Father's Day Feast

So, it was a couple of weeks ago... but better late than never, right?

Even though my dad couldn't think of anything in particular to request, I know he loves Bruschetta... and with fresh tomatoes at the farmers' market, I couldn't resist. Alongside the bruschetta is some Grilled Herb Tofu (from Real Food Daily), one of my favorite ways to eat tofu of all time. It was a great combo.

I first learned about Bruschetta when I was 18. We had an Italian exchange student the previous year, and I went to visit her and another girl I had met through the program. Here is how Veronica and her father taught me to make bruschetta:

Good bread, toasted or grilled
A big clove of garlic
Olive oil
Fresh tomatoes, chopped up 1/2 inch dice (seeded if you are not too lazy)
Fresh basil, chiffonaded

Take your slices of toasty bread, and rub them on one side with the fresh garlic clove. It has to be crispy enough that it "grabs" the garlic... almost like a zester would. Brush or drizzle on some olive oil (good stuff, y'know). Mix your tomatoes and garlic together in a big bowl. Heap them onto your bread slices. Eat. Yum!

Grilled Veggies are another of my dad's favorite summertime foods... simple and delicious. I used a very simple marinade: a bit of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper.

Fresh corn, of course. Still steamy hot! Totally perfect as is.

For dessert, I made the blueberry nectarine crisp from "Fresh Food Fast." I lightened up a bit on the topping, on the sugar, and on the oil, and it was totally fantastic. When you have such decadent fresh fruit from the farmers market you really don't need so much sugar. This was such a lovely and super tasty summery dessert!

Unrelated, but cute: I leave you with this picture of Snoopy sitting on my bum while I read my Yoga Sutras books. Such a cutie pie! After we snapped this picture, he just settled down and took a nap. :)

Vegan Carb Party!

Waffles, Crepes, French Toast, and Cinnamon Rolls.

All of them. In one morning. Is there any better way to start the day!?

Some local vegan pals from the PPK and I were chatting and came up with this delicious and gluttonous idea for a brunch party. We used lots of recipes from "Vegan Brunch," so now I have tried even moooooore delicious goodies from that heaven-sent book.

A huge mound of Chelsea Waffles.

A huge mound of Crepes. But I'll tell you what, I should have made more! We ran out, even with a double batch. So good. We had homemade jams, lemon wedges, powdered sugar, and even Chocoreale spread for the crepes. mmmmm.

Max and Sophia making the Pumpkin French Toast, also from Vegan Brunch.

Pumpkin French Toast. I loved this recipe! Pumpkiny, and full of pumpkiny spices, but not overwhelmingly so. Moist and delicious.

Coldandsleepy brought some super delicious cinnamon rolls. I have seriously been thinking about cinnamon rolls for about 1 year now. I was super happy to eat one at last! Plus, I totally scored when she left two extras behind for me... yummmmmmy!

Marzipan was really thinking ahead - something savory! Homemade Tempeh Bacon, which was thoroughly devoured. So delicious. I'd never had homemade tempeh bacon before, but I know I will have it again. It was great to have a nice protein boost, and something so savory after all the sweet treats. Also, it was super fun to have pals cooking in my kitchen!

Everyone assembling their brunch plates of carby treats.

My plate, resplendent in its brown-ness. Oh, it was good alright!

Little Snoopy was totally hilarious. He did Lap-laps... walking across our laps - from lap to lap, around the circle, enjoying each person's lap for a spell. Max seemed to have the best lap of all, as both times around, Snoopy settled in for a good while with Max.

It was a fun way to kick off the 4th of July weekend... Hope you had a happy weekend too!

Tomatoes!!! I Eat Them!!!

Welcome to "3 Posts in 1 Day Day!" Part 1:

I Heart Tomato Season!!! Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes...

Fresh Corn Polenta with Sauteed Cherry Tomatoes, with Spicy Bean Salad with Vinaigrette. From "Fresh Food Fast." That bean salad was good, but that polenta with cherry tomatoes was totally phenomenal. The polenta had fresh corn kernels in it - sweet, crispy bites that were a perfect accent to the garlic & herb cherry tomatoes. Wonderful!

Viccolo prepared cornmeal pizza crusts with garlic, loads of fresh basil, and loads of tomatoes. Sooooo good. We ate the pizzas with some bean salad:

Bean Salad with Arugula & Citrus Vinaigrette, from the Millenium Cookbook. A quick and very easy salad, that I loved! I think it took all of 10 minutes to put together... and the leftovers made a perfect summery lunch this afternoon.

Tomato season is just beginning... so we've got a few more joyful months of tomatoey goodness!

Cookies for New Neighbors

Welcome to "3 Posts in 1 Day Day!" Part 2:

We got new neighbors! This is nice because the house next door was empty for 2 months... which was lonely. Now we got super cool new next door neighbors. I'm old-fashioned this way, so I brought them cookies on their first night in the house: thumbprint cookies with homemade apricot jam or homemade raspberry jam. New neighbors need homemade cookies!

While The Cat's Away...

...the Mouse Will Eat Health Food!

Welcome to "3 Posts in 1 Day Day!" Part 3!:

Recently, Mr. Vegan Eats & Treats went away on a trip. I decided to use this time to try to make a dent in my overly stuffed freezer (exhibit A) and in my pantry, which possessed a number of random impulse purchases needing to be eaten (exhibit B).

Exhibit A. Embarassing.

Exhibit B. Too many random items.

A few years ago, I started getting more and more healthy with my cooking, and poor Mr. Vegan Eats & Treats uttered this now-famous plea: "Can we please have something with a little more FAT in it?" ha! Mr. VE&T will eat just about anything, so, when he's around, I have this lingering fear that if he doesn't like dinner, he will run out and buy a bunch of beanies and weenies, or boxes of mac and cheese - and eat that instead. In order to prolong his health (and lifespan), and in order to protect the animals, it is in my interest to make sure dinner is pretty tasty.

In his absence, however, I am happy to cook up a big pot of giant beans in the crock pot, and eat it for lunch. Lunch and dinner.

Well, the other thing about Mr. VE&T, is that he will not eat leftovers. This is crazy and crazy-making! So I celebrated his absence by making a giant pot of dal (using lentils from the pantry!), and eating it for days on end. Lunch and dinner.

I also made a huge batch of Kittee's Peanut Butter Granola, which I love. Mmmm. In fact, now I am all out, and suffering. I need to make more, pronto!

One night I made a half-batch of the delicious omlettes from Vegan Brunch, and used some KooKoo Sabzi filling - defrosted from the freezer, and left over from Persian New Year a few months back. One for dinner, and one for lunch the next day. VERY GOOD. And of course, lots of kale. Mr VE&T doesn't much like kale, so there was a lot of kale eating while he was gone.

The only hitch in my plan? Well, I can only eat so much on my own. Then, Mr VE&T came home two weeks early... and I hadn't made much of a dent in my freezer OR my pantry. Well, now the challenge is mine to continue on with freezer- and pantry-emptying project while still managing to keep him out of the Mac & Cheese aisle at the grocery store! Wish me luck! It's great to have him h

What I Got at The Farmers' Market

I always like to see what other folks are getting at their markets. It's fun to see what people pick out, to see the seasonality of what they bring home, and also the regionality of it all.

Here in Northern California, this is a glorious time of year for the markets - we've still got asparagus and cherries, but we've also got corn and tomatoes and peaches and zucchini... I think of it as the time when you can pick out pretty much any recipe you want, and find all the produce at the market. So, here's what I got at yesterday's Saturday market:

Button Mushrooms, Basil, Fresh OJ, Spring Onions & Garlic
Potatoes, Italian Arugula, Scallions, Red Bell Pepper
Cherries, 3 varieties of White & Yellow Nectarines
Cherry Tomatoes, Early Girl Tomatoes, Bi-color Corn.

All organic, except for the cherry tomatoes... pretty cool, huh!? I was especially happy to see corn for the 1st time last weekend, and red bell peppers for the first time yesterday. So exciting!

Also, yesterday we ate the first apricot from our tree for this year! Isn't it just beautiful? I love that giant size, and the lovely ruby blush. The flavor was perfect, and I found 4 more on the ground this morning... Here begins the Season of YUM!

Foodie Gifts From Italy

Mr. Vegan Eats & Treats just got back from a trip to Europe, and brought me home a few delicious vegan goodies. He knows the way to my heart! (Of course, I printed out a list of all the products I was wishing for, and a list of all the natural food stores in every city he was planning to visit, and mapped out all the stores for him on google maps... hint hint! No points for subtlety on my part!)

I am totally crazy for these little Crostatine treats from Italy. Why haven't I ever found anything like these in the states?! I think I've tried 3 or 4 brands from Italy and I always love them so much. I had to take this picture today, because I don't think there will be anymore left by tomorrow.

I said "Oh my god, these are so yummy! Why didn't you buy SIX packages of these and bring them all home to me!?!" Then he gets all stunned looking, and says "I DID buy six... but I ate 5 packages of them!" ACK! Well, at least I got one package out of him. They really are a simple little treat, almost like a crispy mild cookie crust with a thin, chewy layer of jam. I'm not sure why I'm so crazy about them, but I really am. I especially love the apricot and berry flavors. Apparently the blueberry ones were "way better," but those ones didn't make it home! ha ha.

He also brought home a jar of Chocoreale - amazing! It's like Nutella, but vegan, and without the hazelnut flavor. So creamy and good. The texture is thick but spreadable, like creamy peanut butter. The flavor has a great chocolate balance - almost more like milk chocolate than dark chocolate. It's not too powerful, but not wimpy either. We tried it straight out of the jar with a spoon, but next up I am planning to make crepes and smother them in Chocoreale. I"m pretty sure that will be great.

Also, some veggie pates (plain, shiitake, and provencal)... I tried the original one and can't say I loved it too much, but I haven't tried these two flavors yet, so maybe I"ll have a change of heart. The plain one didn't have too much flavor at all... just seemed sorta thick and fatty, too mild for my tastes. But I haven't given up on them all yet.

She Shoots, She SCORES!

It was my birthday recently, and my wonderful friend JJTHWH got me a super awesome foodie present! She knows what a food geek I am, so she looked in the back of Madhur Jaffrey's "World Vegetarian" cookbook at the "recommended resources" area... and ordered me up some super cool specialty items:

First to arrive: Fresh Mangosteens and Mini-Coconuts.

Here is a beautiful mangosteen... white pulpy fruit, deep red peel, gorgeous purpley red exterior. I should write a sonnet or something!

Fresh Mangosteens are one of my most favorite fruits of all times. They are so delicious!! The flavor is very sweet, but not in an overbearing way. The larger segments have a nutty seed inside that is also eaten - it actually has a nice nutty flavor of its own, is easy to crunch, and goes well with the fruit. It's a watery fruit, even more so than most fruits, so it's extra refreshing. Also, I happen to think mangosteen is just plain beautiful. I made a special little video of Mangosteen Appreciation, since most of you have probably never seen or eaten one.

(side note: every time I make a video, I am left wondering "Do I really sound like that!?")

Yes, you heard right. MINI COCONUTS. They are called "Coquito Nuts" and they look like tiny coconut babies, and they taste like coconut, but the coolest thing is that you can just pop them in your mouth and eat them like this. They are fun and tasty and wonderful!

Next to arrive, a wonderful shipment of cool Persian and Indian ingredients & spices! I still need to do some serious sleuthing around on the internet for recipes with all these neato things: Charoli Nuts, Anardana Powder (sour pomegranate seed powder!), Amchoor (sour mango powder), Anjain Seeds, Dried Limes, Radhuni, Khak Shir, and Char Magaz. I already made some dahl and added the Anardana powder - lovely! I welcome any and all recipe suggestions!

Thank you JJTWH!! What a wonderful present!!!!

Epic Vegan Potluck to End All Potlucks

Yesterday I hosted a PPK potluck and it was super awesome. We had loads of people (24!), 7 dogs, 1 cat, a super cutie baby, and TONS of delicious vegan food. The weather was perfect, the people were awesome, and the doggies were all peaceful. It was a great day!

This was by far the most crazy fantastic potluck I've ever attended, and from now on I will plan on canceling absolutely all plans to attend PPK potlucks. We had table overflow, with loads of phenomenal dishes, and all vegan of course! You will win a gold medal if you make it through this whole post... I'm not kidding when I say there was a LOT OF FOOD!

The table, in all it's glory. There was a constant evolution of things arriving and being eaten... and it was all so good!

Overflow area!

Nebraska & Alex's Potato, Onion, and Sauerkraut Pierogis with unpictured Caramelized Onions. This was my first Pierogi experience, and they were great. I wish I had a picture of those caramelized onions too... they had cooked down into a creamy, golden relish that was so gorgeous and so unbelievably yummy.

ColdandSleepy made this phenomenal assortment of mini bagels!!! They were so delicious. She brought along some tofutti cream cheeze, and some homemade Garden Herb Spread.

Beautiful and delicious Empanadas (ole!) from Marzipan. They were really good... savory and hearty filling with a light dough.

Apple Coffee Cake, from Coldandsleepy! Sooooooo good. I heart coffee cake.

Open-faced Grilled Herb Tofu Sandwiches with caramelized onion and Sun-dried Tomato Pesto. From my kitchen!

Another goodie from Marzipan - really rich and flavorful Walnut Miso Dip. A great addition!

Sophia rocked it with Homemade Focaccia (!!!!) and totally beautiful and delicious Roasted Yellow Pepper Dip. It looks like mustard, it's so yellow!

Rice Krispie treats - using the totally amazing new Dandies marshmallows from Chicago Soy Dairy - I just followed the recipe on the inside of the box. Seriously, so good.

Avocado Key Lime Pie with White Chocolate Mousse in a pistachio-poppyseed crust. A repeat of a successful dish I made recently for family dinner!

Edit: A few folks have asked about the pie recipe & the white chocolate mousse recipe. It's from The Artful Vegan, and you can find it on Google Books. Go to page 179-180. The pie would be great without the mousse, by the way. The mousse is a very finicky recipe, and makes WAY TOO MUCH. It does freeze well however. I ended up taking about 1/4 of the batch, adding agar and kudzu, and got a great consistency. Let me know if you need more specific details.

Huge bowl of raspberries picked from my aunt's garden.

Roger rode into town on his bike (all the way from San Luis Obispo), swung by the grocery store, and busted out two *beautiful* and *delicious* quiches from "Vegan Brunch." He even left one behind, which I happily toted along to our Family Dinner on Sunday night. Wow! What a guy!

Moooooo & Howie brought these super delicious Lemon Pepper, Shiitake, Mandarin & Garlic Scape Spring Rolls, with a delicious sauce. Great flavor combinations! Also, I was super stoked, because it was my first time ever getting to taste a garlic scape. They are great!

Erin's outrageous salad... carrots, sunflower seeds, baco bits, cauliflower, celery, bell pepper... the list goes on and on. Packed full of veggies, with two delicious salad dressing options. Really great! We all agreed the salad was a great addition. Once you have a big helping of salad, you feel very virtuous, even if you have also had a giant plate full of vegan desserts.

Herbstonne's 5-gallon bowl of totally delicious guacamole. I went back for seconds (and thirds)!

Lemon Family's yummy macaroni salad. I love that noodle shape!

ChaSiuBao's Swedish Kanelbullar - Cardamom Buns. Oh wow - these are so lovely. I was super psyched that she left two behind... and it's almost time for breakfast!

Melissa's gorgeous salad: arugula with braised figs and peaches, almonds, and balsamic dressing. I took one bite of a fig, and totally flipped out. One of the most delicious things EVER. I loved this salad, and I want to marry it.

Gunnar Handsome's Brussel Sprouts with caramelized onions and pistachios. Mmmmmm!

Melisser begins torching her merengue cake... before the butane ran out!

After an emergency trip to the drug store for more butane... we present you with: Melisser's crazy butterscotch/chocolate chip cookie dough cake with torched merengue topping!!! Beautiful, dramatic, and totally decadent!

Inside shot, documented simultaneaously by Melisser and me.

Happy vegans!

My first pass at the table...

Dessert Plate: berries, Erin's **amazing** banana pudding, Rice Krispy treat, Swedish Kanelbullar, avocado key lime pie, and apple coffee cake. Mmmmmmmmmmmm....

PPK People shot! Big Smiles because we are all stuffed to the gills with deliciousness! Only Marzipan is missing from this shot... sorry we missed you Marzipan!

Semi-successful PPK Doggie Shot! L to R: Strummer, Molly, Dottie Bonkers (in the back), Snoopy's rear end, Stevie Wonder, Andre, and Fiona. They were all SUCH good doggies, I was very proud of them all - sharing people, toys, snacks, and one yard so peacefully!

Fiona was a superstar! She went right to work finding dog toys that have been lying around our backyard for YEARS (literally!) and started enjoying them. Maybe our dogs will learn from her!

Baby Lemon rides the Pelican! Awesome cutieness!

Miss Molly demands her own water bowl! :)

Tiny Strummer sits half on me, half on Melisser... thus doubling chances of getting some pets!

ChaSiuBao! gives out doggie treats and becomes Most Popular Lady At PPK Potluck.

Graveyard of Food That Once Was... There were some leftovers, but by and large, us PPK'ers really "stepped up to the plate" and did what needed to be done!

In preparation for this festive day of vegan gluttony, I ate no breakfast. Amazingly, I also ate almost no dinner... I was SO stuffed with goodness. This was such a great day of people, friends, dogs, flavors, and fun! Big smile!