I'm off....

Low and behold - my camera is working! again! I spent 3 days assuming it was gone, fiddling with it, and then last night, although the menu is being funky, I decided to attempt using it to capture Thomas' birthday cake - and success!
This camera has really held up through the past few years, with all the dropping I've done to it, the portland mist, etc. - so while I'm absolutely wanting to replace it, I do have soft spot for it, for sure.

From last weekend - Toasted salt and pepper pecans (another one inspired by Julie! who made these a while ago at a potluck - they stuck in my mind!).

I didn't have her recipe, just the idea - so I toasted the nuts in a pan, added a lil bit of olive oil, some coarse sea salt, freshly ground black pepper and a pinch of organic sugar.



Oh, and that cake that I just had a teeny little sliver of?
Mocha Buttercream Layer Cake.



At the birthday boy's request.
FYI, It says 'T-rock'. Not that anyone calls him that. I underestimated how much frosting I had left to pipe, and was simply going for T, and then kept going...

He requested the cake I made for our anniversary a couple years ago, with the layers from the Candle Cafe cookbook (recipe here), but since I was out of maple syrup, I made the chocolate cupcake batter from VCTOTW and added coffee extract to the batter.
The buttercream is based on the fluffy white one from the same book - with coffee liquor as the liquid, and coffee extract and cocoa powder added. I myself would call is heavenly! or something.





And dinner before cake - baked tofu (tamari, sesame chili oil, agave, rice vinegar, garlic), sesame green beans (VWAV - asparagus recipe) and short grain brown rice.



Thomas and our friend Jeff split what I was originally making for dinner for the birthday guy - half a soy chicken baked in sweet and sour sauce - and then dove into the vegan baked ziti that that he asked I make while I was away as well. I wanted some of the tofu to myself, above, so I only used half a recipe of VWAV's tofu basil ricotta - plus chopped roasted red pepper.



Wish me and my camera good luck - red eye flight tonight! If you were me, where would *you* go, and dine, in Boston and NYC? And well, South Shore Long Island if you're familar..

urban vegan rules

Really, she does.
That's why you Herbivore subscribers should check out my recent interview, Being Urban Vegan, with Dynise in the current online edition of Herbivore Magazine. If you don't subscribe, just go hang out on her blog for a while anyway!

Not only is she intriguing and inspirational - she's also provided a recipe for Sticky Toffee Pudding with Caramel sauce. Oh, yes.

I'd like to also recommend the blog One Hot Stove - in case you've missed it. If you like, let alone love veggie Indian food, you're in a for a real treat. Look for my interview with Nupur, the author, next month online in Herbivore, too.


Hey Portlanders! Did you know this weekend is the 2nd Annual Vegan Holiday Festival? And that's it's free? I'm going to check it out again, see some chef demos and giddily load up on free samples.

tis the season..

Chocolate stout cupcakes, orange-lemon cupcakes with orange chocolate ganache and chic-o-stick decor


Mini orange pudding cupcakes with chocolate ganache

Sugar Crash

Oh Sugar....


Homemade Coconut and Espresso layer cake with coconut buttercream
Whole Foods Strawberry Buttercream layer cake
Thanks to Aaron for letting me use this photo~
Thanks to everyone who sent warm birthday wishes, especially to those who spent the evening making me smile.


The cake recipes were from VCTOTW. I made a coconut buttercream and added raw almonds and toasted coconut.


My boss let me pick out this Strawberry Buttercream cake for our work cake break.
Yes, I went to work on my birthday, but only for a half day. I went home, went on a bike ride, had a quick lunch, ran an errand, frosted my cake, cleaned the apartment and then relaxed a bit till meeting my friends.


I met my friend Jeff at XV for cocktails. Indulgence!
I had the La Suzette - a minty, lemony, tequila cocktail pictured above. We also shared some of the best fries in Portland - yam fries with tomato chutney. After XV, I met more friends at Nutshell, a new vegan restaurant here in Portland. I had gone once before at the pre-opening, and was stoked to try it again on a special occasion (aka turning 25!).


My friend Michelle and I both ordered this hominy, quinoa-y, cumin-y dish with greens. It was delish. If only I remembered the name and actual description...

How about some more sugar?

mint chocolate cupcakes


coconut lime cupcakes


gluten free mexican hot chocolate cupcakes with chocolate mousse


Just a little something extra - NYC Black & White cookies, from the PPK Cookie Test Kitchen.
That's right, Isa and Terry are working on a cookie book!

Field Roastin' and farmers markets

It's farmer's market time again in Portland, and you know what that means - I start eating a LOT of salad once more. Honestly, the field greens above are store bought that a friend brought over for dinner, but you get the point. Today, the downtown weekday farmer's market opened, and although it was annoyingly rainy, I managed to pick up sweet strawberries and grab lunch from the Hoda's stand. The rain also meant that we could walk around the market freely, ie not bumping into tons of people, strollers and dog (no real offense, it's just a constantly crowded saturday event).

Celebration Roast, VWAV biscuit, gravy and Tommy's mashed potatoes.

Our friend brought over a celebration field roast on Sunday night, which I warmed with asparagus, sun dried tomatoes, shallots, tamari and vegetable broth. This product is MUCH easier to make over tofurkey, and though a little bit too rosemary-riffic for my boyfriend's and my own personal tastes, I quite enjoyed it. I would consider getting it for thanksgiving.
I know you can make seitan roasts, and I have made my own seitan quite a few times, but it's nice to try new things, and this roast takes only 15 minutes to heat, snap snap.
I like that this 'faux meat' is actually not intended to be 'meaty'; rather it's made with butternut squash, apples and mushrooms. I tried some at last year's veg fest, and really liked it, but haven't wanted to spend the money on it. Now that we've had it at home, and other field roasts couple times on excellent sandwiches at Backspace, I really give it a thumbs up.


Ready to warm.

VWAV seitan and herb stuffed mushrooms. Using sun dried tomato and Italian herb seitan o greatness and cashews.

Whole wheat penne with roasted garlic marinara, spinach, grilled tofu, portabella and roasted red pepper. I've eaten a lot of variations pf the above meal lately.

Mucho Margarita and Chocolate Stout cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.
Have I mentioned that I like cooking and baking with liquor?


I picked up more baby boy choy, bulk tofu and chocolate hemp milk from people's coop and their farmer's market tonight, so except reviews and photos next time~

Also, if you're interested in my Grandma's veganized Stuffoli recipe that I photographed a while back, check out the current online edition of Herbivore Magazine's Give it up for Grandma piece. What, you don't subscribe??

Mini Cupcakes and an All-new Vegantastic Grill Pan

Mini cupcakes for a ppk potluck this past weekend. Coconut with coconut buttercream, coconut-strawberry with coconut buttercream, and blood-orange agave with blood-orange agave glaze. Based on VCTOTW, of course.

I came across a very affordable cast-iron grill pan recently, and have been desiring one, so I bought it.
My first meal from it, above, is grilled asparagus, smokey grilled tempeh (Veganomican) and cavatappi with esme's sauce and chard. Esme's sauce feeds my recent miso craving, and is ridiculously easy and delicious.

Here's the pan on my needs-to-cleaned stove..

Lunch at work - leftover grilled asparagus and tempeh, and half of a leftover ginger-miso stir fry from Lion's Den Veg*n food cart. I really wanted to try the Portballa burger there, but alas they were out that day.

The night before last I made another half batch log of Seitan O'Greatness.

This time I tried to copy Tofurkey sausages and made a sundried tomato and Italian herb version. I was close, but not *quite* there. After another go I hope to post my adaptations.
Above it's pan-fried with garlic, white wine, creminis and broccoli over whole wheat spaghetti (it may not look ww but it really is) and roasted garlic marinara. Sprinkled with some 'parmesan'~

Raspberry Creme filled chocolate cupcakes (cherry/vctotw)

Portland Vegan Holiday Fair and Thanksgiving Potluck

This past weekend I went to both the Vegan Holiday Festival and a vegan thanksgiving-food themed potluck at the home of Joanna, of Yellow Rose Recipes. Above is the small vanilla soft serve from Blossoming Lotus, that came with nut and chocolate chip topping.
I went to two cooking demos, from Blossoming Lotus and Vegan Chef Beverly Lynn Bennet. Unfortunately, I became very ill that evening, and it seems that Blossoming Lotus food may have been the common theme between others who did as well. However, their soft serve is good enough for another visit, it's like vanilla beans just hung out in the machine - so sweet.

I was happy to meet both Julie Hasson, who's working on the Vegan Cooking DVD, and Kris, from Squirrel's Vegan Kitchen, at the Herbivore table, where I bought Thomas a birthday gift.
Both these lovely ladies recognized me, which I was surprised by since I'm partially blonde these days. So if you're looking for me, apparently I do really look like my photo!

My crappy photo of the fest! You can see the veggie dog cart on the left side.

Onto food from Joanna's PPK pre-thanksgiving potluck:

Dinner with all the works. I brought the sweet potato pie casserole from my last post, you can see some in the top center of this plate.

Karla made Maple Mustard Potatoes and green beans from VWAV.

Michelle and Aaron's Zesty pasta salad.

More of my hazelnut and red wine stuffed mushrooms.

Karla also made baked tofu, which I want to know more about.

Joanna's crazy colorful root veggies.

Joanna's olive foccacia.

Joanna's salad with figs.

Last but not least, Thomas and I brought maple cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World.

I <3 Fall

Fall and Winter are my two preferred seasons. The leaves change color, the air gets cooler, my birthday, new school year (well I'm older now),sweatshirt and warm sweaters, scarves, winter holidays and family get-to-gethers, the possibility of snow...

And it isn't my favorite thing about the cooler weather, but it sure is a huge plus - being able to truly appreciate a bowl of hot soup. Below is a recipe from Dreena Burton's new book, Eat, Drink & Be Vegan! - Spicy Pureed Yam and Chickpea Soup. Gah, it was good. The woman had me using coriander and not complaining!
I had leftover stuffed mushroom filling, and a chunk of tofu that hadn't been cooked, so I stuffed it. I marinaded the tofu chunk in braggs, olive oil and garlic, and coated it in flour/oats/nutritional yeast/basil/thyme/sea salt and freshlong grounded pepper. It was then oven baked. The things you do with random leftovers..
A recent pizza pie - before going in the oven and after.

Homemade half whole wheat pastry/half white flour garlic and herb dough, Isa pizza sauce from VWAV, roasted garlic tofu ricotta (some from a fresh batch and some that had been frozen), maroon bell peppers, collard greens, pine nuts, crushed garlic, red pepper flakes and chopped shallots on Thomas' half. I admit, I'm going nutty and sauced my slices up with Frank's Red Hot.

Half of a roasted eggplant sandwich from Veganopolis in downtown Portland. Yes, we have a restaurant called that, yes, we are lucky! I have some complaints about em, like everywhere, but really service was fast and the food was spot-on Friday for lunch.
The above is my absolute favorite thing on the menu. This one had a TON of fresh spinach since I asked for no onions, roasted eggplant slices, roasted red pepper spread and almond feta - served on a great ciabatta roll (I think from Grand Central). I took half the sandwich home for dinner and I was a full girl.
Organic mini tortilla chips with cashew cheddar from The Real Food Daily cookbook, defrosted and smushy black beans (I'll just throw the rest in chili) and chopped jalapenos. I'm on my sorta exciting homemade cheese kick!
I honestly can't decide if I like this one or last post's Smoked Gouda better. I'm leaning towards this one, since it did become a block and also melted - at least at first. So far I'm eating it on crackers, maybe shredding or melting some more soon..



Homemade garlic & herb breadsticks - I had some pizza dough leftover from that experience. These are topped with olive oil, nutritional yeast, chopped garlic, coarse sea salt and oregano. Thomas and I were both really impressed with how good these came out. We dipped them in more sundried tomato pizza sauce.

Sometimes, meals don't go as planned..... I'm certainly guilty of screwing up meals - this was supposed to be the Black Eyed Pea and Quinoa Croquettes from VWAV, and they just weren't forming. I subbed millet for quinoa, I could blame that.... Really, even with adding breadcrumbs, it was just too moist, maybe flour would have helped. Oh well..
I topped it with shiitake mushroom gravy, and on the side are roasted potatoes, turnips and golden beets.
Special occasions = half a batch of peanut butter bombs!


And lastly, home popped popcorn with melted earth balance, nutritional yeast and sea salt. Because it rules.