TGI....P!

Yeah!, it's Friday!

There were times this week that this evening just could not come around quickly enough. Man, oh man, it's been...shall we say...'challenging'. However, here we are at last.....and in Massachusetts it is a holiday weekend: Columbus Day! Hurrah.

So, in celebration of having made it to this point in the week, I am making a pizza.

OK, it's a weak excuse, but I'm feeling that way tonight.

Weak.

Burnt out.

And generally tired of it all.

Work, that is.

So what is better, I ask you, than a cozy Friday night in with My Beloved, our pound puppies and a large vegan pizza? Especially as this particular vegan pizza is loaded with diary-free homemade pesto, thinly sliced potato (a la Vegan Joy), onions, jalapenos (well, My Beloved wanted them even though technically I suppose they're not super-compatible with pesto....sigh) and diced chunks of Vegan Dad's buffalo chickenless wings. And, as I type, a smattering of Vegan-rella is melting all over the top.

An aside: evestirs...did you try the Vegan-rella yet??

OK, so I hear the little timer beeping away meaning that the long-awaited pizza MAY be ready. Am off with the camera.....be right back!





And there's the finished product. Pix are hastily taken, but I am too hungry to bother with 'styling'. Let the munching begin!, says I....erm...anyone need a beer???

Oh, and Stay Vegan, Friends!

One Down, Three to Go

Squash. Everywhere I look in our (admittedly compact and bijou) kitchen I see squash.

And so I took it into my head to bake one of the cheeky little things for dinner and this is the result:



In essence, all I did was to split an acorn squash in half, drizzle the inside with a little olive oil, scatter on some salt, pepper and a tad of garlic powder, invert both halves onto a baking sheet and bake until soft.

While that was happening, I roughly chopped an onion and a pepper (colour = your choice) and sauteed them off in a little oil basil, oregano and thyme. I added some Gimme Lean (sausage-style), chopped mushrooms, sliced sun-dried tomatoes and a baby bok choy that struck me as a novel ingredient. (Although I guess celery would have been more appropriate!) As a side, I threw a mix of brown and forbidden (purple!) rice into a pan with boiling water and let it cook until chewy and beautiful to behold!

Pulling the end result together was simplicity itself: rice is rice, say no more. I spooned the stuffing mix into the hollowed out, baked squash and was dissuaded from topping with grated Vegan-rella by My Beloved who felt it would have been overkill.

And that was that. A really nice meal, pulled together fairly quickly (even quicker, I guess, if you microwave the squash - although I've never tried that so I can't really recommend it, as such) and perfect for a Wednesday night.

Now I just have to figure out what to do with the other three squash gracing the vegetable rack.....

Stay Vegan, Friends!

MoFo for Wednesday: The Utter Deprivation of the Vegan Lifestyle

Well, I struck out on the rhubarb, sadly. Everywhere I turned at the FarMar there were squash, squash and more squash, so I bought a couple...four, in fact....and am thinking about what to do with them. Two were acorn squash, one a butternut (which never fails to make my giggle in a most juvenile way) and the last was a Blue Hubbard squash, which kind of look like a deformed smurf head. Pictures will come later.

However, having commited to making a rhubarb bread, and having no rhubarb, I decided to try out the 'sister recipe' from How It All Vegan: Apricot Bread. Oh man, am I glad I did.

The original recipe calls for a 1/2 cup of nuts (your choice) but since My Beloved is not a nut fan, I decided to swap these out with 1/2 cup diced dried pineapple instead. The combo of the pineapple, diced dried apricot and the cup of fresh orange juice makes this treat heavenly. Would you just look at this golden-brown loveliness?.....



And it sliced delightfully - just look at that crumb....



And I simply could not confine myself to one lonely slice. Damn, I'll never be thin....



But I will always be vegan. And I will always laugh (surreptitiously) at those who say that veganism is about abstinence and deprivation. Bring it on, says I!

Stay Vegan, Friends!

All Hail Vegan Dad!

Over the weekend, I decided on an adventure and peeked out from behind the relative safety of my much loved vegan cookbooks to embrace a recipe or two from the blogosphere. I had stumbled, you see, upon one of my new favourite people: Vegan Dad. OK, so I don't know him personally and I am unlikely, I guess, to ever so do, however, I love his blog and was determined to test out a dish or two.

And so, in the best tradition of Saturday night 'junk food', I selected Boneless Chickenless Chicken Wings, seitan-based little morsels of delight and wonderment. Mine, not quite as pretty as Vegan Dad's, looked like this:



They paired really well with some twice-baked potato skins stuffed with garlic mushrooms and topped with Vegan-rella, thus:



And finally, celebrating the fact that we now have a broiler (a small miracle!) in an oven whose door actually closes, we also enjoyed a plate of nachos - tortilla chips, topped with a mixed bean-tomato confection and grated MELTING Vegan-rella cheddar cheese. See here:



No, I'll readily 'fess up and agree that it was not the healthiest meal I ever dreamed up, but My Beloved just was not in the mood for another plate of sauteed greens. And, on a Saturday night, who can blame him????

Stay Vegan, Friends!

I (heart) Green Beans....

Yeah, I know you're chomping at the bit for news of my rhubarb exploits, but you'll have to wait just a little longer. I don't have the pix available right now - and what is a blog post without pix, I ask you???? - so instead here are some of the brunch I enjoyed at the Green Bean on Saturday.

Having been to the farmers' market, My Beloved and I popped into our favourite place in NoHo for brunch. I am going through phases where I have the same thing over and over, so decided it really was time to break the habit and have 'Something Else'.

The herb and onion bread with almond butter gravy and a side of roasted red potatoes.

Yeah, I KNEW you'd approve!

OK, here's how it stacked up:

The cutest coffee cup in the whole wide world....



And then it found a friend.....



Sipping happily at the excellent brew, I was *thrilled* when this arrived:



and



The gravy is creamy and savoury and the kind of thing I could imagine poured over streamed greens, drizzled over crepes, or just in a bowl with a spoon. If I can ever - EVER - get the recipe, I will post it here because you absolutely have to try it. Have to.

But until that happy time, if you are in the New England area make a beeline for Northampton and the Green Bean and try it for yourself. It is well worth the trip - even if you are coming from - say - Alaska!

Anyways, better get back to work so, until next time, Stay Vegan, Friends!

PS: Oh, and the little dish of 'butter' in the background? That's Earth Balance. And it was brought to me without me even having to ask, beg, look sad, or bribe the staff. Our wonderful server simply brought it over. Because that is the vegan thing to do.

Fun with Rhubarb!

MoFo: Day 3!

This has to be a very quick post as My Beloved is taking me back up to Northampton for a bite to eat. It's been a 'helluva week' at work and really we need to get a couple of beers and wind down a bit. So, instead of making the pasta dish we *were* planning, we're off for some sushi or a veggie burger or something easy and quick, made by someone else!

However, in order not to let the side down on the whole MoFo thing, here's a sneak peek at my plan for tomorrow. I am really hoping to go to the farmers' market in the morning to get some of this:

'Wait!', I hear you gasp, 'Rhubarb?!?!?'

Well yeah! I found this truly scrumptious recipe in - I think - The Garden of Vegan for Rhubarb Bread and I really - REALLY - want to make it again. This was how it turned out last time:



It was moist, sweet but not overly so, the crumb was well rounded, held a fantastic texture and it just melted in your mouth.

Well, in my mouth anyhow!

So it's on the menu again this weekend, as long as someone at the farmers' market can provide me with a few stalks of the red stuff.

Here's hoping!

Stay vegan, friends! :)

Smoky Refried Bean Stoup

Day 2 of the MoFo Challenge! Well, yesterday really was a roaring success, I think, and I am so thrilled at the comments I have received here regarding my post! Equally, I was pretty happy that two of my coworkers asked me for the recipes, which shows a little more on their part than simple polite interest. I even managed to have a great conversation with one of them regarding flax seeds as an alternative for chickens' eggs in baking.

Result!

Now, for today's offering, we have smoky refried bean stoup - a cross between a stew and a hearty soup. It comes from Susan over there in the Fatfree Vegan Kitchen and I have to admit it smells divine.

My Beloved went out to our favourite bakery Hungry Ghost Bread at lunchtime and bartered some freshly minted Greenbacks for a loaf of their spectacular 'Country Wheat', a veritable feast of a loaf and just one of the multitude of reasons why I could not, would not, go raw!

*******Food Porn Alert!!*******

Look at that crust:




And here's the final dish:



Thickened by the refried beans, packed with home-cooked black beans, redolent with chipotle chili, Hungarian smoked paprika and roasted garlic and topped with a sprig of fresh Thai Basil.....Yum!

OK, am off to eat it now while watching the VP debacle...oops..sorry...debate!

Stay Vegan, Friends!

Happy World Vegetarian Day, 2008!

I am off to a blazing start on this MoFo Challenge! Today, dear reader, as you probably know is World Vegetarian Day and, in anticipation thereof, I devised a cunning plan. It was breath-taking in its simplicity: offer great vegan baked goods and they will come!

Yeah, and when they showed up, I also had available some brochures from Vegan Outreach and some podcast sampler CDs from Compassionate Cooks. Let me explain....

Last night I spent most of the evening baking. I made scores of mini chocolate-orange cupcakes, battalions of carrot cake mini cupcakes, great troughs of chocolate-raspberry chewie cookies and hods of ginger sparkle cookies. The overall haul looked like this:



and these were my supplemental materials:



and



Devious, no?

So, I arrived super-early at work to set it all up. We have a central cafeteria where everyone comes to swipe in, so that seemed like a logical place to host this 'event'. 07:40 in the AM (yeah, I said 'super early!) saw me spreading leaflets and CDs on the table, uncovering cakes, pinning flyers to notice boards and generally having a great time. As you can see, this whole event was carefully orchestrated. I took these pix and stole quietly away.

The general scene:



...and a close up or two:







Anyways, it was not long before folks were happily tucking into the food and by mid morning there was - by all accounts - only a single, solitary choc-orange mini cupcake left. People were obviously too polite to take the last one, methinks! At lunchtime, however, I peeped into the cafeteria to take stock and beheld a scene of utter devastation. Not a single crumb remained!

But even better than that, approx. two thirds of the outreach materials had been picked up and 24 out of 30 podcast sampler CDs had also been accepted. Which means, I hope, that the whole experience provided not only a mid-week morale boost and a tempting, semi-healthy snack but also great Food for Thought.

Which is, of course, what it's all about.

A great day to be vegan, friends!
:)

Not Your Momma's Cupcakes...

After something of a lull, I am back to blogging and hope that the upcoming MoFo challenge will reinvigorate me for two of the things I love best in the world: cooking great vegan goodies and boasting about them! I think I must already be feeling the effects because, at lunchtime today, I took a deep breath and signed up to become an Iron Cupcake.

Yes, you *did *read that correctly: an Iron Cupcake!

The website happily proclaims:

This is the central hub for the ultimate world-wide cupcake competition. A monthly ingredient, a monthly challenge, fabulous prizes, new ways to find other cupcake fanatics just like yourself.

And, as far as I can see, the idea is that each month a new ingredient is proposed for inclusion within those little packets of fun we call cupcakes. From the IC site, the challenge:

is a way for bakers from anywhere, all over the world, to take place in the ultimate flavor challenge and promote world peace, one cupcake at a time.

Last month's challenge was basil - a herb more commonly considered in connection with stewed tomatoes and with pesto than with cupcakes, I suspect. However, I learned of it through Vegan_Noodle and was inspired both by her creative use of this wonderful leaf and her subverse thumbing-of-the-nose at Hurricane Ike. So, now I want in! I have emailed the IC folks and begged to be included on their blogroll so hopefully we will soon see Cackleberry listed there too.

Bring on the next challenge: I am ready!

Oh, and Stay Vegan, Friends!

MoFo!

MoFo? Nah, not what you're thinking! In fact, this refers to the 'Vegan Month of Food' - for October this year! The idea is that we vegan bloggers completely inundate and overwhelm the blogosphere with accounts of deliriously delicious, fantastically fabulous, exquisitely edible vegan food....and I am in! I pledge to blog about food - specifically - every weekday for the month of October. For those of us who are 'math-challenged', that's 20 times within 31 days! But, you know what? I will do it.

Today, in preparation, I baked. Lots. And took pix to document this endeavor. On the menu were cranberry orange scones, low-fat banana and chocolate chip bread and vegan sausage and peanut butter biscotti - the latter for my precious pooches, Darwin the Dog and Sir Humphrey Hound. Facing the scones and banana/choc chip bread, My Beloved is speechless and managed to snivel only the following:

I want one. I want it NOW! And it's not fair, because I haven't had my dinner so I can't have my dessert!

There will be pix and recipes available during the month of MoFo...so check back frequently.

I am so excited I can barely speak - let alone type!

Stay Vegan, Friends!