Weekend Seitan & Belmont Street Fair

Organic IPA

Remember how I despise hot weather? Oh, you don't? What are you doing? It's the theme of my site come May. Welcome aboard! When my birthday passed in early September, I thought we could put the hot hot behind us, but it returned last weekend. September is actually flying by for me, but I'm still talking about it like it's been weeks and weeks already. Anyway, the point here is that I started out the hot weekend on a hot Friday meeting some vegan pals for happy hour at Hopworks Urban Brewery for an organic IPA. It's an eco-brewpub with all organic brews located on SE Powell, a quick bike ride from my dwelling.

I was having an uber social evening and met up with PPK pals at the Bye & Bye for dinner, but my first round of vegan friends for the night sampled the tofu ricotta'd vegan pizzas Hopworks offers and the feedback seemed to be fairly positive:

I liked the looks of the crust.

Keeping with the PPK-ness, here's another dish from Isa's in-progress 'Healthy' Cookbook -

Braised Seitan and Cabbage (simmered seitan from Veganomicon)

More seitan, more Isa -

Tempeh Scramble from Vegan Brunch,

with more seitan and more veggies I want to name at the moment.

Returning to the heat portion of the weekend, besides these dishes I hid in my cool apartment to make.

A quick venture to the SE Belmont Street Fair. It wasn't super crowded, thank goodness, but it was too warm out for my liking. I walked around, said hi to folks I knew and stopped by my favorite table - the sale at Tao of Tea.

I have a cute tea set from stopping by a few years ago at home~

Picked up a small jar of loose leaf Roasted Mate for $2, heck yeah.

Fair.

Who remembers the old Paradox sign? I do, I remember when I'd go there at least once a week when I lived in the neighborhood, my first couple years in PDX...

The vintage store next to Paradox had a sale out front (the newer one) -

cute to see at a fair table!

My favorite part besides the tea - this giant circle of grass in the middle of the street! Traffic was blocked off for a few blocks, just the way it should be for a street fair, hint hint, Hawthorne.

Oh, Portland.

Splendid. Iced Coconut Coffee, Hot Ass Day.

Iced Coffee with So Delicious Coconut Milk.

So splendid. So delicious.

Coffee from local roaster K & F.

Unsweetened Coconut milk beverage of the god, by So Delicious.

Escape from my day at work, pull down the shades, cat on your lap, splendid.

I have a full product review in the very beginning stages for their newest product line, look for it later this summer! I should just get this out there - the vanilla = take. my. breath. away.

Thank you Staci for the idea! Next time, I work almond into this.

Coffee Plant hug. The quickest post ever.

Faint with me now,

Soy Latte and freshly baked cinnamon roll 

from Coffee Plant, downtown Portland.

What type of week was this??

As usual, I have posts in the works for this site and Stumptown Vegans,(NYC Vegan Ice Cream show down! Perierra Creperie!) but I'm a little busy at work, which means quite busy in real life.  I'm headed to Spokane for the rest of the week for work, so if you have some recommendations there on what to do and where to dine, please don't keep them locked up. Please share.

Portlanders - VeganTwitNic this weekend! Sunday, June 21st, 1pm at Colonel Summers Park.

NYC Food Porn #2, another Get Sconed! Travel Post

Welcome to the second Spring 2009 NYC Food Porn Post!  The first one is here.  I'm specifically labelling it spring because there's always the hope I'll visit my siblings again this winter before the year is up. Actually, it's their turn to visit, hint hint!

Spread of Dim Sum featuring Amanda's hand.

My first and last sit sit down meals on this trip were at Vegetarian Dim Sum House.  I used to go here during my college years since it was a)vegetarian! and b)so close to the bus stop! but I didn't fall in love with their cheap, expansive dim sum menu until I moved to Portland, silly jess.  I went twice on my vacation last spring as well.  On day one, it was not only my first meal of the trip, but my first meal of the day after the bus from Boston.  Between my sister, her boyfriend Mike, and myself, I think three orders of the Roasted Pork buns were eaten!  It's their favorite, and of course I'm a fan.  My other favorite dim sum are the spinach dumplings and Chinese kale rice rolls, but gelatinous blocks of grey can attest, I'll try anything there.  My last meal of the trip was with my friends from the PPK, Amanda and Gory, heart! 

Treasure balls

Pineapple Chicken entree

The entrees here are on the pricey side.  Jenny and Mike wanted fruity chicken after seeing the Mango Chicken on our first visit.  This chicken is actually tofu wrapped in yuba.  It was tender and soaked up the sauce - and they ate it, but it really confused them and my sister noted how she's tried every type of fake chicken there is, and she's never had anything like this.

Classic spring rolls - classic, and spring rolly.

Steamed sesame buns.  Sweetness.  I've tried these fried, and prefer the steamed.

Steamed Spinach Dumplings

Next top on this photo tour, to Teany!  Co-founded by musician Moby (who I saw there once a few years ago!), it's a vegetarian tea house with some sandwiches and a bunch of Vegan Treats desserts.  It's where I fell into the sweet embrace of Teanychinos - my trip featured three visits, two teanychinos, two shared slices of cake, and a pot of Smoked Russian Black tea.

Earl Grey Teanychino 

Exterior

Red Velvet Cake - 

we gave my sister the flower, because you know, younger sisters have that natural right.

Carrot cake

They exist!  Here's Jenny, my sister, and Mike, looking like two cool cats in their leather jackets, waiting for the subway. They're the best.

My brother, Rick, the perpetual smirker.

Rivington Street - we hit up Economy Candy for...candy.

Little Italy 

Pommes Frites - 

I gotta say, Potato Champion! kicks their ass, as fun as a late night stop here with my crew was.  I'm not complaining, just pointing this out!  PC's fries are just tastier.  I do like Pommes' peanut sauce more, however, but that's because PC's sauce is loaded with fresh cilantro.

Frites and peanut sauce - brings me back to my semester in the Netherlands... 

We also continued our tradition of hitting up Milon, 

one of the intensely festive Indian restaurant on 1st ave.  

Daytime:

And inside the restaurant, come nightfall:

The last stop on today's recollection is Buddha Bodai in Chinatown for more fulfillment of my vegan chinese cravings.  aka - painful to look at now in the future.  I've never been during the afternoon dim sum hours, but I have cherished their entrees and appetizers.  Fried noodles smothered in sauce and sauteed, flavorful veggies?  Yes!  Vacation indulgence!!

General Tso's - 

My sister's pick.  She's had it before - and gone without me! and my brother told her, conveniently while I was in the bathroom, that this was the best General Tso's he's ever had, even with his fake meat issues.

Pan fried dumplings - again, filled with flavorful vegetables!

Buddha's Delight Pan Fried Noodles.  

What I described above.  It may not look like much, but I could eat this for days.  Buddha's also has a lunch special that's a great deal.

Okay - come back for pizza and to moan over vegan ice cream with Bazu, Panda & myself!

decisions.

On Wednesdays, I am faced with the "problem" of "deciding" between two farmers markets. As I've mentioned lately, I look forward to the Wednesday downtown market, quite close to my office, but there's also the year-long market outside of People's Coop that grows come springtime.

Yesterday, I had a smile on my face as I had a real reason to stop by both.  I stopped by the

 downtown market late on my lunch hour for bok choy raab, red anjour pears and braeburn apples, but I also wanted garlic, so off I went to the next market at the completion of my work day.  There was no garlic at the People's market so I picked up some organic, purple garlic and a few other items in the actual coop.  At the market itself, I picked up over a pound of local shiitake mushrooms for $5.  The mushroom farmers at this market always have, by far, the lowest price. Maiitakes next time!  I cooked some in a yellow curried vegetable, seitan and chickpea roast last night.  I'm considering what to do next with the rest for two potlucks this weekend.  OoOo.

A sampling of shiitakes

I sadly hadn't been to Sip in months, so I stopped by for a Matcha Hemp Tea Latte.  It was delightful and so pretty!  I could see this becoming a habit, but in a few weeks they'll be replacing the espresso machine with the milkshake equipment, so get one while you can!  Remind me to!

Recent home-cooking.

Quinoa, chickpeas, spinach, kalamata olives, smoky orange tempeh, garlic and a bit of nutritional yeast.

Baked Smoky Orange Tempeh

Stuff:

• Check out my first Veggie Thing contribution here, and feel free to like it if you do!
• Follow Get Sconed! on twitter.
  
• Portlanders - check out the Try Vegan PDX film benefit this Sunday night, "A Delicate Balance".
• Next post: NYC food porn insanity.  
• Isa's Vegan Brunch is out later this month! I'll be posting a round up of everything I've tested around then!  

More from the Vita-Mix: Peach Soy Ice Cream & Hazelnut Chocolate Smoothie

A couple months ago a brand new Vita-Mix came into my life, and things have never been......................................smoother.  My comical Magic Bullet definitely still comes in handy when it comes to pureeing small portions and chopping a lot of garlic, but the Vita-Mix blends and purees and grinds more quickly and smoother than I anticipated.  Clearly I didn't have enough faith in this holy appliance.  I've been pureeing soups, puddings and making marinara without a bit of graininess to it.  

Peach Soy Ice Cream

During my recent bout with the classic cold, I reached for the last of the chopped frozen peaches I'd picked on my birthday in September, and made the recipe for Peach Soy Ice Cream from the Vita-Mix website.  I used plain soy milk, Madagascar Vanilla Powder (I got this from Julie Hasson and it's fantastic, no surprise) and a bit less (organic) sugar.  My awful sore throat and tired-self was thrilled with this!  As recommended, spoon some into your mouth pronto.

Once frozen again, it does lose the creamy texture, but you can blend it with more liquid and ice for a smoothie.

Ready to blend-

And you have something like soy ice cream.

I also made homemade hazelnut butter this past weekend in the Vita-Mix, with the help of a little peanut oil.  Hazelnuts are my favorite nut and happen to be the state nut of Oregon.

Roasted & Ready to Butterize.

No picture of the finished product, but I will share that I had the brilliant/lazy idea to make a smoothie in the blender instead of just cleaning it, after making the hazelnut butter.  I blended bittersweet chocolate (without melting! behold the power!), soymilk, a dab of hazelnut liquor, vanilla powder and a pinch of brown sugar.

Vegan Nutella-ish smoothie in a Pabst glass, anyone?

My juice is green.

Apple-Mango-Field Greens-Garlic-Ginger Juice

My friend Shaun of In a Pickle and a Jam gifted me with her old juicer when she moved from Portland last year.  You know, she's a vegan who left Portland.  It happens more often than you think. It's not all magical nutritional yeast covered streets and freshly made vegan donuts handmade by dear Katie Jane at Sweetpea on Saturdays.

Back to the point, my friend Tiffany of the new blog she's begging me to plug even though she 

only has one entry up so far, A Series of Open Letters to Entirely Random People, constantly tells me from thousands of miles away that she wants juice.  I don't ship her juice, but it does inspire me to use said juicer.  And truthfully, she's told me at least two humorous ideas she has in store for other letters, and I helped her navigate wordpress and I'll be disappointed if she doesn't keep blogging, so now she better.  I'll make her juice when she visits.

Personally, I find myself juicing when I have a surplus of produce, like after picking up $1 bags at Limbo or with odds and ends - a random apple, beet and two I'm-worried-about-them-going-really-limp stalks of celery and then I'm thinking juice.

$1 Bag of apples and mangoes

Reason #4,599 that I dig vegan Portland - A special peanut butter cream filled donut with chocolate glaze at Sweetpea, and a mug of Stumptown Coffee.