Everything Fakin'

In celebration, preparation and flavorful hallucination for tomorrow's Fakin' Fest in Portland, OR, I wanted to give some hollas to many of the fakin' entries in my flickr account. As a smokey, salty fanatic, there's a lot.

Cheezy biscuits, potatoes, kale, black beans and homemade tempeh bacon.

Super club with homemade tofu bacon.

Mini grilled cheeze with homemade tempeh bacon and Galaxy rice cheeze.

Their rice varieties are much tastier and meltier than their Vegan ones.

Raw gnocchi with pea shoots and eggplant bacon from Grezzo, in Boston, MA

Chocolate chip waffles, collards & Lightlife Fakin' Bacon

Boring salad greens, with homemade tempeh bacon.

Homemade tempeh bacon, roasted potatoes, avocado and cinnamon dusted apple slices

Super brunch with pancake and homemade tempeh bacon.

Crappy photo, but let's give some love to TLTs on Dave's Killer Bread.

And a side of fresh, local melon? More love.

Vegan Brunch Frittata, homemade tempeh bacon, pita crisp

Vegan Brunch Peanut Butter Waffles, homemade tempeh bacon

Lunch at work! Featuring greens with homemade tofu bacon.

From the last day of Veganopolis' life in PDX - buffet pasta with Fakin Bacon

One of my habitual favorite things to order in PDX: side vegan caeser salad with tempeh bacon from Hungry Tiger Too.

Aka, when it's not brunch or I'm not repeating 'TATOR TOTS' in my head.

Case in Point: The Vegan Club with tots (back when it wasn't yet on the menu!)

from Hungry Tiger Too.

This was also before they made their own tempeh bacon.

Marionberry waffles with homemade tempeh bacon

Cremini sandwich with a side of homemade tempeh bacon. Huh? But I'm sure it was delicious!

And the mandatory plug:

Notes:

If there's light rain, we'll be meeting under the covered gazebo area. We may wait it out or move to a nearby residence, depending on how many people are there.

If there's heavy rain, the event is cancelled and will be rescheduled indoors at a later date.

Since you know, it's fall.

There are prizes (donated by Lightlife!) for Most Creative, Best Dish & Best Gluten Free dish - and Best Fakin' Haiku!

The suggested $5 donation goes entirely to Lighthouse Farm Sanctuary.

Luke lives there!

Fakin' Ideas I've had in my head:

• Alder smoked salt, cocoa and chili grilled tempeh or seitan
• Southern style summer rolls with eggplant bacon, kale, yam and creamy, spicy dipping sauce.
• Eggplant bacon wrapped bundles of smoky greens.
• Tempeh bacon wrapped, battered, mac & cheeze squares. (inspired from the Food Network)
• Fake bacon adorned chocolate chip cookies
• Fakin bacon and dark chocolate cornflake bars
• Mac & Cheeze topped with a mixture of breadcrumbs & fake bacon. Mac & Cheeze is so my potluck regular, though..

Ode to VEGAN BRUNCH Testing

Excuse me, Vegan Brunch is out!!!!

 Tofu Florentine with Bechamel

Once again, I had the honor of testing for an Isa Chandra Moskowtiz cookbook, and once again, I cannot stop raving about her recipes.   I tested twentysomething this time around, and many of them quickly made it into regular rotation in my kitchen, like the Swiss Chard Frittata and Chorizo Sausages.  There are also those, like the Tomato Rosemary Scones and East Coast Coffeecake, that I kick myself for not making more often.  Testing for Post Punk Kitchen books is always a fantastic ongoing project that has me trying things I wouldn't normally, and really thinking about what I can see myself making again.

If you've been to my apartment, or my flickr, you know I have a steamed sausage drawer in my fridge.  Everything I tested was awesome, no hype here - I mean, this is the author who gave the world tempeh bacon, the first recipe I ever made from Vegan with a Vengeance, and it's dear to my heart.  She fucking knows brunch.  Follow that with perfect, reliable and at many, many points - innovative, recipes for pancakes, waffles, morning greens, scrambles of the cubed and smushed variety (hell yeah, to throwing in cubes!), east coast style coffeecake, omelets and scones, and well, she gives anyone interested in vegan cooking another guide to impressing and feeding their friends and family any time of day.  

In fact, just last night I picked up my copy, and utilized the leftover olives from a party I threw, jar of capers I've had for a while (admittedly since Veganomicon Caeser testing!), and a block of bulk tofu from People's Coop and made the Puttanesca Scramble for dinner.

Let's embark on my Vegan Brunch test kitchen photo tour... (there were actually a few recipes I tested I didn't photograph, liked the Jeff-endorsed Chesapeake Tempeh cakes - shocking, I know, blame the winter lighting)

The Tofu Florentine with Bechamel

 served with steamed chard

The Puttanesca Scramble

What you and Zelda came for. Vegan Omelets.

With a spicy black beans and greens filling

To my dear Tofu Frittatas...

This one had shiitakes, spinach, rosemary and thyme

Asparagus

Swiss Chard, plated

Shiitake Dill (with creminis)

OMG, Sausages  - 

I made so many variations of Isa's Italian, Chorizo and Cherry Sage, I could never begin to name them all

You may know how it is....

Sausages and Greens 

Pan-fried

Cherry Sage - a couple weeks ago I made a 

Roasted Apple, Maple and Sage variation!

Spicy, spicy, spicy

Plated with extra mini-omelets

Poppy seed Pull-apart Rolls

Lemon Pepper Tofu

Scones! Chocolate Chip and Raisin something.  

These are actually rejects from a photo shoot for the book.  The recipes are all Isa's, but the sweet scones, Tomato Rosemary, coffeecake and mocha chip muffins seen in Vegan Brunch came from my little kitchen.  cough cough.

Tomato Rosemary scones (first test) and Smoky Shiitakes (and creminis)

Sesame Yam Tofu Scramble

White bean gravy

Tempeh Sausage Pastry Puffs

East Coast Coffeecake, with jam swirl

How to Swirl!  

Very East Coast meets Portland, with this Oregon Black Raspberry Jam

Peanut Butter Waffles AND Tempeh Bacon

Mom's Breakfast Casserole - (uncooked)

potatoes, tofu, tempeh sauce - which you then smother in a cheezy sauce or shredded cheeze.

Chelsea Waffles - 

which I finally made once I had the book in my hands!

I'm honored to share the 'all dishes taste better with the texture of cat hair' rule with Isa and Kirby.

So go out. Brunch. Enjoy!  

Thank you, Isa!

Please note that Isa is bribing me with a year of warm vegan omelets, whenever I want one, in exchange for writing this.