Portland, ho!

It's true. I'm off again on Wednesday to travel into the Great White North aka Oregon for some much-needed vacay. I'm going to be visiting old friends, meeting up with some new ones, getting more tattoo, and EATING MY WAY THROUGH TOWN. Yessss, Portobello and Flavour Spot, I'm COMIN' TO GETCHA!, to borrow the immortal words of the fabulous Laura B.

Yes yes, I know you're all horribly jealous of my pathetic fabulous jetsetting joke of a life, so in order to soothe the envious beast(s) inside you, I'm offering up Vegan Latina tester recipe photos. I'll return Monday with a bigger tummy, a sore arm, and many pictures of P-Town. Yay veganism!

Sweet Basil & Corn Pot Pie


Arroz con Seitan


Creamy Avocado Tomato Salsa (Venezeulan Guasacaca)


Tomato Salad with Sweet Crisp Onions (Ensalada Chilena)


Tempeh asado


Savory Orange Rice, Brazilian Style


Braised Brazilian Shredded Kale


Quicker Red Posole


So Good, So Green Dipping Sauce


Peruvian Red Chile Corn Salad

You know how we do

Yes, it is, in fact, completely true, that I have vegan raised donuts chauffeured to me by a classy lady all the way from Las Vegas, NV, to Berkeley, CA.

The fabulous Erin of Vegan Homemade was lovely enough to offer to pick up some lucky Bay Area folks some donuts on her way back from Vegas. OMG, right? Like how awesome is that?

(This is, ahem, minus one maple bar that was etted as soon as the box was opened.)

Featured: another maple bar, a glazed regular, a cinnamon roll thingy, a bear claw, and an apple fritter. The boy and I devoured that maple bar last night (OMG so delicious! Haven't had one since freshman year of college!), and we split the bear claw and the remaining maple bar for breakfast this morning. I shared mine with a coworker who said, and I quote, "never again will i lol @ vegan doughnuts," end quote. Cannot waaaaaait to eat the rest, but as I can already feel the effects of the impending sugar rush, I'm trying to take it slow.

Speaking of baked goods...



The Worldwide Vegan Bakesale is in full swing, and any of y'all anywhere remotely near San Francisco this weekend should come by! I'm making wheat-free chocolate chocolate chip cookies, and there will be a lot, nay, a MOUNTAINOUS BOUNTY, of delicious vegan baked goods. The always amazing Melisser, the Urban Housewife, will be bringing cupcakes for the masses, as well as many other swell PPKers, including the aforementioned awesome Erin and the fabulous fierce folks from Vegansaurus!, all laden with delicious sugary delectables. To up the ante, on Saturday, the bakesale will be held in front of Ike's Place. I don't know exactly what it is they do to their sandwiches (MANYYYY vegan options!), but I would swear to you that they are made exclusively from pure uncut cocaine, because I took one bite and now I want Ike's EVERY GODDAMN DAY.

Remember that sugar rush I was talking about? Yeah.

Anyway! Here's the info, and some links to even more info:

Saturday, June 27th, 11AM – 4PM
3506 16th Street at Sanchez, in front of Ike’s Place (aka CRACK SANDWICH PALACE!)

Sunday, June 28th, 11AM – 4PM
800 block of Capp Street, near 24th St (about 1/2 block from 24th Street Bart)

Proceeds go to Animal Place in Vacaville and East Bay Animal Advocates. Both are super awesome good causes and you should absolutely make it rain on the vegan bakesale!

Plus I'M going to be there on both days, so if you want to catch a glimpse of my finely-toned yet round and scrumptious ass, or to hurl rotten vegetables at me, please to stop by and say hello.

More info:

Worldwide Vegan Bakesale SF

Info at The Urban Housewife

WWVBS Facebook page

Updates from the Lazy Half

So on account of me being a lazy jerk and never updating, you all get a very eclectic entry about all the cookings, artings, and outings going on in my life.

Firstly, I've been living with the parents this summer - I'm in this bizarre limbo between classes and apartments and stuff, so I'm kickin' it small town style in the Great Hick North. I wanted to let everyone know that, despite their stubbornness to commit to any kind of veg*n diet, my parents are always accommodating with my sister and I, and so far we've had some great vegan meals together. Below on the left is "pesto cream" pizza, and on the right is your standard tofu scramble and potatoes.




Also, mom and I went on another vacation to Mount Shasta after my GF buddy Mark and I had had such a good experience. Did you know they have vegan, gluten-free macaroons in this tiny remote truck stop town at Lynnie's Bakery?!
This time we rented a cabin and prepared our own food. Below is a tofu egg salad sandwich with oven fries and fried tofu and vegetables with spicy peanut sauce.




My sister said I should post some of my vegan-relevant art on here. I haven't incorporated veganism into nearly as many pieces as I would like so far, but at the same time it's hard to make a statement without it seeming somewhat of a contrived turnoff.
The first was from an editorial assignment where we had to make some kind of illustration with some kind of relevant political statement or human interest angle. It's probably not entirely clear but I wanted to do something about the canadian seal hunt - it incited a little bit of discussion (and some people were mortified at the concept!) about the seal hunt, and it was a really fun project.




The second is a print I made in a printmaking survey course - I had a couple different sketches for vegan-inspired lino prints and went with this one.

I'm still in art school and just messing around with different media...but, hope you guys like it - crossposted from my blog, where my other school art can be found: http://meltykelly.blogspot.com

TGIF

Anyone else TOTALLY OVER May? Yeesh. Totally ready for June to throw awesomeness my way.

Anyway, it's FRIDAY, and that means Vegan Latina tester pics!

Warm Yuca & Cabbage Salad with Tofu Chicarrones - one of my favorite recipes so far!


Potato Chickpea Enchiladas with Green Tomatillo Sauce and Pine Nut Crema


Salvadorian Slaw


Seitan Saltago (Peruvian Seitan & French Fry Stir Fry) - yes you read that right

And two kinds of seitan:


Steamed White Seitan


Steamed Red Seitan

Hope everyone has a FABULOUS weekend!

Vegan Brunch

If you couldn't tell from reading the blog, I love love love brunch. It's the perfect way to start a lazy Sunday, it's delicious yummies to fuel your fun-filled day, it's the solution to a wicked hangover...you really can't go wrong with brunch.

Which is why I was fucking STOKED (yes, I said it, what, let's fight) when I heard about Vegan Brunch by Isa Chandra-Moskowitz, the gorgeous kitchen goddess who gave us Vegan with a Vengeance, and, with Terry Hope Romero, forms half of the dynamic girl culinary duo that wrote Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, Veganomicon, and the upcoming Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar (the last of which yours truly has been test baking for) (No I don't use proper grammar) (I clearly had ice cream at lunch).

Enough with the product plugging! I love all Isa's cookbooks; your favorite verbally incontinent spazzy blogger (aka, me) barely knew how to cook before she got Vegan with a Vengeance in her grubby little ewok-like hands. And look at me now! I may have no direction or ambition and drift aimlessly upon the blustery sea of career advancement, but I can cook a tofu scramble so good it makes men leave their wives just to gaze upon my culinary expertise with barely-concealed lust. My cookies have brought entire empires to ruin. The last thing you'll all see before the end is my aproned silhouette, standing on a mountain top, a tray of biscotti thrust towards the heavens as the sky burns and the seas boil!

Anyway!

What I'm saying is, this book, like Isa's other books, kicks ass. It's just something about the way she speaks to the reader; there are no pretensions, no demands; it's like having a friend in the kitchen, helping you out. I've loved everything I've made from Vegan Brunch so far. Even if the idea of rolling/falling out of bed on a Sunday at 10am is repellent to you, most of the recipes can be used at late afternoon picnics or potlucks. Or, fuck it, make pancakes in a drunken stupor at 12:30am on a Thursday night. Because, um, I've certainly never done that. (The sad thing is I'm better at flipping pancakes while inebriated than while sober.)

But really, how could you NOT get out of bed for chocolate-beer waffles? Shiitake-dill frittata? Pumpkin pancakes? Lemon-cashew stuffed crepes with whole berry sauce? Homemade vegan sausages, muffins, scones, it's all here, folks. OM NOM FREAKING NOM is, I believe, the scientific term to describe the deliciousness.

Here are some lovely lovely photographs of recipes I've made out of this book. Most of them are from over the weekend, which the boy and I spent up in Sonoma county at my parents' domicile.

Classic Broccoli Quiche (from Easter)


Caramelized Onion Quiche (what, I fuckin' like quiche)


Cashew Ricotta


Omelette stuffed with Cashew Ricotta, balsamic mushrooms & onions, and leftover potato wedges


Potato Avocado Salad

Not picture, but also made (and devoured) was the coffee cake, with the apricot cardamom variation!

So go and buy a copy, preferably from your local bookstore! Berkeley peeps, I got my copy at Moe's Books on Telegraph, might want to call ahead and see if they have it.

I'm getting tingles just thinking about that potato salad. OOooooh.

Millennium's Southern Comfort Dinner

Last week I was lucky enough to go to Millennium's Southern Comfort Dinner with a great group of friends. The staff were dressed up as yokels and the food was fantastic, and it was a great way to (prematurely) start the holiday weekend off right.

We kicked off the meal with some appetizers and drinks:

Buckt-o-Beer


Corn bread, rye bread, some other bread I can't remember


Nachos (complete with 'cheese' sauce, beans, jalepenos, soy chorizo, and guac) and fried green tomatoes

Then tucked into some iceberg "wedgie" salads with 1000 Island dressing and tofu "deviled egg":



Then the entrees. There were four to choose from, and I got pictures of mine and JP's:


"Oyster" dog on french roll with homemade tartar sauce, onions, and breaded and fried maiitake mushrooms, with sides of bourbon black eyed peas, slaw, and steamed veggies


"Shake & Bake"d seitan over white rice with some kind of yummy sauce, same sides

Everything up to this point was FABULOUS. Food shared with friends is always fab but the SoCo meal was just the right amount of greasy and delicious and it was so much fun.

Dessert, however, was a little disappointing:


Spelt "muffcake" with (almost) all the fixins'

Perhaps it was because my expectations were high after hearing about last year's do-it-yourself brownie sundae bar, but the do-it-yourself "muffcake" (ie: muffin) sundae bar just wasn't doing it for me. The scoop of homemade cherry ice cream was AWESOME, toppings were YUM (julep hot chocolate sauce, chipotle strawberries, etc), but they were already running low on several (the crushed oreos and the whipped cream) by the time we got to dessert (and our reservation was quite early in the evening!). The most disappointing aspect was the muffcake itself. There were three choices of flavor (strawberry, chocolate, spelt with cream cheese frosting), and the general consensus was that the muffcakes were very dense and not very flavorful. I love muffins, but they are breakfast or snack food; if I go to Millennium, I expect to be blown away, and I have been in the past, but this dessert wasn't quite up to their normal standards. I think they were experimenting with a new idea, and hopefully next year it will be better.

However, the rest of the meal definitely lived up to or exceeded my expectations, and I encourage everyone living in or visiting the Bay Area to go to Millennium at least once! I will commence my Millennium stalkery again in the fall, as the pumpkin tiramisu with gingerbread ice cream I had last time we went made me moan in a manner most unsuitable for a fancy restaurant. Whatever, I bet it happens all the time there.

Happy Wednesday: Vegan Latina tester pics

It's been busy lately in Sisters Vegan land, hence the infrequent posting! But I hope Vegan Latina tester pics will make up for it! Terry is amazing and all the recipes I've tested so far have been delicious! My favorites are all the amazing soups.

Venezuelan Black Beans (Caraotas) & Tofu Chicharrones with brown rice and avo


Shambar: Hearty Andean Mountain Stew with Mushrooms and Bean


Peruvian Spicy Cheezy Sauce with chopped tomato on top


Sweet Potato Chipotle Bisque


Cuban Black Bean Soup, habanero variation


Venezuelan-style Arepas (it's the english-muffin-but-not lookin' thing on the bottom) - even tastier when made with friends!


Chimichurri Baked Tofu (on the right, covered in yummy sauce)


Creamy Potato Soup with Avocado

Portlandia

So after months of toil, I finally accrued enough vacation time to go on a short jaunt up to P-town, aka Portland, Oregon, aka the best city EVER. I went to college in Eugene, and since I was the SUPER COOLEST and decided to stay for a fifth year, during that time I got to visit my much smarter friends who moved to Portland after graduation.

I didn't get to do or eat everything I wanted to because my time was so short (vegan waffle cart, I think about you and weep!), but I'm planning another trip up in July so cross your fingers. And, most importantly, I got to spend lots of time with dear friends that I miss very much, and who were kind enough to put me up for a night or two during my stay. There was also a long walk with a cute dog, Smash Brothers tutorials, a birthday party, shopping, multiple vegan donuts & bagels, yummy homebrew and backyard sunshine, the comfiest blanket ever, some amazing homemade meals, and a new tattoo!

Picture highlights:

Kale 'n Quinoa bowl with tempeh and avocado, and chamomile tea, from Red & Black Cafe


Amazing delicious want-to-eat-a-wagon-full-of-them Chickostick donut from Voodoo Donuts on top of recently purchased copy of Thrive by Branden Brazier (from Herbivore)...what a juxtaposition. I'm sorry Branden, will you still go out with me? Or at least allow me to stare at pictures of you creepily? Wait, I already do that...


Funny sign I saw while wandering around


Nobody beats Sweetpea's bagels and schmear, or the atmosphere


Gorgeous cherry blossoms from inside Sweetpea


The inside of Scapegoat Tattoo


Getting tattooed by Dylan. It hurt so good.


AMAZING vegan brunch that my BFF M-poo's neighbors made us...to-die-for biscuits and gravy, potatoes, tofu scram, and OJ. Not picture: fruitses!

Moral of the story is, if you're vegan and haven't been to Portland yet, get off your ass!

Birthdays, picnics, and easter, oh my!

Long entry but it's mostly photos!

Our weekend at home with the famfam was all two girls could ask for, and we have photo evidence to prove it!

First up is our picnic on Saturday. Mom, Kelly, and I rode our bikes 4 miles down to Asti Winery (the site of the former Italian-Swiss Colony), and Dad met us there with a picnic lunch that Mom had prepared that morning!: Chips, hummus, a huge container of veggies and pickles and olives, bananas, and 21st Century Carob Cookies, an Isa/Terry cookie tester!

Mr. Coyote came to visit us! He played at chasing birds, but I think what he really wanted was Terry's cookies!



That evening we celebrated my dad's birthday. In the afternoon, Kelly and I made the Bananas Foster Cake from My Sweet Vegan. Being at my parents' house meant I got to use my mom's stand mixer! Yay! And yes I am wearing my awesome CakeSpy t-shirt. The cake was so delicious, two omnis and three vegans have made promises of undying love to it. I think it's now my favorite recipe from MSV. And it has bananas in it, that means it's healthy, right?



















Not the greatest decorating job ever, but I'm still practicing. I don't get a lot of opportunities to make cakes (they're not exactly bike-portable) so this was a fun experience to put some of the skills I learned from the UO Craft Center cake decorating class to use.

For dinner we made one of my favorite meals: chickpea cutlets with mustard sauce (both recipes from Veganomicon), roasted asparagus with garlic, and mashed potatoes, which were made extra special with the addition of chives from the garden.





We also made Easter brunch Sunday morning, which consisted of Classic Broccoli Quiche from the PPK blog (and Isa's upcoming brunch book), herbed red potatoes, and fruit salad.









I hope everyone had a lovely, restful weekend!

Happy Bunnies Effing Day!

What can I say, I'm not at all religious.

But, our family still is (sort of), AND today is our daddy's birthday (happy birthday Daddums!), AND I am lucky enough to have a half day at work, so Kell and I are headed up north to visit the famfam. There will be much bike-riding and food and hopefully some chocolate. 'Twill be excellent.

I leave you today with testers from the lovely and talented Terry Hope Romero's upcoming Vegan Latina cookbook! The recipes span the South American continent and so far they are fun to cook AND fun to eat!

Colombian red beans, Llapingachos (mashed potato pancakes) and Peruvian Spicy Cheezy Sauce


Simple Sofrito


Butternut Black Eyed Pea Tostadas


Pupusas with Simple Latin Tomato Sauce, Swiss Chard with Capers & Raisins, Cilantro-Lime Rice


Beans with Rice, the remix (Pinto Gallo)


Homestyle Refried Beans (featured in simple tacos)

There are also these AMAZING Eggplant Torta Sandwiches (complete with Pickled Red Onions, OMG TASTY!) that I didn't get a picture of...because they went in our tummies so fast! Favorite recipe thus far.

Why yes, I DO use the same plates for EVERYTHING I cook. Back off, it's vintage Corningware from the 1970s! (I <3 50s & 70s kitchen stuff...and knitting patterns/yarn.)

Are you starving now? Because I am. Where's my banana?!!