This weekend in Portland..

The point of this post is certainly not to get people to move to Portland, but I understand that it may be hard to resist, with the new vegan Mini Mall and all.
On Sunday, I went to the grand opening party for Sweetpea Bakery and Cafe, Food Fight! Grocery, Herbivore Store and Scapegoat Tattoo. I was too beat to stay around for the music at 6pm, but I spent 2-5pmish chatting with friends, spending time in the stores, and sampling greatness, which included dishes from my friend Joanna's Yellow Rose Recipes at Herbivore. I was honored to make her Spice Cake for the event (with help from Maeve and Caitlin).

Giganto oatmeal cream pie from Sweetpea. If only these came in mini sizes, I'd be in sweet heaven.

YRR Spice Cake, dusted with cinnamon

YRR Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

More YRR tasting. The book is gorgeous! (as is the mini mall).

My friends ordered these cuppers from Sweetpea.

The oatmeal cream pie and a cookies and cream cupcake.
And more greatness about Sweetpea - there are 5 or 6 different types of vegan cheeses - featuring bacon and scallion, roasted garlic and rosemary, chipotle and strawberry !!
I have yet to try them, but be certain I will.

And later than night, post-mini mall sampling (Taqueria Los Gorditos and Blossoming Lotus were two of the vendors giving out free samples, including soft serve, at Food Fight...) I made a half batch of Chickpea Noodle Soup from Veganomicon.

I only made this once during testing, but it's so easy that I should again. I ate most of the noodles from the bowls I've had in the past 2 days, and brought some more noodles to cook in the leftovers when I eat it for lunch today.
I also want to saute some tofu or seitan and throw it in during a future batch.

More make-shift minestrone leftovers from last week.

Taco night. I made breakfast chorizo from tvp and soy curls from VWAV since I had some leftover taco shells hanging around, and half an avocado to smush. No salsa, but we had hot sauce and field greens. Nothing great, but good enough for a quick meal.
Breakfast chorizo is very versatile, easy to spice to liking, also easy to cut fat in, and keeps well.

And low and behold, look what I came across at Trader Joe's this weekend - Organic Blue Agave! This 11.75 oz bottle was 2.99. I keep meaning to restock, since I've been out for months, but keep forgetting. I usually buy the cheapest in bulk from People's Coop - but that's light, and I prefer darker, so this was a nice chance to try something new.
I used it to make Veganomicon Backyard BBQ sauce last night instead of sugar - yum.