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Vegan MoFo: Vegan 100 2009 Edition

October 16, 2009 in Random, VeganMoFo 2009 | 2 comments

There’s another vegan 100 list circulating through the blogosphere (am I using a buzz word?), and since I’m not likely to get around to uploading photos from my trip until this weekend, here’s my list, with things I’ve tried in bold red, and things I’m pretty sure I’ve had, but can’t remember, in italics. I suppose if I can’t remember eating something, it probably wasn’t that great, and I should try it again.

1. Molasses
2. Cactus/Nopales
3. Scrambled Tofu
4. Grilled Portobella Caps
5. Fresh Ground Horseradish
6. Sweet Potato Biscuits
7. Arepas
8. Vegan Coleslaw
9. Ginger Carrot Soup
10. Fiddlehead Ferns
11. Roasted Elephant Garlic
12. Umeboshi (I have the vinegar in my pantry, I just haven’t used it yet!)
13. Almond Butter Toast
14. Aloe Vera
15. H and H Bagel NYC
16. Slow Roasted Butternut Squash
17. White truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Freshly ground wasabi
20. Coconut Milk Ice Cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Orchard-fresh pressed apple cider
23. Organic California Mango (in season Sept-Oct only)
24. Quinoa
25. Papaya Smoothie
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet or Habañero pepper
27. Goji Berry Tea
28. Fennel
29. Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
30. Radishes and Vegan Buttery Spread
31. Starfruit
32. Oven fresh Sourdough bread
33. Sangria made with premium fruit and juices
34. Sauerkraut
35. Acai Smoothie
36. Blue Foot Mushrooms
37. Vegan Cupcake from Babycakes nyc
38. Sweet Potatoes and Tempeh combo
39. Falafel
40. Spelt Crust Pizza
41. Salt and Pepper Oyster Mushrooms
42. Jicama Slaw
43. Pumpkin Edamame Ginger Dumplings
44. Hemp Milk
45. Rose Champagne
46. Fuyu (aka persimmons) (Why didn’t I steal a bite from bazu while were were in Vienna?!)
47. Raw Avocado-Coconut Soup
48. Tofu Pesto Sandwich
49. Apple-Lemon-Ginger-Cayenne fresh-pressed juice
50. Grilled Seitan
51. Prickly pear
52. Fresh Pressed Almond Milk
53. Concord Grapes off the vine
54. Ramps
55. Coconut Water fresh from a young coconut
56. Organic Arugula
57. Vidalia Onion
58. Sampler of organic produce from Diamond Organics
59. Honeycrisp Apple
60. Poi
61. Vegan Campfire-toasted S’mores (does using a lighter to melt marshmallows count?)
62. Grape seed Oil
63. Farm fresh-picked Peach
64. Freshly-made pita bread with freshly-made hummus
65. Chestnut Snack Packs
66. Fresh Guava
67. Mint Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies… need to try soon
68. Raw Mallomar from One Lucky Duck, NYC
69. Fried plantains
70. Mache
71. Golden Beets
72. Barrel-Fresh Pickles
73. Liquid Smoke
74. Meyer Lemon
75. Veggie Paella
76. Vegan Lasagna
77. Kombucha
78. Homemade Soy Milk
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Lychee Bellini (I had a lychee martini!)
81. Tempeh Bacon
82. Sprouted Grain Bread
83. Lemon Pepper Tempeh
84. Vanilla Bean
85. Watercress
86. Carrot you pulled out of the ground yourself
87. Vegan In-Season Fruit Pie
88. Flowers
89. Corn Chowder
90. High Quality Vegan Raw Chocolate
91. Yellow fuzz-free Kiwi
92. White Flesh Grapefruit
93. Harissa
94. Coconut Oil
95. Jackfruit
96. Homemade Risotto
97. Spirulina
98. Seedless ‘Pixie’ Tangerine
99. Gourmet Sorbet, not store bought
100. Fresh Plucked English Peas

I think that’s 47! Not too shabby! I can easily add more to my list. I’ve been planning on testing out soy and almond milks in the Vitamix, and a few of these are easily made, just things I’d never thought to make. Lets see if I can take care of a few before Vegan MoFo is over! In an case, I’ll link back to this post as I try new foods!

Vegan MoFo: Vegan Survey

October 12, 2009 in Random, VeganMoFo 2009 | 2 comments

I’m traveling this week, so I’ll post photos and all of the amazing food I’m eating as much as I can, but for now, here’s a survey to tide you over, the survey sweeping MoFo, borrowed from Whoa Wren’s blog.

1. Favorite non-dairy milk?
To drink, I really like Silk chocolate, but that is a very rare treat. For most things, I use unsweetened almond milk.

2. What are the top 3 dishes/recipes you are planning to cook?
There’s an Epicurious challenge going on over at the PPK, I also want to make a pasta dish involving soy curls, sun-dried tomatoes, and olives, and something with

3. Topping of choice for popcorn?
Salt and Sugar (aka Kettle Corn)

4. Most disastrous recipe/meal failure?
The first time I made tofu, I sliced it, put it in a pan, and dumped sauce on top. It did not look like the tofu I’d had in Chinese restaurants. I wouldn’t even try it.

5. Favorite pickled item?
Beets! (I still don’t like cooked beets, though)

6. How do you organize your recipes?
I have a lot of cookbooks, but I use Mac Gourmet for things I find online.

7. Compost, trash, or garbage disposal?
Garbage disposal, until we move, then it will be compost.

8. If you were stranded on an island and could only bring 3 foods…what would they be (don’t worry about how you’ll cook them)?
Kale, peaches, and quinoa

9. Fondest food memory from your childhood?
My dad always rewarded me for finishing a school term, no matter how well I did, by taking me out for an enormous meal. He figured, if I did well, I deserved a reward, and if it was a rough term, well, we could celebrate the end of it. It was usually a fancy buffet where we’d embarrass ourselves by staying for hours, eating and laughing until we couldn’t move.

10. Favorite vegan ice cream?
So Delicious Coconut Milk – Coconut or Passionate Mango

11. Most loved kitchen appliance?
My Vitamix!

12. Spice/herb you would die without?
Garlic

13. Cookbook you have owned for the longest time?
Meta Given’s Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking. Some of the advice (and assumptions about women doing all of the cooking) in this book are really out of date, but I learned how to bake yeast bread, make croissants, sift flour, and so many other things from the volumes of this cookbook. It’s falling apart and covered with food, but I’ll never give it away.

14. Favorite flavor of jam/jelly?
Apricot preserves!

15. Favorite vegan recipe to serve to an omni friend?
Pasta, lasagna, and tex mex always go over well. Also, everyone in my family loves my baked goods. No one I know will turn down a cupcake. Well, except my husband, but he is vegan, he just doesn’t do dessert.

16. Seitan, tofu, or tempeh?
It depends, but I use tofu most often.

17. Favorite meal to cook (or time of day to cook)?
Brunch is definitely my favorite. You can serve a combination of sweet and savory foods, and even if you have pancakes, it’s okay to have dessert!

18. What is sitting on top of your refrigerator?
Chips, clif bars, trail mix, a blue klean canteen, cereal, crackers, empty beer bottles…really, what isn’t on top of the refrigerator?

19. Name 3 items in your freezer without looking.
Homemade dog food, several flavors of Cheezly, nuts

20. What’s on your grocery list?
Kale, garlic, fruit, onions, cauliflower, kombucha, clif bars, zucchini, and the rest depends on what I’m making for the week!

21. Favorite grocery store?
Roots Market, definitely, although I need to start just shopping for specialty items there since it can be a bit pricey!

22. Name a recipe you’d love to veganize, but haven’t yet.
My mom’s bread pudding. I know there are other recipes out there, but this is special stuff. It’s a baked custard with raisins, pineapple, and cinnamon, and you can cut it into squares. It’s so decadent I’m not going to bother trying to make it with whole wheat bread or less than a stick of Earth Balance, because I know I’d just be disappointed. Sometimes you just have to indulge!

23. Food blog you read the most (besides Isa’s because I know you check it everyday). Or maybe the top 3?
Where’s the Revolution, Have Cake Will Travel, and Fat Free Vegan.

24. Favorite vegan candy/chocolate?
I love this ginger chocolate bar that my very first PPK swap partner, the lovely Jojo sent me. I also enjoy the GoMaxGo Maholo bars, and now and then, Skittles, since they’re now gelatin-free in the U.S.!

25. Most extravagant food item purchased lately?
Raw cacao powder. At least a little goes a long way!

26. Ingredients you are scared to work with?
Well, I’m not really afraid of anything, but for some reason bread-making seems a lot more labor-intensive in my head than it is in reality. With my stand-mixer, it’s really a breeze, and most of the time isn’t active. I should work with yeast more often!

Random Pictures of Cookies

January 13, 2009 in Cookies, Random | 3 comments

I’m currently working on moving my main blogging over to another domain, mostly because I’d like to post about more than just cooking. I’ll keep this one for recipes and such, but I think another blog would be more appropriate for posting craft projects, photos and reviews of restaurant meals, and other random day-to-day things that don’t necessarily happen in my kitchen. I also think that I’ll feel less pressure to have recipes, something which has been keeping me from posting as often as I’d like in this blog, because I feel guilty calling it my kitchen, then not actually posting about anything having to do with it.

Well, these cookies were baked in my kitchen. They are test recipes for Isa and Terry’s upcoming cookie cookbook. Fudgy shortbread and delicious blueberry bars.

Starry Fudge Shortbread

Blueberry Crumb Bars

Away, but not forgotten…

November 11, 2008 in Random | 3 comments

Things got a little hectic at work, and most of my meals lately have consisted of cereal, fruit, soup, and sweets. Not much blog-worthy cooking has been happening lately. I haven’t forgotten about my blog, though, and even though I sort of blew it with Vegan MoFo, at least I did start this thing.

Stay tuned…for something.

Vegan Mofo: The Vegan Survey

October 8, 2008 in Random, VeganMoFo | 1 comment

Ok, so this is sort of cheating since, technically this survey was going around last year, and it is also a thread on the PPK, but weekdays are hard. Last night I had 3 buffalo chik nuggets, a handful of baked chips, and fell asleep. Hey, at least I’m posting. I really need to catch up, though, this is Day 8 of Vegan Mofo and I’m falling behind.

  1. Favorite non-dairy milk?
    I like different types for different reasons. Rice milk is great on cereal, and I like cooking with unsweetened almond milk, but I love soy milk in my beverages and I love flavored Silk. I used to hate cow’s milk with a passion. I would make cocoa packets with just water, and I wouldn’t even drink chocolate milk. I am in love with soy milk, though. I started drinking it in my pregan days,
  2. What are the top 3 dishes/recipes you are planning to cook?
    Now that fall is upon us in the DC area, I want to make some lentil, sweet potato, and chard soup. It’s nice and filling on cooler nights. It’s also time for freshly baked bread and cookies. Right now, though, all I can come up with are recipes for sweet rolls.
  3. Topping of choice for popcorn?
    I like sugar and salt with EB or just salt. Boooring, I know.
  4. Most disastrous recipe/meal failure?
    I sent a cloud of greasy smoke down the hallway of an apartment building in college. Do not add frozen fries to oil you have left on high for 15 minutes. Also, my roommate had an asthma attack and several doors were coated in sticky grease. They probably still are.
  5. Favorite pickled item?
    Do green olives count. or are they technically in brine? I guess pickles, then. Crunchy, garlicky, pickles.
  6. How do you organize your recipes?
    Ha. Haha. Hahahahahahahahahaha. That’s hilarious!
  7. Compost, trash, or garbage disposal?
    When we are back in our own house again, we will compost, but for now it’s garbage or the disposal with recycling of all things well, recyclable.
  8. If you were stranded on an island and could only bring 3 foods…what would they be (don’t worry about how you’ll cook them)?
    sourdough rosemary bread
    oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, with raisins
    Silk Chocolate
  9. Fondest food memory from your childhood?
    The first time I made bread, forcing my parents to eat food I added food coloring too, such as brown cake that wasn’t chocolate, green pancakes, and some sort of green/marble swirled cookies. Also, helping my mom out in the kitchen was always fun. She must have had a lot of patience because I was quite inquisitive…and bossy once I wanted the kitchen to myself.
  10. Favorite vegan ice cream?
    This isn’t a fair question! I’m partial to blood orange sorbet, though I suppose that isn’t an ice cream. Mint chocolate chip if I had
  11. Most loved kitchen appliance?
    My red Kitchenaid mixer.
  12. Spice/herb you would die without?
    Garlic, or cilantro if that doesn’t technically count. Then I could have both.
  13. Cookbook you have owned for the longest time?
    Meta Given’s Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking, Volumes I and II. The cookbooks were my mom’s and they are literally falling apart. Although, any cookbook that has a recipe for fricasseed muskrat is not “modern.” In all seriousness, though, I did learn a lot of really useful cooking techniques, and it helped develop my love for cooking.
  14. Favorite flavor of jam/jelly?
    Apricot or homemade strawberry. Just not grape.
  15. Favorite vegan recipe to serve to an omni friend?
    VWAV Spanakopita, or cupcakes. People cannot resist cupcakes.
  16. Seitan, tofu, or tempeh?
    Again, it depends on the recipe or occassion. I like the ease and versatility of tofu, tempeh is great in wings or as bacon, and seitan is lovely in lots of different recipes. I’m just too lazy to make seitan most of the time, and the packaged stuff doesn’t do it for me.
  17. Favorite meal to cook (or time of day to cook)?
    Probably brunch. I love being able to have sweet and savory all on one plate. It’s like being able to eat dessert and lunch at the same time. People frown upon that at dinner.
  18. What is sitting on top of your refrigerator?
    Chips, a couple of sweet potatoes, probably an empty beer can or two.
  19. Name 3 items in your freezer without looking.
    Spring roll wrappers, frozen banana chunks, carrot cake rice dream
  20. What’s on your grocery list?
    Always orange juice and fresh produce, lately the revolving iten is soy yogurt
  21. Favorite grocery store?
    It would have to be a tie between Roots Market for variety and Trader Joe’s for price
  22. Name a recipe you’d love to veganize, but haven’t yet.
    My mom’s bread pudding. I know there are vegan bread pudding recipes out there, but this stuff is special. It’s kind of like french toast, but more firm, with raisins, cinnamon, and crushed pineapple. One day I will make it!
  23. Food blog you read the most (besides Isa’s because I know you check it everyday). Or maybe the top 3?
    I can’t pick! I visit lots of blogs, but I am pretty faithful to Have Cake Will Travel, Orangette, and 101 cookbooks for a while. My Google reader is full of great sites that I read as often as I can, though!
  24. Favorite vegan candy/chocolate?
    I was never a fan of milk chocolate, but I do love the Ricemilk Truffle Bars. Something about the bitter and creamy combo is just delicious! I’m sort of off and on with candy. Sometimes I’ll go for Sour Patch Kids or some random fruity vegan gummy.
  25. Most extravagant food item purchased lately.
    Sun-dried Tomatoes and kombucha, which I really need to learn to make! Kombucha is so addictive, and so expensive! GT’s Divine Grape Synergy is my absolute favorite.

Coming soon…

October 4, 2008 in Random | 2 comments

I don’t know how you dedicated food bloggers have time to eat. What with the cooking, and posing everything to get that one perfect shot! Several posts coming up this weekend, including some shots of Double Chocolate Cherry Pecan Rolls with a cinnamon orange glaze.

Later, though, I’m too busy eating.

Introductions

October 1, 2008 in Random | 4 comments

This year, I finally decided to join the rest of the civilized foodie world and finally start a blog. I won’t promise there will always be photos, or that I won’t be too hungry to take a decent photo before digging in, but I am going to try to write often.

This month is VeganMoFo, or Vegan Month of Food. I’ve already warned my family, and they are expecting frequent photos during meals. They’re already used to my kookiness, so they shouldn’t be too phased by my latest hobby.