Monday, December 29, 2008

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Best Wishes to all during the end of December 2008!  I don't really celebrate anything myself, besides time off from work and the possibility of snow - and Portland had a White Christmas!!

According to the National Weather Service Forecast Office, this was an event - the probability of it happening was less than 0.08%.  End of the world, thanks!  It's now turned to rain and in the 40s again, but I was happy for real, inches of snow while it lasted and extra time away from work.  I really don't hate my job, I just prefer not being there.  Shocker.

Bittersweet chocolate and peanut butter tofu mousse

Food wise, I've been soaking beans, eating Thai, baking cookies and playing with my
new Vita-Mix.  Recently I learned that I could turn my homemade Roasted Garlic and Red Wine Marinara into tomato sauce silk.  I also took 3/4 of a block of silken tofu and blended it with chunks of bittersweet chocolate, almond milk, peanut butter, vanilla and a little bit of sugar to see if it would mousse it up, and it absolutely did.  No need to melt the chocolate beforehand! I let it set in the fridge for a couple hours and then enjoyed this vegan classic.

Chili sin Carne ala Mole - from Vegan with a Vengeance

Using soaked small red beans and black beans, I made this recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance.  I used the last of my locally made Cast Iron Seitan sample and added carrots and yellow bell pepper.  I've never had seitan in chili before and call me a fan.  

This was my Christmas eve dinner above - with a Full Sail Limited Edition Lager Recipe #1 and side of gluten free cornbread.  The only gluten free part of the meal was based on the Veganomicon recipe, using Bob's Red Mill gluten free baking mix for the flour.

Vegan Lunch Special Soup from Pad Thai Kitchen




On Christmas Eve, I ended up meeting a few friends for lunch at Pad Thai Kitchen on SE Belmont.  It's proven to be a reliably vegan friendly Thai restaurant.  



Citrus Glitters 

From the Isa and Terry Vegan Cookie Book test kitchen - 
here's a slide show of what I've made so far.



Almond Soy Latte from Tiny's in SE Portland.


Snow Serpent from another time...

13 comments:

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

Amaaaazing mousse, chili, soup, cookies... holy yum!!

Happy Holidays, Jess!!

aredcardigan said...

hehe you and playing with vita-mix. We're always playing with food aren't we? I do the same thing.

the choc mousse looks divine Jess. Stop outdoing yourself.lol.

Anonymous said...

That mousse looks delicious, I want a Vita-Mix so bad!!!

I love both the chili and cornbread recipes, they are so tasty.

Ohh and those cookies!!! =P

KAYLiE said...

looks fabulous <3 yummyyy

allularpunk said...

yum yum yum to everything! and you totally have me wanting a vitamix now.

DJ said...

You got snow!!! The mousse looks good but my love of Thai soup knows no bounds so that looks just awesome!!!

Anonymous said...

everything looks fabulous! especially that mousse.

Anonymous said...

WOW... you sure did a lot of cooking! That mousse looks absolutely amazing- That VitaMix -I gotta get me one of these!

Melisser; the Urban Housewife said...

I've been soaking beans like crazy too! Must be the season. That chili looks awesome, then again, everything else does as well! Happy New Year!

Anonymous said...

Let's both hope for more snow!!!! I miss it. That mousse looks so yummy (as do the cookies and everything else)!

Anonymous said...

Mmm, that all looks so good!

Anonymous said...

Snow in Portland? Gracious! That's almost as weird as getting snow in Phoenix would be...

Cheers to the new year and to your beautiful food! It's chili weather...I just made a huge pot for us as well. :)

Erin said...

I'm jealous of your VitaMix adventures. Some day...

I'm also jealous of that amazing looking pad thai.