots if you let her, so beware!

These Boots are Made for...

2010-11-24T12:00:00.004-05:00

...eating! We're continuing Midtown Manhattan week with pizza from Two Boots:

That's their Mrs. Peel on a whole wheat crust with added artichoke hearts. They also make the Earth Mother vegan (cheeseless) sometimes, but that doesn't seem to be an option if you order from Seamlessweb. Also, the minimum pizza order is a small pie (four slices) via Seamlessweb, so you may want to save it for when you're doing lunch with someone or totally starving (or have a place to store extra pizza).

I like the Mrs. Peel because the breadcrumbs on in thicken the sauce up a bit making it almost creamy. It also has massive hunks of garlic on it, which makes me all kinds of happy. The crust is nice and thin and crispy and they're pretty generous with the vegetables. Without any additions, a small Mrs. Peel is $11, and most people can get two meals out of it, making it a really good value for Midtown.

Today's furry friend is Margie!

Margie (not Margaret, Marjorie or Marginald. Just Margie), a fancy hamster, is the newest addition to the household and she's way too curious about cell phones to be photographed by one without blurring.

Lola clearly does not approve of her shenanigans.

So Much Food

2010-11-23T13:11:00.000-05:00

I think I should point out that the meals you're seeing here aren't all that indicative of what I usually get for lunch. I almost never get dessert and I often get soup or a sandwich, but rarely both. I want to present a good sampling of what these places have to offer, though, so I'm splurging a bit (and sometimes finishing lunch for dinner).

Today's Midtown Manhattan lunch came from FreeFoods NYC.

That's their Miso Mustard Glazed Tempeh Ruben. It's good, but since I'm used to places like Terri and 'SNice, I'm not sure if it's $11 worth of good. Even with the avocado. But those beautiful grill lines definitely count for something.

I really wanted to try their vegetable pistou, but they were out of it, so I got the slow roasted tomato soup. Still good, but a very small portion for the price. It was definitely everything one usually wants out of tomato soup, but that's not saying all that much, is it?

The vegan chocolate chip brownie is a really good size, but it's also really dry and crumbly. You know how when you bake something amazing and you tell some people it's vegan, they say "Holy crap! I never would have guessed!"? If you tell those people this is vegan, they'd say "Well, I guess that explains it". It's not bad, but I can make better at home.

FreeFoods serves meat, but in addition to these vegan options, also has a substantial raw selection and vegan ice cream and muffins. I tried the ice cream ages ago and cannot, in good conscience, recommend it. I won't say don't buy it, in case I just got a dud.

Meet Lola, our resident tripod (despite what this photo may lead you to believe, her missing appendage is in the back):

She's super energetic and you'd never know she's missing a leg by watching her run and jump. Her hobbies include having her teeth brushed, chasing feathers, figuring out how to turn on the bedroom lights and stalking Tabby and punching her in the face.

Lazy MoFo

2010-11-22T12:06:00.000-05:00

That's me! The last week or two have kind of kicked my ass and I'm currently pet sitting, so even though I'll be cooking, I just don't have the patience to make sure it's all themed and photographed and blah blah blah. So this week's theme is Midtown Manhattan. It's considered one of New York's least vegan-friendly areas, but I'm going to prove you can eat lunch here for a whole week without going crazy. Photos will be taken at my desk, using my cameraphone, so don't expect anything spectacular. But to make up for that, there will also be pictures of the furballs I'm hanging out with. Good deal?

OK, then. Let's start with Zen Palate.

I started with dessert because the photo of my entree was even worse.

Zen Palate mostly serves kind of Asian-esque food. They're most well known for their entrees that come with taro spring rolls and brown rice:

(please pretend only the bottom half of the photo is visible)

These specials are probably my least favorite items on their menu. I mostly get their Deluxe Tong Mein Noodle Soup with Vegetables. The vegetable and tofu pieces are so big I eat them and the noodles with a fork, then drink the broth. The fake duck in it is good too. I also like their portobello burger with yam fries. The Zen burger is pretty good, too. They also have one vegan dessert: key lime pie (photo above). It's the only key lime pie I've ever had and it's pretty good, but could use more crust, especially since it's so soft and crumbly (but really, MORE CRUST is my usual complaint with single-crust pies).

Zen Palate is vegetarian and pretty vegan friendly, but be careful when you order, even if you've eaten there before. I feel like every time I check out their menu, another *D has shown up on it. Also, they don't offer the "eco-friendly" option on Seamlessweb, which kind of sucks. They have three locations in Manhattan, so there's a good chance they'll deliver to wherever you are. Protip: there's a $12 minimum for delivery if you order through Seamlessweb, and it's $15 if you order through iMenu360. I think it's supposed to be a $10 minimum if you order over the phone, but they almost always forget and deliver my $8 soup without question (I know $8 sounds like a lot for soup, but seriously, you'll be full for HOURS).

And now, without further ado.....TABITHA!

Tabby's the sweetest cat I've encountered in my life. She's an older rescue and when my friends first brought her home, she was pretty terrified of people because of what she'd gone through in her previous life. She's made huge strides since then and loves hanging out with everyone now.

If you're in the New York area and are thinking about adopting a rescue cat, check out Empty Cages Collective. They're pretty awesome.

Three Strikes

2010-11-19T12:00:00.003-05:00

And I'm out. I've tried to make this recipe three times and ruined it every time. The first two were totally due to my own carelessness, I realized it when it happened and I never even got to taste this stuff. The third time, I thought I finally had it, but as you'll see below the jump (the photo is so gross I can't bring myself to put it before), I still botched it.

Today's plant: Sea Moss
Used in: Sea Moss Punch from Caribbean Vegan

Chondrus crispus, AKA sea moss, AKA Irish moss (despite mostly being found on the Atlantic coast of North America in addition to Europe), AKA carrageen moss is mostly made up of carrageenan. It's also about 10% protein and about 15% mineral matter, and is rich in iodine and sulfur. It's commonly used as a thickener, stabilizer, for fining beer and wine and as an aphrodisiac and cure for male impotence. So if your man needs more try in his trident, you know what to get him. Though if it really looks like a trident, proceed with caution. I just wanted to use an aquatic euphemism.

I feel obligated to point out that sea moss might be an aphrodisiac, but my version of sea moss punch is the exact opposite:

When I finished making it last night, it seemed like it would be good. A little thick, mildly spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg. Nice, and perfect for this weather. When I took it out of the fridge this morning, it was almost like jelly. In the photo above, it was already at room temperature for a while and started to loosen. I tried drinking it, but my mouth didn't like how it felt. It'd probably be perfect as a doughnut or cupcake filling, though, so I'm not throwing it out (though I don't want to think about how many cupcakes I'd have to make to use up two liters of the stuff!). I'll also see if any of my friends like REALLY thick drinks.

Anyone have any idea where I went wrong?

Thus concludes Sea Life Week (on a high note, right?). Five interesting plants, four delicious recipes, and no one had to die. If this topic interests you, and you live near a body of water, try inquiring about local marine conservation groups. If you don't have one, or you're landlocked, or you really like skulls, there's always Sea Shepherd (full disclosure: I volunteer with Sea Shepherd NYC and am therefore pretty biased toward them). They do great work all over the world.

Have a great weekend, everyone! See you back here Monday!

This Post May Be a Lie

2010-11-18T12:00:00.001-05:00

And if it is, I apologize. I have an open bag of wakame in my pantry but have no idea what I used it for. I made this soup so long ago that even though I remember how to make it (basically) and how it tasted, I don't remember what sea vegetable was in it (and don't currently have access to the recipe). Process of elimination: the wakame went in this soup. I may be wrong. It may be nori.

Today's plant: Wakame
Used in: Manhattan Glam Chowder from Appetite for Reduction

Wakame is a sea vegetable, or edible seaweed. It has a subtly sweet flavour and is most often served in soups and salads. Sea-farmers have grown wakame for hundreds of years in Japan and Korea and it has been nominated as among 100 of the world's worst invasive species according to the Global Invasive Species Database. Japanese and Korean sea-farmers have grown wakame for centuries and they still are the main producers and eaters. Since 1985 wakame is also cultivated in France, in sea fields established near the shores of Brittany. Wild grown wakame is harvested in Tasmania, Australia, and then sold in restaurants in Sydney.

This thick soup is supposed to resemble Manhattan clam chowder, which I've never tasted. It's thick, tomatoey and full of veggie goodness. The fishiness is subtle. It's really nice with crackers crumbled in (rather than sitting on top like Cookie Monster's eyes, as seen above). It's super easy and fast to prepare and makes a great week night dinner soup.

Depressing related fact: there are 105 species of endangered clams.

Coo Coo for Cou Cou!

2010-11-17T12:00:00.000-05:00

One of my closest friends lives in Barbados. I know very little about the Caribbean, so when we first met, she'd tell me all about their culture and (more importantly) food. She told me about her national dish, cou cou with flying fish, many times, but I just couldn't get a mental picture of it until I made it myself while testing for Caribbean Vegan. Please note this is one of the few recipes in the book that works better with special equipment: a cou cou stick. I got mine when I visited my friend in Barbados, but if you can't find one anywhere, you can also use a big wooden spoon.

Today's plant: Nori
Used in: Cou Cou and Tofish from Caribbean Vegan

I'm so sorry that photo is so ugly. There's a GORGEOUS picture of this dish in the book, but I just can't help making it look like crap. Sorry.

Nori is the Japanese name for various edible seaweed species of thered alga Porphyra including most notably P. yezoensis and P. tenera, sometimes called laver. Finished products are made by a shredding and rack-drying process that resembles papermaking. Japan, Korea, and China are the current major producers of nori, with total production valued at up to US$2 billion per year.

Fascinating!

There are four elements to this recipe: tofish, cou cou, Creole sauce and basil cilantro butter sauce. So it's daunting, it's fiddly and it's a lot of steps, but it's not really difficult. And it's totally worth it.

The cou cou is mostly made out of fine corn meal with okra, so it's nice and sticky. It's comforting like mashed potatoes, without being mashed potatoes. The Creole sauce has a bit of a kick, which the basil cilantro butter sauce that the tofish is pan fried in provides a cooling contrast. The tofish itself is well-flavored with the nori and the rest of the spices and ends up with a really nice, crisp skin when it's all done. I can totally see why this is Barbados' national dish. It's delightful.

Depressing ocean fact of the day: sea turtles and other supposedly marine life in the Caribbean are nearing extinction due to poaching. Sea turtles are hunted for their meat and shells. Other species at risk are the queen conch (meat, shells and pearls) and coral (probably for tourist souvenirs).

Kelp!

2010-11-16T11:35:00.000-05:00

I need somebody!

Sorry, that was a terrible pun. I would say I'll try not to let it happen again, but if you've been reading this blog for a while, you know that's a total lie. Anyway, it's still Sea Life Week over here, so let's move on:

Today's plant: Kelp
Used in: Chesapeake Tempeh Cakes from Vegan Brunch

Back to Wikipedia: Kelps are large brown algae/seaweeds. There are about 30 different genera. They grow in underwater kelp forests in shallow oceans and require nutrient-rich water with temperatures below about 20 °C (68 °F). They are known for their high growth rate — as fast as half a meter a day, ultimately reaching 30 to 80 m. It is said to be a good source of a good source of protein, iodine, iron, selenium and other minerals.

These are supposed to resemble crab cakes, but I've never eaten shellfish, so I can't verify that. All I can vouch for is their deliciousness. They're not overwhelmingly "fishy" and they've got a bit of tart punch to them from the Vegenaise, mustard and red wine vinegar. They're also really easy to make. Eight of the ten cakes I made held together long enough to make it to the plate, which is a pretty big deal for me.

I thought the remoulade would taste redundant because most of the ingredients are also in the cakes themselves, but it doesn't. It's absolutely delightful. I love capers.

If you haven't bought Vegan Brunch yet, you don't have to go without Chesapeake Tempeh Cakes; Isa was kind enough to share the recipe on her website. But really, if you like food, you need this book.

Since I don't really know much about them, when I think of shellfish, I think of New Orleans, which obviously makes me think of the Deepwater Horizon spill. It looks like the blue crab were spawning when the oil hit and they're now at risk from both the oil and the toxic chemical dispersants. Shit. The spill happened about seven months ago, but it's important to remember it's still impacting our world and there's still a lot of work to be done to set things right.

Welcome Back!

2010-11-15T15:13:00.000-05:00

We meet again, MoFos. We're back with a new week and a new theme: Sea Life. Five days, five dishes, five sea plants for us to get to know a little better.

Today's plant: Hijiki
Used in: Hijiki Chickpea Salad Sandwich from Vegan with a Vengeance

According to Wikipedia (I know, I know), hijiki is is a brown sea vegetable grown wild on rocky coastlines around Japan, Korea and China. It's known to be rich in dietary fiber, calcium, iron and magnesium. Some say hijiki aids health and beauty.

This sandwich reminds me of the ones my grandparents made when I was a wee sproglet. I never liked fish, even tuna, but when my grandparents made it, they added magic so it was delicious. Maybe it was because they toasted the bread. Or because they added crunchy bits (to this day, I don't know if it was celery or onion. It would be funny if it was onion because I also hated that). All I know is that it was awesome and this took me right back there.

Mashed chickpeas mixed with vegenaise feels very much like tuna (but not enough to be gross), while the hijiki brings the fishiness. Add carrots, onions and a bunch of sandwich vegetables and you've got the best simple sandwich in the world. It doesn't really taste all that much like tuna, but the sandwich has that same after school feeling anyway.

Coincidentally, I came across this piece about sustainable and ethical tuna fishing today. Obviously, my personal opinion is that the most sustainable thing to do with tuna is leave it in the sea, but if you MUST buy it, make sure it's not caught in a purse seine. That shit's fucked up. For more about the bluefin tuna situation: clickity.

The End!

2010-11-12T11:00:00.010-05:00

Good morning, my Field Roasts of doom.

I briefly dreamed of writing a cookbook the way I speak. There would be instructions like "Add wet ingredients to dry and knead the shit out of it for 3-5 minutes" and descriptions like "Makes one metric assload." We should all be thankful Warren Ellis beat me to it. Sort of. Mr. Ellis doesn't write cook books. He writes comics. And novels. And essays. And a webcomic. And Tweets. And a blog. And all sorts of entertaining and educational (depending on your definition of education) things. However, a recent edition of his novel, Crooked Little Vein, contained recipes, a playlist and an interview with Warren Ellis. I decided to use that as the inspiration for today's post.

For the folks who aren't familiar with Mr. Ellis and his work, just know the introduction to the recipe section likened him to "Gordon Ramsay on a bad day with a dash of Sweeney Todd." Here's his tip for getting pomegranate seeds out: "Chop the pomegranate in half, like you were hacking the head off a fanboy...Repeatedly beat the top of the pomegranate with a wooden spoon, as if attempting to cudgel a small child to death." See why I love him?

The first entree included is Roasted Garlic and Lamb. As you can imagine, I tweaked that a bit:

I started out roasting the garlic as Mr. Ellis suggests: in some good, sparkling white wine (it was good until I screwed up getting the cork out of the bottle, anyway). I usually roast it drizzled with olive oil. This variation gave it a more mild flavor and less greasy feel, which was perfect, since I wasn't going to mash it up or mix it with anything (which I often do). I added that to the steamed red seitan from Vegan Latina and sprinkled it with pomegranate seeds, just like the man said. I was skeptical about the pomegranate seeds, but the tartness really brought the whole thing together. I ended up chucking some in my salad, too.

For a snack, Mr. Ellis suggests slicing a banana and sprinkling with crushed walnuts and more pomegranate seeds. I think it's safe to say I improved upon his idea (sorry, sir):

I chucked some frozen bananas in the food processor with some toasted walnuts until it got all goopy and ice creamy, then topped it with more toasted walnuts, pomegranate seeds and a quick squirt of chocolate syrup. Looks gross, but it's probably the only way you'll get me to eat a banana.

A quick look at Wikipedia tells us Mr. Ellis is rather prolific (which is great because I'm always looking to read something new from him). I actually haven't read most of that because I'm not really into superheroes (I do read Batman, but he doesn't have super powers. The closest I get to that is Supergod,written by Guess Who), but if I had to pick one thing of his to talk about, it would have to be Transmetropolitan (but I'm only up to volume 8, so no spoilers, please).

Transmetropolitan shows us the future of The City through the eyes of gonzo reporter Spider Jerusalem. It's kind of a story about Jerusalem and The City, but, more importantly, it's a story about the truth. Especially when it's "inconvenient". Spider writes about the truth no one wants to know: poverty, child prostitution, corrupt politicians, assassinations, etc. Even having a hit put on him by the President doesn't stop him, it just encourages him to arm his filthy assistants.

When Spider was fired from the newspaper for being too controversial and had to publish via a "feed" instead, I was obviously reminded of the blogs that print similar stories today. They lay out truths most people don't want to know about where their food comes from, where their tax dollars go, how political criminals are dealt with, and how all that ties together. In a perfect world, I would now provide a comprehensive list of the blogs I think would do Mr. Jerusalem proud. But I have had a very long day and can only think of two, both with a significant environment/animal protection slant, so that's what you get:

http://www.greenisthenewred.com/blog/

http://www.voiceofthevoiceless.org/

If you're more coherent than I am, please leave relevant links in the comments. I'll gladly add them to the list.

Thus concludes Comic Book Week. I hope you all enjoyed it. Have a great weekend and I'll see you all back here on Monday!

An Epic Post of Epic Epicness!

2010-11-11T12:00:00.001-05:00

Hey there! It's time to check out one of my favorite comics and the best movie no one saw this summer: Bryan Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim!

Scott Pilgrim is [a 23-year-old Canadian slacker dude in a band who's] dating Knives Chau [a 17-year-old who attends a Catholic high school - with the uniform and everything] until he meets the literal girl of his dreams, Ramona Flowers [an American living in Toronto and delivering for amazon.ca who travels via the Subspace Highway through Scott's head while he's asleep]. Got that? In case that wasn't confusing enough, before he can date Ramona, Scott has to defeat her seven evil exes. Hilarity ensues.

These books are great. Scott's a bit of a dick, but he's so clueless you'll probably like him anyway. The writing is fun and most of the characters speak the way regular people do (if a bit exaggeratedly), not like superheroes. The art is fun and clearly references the Japanese anime/manga style, but it's stylized just enough to be clearly O'Malley's.

My first three posts this week all featured people being given shit for preferring not to eat meat. All that changes today!

Hooray for inclusiveness! Seriously, you guys. Those few panels there made me so happy. Which was only topped by the fact that O'Malley actually included a vegan recipe in his comic book, which I will share with you below (as usual, click to enlarge the pictures. And I apologize for the shitty scan. And if you're Bryan Lee O'Malley or a representative of Oni Press, sorry for scanning it at all. I just want to share it with people and encourage them to buy it. You can't argue with that, right? Please?).

Scott makes an excellent point. That's the real reason I volunteer with Food Not Bombs.

I used just enough wine to deglaze my pan, a loaf of the steamed red seitan from Viva Vegan, instead of fake meat and some leftover Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy from Vegan With a Vengeance instead of gravy mix and soy milk (don't worry, it was frozen; I haven't been putting rancid gravy on all my food since last week). I baked it for a bit, then popped it under the broiler for about ten minutes.

It was actually pretty good! My biggest gripe with the recipe was that the ratio of potato to filling was too high for my taste (and I LOVE mashed potatoes). Other than that, I see no reason not to make it again. However, it photographed so poorly that it's just not worth including in this post and making people scroll through in their RSS feeds. If you want to see a shitty picture of a piece of shepherd's pie, click.

Not only that, but Stephen Stills (mostly known as The Talent) and Scott both work at a vegetarian restaurant called The Happy Avocado. And no one calls them hippies.

The funniest part of the whole series (for me), may be Todd Ingram, Ramona's third evil ex. He's vegan, didn't you know? Graduated top of his class from vegan academy and everything. According to Todd, most people only use 10% of their brain because the other 90% is filled up with curds and whey. Since he's vegan, Todd can use 100% of his brain, giving him psychic vegan powers that basically turn him into a crazy anime hero and making him better than everyone (obviously). And that, my dears, is science.

I've been vegan for about three years and haven't exhibited any super powers yet, but I'll keep you all abreast of any developments.

Just Chew It

2010-11-10T12:00:00.002-05:00

Good day to you, MoFos! It's still Comic Book Week all up in here and today's post is a giant shout out to Rob Guillory and John Layman's CHEW. CHEW tells the story of Tony Chu, a guy I think it'd be best to just let the creators explain in their own words (and pictures):

(Please click to embiggen all the scans. Again, I apologize for the quality. And if you're John Layman, Rob Guillory or an Image Comics rep, I apologize for it even being here. I just want to share it with people and encourage them to buy it. You can't argue with that, right? Please?)

Tony started out as a cop, but when the powers that be figured out what he was capable of, they promoted him. The FDA became super powerful after a supposed avian flu epidemic led to a nationwide poultry ban. While working for the FDA, Tony encounters Action! Adventure! Romance! Comedy! Vampires! Terrorists! Luchador chickens*! Extraterrestrial fruit! Chicken speakeasies! And MORE!

And, of course, his boss is a douchebag.

Yup, apparently this is also Day 3 of People Being Assholes to People Who Don't Eat Meat Week. But I promise we'll have none of that tomorrow or Friday. And you do NOT want to know what's in that McBeefy's box (actually, you really do but I'm not going to spoil it for you).

Anyway, if CHEW isn't my favorite comic currently being published, it's definitely in my top three. Guillory's art is cartoony, which is perfect because sometimes the subject matter can be pretty dark and flat out gross and I don't think any of us wants to see that stuff rendered realistically. There's a crazy amount of detail in every panel, including loads of inside jokes. After I read an issue, I often go back just to look over the backgrounds and see what I missed the first time around. Layman's writing is freaking spectacular. He lays in all sorts of things you think are just random, then BOOM they show up issues later with actual relevance. It's clever and funny, the characters are sympathetic (and all named after food), it gets pretty funky at times, but without getting so wacky you get taken out of the story. I don't think I can recommend it enough.

When trying to decide what to make for my CHEW-themed meal, I kept two elements of the story in mind:

1. The only food Tony doesn't get a psychic impression from is beets, presumably making them his favorite food.

2. The Gallsberry: a fruit that looks like a totally tentacular pineapple and tastes just like chicken.

So I wanted to make something that incorporated beets, pineapple and tofu, every hippie's favorite chicken analog. I flipped through Veganomicon and wound up with Shredded Parsnip & Beet Salad in Pineapple Vinaigrette, topped with Orange Baked Tofu. I wanted the salad to last me all day, so I served it over arugula and quinoa.

I've never been the hugest fan of beets, so I think this was my first time eating them raw and I thoroughly enjoyed it. That may be because the dressing is lovely and I'd marry parsnips if that was legal in my state. End result: I can totally eat raw beets now. Thanks, Veganomicon!

The orange baked tofu is delightful. I chucked it in the broiler for a few minutes after it was done, which was hell on my pan, but made it really nice and chewy. The recipe calls for two tablespoons of dark rum. I thought I had a bottle of cheap rum for cooking and baking around somewhere, but couldn't find it, so I finally broke into the stash of mini bottles I brought home from Barbados last winter:

Turns out each of those bottles holds more than two tablespoons, so I only needed to open one. I went with the Mount Gay because I don't think Old Brigand is available in the US, so I thought I should save it. Anyone know for sure? Anyway, I don't drink much, so I'm very sensitive to the taste of alcohol and didn't notice it in this at all, so don't let the inclusion of rum in the recipe put you off if you don't like it.

Bottom line: CHEW is fabulous and you should all go read it. Nerdy confession: I own the monthlies, trade paperbacks and hard cover "Omnivore Edition", so if you're in NYC and want to borrow it, you're welcome to it. Issue #15 hits stores today with a snazzy fold-out cover.

And if you don't already have Veganomicon, and you like food, you should probably get that, too (or ate least check it out from the library or preview it online). Even if you're not vegan. Or think you don't like vegetables. It's got some really flavorful sides (or dishes that can be served as sides) that make wonderful gateway vegetables.

* I fully expect a mass exodus from this blog to Amazon.com at the words "luchador chicken". That's fine. I'm not going anywhere.

Open Letter to Bruce Banner

2010-11-09T12:00:00.004-05:00

~~Dear Bruce:~~

May I call you Bruce? No? OK, then. Please calm down, sir.

Dear Mr. Banner:

It was recently brought to my attention (by my little brother) that you've gone vegan. Congratulations on making the compassionate choice! I'm sure you'll find the vegan lifestyle to be satisfying and fulfilling for both your ethics and your taste buds. However, he also pointed out the following incident, which occurred while you were living under the name Bixby:

(click to embiggen)

I would like to begin by saying it's quite likely I would have reacted the same way. How many times can one hear "If god didn't want us to eat animals, why'd he make them out of meat?" before one snaps? But I do have a few points I'd like to discuss if you don't mind:

1. Tofurky actually is quite funny. I enjoy their hickory smoked slices once in a while myself, but the roast? Hilarious. Have you ever tried to carve and serve it? It's like you've brought a football to the table. It tastes OK and the texture is fine, but you can do so much better for yourself. Might I suggest the steamed seitans in Terry Hope Romero's Vegan Latina? They're cheaper, lower in sodium and tastier than store bought mock meats.

2. A Tofurky, lettuce and tomato sandwich. Really? You're a genius and that's the best you can do? Please tell me that wasn't on Wonder Bread. Do yourself a favor and add some interesting vegetables and flavors to your sandwiches. For example:

It's important to start your sandwich with a good spread. It helps everything stick and adds to your flavor profile. I used the Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy from Vegan with a Vengeance, but you should at least get a jar of Veganaise.

Instead of lettuce (especially if you were rocking the iceberg), why not try a leafy green with more nutritional value? Or at least some flavor? Baby spinach and watercress could be nice. I went with arugula and "red" seitan:

Tomatoes are great on a sandwich, but you know what's even better? Sun dried tomatoes! I also added some mung bean sprouts for extra crunch:

I don't think anyone would laugh at that sandwich:

3. I'll put this as delicately as I can: killing your coworkers then chomping down on live cows in the field isn't exactly vegan. I understand your frustration. We've all been there. But when environmentalists talk about "Going green," this isn't what they're referring to. I suggest letting off some steam and venting your frustrations before you Hulk out next time. If you don't have any vegan friends to commiserate with you, there's always the Internet. Try The PPK, you might like it.

Yours truly,
Dayna

Sweet Tooth

2010-11-08T13:02:00.000-05:00

Welcome back, MoFos. Did you have a nice weekend? Do anything fun? Eat anything interesting? I took a little walk. It was pretty awesome.

It's a new week, so I've got a new theme. This week's theme is comic books. Yup. I'm going to write five posts about food inspired by comic books and it's going to be just as nerdy as you expect it to be. Oh yes. Let's kick things off with Jeff Lemire's Sweet Tooth.

Sweet Tooth tells the story of Gus, a human/deer hybrid born around the time The Sickness killed a large portion of the population and human/non-human hybrids started being born. After his father dies of The Sickness, Gus is left in the woods to fend for himself, until he meets Mr. Jeppard, who offers help, but may only be out to help himself. Then lots of other things happen.

I like comics (obviously), but I'm not really into superheroes, time travel or space ships. I love a good apocalypse, though, and Sweet Tooth is a fresh look at what people can be capable of when their whole lives have been turned upside down and they've lost everything they love. Think The Stand with antlers.

Or not.

Anyway, there's a great interaction between Gus and Jeppard when they settle in for their first night together. Jeppard has hunted up some dinner for them, leading to the following exchange:

(Sorry for the shitty scan. And if you're Jeff Lemire or a representative of Vertigo or DC Comics, sorry for scanning it at all. I just want to share it with people and encourage them to buy it. You can't argue with that, right? Please?)

Gus was raised a vegetarian, which is awesome (actually, almost all of the hybrids we've encountered so far have been with herbivorous animals and the one carnivore wasn't very nice). Whether it's because he's part deer or because his father was ethically opposed to eating meat (or if his father was opposed to eating meat because his son was part deer), we still don't know.

Jeppard's reaction is right up there with "PETA stands for 'People Eating Tasty Animals'" and "If you were stranded on a dessert island with a cow, would you eat it?" But he comes around and offers Gus a Crunch bar, which he was shown to love earlier in the comic. Not exactly nutritionally balanced, but it made Gus happy (and earned him the nickname Sweet Tooth).

Jeff Lemire is Canadian and one of his other books, Essex County (which is AMAAAAAYZING), was recently nominated one of the best Canadian fiction books of the last decade, which is pretty damn cool (he also created The Nobody, which is in my giant To Be Read pile). Keeping that in mind, I broke out my copy of More Than Twigs and Berries and made Nanaimo Squares, a traditional Canadian treat I think Gus would love. It's made up of three layers: a chocolate cookie crumb and coconut bottom, cream in the middle and hard chocolate on the top. To really make it suit Gus' tastes, I tossed a few handfuls of crispy rice cereal (but not enough) into the chocolate layer to make it crunch.

It's delicious, but very sweet and VERY rich, making it suited to small portions (and making me suited to less guilt; it's really not the kind of thing I can eat a whole pan of, which is a novelty). It doesn't require any baking, but it still takes quite some time to make (most inactive) because each layer needs to chill for at least thirty minutes before you start the next. It's also very messy and I found it to be impossible to photograph appetizingly (but that's true of most of my food, isn't it?), so you'll have to trust me on the tastiness factor.

And that's Day One of Comics Week! Come back tomorrow for more geekery!

Picatta!

2010-11-05T12:00:00.003-04:00

One of the (many) good things about living in New York is that when it comes to vegan food options, you're pretty much spoiled for choice. No matter what kind of food you want, we have it. And we usually have more than one option for it. And no two people will ever agree on which option is the best. Every place is someone's favorite. Fine dining is no exception. Some people prefer Pure Food and Wine, some Blossom and others Candle 79. One thing almost every can agree on, though, is that the best thing to get at Candle 79 is the seitan picatta (but if you're there for brunch, get the tofu scramble. Seriously). So eating picatta always makes me feel fancy. Even when I make it myself, it looks like this and I'm eating it in my pajamas:

(how did I never notice how ugly this bowl is?)

Yes, we're ending Chickpea Week with Isa's chickpea picatta, which I'm pretty sure is going to be in Appetite for Reduction. I subbed extra broth for the wine and it was still super flavorful. I've been craving polenta since August, so I served it over that instead of mashed potatoes. My arugala didn't wilt much and I think I allowed my picatta to reduce a bit too much, but it was still damn fine. Looking at this picture, it kind of reminds me the doubles from Caribbean Vegan, but it tastes nothing like that. It's just chickpeas over something yellow.

Thus ends the first week of VeganMoFo. Thanks for reading. If all goes according to plan, I'll be back next week with a new theme and a new lease on life. Or at least a new theme. Have a great weekend, everyone!

The Meal So Nice...

2010-11-04T12:00:00.007-04:00

... I ate it twice!

OK, that's not really such a big deal. I eat a lot of the same thing over and over again because most recipes serve at least four and I usually cook for one, but I liked the rhyme. Recently, dinner was chickpea cutlets with mashed potatoes, gravy and steamed broccoli. The next day, I rolled it all up and took it for lunch as a wrap. It tasted far better than it looked!

Let's talk about that gravy for a moment, shall we? Since it's Chickpea Week, I used none other than the Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy from Vegan With a Vengeance. This was my first time making it. It's delicious! I used a pretty big lemon, so it had a bit of a sour kick to it and just the right amount of nutritional yeast to not overpower the chickpeas and spices. Let's look at it in all it's chunky glory:

I swear I could eat it with a spoon (but haven't - yet).

For the curious, here's how I put the wrap together to keep things from falling in my lap:

Then roll it up like you see above and enjoy!

Meat and Potatoes

2010-11-03T11:33:00.001-04:00

Oh hi! You're here! It's still Chickpea Week, so I think it's time to break out the recipe that had everyone going crazy back when Veganomicon came out: chickpea cutlets.

I think these cutlets are kind of like the vegan answer to schnitzel, without any fake meat stuff in them. The combination of vital wheat gluten and mashed chickpeas makes them firm and chewy enough to need a good knife when eating them. They're also good in sandwiches. They're perfect comfort food on a cold night with mashed potatoes and gravy (more on that tomorrow). Add something green (I steamed some broccoli) and you've got all your nutritional bases covered. I baked mine, lining the pan with parchment so I didn't have to use any oil at all. It takes longer, but I think I like them better that way (and they're healthier, of course).

So yeah, I love this recipe. A lot. It's another chickpea-based staple in my house. Want proof?

The more I like a dish, the messier the recipe page is. This page of Veganomicon actually crunches when I try to turn it. Maybe it's the ghosts of cutlets past.

Day Two

2010-11-02T12:00:00.000-04:00

Yes, I am pleased to report I've made it all the way to the second day of VeganMoFo! Woooo!

Ahem. Anyway. It's still Chickpea Week and today we will discuss one of my favorite comfort food recipes: Chickpea Broccoli Casserole from Vegan With a Vengeance.

This is probably one of the first things I ever made when I went vegan (since VWAV was one of the first books I bought) and it's also one of the few recipes I keep coming back to. Since I own dozens of cookbooks and zines that I'd like to make my way through sooner or later, I very rarely repeat recipes. But this is simple, comforting, filling and throws together really quickly, leaving you free to do other things while it sits in the oven.

I'm not going to lie: it's kind of bland. But it's bland like mashed potatoes are bland. And if you don't like mashed potatoes, I'm sorry, but you're a crazy person and I don't know if we can be friends anymore. What makes this double awesome, is that unlike mashed potatoes, if you use canned beans, you don't have to wait for water to boil (which I hate). What makes it triple awesome is that it's not a the nutritional vacuum mashed potatoes are; this casserole is chock full of vitamins, protein, iron, calcium and other stuff the Internet says I need to live. What makes it quadruple awesome is that Isa has shared the recipe online, so if you don't have VWAV, you don't have to feel left out of the casserole goodness.

Chickpea Broccoli Casserole
Serves 4 as an entree

Ingredients
Three 16-ounce cans of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 large onion, quartered and thinly sliced
3 large carrots, grated (about 2 cups)
1 head broccoli, cut into small florets (about 4 cups)
2 tablespoons thinly sliced chives
1/2 cup bread crumbs (preferably whole wheat)
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup vegetable broth
1 teaspoon salt

Directions
Preheat oven to 350º F.

In a large bowl, mash the chickpeas well, using a potato masher or firm fork. It takes about 2 minutes to get the right consistency. Add the vegetables and mix well. Add the bread crumbs and mix; then add the oil, and mix again. Finally, add the vegetable broth and salt, and mix one last time.

Transfer all ingredients to a 9 x 13-inch casserole dish (preferably glass or ceramic). Press the mixture firmly into the casserole. Cover with foil, and bake for 45 minutes. Uncover and bake for 15 more minutes.

PS: If you want to cut the fat a bit (even though it's not bad at all), you can sub more broth for about half the oil.

See you all tomorrow!

Greetings and Salutations!

2010-11-01T11:06:00.000-04:00

Welcome to week one of VeganMoFo! As promised, this week is Chickpea Week on this here blog, where we will explore a legume so versatile it's popularly known by at least three different names. They're such great multitaskers, I think calling garbanzo beans tiny little delicious miracles is only a very slight exaggeration. Let's start with what I think is the ceci bean's most popular use (if not, it's definitely in the top three): hummus! When I'm not just eating it on everything I can fit in my mouth, my favorite hummus use is in a wrap.

A hummus salad wrap is probably the easiest thing in the world to make, if you don't mind a bit of chopping. First, you make your hummus, which is basically just chickpeas, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, cumin and a bit of tahini thrown in the food processor. If you want real measurements, I love the Veganomicon recipe. You can always buy your hummus, but really, if you have a food processor or blender, it's a big waste of money. Making your own is far cheaper, especially if you use dried beans. Also, it always tastes better.

Anyway, start your wrap with a generous layer of delicious hummus. It'll make everything stick. And taste great.

Then lay on your leaves. I used baby spinach, but nearly anything will work.

Next, add your vegetables. I like to leave a bit of hummus hanging out the side so it surrounds the vegetables when I roll it up. Also, make sure to leave space on all four sides for folding and rolling.

I used red pepper, grape tomatoes, celery, black olives, mung bean sprouts, cucumber, broccoli and string beans.

After that, just fold in the ends and roll it up. The hummus is sticky enough to keep the filling from falling out into your lap, making this wrap even safe to eat on the subway (a rare thing for me).

That's all I've got! Please come back tomorrow for another post where I continue to master the obvious!

Yo Yo MoFo!

2010-10-26T10:32:00.000-04:00

It's VeganMoFo time again! Yes, starting Monday, a whole slew of bloggers (check out the ever-growing blog roll* here) will be writing about all things vegan for the entire month of November.

Albert Einstein defined insanity as "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." So, naturally, I signed up for VeganMoFo (again), had all sorts of ideas for awesome themes (again), thought about trying to do some kind of giveaway (again) and was totally ready to make this the BEST MOFO EVER (again)....and didn't do any of that. So my contribution to VeganMoFo will be less than impressive. Expect a lot of talk about chickpeas. And seitan. And chickpea seitan. And really bad photos of chickpea seitan. There will also probably be a fair amount of poorly decorated baked goods.

Aside from that, enjoy the month, everyone. There are a lot of really awesome people participating and I can't wait to steal their recipes to impress my friends and family.

* Unrelated: I hate the phrase "blog roll". Sounds like what they call bathroom tissue in the UK.**

** And THAT is the kind of wisdom you can expect out of me for the next month. You're welcome.

Its Here!

2010-10-19T12:12:00.001-04:00

Caribbean Vegan is here! And it's GORGEOUS!

I love how colorful it is. The photos are crisp, clear and make me drool. Not only that, but they're helpful!

Taymer provided step by step photos for the dishes many readers might be unfamiliar with and are difficult to picture. Brilliant!

And after testing many of the recipes, I can vouch for the fact that they taste as good as they look. Just looking at that doubles photo makes me want to go home and break out the chickpeas. It really is a wonderful book and I can't recommend it enough. Hopefully, it will hit store shelves soon, but if you can't wait or don't have a vegan-friendly book shop nearby, it's available on Amazon right now. So pick it up! You'll be glad you did.

Sea Shepherd Sunday Sale Success

2010-10-07T12:27:00.000-04:00

So Sunday saw Sea Shepherd New York's vegan bake sale in Montclair, NJ, where we raised nearly $2,700 for Sea Shepherd. We were hosted by the lovely Go Lightly Eco-Store, and received generous (and delicious!) donations from The Cinnamon Snail, Rutherford Pancake House and RAWbundant in addition to all our lovely homemade baked goods. I contributed some roasted garlic biscuits (my own recipe) and sea life themed gingerbread cookies from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. The biscuits didn't look like much of anything, but here are some process shots of the cookies:

I love the idea of the octopus cookies, but they were fiddly as all get out. You definitely need more patience than I have to use them without breaking half your cookies.

Having the piping skills of a five-year-old makes it clear that these cookies are homemade.

My happy fish looks a little too happy, if you ask me. Like, this happy.

Other people were kind enough to take photos at the actual event. You can see them here.

For me, one of the best parts of the day was the official Sea Shepherd merchandise. It was cold and I needed to do laundry (still do), so I made quite a few purchases:

Those are some of the most comfortable shirts I own right now. Seriously. All that, and much more, is available in Sea Shepherd's online store. Or, if you're in the NYC area, stop by Sea Shepherd NYC's table at VegFest on October 23. We don't charge shipping!

Farm Sanctuary's Walk for Farm Animals

2010-10-06T12:25:00.000-04:00

It's time for Farm Sanctuary's Walk for Farm Animals, an annual event that helps spread the word about the treatment of animals on factory farms and raises vital funds for their rescue, education and advocacy work.

To find a walk near you and participate, click over here.

To sponsor me in the NYC walk, click here.

Also, since it worked so well last time I did one of these things, I will bake for anyone who sponsors me or walks in NYC on October 24. Farm Sanctuary does amazing work, so please support them, if you can. Do it for dudes like Herbie (left):

Photo taken at for the Animals sanctuary in Blairstown, NJ.

Another Bake Sale!

2010-09-28T10:11:00.000-04:00

Check it out! Go Lightly in Montclair, NJ is hosting a vegan bake sale this Sunday, October 3 with all the proceeds going to Sea Shepherd! The Sea Shepherd New York team will be there selling merch, eating sweets and answering any questions you may have about what Sea Shepherd is up to and how you can help.

If you're in New York, Montclair isn't hard to get to. NJ Transit trains out of Penn Station and the DeCamp buses out of Port Authority both go there on Sunday.

For more details, to RSVP or sign up to help, head on over to Facebook. Hope to see you there!

If you can't make it Sunday, your next chance to catch up with Sea Shepherd NYC will be at VegFest on October 23.

WHHHHHHHHH WWWWWWWWHHHHHH

2010-08-03T15:37:00.000-04:00

That's the sound of me attempting to blow the dust off this blog. Sorry.

Most of the cooking I've been doing lately is testing for Appetite for Reduction, which I suspect will be done soon. It's all very tasty and I'd love to share it with you all, but night cooking is not conducive to photography and I hate food blogs without pictures.

So I'm here to talk about an upcoming event of deliciousness instead:

It's Sea Shepherd NYC's first fundraiser and it's to benefit our campaign to rescue animals affected by the Gulf oil spill.

We will be serving s'mores and other tasty food, there will be compassionate raffle prizes, and Sea Shepherd merchandise. Please eat responsibly. Drinks not included in ticket price.

Space is limited.
Please RSVP to ensure your attendance to this special event.

WHEN: Monday, August 9th, 2010, 7 PM - 10 PM
WHERE: V-Spot, 156 5th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11217
TICKETS: $20 each
PURCHASE TICKETS: http://seashepherd.org/nyc
Facebook RSVP: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=122720817772190

There will be edibles from The V Spot, Sweet & Sara, Whole Earth Bakery, Babycakes, Sweet Avenue and more as well as raffle prizes from:

Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics
LUSH
Lantern Publishing
Go Max Go
Lazy Dog Designs
Zenthreads
Life Without Plastic
KleanKanteen
Unique Art Pendants
VP2
Kate's Joint
Caravan of Dreams
Loving Hut
Pala Pizza
XOOM Juice
VegNews
MooShoes
and more.

Exciting, yesno? Hope to see you there!

Awesome: It's What's for Dinner

2010-05-10T12:58:00.000-04:00

When it's not a special occasion, my meals usually consist of enough whatever I can throw into one bowl or plate to fill me up, whether it's a vat of homemade soup or 674832910 microwaved vegan nuggets (yes, I know that's gross, but when I'm hungry and tired...don't judge). I know this isn't really the best way to go about doing things and have gotten a lot better about putting together real meals while testing for Isa Chandra Moskowitz's upcoming Appetite for Reduction.

Not only are Isa's recipes all tasty, low in fat and high in nutrients, she's really good about noting which sides compliment one another to create a healthy, balanced meal. And you can throw most of said meals together in about an hour (including sides and most of your cleanup, if you're good). Also, the portion sizes are very generous. Pictured above, we have Apple Miso Tofu with Orange Scented Broccoli and Scallion Potato Pancakes. As you can see, my plate is very full, and the portions called for another pancake, one or two more pieces of tofu and even more broccoli! You will not be hungry when eating from this book.

As for the flavor, the apple miso tofu is amazing. My family loved it; it was just like making our own Chinese takeout, but without all the grease.The orange scented broccoli was too spicy for me, but that was fine because the rest of my family made short work of it. The scallion potato pancakes have great texture (yay panko) and are slightly bland, but that was just what I needed because the other two things on my plate we so flavorful.

That's Chili Lime Rubbed Tofu over Pasta De Los Angels. Rubs are great for when you don't feel like wasting time with a marinade. I hate wasting time, so this dish totally wins. It also totally wins because it's delicious. The lime in the tofu is really strong and flavorful and the pasta is nice, too. You get double protein here, with the black beans and the tofu. I kind of wonder what it would be like with a hunk of avocado thrown in.

Lastly, we have Bhutanese Pineapple Rice, Green Beans with Thai Basil and Red Thai Tofu. I used brown basmati rice because that's what I had on hand, but it's still delicious. The green beans are spicy and still crisp, while the tofu is nicely browned in a cast iron pan, to get it nice and firm without drying it out too much. The green beans and the tofu were my first time working with Thai basil. I see a lot more of this lovely little herb in my future.

Are you excited about this book yet? You should be!

Bake Sale Week Wrap Up

2010-05-03T14:00:00.000-04:00

Last week was the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale, and the New York area stepped up to the challenge magnificently.

Our Hen House and Kind Green Planet kicked it all off on April 22: Earth Day! Unfortunately, I didn't know about it at the time, but I'm sure it ruled.

Next was our bake sale to benefit Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary at MooShoes. So. Much. Fun.

The first five people who sponsored animals received gift bags hand made by Janice and full of delights from Soapwalla, Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics, Rescue Chocolate, Sustainable NYC, MrsTattooedGeek, Bust Magazine, VegNews and Panda with Cookie.

In addition to the dozens of home bakers who participated, Terri, Cocoa V, Blossom and Babycakes all donated delicious treats to the sale.

In the photo above, you can see brownies from Terri, rainbow cookies from MrsTattooedGeek, my rocky road brownies, hand pies, mini doughnuts, sweet potato cinnamon rolls (yes, you read that right), jelly doughnut cupcakes, coconut mango muffins and cherry cheddar muffins (yes, you read that right, too!).

Here we have more cupcakes and muffins, lemon poppyseed muffins, cookies, more mini doughnuts, sweet potato corn bread, minonos, my pepperoni pizza pretzels and the donation jar, which I swear got more full throughout the day.

And that's just our first table!

I ate SO MUCH that day. And everything was delicious. It was also a wonderful time. All the volunteers were totally amazing, the staff of MooShoes couldn't have been more helpful and we raised almost $5,000 for the animals! I really love doing these events and can't wait for the next one.

For more photos (by people who actually know how to take them), check out our Flickr pool.

Then Thursday, SuperVegan and Vegan Drinks put together a bake sale for Darwin Animal Doctors. Had I known it was going to be so small, I definitely would have baked, but they still raised plenty of money and had some really nice savory items (what's better than being able to buy dinner and your next day's lunch with the money going to such a good cause?).

Saturday saw a bake sale in Wantagh, Long Island for the Town of Hempstead Animal Shelter and one in Montclair, New Jersey PAWPAC and For the Animals Sanctuary. I couldn't make it to either of these, but I contributed a batch of my asparagus muffins to each.

Rounding out the week, Farm Sanctuary held a small bake sale in front of 'Snice Brooklyn on Sunday, where I picked up a few semi-healthy treats.

That's really all I have to say about the bake sales, personally, but if you want to know what other people think, check out this article on CNN.com about vegan bake sales. Nothing makes an animal-free diet more tempting than treats from all over the world, right?

PS: Photo #8 is Sarah from Terri and me, selling deliciousness to the masses.

This is a Test

2010-04-16T15:34:00.000-04:00

Of the Emergency Deliciousness System. If this had been an actual Deliciousness Emergency, the post you are viewing would include many healthy recipes to shock, amaze and astound. This blog serves the Greater Veganistan area. This concludes this test of the Emergency Deliciousness System.

Sorry, I'm in a silly mood today. That's my longwinded way of saying today's post is going to be all about tester recipes from Isa Chandra Moskowtiz's upcoming low fat and whole foods book, Appetite for Reduction.

Yes, it's April, but I'm still very much in soup-and-stew mode. I'm a sucker for one-pot meals and aside from a crazy heatwave we had a while back, it's pretty chilly around here anyway. So most of these dishes are ugly, but almost all of them are delicious (which is pretty much par for the course around here).

Bistro broccoli chowder:

A pretty basic broccoli soup, with potatoes for creaminess. It's nice and herby, and even my anti-broccoli father said it was "edible" (which means "totally rad" when my father is talking about broccoli). I like that it uses the stems, since I'm never sure what to do with them when they're not included in the recipe and I feel guilty tossing them. One day, I'll Google "broccoli stem recipes" and post all about it. Really.

As long as we're talking about broccoli, here's pasta con broccoli:

Most Italian restaurants have at least one vegan thing on the menu: pasta with garlic, oil and broccoli. This is that, turned up to eleven. Nutritional yeast makes it slightly cheesy and pignolis make it...pine nutty (which is synonymous with fabulous). Happily, this recipe also uses the stems.

Classic black bean and veggie chili:

Oddly, when my family thinks of "vegan food", they think of chili. I think it's because one of the first dishes I made that they tried was the Better Than Basic Chili from Yellow Rose Recipes and they all loved it. So now, whenever I say I'm making dinner, they always ask if I'm making chili. Then they're disappointed when I say no. THEN they actually eat the food and feel stupid for being disappointed because they love whatever non-chili dish I've prepared. That was a roundabout way of saying my family had very high hopes and expectations for this chili. It did not disappoint. The zucchini and carrots made it different from the usual bean and corn fare, while still having enough of both of them in there to keep people from calling it "stew" (the chili powder helped too, of course).

Spinach Lasagna With Cauliflower "Ricotta":

Generalization: low fat vegan lasagnas kick ass. Seriously.

I made the one from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen a couple of years ago and it was divine. Very difficult to stop eating. I had the same problem with this one. People who've never had it may find this hard to believe, but if you squish up some extra firm tofu, there's no need for ricotta cheese. Really. I suppose this could have been fun with something mozzarella-ish overtop, but it's not really necessary. My family, suspicious of cauliflower, was shocked by how much they liked this and how ricotta-like the filling was. All while still being healthy and relatively cheap.

Arabian Lentil And Rice Soup With Cumin And Lemon:

Lemons and lentils and cumin and rice....these are a few of my favorite things!

OK, maybe it doesn't scan as well as "raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens," but that doesn't make it any less true. This soup is really thick and hearty (rice AND lentils), almost like a split pea soup, but the lemon surprises your mouth into happiness with every bite.

Veggie Pot Pie Stew with Sweet Potato Drop Biscuits:

I did warn you that some of these pictures would be terrible, right? I know it looks like it's already been eaten, but I'm showing you the picture anyway so you can see how thick this stew is. It's practically solid. Amazing. And with a small biscuit crumbled in instead of a load of pie crust, it's healthier while still being fun. Also, the nutmeg in the biscuits is a total game changer. The only time I've ever had anything like that was the Bajan Soup With Spiced Dumplings from Caribbean Vegan.

Butternut Apple Soup:

A new twist on classic butternut squash soup. Easy and fast to make, delightful to eat.

Sauteed Kasha & Mushrooms With Dill:

Kasha is a staple food in many Jewish homes (including mine). It's often served as kasha varnishkes: kasha with bowtie noodles and usually onions and mushrooms. For healthiness, we skipped the bowties, and I just couldn't get behind kasha without them. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't GOOD, either. It just...was.

But aside from that, pretty much every recipe I've tested from this book so far (over thirty) has been a winner and my belly and I are looking forward to many more.

Passing on the Meat

2010-04-14T16:36:00.001-04:00

My family recently celebrated Passover and we tried a little experiment: I would cook two vegan Seders (big, traditional dinners) and my family would go vegetarian for the rest of the holiday. Eight days without any meat in the house. My plan was to cook as much as possible, since the more I cooked, the less matzo with cream cheese they ate.

I'm pleased to report that even though the holiday ended a week ago, no meat has been consumed in our house yet and both of my parents are considering going vegetarian on a more permanent basis (they're both totally cool with keeping meat out of the house, but right now, they'd still like to eat it at restaurants on occasion). Also, I think my mother now has a bigger AR soapbox than I do. It's pretty rad.

Here's a small sample of what we ate:

That's a typical dinner plate. Starting with that big red thing on the left and going clockwise, we have a Creole stuffed pepper from Veganomicon, where I replaced the beans with quinoa, quinoa roasted pumpkin risotto from Terry Hope Romero's upcoming (really soon!) Viva Vegan!, Baked Vegetable Casserole (possibly from The Jewish Vegetarian Year? I forget), Asparagus With Black Olives And Orange Vinaigrette from The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen and Ginger Mashed Sweet Potatoes and Apples from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's upcoming Appetite for Reduction.

Here's another shot of that asparagus (which was really freaking good):

And, of course, we started each meal with matzo ball soup:

That's the flaxen matzo ball recipe from The PPK. Usually I put some vegetables in the soup, too, but this was taken at the end of the holiday and I didn't have any left. My poor balls look so lonely!

Aaaanyway...this was approximately my 43728942nd attempt at vegan matzo balls, and the best so far. They had the texture my family likes (nice and firm), but were kind of bland. I'm definitely going to try playing with this recipe and seasoning it a bit, but I also want to try just using my mother's recipe and replacing the eggs with flax. I'll let you know how it goes.

Want to know how many vegetables it took to make enough broth to last the whole holiday? This many:

I got about nine quarts out of that and it just got us through.

Other, less traditional soups we tried were cauliflower pesto, a tester from Appetite for Reduction, and tomato avocado from Vegan Comfort Food.

The cauliflower pesto soup got some sideways glaces for 1. having cauliflower in it and 2. being VERY green, but everyone was surprised by how much they enjoyed it. Isa suggests topping each serving with some toasted pine nuts, which add a nice crunch, in addition to that real pestoey goodness.

The tomato avocado soup was my first time taking VCF out for a spin, and we loved it! I'm not the hugest fan of tomato soup, but the rest of my family loves it, and my mother can only eat the homemade stuff because of the sodium most of the boxed stuff has in it, so I made it primarily for her. The addition of slices of avocado to the tomato soup was GENIUS. I don't know if Alicia Simpson came up with that herself, or if I'm completely out of the tomato soup loop, but it was brilliant. Try it, you'll like it!

I made my own almond milk this year. This is what I got from a $6 bag of almonds:

Value! I should probably make it myself all the time, but I feel like the home made almond meal will go bad faster than the store bought stuff. Especially since I didn't dehydrate it (though I suppose I still can).

I know it wasn't Chanukah, but I served latkes for lunch a few times anyway. We had two kinds:

Yucca (pictured, from the PPK post linked above) and parsnip scallion, from Vegan With a Vengeance. The yucca ones were nice, not very different from potato, but the parsnip scallion pancakes were insanely good. I love parsnips so much and this was a really great use for them. I will definitely make them again. And again. The latkes were served with mango apple salsa.

Another lunch item was Moroccan potato salad (from MVK):

The salad looks very pretty, but it didn't go over with the family that well. I don't think any of us are huge fans of raw, fresh herbs. I need to remember that, since I hate chopping them anyway.

Breakfast. The most important meal of the day. I usually had:

Matzo with chocolate spread and strawberries. I'd never had chocolate spread before, but I had heard a lot about it (mostly with hazelnuts, though) and when I saw this stuff was kosher for Passover, and vegan (despite the cow on it), I picked it up. It was OK, but I wouldn't buy it again. The spreads in VCON are much healthier and tastier (I especially liked the Mediterranean Style Cashew Cucumber Dip this year).

Speaking of chocolate, someone was nice enough to send us a box of chocolate plagues. I swear I'm not making that up:

Unfortunately, someone ate the tenth plague (the slaying of all the first born males of Egypt) before I took this photo. Festive! And in case you're curious, here's a close up of that first plague, bright red and full of writing:

Charming, isn't it?

It was vegan and I was curious, so I tried it. It tasted like wax. The sad part is the regular chocolate wasn't much better.

The better tasting (though possibly not better looking) sweets were homemade, of course:

That's an apple pear crumble (possibly from The Jewish Vegetarian Year).

And Strawberry Rhubarb Compote with Matzo Streusel Topping from gourmet.com.

Fresh fruit crumbles are probably the best thing to make on Passover because you don't have to worry too much about rising and binding and all of the other weird things that don't work out well when you can't eat most grains.

Other things everyone enjoyed were my Double Mushroom Marsala Marsala (marinated large portebello mushroom caps, sauteed and topped with a Marsala sauce), stuffed zucchini, taco salad (salsa, guacamole, cashew sour cream and sliced mushrooms over matzo), matzo bruschetta and a puttanesca stew.

And that was our holiday. I hope to have more updates soon, with recipes I've been testing, bake sale type stuff and other fun and excitement.

Woldwide Vegan Bake Sale 2010

2010-04-01T17:46:00.000-04:00

Yes, it's that time again. Time for the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale. If you're in the NYC area and want to bake, buy, or participate in some other way, here's what you need to know:

When: Sunday, April 25, 2010. 12-5 PM
Where: MooShoes. 78 Orchard Street (B or D train to Grand Street or F, J, or M train to Delancey)
To Benefit: Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary

Photo by joyfulgirl415

If you'd like, you can RSVP via Facebook, and/or use our nifty sign up sheet (please note that the sign up sheet has two pages: one for baked goods and one for things like plates, bags, etc.).

A representative from Woodstock will be around to answer any questions you may have about the sanctuary and hook you up with an animal to sponsor.

If you're still not convinced, check out some of our past bake sale awesomeness over here. Hope to see you there!

Salad Daze

2010-03-17T14:39:00.001-04:00

Right now, I love salad. To people who think vegans eat nothing but piles of raw vegetables all day, that might seem like a silly thing to say; if you don't like salad, being vegan would totally suck. But, as we all know, there are loads of vegan options that don't resemble salads in the slightest. And during the winter, that's what I thrive on. It's months of soups, curries, stews and other hearty (and hot!) foods. But spring may have finally sprung in NYC, so I'm all about the salad. Here are a few awesome ones from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's upcoming Appetite for Reduction (do you love that title half as much as I do? It makes me so happy it's almost stupid).

First up, we have Orange Sesame Quinoa Salad With Roasted Beets. This is probably the most work I've ever put into a salad. You have to roast the beets and peel the oranges and make the quinoa and the dressing, etc. But it's totally worth it. And coming from me, that's kind of saying something since I'm famous* for hating grain salads. I don't like sweet salads, either (I love vegetable salads and I love fruit salads, but never the twains shall meet).So the fact that I really liked a salad with quinoa, oranges and currants in it is...magic.

Next up, a nice, springy salad with Isa's Sanctuary Dressing. It's kind of like "ranch" dressing, but without all the depressing connotations ranches have. Win from all sides. It's really thick and also makes an excellent dip.

Lastly, we have Caesar salad with eggplant bacon. Have you tried the Caesar recipe in Veganomicon? It's ridiculously good, isn't it? This is reminiscent of that, without just being a low fat version of the exact same recipe. They taste different enough for me to be happy I have two different recipes in my repertoire, and my waistline likes the idea of substituting crispy, smokey eggplant for croutons. Sometimes.

* Among my family, anyway.

Caribbean Vegan

2010-03-16T14:17:00.000-04:00

Good news! We are done testing for Caribbean Vegan! I got to taste so many delicious new dishes and I can't wait for the book to come out and try the rest. Here's a quick preview of what to expect (NOTE: For pretty pictures of the food that will make you drool, check out the author's blog, linked above. For pictures that prove you can make these yummy foods with almost no hand-eye coordination, keep reading):

Black pudding, seitan souse and Caribbean pickle. Caribbean pickle is nothing like what I usually think of when I think of pickles (sour, dills, etc.), but it is made with cucumber and it's really tasty. It kind of reminds me of the cucumber salad you can find in many delis, but with cubes of root vegetables thrown in.

Cou cou and tofish with Creole and basil cilantro butter sauces. Cou cou is one of Barbados' most popular dishes. It's usually served topped with flying fish, but we used tofu instead. My cou cou is a little lumpier than it should be, but this whole dish was still one of my favorite things ever. The tofu is pan fried, so it gets really nice and firm and the cou cou is totally filling comfort food.

Sorrel. The flower is sold dried and rehydrated to make a tasty beverage.

Speaking of tasty beverages: basil tea. It's one of the simplest, most delicious things I've ever had. Really.

Caribbean lemonade (made mostly with limes!) pretty much rules, too. So refreshing! I almost drank all of it in one go.

Jamaican ackee scramble. Ackee is a fruit related to the lychee. It's also creamy, comforting and kind of expensive for canned produce ($10-15 USD per can), but this recipe makes it totally worth it, despite what this photo looks like. Treat yourself.

Fat free black eyed pea stew. For your mid-winter Caribbean food fix.

Jug jug. Makes an excellent spread, kind of like a pate.

Thanks to this book, I worked with christophenes/chayote for the first time. Two ways:

In a salad with carrots, stringbeans and a nice, light dressing:

and stuffed (aka Farci) :

Doubles! A Trinidadian dish that was one of my favorite things to eat in Barbados. They're not 100% correct, but they're 100% delicious!

Cream of pumpkin velvet soup.

Ital coconut rice (using brown rice).

Sada roti with eggplant choka (kind of like babaganoush, kind of not).

Rock cakes. Not as hard as I had expected them to be, but really nice and cinnamony with a bit of raisin. Excellent for breakfast with a big cup of tea.

Spinach rice with chickpea curry. Tastes as good as you'd think.

Pone!

My really sad try at dahl. Looks terrible but tastes delicious and that's what matters!

I cannot wait to have this book in my hands (and more food in my belly!).

Bake Sale Backup

2010-02-22T17:29:00.000-05:00

Erm. I'm not very good at this blog thing. Sorry.

Photo by nyseiler.

NYC's Vegan Bake Sale for Haiti was on Sunday, January 31. And I think we can call it a success. We raised a total of $5,026 for Doctors Without Borders and had a fun day with amazing people and great treats.

The bake sale was at MooShoes and I can't say enough about how awesome the owners and staff of that store are. They were so amazingly helpful. I can't imagine the day going any smoother than it did, and we have them to thank.

Loads of other local businesses and crafters pitched in to help as well, including:

Caravan of Dreams
Candle Cafe
Dandies
Tiengarden
Foodswings
Babycakes
Sweet Avenue
Terry Hope Romero
Panda With Cookie
Mrs Tattoed Geek

Curly's

Up the Folks

Blackwell's Organic Gelato

Vegetarian Paradise 2

'sNice

Cynthia King Dance Studio

Sustainable NYC

Bust Magazine

Lula's Sweet Apothecary

I'm sure I missed someone in there, and if it's you, I'm terribly sorry. I promise I still love you!

It was an amazing day. People came out in droves to support a great cause and eat tasty things. I couldn't believe my eyes when I walked into MooShoes that morning and saw the mountains of treats we had to sell. Then I couldn't believe it when they were almost all gone! It seemed like we'd sold hundreds of cookies and cupcakes and dozens of muffins and other treats in the blink of an eye. Not only did I get to spend the day eating delicious things, but I also got to hang out with some wonderful people. Perfect. Day.

But enough of my blather. Here are some photos (I spent the whole day behind a wee table and didn't take any):

Photo AND Twinkies by joyfulgirl415

I forget what these were, exactly, but I know there was Hennessy and glitter involved.

Photo by joyfulgirl415

Raffle Prizes

Photo by melissabastien13

First thing I ate. Best way to start the day.

Photo AND danishes by rachelrayforever

For more photos capturing the deliciousness and good times that were had, check out the Flickr pool.

I made rocky road brownies (modified Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar recipe) , pesto pinwheels and pepperoni pizza pretzels. The pretzel recipe was from Kittee's Papa Tofu zine. It is versatile and awesome.

Worldwide, vegan bake sales for Haiti raised over $40,000 for assorted disaster relief charities. My mind is totally blown by the outpouring of generosity I've witnessed here and in the many other fundraisers that have taken place in the past monthish. I'm so overwhelmed I don't even know how to express my gratitude to everyone who has organized an event, baked, bought, donated, made phone calls, collected money, put up signs, shared information online and helped the cause in roughly 4372898273 other ways.

Thank you.

News!

2010-01-29T13:41:00.000-05:00

I've been babbling about the fun I've been having testing for Vegan in the Sun over the past few months, and, awesomely, I was just told T got a book deal. So now we can all expect a vegan Caribbean cookbook on the shelves sooner or later. Woohoo! This is great because so many of these recipes have been really new to me, and I expect they'd be new to a lot of you, too.

Now that she's got the deal, T hopes to be making three recipes per day for the month of February and needs some more testers. If you'd like to try your hand at some recipes, please drop her a line at barbadianvegan @ yahoo . com.

Wooha!

Pack it Up, Pack it In

2010-01-21T16:45:00.001-05:00

Of all the food I ate in Barbados, I think my favorite (non-homemade) things were conkies and doubles. So I was super excited when T posted her conkies recipe and I got to test it for her upcoming cookbook, Vegan in the Sun.

T's step-by-step conkie photos are available at her blog (linked above), so I'm not going to go through all that. But there was one thing she didn't post a picture of that I thought was awesome: the banana leaf. Behold!

That's a microplane grater next to it, for scale. As you can see, it's freaking BIG. I bought them frozen at Kalustyan's, which is fast becoming one of my favorite stores. They have a massive selection of spices, flours and assorted other specialty items that you may need for Caribbean, Spanish, Indian, Asian...pretty much any cooking. Among other things, they sell whole, dried coconuts:

That's what the coconut looks like cut open. I grated the pumpkin onto a paper plate to make it easier to weigh as I went along.

Conkie is pretty much grated Calabaza pumpkin, coconut and sweet potato (the one that's closest to what they use in the Caribbean is called "batata" in my local shop), a nice, cinnamony spice blend and raisins, wrapped up in a banana leaf and steamed. T says it's a dessert, but I've been eating it for breakfast, because that's how I roll.

After that, I made T's Bajan Soup with Spiced Dumplings.

This is a GREAT soup. It's just a little spicy, and the pumpkin and sweet potatoes thicken it up a bit. The dumplings have cassia (a spice that's new to me; it's also in the conkies, comes in sticks like cinnamon, and I grated it by hand on the microplane. The house smelled wonderful) and nutmeg in them, which I thought would be kind of gross with the soup, but it wasn't. It all pulled together really well. Traditionally, this is a meaty soup, so I made the steamed white seitan from the upcoming Viva Vegan!, with a bit of Liquid Smoke thrown in.

I had the last portion of the soup for lunch yesterday and miss it already. I think it's going to become a staple in our house.

Wow

2010-01-19T17:29:00.003-05:00

The earthquake his Haiti on Tuesday.

We started discussing a fundraiser* on Wednesday.

Since then...

Over forty people have volunteered to bake.

Over 200 people have RSVPed yes.

About a dozen local businesses and individuals have committed to donating to the cause including:

MooShoes
Candle Cafe
Dandies
Tiengarden
Foodswings
Babycakes
Sweet Avenue
Terry Hope Romero
Panda Witch Cookie
Mrs Tattoed Geek
And more!

Over 20 vegan bake sales have been planned to benefit the Haiti relief effort.

And we're just getting warmed up. If you want to participate, say the word.

People are awesome. Thank you.

* Sunday, January 31, 11:30 AM - 6 PM. Moo Shoes, 78 Orchard Street, NYC. Be there!

Bake Sales for Haiti

2010-01-15T13:53:00.006-05:00

As promised, here are the details for the upcoming NYC bake sale:

Sunday, January 31, from 11:30 AM to 6 PM, we'll be selling treats and raffling off handicrafts at Moo Shoes (78 Orchard Street, between Delancey & Broome, right near the Essex/Delancey F, J, M, Z stop and the Grand Street B, D stop).

The proceeds will go to Doctors Without Borders.

We've done this bake sale thing before. If you'd like to see how that turned out, click over here.

If you can't make that one, SuperVegan & Vegan Drinks are having a bake sale at Angels & Kings between 7pm and 9pm on Thurs., Jan. 28th.

Not in NY and wondering if there's a bake sale near you?

Portland Vegan Bake Sale For Haiti: Sunday January 31st, 2 PM to 5 PM, People’s CoOp upstairs, all proceeds going to Mercy Corps.

Omaha Vegan Bake Sale For Haiti: Sunday January 24th, noon to 2Pm at McFosters.

LA Vegan Bake Sale For Haiti: info here - http://veganpr0n.com/?p=176

SF Vegan Bake Sale For Haiti: Saturday, January 23rd in Patricia’s Green (on Hayes Street at Octavia Street), from 11 AM to 4 PM. More info here: http://vegansaurus.com/post/333125052/emergency-vegan-bakesale-for-haiti

Sacramento Vegan Bake Sale For Haiti: Saturday, January 16, 2010 - 10:00 AM - 3:00PM, R5 Records - 2500 16th Street, Sacramento, CA 95818. Benefiting: Red Cross: Haiti Relief and Development

Orange County Vegan Bake Sale For Haiti: Sat 1/16 noon- whenever 2814 Newport Blvd, Newport Beach, CA .Contact krislegeek@blogspot.com with any questions or advice!

DC Vegan Bake Sale For Haiti: info here- http://www.dcvegan.com/

Miami Vegan Bake Sale For Haiti: Date is set for 1/31, more details to come. Contact kimberly@alaskanstar.com

If you want to get involved with one of those, or see if people in your area are discussing starting one up click here.

Fundraising for Haiti

2010-01-14T09:25:00.001-05:00

You all don't need me to tell you about the devastation in Haiti right now from Tuesday's earthquake. It's fucking dreadful and makes me want to cry.

This is just a heads up that there's going to be a bake sale in Brooklyn or Manhattan to raise money for emergency aid soon. As soon as I know the details, they'll be here. There are also bake sales happening in Portland, San Francisco, LA and maybe other places. I'll collect some links and throw them up here as well.

Stay safe,
D

Fa La La La Latkes

2009-12-30T16:29:00.000-05:00

I know I already did the Fa La La gag this year, but hey, I'm Jewish. It's the only Christmas carol I know.*

ANYWAY, I made not-quite potato latkes for my family's not-quite Chanukkah party. Actually, they were Zucchini Parmesan Latkes, veganized from a recipe in some Jewish magazine I found in my mother's room and used as a coaster. I was lazy and used Galaxy Nutritional Foods' Vegan Grated Topping, but these would probably be even better using nutritional yeast or a homemade parmeseanish topping (I like the one from Yellow Rose Recipes - but I also don't like Parmesean).

The zucchini makes these a little lighter than regular potato latkes, and the parmesean makes them...stinky. Just for shits and giggles, I fried them in peanut oil, but if you're going to serve them on real live Channukkah, you'd probably want to do the whole olive oil thing.

Alas, I have no photos; the family inhaled them before I got to. I guess that's a good thing, yes?

Zucchini Parmesean Latkes
Makes about 24 latkes

2 pounds zucchini
1/2 pound russet potatoes, peeled
the juice of 1/2 lemon
1 bunch scallions, chopped
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 tablespoon pepper
2 teaspoons sugar
1/3 cup flour
1/4 cup cornstarch (or potato starch, arrowroot or tapoica starch)
peanut oil for frying

Grate the zucchini and potatoes and toss in the lemon juice to prevent browning.
Drain the shredded vegetables in a collander or cheesecloth. Really squeeze the hell out of it to get rid of all the moisture.
Dump in a bowl, add the rest of the ingredients and use your hands to mix it all up.
Heat a pan, and add a thin layer of oil.
When the oil is hot, place walnut-sized balls of the potato mixture in the pan and flatten them out with your spatula. Flip after about three minutes (check to make sure it's browned to your liking), then cook for another threeish minutes.
Put out to drain on paper towels.

* This isn't entirely true.

'Tis the Season to Be Baking

2009-12-28T17:23:00.000-05:00

Fa la la...etc.

I did so much baking last week that I forgot to take pictures of most of it. Whoops.

Those are Irish Creme Kisses from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, and they are delicious.

My office holiday luncheon thingy was cancelled this year, due to budgetary considerations. Instead, we all had lunch delivered and ate in the conference room. As you can imagine, festivity was thin on the ground that day, so I brought the holiday spirits in cookie form.

I don't know why, but I make something with Jameson every December. Most New Year's Eves, I break it out for veganized Bailey's. Last year, I made stout cupcakes with Irish Creme frosting. This year, it was these cookies. I don't know why I associate Irish whiskey with Christmas, but I do.

ANYWAY, the VCIYCJ Irish Creme Kisses are kind of awesome. They're kind of pillowy, but not overly squishy or chewy. I didn't have the espresso powder the recipe called for, so I used extra cocoa powder, and people pretty much inhaled them. They weren't too chocolatey at all. Nor were they too whiskeyish, even with the stuff in both the cookie dough and the frosting. They're pretty easy to make and they look all kinds of fancy, so I highly recommend them for your grown up kind of parties.

I also made more Mexican Hot Chocolate Snickerdoodles, which went over well, as usual. And another batch of Raspberry Chocolate Chip Blondie Bars from Vegan With a Vengeance for family holiday shindiggery. I also made the Gingerbread Cut-Out Cookies from VCIYCJ for the same family get-together. I was told not to use Channukkah cookie cutters since the holiday was over, but I still wanted to acknowledge the fact that a Jewish holiday happened, so I made gingerbread Jews:

But apparently my family went politically correct without telling me. My mother said someone might think we're making fun, so she stifled my creativity and I had to do the rest differently. My act of rebellion: I refused to make more icing. Yup, we were stuck with gingerbread goths (not really).

Crap decorating job aside, they were still tasty, which is all that matters.

Happy holidays!

Oopsie

2009-12-23T09:00:00.004-05:00

One thing I forgot to mention about my trip to Barbados is that I missed my flight. Oops. That was my first time missing a flight, ever. I'm usually there ridiculously early. I once even got there before the ticket counters opened and slept on the floor. Thankfully, I was able to fly standby and get there the next day without having to pay a load of fees. This was yet another day with nothing to do but cook, so I checked out the tester forum for Isa Chandra Moskowitz's upcoming healthy/low fat/whole foods book and got to work.

That's Cannelini Walnut Croquettes with Brussel Sprout Potato Hash. I don't know why we always have cannelini beans in our pantry, but we do. All we usually do with them is move them from one shelf to another to get them out of the way of the good stuff, like garbanzos and navies. I've never just sat up one day and thought "Shit! I could really go for some cannelini beans right now!" and been thwarted by a cannelini-free pantry, so I really don't know what they're doing there. But it was time to wipe the dust off the cans and finally put them to good use.

The croquettes are baked, not fried, so they're guilt free and they're really fast and easy to make. They've got balsamic in them, for a little kick if you want to eat them alone, but would also do well with a sauce. Personally, I ate them plain. All. Day. I just kept picking them off the baking sheet (except the ones I plated and ate with the hash and the few my parents ate - my father thought it was a cookie. Haha on him!).

As for the hash, I love Brussels sprouts and I love potatoes, so really, who could ask for anything more?

I also made Isa's fresh corn and scallion cornbread, which was good when I made it, but even better the next day (which was a relief because I took it - and a pot pie wrap made from Thanksgiving leftovers - to eat on the plane. You know, when I didn't miss it) .

Sunday. Sunday! SUNDAY!

2009-12-22T09:00:00.001-05:00

This is where I was Sunday, December 20:

This is where I was Sunday, December 27:

That photo was taken through the window because we haven't gotten around to digging out the back door (and probably won't bother). On a day like that, there's really nothing to do except put on some comfy pants and cook. I started with a couple of recipes for Isa Chandra Moskowitz's upcoming whole foods book: broiled blackened tofu over butternut coconut rice.

The tofu is great because you don't have to spend a lot of time marinating it. It's dipped in a bit of olive oil and soy sauce, dredged in the spice blend (which is almost too hot for a baby like me, but perfect with the rice) and broiled for about 12 minutes. That's it. Simple, fast, easy, tasty.

The butternut coconut rice, took about an hour to make, which is a little long, for me, for a side dish on a day that I'm not snowed in, but I had time to kill and it was worth it. It's also got shallots, garlic, ginger and things in it, so it's flavorful enough to be eaten on its own (maybe with some greens), but still mild enough to balance the Cajun-esque spices of the blackened tofu.

When I was done with that, I was still missing Barbados, so I tested Vegan in the Sun's Bajan Coconut Bread.

Maybe it was the conversion from Celcius to Farenheit, but as you can see, my bread came out a wee bit too done. That said, it was still tasty and my mother rated it a five (on a scale of one to five, but she loves everything even more well done than I do and considers most properly baked things raw). It a looks a little better from the inside (why did I photograph the whole plate?):

And a little worse from the bottom:

(But I did get to eat the bit that got stuck to the pan and that ruled.)

This is a Post...

2009-12-21T13:27:00.000-05:00

...In which I prattle about my Caribbean vacation and what I ate there.
Let's get the obvious out of the way: Barbados is beautiful.

Moving on!

Their system of agriculture is VERY different from that of the US. I had a whole list of fruits I wanted to try, but only got to some because my host's friends and family didn't have any at the time. And we couldn't just go to the store and buy some. According to my friend, if you want breadfruit, soursopp, etc. you don't go to the store. You go to your neighbor, who cuts some off the tree for you. One person seemed offended we went to the coconut guy (below) instead of getting our coconut water from him.

That's the coconut guy. He (or they) park their truck on the side of the road with a big mass of coconuts, still on the branches. You have the option of buying a bottle of coconut water (filled from a coconut right in front of you) or a coconut, which the dude hacks the top off of with an enormous cutlass, so you can drink from it:

Sometimes they provide straws, so you can be tidy. If not, you just pour it all over yourself (or I did, anyway, the first time we went, but we don't have photos of that).

Then they cut a piece off the side to be used as a spoon and chop it in half in half so you can eat the jelly (until now, I had no idea coconut is so squishy when fresh. I always thought it was hard!).

Speaking of food you eat standing by the side of the road, one of the best things I had in Barbados was Doubles:

It's served out of the back of a van, and it's basically two roti topped with a chickpea curry kind of thing. I had mine with cucumber relish and tamarind sauce (hot pepper is also an option). Yes, you're expected to eat that standing at the side of the road without getting it on yourself. Ha! I got it on my pants, shirt and messenger bag.
The only thing that was better than double was my friend's mother's home cooking:

Clockwise from the top, it's rice and peas with lentils, steamed vegetables, sweet potato pie and salad.

When she said sweet potato pie, I expected something like this, not the awesomeness you see there. It was really sweet, but not cloying and it's really simple to make. Sadly, Bajan sweet potatoes are not at all like our sweet potatoes, so it won't come out the same here (unless I find their kind in a specialty store).

Kind of, sort of similar to sweet potato pie, but totally different was conkie, which I did not get a picture of, but it's DELICIOUS (the one I had was non-dairy). It's kind of sort of like a big, sweet tamale and is another thing I'm going to try to make for myself.

After reading this blog post, I told my friend I wanted to try golden apples, so she got them (and even peeled them!) for me (I'm not that lazy, I swear):

As you can see, the pits are spiky and easily get caught in your teeth:

Saturday night was karaoke at dinner at St. Lawrence Gap. I got a really nice grilled vegetable sandwich from Pun De Grill. The only thing nicer than the sandwich was the fact that we were able to comfortably have dinner outdoors in the middle of December (hence the crap lighting).

I also really liked the Twist Shandy.

I made my friend take me to see the giant Baobab in Queen's Park because I've been fascinated with them ever since reading The Little Prince. While there, we got coconut snow cones.

Check out all the amazing flavors he had! Sadly, he was out of tamarind (which most people seemed to want).

One night, we were hungry after most of the shops had closed, so we went to Chefette, Barbados' fast food chain.

I got a veggie burger, chips and Mauby. The burger and chips were great, but I could not drink the Mauby. Luckily, my friend anticipated that, ordered pineapple juice for herself and we swapped. But enough about that. Look at this burger:

We also went to an Indian restaurant called Sitar that was really good. We all rolled out of there, thoroughly full. I packed up half my curry to eat on the plane, but forgot it, so my friend was able to have a bit of extra deliciousness.

Of course, the most important part of any trip is what you bring home:

So I can do some relatively authenticish Bajan cooking at home, I got coconut essence, rum punch, passion fruit, lemon and sorrel syrups, Indian Girl Corn Meal (which I haven't been able to find in the US) and a cou cou stick (my hand is in the picture because I bought that ring in Barbados, but it has nothing to do with cooking).

Sadly, I only got to see part of the island, so I'd really like to go back and I definitely recommend visiting, if you can.

Quiche Me, You Fool!

2009-12-10T15:29:00.000-05:00

I love quiche. Now. I don't know if I ever had quiche, pregan. If I did, it would have been about sixteen years ago, and I probably didn't like it at all because I didn't like eggs. Tofu quiche, on the other hand is the stuff dreams are made of. In fact, the quiche section is one of the most awesome parts of Vegan Brunch (which has lots of awesome parts). So when a quiche recipe was posted to test for Vegan in the Sun, my excitement was palpable (to me).

In my excitement, I may have overcooked it a bit, but hell, no one's perfect.

This is a spinach scallion quiche with a firm tofu base. I didn't make a crust because I was tired and lazy.

As you can see, despite being overcooked and dried out on top it turned out a little looser and wetter than most quiche in the middle (I actually had to push the filling in with my finger before taking the picture because it went a little splat when I plated it), but it's still damn tasty. The looseness makes it kind of sort of almost like a scramble, and I love scramble, so a dish that's a quiche/scramble is awesome. Also, it's got greens in, which always gives me the joy.

Looking Forward to Leftovers

2009-12-09T10:00:00.002-05:00

One thing the veg-friendly of NYC look forward to this time of year is the Thanksgiving Leftovers Sandwich from 'SNice (which now has two locations). This year, I was inspired to make my own.

I started with the Bajan Salt Bread from Vegan in the Sun, then covered one side with ginger mashed sweet potatoes and apples and the other with caulipots (both from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's upcoming whole foods book)

The next layers were the Cranberry Relish from Vegan With a Vengeance, and Isa's Silky Chickpea Gravy.

I then piled on my friend Shar's green beans with caramelized onions and almonds

and the last bit of our Veganomicon Chickpea Cutlet/Paula Dines stuffing roulade, unrolled for ease of sandwiching.

And that was that. I even packed myself a bit of Cranapple Crumble for dessert.

Another of 'SNice's seasonal favorites that we all look forward to is the "Potpie Wrap (with crust inside!)", so I cleverly secreted away a piece of our Thanksgiving potpie and stuck it in the freezer for later use (I suspect "later use" will be airplane food, since I'm going to Barbados this week).

Everyone in my house is still eating leftovers in a variety of ways and none of us are sick of them yet. Hooray for food!

The Morning After

2009-12-08T10:00:00.001-05:00

What do you do after you've spent days in the kitchen preparing Thanksgiving dinner for your whole family? If you're me, you get up early (relatively) and make brunch.

Back when I first learned to cook (and had stopped eating all animal products, though I still thought of myself as a vegetarian, not vegan) and my family was still eating turkey during Thanksgiving dinner, we came up with Flesh Free Friday: the day after Thanksgiving, I make brunch and dinner and the whole family goes vegan for the day. This year, the main attraction was the Coconut Orange Dessert Pancakes with Candied Spiced Coconut and chocolate ganche from Vegan in the Sun:

(That sad-looking brown thing on the side is a cherry sage sausage from Vegan Brunch, which, say it with me now: tastes better than it looks, I swear).

In my family, pancakes are usually enormous things full of chocolate chips or frozen berries. One is enough to feed you for the whole day, and they're so full of "stuff" that what the actual pancake itself tastes like is completely irrelevant (which is good, since they're made from box mix and don't taste like much). This recipe changed all that. These pancakes are not only nice and light, but the flavor comes from the batter itself (fancied up with orange juice and rind, coconut and almond extract). If the sun was made of pancakes, this what it would taste like. They also reheat well and are pretty decent cold. The candied coconut and ganache just take a few minutes to make each, but make everything even tastier and seriously fancy looking (if you're one of those people who know how to make things look fancy).

Dinner was mostly Thanksgiving leftovers, but we started with the Baked Potato and Greens Soup with Potato-Wedge Croutons from Veganomicon, but before I talk about the awesomeness of that soup, look at my happy potato!

I must admit, I was a little bummed about baking and mashing such a happy potato, but sometimes sacrifices need to be made in the name of tasty goodness like this:

If you want to have a snowball's chance in hell of eating anything after this soup, have a very small portion, because it is incredibly filling. On the other hand, after eating this, I almost didn't want to eat anything. Except more of this. It's so good. It was also very hard to keep from eating all the potato wedges before we were ready to eat the soup. They're rolled in spices and cornmeal, then pan fried to perfection. I think I'm going to make them by themselves once in a while, just for snacking on. I also really like the use of kale in this soup. Not only did it add even better texture, but anything with greens in it makes me feel healthy.

Speaking of greens, we also had garlicky mushrooms and kale from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's upcoming book, which is incredibly fast and easy to make and, of course, majorly tasty. Green + garlic = good thing. Always. Adding the mushrooms was a real treat because I don't cook with mushrooms that often because I always feel like I haven't cleaned them well enough, so I only make mushrooms on days that I really have time to give them a good once over. Like the day after Thanksgiving.

We also had an additional dessert (like we really needed it!) of coconut truffles.

After brunch, I had a load of leftover ganache and a bit of candied coconut, so I mixed them together and stuck it in the fridge. A while later, I formed the mixture into balls and rolled them in more coconut. They never hardened completely and had to be stored in the freezer, but slightly messy fingers are a small price to pay for yummy coconutty, chocolatey goodness.

Just Desserts

2009-12-07T10:00:00.000-05:00

Throughout Thanksgiving dinner, I warned everyone to save room for dessert and they were all very glad they listened. So glad, in fact, that I didn't get to take a picture of the whole table full of sweets before we all started digging in and I forgot to take pictures of the insides of the desserts (the best part) because once they were cut, they went straight into our faces.

That's a plate full of Rocky Road brownies, a new family favorite. To make them, I made the Rocky Roads from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, substituting Dandies marshmallows for the white chocolate chips and poured the dough into a pan instead of shaping it into balls. Easy! This and one other dessert were the only parts of the meal that my mother didn't sign off on and when she saw this, she actually gasped "OHGOD!" because she loves them so much. I think this is her favorite recipe of everything I've ever made, ever.

I also made my mothers' Cranapple Crunch, which everyone in my family loves. The big difference between the way I make it the way she does it, is I use fresh cranberries and she uses canned, so my way is a bit more tart, which I like (and no one's complained about). I posted a variation on this recipe a couple of years ago, as a mini pie. It's still just as tasty as it was back then.

We also had my Gingerbread Pumpkin Apple Cranberry Pie, which, no matter what I do, looks like it's topped with hamburger, but that's just gingerbread crumb topping. Honest.

Side note: I think I want to learn to needlepoint. If I do, I'm going to make myself a sampler to hang in my kitchen that says "It tastes better than it looks, I swear" (which you probably haven't noticed is this blog's new subhead). Or maybe I'll learn to sew and make myself an apron that says the same. All I know is I need some sort of disclaimer like that, and if you didn't think so already, here's proof:

Depressingly, that's the improved version of the cake.

This year, Thanksgiving fell on my grandmother's birthday, so I made her a cake. I made her a cake last year as well, and dropped a table on it, so I thought this year would have to be an improvement, right?

No.

The cake is the Chocolate Chip Pumpkin cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World with greenified Cinnamon Icicng. I had done this once before, and it was delicious and didn't look too nauseating, so I decided to do it again. I thought I'd have even better luck with the icing this time, since this cake was flat, unlike the previous bundt, but as you can see, I was very, very wrong. Here's the original cake:

The icing was extremely runny, so I added loads of confectioner's sugar, until I thought I was getting close to the point of overpowering the cinnamon, gave up, piped it on, spread some around the sides for more cinnamonny goodness and ended up with a cake that looked like it had narrowly escaped the set of The Exorcist. I couldn't give it to my grandmother like that, so I made some ganache and piped it over the words, so you can almost read what it says, if you focus. (Un)Luckily, my grandmother is rather blind, so she thought it was beautiful, and that's what counts.

One day, I will sit down and just do lettering over and over again, all day. Another day, I will do lines and shapes. Until those days come, it's my pleasure to bring you the very best in the worst looking cakes (aside from Cake Wrecks, of course).

Thanksthieving

2009-12-04T13:54:00.004-05:00

Oh, holidays! Hope everyone had a lovely day.

This was my first time trying to do a somewhat traditional Thanksgiving (apparently, chili and a cornbread boat aren't traditional for Thanksgiving. Who knew?). My family doesn't really have many traditions (the only thing that seems to happen with any regularity in my house around Thanksgiving is the basement flooding), so I stole some from my friends and the Internet (and my friends on the Internet). Here's what I came up with:

Clockwise, starting with the white casserole full of fluffy goodness, we have:

Cauliflower mashed potatoes (caulipots), Bajan salt bread, ginger mashed sweet potatoes and apples, cranberry relish, silky chickpea gravy, Almost All-American Seitan Potpie, garlicky roasted asparagus, chickpea cutlet roulade and green beans with carmelized onions and almonds.

But before all that, we started with the corn and edamame-sesame salad from Veganomicon. Here it is, served in a cabbage leaf and looking kind of like a water slide (that ends in your belly):

This salad is awesome to serve before a large, semi-impressive meal (or any other time, really) because it's pretty, light and requires absolutely no chopping. It also happens to be delicious. Thanksgiving was days ago and my father has asked me to make more of the dressing (which only has three or four ingredients) every day (but I've been busy). The dressing is sort of like a Japanese vinaigrette. Thanksgiving bonus: corn! See? It's traditional!

For dinner, I stole Madcap Cupcake's idea and made a roulade from Veganomicon chickpea cutlets and my friend Paula's dried fruit/pecan stuffing. Here's how it happened:

I followed the regular VCON instructions, but made the dough into two cutlets, instead of four, and pan fried them for just two minutes on each side.

I spread stuffing over the cutlet, leaving a margin on each side, for easier rolling.

I was nervous about rolling the cutlets up because they were pretty dry and I was afraid they'd crumble as soon as I put any pressure on them (you may have noticed one of the corners had already fallen off before I even began. It was tasty). My worry was for naught; they rolled easily and even stuck closed, but I used my new foodloops just in case.

Then I tossed one in the oven while some other things were baking. The other, I set aside and currently resides in the freezer for the next time we want a slightly fancy dinner. Everyone loved it and thought it must have been extremely difficult to make, so please don't tell them otherwise. With every bite, my grandmother kept saying "God! It cuts like meat! This is amazing!"

Over there on the left are green beans with caramelized onions and almonds, made from a recipe my friend Sharlene sent me in a recent recipe swap. Caramelized onions kind of make everything dreamy and toasted almonds (or any toasted nuts, really), turn everything up to eleven, so saying this dish was a winner is a wee bit of an understatement. Our staple garlicky asparagus is on the right.

The other centerpiece of our meal was the Almost All-American Seitan Potpie from Veganomicon.

The crust was a little messy, but that didn't ruin anyone's enjoyment of it. For the seitan, I used the steamed white seitan recipe from Terry Hope Romero's upcoming Vegan Vegan! (Ooo! It's pre-orderable, hint hint!). I'm pretty sure steaming is my seitan making method of choice. Not only does it solve the broth problem, it comes out much firmer, and I like my seitan as firm as possible. The rest of the filling was peas, carrots, potatoes and all the rest of the goodness you'd expect from a potpie. Majorly comfort foody savory goodness.

Most of our sides were recipes I was testing for upcoming cookbooks.

We had the Silky Chickpea Gravy from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's upcoming whole foods cookbook. It only took about twenty minutes to make and was chock full of chickpea and thymey goodness, but the way it came out when I made it, I can't really call it silky. But since I can call it yummy, I don't really care. And, of course, you can't have gravy without rolls:

These are Bajan Salt Breads from the upcoming Vegan in the Sun. Have I mentioned that I'm excited about this book? I'm excited about this book. Like all raised rolls, these were somewhat time consuming, but not particularly complicated. They are so soft and just...comfy. I could have slept on one of them. Check out the inside:

They're so good, that my grandmother ate one for breakfast the next day and took one home with her and she absolutely HATES leftovers.

Our other sides were caulipots (cauliflower mashed potatoes) and ginger mashed sweet potatoes and apples, both from Isa's upcoming book.

I love mashed potatoes. I love them more than...almost anything. I love them so much I was a bit apprehensive about trying to replace them. Naturally, all my concerns were baseless because these caulipots are just as satisfying as straight up mashed potatoes, but with bonus nutritional value and less carbs. Win, win. They may not have come out as creamy as some people make their potatoes, but we're a lumpy potato kind of family and everyone enjoyed the new addition of cauliflower bits.

On the other hand, I hate sweet potatoes. I make them twice a year: Thanksgiving and when I'm trying to convince myself not to hate them. I think I've made a discovery, though: I may only hate sweet potatoes that other people make. Or, I hate sweet potatoes that don't come from a recipe Isa made up, because they four times I was cool with eating them were from her recipes (last Thanksgiving, we had the VCON tzimmes, there's a sweet potatoey recipe in Vegan Brunch and another in the upcoming book). Either way, this recipe is good. The apple isn't so overpowering it's like eating apple sauce, but it's definitely there, balancing out the sweet potato, and the agave is just right. It's not too sweet at all.

And we had cranberry, of course.

That's the Vegan With a Vengeance cranberry relish, which is nice and orangey and I have to admit being kind of tempted to eat it for dessert.

I'm pleased to report that I lost track of the number of times variations on the sentence "If I could eat like this every day, I wouldn't need meat at all" were said during this meal. I consider that success.

Stay tuned for dessert, leftovers and assorted other shenanigans!

(Sorry about the unattractive photos. I didn't even realize how blurry they were until today. It's hard to remember to tidy everything up when a bunch of hungry people are clamoring for dinner - and the lighting was less than awesome.)

Ginger Beer Three Ways

2009-11-16T16:07:00.002-05:00

No, I haven't been getting up to bizarre hijinks with Caribbean beverages. I just made three different types of ginger beer while testing for Vegan in the Sun.

The first one I tried was unfermented. It was basically just ginger and boiling water, sweetened with homemade simple syrup. I didn't add much syrup, so it's pretty much like drinking straight up ginger. Here it is, sitting and steaming:

The next one was fermented for a few days and had lime in it. Woah. It had a real kick to it (so much of a kick that my friends and I aren't sure if it turned into alcohol yet or not). As you can see, it was much darker than the unfermented. Here it is, twenty hours into the fermentation process, all fizzy and bubbly and getting its ferment on:

After taking that picture, I stirred the ginger beer and once it settled, it started fizzing again pretty much instantly (you can sort of see the fizzies above the top reflection of the right light bulb):

The last kind, and my personal favorite, was fermented with some flour mixed in with the yeast. It was more mild than the original fermented ginger beer, but still had more of a kick than the first one I tried.

Making these drinks was a bit of a project (depending on the kind, they took two days to nearly a week to be ready), but worth it, since I'd never had ginger beer that wasn't like a soda before. And I'd never fermented anything before. And I very rarely make drinks (aside from tea). The only other beverage I can think of that I've made is Terry's horchata from Viva Vegan! (which I also recommend). I guess recipe testing inspires me to make things that seem more complicated than I would normally bother doing for myself.

Currying Favor

2009-11-12T13:56:00.001-05:00

I love curry. I say this despite knowing most of the curries I eat are not authentic and most authentic ones burn my face off. So far, none of Isa Chandra Moskowitz's recipes have burnt my face off, for which I'm grateful. I most recently tested her potato spinach curry and tamarind quinoa recipes.

The potato spinach curry is a super simple curry reminscent of sag aloo. Everything with the word "aloo" in it makes me happy and the use of frozen chopped spinach made it nice and creamy.

The real star of the show was the tamarind quinoa, though. I could have easily eaten the whole pot. It uses tamarind concentrate, which I'd never had before, but apparently really like! There are also peas and raisins in it, giving it a really nice bite and making it fun to chew. I can't wait to use the rest of my jar of tamarind concentrate (there will be a tamarind tempeh recipe coming up soonish)!

A Moveable Feast

2009-11-10T12:00:00.001-05:00

I have a confession to make: Sometimes, when I'm going someplace, I look more forward to packing something to eat than to what I'll be doing. This is especially true of going to work. And so, here's a post dedicated to the food I've been packing myself for the last few days.

Behold! Today's lunch!

I recently purchased a new hot plate for my desk at work. After melting three plastic containers on it, I decided I needed something a little more sturdy and got the To-Go Ware 3-tier tiffin (I already had their utensil set and was quite pleased with it. Most To-Go Ware products are available through herbivoreclothing.com, slightly cheaper than you'd get them directly from To-Go Ware, due to shipping charges). I went with the three-tier because the diameter of that one is smaller than the two-tier. In retrospect, I'm not 100% sure I made the right choice, since you can only use the top tier independently of the other two; you can't just carry two tiers. Also, the thing is too tall to fit in my office mini-fridge fully assembled, so I have to eat my breakfast before putting it away (woes!). For scale, here it is with the utensil set:

In today's tiffin, we have (going clockwise from 6 o'clock), a breakfast of corn crisps with peanut butter and apples (yes, I did listen to Sigur Rós while eating). Lunch is spinach potato curry over tamarind quinoa from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's upcoming healthy book (more on that another time), For snacktime, there's raw cashews and an orange (and I always keep chocolate in my desk).

Before I had the tiffin, I either packed my lunch in take-out containers or this thing, that I picked up for pennies in Penn Station, almost two years ago:

I totally expected it to leak or fall apart on me, but it's been really good. The tines on the fork haven't even broken off yet! Here it is, toting yesterday's lunch (I don't know why this post is in backward chronological order):

I always fill the large section with salad. Yesterday's was kale, sprouts, cucumber, yellow pepper and grape tomatoes. The right hand section is always hummus, to eat with the salad, and celery for the leftover hummus. I get my variety in the left hand compartment, which is usually something warm, like roasted vegetables or Bubbles Don't Squeak. Yesterday, I had a small piece of Bajan Macaroni Pie (it looks a lot bigger than it is because it's sitting on a bed of tin foil). I wrap it up in tin foil so I can heat it on my hot plate without making too much of a mess (hopefully). So far, that's worked out pretty well.

On Sunday, I took a very long walk. I knew I'd need sustenance, so I packed two St. Lucian Salt Bakes (Vegan in the Sun testers) for breakfast. I hoped to eat them on the boardwalk and get a nice picture of the biscuity treats in front of the beach, but no luck. I was starving. Here's a picture on the subway instead. At least I had the wherewithall to wait until we were above ground and I had some sunlight.

Despite what the name would lead you to believe, these bakes are actually fried.

But they're not overly greasy and they're really easy to make (only four ingredients!). Another thing I love about them is that the recipe makes three bakes. Making a dozen scones just because you want one is kind of annoying. Sure, it makes you popular, but really, I love being able to just make a few of these.

It's time for another confession: Before this weekend, I'd never made a wrap. Really. But I wanted something handheld for the walk and was craving the Puttanesca Scramble from Vegan Brunch, so I made it and the Diner Home Fries, wrapped them all up, called them a breakfast burrito and ate it for lunch. So. Good.

Here it is, ready to wrap:

As you can see, my wrapping job was less than stellar:

I thought it would totally leak all over the place, so I wrapped it up in way too many layers of tin foil, then put that in a plastic baggie, but it didn't drip even once! I must admit I was rather proud of that. It's the little things, really.

That concludes our three-day lunchtime retrospective. What foods do you like to pack for going out and about?

Macaroni Pie

2009-11-06T10:37:00.001-05:00

Back in my pregan days, when I would discuss food with my Bajan friend, she would tell me all about the wonders of macaroni pie and how I have to try it. She would sing its praises, telling me how great it is, "It's just like macaroni and cheese, but better!" and I'd smile and nod and think "Better than macaroni and cheese?! Inconceivable!" Then I went vegan and never got to try her macaroni pie. Sadness abounded. But, thanks to Vegan in the Sun, all is not lost! Last night, I tested Tay's recipe for Bajan Vegan Macaroni Pie and it's so good, maybe I'll make it for my friend when I go to Barbados, instead of the other way around.

As you can see, it's a pretty standard seeming baked macaroni and cheese (it's darker than what you'd usually expect to see because I used whole wheat macaroni). What you can't see is the hot sauce and Bajan seasoning in there, kicking it up a notch and giving it just enough heat to keep me from eating the whole pan. Yup, even a big baby like me can eat this stuff.

There are multiple steps to making this (a tofu "cheddar", a roux and the pie itself), but it's uncomplicated and not too time consuming. The whole thing comes together in about 45 minutes, then has to bake for about an hour, so you may not want to make it on a weeknight if you get home late (I started working on it at 9:30 PM, which was a little silly), but it reheats really well, so there's no reason not to make it ahead for when you get home really late (I'm looking forward to having it this weekend with a giant pile of garlicy broccoli and some homemade ginger beer*).

PS: Did someone not tell my emblogginationness that VeganMoFo is over? I usually have trouble getting out a weekly post (sometimes even a monthly one) and here I am still posting every day! Bizarre!

* More on this next week.

It's Always Better on Holiday

2009-11-05T13:20:00.001-05:00

I am very excited. In December, I'm going to Barbados to visit one of my closest friends (JetBlue had amazing introductory rates from JFK). This will be my first time leaving the country since 1998 and my first straight up vacation (as opposed to traveling for an event) since 2000ish.

Just when I thought I couldn't get more excited about this, I found out about Vegan in the Sun, an upcoming vegan Caribbean cookbook. All those pictures look so delicious, I just want to hop on a plane right now and go to the islands just to eat. I can't do that, but I can test for the book, which is almost as exciting. The first recipe I tried was roti:

I was kind of intimidated by the idea of making roti. There are so many steps and it looks very complicated, but I had the time this weekend (once I was done baking!) so I decided to give it a shot. They really weren't very difficult to make. They were fiddly and time consuming and had many different components to work on, but weren't actually difficult. And they didn't make me nervous like crepes and dosas do, which was an added bonus.

The first part to make is the filling for the skin. It's a spiced up blend of split peas and some herbs, ground up until it kind of resembles cous cous.

Next comes the skin itself, where you make the dough, fill it with the peas and roll it all out, being careful not to let any of the peas escape the skin (kind of like a very thin paratha).

Then there's a spicy potato/pumpkin curry (which is where the other half of that pumpkin went - interestingly, the curry had the same problem as my pie: it was so spicy it was difficult to tell the pumpkin from the potatoes without looking) and a somewhat more mild protein curry, with a chickpea and "chicken" base. I didn't have any TVP chunks or mock meat on hand, so I made seitan using a recipe from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's upcoming whole foods/weight loss book (which I'm also testing for). It was nice to do a boiled seitan again, since I'd gotten so used to steaming it. The seitan was marinated in homemade Bajan seasoning (a really interesting blend of fresh herbs and spices; this was my first time working with fresh marjoram. It smells so nice!) and a few other things before being added to the curry.

Ideally, all that should get folded up into a cute little pocket, but as you can see in the photo above, dividing the curry evenly among the roti skins yielded enormous portions that were totally unfoldable. Smaller portions were easier to fold, but I never got it to look cute enough to warrant another photo. Thankfully, what it lacked in cuteness, it more than made up for in tastiness! My appetite for the Caribbean has definitely been whetted.

A Very Dandy Halloween (Part III)

2009-11-04T09:00:00.001-05:00

I may have gone a little overboard with the sweets over the holiday weekend. After the Dandies and the cookies, I thought "Gee, I really ought to make a pie," so I poked around the kitchen and ended up with a Gingerbread Pumpkin Apple Cranberry Pie (which is clearly in need of some kind of clever name, since it's almost too long to Tweet.

I really wanted to try a pie that started from real, live pumpkin chunks, not puree, which is something I'd never seen before, so this was born. It turned out to be a nice, cinnamony pie in a gingerbread crust shamelessly stolen from Vegan With a Vengeance. Everyone who's tried this has liked it (and the family has requested it as a Thanksgiving dessert), though we all agree that it's so spiced it's difficult to tell the difference between the pumpkin and the apple without looking, so you may want to tone that down a bit, if you want the natural flavors to come through.

Normally, I would never re-post a recipe from someone's book (and I'm willing to bet almost everyone reading this has the book, making it somewhat unnecessary anyway), but since someone else already did, I'll put it all together for the sake of convenience.

Gingerbread Pumpkin Apple Cranberry Pie

For the crust:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup margarine, softened
1 tablespoon molasses
2 tablespoon cold water

For the filling:
One half small pumpkin (should yield about two cups when diced - see below)
4 Granny Smith apples, peeled and diced
1 cup dried cranberries
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
pinch ground nutmeg
1/3 cup pure maple syrup
2 tablespoons tapioca starch

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Make the crust:
Sift together the flour, sugar, spices, salt, and baking powder. Add the margarine one tablespoonful at a time and cut in with a pastry cutter, knife or your fingertips. Drizzle the molasses and water over the dough, mixing with your fingertips until the crumbs of dough begin to cling together. Set aside 1/2 cup of the dough. Gather together the rest of the dough and knead it into a ball. Press it evenly into the bottom and sides of a pie pan and bake for 10 minutes.

Make the filling:
(I've never seen anyone try to prep raw pumpkin online beyond cutting it in half, so here are some step-by-step instructions, with pictures.)

Cut the stem off your pumpkin, then cut it in half.

Use a large spoon to scoop the seeds and guts out of your pumpkin (if you want, reserve them to bake on one rack while you have the pie on another. I sprinkled cinnamon on mine, then baked them for about 40 minutes, shaking a few times to keep them from sticking. Yum!).

Cut each half in half, then peel it, using a serrated peeler.

Chop the bottom bit off each piece and dice. I found the easiest way to do this is cut each quarter into strips lengthwise, then chop up the strips (similar to doing a bell pepper).

While the crust bakes, combine all the filling ingredients in a large bowl. Toss with your hands until the ingredients are well mixed and the tapioca starch dissolves.

Assemble the pie:

Fill the pie crust with the filling, and crumble the remaining 1/2 cup of dough over the filling. Cover with foil and back for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for 40 more minutes; the filling should be bubbling and tender. Serve warm, if you can.

A Very Dandy Halloween (Part II)

2009-11-03T14:59:00.000-05:00

As previously mentioned, I can recognize the hand of fate when it places delicious goodness in my path. But when Dandies, Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar and Halloween all coincide, that's not just fate. That's celestial voices* calling out "Oi! We need some sweets up in here! What are you waiting for?" Never dreaming of ignoring a divine request, I broke out my cookie sheets and made with the baking.

VCIYCJ is the third collaboration between vegan geniuses Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero (the first two being Veganomicon and Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, of course). I don't think I can say enough about Isa and Terry's books. They say "Bake!" I say "How high should I set my oven?" (and their answer is always right). I think I do over half of my cooking from their recipes and I can't remember ever being really disappointed by one. VCIYCJ maintains their high standards with creative, tasty recipes, gorgeous pictures and introductory material that's just fun to read.

So we sat down with our shiny new book and picked out some recipes to try. We set up some ground rules, though, because without rules, it's all anarchy and I can't have that in my kitchen. The rules:

1. No more than two kinds of cookies. Moderation in all things, right?
2. At least one of the cookies should come from the "Wholesome" section of the book (yes, there's a part of the book specifically designed to make you feel a bit less guilty about making a meal of cookies, should you choose to. Thanks, ladies!)
3. We must have all the ingredients on hand. We will not go out of our way for junk food!

We ended up with the Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies and Rocky Roads.

The Banana Oatmeals are incredibly tasty, soft and chewy. The craisins give them just the right amount of a tart kick. With a big cup of tea, they're a total meal, and they're so full of omegas, protein, potassium and other nutrients, that guilt can be kept to a relative minimum. They're even agave sweetened, so there are no white sugar issues. Woohoo!

The recipe is also pretty forgiving. I got halfway through and saw I only had about 1 1/4 cups of oats, when the recipe called for two. I topped it off with about 3/4 cup leftover matzo farfel (matzo crushed into small flakes - larger than matzo meal) and no one knew the difference (but they were very amused when I told them).

The Rocky Roads are far more decadent. There are no excuses for these cookies, just one reason: the awesomeness will change your life. When my mother first tasted them, all she was able to say was "Oh my god!" over and over again. When she was finally able to form real sentences again, she said "It's everything I'd ever hoped it could be, and more!"

I always thought rocky road had three things in it: chocolate, almonds and marshmallows. This recipe called for white chocolate chips, but we didn't have those (and I don't even like white chocolate), so we substituted Dandies for the chips. I don't know if that's what made them spread so much, or if it was just the nature of the recipe, but when I tried to fit a full dozen on the pan, they all merged together and came out looking like pre-perforated rocky road brownies. That was fine with me! We are a brownie people.

A friend made the Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies, so we did a cookie swap and those are really awesome, too. Really hearty and substantial, but also fudgy and amazing. Having already made the Chocolate Chip Cookies and the Mexican Hot Chocolate Snickerdoodles, I can say without hesitation, that VCIYCJ is well worth the price (and I don't usually buy sweets-only books; the only other one I have is VCTOTW, my very first cookbook).

There are more treats to discuss, but this post is long enough. Wait here; I'll be right back.

* Or maybe just my mother going through a wee bit of withdrawal.

A Very Dandy Halloween (Part I)

2009-11-02T16:49:00.002-05:00

I wasn't raised celebrating Halloween, so I never really worried about it much, but even I can recognize the guiding hand of fate when it brings Dandies to my local supermarket just days before the holiday. We spent Halloween night at home, warm, cozy and out of the rain, indulging in all sorts of sugary sweet treats.

Note: We at SSD HQ kind of went for quantity over quality this weekend. Loads of treats were made, but the lightbox didn't make an appearance even once. Sorry for the shitty photographs, but I think they still get the deliciousness across.

Dandies were kind of a big deal at our house this weekend. Not only am I vegan, but my whole family is kosher, so we never had real marshmallows. To say kosher marshmallows suck, kind of insults sucky things. No matter how fresh they are, they always have this sort of dry crustiness about them. The only way to eat them, is shown in the photo above. Anything other than totally on fire is a severe disappointment.

So we burnt a few Dandies, just for old time's sake, before we got down to the serious business of marshmallows: S'mores!

I thought I was going to have to make my own graham crackers, but my mother came through with honey-free crackers at the last minute. Score! We used those, Dandies and some Green & Black's Organic 85% dark chocolate. Inspired by Sweet & Sara, we spread a thin layer of peanut butter on our graham crackers the second time around. Genius!

Then it was cocoa time.

Rich, Ah!Laska organic cocoa made with piping hot soy milk and wee marshmallows. Now I know what I've been missing. Oh, Dandies! Where have you been all my life?

Somehow, we all managed not to go into sugar shock and were able to keep the party going with cookies and other snacks, but let's talk about all that tomorrow. I'm tired.

Closing MoFo

2009-10-30T00:01:00.005-04:00

If you just pay attention to the name, you might thing VeganMoFo is all about the food. And, to an extent, it is. But really, when over 500 people get together (whether it's online or in real life) with a common goal, I think it's even more about community. So what better way is there to wrap up VeganMoFo than with a potluck?

Tuesday night, a small group of people from the PPK converged on Melissa Bastian's home to share in all things tasty and vegan. Stories were told, beer was drank and cats were admired. It was a lovely time.

Melissa made stuffed shells. These were first stuffed shells I've had since going vegan and they made me so happy. I really love tofu ricotta, her sauce was very nice and she didn't overcook the shells (which makes me cry).

Quarantined brought a chickpea tahini casserole that totally rocked. Chickpeas are pretty much my best friend, so I was such a happy camper.

I brought the roasted calabaza pumpkin quinotto I mentioned yesterday. It reheated very well and the spices mellowed out overnight, so I was actually able to eat it. Another win for Terry.

The stuffed peppers pictured were by Alf-redo. I am generally not a fan of cooked peppers, so I don't think I've had a stuffed pepper since I was little and my parents chose my food. I was a little dubious about these, but the fillings looked so good I had to give them a shot. I am SO glad I did. They fillings were great and I even liked the pepper part. A real victory.

Sashi brought mac 'n' cheese from a recipe I've been meaning to try but haven't gotten around to yet. I had hoped tasting hers would be enough to satisfy my curiosity so I wouldn't have to do it myself, but instead, it just made me crave more!

Not pictured are the olives and marinated almonds Joe brought, and the desserts (HOW did I forget to take a picture of the desserts?! Thankfully, Melissa has them (and loads of other pictures) over at her blog). Melissa made lovely Creamiscle cupcakes that were nice and citrusy and didn't overwhelm with the frosting. I think I ate about a dozen of Alf-redo's pepita cranberry pistachio oatmeal cookies. They were so tasty and perfectly chewy, so I just kept telling myself nuts and seeds are good for me, as I shoved them in my face. Protein! Omega 3s! Right?

I think it's safe to say this was a successful potluck and a wonderful end to VeganMoFo. Few things are better than spending time with amazing people over great food.

Quinotto

2009-10-29T00:01:00.003-04:00

I have a confession: I've never made risotto. Not because of intimidation by all the stirring and the waiting and the stirring (and the stirring), but because whenever I decide to make it, I get distracted by a recipe that sounds even better. Usually quinoa. So imagine how thrilled I was when I saw that Terry posted Quinoa Roasted Pumpkin Risotto to test for her upcoming book.

This recipe basically gives you all the creamy goodness of risotto, with the health benefits and nutty flavor of quinoa. And calabaza pumpkin! It's kind of a win-win-win situation here.

I have to warn you, though: this dish is not for pansies (like me). With a full tablespoon of aji amarillo paste and a roasted chili, it is HOT. This was my first time ever eating quinoa and thinking "Damn, I need to put this over rice to absorb some of the spice". That said, it's so flavorful (this was my first time using aji amarillo and I love it, despite the pain) that I kept going back to pick at what was stuck to the pan, whining about how much my lips hurt, then picking at it again (I was bringing it to a potluck, so I couldn't just take a portion).

I will definitely make this again (especially since I still have some leftover pumpkin), but I'm going to have to decrease the hot pepperiness. If you buy the book when it comes out (and you really should), this recipe definitely should not be skipped. It's a little time consuming, but totally worth it.