Please check your brain in at the courtesy booth....

Who says Friday night in with a burger and fries can't be a great vegan experience? Well, whoever it was was sadly deluded....Last Friday My Beloved and I were just completely exhausted from the week as a whole and all we wanted to do was check our brains in at the courtesy booth, sink our behinds into the sofa and our teeth into a big, juicy, cheesey burger. So that's exactly what we did....



and the full thing:



The cheese was a slice of the rice milk cheese and doubled really well for the standard American Cheese. The rolls were onion and herb, the salad fresh and crisp and the burger (hiding modestly in the pic above) was a giant portabello mushroom, sauteed off in a little Braggs and olive oil. 'Meaty', juicy, succulent and really hearty, this burger paired very nicely with some oven baked 'fries' (potatoes, olive oil, salt, papper, chilli flakes, a dash of paprika....) and a large glass of red wine. Ahhhh, the weekend...it's a beautiful thing.....

Yesterday, we opted for something just that little bit less 'junk food-ish' and, having spent the day tramping around a muddy farm in the cold New England drizzle, we had a bit of a blow out at dinner. Finding organic butternut squash on sale for $1.49lb, we selected one that would have fed a small army never mind the two of us and stuffed it with a mix of black and mahogany rice, kidney beans, canellini beans, red onion, carrots, tomatoes and various herbs (I forget now which ones...) and served it up with some garlicky green beans and a small side of scalloped potatoes. This is not the best pic, but it gives the general idea.



I swear either I have to get a better camera or maybe just read the manual for the one I have. Sheesh!

OK, so that was the main course. We went a bit overboard and also indulged in a spoonful of dessert too: an autumn fruits crisp with Tofutti vanilla ice cream. I got the base recipe from The Peaceful Palate but added pears to the apples and cranberries and just a touch of ginger.





The topping originally called for 3/4 cup walnuts but, having none, I subbed in a mix of sunflowers seeds, sliced almonds, chopped dates and pistachios. Added to this is 3/4 cup maple syrup, a pinch of salt and a cup and a half of rolled oats.



And so here it is with some yummy ice cream....



On reflection, I suppose that this really is one of the few advantages of being in New England in November - the abundance of beautiful fall produce and the sheer inevitability of gorgeous desserts. OK, so I know you can get apples, pears and cranberries on the gloriously sunny west coast but, when it's 80 degrees outside and the AC is running, who wants 'fall fruit crisp'?

Right, am off now to thaw my bones in front of the fire.

Vive le weekend!
And, until next time, stay vegan, friends! :)

On the Eve of All Hallows Eve....

It's Halloween tomorrow so tonight My Beloved is bravely making do with a panini for dinner. It is - in my own defence - a mixed mushroom, carmelised onion and soy cheese panini, but a panini nonetheless. The reason? Well, I am taking some goodies in to work tomorrow and have spent the whole evening baking. Following my recent crowing about the pumpkin cheesecake I have been conscripted to make another to share with my friends and coworkers.

However, this cheesecake almost came out somewhat differently. Take a look at this and see if you can spot the difference:



Yes, it's tough to see it immediately. And even tougher when you're in the grocery store, it's the end of a long day, you have a 45 minute ride home, it's raining and you just want to get back to cuddle your pups and snuggle with your beloved.

But it is terribly important - vital, you could even say - to notice the albeit rather 'subtle' difference between these two lids if you are going to spare yourself the complete panic attack I had when opening up the lid for the pumpkin cheesecake to find this:



Cheddar.

Cheddar-flavoured cream cheese!

Not particularly useful for a pumpkin cheesecake. Good folks at Tofutti - what do you have to say for yourselves???

The gods were with me, however, as I had some spares. I mean, what's the chances of there being 2 spare tubs of vegan cream cheese when you need them????

That aside, last year at my first ever vegan Halloween party (sigh!), I made some Dead Man's Fingers (from Yeah that Vegan Shit) which went down a treat. They are surprisingly simple and fun to make, absolutely ghastly to behold, and mouth-watering to munch, so I made a batch to take to my work and a batch for My Beloved too. See here....





Hopefully our coworkers are not reading this tonight and spoiling the surprise for tomorrow!

Apologies for the short post, but it is getting late and I hear my bed calling softly to me......

Stay Vegan (and spooky), Friends!

On Weird Types, Curries and Cookies Sandwiches

After a bizarrely stressful day, culminating in some random man shouting at me on the street*, I arrived home tonight to find that My Beloved had made dinner. He'd started out with Sarah Kramer's Eggplant Bharta recipe, discovered we didn't have enough eggplant, combined it with an aloo concoction of some shape and description, added mushrooms and a side of chewy brown rice. And it was great. No real recipe, just good, honest, off-the-top-of-your-head kind of food. Like this:



A close up:



So to make some kind of contribution - unused as I am to having dinner fully made for me when I roll in from work - I decided to use up the chocolate-citrus cookies I'd made. Fortunately there were enough for all three of us, so I made cookie sandwiches with some Tofutti Vanilla Almond Bark Ice Cream, served with a side of fresh strawberries. Thus:



An easy, quick and fun dessert. And a way to strategically use up cookies which really need to be eaten, before I can make more!

Stay Vegan, Friends!

**************************

*OK, so here's the story. I went into Northampton to collect a bottle of my father-in-law's favourite tipple, Tio Pepe. Having parked, thrown 10c in the meter (for 12 minutes!), I made my way to the local wines/spirits store. On the way, I noticed a man having problems with 2 bags of groceries - the handle of one had broken and spilled his stuff all over the road. So, feeling like I didn't want to walk on by, I crossed over the road and asked him if he needed help. He turned to face me and said 'Are you talkin' to me??? Are you talkin' to ME???' in that kind of cinematic way. (I forget which movie it sounded like, but whatever that well-known movie was....)

I replied, 'Yes', because I was indeed talking to him....he being the one potentially in need of help.....To which he graciously replied 'Don't talk to me. Don't talk to MEEEEE! I don't talk to people!!!!!!'

And off he stalked.

'Oh, right', was pretty much all I could say in response. And then I wanted to burst into tears. Because it's pretty much been a day like that today. Full of weirdness. And silliness. And people jumping up and down about nothing at all. And questions screaming in my head along the lines of 'Why?????'

Why don't you talk to people?
Why do you eat a MacDonald's in front of me?
Why do you not see the connections?
Why don't you accept help you clearly need?
Why do you ridicule my choices?

Und so weiter. Und so fort.