Early Summer Potluck Glory

You might already know that I teach yoga. But, twice a week, I get to go to class with my teacher and be a student. Long live Tuesdays and Fridays! 

My teacher is so wonderful and I am deeply grateful for him. He has truly changed my life. Another thing that's changed my life is meeting so many dear friends in his classes. Over the years, we've all watched each other grow and evolve, face challenges and triumphs, and it makes for a pretty sweet connection.

hungry yoginis!

So recently, I had a few yoga pals over for an early summer potluck and it was just great. Totally delicious food, and a chance to share interesting and fun conversations with my buddies (beyond the 5 minutes before and after class!). No one else who came is a vegan, but everyone brought vegan food to share, without me ever even saying anything. I was so touched!

Crystal and Ivo brought this amazing trio of dishes: Herbed Polenta Wedges, sauteed mushrooms, and a super-flavor-blast tomato sauce that Crystal had canned last summer. I don't eat polenta often, but this was so crazy delicious that I might just start making it more often. There was just the right amount of flavor from the seasoning in it, and it went great with the 'shrooms and tomato sauce. 

Jane and JP brought a Farro Salad with fava beans, sugar snap peas, and homemade pesto. Great combo of fresh green flavors and earthy substance. Plus - a little snap and a little chew! It was as good as it looks.

Maia brought a ginormous bowl of ginormous White Beans and Greens. Those beans were FIVE STAR. They were huge and cooked so nicely and full of flavor and this was - again - a great combo of fresh and substantive. I really love this kind of eating. It feels healthy and nourishing, but not heavy at all.

As for me, I made a gigantic double batch of my new salad crush: the Nicoise Salad (recipe from Appetite for Reduction). I love this salad so damned much, it's just crazy. I am IN LOVE. And, I wasn't the only one! You might not be able to tell here, but this was a massive quantity of salad, and there wasn't too much left over. (just enough to send some home with Maia, and for me to have it for lunch the next day - perfect!)

Here's my plate full of green glorious goodness!

Lastly, but not leastly, I made a Cherry-Apricot Crisp (recipe from Local Flavors). It was good, good, good. I served it up with some Vanilla Soy Ice Cream from Trader Joe's. It was summery, and vibrant, and full of fruity flavor explosions. 

Potlucks are really great for get-togethers like this. I love how everyone ends up eating fun dishes they haven't had before. I love how no one works too hard and no one ends up overwhelmed and exhausted... Most of all, I love having time to connect and eat together with my special friends!

Birthday Weekend of Yum

 This  weekend was my birthday! Not just any birthday, though... it was my 40th birthday! 

ZING! That's crazy! 

I had a totally great weekend. It was pretty much perfect.

There was some friendly time, some hubby time, and some alone time. Some great yoga, some great dog walks, some lazing on the sofa. There was a great family dinner. Time for reflection and time for goofing off. I feel happy and super loved. And, of course, there was some top-rate noshing too.

My aunt brought me a basket of raspberries from her backyard. These are extra special though, because she lives in the house where my grandparents lived for my whole life. And they were the ones who planted these raspberries. I grew up eating them off the vine, and helping my grandparents pick them... So, they were very sentimental and extra delicious raspberries.

Fresh OJ from our orange tree, fresh berries from my friend Jane's farm, a savory scone from my freezer (and from Dovetail Bakery before that), and some delicious Curried Tofu Scramble (from Appetite for Reduction.) YES.

I actually had TWO super awesome breakfasts on my birthday weekend - one with friends on Saturday, and one (with leftovers!) with Mr. Vegan Eats & Treats on Sunday. Pretty much the best.

Plus, there were waffles. It was my birthday after all!! I made a double batch of the Raised Waffles batter from Vegan Brunch, which are my favorite waffles of all. On Saturday, I added blueberries, which was super yummy - but which also resulted in the waffles totally sticking to my excellent non-stick waffle iron. So, on Sunday, I kept it simple with plain waffles. On the side was some leftover Apricot-Cherry Crisp (from Local Flavors, by Deborah Madison).

Saturday night, we had a family birthday party, and in order to accomodate the many requirements of my excellent family - we settled on a BYOBurger party. It was perfect! There were portabello mushrooms, veggie burgers, non-vegan burgers... something for everyone to feel happy. Plus, loads of delicious corn and a ginormous salad. For dessert, I made the aforementioned crisp, which turned out really great. It was easily made soy-free and gluten-free, and was so packed with apricots and cherries that it was obviously delicious. It would take some serious intervention to make something filled with apricots and cherries NOT yummy.

What about presents?? Well, this is a crappy picture, but Mr. VE&T got me a TOASTER OVEN. Just days before my birthday, my ancient toaster oven broke. Toast is very important to me. A birthday just wouldn't be a special day without toast. So, when I came home from teaching and found a beautiful, shiny new toaster oven, I was totally delighted. Now, here is a man who knows me well!

I love it, and it makes golden, delicious toast. It is good.

On the night of my actual birthday, I made some delicious sandwiches, and was so blissed out that I totally forgot to take pictures. So, instead, I have drawn a picture for you. I made the Grilled Herbed Tofu Sandwiches from Real Food Daily.  It was a dream of culinary glory. SO GOOD. Mr. VE&T even said it was one of the best sandwiches he's ever had. 

For dessert, we made Rice Krispie Treats! 

This is us, dressed up as Snap, Crackle and Pop

Thanks to the magical glory that is Dandies Vegan Marshmallows, a vegan is free to make a whole tray of rice krispie treats and not have any left to photograph the next day. :) An excellent ending to a totally excellent birthday weekend!

 ~~~

p.s. In addition to getting some nice birthday prezzies, I also have a present for the lucky winner of my Great Gluten-Free Vegan Eats from Around The World giveaway: 

Congratulations to Cadry!!!

Ramen Stir Fry!

 OMG.

I was flipping through 30-Minute Vegan: Taste of the East, when a recipe for Ramen Stir Fry practically jumped off the page and hit me in the face. If there is a recipe for Ramen Stir Fry, I am going to make it.

Well, guess what? It RULED THE WORLD. We both pretty much freaked for this meal. Supposedly it served 4-6, but - uh - it served 2. I used the suggestion to use tofu instead of seitan, so I dry-fried the tofu cubes while I was prepping the veggies. Basically, you use the ramen noodles without the spice packets, then you add them to your stir fried veggies (onion, daikon, carrots, shiitakes, sugar snaps...).  The recipe is quick and easy and super yums. I pretty much cannot wait to make it again.

All night long we were saying "What a great dinner." "That was awesome." Mr. VE&T pointed out that all the textures in this dish were really fun and perfect - crunchy peas, chewy tofus, noodley noodles, saucy sauce. Mmm. Make it.

While we're on the subject of that book - here's another recent dinner I made from it. Korean BBQ Tofu, Spicy Asparagus, and Korean Potatoes. It was a really great meal, and a good combo, but those Korean Potatoes pretty much stole the show. What an excellent recipe! Spicy, sweet, cooked with onions and shiitake mushrooms, they were just dynamite. We both saved our potatoes for last, since it was our favorite part of the meal! 

Hey! Don't forget to enter my contest to win a copy of Allyson Kramer's new book:

Great Gluten-Free Vegan Eats from Around The World!

I'll pick a winner this weekend

VidaVeganCon (& Portland) with My Mom!

One of the best things about this year's VidaVeganCon

 was that I brought my awesome Mom along with me!! It was so fun!

We arrived a day early, and stayed on a extra day after the conference, so that we could also have a little time together in Portland to hang out and visit some family and friends.

With my Momsie at the Galarama

I was really touched by how warm and welcoming everyone at the conference was to my mom. Everyone was just totally awesome and kind and inviting, and a few people even said "I wish I could bring my mom to a vegan conference with me!" (a couple other people actually did! - Hi Hannah!)

My mom isn't vegan, but she is totally down with the program. She is definitely the #1 fan of my blog. She subscribes by email and reads every post I write, and she usually even leaves comments. We always joke that she is my agent, because she is always enthusiastically spreading the word about my blog. I think she enjoyed seeing me in my element, and meeting so many of my bloggie/interwebz friends -- and it was really nice for me to share this part of my life with her!

Here she is, fashioning a podium for our  Vegan Battle Royale game show out of cardboard boxes and packing tape She is very resourceful!

My mom had lots of fun going around to the different vendors and checking out their goodies. In fact, I think she tried more treats and scored more samples than I did! Here she is, beaming happily after her very first time trying kale chips! A momentous occasion!

During the conference my mom attended classes with me, came to my classes (and even participated in the discussions), and she helped out a LOT with our game show prep. She helped us assemble and box up all 300 goodies bags until 2 in the morning the first night of the conference. Way to go, Mom!

Of course, I didn't just death march her through the whole weekend - I showed her a good time too! I took her around to many of Portand's hottest vegan spots for some top notch vegan eating.

Portobello!

My favorite thing was the Arrabiata Pizza. I want to eat this pizza everyday forever. That spicy sausage was outta sight!	My mom's favorite thing was the battered asparagus fries	Since there were 4 of us, we ordered 3 desserts (duh!) - and this one was my true favorite: a rhubarb tart in house-made puff pastry. Dear god, it was delicious.

Our very first night in town, we went out to Portobello (I made the reservation months ahead of time!). We went with our cousin and one of my best friends (from Junior High and High School) - both of whom live in Portland. It was really wonderful to see them both, and neither of them had been to Portobello before, so that was especially fun.

Canteen!

On Sunday, after the conference was over, we reconnected with our cousin and my pal for an early dinner at Canteen. Everyone's been talking about this spot, and after a weekend of serious indulgence I was more than ready for some wholesome nutrition. I ordered the Portland Bowl: quinoa, black beans, tempeh, carrots and kale, and a delicious sauce. It really hit the spot!

My mom was happy because she got the BBQ bowl with tempeh. She really loves tempeh, but (alas!) my dad is not a fan at all. So, in his absence, she could happily have a dinner full of tempeh!

Vita Cafe!

Vita Cafe is one of my favorite spots in Portland. I WAS IN HEAVEN. Here in Santa Cruz, we have such crappy vegan breakfast options; if you want french toast, you're gonna have to make it yourself, sucka. So, I bossed everyone around and (since they love me), they happily let me order four things and shared with me: Northwest Pancakes with Hazelnuts (the. best.), a delicious tofu scramble, french toast (I didn't even have to make it!), and way in the back - biscuits and gravy. My first ever biscuits and gravy!!

this is a crazy doodle of me, in Heaven, 

with floating pancakes and pieces of french toast.

Dovetail Bakery!

After breakfast, I dragged everyone next door to Dovetail, my A#1 favorite vegan bakery. Oh, how I dream of Dovetail. Dovetail was my first stop when we landed, and I also stocked up again before leaving town. I bought a bunch of scones and some muffins to take home with me. We even bumped into Nicole and Dan from Upton's Seitan who were also stocking up on goodies for their flight. Great minds think alike!

Departure!

After a fun day of poking around the Pearl District... we had time for one last dinner together - and after consulting with my various vegan pals, I herded my gang over to PDX's new hot spot: Departure. It was a totally great experience!

This place is a total trip! It's up on the very top of a big, tall building in downtown Portland. You take the elevator to the 15th floor, and when you step out of the elevator, you are in a long space age tunnel-like hallway lit up with pink lights and mirrors. It is a really fun place to goof off!

just a few of the many dishes we tried and loved!

But once you emerge from the dark tunnel, you enter the restaurant/lounge area which is spacious and modern and awash in natural light - with gorgeous views of the whole of Portland. It's a really lovely space.

Plus - let's talk about the real issues here - the food was totally dynamite! Departure isn't a vegan restaurant, but they do have a whole separate vegan menu, with 22 items on it. The dishes are served tapas-style, with the idea that everyone will share and have a few bites. We ordered and ordered and ordered, and in the end we tried 11 dishes AND a dessert. We were all really impressed with the food: great flavor, beautiful presentation, ample options, generous servings, fresh ingredients... I could go on and on. This was food I wouldn't (couldn't??) make for myself at home and it was just glorious to revel in so many flavors and textures that were lovingly assembled and presented. I absolutely cannot wait to get back here some day. Soon!

With our bellies stuffed full of deliciousness, 

and our suitcases all packed full of goodies, we headed off to the airport. 

But wait!

There was still one last adventure awaiting us!!!

We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare, checked our bags, and went through security with no problemos. What's this? A Starbuck's? Let's get a coffee and relax before our flight. 

Or, rather: Let's get a coffee and start checking emails and Facebooking on our fancy little iPads until we miss our flight!! That is what happened, friends. For realz. In all my years of travel, I have never made such a rookie mistake. After a few minutes of totally uncool flustered distress, I realized that the only option was to suck it up and laugh at myself! I was just having so much fun looking at everyone's VVC pictures on Facebook - look at the trouble it caused me! ha ha.

The fellow at the gate was very kind and understanding, but he just couldn't open the doors for us (even though the plane was still sitting right there!!). However, he could put us on standby for the next flight. Yay! However, the next flight was at 6 am the following day. Boo! Ha ha, we really got ourselves in a pickle!

OOOOOPSies!

(I love this picture)

The next morning (at 5 a.m.!!!) we returned to the scene of the crime.

We needed our coffee more than ever, but this time we knew better than to linger there - we took our coffees straight to the gate! Lesson learned, my friends. Lucky for us, we had our stash of scones from Dovetail Bakery, so even our 5 am breakfast was pretty damned classy. Only in Portland!

By the time we landed back home - we both had to hit the ground running: I was off to teach yoga and my mom was off to a City Council meeting (on 4 hours of sleep!). By the time I finally hit my pillow that night, I was truly stoked to curl up with Snoopy and get some sleep. I think I slept 9 hours... dreaming of VidaVeganCon the whole time!

Great Gluten Free Vegan Goes Global! Blog Tour & Giveaway

For all you folks out there looking for more vegan and gluten-free options, Allyson Kramer (of Manifest Vegan) has a new book out: Great Gluten-Free Vegan Eats from Around The World (phew!). A little while back, Allyson asked if I would be a part of her new book's blog tour, and I happily said yes!

Unfortunately, my sample copy of GGFVEFATW didn't arrive until I was off at VidaVeganCon, so I've still only had a few days to hang out with it and cook from it. The book is organized by region: Africa, Europe, South America, Asia, and so on... and each section offers recipes for lighter fare, entrees and a handful of sweeties.  The recipes don't look too complicated, and they seem easy to modify according to your personal tastes (more seasoning, leave something out, etc). I always appreciate recipes like that.

Once I had pulled myself together after VidaVeganCon, I got into the kitchen and got to work! I've made a few things so far:

Red Potato & Watercress Soup (from Ireland)

Minted Green Salad with Oranges, Lentils & Tomatoes (Middle East)

and this wonderful Spiced Lentil Harira (Morocco)

Of the three, this Harira was our real favorite. It was quick and easy to prepare, but was hearty and bursting with both flavor and nutrition. We both loved it, so I'm going to share the recipe with you!

Spiced Lentil Harira

(yield: 6 servings)

1 large can (28 oz) crushed tomatoes

1 cup (192 g) dried lentils

1 onion, diced

2 stalks celery, sliced

6 cups (1.4 L) salted vegetable broth

1 tsp red pepper flakes (more or less depending on your spice tastes)

1 tsp coriander powder

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp dried ginger

2 cups (480 g) cooked chickpeas

    (added after cooking soup halfway)

2 Tbsp (15 g) gram flour mixed with 1/4 cup (60 ml) water until smooth

1/2 c (30 g) chopped parsley

1/4 cup (4 g) chopped cilantro

1 tsp salt, or to taste

2 large lemons, sliced into wedges, for serving

Place all the ingredients through the ginger in a large stockpot and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium, to maintain a constant simmer, and let cook for about 30 minutes, or until the lentils are tender. Stir in the chickpeas, gram flour mixture, parsley, and cilantro. Cook an additional 10 minutes to cook the gram flour completely and to thicken the soup. Salt to taste and serve with a lemon wedge.

veggie prep!

GGFVEFATW has a lot to offer, and some of the recipes I have my eye on to try out in the future include: 

- Peppery Banana, Avocado and Papaya Salad

- Sweet Coconut Orange Cookies

- Veggie Frittata with Salsa Verde

- Farinata Pizza

- Bambara Peanut Butter Rice Pudding

- Fig Pastries

A few thoughts:

~ The book is really beautifully laid out, with great fonts, beautiful pictures, and really clear instructions

~ I really appreciate that the recipes include both volume and weight measurements. I like using 

weights to measure when I cook. Plus, it makes it more versatile for U.S. & European kitchens.

~ I think my only complaint about the book is that tons of the baked goods call for Superfine Brown Rice Flour, which isn't available where I live. I guess I'll probably end up ordering some online, because all the gluten-free bakers I know swear by it (and I know Allyson's sweeties are probably worth it). I know that the audience for this book is probably used to special ordering a lot of ingredients and products, but I think that special ingredients make a lot of the recipes a bit inaccesible. At least, if I do order it, there are a lot recipes that call for it (not just one or two).

It's like travelling around the world --

but actually being able to eat the food!

Great news!! Allyson's publishers are sponsoring a giveaway (open to U.S. and Canada) for one of my readers to win their very own copy of GGFVEFATW!! Just leave a comment on this post, and I'll draw a winner this weekend!

p.s. Even if you don't win from my giveaway, check out the other stops along the way in the blog tour for more chances to win. You can find the whole schedule here.

My Presentations at VidaVeganCon

It's super fun to go on and on about all the food I ate and all the friends I met at VidaVeganCon - but (believe it or not) - there was also an actual conference going on. I loved the classes I attended, and I was also lucky enough to speak on three different topics:

1. VeganMoFo Workshop

(Vegan Month of Food)

some real MoFos!

I was really lucky to present with two of my awesome bloggie pals Mo and Kittee. The VeganMoFo workshop was 45 minutes long and we wanted people to leave feeling totally inspired to participate.

Kittee, Mo and I have all been blogging for years now, and we're all totally devoted MoFo participants. Our presentation was based on our own experiences as MoFo writers and readers.

A few highlights from the workshop:

1. MoFo doesn't need to be a recipe or a "what I ate" post every single day.

Broaden your horizons! You can write about your favorite kitchen tools, your favorite coffee cup, make up fictional menus for fictional events, and just about anything vaguely food-related. (Just keep it vegan, folks)

2. The goal is to post at least 20 times in one month. So, if you miss a day, don't start crying and throw in the towel. Get back on the blog-train and pick up like nothing ever happened!

3. MoFo is all about building community! Be sure to leave comments on other people's blogs throughout the month. Especially, try to leave comments on blogs that don't already have 30 comments. Try to discover new blogs (www.randomofo.com is great for this). Kittee's excellent MoFo challenge is to leave 10 comments a day. I did that last year and it was really great! Plus, people will click back to your blog, so this is a way to encourage other bloggers and build your own readership.

4. Include pictures, and don't write too much. During MoFo, no one has time to read your mini-novella! 

this picture doesn't really capture all the raucous fun!

I was writing down all the ideas just as fast as I could!

Finally, after all that (and more!), we spent the last 15 minutes of the workshop brainstorming Official VidaVeganCon MoFo themes. It was so much fun!!!

happy vegan voters!

We started brainstorming themes for each day of the week... It was AMAZING how many fun and interesting themes were proposed in just a few minutes!! The room was buzzing with creativity and enthusiasm!

In the end, we voted for the favorites and the themes with the most votes were:

• Mac 'n' Cheese Mondays
• TV Tuesdays
• Work With It Wednesdays (pick a food you don't like & challenge yourself!)
• Thankful Thursdays (cooking for other people! I love this one!)
• Freaky Friday (blog swap! trade spots and blog on someone else's blog!)
• Retro Saturday
• Sleepy Sunday (breakfast posts! oh, YEAH.)

It looks like MoFo will be in September this year, so start brainstorming now! If you've got grand plans of your own, that is awesome. But, if you want to participate and didn't know what to write about - now you've got somewhere to start.

2. How To Make a Zine

from Concept to Distribution

This workshop was really wonderful. Kittee and Joanna and I led a talk / discussion on what goes in to the making of a zine. The three of us have all been zinesters for years, and we all had different ideas, different methods, and different visions for our zines. Leading up to the weekend of VVC, we spent hours on Google Hangout talking about zines and what information we wanted to share. In the end, I was really happy with how the workshop went.

The class was held in the gorgeous library room at the Portland Art Museum, and it was a perfectly sized group (20 people?). We could - almost - all fit around the one giant table. Kittee brought along a huge number of vegan zines that she's been collecting for many years, and it was great to flip through them and have them there to discuss. We talked about:

• Determining who is the audience for your zine
• What is the vision for your zine? 
• Does it have a theme, or is it a collection of your favorite recipes?
• If you are developing your own recipes, do you need testers? 
• How to actually make your zine? I do it all with pen and pencil, Kittee types the text and then does illustrations with collage, Joanna does beautiful all-digital layout on AmazonCreate
• (Here's a link to my detailed post on how to make your own hand-drawn zine)
• Getting the zine printed: xerox, a proper printer, or print-on-demand (like via Amazon)
• And distribution: is the zine going to be a gift for friends? Are you going to sell it? How will you find buyers (via your blog, zine distributors, etc)

I really enjoyed this workshop, and I hope the people who came did too. I love zines so much - after all, they're a chance to combine my love of crafty projects, cartoony doodles and my passion for veganism! What could be better??

3. Vegan Battle Royale

the vegan game show extraveganza!!!

Last, but decidedly, NOT LEAST, Kittee and Mo and I teamed up again to present our second-ever Vegan Battle Royale Game Show! At the first VVC, we did a game show as one of the classes, and it was super fun. This year, the awesome gals at VVC put us up on the main stage and we put on Vegan Battle Royale for all 300 conference attendees! It was amazing!!

 

stuffing goodie bags at 1 am! Delirious with vegan anticipation

We worked our little heinies off to make sure the VBR would be totally fun for everyone. Starting months ahead of time - we started soliciting donations for prizes and goodie bags from various companies. It was amazing how many wonderful donations we took in. Poor Kittee had her whole entire basement fill up with boxes of prizes!! 

As soon as we all landed in Portland, we went directly to Kittee's house and spent two nights in a row assembling 300 goodie bags, prizes for lucky audience members, and prizes for the winning team members. Until the wee hours of the morning!! Luckily, we had Kittee's dog Vee and Erika's dog Pepper to keep us company, and Kittee's husband Dazee to go out at midnight and bring home vegan donuts and french fries. :) 

The Mother Forking Destroyers! ** our Champions!! ** and Jojo - one of our esteemed scorekeepers!	Team V-Card  (and a handful of audience members awaiting their moment of glory!) Plus, Mandee - our other esteemed scorekeeper

The game show itself was a whirlwind 

of chaos, laughter, triumph and loss! 

We had two teams of 8 (chosen at random from the audience): 

The Mother Forking Destroyers and Team V-Card

They faced off for 3 rounds of challenges to earn Fame and Glory

1st round was a round of vegan trivia - the questions were about vegan blogs, vegan nutrition, vegan cookbooks, vegan recipes, vegan celebrities, and so on!

2nd round was a blind tasting - one member from each team (and two people from the audience) had to taste something we had prepared and see how many ingredients they could correctly identify in one minute. It was great! I made a Persian Persimmon Chutney (recipe from Silk Road, a Vegetarian Journey), and the ingredients were super tricky! Miss PPK herself, Isa won this round by identifying the most ingredients of anyone.

Ashlee getting started with her blog-naming challenge

the glory! the triumph! 

3rd round was a series of Challenges. For instance: How many vegan blogs can you name in 30 seconds? It was so fun and epic! Ashlee of The Little Foxes confidently asserted that she could name 15 vegan blogs in 30 seconds and DID IT. Friends, it was down to the wire, nail-biting excitement!
You can see my exuberance - arms thrown in the air with wild appreciation! - when she pulled it off!

Also, all throughout, we pulled audience names out of a box and called folks up on stage to answer vegan trivia questions. They got two chances and if they got an answer right, they were given totally awesome prizes. We even had a few special Lucky Vegan Winners who didn't have to do anything! We just pulled their name, called them up on stage and showered them with awesome prizes and glory!

The Three Amigas
picture by Joanna

The game show was a ton of work, but it was SO MUCH FUN and I totally loved doing it! I really hope people had as much fun watching and participating as we had putting it all together.