Red, White, and Blueberries

I want to tell ya'll all about the New Kids on the Block concert I went to last Thursday, but I'm gonna save that for tomorrow's post. I gotta meet some friends for karaoke night at Dish in a few minutes so I don't have much time. But I do want to share these pictures of my Coconilla Cream Tarts:

These patriotic blueberry and strawberry mini tarts were adapted from a recipe in the May/June issue of VegNews. The recipe was actually intended for a whole pie, but oddly, the photo illustration with the recipe showed mini tarts.

I figured small bite-sized desserts would be more appropriate for the Fourth of July party at my friend Cindy's house. So I made the crust according to the directions provided, but used a biscuit cutter to make small circles. Those little crusts were pressed into a cupcake tin, baked, and then filled with luscious coconut vanilla cream and fresh fruit.

They were a hit at my friend's party. Cindy hosted a gathering of about 15 to 20 people at her home, which is situated along a lake in Bartlett (about 15 miles from my Memphis home). We shot off some fireworks and watched all the neighbors shoot theirs off. It was fun, even though I'm not much of a patriotic kinda gal. My appreciation for the States is a little better now that we have a decent president though.

Global Vegan

For the past couple of nights, I've gone on a bit of an exotic staycation with vegan fare at the house. Monday night, I took a trip to Holland with this Fried Potato and Cheeze Soup with Grilled Onions and Bread:

I didn't really know that cheese soup is Dutch, but the recipe came from punk rock vegan chef Joshua Ploeg's Dutch Much?: Fun Excursions in Vegan Dutch-American Cooking. If you've never heard of Ploeg, you should check out his books here. He's a traveling vegan chef who couch-crashes and leads cooking demos in his host's home. He cooked a four-course meal at the local DeCleyre Cooperative house here in Memphis a few years back and I bought one of his DIY-style spiralbound cookbooks then.

This cheeze soup is fantastic! It's the second time I've made it, and I'm sure I'll make it again and again. The base is nooch, vegan cream cheese, soymilk, Dijon, and some other stuff. The potatoes are fried and the onions are caramelized. The bread is fresh pumpernickel I picked up from a German bakery in Clarksville over the weekend. Yum!

On Tuesday night, I took a trip to Vietnam with these Spring Rolls with Peanut Sauce from The Vegan Table:

I've never followed a recipe for spring rolls, but I love Patrick-Goudreau's addition of sweet basil and mint. I hate, hate, hate Thai basil, and when I order these things in restaurants, I always pick the basil out. But the combo of sweet basil and mint was much easier on my palate. These also contained tofu (dredged in cornstarch and fried in sesame oil), rice vermicelli, carrots, cucumbers, hoisin, and sriracha.

For the peanut sauce, I followed The Vegan Table recipe but subbed Pbu for straight peanut butter. Yum!!!! I ate these with streamed vegetable buns (from my freezer) and a salad with Jessy's Orange Miso Dressing.

Tomorrow night, I'm going to see the New Kids on the Block at Mud Island Amphitheater!!! Yep, my fifth grade dream is coming true. I'm sure I'll be too starstruck to post tomorrow night, so I'll see ya'll Sunday!

Cookies and Cuppies! Oh My!

A few weeks ago, I received an sample package of Intention Cookies from Bountiful Vegan. These gigantuan treats are totally vegan and their little packages contain special mantras that are said to bring positive qualities into one's life (so long as you repeat the magic mantra while noshing on the cookies). I'm reviewing them one cookie at a time. Today, I sampled this Harmony Cookie — a sugary Lemon Snickerdoodle:

Let me just tell ya. I ate this thing and I totally felt some inner harmony goin' on. Yep. That's because lemon and snickerdoodle are two of my favorite flavors and when you put them together, well, it created a bit of a harmonious party in my mouth. The texture was spot on for a snickerdoodle — chewy with a hint of crunch. And the natural lemon oil didn't overpower the cinnamon 'doodle taste.

By the way, you can get your own Intention Cookies on the Bountiful Vegan website. Or head over to The Urban Housewife and get in on Melisser's Intention Cookie giveaway.

Speaking of cookies, I FINALLY made those Cookies 'n' Cream Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World:

I don't know what I was holding out for, but I think these may be my favorite from the whole book. I've always LOVED Oreos, and I'm so thankful that Paul Newman's folks offer the non-scary ingredient version in Newman-O's (which I used for these babies).

I made the cupcakes for my buddy Wes, who celebrated his 49th birthday yesterday!

Wes used to be my next door neighbor, but now we live one street apart from one another. He's like a second mom to me — cooking me dinner, babysitting my pets, and just being there whenever I need some conversation. Happy Birthday Wes!

The Pbu Revolution!

A few weeks ago, the awesome Shelby over at La Belle Vegan dollaped her oats with a mysterious substance she referred to as Pbu. That post led me over to Curly Top's blog where I was turned on to Pbu global domination. Apparently, a cute curly-headed girl named Emily is taking over the blogosphere with her delicious homemade peanut butter spread.

Count me in — I had a generous couple spoonfuls on my Pbu Steel Cut Oats with Maple Syrup and Fresh Blueberries this morning:

What's Pbu (pronounced pboo), you ask? Emily's awesome idea involves mixing peanut butter with a little almond milk, a dash of salt, and some optional cinnamon for an unbelievably smooth and creamy lower-fat version of peanut butter. It's lower in fat because it's thinned out with the almond milk, but that milk gives it the consistancy of super-thick PB smoothie. And everyone knows that anything that tastes like a PB smoothie has to be the best food ever, right?

Emily's recipe and Pbu FAQ sheet can be found on her blog. I actually halved her recipe since I knew I wouldn't go through 2 1/2 to 3 cups of Pbu before the almond milk in it goes bad. But I made a whole jar's worth, and it'll be topping my oats, my toast, my celery, my everything all week long.

All hail Pbu!

Happy Anniversary to Us!

My boyfriend Paul and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary Saturday night, although the actual anniversary date is today (Sunday). We took a road trip to Nashville for the occasion because we'd been dying to try the food at Mad Donna's – a hip, casual joint with vegan options for me and meat options for Paul (yea, he's into all that).

Here we are in Mad Donna's upstairs lounge, in front of a Betty Page painting:

Mad Donna's totally lived up to our expectations! The atmosphere is totally laidback with photos of gay icons — Donna Summer, Judy Garland, etc. — lining the walls. The prices were affordable, and they had a $3 long island iced tea special going on. And they have drag queen bingo!!!

As for food, I tried the To Wong Fu:

Crisp cubes of fried tofu are smothered in a coconut panang curry sauce with spinach, red and green bell peppers, red onions, steamed green beans, and a mound of jasmine rice. The tofu was perfectly cooked — chewy and crispy — and the sauce was delectable.

I'll spare ya'll photos of Paul's Flat Iron Steak, but he said his dish was also delicious. I'm not sure how dead cow can be delicious, but I'll take his word for it. We'll certainly be eating at Mad Donna's again in the very near future.

BBQ Sammich & Tater Salad

I've been working on my recipe for vegan barbecue for months. I knew I MUST include a barbecue sandwich in my cookbook since pulled pork sandwiches are such a big thing down here. Even though pulled pork is nasty, I wanted something that would simulate that meaty texture. I've tried seitan (too chewy), tofu (not chewy enough), and finally a tempeh/shredded carrot combo (perfect!).

Here's my Tempeh Carrot BBQ Sandwich with Poppy Seed Coleslaw on a homemade whole wheat bun:

The tempeh has a bit of a chewy texture, but not as much as the seitan did. When I tried this with seitan, it was like eating bread with a bread bun — way too chewy! I added grated carrot to the tempeh for more of a "pulled pork" look and some extra veggie nutrients.

The Poppy Seed Coleslaw recipe is also going in the cookbook. It's vegan mayo-based because that's what I like, but I'm sure a fat-free vegan mayo would work for the calorie-conscious (there's also a homemade tofu mayo recipe in my cookbook for those who prefer DIY).

The whole wheat buns are from Jessy's recipe. These are Dee-licious, but as you can see, mine didn't rise properly, Instead of rising up, they flattened out. But they were still tasty. It's not the recipe's fault though — I subbed all whole wheat pastry flour for some of the white flour in Jessy's recipe, so I'm sure that's the problem. Hers always look perfect!

On the side, I made the Creamy Avocado Potato Salad from Vegan Brunch:

Since I'm a huge guacamole fan, this stuff was awesome! But I did have to add a whole bunch more salt and some garlic powder to bring it up to par.

The recipe in VB serves four, but I didn't want the avocado to turn brown in my leftovers. So I cooked the whole recipe for potatoes and placed them in a bowl in the fridge, un-dressed. Then as I've been eating this each day, I mush up half an avocado with the other spices and some cherry tomato and mix with one serving of the potatoes. It's a good way to make a recipe like this for one person.

Tomato Rosemary Heaven

A couple weeks ago, Nora from Pride & Vegudice responded to a Facebook status I'd posted about having too much free time one weekend. She insisted that I use my plan-less weekend to make the Tomato Rosemary Scones from Vegan Brunch. Though I ended up not having time to make the scones that weekend, I finally heeded her advice the past Sunday night:

I've been eating these magnificently awesome scones for breakfast every day this week with a tall glass of So Delicious Coconut Milk and a side of iced green tea. These are so amazingly good!

Even my omni boyfriend (who's vacationing in Memphis for a week ... he lives three hours away) loves 'em. He's been dipping into my stash of frozen scones ... much to my chagrin. But at the same time, I'm happy that he likes vegan food. I always freeze half a batch of any baked breakfast good and then thaw them out the night before I plan to eat them, that way they're still oven-fresh.

These are bready enough for breakfast, but savory enough to eat with dinner. And the texture couldn't be better. Isa has truly mastered the scone with this recipe. After the Vegan Brunch tofu omelet, I think this scone recipe is my second favorite I've tried thus far.