Blog Recipe Cooking Challenge - day 4, week 3

Tonight I made French Lentil and Portabella Stew from FatFree Vegan. The only changes I made were the omission the celery as I was out and put in 1/2 a bell pepper since it needed to be used up and substituting Beluga Lentils for the French. This was fan freaking tastic! Tasty, hearty, rich and thick. The lentils held up nicely and the veggies cooked down perfectly. Overall I quite enjoyed this dish. It was not super photogenic but that is typically a perk, not a requirement of my food! hah



Even my lentil hating husband liked this stew! This was such a great find. I hope to make this pretty regularly this winter.

Blog Recipe Cooking Challenge - day 3, week 3

More from VegWeb's Blog Recipe Cooking Challenge! Fat Free Vegan is our blog for week 3 and it couldn't be a better one. I love love love so many of her recipes. I make the seitan ribz and scallopine regularly so I challenged myself to make something different.

Yesterday for Thanksgiving I made the Double-Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake.


I followed the recipe exactly and love the results. Its light, airy and so flavorful. Somehow my bottom layer of cheesecakey goodness did not mound up but flowed up the sides of the pie as the top was added. Interesting and perfect so you get some with every bite! I plan on making this pie again.

Blog Recipe Cooking Challenge - day 2, week 2

Another recipe from Vegan Dad for the VegWeb Blog Recipe Cooking Challenge.

Tonight was Pasta Primavera or as he termed it "Clean out the Fridge Pasta".

I tried my best to make the recipe exactly as listed but had just a few minor alterations. First my pasta was egg free noodles since that was all I had in the cupboard. Second I added in some seitan leftover from last night just to use it up some. And finally I added a bit of herbs and spices because this was for two adults, no kids! Into the pot went thyme and smoked paprika just to round out the flavors.

I thought it was very good. Light tasting, creamy and hearty belly full. I quite enjoyed it and shall be making variations of it in the future.

Mine was quite not as photogenic as Vegan Dad's though so you must forgive me.

Blog Recipe Cooking Challenge

On VegWeb there is a lovely recipe challenge. Each week there is a blog being featured to create a recipe or several from. Unfortunately I missed the first week that featured the PPK. This week though, I did one recipe with a plan to do two more from Vegan Dad!

Today's dinner was Mini Irish Pies.

There were a few substitutions since I did not have chickpeas, beer or corriander on hand. Instead I used seitan, veggie broth with a touch of scotch and left out the herb. As you can see, they turned out fabulous!


Here is some of the prep work, including the pie crust:


Filling:


Potato topped pies ready to be baked:




I also made some lovely chocolate chip cookies from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar! The recipe was followed exactly but I only baked 8 total, so I wouldn't gorge on them. These are soft, moist, lightly chewy but so very very good. I am excited to bake up the rest of these delights sometime very very soon.

VegWeb Gift Exchange - Sending!

Last week I finally shipped out my package for the Halloween Gift Exchange at VegWeb.

I included so much stuff but only have pictures of the homemade goodies. I did include a lot of my favorite things: PB&Co Maple Peanut Butter, Ghiradelli Chocolate squares, Ola Granola, Halloween towels, cookie cutters and napkins, a can of young green Jackfruit and a Lush Bath Bar. I did also include a shockingly cheap find of whole agar (for under $2 at the Asian grocer)!

I fretted over this apron for too long! But I think it turned out well. The recipients favorite colors were the basis of my fabric choices.



Also included were scones, Lemon Zinger Cookies, brownies, Rice Crispy Squares, and vanilla cupcakes with mini chocolate chips.

Scones full of berries! Cranberries, currants, pomegranate seeds, raspberries and bing cherries. Lovely dried mix I found at Trader Joe's.

VegWeb Gift Exchange

Every once in a while the amazing community over at VegWeb.com run a gift exchange. This time I received an excellent package from the awesome Humboldt Honey.

Included:
1 large Klean Kanteen water bottle - in black of course!
1 loaf of Glazed Lemon Bread
1 jar of homemade Carrot Cake Jam
1 jar of homemade Blueberry Jam
1 Chico Bag - black reusable grocery bag
1 jar of homemade Pickled Garlic
1 knitted Hot Pad
3 comb in hair dyes
1 pan scraper
1 faux egg frother (who cares if it says its for coffee!)
1 skull travel pack of tissues
1 string of stone beads
1 bag of Enjoy Life Chocolate Mini Chips




Now who wouldnt be tickled to have a box appear on their doorstep full of such wonderful love, thought and vegan goodies? I know I was thrilled beyond measure.

This also raises the bar for my gift to my person. I have been working on craft projects but need to step it up a notch I believe. I will post pictures of the items once my recipient receives the package.

Holiday fun!

The holidays are rapidly approaching and honestly, I have been too busy to post! But I will share some pictures of the last 15 days.
Our live Christmas tree is a 7 foot tall potted Norway Spruce.



We did get a pretty wreath that will eventually need to be composted but the tree is going to be planted in the back yard with our past five years worth of trees. I must admit, this is our biggest one yet! Though I think year #2 tree might have grown taller than this one is now. One of the perks of buying a loved one's home when they move is if you planted things in their back yard, they are once again yours! Whee.

Also tonight I received an envelope that made me squeal like an excited cheerleader. Something I do not even vaguely resemble.

My package from the VegWeb Secret Santa Exchange! This awesome collection came from Saskia in Southern California. She included an awesome black gift bag, a great note on spooky Emily stationary, five beautiful beads that I plan to make into a fab bracelet or necklace tonight, six lemon zinger cookies that are out of this world AND an annual subscription to VegNews! How unbelievably awesome is that?!

I already ate one of the cookies. It was everything a lemon cookie should be. Soft yet firm enough to hold up to being mailed, tangy yet sweet enough to prevent a pucker and perfectly chewy with a slightly crunchy exterior. Wow, if I had not been actively making dinner for LB, these would have been my main course! As it is, I am trying to distract myself from them by making this post! Sooo good!!!

Thank you Saskia! I do agree, we have loads in common. And I love my gift and will enjoy it all year. You rock!

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.

Boston Vegetarian Food Festival

Thats right! Its almost that time again. The trek to Boston takes me three hours but I plan on doing just that November 1st. Hopefully KissMeKate is joining me for some of the ride and the day of good food, excellent speakers and an awesome vegan time.

In the New England area? I highly suggest you check it out! Click here for more info.

VeganMoFo - Tamales from the Potluck

For the potluck I made a batch of tamales. The corn husks came all the way from California with my Mom, when she visited two years ago. Nice to know they store well, isn't it? I made 3/4ths of the batch with refried beans and black beans spiced up with garlic, onion, chili powder and a pinch of smoked paprika. The rest I mixed Field Roast Chipotle Sausage with a bit of the leftover bean mix.

The plain ones were delish. Creamy insides, smooth taste and perfect smothered in guacamole. The Field Roast ones were a bit too spicy for my taste and then they upset my stomach. For whatever reason those products always do that, so its not surprising.

I gave all the spicy ones away to KMK, BP and VHZ at the end of the potluck to take home with them. I still have over a dozen small sized bean ones in my fridge. Sometime next week, its tamale night!

Potluck Pictures - round four 'the big finale'

The fabulous potluck sleepover extravaganza was wrapped up by playing board games in our jammies till 2pm, eating ice cream and pie for lunch and snacking on lunch leftover veggies and dips.

VHZ and KMK made a great team for Scrabble. Which we played with modified rules, if you could spell a VegWebber's name, you got a double word score!



The winning team though, was Camilus and Baypuppy. Look at them, so studious!

Pictionary was awesome, and we ate dessert... I mean lunch, during it too!
I tried to get out of having to draw Ronald McDonald as it was morally against veganism, but it was such an easy win.
My lunch was pumpkin pie, Mocha Almond Fudge & Snickerdoodle ice cream by So Delicous covered in Soya Too Whip we made the day before. mmmm This bowl was either BP's or Angel's which had pumpkin pie, Chocolate Brownie Almond ice cream, Soya Too Whip, Smuckers Marshmallow Topping and chocolate sauce.
Our lunch feast is a bit of slim pickings overall, but we still had leftovers!
We did finish the games with a round of Simpson's Clue. It was Marge in the Simpson's House with the necklace by the way!


Just look at that fiesty BP!

We did see KMK off after the fun with a bag full of food, prizes and cigar boxes. Empty mind you! My hubby wont part with the contents but I am willing to part with the boxes easily. After that everyone packed up and we took our last field trip to Barns & Noble and the local kitchy store The Christmas Tree Shop. It was a huge amount of fun and I was so happy people came over and had a great time. Thanks for coming everyone!

Potluck Pictures - round three "the morning after"

We all slept in until about 8:30am after our potluck pajama party. In the morning we sat around kind of groggy and our bellies still not quite up to eating MORE food. But we persevered for vegans everywhere and headed to the kitchen. Behold our accomplishments!


This is the Nutritionist Soy Milk Maker I got over a year (or two) ago through my local Freecycle group. This was its first batch ever made by me though. Let me just say, I wish I had the instruction booklet! It is not a good batch. I will try again and add oats or rice to the soy beans in the brewing process and sugar afterward!

Next is our lovely tofu for the Tofu McVegans I promised VHZ. They were made with two blocks of The Bridge tofu, which is a local Connecticut company! One cup of Apple Cider Vinegar, half a cup of oil and a tablespoon of Black Salt Powder finished them off. I let it soak for about thirty minutes before baking over an hour at 350. I flipped them several times to get them all golden and crispy. Luckily this was done the day before so that they just needed a quick reheat.

No vegan fast food breakfast would be complete without hash browns and bacon, so VHZ and Cam made some! Yay.

This was my breakfast sandwich, complete with Tofutti cheese slice, LightLife bologna, Smart Bacon, Tofu and hash browns wedged between a Stop & Shop Multigrain Light english muffin. Delish!

Here is Cam enjoying his, which I think he buttered the muffin and added two different meats and cheeses! How indulgent we vegans get in a pack.


There are more potluck pictures to come, so stay tuned.

Potluck Pictures - round two

For those of you not in the know, we had a VegWeb potluck at my house this past weekend! Four steadfast friends trekked in as far away as Albany to come visit, eat and have a great time. My not tiny sized kitchen felt very small with five adults working in it. Here are more pictures!

KissMeKate and VegHeadZealia watch on as dinner preparations start.

Baypuppy and Camilus putting Mac & Cheeze in the oven. mmmm bread crumb topping!

We decided then to have a fancy schmancy dinner party type of dinner since it was just us. I love bringing out the good china for fun things!


KMK folded the napkins! So awesome.

Sitting around the table, ready to dig in!
The food! Going clockwise from the top is: sauted Kale, teriyaki meatballs, lentil bake, mac & cheese and my own bacon spaghetti. Everything was so delish and it is such a treat to be around people cooking great vegan food.
This is what was left once we did as much damage as we could. Luckily leftovers did fit in my fridge and people got to take portions home!

First though, we had a field trip to my local Trader Joe's before we started on cooking dinner. We picked up everything from dried Dragonfruit to trail mix to frozen asperagus to toothpaste! What a fun trip. We also hit the local Stop & Shop grocery store for smoothie makings but once in the store we got distracted and only bought sundae toppings like Smuckers Marshmallow Sauce!

After we ate that feast pictured above, we sat in the den and played Scattegories. It is funny how everyone got different foods but when we had to think up people or places there were duplicates. We also voted that Hulk Hogan is NOT considered a hero. This party was a pajama party with everyone staying overnight for two days of fun and food so we all got in our jammies and stayed up till 2am goofing off and laughing hysterically.

Sunday morning fun will have to wait till next post though!

Potluck Pictures - first batch

Just a few minor notes and changes to this post to update it some. Saturday morning I got up, cleaned my house within an inch of its life except the outside edges of the stairs apparently. (Long story!) All in preparation for a potluck! Yay!

I made a double batch of Cheezy Quackers with garlic, salt & pepper. These are always so good!
Look at that lovely dough.

Luckily I now have the counter space to roll these addictive crackers out onto.


Little leaves all cut out and awaiting the oven.

My new cookie cutter set. Probably will only be used for crackers though. Cookies are too much like work to cut out. hahah!


The final bowl full. Seriously, this is all a double batch, three large pans worth, made. We demolished these pretty quick. I suggest making a triple batch if you like them as much as I do.

The lunch spread! Left to right: Condiment container with marinated mushrooms, kalmata olives, salsa, guacamole and chickpea dip. Tortilla chips are in the bowl below it with Olive Tapenade right beside it. A quartet of hummus stands strong with the quackers. Veggies ranging from bell peppers, snow peas, green beans, radishes, carrots and celery block the vegan ranch, creamy Sheese, sliced Teese and Cheddar w/ Chives Sheese from escaping the garlic bread and pitas.

A hungry Baypuppy digs into the hummus. nom nom nom

Camilus did some dishes!
And we had a vegan cheese test of meltability. Teese on garlic bread, firm Sheese in a whole wheat pita and soft Sheese in the tiny pita spaceship shape. I did not eat any of these hot from the oven but I must say, the creamy Sheese probably is my favorite to dip things into. The firm kind was strangly resistant to any mingling with other foods. It exuded oils but would not spread or blend. The Teese was of course, excellent.


I think Cam thought the same way about my cheese favorites because here he is eating the tiny pita stuffed with creamy Sheese and looking delieriously happy!