I <3 New York!

Kyle and I took a mini-vacation to New York during July and had a great time! I have to admit that I was a little hesitant about visiting such a big city, but I can't get over how safe and easy it is to get around there! We had an absolute blast.

We also stuffed our faces. We ate salads at Just Salads (no photo), but I have a few photos from some of the other places we visited. One stormy afternoon, we headed to the upper east side to an organic pizzeria, Cafe Viva Natural Pizza. Delicious! I also had to get a cookie (see photo), but I devoured the chocolate cake too quickly to get a snapshot of that.

We also went to an amazing vegan restaurant called Blossom. My friend Chris had been there recently, so we thought we'd give it a try, despite being warned of its pricy-ness (plus, we couldn't go to Pure Food and Wine since we didn't have appropriate attire to suit the dress code). Omigod - we did not regret going to Blossom. I started off with a ravioli that was awesome, while Kyle had a mango salad. I first have to apologize for the dark photos - it was a dimly lit restaurant and I didn't want to ruin the ambiance with my flash going off:


As for entrées, I had some lentil-phyllo thing with curry dipping sauce and steamed beet greens (good, but WAY too much food on my plate), while Kyle had a stuffed portobello concoction on couscous (which he insists was better than mine). They had much fancier names, but they escape me right now.


The most heavenly moment was the dessert - my god, the 'cheesecake' was amazing. It's forced me to try and create a soy yogurt cheesecake (I try to avoid recipes calling for vegan cream cheese since it's a hydrogenated product).



Oh yeah - all the sights were pretty cool too.

Soup 'n' 'Chos

Continuing with the documentation of what appears in our weekly CSA box, here's this week's bounty:



1 zucchini
1 sprig of mint
1 box red potatoes
1 box peas
1 box yellow, purple and green beans
1 bag spring mix
1 bunch garlic scapes
7 green onions
2 radishes
1 beet
1 bunch green swiss chard
6 carrots
1 bulb fennel

I used much of the loot to make Minestrone from Foods that Don't Bite Back by Sue Donaldson. I didn't use eggplant and subbed chickpeas and fresh basil, and it was good. She uses a secret ingredient that I wasn't aware of before - and it was well worth the $4 or so that I paid for the book.



Last weekend Cool Teen #2 had a friend over that would stay for dinner if we weren't having anything "gross". I don't think her definition of the word and mine are quite the same. I thought about what omni teens might like to eat and what vegans might like to eat and what might fall into both categories that I had in the house. The best that I could come up with on short notice was - Vegan/Teen Skillet Nachos. I didn't want to add to my non-cool-adult-that-eats-gross-things image by taking close up photos of my food, so I'll be sure to take a pic next time I make these!

Vegan/Teen Skillet Nachos

1 tblsp olive oil
1 vidalia onion, diced
1 yellow or red pepper, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
4 garlic scapes, minced (optional, I just happened to have some)
1 super large, or 3 small mushrooms, chopped finely
1 pkg Yves Original Ground Round
1 tsp Fajita spice, or to taste (mine is Victorian Epicure, due to a hostess party I was roped into going to)
1 heaping tsp Mesquite Grilling spice mix, or to taste (mine is Club House)
1/3 cup salsa
1 tblsp soy sauce or tamari
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 mango, diced
2 finely sliced green onions
1 small handful cilantro, chopped

1 cup fresh salsa
1 cup vegan sour cream (I used Tofutti)
1 bag tortilla chips, preferably organic non-GMO baked chips

Heat oil in cast iron skillet on medium heat. Saute onion and pepper for a few minutes. Add garlic clove and scapes, sauteing until onions are soft. Add mushrooms and stir. Add Ground Round, spices, tamari and salsa, lowering heat.
Once mixture is heated through, add black beans and mango. Cook until mango has softened, depending on how ripe it is. Remove from heat and sprinkle green onions and cilantro over skillet contents.

Serve with fresh salsa and vegan sour cream, scooping with chips.

ETA: photo!


Oh, and the reason I typed up the recipe - our Cool Teen guest asked for it!

Strawberries Four Ways

I wasn't feeling so hot, so I opted to buy a large 4 litre basket of strawberries instead of picking them. Despite feeling crappy, I managed to use up every last berry:

1. Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

Using rhubarb from my garden, I created this tasty treat to take to one of Kyle's family get-togethers. I loved how it made a whole 9x13 pan of crisp! I obviously veganized the recipe to use Earth Balance instead of butter and Sucanat instead of brown sugar, but I would cut down on the amount of Sucanat next time since it was a little too sweet. A little vanilla soy ice cream on the side would have been great too.

2. Strawberry Ice Cream

I modified a recipe from Vice Cream to avoid juicing the strawberries, but rather puréeing them whole in the food processor, then mixing with the cashews and maple syrup. Tasty! It was very gelato-like, but next time I'll try to ensure I have some soymilk on hand to make a creamier version.

3. Strawberry Freezer Jam

I love making this with crushed berries, organic sugar and pectin. And these cute little reuseable jars are too cool.

4. Fruit Salad

Boring, but tasty.

Happy Canada Day!

Yesterday was the 140th birthdate of our wonderful country, and our family celebrates each year with a feast! Although there are some meat-eaters in attendance, most of the dishes were vegan.

Sarah's contribution was a yummy Black Bean Salad, along with veggie burgers.



She also made her famous guacamole, but that was long gone before the camera came out.

My mom made Hot German Potato Salad (she didn't have any veggie bacon).



She also made a new vegan noodle recipe that she found (I think it is so sweet when carnies look for vegan recipes for their veggie loved ones) that was very good (source unknown to me).



I wanted a light salad, so I googled and made an Asian Cucumber Salad from Kalyn's Kitchen.



It was sweet, spicy and light, and exactly what I was craving. I also made Mango Summer Rolls from VWAV. I used the trick I learned from the Barrhaven Vietnamese Restaurant to keep the rice papers from sticking to each other - pack the rolls in shredded lettuce.



We rounded out the festivities with a stimulating game of Yahtzee and an exhilarating match of Catch Phrase - men vs. women. Guess who won.

I hope all of you Canucks had a super Canada Day!

For some really awesome Canadian trivia, check out the Yarn Harlot's annual Canada Day entry.

Dinner and a Mystery

Thank you to everyone who left such heart-warming congratulations! We thoroughly enjoyed our week. I didn't do a lot of cooking and we dined out a lot, which isn't all that easy as a vegan sometimes. Mostly I take photos of what I make, but I had to blog about the most spectacular meal of the week, at Sacred Garden on Bank at Riverside. It is a completely vegetarian Thai restaurant. We've been there once before and were impressed, but this time we were totally blown away. I'm just getting used to taking my camera out of the kitchen, and had polished off the amazing Tom Yum Soup before it dawned on me to take a photo of it. The second course was the Green Papaya Salad.



I don't think I'd ever be able to reproduce it since green papayas have eluded me in the grocery store. It was excellent.

For the main course, we had Red Panang Curry.



The menu describes it as a dry curry, and being a lover of juicy things, I was pleasantly surprised that it had a creamy coconut sauce and was absolutely to die for.

We also chose the less exotic Pad Thai, which was really good.



Last, off the specials board, I noticed a dessert advertised as vegan, which I had to order just because the restaurant knew that having a vegan dessert was important. Since we were both full, Pete and I decided to share. It was the very best dessert I have ever had in my life.



Sweet and icy coconut milk surrounded soft fresh coconut slivers and tiny pink tapioca pearls. Pete graciously let me have the last spoonful. Perhaps he saw the crazed look in my eye and became a little frightened.

If you live in Ottawa and are veg*n, or just looking for a fantastic meal, try the Sacred Garden. Maybe the fake shrimp in the soup will freak you out a little, but the food will be exquisite.

On a seasonal note, the local pick-your-own-berries farm opened!



We're thinking that given one week of sunny days, there will be so many ripe strawberries on the plants that you can just sit in one spot and fill a basket.

This mystery vegetable arrived in our CSA box this week.



Does anyone know what it is or what to do with it?

Our Special Day

Yesterday we celebrated something very important to us.



Pete and I wanted to have an intimate, relaxed ceremony at home with our family. And of course, it had to be vegan. Being the busy day that it was, I only got a photo of the whole table after the hungry guests had a few bites.



We had a veggie tray from Farmboy and Dairy-free Ranch Dip from April 2007 VT, a fruit tray with a dip that I made from soy yogurt, strawberries, a banana and agave nectar, Vietnamese Vegetarian Salad Rolls from the Barrhaven Vietnamese Restaurant, hummus and pita, nachos and Farmboy salsa, Parisien Bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and veggie sushi from Ebi Sushi. The owner was sweet enough to open her restaurant early to have the sushi ready for us, and it was excellent. Here is the pre-party tray.



And the piece-de-resistance, a two-vegan-sister effort, with a little help from Isa and Terry, our wedding cupcakes.



Sarah made the Coconut Lime Cupcakes and the Lemon Macadamia Cupcakes (although she subbed almonds for the mac nuts) which were both absolutely spectacular. I heard many compliments about the Lemon Cupcakes in particular, and it is rumoured that Kyle deserves credit for the idea of the lemon rind heart at the top of the icing swirl. I made the Pistachio Rosewater cuppers, which I really liked too. Just a note for anyone that wants to make them identical to the cover of VCTOTW - I think they used the alternate topping suggestion, the Vegan Fluffy Buttercream Frosting, to make them look like that. I actually preferred the Rosewater Glaze for this cupper - it was delicately sweet and didn't overpower the flavour of the cupcake.

We "cut the cake" and enjoyed each of Sarah's cupcakes.



It was a fabulous day and we're grateful that we have so many wonderful people to share it with.

I loved the wedding flowers, by Anika's Arts and Flowers, also in Barrhaven (I gotta plug the local businesses - buy local!)





We're on our honeymoon now, and we didn't even use any fossil fuels getting here.

The Second Box

The second CSA delivery yielded:



1 head green leaf lettuce
1 bunch of red and green swiss chard (mixed)
1 bunch of spinach
1 box of peas
1 bag of spring mix
10 stalks of rhubarb
1 beet
2 radishes
1 bunch of green and red (?) basil
2 green onions

and four of these unique carrots - they are almost red on the outside, but orange on the inside. I've never seen carrots like them. Are they heirloom carrots?



For dinner, I sauted the swiss chard with the basil and green onions, sundried tomatoes, chickpeas and artichoke hearts and served it over brown rice pasta. Princess gobbled up the carrots and tried a radish - then determined that she isn't fond of radish.

On the Doorstep

Our first CSA box of the season arrived!



It was so much fun to see what was hiding under there - the box contained a bag of baby greens, a huge bunch of green swiss chard, red swiss chard, a GIANT head of romaine lettuce, half a daikon, one sweet beet, one red beet, 8 snow peas, a small bunch of mint and cilantro, seven stalks of rhubarb and two big green onions. For dinner we had a stirfry and for dessert, rhubarb crumble (as suggested by Sarah). I used slivered almonds instead of ground as that's what I had. The dish was really tart, but good! I would have loved to top it with a scoop of vanilla soy ice cream, but we were out :(

This week, we'll be eating LOTS of salad.

*For anyone in Ottawa, the contact info for the CSA is:
Tim and Roshan Aubin
613-658-5721
aubinfarm@aol.com

In the Backyard

Kyle and I are busy with our garden, after having planted many veggies last weekend, we've relied on the only thing that's ready for harvesting so far - rhubarb. While I'll stick to making strawberry rhubarb pies with all of my stalks, these muffins were OK, but a little too moist and sticky for my liking.

We've also got ourselves composting this year. After spending an extravagant amount on this composter from Lee Valley Tools, we're pretty happy with the results thus far. It spins around, doesn't smell, and stores the leftover 'tea'. We've been using it to store kitchen scrap waste for about a month, and are already seeing great results.

The New Kid on the Counter

So I have a confession to make. I was convinced that I owned every small kitchen appliance that I would ever need. I admire the punk rock ethos that Isa and Terry perpetuate in that you don't need fancy accoutrement to make good vegan food. I inherited my food processor from my grandmother. I’m certain that I could use my oven to dehydrate flax crackers if I ever decide to try them. I was content to make my beloved green smoothie every morning with the $20 discount store blender that I’ve had for years. I had learning the exact timing required to mulch kale. Then, one morning, the smell of burning plastic signaled the dawn of a new green smoothie era. Behold, the mighty Champ HP:



It contains the raw ingredients of our favourite green smoothie – Tracy's Tropical Typhoon.

Tropical Typhoon (serving for one person with an extra large smoothie travel mug)

1/4 papaya
1 banana
1/4 pineapple
1/2 mango
1 handful kale
1 scoop hemp protein powder
3 cups water

Blend together in K-Tec Champ HP on 2. Or your old trusty working blender. It’s all good.

Woo Hoo!

With the Ottawa Senators having clinched a spot in the Stanley Cup finals, I can now divert my attention from biting my nails to cooking - for about a week.

A couple of weeks ago, Kyle mentioned how he had ordered General Tao's chicken from a local Chinese take-out. After telling me how it tasted pretty bad, I recalled how I'd seen many on the PPK rave about a version of General Tao's tofu. I found the recipe, and made an attempt to make homemade take-out that would compete with Kyle's former meal.

And compete it did! I thought it was weird to use 3/4 cup of cornstarch to coat the tofu, and was a little worried that I wasn't frying it in enough oil (the tofu had globs of gellied cornstarch for the first 8 minutes), but they turned out great. We added 1/2 of each red and yellow peppers, but next time, we both agreed to double the sauce. There just wasn't much to coat the noodles, and I don't think it had anything to do with me mistakingly adding only 4 teaspoons of sugar instead of the whopping 4 tablespoons the recipe called for.


For dessert, I thought I'd try to do something different, yet still summery. Kyle and I have gotten into the habit of snacking on soy ice cream, and with bikini season nearly here, I was seeking an alternative. I thought I'd whip up my own creation. I can't say that I will make this again. I puréed 3 mangoes, 1 box of silken tofu, 1/2 cup sugar, the rind of one lime and the juice of half a lime. I let it sit in the fridge, but it didn't turn out as mousse-like or as mango-ey as I had hoped. After Kyle ate his share, he decided to have his usual Peanut Butter Zig-Zag soy ice cream.

Temperate Cooking

We had a good start to summer going on, so we sat in the sun and fired up the grill. One of my very favourite summer dishes is a medley of marinated grilled vegetables, served either plain or over noodles.



I always adlib the marinade so they never taste quite the same twice. Pete does a great job on the barbee, and they are always grilled to perfection.

Another night I had a hankering for spicy chinese. I searched the web for yet another way to do tofu. I found this.



It was really really good, even better than takeout because I could control the amount of oil in it.

Then the weather turned cold, so a steaming hot bowl of soup was in order. I had been eyeing Susan V's White Bean and Garlic Stew recipe.



I chickened out a little bit and only added half of the cloves of a garlic bulb. I also wanted to up the green content so I threw in some chopped swiss chard instead of parsley, and had only one can of cannellini beans so I added a can of chickpeas. It was absolutely delicious. I thought it would be super garlicky but it was really mellow.

Again, the weather was damp and cold tonight, so I improvised a little. I had an acorn squash in the cupboard and a few potatoes. Thus my Curried Squash Pumpkin Potato Soup.



I decided it needed a sexier name. Pete suggested:

Squish Squash Soup

1/2 tblsp olive oil
1 chopped white onion
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp curry powder
4 cups veggie broth
1 cup water
1 baked acorn squash, skin removed
1 can of pumpkin (but reserve 1 cup so you can make VwaV's pumpkin muffins another day)
2 potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 tsp salt
a small handful of cilantro leaves, chopped

Heat the oil in a soup pot. Add the onion and saute until soft. Add the mustard seeds and curry powder and stir for a minute. Add the broth, water, squash, pumpkin and potatoes. Heat to boiling and then reduce to a simmer for 15 minutes, or until potatoes are soft. Stir in salt to taste and fresh cilantro.

Let's hope the weather turns around so we can be on the patio with fruity drinks by Friday afternoon!

I <3 Summer!

I love a nearly disaster-free dessert - bananas, strawberries and pineapple fondue!

I had never used my cheap fondue set before, but remember being told to melt my chocolate mixture first and use the candle below to keep it warm. So I melted some vegan chocolate chips with some soymilk, and was ready to munch in no time. I did learn, however, that that little tealight candle has alot of power. While watching the hockey game, we heard some sizzling - a little patch of chocolate was burning.

Although I didn't mind tending to this little hiccup - I just swirled a cool chunk of pineapple around to stir the chocolate and leave myself with a decadent mouthful.

An Old Friend

I made my absolute favourite comfort food that came from my own imagination the other night for probably the hundredth time when I realized that I had never posted the recipe here. I did post something *really* similar, but not exactly the same. Since we've lightened our diet, I make this with brown rice pasta.



Sundried Tomato Spinach Artichoke Pasta

1 tblsp oil from julienned oil-packed sundried tomatoes, or olive oil if using dry sundried tomatoes
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup sundried tomatoes packed in oil, or dried then reconstituted sundried tomatoes
3/4 cup red wine
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
2 huge handfuls of baby spinach, or chopped spinach
1 can quartered artichoke hearts
1 can chickpeas, drained

1 box brown rice pasta, cooked

Heat oil in wok. Saute garlic for a couple of minutes. Add sundried tomatoes and saute for a few minutes more. Add wine, vinegar and spinach and cook until spinach is slightly wilted. Add artichoke hearts and chickpeas and heat through. Add drained pasta and mix together. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

I always make this when I don't know what to make, as I usually have everything in the pantry, and spinach in the fridge. Except for that E coli episode - that was painful.

Three Strikes

I woke up early this morning and decided to make my honey some waffles. It's been awhile since I've used my waffle maker, and with a busy day planned to work on backyard projects, I thought a hearty breakfast would be a great start.

Now, I decided that I didn't want to make just any waffle recipe. I really liked the pumpkin waffle recipe from VwaV, but that was not suitable for today's summer-like weather. VwaV came through once again though - Lemon Corn Waffles with Blueberry Sauce. Upon reading the recipe, I was excited that I had most ingredients. And because this was Sunday, I didn't want to go to the trouble of making a separate blueberry sauce - heck, I decided that I would just add the blueberries to the batter instead and rely on maple syrup for a sauce. In addition, I decided to use soft whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose, and since I didn't have 1/4 cup of soy yogurt, I thought that an equal amount of additional soymilk would do just fine. Geez, with the juice of two lemons, I was sure that all of the recipe's soymilk would curdle like yogurt!

But somehow, something went wrong. Very wrong... see below:

"It must just be these first four waffles that are messed up," I told Kyle.


The next four showed some improvment (at least the waffles weren't split into two), but they still weren't looking right.


The final two waffles confirmed that something had gone wrong. Since my waffle maker has the most annoying 'beep' to signal that it's done, I knew that I hadn't opened it too early. I think my substitutions had the best of me.

Ah well, they still tasted good, despite the fact that they looked like some dead sea creature.