My 15 Minutes of Fame & Glory!

As you might recall, a while back I mentioned that I had been interviewed about my blog for a local weekly paper. Well - the article finally came out and I really like it! 

As you can see, my article was part of their special Food & Wine insert. It's sorta impossible to read from my pic, but you can open the whole issue here (my article is on page 12). I've been blogging Vegan Eats & Treats for almost 7 years now, and this was my biggest moment of official recognition! 

They also included one of my cookie recipes (on page 60) for Grandaddies - and! - they put it on the same page as my good friend Talya's delicious Yummus recipe! I've actually blogged about her Yummus before. It's super tasty - from her book Vegan Ayurvedic Kitchen.  

So - at long last - here's a behind-the-scenes look at my experience getting interviewed!

First things first - Mr. Vegan Eats & Treats and I cleaned the holy heck out of our kitchen. The gal from the paper, Elizabeth, had mentioned they might want to take some pictures of me cooking... so of course I wanted my kitchen to gleam. Actually, it was really helpful to think about getting photographed in our kitchen. We ended up making some really smart re-organizations that we'd never thought of before.

 Table is ready for our special guests!

Spots for 4 at the table, plus a copy of YumTown for both of them

It turned out that Elizabeth is a vegan, and the photographer Jeremey was a super vegan-friendly vegetarian. So, I decided that I would make us all lunch, and that way we could do our interview, take some pictures, and then have a nice vegan lunch together. I wanted the food to be beautiful, locally-sourced, nourishing, and delicious!

Ahead of time, I prepared a big plate of grilled tofus, using the amazing Grilled Herb Tofu recipe from Real Food Daily Cookbook. It's one of my favorite tofu recipes ever.

Inspired by a local restaurant that makes really delicious open-faced sandwiches, I put my grilled tofus to use. I made of loaf of my dearly beloved Green Monster Bread (recipe from Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day) and lightly toasted four generous slices. On top of each toast went some avocado mashed up with lime juice, a slab of grilled herb tofu, and fresh sunflower sprouts on top. They were really delicious!

The diced carrots in this pic are totally just for effect. Basically, Jeremey wanted pics of me doing something in the kitchen, so I just started dicing! They made for good munching though. :)

Along with the sandwiches, I made a bowl of Spring Potato Salad with Peas and Sorrel, with a shallot vinaigrette (recipe below). I knew the article would be published in spring time, and so I wanted to make something spring-y, even though the interview took place in February! I really love how this recipe turned out. The sorrel adds a bright lemony enthusiasm, and also a lot of beautiful green to the salad.

 Grandaddies* with Double Rainbow Soy Vanilla: my favorite vanilla ice cream these days.

*the cookie formerly known as DiSaronno Cookies

Of course, no one is going to come to my house for a meal and go away without dessert! That is positively against my religion! :) So, I made a batch of my favorite cookies - Grandaddies. (recipe is in the article above) These cookies are inspired by my beloved grandpa, who I called Grandaddy, and his favorite dessert - mocha almond fudge ice cream with DiSaronno liqueur poured all over it.

Jeremey taking food pics. It was so fun to watch a true photo pro!

It was such a super fun afternoon. Of course it was fun to be interviewed about my blog, but it was most especially fun to meet Elizabeth and Jeremey. They were both such super great and friendly people and I loved meeting both of them.

~~~~

Spring Potato Salad with Peas and Sorrel

Vinaigrette ingredients:

2.5 oz shallots, cut into super thin slices

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp red wine vinegar

1/4 tsp table salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

Other ingredients:

1 lb new potatoes

3/4 lb peas

1 Tbsp fresh dill, finely minced

2 oz fresh sorrel, cut into fine ribbons

In a small bowl, mix together the sliced shallots (the thinner the better!), the olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. Mix it around with a fork until it's fully integrated and then leave it to marinate while you continue with the rest of the recipe.

Put the potatoes in a medium pot with salted water to cover the potatoes. Over high heat, cover the pot and bring to a boil. Once boiling reduce the heat to medium, and boil gently for 15-20 minutes. (How long depends on the size of your potatoes). When they are tender (easily poked with a fork), drain them, and set aside to cool for a few minutes.

While the potatoes are cooking, bring a small pot of 1 cup of water to a boil. Add your peas (fresh or frozen) and return the water to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for about 5 minutes until the peas are plump and bright green. When finished, drain the peas and transfer them to a medium-size serving bowl.

When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, but still warm, cut them in halves or quarter, and add them to the peas. Add the shallot mixture and the fresh dill, and stir well with a rubber spatula until well integrated. This part can all be done ahead of time, to allow the flavors to meld together. Add the sorrel ribbons right before serving, and hopefully after the potatoes have cooled a bit. 

Serves 4 as a side dish.

A Beautiful Day for a Potluck

We've been having some pretty chilly weather around here lately... with temperatures getting down below freezing at night, and pretty cold during the day too. I know that sounds silly to most of you, but for us Californians, that's a big deal! 

So, when we decided to have our next potluck outside at the park, it was a bit of a daring move. Lucky for us, though - Mother Nature came through just in time. This weekend was sunny, warm, and beautiful. Flip flops and t-shirts! The theme of our potluck was to make something from a cookbook/magazine/website you haven't used before... 

And here's what we made:

 Yummus

from Ayurvedic Vegan Kitchen by Talya Lutzker

For starters, I made this really delicious spin on hummus, with some fresh veggies for munching. This recipe is a great contribution to the world of hummus - it's got pumpkin seeds and avocado and fresh herbs and various other things (plus chickpeas, of course!!). It was really fantastic. I tweaked the recipe a bit, I halved the salt, left out the olive oil entirely (and truly didn't miss it one bit), and also left out the agave. You can't really tell from the pic, but this made a TON ~ maybe 5 cups?? I'll definitely make it again, but next time I'll probably make a half batch. 

 Dok Boki

based on this recipe

Sophia made these amazing Korean giant rice doodles in spicy-sweet sauce. They were a huge hit with everyone! Apparently everyone else knew all about Dok Boki (and Korean food in general), but I haven't really had much Korean food, so this was a really big treat for me. I loved it! The rice sticks reminded me of giant cheetos and they were really fun to eat, in addition to being very tasty. I also really loved all the festive garnishes - the freshness & bite of the green onions and the crunch of the sesame seeds really added to the flavor, texture AND appearance of the dish.

 Vegan Cob Salad

from Happy Healthy Life

Alana made this beautiful salad, that we absolutely all agreed was excellent. It was huge and full of colors and flavors. Those Hearts of Palm converted into vegan "hard boiled eggs" were especially fun. Plus, I don't know if you can see over on the right... there was a bunch of rich marinated tempeh bits that went into the salad too. I really want to make this salad again for dinner one night... it was fantastic. I've been making an effort to broaden my salad horizons, so this is definitely on the list!

Chinese Pork Buns

from Authentic Chinese Cuisine (by Bryanna Clark Grogan)

Oh Lordy, these babies were So. Damned. Good. We were pretty much all having heart palpitations and fighting over the (very few) leftovers. Nikki made these, and they were absolutely great. Instead of seitan, she used dry-fried tofu bits in the filling, which worked out just fine as far as I could tell. The filling is pungent and rich and toothsome and the dough was as pillowy and tender as could ever be possible. They were little miracle creations!

Carrot & Parsley Salad

This was a super garlicky and yummy shredded carrot & parsley salad that Rose brought. So fresh and bright! She said it had a whole entire bunch of parsley in it, which is great for me because I am a true lover of parsley. 

Pineapple-Parsley Juice

While we're on the subject of parsley, this is the amazing juice that Kendra brought: Pineapple & Parsley. It deserves to be mentioned that Kendra came to the potluck on her bike, with a giant pitcher of juice (and plastic cups) in her backpack. Well done! I think she said that the recipe was from a vegetarian cookbook she got in Mexico. It was really delicious and refreshing ~ and perfect for our sunny potluck. It turns out that pineapple and parsley are a great pair!

Here's my whole plate, brimming with healthy and delicious goodness. All in all, we were really pleased with how successful all our recipes were - given that every thing was from a previously un-tested resource. We really ate well!!

Peanut Butter "Crispy" Bars

from Happy Healthy Life

I put "crispy" in quotes because although these contained crisped kamut, they weren't very crispy after all*. Alana, who brought these, seemed to think that meant the recipe was a failure. Clearly, she needs to change her definition of "failure" to include "resounding success," because - crispy or not - these bad boys were SUPER YUM. They got a bit melty in the sun, but no one was complaining. Sweet, naughty, glorious decadence. 

(*plus, if you read the recipe, she warns you that the bars will be more "tender" than "crispy," unless you actually use rice crispies. Just so you know!) 

  Giant Hungarian Poppyseed Spiral Bread

from World Vegan Feast by Bryanna Clark Grogan

Although I've read through World Vegan Feast many times, I'd never buckled down and made something from it before. But with a name like "Giant Hungarian Poppyseed Spiral Bread," it was pretty obvious to me which recipe I should start with. The dough rose overnight in the fridge, and then was filled with an amazing prune-poppyseed-walnut-lemon zest filling, rolled up in a giant spiral (as promised) and baked! It was really delicious, and we all agreed that we hadn't really ever had anything quite like it before.

Here's the inside of it! It reminded me a lot of making King Cakes with Kittee... except that instead of rolling the tube into a ring-shaped cake, you roll it into a big spiral. However, the very inside of the loaf was still a bit doughy, so next time I make this glorious beast of goodness, I think I'll make it a ring shape for more even cooking. That said, the spiral sure is pretty, isn't it?

I hope you're staying warm, wherever you are!