The last week in food

Sigh. It looks like I'm turning into an irregular blogger. I'll just hope that my irregular entries are still fun enough and interesting enough that you'll keep reading!

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!

Exciting News! & some Real Food Daily recipes

First! I've got some super exciting news!

I don't know about you, but there aren't many things I like to find in my mailbox as much as a new copy of VegNews. I love love love that magazine - great articles, great recipes... When I saw their email notice asking people to apply to participate in a focus group to brainstorm ideas for the magazine, I got super excited. I filled out the questions, sent off my email, and waited for a response. Well! Today I got an email that I'll be participating in the VegNews brainstorming roundtable session! There will be a few of us readers, along with the staff - thinking up ideas for the magazine (and eating veggie food!). It's Friday, June 2nd, in San Francisco. If you've got any ideas or thoughts you'd like me to carry along - issues that you'd like to see discussed in the veg*n community, or in VegNews particularly, please let me know! I'm super excited to an opportunity to meet the great people at VegNews and to contribute something the veg*n community. Hoorah!

Meanwhile, I've been making some more recipes from the Real Food Daily this week. This is the Tempeh and Potato Salad - very nice. The flavor of the tempeh is not very strong, so it's basically like a more nutritious potato salad. But a good one!

Tonight I made the Grilled Herb Tofu Sandwiches with Sundried Tomato Pesto. (more tempeh potato salad on the side) HOLY WOW! This was a great sandwich!! A wonderful balance of flavors.

After one bite, Musty and I both decided that 2 pieces of bread was more than enough, so we made it into an open-faced sandwich. The tofu slices were so delicious - and luckily we have two more for lunch tomorrow. The sandwich is made with bread, the sundried tomato pesto, caramelized red onions, lettuce, & the marinated tofu (I baked mine since we don't have a grill). In the end, it was so filling that I didn't even touch my potato salad.

If you have the RFD cookbook, I really recommend this recipe. I loved it!

A few recent tasties...

I have been thinking about chocolate chip cookies for a while now... and today we had our very skilled friend Loren here building our new patio. I decided I'd make a batch and share them with him. Our patio is looking great, and these cookies also turned out great!! These are the "Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookies" from "Vive La Vegan" - wow! I really, really like them. I added pecans and dried blueberries too. Mmmm.

Well, even though we gave away half the batch of cookies, Musty and I both ate way too many this afternoon! So, I wanted something light for dinner. I made the Asparagus and Cilantro Soup from "Real Food Daily Cookbook." I've made this once before, and it's really great. Such a great flavor.

Dessert was a few Swedish Fish... When I was growing up, I was a MAJOR candy fiend. Up until about 8 years ago, I had a candy bar almost every day. Then I went vegan, and was saved by my ethics, since most candy bars aren't vegan. Swedish Fish have been a long time favorite, and happily, they are vegan. Sweet little Musty got these for me today, along with some flowers. He knows the way to my heart!

Here's part of my breakfast this morning - all from the farmer's market! Oh the farmer's market is so overwhelming now - there are so many tempting and amazing choices, you can't buy it all!

This was last night's dinner "Athena Barley with Kalamata Olives and Tomatoes" from "Real Food Daily." Yesterday was really hot, so we wanted something summery. This is an easy and tasty meal. I love barley... tasty and such a fun texture. It's got olives, tomatoes, red onion, green onions, parseley, dill, and a nice simple vinagrette.

Snoopy's having a great time, settling into our family just great - in this moment he's curled up in a little doggie bed (with a stuffed doggie toy), next to Stevie Wonder curled up in her bed, with our cat Yummers sleeping on the green chair next to them... so sweet! Lest you think we're forgetting, Dottie Bonkers is konked out on the otherside of the room.

A Visit to Eastern Oregon

Sorry for the long absence folks... I've had quite a busy last 10 days or so. Most notably, I went up to Camp Sherman in Eastern Oregon to visit my wonderful, wonderful great aunt. She is 92 and just absolutely amazing - so much heart and humor and grace - she's got it all! We had a lovely visit, very quiet... eating, fireside chats, sitting on the deck, telling stories...

Here's the view from her back porch - for reals!! Isn't that just astounding? It's so peaceful. The stream, the mountain, the animals... we saw so many different kinds of birds, deer, baby geese.

I didn't take pictures of all the food I made, but I did get a few nice pics. It was a fun cooking project. She had her fridge and shelves all stocked with vegan goodies and produce, and I just got to make up recipes based on whatever I could find. This was a sandwich made with some delicious Greek pita bread. I cooked up some chickpeas with some red bell pepper & tomato and a variety of nice indian spices. Then I mashed them up, and put them on the bread with some avocado, cilantro and tomato slices. Very yum!

This was a delicious apple crisp (well this is the last lonely piece), that we made for dinner with some friends one night. It turned out great! We used 6 or 7 huge apples, and didn't bother peeling them. We used some brown sugar and maple sugar as sweetner. Earth balance, spices, oats, flour, sugar in the topping. Mmmm. It was a bit hit - another score for vegan desserts!

I don't think you can see in this picture how huge and wonderful this cookie is! My aunt's friend made a batch of these vegan almond thumbprint cookies - they were huge and had crunchy bits of almonds, and a big dollop of local raspberry jam. MM, they were perfection!

One night we had her friends over for dinner, so I got some tofu marinating early in the day, for maximum flavor absorbtion. I baked the slices, and as you can see - they turned out great.

Look at her beautiful bowl. This is a big batch of onions, morel mushrooms, and cremini mushrooms - cooked with a little bit of olive oil and some veggie broth, slowly for about 30 minutes or so.

To go with the mushrooms and tofu, I took the marinade and turned it into a gravy. I just added some water, some flour, and heated until it thickened. It turned out amazing!!

For dessert, I made a delicious and beautiful little chocolate cake. This is the recipe for the vegan chocolate cake from the Joy Of Cooking. It was served with a lovely raspberry coulis made with some frozen raspberries - mmmm! I made the powdered sugar decoration with a paper snowflake:

Here's the paper snowflake for the design.

In case you want to make one, I folded it back up and this is the pattern. I just used a basic 8.5x11 piece of typing paper.

Here's a little golden mantel squirrel visiting with us on the back porch. So cute I can hardly stand it!

Indian Food Party, A Fruity Cake & A New Family Member!!

In my last post, I mentioned that we had stopped at an Indian grocer in Redwood City on our way home from Mendocino... well, it was lots of fun, and it inspired me to have an Indian food Dinner Party. I invited my mom, my dad, and my aunt L. My little nephew also came along!


Here is some of what I got at the store:
4 bottles of Limca soda (which we drank a lot of when we were in India)
2 bags of crunchy Indian snack mixes (Moong Dal - not spicy, and Madras Mix - quite spicy)
4 Pre-made Indian food meals to keep in the pantry for moments of desperation
1 can of jackfruit in syrup - why not!?

I also got 3 different kinds of parathas from their frozen section. They must have had about 70 varieties to pick from! Most of them were vegan too, which is awesome. I picked out : Whole Grain, Filled with Peas, and Flakey! Those flakey parathas were one of my favorite discoveries on our trip to India. Oh, they are GOOD, so I was very excited to see how these frozen ones would turn out.

For appetizers, I served our two Indian crunchy snack mixes, and fresh coconut.


Here is the whole spread (or almost the whole spread) - Aloo Mattar (Potatoes with Peas), Red Lentil Dal, Fresh Peas with Coconut, Green Beans with Cumin and Fennel, Sauteed Plantain, and of course - 4 cold bottles of Limca! I also made a huge pitcher of vegan Mango Lassi... it was so good! All of these recipes are from Madhur Jaffrey's "World Vegetarian" cookbook, except the Dal, which is an old PPK recipe and is one of our all-time favorites. The Mango Lassi was also from the Madhur Jaffrey book, & I just used plain, unsweetened Wildwood soy yogurt. MMM. I've never actually had a lassi before, because they are never vegan, so that was a real treat. Sorry we didn't get a picture!

Here is the 5-star Red Lentil Dal from the PPK. PLEASE do yourself a favor and go make this recipe. It smells and tastes just like all the dal we ate in India... so so so good. This is the most complicated recipe of all, and it only takes about 40 minutes. (Most of which is not any work on your part).

Next up, the Aloo Mattar from "World Vegetarian". Also very good, not very spicy, but a lovely flavor, and especially a good balance with the other dishes. I used 1 1/2 lbs. of potatoes instead of just one pound. Definitely recommended. Other than boiling the potatoes, this is a 15 minute recipe.

Green Beans with Fennel and Cumin from "World Vegetarian." These guys are pretty spicy, and nicely undercooked, so they maintain some crunch. Not my favorite dish of the evening, but a nice addition to the overall offering, & worth making for sure.

Here was my favorite bit! The Green Peas with Coconut from "World Vegetarian" - wow! I used fresh English Peas from the farmers market and even splurged on a fresh coconut. (Any suggestions for what I should do with the rest of my fresh coconut?) It's a lovely, lovely dish. Definitely recommended.

Sauteed Plaintains - also from "World Veg" - although one hardly needs a cookbook. How delicious! I've never actually made these before, but we've got another plaintain in the fruit bowl just waiting to be cooked up. lovely!

Here are the parathas all cooked up - YUMOLA! Clockwise from the top left: 1 whole grain paratha, 2 flakey parathas, and one pea-filled paratha. All delicious, although those flakey ones were a real stand out ... they didn't disappoint at all. Looks like I'll have to go back to Redwood City just to get more of these!

For dessert we each had a small scoop of Sharon's Coconut Sorbet from Trader Joes... and we didn't get around to photodocumenting it. If you live near a TJ, and you haven't tried that stuff - I MUST recommend it HIGHLY!! It's amazing, rich, and vegan. Unbelievably good.

All in all, it was a great dinner party, and a delicious feast. I even dressed up and wore the salwar kameez outfit that I wore practically every day when we were in India. It's so beautiful. I wish I could wear it more often, but it feels too weird & out of context to be a white westerner walking around the streets of Santa Cruz in Indian clothing...


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Last night, some of my fellow yoga friends invited Musty and I and our friends K&D over for dinner to celebrate K&D's upcoming marriage. Our hosts won't be able to attend the wedding, so they wanted to do something special. I was honored to be a part of it, and it was a really great evening with friends. Since I love making desserts, I volunteered & this is what I brought!

It's the "Tropical Fruit Gateau" from "Great Good Desserts Naturally" by Fran Costigan. I really love that cookbook - the whole thing is vegan desserts that use no refined sugars. This was delicious!!!! It's an orange cake, sliced in half, and layered with a Lemon-Lime tofu cream and fresh fruit. For the fruits, I used Mango, Cherries, and Strawberries. A wonderful dessert, indeed!
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AND!! Last but not least!!

I present you with the newest furbaby in our family: He is a little boy dog, and we adopted him yesterday from our local SPCA. So far we are calling him "Snoopy" because he looks a lot like Snoopy. Now, we already have two great girl dogs - Stevie Wonder & Dottie Bonkers, and a wonderful cat named Yummers... so when I had a dream last month that we had 3 dogs, I was suprised at how I couldn't get it out of my head! In my dream, it was so fun and wonderful, and I just couldn't stop thinking about it. Musty, great guy that he is, was totally up for it - so we got to work looking for a new friend. Our next pet had a lot of personalities to match up with (canine, feline, and human) - and it took us a few outings to find someone that captured our hearts. Snoopy looks like a puppy, but is actually 3 years old. He's still adjusting to his new surroundings, so we don't know his true colors just yet. I'll keep you posted!
Here's a picture of the two of us together. What a cutie he is!

Musty's Bday & Our Trip to Mendocino!

We had a nice celebration for Musty's birthday, followed by a nice trip to Mendocino - to visit with our goddaughter. It was lots of fun.


For Musty's birthday we had two of his favorite things. First: Spaghetti & Meatless Meatballs. This is one of Musty's most favorite meals in the whole world. He was very delighted. You'll be happy to know that there were salads too.


Have you ever seen this page by PETA called "I can't believe it's vegan!" ? Well, I've got one to add to it! Jello brand "Flan" mix is vegan, as best I can tell. I kept reading and re-reading the ingredients and it really appears to be vegan (as long as you make it with non-dairy milk). Musty requested flan for his birthday, so I made a double batch. It's not my favorite thing ever, and it's a bit weird to buy something from a company based entirely on gelatin, but Musty was very pleased indeed.


On our drive up to Mendocino, which is about 5 hours away, we stopped in San Francisco for some lunch. We lucked out big time, and actually found a parking spot. Miracle of miracles! So, we went to "Ali Baba's Cave" for some delicious falafel sandwiches: huge, spicy, tasty, and naturally vegan! Mmmm.


Every time we go to Mendocino, I HAVE to eat breakfast at "The Ravens." The Ravens is the restaurant inside "The Stanford Inn," and is a wonderful, all-vegetarian restaurant. The Inn looks like an amazing place to stay - especially because it's doggie friendly! Apparently the dogs even get little doggie treats in the rooms. The grounds of the Inn are so beautiful, including a big, beautiful veggie garden, beautiful flowering gardens, and a swimming pool inside a plant-filled atrium. The Ravens is a great restaurant, and uses 99% organic and local produce. Cool! So, here's what I got the first day - Vegan Multigrain pancakes with huckleberries ... AND...


... a side order of Sauteed Veggies. YUM! Aren't they beautiful?? I love having a little sweetie and a little healthy savory when I go out for breakfast!

Luckily for me, Musty was happily willing to go back to The Ravens for breakfast again the next day. This time I got the Vegan Waffle with strawberry-pineapple compote... AND...

The Garden Veggie Tofu Scramble! They made it just the way I asked - heavy on the veggies, and light on the tofu. MMMM, perfect! Isn't it beautiful with the flowers from the garden?

On the way home, we stopped in Redwood City and had some great Thai food. It was some of the best Thai food we've ever had. It was fresh, and delicious! Also, across the street was a great little Indian grocery store, where I picked up quite a few goodies (keep your eyes out for an upcoming Indian food post).

Last night I made a modified version of a recipe out of "Vegan Planet." It was called something like "3-way sesame tofu with broccoli" and it wasn't a big success. The flavors were a bit too bland and simple - sesame seeds, soy sauce, and tahini. I added in garlic, ginger, and some more soy sauce... which helped a bit. The brocolli was great, but the tempeh strips were a bit too bland. Of course, that didn't stop me from eating the whole thing! :)

Lastly! Look at my great new baseball hat! It says on it: "Eat Fruits & Vegetables and Be Active" Ha ha! I love it so much. One of the women who comes to my Tuesday night yoga class gave it to me after I commented on her tshirt (with the same message) last week. It was a great surprise. I can't stop wearing it!