What?! Check this out! I was so surprised to see "Veggie Cevapcici" on the Vegan Essentials website. Attention: this is a *very* fun word to say. It's pronounced "Chay-vap-chee-chee" In the likely event that you don't know what "cevapcici" are, they are a Yugoslavian sausage. When we were in Croatia & Bosnia last year, Musty ate a lot of cevapici - while I watched. So, I thought I'd try them out.
Here they are, all cooked up! They were pretty good. According to Musty, they were not at all like the real ones (thank god!) - but agreed that they were good. I don't know if I'll order them again, but they were fun to eat.
To go with the cevapcici, I made a croatian-style salad: lettuce, tomatoes, red onion, & cucumber with vinegar dressing. 
This is the VwaV Millet-Spinach Polenta with Sundried Tomato Pesto. Very nice & easy too. I especially liked this sundried tomato pesto recipe. As you can see, we served it with some zucchini. Zucchini is very nice after all. I don't eat it often, but I actually really liked this. We both wished there was more!
There was a lot of leftover sundried tomato pesto from the stuff I made from the RFD book last week, so we also had a pasta night. I used the opportunity to use up little bits of leftover shapes... so fun! 
Well, here's a little story for you. Santa Cruz has so many great veg*n & veg*n friendly restaurants, and yet, no one makes vegan pancakes. What a bummer. So, I started talking with one of our local breakfast spots about serving vegan pancakes. The owner was super nice and very interested. I gave him a recipe, some Earth Balance, and EnerG egg replacer. Well, he put them on the menu and we went to check them out. How Exciting!The only problem - they weren't very good. They were SO tough and dense. Do any of you know why this happened? Is it because the batter sat around for a while? The owner told me that he had tried them & they were great... But I know that on this day, they'd made the batter early in the morning & we didn't try them until around 9:30 am. I'd love to offer him some tips for why they may not have worked out... please help!
Tonight I made some calzones. Mmm good! Last time I made these, I couldn't finish mine, but this time I sure could! I guess I was hungry!
Friday is my big trip up to San Francisco for the VegNews Roundtable! I'm so super excited. I promise I"ll update & tell you all about it!
I had never heard of cevapcici- how fun! I don't think I've ever come across a vegan sausage/hot dog-type product that has been perfect. But that doesn't mean I won't keep looking!
ReplyDeleteI love those odds and ends pasta shapes- that's how my mom used to make pasta for us when my brother and I were little!
As for the pancakes, I'm not sure why they got rough... I never use NRG in mine, just flax meal. It is so nice of the restaurant to serve those, though! Hopefully the recipe will be perfected soon.
Good luck at the VegNews thing! Tell them to take out those celeb pages- it's too US magazine for my taste! ;-) Oh my gosh, I just had a thought- are they going to feed you? Are you going to get a bunch of fabulous vegan stuff? How cool...
Oh as for this summer, we're going to be all over the place, a mixture of work, vacation, and visiting family. Stay tuned for updates! Hee hee- I love saying that.
I'm so sorry to hear about the pancake flop. What a bummer. I don't really have an answer for you because I thought that letting pancake dough sit actually made it better but I could be totally wrong. I hope you're able to work out the little snafu so that he keeps serving them (how gracious he even offered to try it in the first place). The cevapcici sounds like a fun food to try but honestly, your croatian-style salad has me drooling. It looks so delicious. I completely forgot about eating zucchini like that. It is quite tasty.
ReplyDeleteCevapcici--I learn something new every day! I'm with you--it's a good thing that they are nothing like the original!
ReplyDeleteThat's too bad about the pancakes. I've never had that problem, but I always make pancakes immediately after mixing up the dough, so you may be right. Also, maybe they were mixed too much? I know that can make batter tough sometimes.
That calzone looks out of this world...
I'll always read your blog--there's no quota on how often you have to post! :)
I saw those cevapici and was tempted to buy them just becuase I like the name. Glad to hear they were so tasty.
ReplyDeleteHave a great time in SF (how could you not?) Bon voyage.
I can't wait to hear all about your VegNews Roundtable - don't leave anything out, k? All your food looks fabulous, but that salad has my mouth watering. No matter, I always enjoy reading your posts! :o)
ReplyDeleteThat's so cool that you got the restaurant to try out vegan pancakes. Sorry I can't offer any advice, but I hope that it all works out.
ReplyDeleteHave a great time in SF- I just love living in this great city. (Don't forget to try out Herbivore!) Please tell all the details of the focus group. I sure am jealous!
-Teresa
Calzones are always so good. Mmmmm.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a huge fan of most fake meat, but if you think the cevapici were good I might try them. I mean, I like the fake meat I do like A LOT, but much of what I try is ehh.
Yes, I'm still interested.
Can't wait to hear about the VegNews rountable!
ReplyDeleteIf the pancake batter had baking powder in it and it sat around, the levening would not do it's job... if he needs a batter that can sit around, he should use a baking soda based recipe instead of baking powder... or cut it half in half and make sure to have an acidic ingredient to activate the baking soda.
*Boink* for not mentioning this before you left, but maybe you'll check your blog from SF? Hope it's going really well for you! They are probably way on top of it already, but I'd like to see them get much more political, especially gearing up for 2008. Pushing candidates to take a stand on environmental issues (most of which could be rectified with a plant based diet) and specifically how we're going to prevent further global warming. Demand a plan. I'm excited to hear about your experience, Amey! Have you had a chance to eat out? And I bet they're feeing you well @ VegNews?! Bet their lunch hour rocks! :o)
ReplyDeletethe salad looks delicious.
ReplyDeleteHey, it was awesome meeting you at the focus group! You have such an awesome, positive personality. I've got a little blog too, but its in 90% spanish (my way of creating more diversity in the vegan community). Its at http://theveganvixen.blogspot.com.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE that sundried tomato pesto. It's so packed with flavor - a little goes a long way. Now I will just have to try the millet polenta to go along with it. Everything else looks delicious! That's cool about the pancakes - I'm not sure what went wrong, although I don't use Ener-g when I make them. Hopefully they'll get it straightened out soon so everyone can experience the wonders of vegan pancakes. =)
ReplyDeleteI don't want to sound obvious but your photos make me really hungry, I tried the veggie cevapcici, I can get them here in reggio emilia, Italy and I admit they are quite moorish, absolutely good! I am going to give it a try and make them myself, they are made from seitan, protein from soy, red pepper and tomato concentrated sauce, paprika and other spices. It shouldn't be too difficult!
ReplyDeletehello, I acctually come from a country where carnivores eat cevapcici all the time(slovenia if you know that:) former yugoslavia, south of croatia). I was surprised how funny you found the name cevapcici:D just found your blog when I was looking for the receipe how to make vegan cevapcici:) and if I may say-cevapcici aren't sausage:P
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