Tough smlove.

So, I haven’t posted in quite a while.  Basically, I am a teacher, and life kicks my ass on a daily basis in the form of 75 darling, pubescent cherubs of the 7th grade subspecies.  Nevertheless, I have found the time to attend a couple of vegan gatherings in the past couple months, which I will post about as soon as I can.

In the mean time, here is a picture of the pie that I brought to a potluck at Cali’s.  It is none other than the Smlove pie from Veganomicon.  It was the first time I made this pie, and it lived up to its reputation.   It’s a chocolate tofu-based pie that you bake and then cover with peanut butter caramel sauce, chocolate drizzles, and candied pecans.  It was so delicious that I had no qualms about making it a week later to bring to dinner with a family of omni’s.  Only after they sang its praises did I tell them it was made of tofu.  Epic win.

Sometimes you just need Smlove.  ♥

Vegans and the City: Part 1 – Buddha Bodai

Last weekend, I had the honor and the pleasure of taking a break from my summer training in Philadelphia and meeting up with two of my beloved vegweb friends in NYC.  Cali, Kennedy and I met up for some vegan food, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, some more vegan food, some walking, a little more vegan food……It was so nice to be able to agree on restaurants, share off each other’s plates, and bond over our love of cruelty-free cuisine.

Our first stop was Buddha Bodai, a Chinese restaurant that’s 100% vegetarian.  They feature a lot of faux meats–chicken, beef, fish, duck, and jellyfish, to name a few.  I am not usually a faux-meat type of person, but these were absolutely delicious–far better than any “real” meat I have stashed in the depths of memory.

First, we ordered the baby cucumber.  It was basically cold, crisp slices of pickles with sesame seeds sprinkled on top.  These were so, so good–they were nutty, bright, and not too salty.  They were nice and cold, which was a treat after walking in the blazing sun all day.

Next came the appetizer plate.  I can’t remember exactly what everything was supposed to be, so I’ll have to consult Kennedy’s notes and get back to you.  But I know that the one on the right is the tofu chicken, and the pink in the middle is jellyfish, both of which were quite good.  We thought it was eerie how realistic some of the skin was.  They also put some candied walnuts on top, which were positively yummy.

We could have stopped right there and called it a meal, quite honestly, but we were going all out.  We still had three more dishes to go, starting with the sweet and sour chicken.  This one had a very thick sauce (almost too thick) and some pineapple and green peppers mixed in.  It was good, overall.

Next, General Tso’s beef.  We concluded that while the chicken had the better meat, the beef had the better sauce.  It also had some darn good broccoli, which was a welcome change from the overcooked, brownish broccoli that’s the only cooked vegetable in the dining hall where I’m eating during my training.

Next was some of the best rice I’ve ever eaten.  I give you veggie fried rice in all it’s splendor:

Room for dessert?   Heck yes!  We split a piece of cheesecake.  It was my first experience with vegan cheese cake, and it won’t be the last.  This tofu-based cheesecake was surprisingly similar in flavor to dairy-based cheesecake.  I do like a nice, thick crust on my pies, and this one was kind of wimpy.  Otherwise, it was great!  Note the sexy red drizzles and brown top:

In the end, it was a great value–lots and lots of food for a relatively low price.  I’ve rarely felt as full as I felt after that meal.  We sat for a long time before venturing back out into the devil sunlight.

And that was just the first meal!  Up next: cupcakes, sorbet, waffles, and french toast!

Bonus pic: the three of us on the subway!

Peanut butter and prized possessions.

I have so much food to catch up on! This post is about a bunch of peanut buttery goodness I made around graduation time this May.

First are no-bake peanut butter chocolate bars that I made for the bonfire my friends and I had to celebrate the end of the school year. Normally, I equate no-bake with quick and easy, but these were a hefty undertaking! They comprise three layers: a graham cracker layer with chocolate chips, a peanut butter cream layer, and a chocolate layer with peanut butter drizzles on top:

Between crushing up the graham crackers, creaming the margarine by hand for the bottom two layers (as I have no mixer), and melting the chocolate, these were a labor of love. But they went over well! They are very, very rich, and I couldn’t eat more than a bite, myself.

Second are some peanut butter cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Actually, they are chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter filling and chocolate ganache. They were supposed to have frosting on top as well, but I didn’t have time for that before I had to take them to wherever they were going. Even though I didn’t get to make frosting swirlies, I did get to use my frosting tips for the filling. Among all my kitchen gadgets, I think this set of frosting tips that I got for Christmas a couple years ago is my most prized. I throw a minor tantrum if I think one of the tips is missing.

The best part of these cupcakes was the peanut buttercream frosting filling. I like this frosting for two reasons: first, I like how the word “butter” belongs to both “peanut butter” and “buttercream” in the name. Second, I like how it tastes like love.

Here are the finished cuppas. Note the spiffy new silicon cupcake liners I have. They are second only to my frosting tips in the hierarchy of beloved kitchen possessions.

Those of you who have kept up with my blog thus far probably think that the only things I eat are combinations of chocolate and peanut butter in dessert form. In truth, I mostly make these things for special occasions, and I post about them because they are more beautiful and exciting than the curry I had for dinner. It was quite a good curry too. I really should post about it.

Bonus picture! I am officially a college graduate. That’s me in the middle with two of my very bestest college friends. I miss them already.

I still have a huge backlog of food porn to talk about! It includes pumpkin-coconut bread, ice cream, pancakes, lemon-blueberry bundt cake, and mutant peppers, to name a few.

The power of the O.

Wow! Since I posted about Oprah, hits to my blog have just about doubled in less than 24 hours! I hope that everyone who stumbles across this blog finds this news as exciting as I do!

My blog is just a baby, but it’s getting there. I’d love to hear from anyone who is trying veganism for the first time because of Oprah. Stick with it! Vegan cuisine is far more broad, varied, satisfying, and tasty than most people know, which is why I made a blog about it to begin with and why there are all those amazing blogs listed in my links! Being vegan great for your body, it’s great for others, and it’s great for the rest of the world! Get excited!

And with that, I have filled my quota of exclamation points for the day. Thank you and goodnight.

Oprah Winfrey and heavenly, heavenly mousse cake.

What do Oprah Winfrey and the slice of mousse cake I had at lunch today have in common? If you don’t know the answer to this one, you might visit the “About” page of this blog for a quick hint.

Ready? Wait for it…..wait for it….

They’re both vegan.

For the next twenty one days, at least. Let me explain. Oprah just announced that she is about to embark on a 21-day “cleanse” in which she will drop the caffeine, sugar, alcohol, and animal products from her diet. Sounds like a heck of a lot of food to forgo, no? Well, from what I understand, the cleanse has multiple purposes–it will be both a health cleanse and a spiritual cleanse, she says, in which she makes an effort to think about the “animals whose lives are sacrificed in the name of gluttony.”

Now, Oprah has touched upon the topic of vegetarianism on her show in the past. Several years back, when she found out that cattle are fed the remains of other cattle–that they are quite literally made into cannibals–she announced that she would never eat a hamburger again. And guess what! Sales of red meat dropped noticeably. And, well, the Texas Beef industry got a little miffed and delivered her a big, fat “food disparagement” lawsuit. Because, gosh darn it, how dare she infringe upon their right as Americans to turn a profit through cruelty and exploitation! The suit was dismissed, but Oprah has been reluctant to touch vegetarianism with a ten foot pole ever since.

And that’s why, when I found out about Oprah’s 21 day flirtation with veganism, I didn’t believe it. Granted, she does not use the words “veganism” or “vegetarianism” to describe her experiment. But this is for the better, I think. The word “vegan” is still quite scary to many people. But the fact of the matter is, vegan recipes are starting to pop up on Oprah’s website!

Who knows what will come of this. Maybe she’ll be miserable and give up on the third day. Or maybe she’ll love it and keep this lifestyle for good. I sure hope so! Either way, the thought that legions of Oprah lovers across the country might be inspired to think about the impacts of their diet and maybe even make some small changes is incredibly exciting to me.

In other news, I found vegan goodness in another unexpected place today! To celebrate being my receiving the student worker’s award at the library where I work, my wonderful supervisors at work took me out to lunch at Aladdin’s Natural Eatery, a Mediterranean restaurant in Ithaca. When we were done with our fabulous meal of pita-falafel-olives-hummus-eggplant happiness, I took a cursory glance at the dessert case, which I expected to be barren of vegan delectables. But lo and behold, there it was: Vegan Chocolate Mousse Cake. I kid you not. Now, this was before I heard about this Oprah business, but had it been afterward, it might have been too much for my fluttering vegan heart to bear. Here is what remained of it after everyone had tasted a forkful:

I have made vegan chocolate mousse before, and with highly satisfactory results. But this mousse was unlike any dessert I have ever tasted. I defy any lover of sweets–omnivorous, herbivorous, or otherwise–to distinguish it from it’s non-vegan counterpart on the basis of taste, texture, or mouth feel. I was so in awe of it that I asked the gentleman at the front desk for a list of ingredients. “How, good sir, is this accomplished?” I begged him. Alas, the restaurant orders its dessert from, well, God himself, and there was not a box to be found in the back room. But I will ask again next time I visit. Mark my words, Gadget, next time…

O grapefruit, grapefruit! wherefore art thou grapefruit?

I often wonder where grapefruit got its name. I mean, which came first, the grapefruit or the grape? The two look, smell, and taste nothing alike. Grapes grow on vines, and grapefruits grow on trees. And both are fruits, right?

Vegparadise.com tells me that grapefruits were so named by a naturalist who observed that they grow in clusters. I was skeptical, so I found a picture:

Lo and behold, clusters. Fair enough, fair enough. But here are some more grapefruit fun facts!

• The grapefruit was long referred to as the “forbidden fruit.” It’s scientific name is
  Citrus paradisi, which might be my favorite scientific name next to Bison bison.
• The grapefruit is less than 300 years old, and the pink and ruby red varieties didn’t come about until the 1920’s.
• There have been many attempts to change the grapefruit’s name to make it more appealing. The name “pomelo” was once suggested, but people feared it would be confused with “pummelo,” its father fruit.
• In French, the grapefruit is called pamplemousse, which has nothing to do with mousse, really.

Grapefruit is one of my favorite fruits. Some people think they are too bitter and tart, but I love bitter and/or tart things: namely, super dark chocolate, dry red wine, and grapefruit. I don’t even add sugar to my grapefruit. I’m a bit of a grapefruit purist in that sense.

The only downside to grapefruit is that I eat it so often that I become bored with it. So, the other day, I searched around online for a different way to eat grapefruit than scooping out the little sections and then drinking the juice from the empty rind like I always do. So, I give you baked grapefruit!

You cut the grapefruit in half, score out the sections, sprinkle it with cinnamon (and maple syrup or sugar if you like), and bake it at 375 F for 15-20 minutes. During this time, the peel shrinks away from the fruit a bit, and the insides get all warm and gooey. I especially liked eating it in the morning when it was all chilly.

Grapefruit is so pretty! When I have a house, I am going to have an entire room whose decor is inspired by the colors of grapefruits, I think. It will be the grapefruit room, and we will sit there and eat only grapefruits while our faces and hands get all sticky. It’ll be nice. You should come over.

Chickpea cutlets and choosing between your siblings.

If I were stranded on a desert island with one of my sisters, I would definitely pick Alyssa. Because I love Alyssa more, right? FALSE. What a terrible thing to say! Everyone knows I love Erin way more! Actually, it’s because Alyssa and I eat virtually none of the same foods. So, I wouldn’t have to share my food supply with her. But Erin and I, on the other hand, love the same foods! In fact, we made a bunch of these foods this weekend when she came to visit. So many foods, in fact, that I will probably need three entries to discuss them all.

Exhibit A: chickpea cutlets. Chickpea cutlets are from Isa and Terry’s newest cookbook, Veganomicon. They are über famous for their awesomeness. Basically, you mash up some chickpeas with gluten flour, bread crumbs, vegetable broth, garlic, and spices. You knead the dough a bit and then you form them into, well, cutlet shapes. Erin was the expert cutlet-shaper sous-chef.

Then you just cook those suckers in a frying pan. And that’s it! They take less than a half hour to make in total. Beside them are some steaming hot lemony roasted potatoes from Veganomicon as well. They might be my favorite way to make potatoes yet. I also ate mine with asparagus and kale, and Erin had hers with carrots.

The chickpea cutlets actually don’t taste overwhelmingly like chickpeas, but they do taste overwhelmingly like happy. Just like Isa says, they are vegan food that you can cut with a steak knife. Erin and I both thought they would make the best burger ever as well. I even think Alyssa would like them. And that’s saying something.

Bonus picture! Erin and me in Cascadilla falls.

Up next: banana ice cream and pancakes! But not together. Though that would be a great breakfast.

Benevolent bakers and providential packages.

If you are on the fence about veganism, take heed, ye nonbeliever! There is one reason, and one reason only, to go vegan. It is not about abstaining from thousands of acts of murder over your lifetime. Nor is it about arming yourself against cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. These are just the fringe benefits, folks! Truly, if there is one reason to go vegan, it is for the sweet, sweet loving that may be delivered to your door by your friendly neighborhood postman for the low, low price of kindness and compassion!*

In February, I organized a care package exchange with my fabulous veg*n friends. Care package exchanges are just like the secret Santa’s you did in elementary school (religiously motivated celebrations of materialistic wealth in the public school system! Don’t you love it?) but without the blatantly gender-specific toys that someone else’s mother picked out from the dollar store . As organizer-in-chief of this event, I gathered up all of our addresses, tossed them into my secret Santa hat, and matched them into random pairs.** Then we each assembled a treasure box of goodies based on the likes and dislikes of our partners. We even have a name for our exchange–BBV’s: benevolent baking vegefactors–so named because baking tends to be central to the care package experience, though it is not required.

Now, we know from previous posts that my two favorite things are pineapple and coconut. But my three favorite things are pineapple, coconut, and sending people letters and gifts. So, assembling a care package is absolute bliss for me. I had the pleasure of making a package for lovely Miss Laura, who writes the Vegan University column at tastebetter.com. As happenstance would have it, Laura and I have remarkably similar interests. In fact, I am not yet convinced that I didn’t accidentally match myself up with myself. Specifically, we both like tea, scones, and Anne of Green Gables. This actually complicated matters quite a bit; while the package was a breeze to assemble, I secretly wanted to keep it for myself and pretend like it was lost in the mail. It was a trial, but I persevered.

The package looked like this:

Clockwise from the left, we have Really Good Vegan Raisin Scones, Kiss-Ass Molasses Cookies, a mug with an assortment of teas, a recipe box, a crocheted cupcake, coasters, and mini cookie cutters. Sadly, I hadn’t the foresight or the willpower to take pictures of the package I received from Kelsi, my own BBV, but let me tell you, it was chock full o’ coconutty goodness.

A thoughtful package can make a person’s day. In an earlier exchange this past December, I received my package on what felt like the longest day of my college life: a five-hour Teach for America interview followed by several hours of studying for a final that same evening. But when I arrived home, I found a package from “Cali,” my oh-so-benevolent benefactress. Inside was an assortment of goodies of the knitting, tea-drinking, and baking variety, including these handmade stitchmarkers:

The package changed my day entirely.

In conclusion, a reassessment of my favorite things in life is in order:

1. pineapple coconut

2. pineapple

3. snail mail

4. Anne of Green Gables tea

5. tea Anne of Green Gables

6. Colin Firth/knitting/running/red wine (about equal on any given day)

7. spreading happiness to the people I love with simple words and actions

8. cupcakes/Lost (again, about equal).

*Shipping and handling not included. Some restrictions may apply. Offer not valid with any other offers, discounts, or promotions. Valid within the continental United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and Guam.

**Bold-faced lie. I created an Excel spreadsheet, assigned each participant a number, then used a random number generator to produce a second sequence of numbers. I then juxtaposed these lists to generate a set of pairings.

Cookie dough psychology and hybrid confections.

Cookie dough is a strange creature. Everyone likes to eat cookie dough, but no one really considers it a legitimate treat. It’s one thing to eat a tube of Tollhouse when you are sitting around watching The Girls Next Door or Sound of Music in sweatpants with your friends on Thursday night. It’s quite another to say at the dinner table, “Why yes, cookie dough would round out this meal quite nicely.” Why is this so? Some people are afraid of salmonella and still hear their mother’s voice foreboding death upon raw dough consumption. Daft omnivores, just leave the eggs out! Also, cookie dough is seen as the lazy person’s dessert. It says, “Well, I was making cookies, but they looked so delicious, and I was too hungry to bother baking them, so I just ate the raw dough!” I say, if you want to eat cookie dough, eat it like you mean it! Stand and proclaim, “I just ate a spoonful of pure margarine, refined sugar, white flour, and vanilla extract, and I enjoyed it!”

Enter the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownie. This concoction is a recent vegweb favorite and appears to be adapted from similar nonvegan recipes out there through trivial substitutions. It comprises three layers: a brownie layer, a cookie dough layer, and a chocolate glaze. You bake the brownies, let them cool, spread cookie dough over them, and slather the whole thing in melted chocolate. The result is a classy dessert which embraces cookie dough as the foundation of a dish rather than closeting it as a shameful late night snack.

While the yields of the various layers were off–I ended up with several doughless brownies–these goodies are a trifecta of cake-like, fudgy, and crunchy. In fact, the brownies are so cake-like that referring to them as brownies is a transgression against the brownie gods. Slicing them was also a challenge-the lighter brownies sagged beneath the dense dough and hard topping. I had to use my sharpest chef’s knife to slice them apart.

Even though this recipe would benefit from a firmer brownie, I think we’d be hard pressed to find a person who did not enjoy this elopement of brownie and cookie, baked and unbaked, and chocolate and chocolate-chip.

Update! I brought these to a party at work, and my friend Alex said, “Well, I don’t usually eat dessert, but I have to save room for those.” He ate one and took about five home. By the end of the party, the entire pan (the size of a cookie sheet) was gone. Cookie dough brownies: SUCCESS.

Accepting mango into my life.

So, I’ve never really liked mangoes. It’s not that I was scarred by a bad mango encounter. But they’ve always tasted….chemical-ish….to me. Like a delicious fruit that’s been dunked in a bucket of bleach. I do, however, like mango-flavored things, though it is often the case that fruit flavors taste nothing like the fruits themselves. Take banana. Banana-flavored things are, in general, nauseating. One exception to this rule are banana Runts. Are these vegan? I haven’t yet had the opportunity to check. It’s a shame if not, because they are the only example of delicious banana flavoring I know of. Don’t even get me started on banana Laffy Taffy. It is evil and putrescence in candy form.

Did I say this was about mangoes? So I really want to like mangoes. It’s silly, really. But they’re so darn pretty with their greenness and their pinkness and their yellowness. And lots of recipes use mango. So, I’ve been buying it. And I must say, it’s not half as bad as I remember. I learned from videojug.com how to cut it into pretty cubes, which already makes it twice as yummy as it would be otherwise.

So, I’ve been enjoying mangoes in my fruit salads and sometimes (blasphemous!) by themselves. They’re nice for something different. They’ll never come close to my beloved pineapple, but I think we can get along just fine.

Update: Runts are probably not vegan.  They contain stearates, which often come from animal fats.  Le sigh.