Boston Vegetarian Food Festival 2008 - part 1

Boston Veg Fest was amazing!
Just look at those smiling VegWebers! There were four green shirts in attendance Saturday. Unfortunately I did not make some for JW501 or CeltKat. They need one though! Plus I messed up the order and put VegWeb on the back instead of the front. These things happen.



But enough shameless VW'ing. Onto the tofu of the matter!

GreenT, her fiancée M and I left my house at the horrifically early hour of 6:45 AM and headed for Boston. Our drive was super fast and we were at the Reggie Lewis Athletic Center by 9:15, so we drove past in search of camera batteries. Once back we found a great parking place and enjoyed the warm fall air on the way to the center. The crowd was pretty impressive compared to last year's trickle of people.

Once inside the swell of people grew, so much so that the whole entrance area to the exhibitors was filled up before the doors opened at 10. Soon though the door opened and people swarmed into the space, scooping up samples and chatting with fellow like minded people.

Personally, I was kind of disappointed to see that yet again some exhibitors were still in the process of setting up or not even in attendance yet, but I guess that is how these things go. Once inside the doors I hit Cafe Indigo on the right for a perfect mouthful of carrot cake and to buy one of their seitan loaves. The cake was extraordinary and I was happy the loaf was frozen. From there, after pilfering another bite of cake, I wandered down checking out the tables. I wanted to subscribe to VegNews but their table was packed to I walked on. Hannah Kaminsky was free of people so far so I slid up and shamelessly asked for her autograph on my cookbook that I had dragged with me. She was very gracious and did not seem as nervous as she claims to be! Plus those cute felt foods were darn adorable!

Moving on I tried out some Primal Strips. The mesquite lime was tasty but something about the texture just weirds me out slightly so I never buy them. I guess I am old school and still have a deep love for the insanely chewy and almost tough Tofurky Jerky. The crowds were pretty thick and I avoided the really busy tables, knowing I wanted to see the first speaker at 10:45. So when I saw Mah Wah's table was relatively sparsely populated I scrambled over. Their veggie meats are so amazing, check them out at vegieworld.com. I picked up almost $20 worth of faux meats from them, including a ham, spicy gong bao chicken, sweet & sour citrus spare ribs and more!

After this meat glut, I moved onto the Teese booth. Not only did they have adorable one pound cheezes for sale, they had nachos. Let me say that again.. NACHOS. Oh my goodness. I purchased one each of the cheddar and nacho flavor and my very own paper tray of chips to slather cheeze onto. I must say, Teese is absolutely amazing. I have enjoyed the Moz flavor at home several times, but the nacho was beyond great in my opinion. I will be ordering more of it soon!

From there I tried out some Bombay Potatoes from Tasty Bite. They were fantastic! The next booth I fought for space with was Soya Too. They had cartons of their Soy Whip as give aways. Oh my goodness! How awesome is that? I grabbed one for me and one for greenT and snatched up the coupon they had out. I cannot wait to whip up some creamy goodness. I am thinking of using it as cake frosting in a berry and chocolate layer cake.

Next I waited for the Galaxy foods guy to make a quesadillia with the vegan slices. It was good. I just wish my grocery store carried it! Onward I went to a booth selling plates of food. I bought bits of fried goodness and staggered under the weight of my backpack up to the speakers hall. Nibbling on my food I awaited the beginning of the talks. Luckily I finished up my wantons, dumplings, spring roll and drumstick before Sarah Kramer came on. Mainly because I wanted to video the whole thing. And I did. The two segments will hopefully be added or linked here soon!

As you can tell it was a jam packed day, and the time was only 10:45 am! This day went on till 11pm when we left Boston for home. But the rest of the event and post event fun is another post! Stay tuned for more.

Halloween Party Prep

So tonight I made Chik Pot Pie with a biscuit crust. It was delish. Very lightly seasoned, slightly herbed but basically good hearty and plentiful food.
Ok, so it looks disgusting and I should have added cornstarch to it before baking but it tasted divine. I basically just diced veggies, tossed them in a pan, sauted them and then simmered in a cup or so of water until tender. Then I moved everything to a casserole dish, topped with biscuits and baked for 15 minutes. Deelish!

Next I spent time making mini cupcakes for the kids that will come into my work tomorrow. I hope to have more pics after that fun but for now, here is a nudie shot! Wooo baby, work it!

Seitan Filet

I was inspired by Tracy of A Veg*n for Dinner. She quite recently posted a recipe on her blog for Seitan Filet Mignon.

Since I had darn near everything the recipe called for with a few minor creative substitutions and a quick supermarket search for vegan Worchestershire sauce, I attempted it. I did replace that sneaky anchovy sauce with a lovely UK brand called HP Sauce that used tomato instead of fish and dates instead of High Fructose Corn Syrup. I also used Penzey's vegetable base instead of 'beef' broth.

I went fancy and served this with slow sauted mushroom slices, roasted herbed fingerling potatoes and steamed broccoli.



I did find it a tich too salty for my tastes, but that could have been the salt in my veggie base and overly salty soy sauce. The seitan was tender, juicy and went quite well with the mushrooms. Even LB thought it was quite good. I have to admit though, it was a lot of work and not my favorite texture of seitan. Perhaps this is doable with a less labor intensive moist bake method. Something to experiment with!

Overall? Dinner was a rousing success! Thank you so very much Tracy.

Pictures from the long silences

Here I sit, after a good long absence, thinking I would wow my minuscule fan base with two dozen pics of everything I have made. Wouldn't you guess, I took a whole 4 notable pics all month. *sigh*

So let me apologize and say, this will happen again. But I hope to have a much better photo spread next time! ;)

Arroz con Seitan made with mild chik'n flavored seitan of greatness.


My Sweet Vegan French toast with a blood orange slice or two. Good stuff!

Peach muffin. So good, was moist, light and gooey. Perfect lightly warmed.

Chickpea's over Basmatti rice. This recipe is from my awesome coworker friend Andal. She makes this recipe for her family regularly and shared the secret with me. Personally, I think its awesome with cauliflower mingling its mild flavor amongst the savory Garam Masala, coriander and cumin. I will share the recipe at a later time when I make it from it exactly as she wrote it or I note my changes. I love Indian food.

Today I did go to an awesome vegan Potluck. It was so good. I am still stuffed beyond full from the huge array of awesome eats; appetizers, salad w/homemade dressing, casserole, pizza and of course more desserts than the table could hold. Yum!

Seitan Snausage and two homemade cheezes! Very yummy.


This awesome confetti salad was A-MAZING! I must get the recipe and make it frequently.

Caesar salad dressing over yummy romaine. That dressing was unbelievably good and superb on pizza!

A lovely garlicky bean dip with a zip of lime in it. So yummy.

Requisite spinach dip and crudities. So good though. Those raw green beans were fabulous, just like the dip!

Artichoke spinach dip! With pita chips!

mmmm Pizza!

Tortilla Casserole.


And finally, dessert! Sexy Low Fat Lemon cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream, Green Tea cupcakes w/ green tea icing, Soy Delicious Ice Creams and Chocolate Mousse.

The night before Valentines

I find myself huffing powdered sugar.

Not intentionally of course!

*cough*

Lets see some lovely foods to distract you from that statement.

Dinner was a mild version of Seitan o'Greatness. Seasoned with Nooch, mushroom powder, garlic and a tiny bit of thyme. This was simmered in a mushroom, onion and garlic mixture and that then received a touch of veggie bullion, water, unsweetened soymilk and cornstarch. Served atop green beans and mashed potatoes it was unbelievable. Like eating Green Bean Casserole with hearty bits of goodness in it and creamy potato.

Next I made goodies for a bake sale at work. Banana Bonanza Bread! Times two. This is the batch I made tonight. Though I made a batch last night and already took it into work.



Sexy Lemony Cupcakes from VCTOTW of course - the naked version! oh my!



The topped version with Lemony Buttercream frosting and a sprinkle of red sugar to get you in the mood! LB and I split this little number and his only complaint? He only got half. hahaha I love that man!



I also made mini chocolate mouse bites. Twelve full cupcake sized made with an awesome chocolate avocado mix and twelve mini full of tofu chocolate and maple mix. I plan to top these with cookies, strawberries and hand them out to my pals at work. Hopefully I will get a pic up tomorrow upon their completion as they are chilling currently!

Thats all folks. I am going to go fall into a powdered sugar coma for 12 hours now! Be safe and always wear your face mask when making a frosting double batch.

Tomorrow do something nice for those you love, even if that list only contains yourself and a kitty.

xoox
~Cali