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..

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.

Padron Peppers and Champagne Teriyaki Fried Rice

Last week, I promised my friend Lucas, the highly regarded Food Cart photographer, that I'd pick up some sacred Padron Peppers (Pimientos de Padron) for him from the downtown farmers market. He's been out of town for months, and I think wanted to return to two things: padron peppers and Whiffie's fried pies.

Wednesday came, and in my tempeh bacon flu-recovery haze, I forgot about the market's existence. I don't think I really knew what day of the week it was. I stopped at the Eastbank farmers market the next day, but to no success for his padrons. Neither Viridian Farms nor the Squash Man were there. I came home with a mini watermelon, green cabbage, garlic, orange and green bell peppers and three ears of sweet corn, but nothing more for humanity. My friend returned to town last night, and I hope he doesn't see what I made with my selfish padron peppers from last week's market earlier this week!

Champagne Teriyaki Fried Rice

with Bok Choy, Padron Peppers, Green Beans and Fried Tofu.

Champagne Teriyaki sauce:

Measurements are for 2 servings of fried rice.

1/4 cup soy sauce or tamari

1/4 cup champagne or white wine

1/4 cup mirin

2 teaspoons dark agave nectar

1 teaspoon grated ginger

1 clove grated garlic

dash of crushed red pepper

Combine in a saucepan. Bring to a boil.

Simmer on low heat, uncovered, for 15 minutes.

If you're looking to use this as a stir fry sauce or marinade,

I'd recommend doubling it.

Fried rice is one of easiest dishes in the world,

all it takes is a little sesame oil on hand,

and uh, leftover rice. I sauteed my veggies in a tiny

bit of black sesame oil for a few minutes,

added the fried tofu

(both the oil and fried tofu were from a recent trip to Fubonn),

another clove of grated garlic, stirred a couple times,

added the cold rice, another teeny weeny splash of sesame oil,

the teriyaki sauce, a dash of white pepper,

another few stirs to heat it through,

and there ya go.

As usual, if I'd had basil, it would have been in there,

but I was good to go!

And break out the chopsticks.

Also with the padrons:

Vegan Brunch style Tofu Scramble

with Padron Peppers, Lobster Mushrooms and Cherry Tomatoes

How long had it been since I made 'fu scramble? Eight years? Three months? I just don't know, but it was superb.

For both dishes, I had cut the very tops off the padron peppers, and sauteed them in a bit of oil. See you peppers next year! Or on Saturday when I hit the market for my sad, pepperless friend.

Vegan Brunch: Bakery Style Marionberry Coconut Muffins

Folks, I'd like to introduce you to the result of last night's relaxing evening in: Marionberry Coconut Muffins based on the Bakery Style Berry Muffins in Vegan Brunch.

Their birth, er baking, topped off my first night home in a long stressful and glorious while delightfully. I started with a ton of housework, embarked into Season 3 of Dexter, hung out with my cats and hit the sack by 10pm! Did I mention delightful? I'm well rested!

These are made with hand picked marionberries I had frozen, lite coconut milk (leftover from a tester for Isa's in-progress 'healthy' cookbook!), almond extract and the addition of 1/4 cup of shredded coconut flakes. I used my 'big' muffin pan, a hand me down from the wonderful Julie Hasson, to bake them in.

Shockingly enough, I never made these during the Vegan Brunch testing last year, but feel free to check out my ultimate testing post here if you're interested in what I did make.

Product Review: New Lightlife Tempehtations!

One of the perks of being a blogger is trying new products you may not necessarily pick up at the store. I feel confident that this is part of the reason you registered the domain VeganFoodRulesAlot on wordpress last year.

The Goods:

This was the case for me with Lightlife's Tempehtations. Since moving to Portland (5 years

this September!) and learning my way around a block of tempeh, I hadn't bought any Fakin' Bacon -

Prior to the point in my life where I learned to make sense of what I throw around a kitchen, I had regularly scheduled sandwiches based on this product. It meant so much to me!

Now I make my own tempeh bacon based on the recipe in Vegan with a Vengeance, but there was a point in my life Fakin Bacon was one of my favorite things to eat. So, right off the bat, I had faith in Lightlife's new tempeh series, and on top of that - they threw in a package of the strips! I passed out when opening it. Thanks, Lightlife!

so.....tempted?

Their new tempeh series is basically this: a block of cubed & flavored tempeh, ready to cook or simply warm, wrapped in plastic, and put in a colorful little box. I've tried the Classic BBQ and Ginger Teriyaki - the Zesty Lemon is conveniently waiting in my freezer for future use, I'm thinking over a salad or pasta. Convenience is key here - no need to marinate overnight or bake for 30+ minutes.

Served with soy dipping sauce, wasabi and garnished with sesame seeds.

The big stand out in my Tempehtations trial was this sushi. I clicked on my rice cooker, prepped the filling, quickly sauteed the Ginger Teriyaki tempeh cubes with some garlic in peanut oil, and when it was all ready to go, filled sushi with the tempeh, shredded carrot and avocado and rolled. The tempeh had a nicely mellow Teriyaki taste and didn't overpower the bites, I could also easily see this flavor grilled kabob-style, drizzled with a spicy sesame dressing.

Ready to be rolled:

The first time I tried the BBQ, I sauteed it and served it in a grain bowl with rice, collards, pink beans and hot sauce. Need I say more besides, classic?

Dinner time BBQ tempeh bowl #1 - a quick meal before a trip out of town

The one thing I felt like my bowl above was missing was sauce, but you don't always need your grains coated in sauce.....but below I totally wanted it. I used extra BBQ sauce from a PPK test recipe and heated the second half of the BBQ tempeh in it for a few minutes, and served with roasted mushrooms and cauliflower over quinoa.

I'll out the classic card for tempeh, BBQ sauce and quinoa again. The Lightlight Tempehtations are not sitting in sauce in their little box, so if you like things saucy, take 1-3 minutes and whip up a simple sauce or pull that bottle of Trader Joe's BBQ sauce you keep in the fridge for dipping emergencies out.

Dinner time BBQ Tempeh bowl #2 - a quick meal returning from a trip!

And lastly, I used the dear tempeh strips for a quick couple quick meals that were not sandwich based. Because if you know me, I rarely have bread at home the past few years. Huh, sandwiches? What are peanut butter and jelly doing together on soft bread?

Collards with Fakin Bacon and Roasted Apple Sage Seitan Sausage

Vegan Brunch Chelsea Waffles with chocolate chips;

more collards and tempeh bacon.

Collards cooked with olive oil, garlic, liquid smoke, tamari, hot sauce, teeny bit of maple syrup, broth/water and apple cider vinegar.

I think these products are a great stepping stone for the tempeh-phobic and those looking to incorporate more vegan proteins in their diet! I have no hesitation to cook my own tempeh these days, in fact, I made baked mango ginger tempeh for dinner last night, but there's no denying this product's consumer friendliness. If it had been around when I was younger, it would have been in my fridge! I would have kept an eye on it being on sale. Don't be scared of tempeh, folks.

Sesame Beer Grilled Fiddleheads

I brought fiddlehead ferns home from the farmers market to play.

Hello, I live in Portland, so I've tried them before, but had yet to cook with them.  We know they're a hip piece of produce, and I finally picked some up last week at the downtown farmers market and was told to make sure I cook them well! 

So, they were marinated briefly in organic Deschutes Green Lake Ale ale and tamari, tossed onto my grill pan, tossed some more, tossed with coarse sea salt, black pepper and sesame seeds, and then tossed onto my plate, forked into my mouth, etc.  I'm always a fan of the burnt tamari (I mean, cooked) taste, and I dig how these came out.  Beer grilled asparagus just may be in my future.

For now, some balsamic grilled asparagus 

Smoky Collard greens and Lightlife tempeh bacon 

(Lightlife tempeh review, coming soon!)

This means I'm only a week behind!  

Last week's haul from the Wednesday downtown farmers market: cucumber, fiddleheads, asparagus and strawberries.  Earlier today I  picked up lettuce, strawberries, my love: garlic scapes, orange cherry tomatoes and a couple beefstake tomatoes. Holy friction, tomato and berry season is approaching!

P.S. Check out the new Stumptown Vegans Podcast here!  

It's with Chad Miller and Josh Hooten, two founders of the Let Live Conference, later this month in Portland.

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.