Vegan Mofo We Hardly Knew Ye

Happy Halloween and happy end o' MoFo. I'm just going to enjoy sitting in the glow of my carved pumpkins from last week. Thanks for following along this year, gentle reader.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween y'all! Paul and I carved pumpkins this weekend and were pleased with how they turned out.

Isa Does It Testers: Ginger Chocolate Cookies

I do love a good cookie. And you can't go wrong with ginger and cocoa powder and a mix of white and chocolate chips. I realized with this post that I have focused a lot on baked goods testers but the majority of the book is quick and easy savories not sweets. I just happened to have my camera out whilst baking on a sunny day as opposed to trying to take a half lit photo of a half eaten bowl of the amazing kale and quinoa stew at 7pm.

Food Haiku: Seitan

Hail seitan! Mighty
wheat gluten warrior which
is baked, boiled or steamed.

The Local Food Review: Papa G's

I don't see this restaurant mentioned a lot in Portland but Papa G's has become one of my favourite places to visit. They are an all vegan, all organic deli and restaurant located on SE Division Street near 24th. They have a full menu to order from as well as some cold salads, daily specials, desserts, and a by the pound salad bar. You can find their flavoured tofus in local stores like Food Fight and People's Co-op.

I most enjoy the plate pictured above, which features locally made tempeh with gravy, mac and cheese and beets. The tofus and mashed potatoes are all tasty as well. The staff has always been super nice when we go in and they have ample seating to enjoy a quick crossword puzzle.

Friday Fun Waffle Time

Waffles! Folded in half and stuffed with maple cream and pecans. Head on over to Flavour Spot on NE Mississippi and Skidmore and get one or five for yourself. Perfect autumnal treat.

Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day: Chickpea Shawarma

Chickpeas! Mighty and delicious. Who can resist? This is the world's least interesting photo but y'all know how I feel about brown food. I made the chickpea shawarma recipe from Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day and piled it on some flat bread with roasted red peppers, tomatoes and the tahini sauce from the recipe. I love the seasonings on the chickpeas here and they can be used in a variety of ways.
Get this book! Tami and Celine are both delightful in an age of increasing internet self promoters and they might not be the flashiest at posting on every forum everywhere but these are some good solid recipes. I haven't had time to make any of their cold cuts yet, but word on the street is that they are mighty good. And of course, many of these recipes don't have to be used for sandwiches. Toss a sauce on a salad. Use that moo-free seitan in some pot pie. Then bring me the pot pie.

Paul Cooks: Fudge

What's better than a big ol' pile of salted peanut butter chocolate fudge? A big ol' pile of salted peanut butter chocolate fudge that someone else made for you.

Tasteless Tablescapes

Oh dear. It looks like someone ate the take out leftovers and left none for the party guests. They've been licked suspiciously clean so it's highly probable that the cat got to them as well. Welcome to the party.

Isa Does It Testers: Lemon Blueberry Loaf

Lemon Blueberry Loaf! I do love a good loaf. I've made this at least 5 times since my initial test. That photo may be nothing special but the loaf is. You could bake up a whole pile of these to give out as gifts come Arbor day or National Loaf Day or just to eat for yourself. This again uses easy to find, simple ingredients and makes a magnificent treat.

Food Haiku: Burrito

Spicy burrito.
No fancy jibber jabber.
Just rice, beans and guac.

The Local Food Review: Sweetpea Baking

Sweetpea Baking Co. was the first vegan bakery storefront in the Portland area, located at 1205 SE Stark St. I had stopped in for various treats on my NW sojourns but had never tried a sandwich until I moved here. Pictured above is the P. Cole with layers of Daiya, remoulade, seitan, pickles and tomato. I had missed the sandwiches at Snice when I left Brooklyn and was pleased to find a place in Portland to fill that hole in my heart. I highly recommend a side of the macaroni salad, too.

When you visit go next door to Herbovire and say hello to the nice folks and get a sweatshirt while you're at the Vegan mini mall. Then hop into Food Fight and buy all the jars of crunchy Speculoos. And then come say hi to me so I can have some of those jars.

Friday Fun Halloween Theme: Pumpkin Roll

I love a good pumpkin roll. I have not seen a vegan version floating around until this spring when I stumbled upon one in the Sweet Vegan book. Comes an autumnal October Sunday and it was time to try my hand at pumpkin rollin'. My biggest concern was that the cake would crack when it was unrolled to spread on the filling and, sure enough, crack it did.
We added some extra spices and this thing tastes amazing. The large crack on top is only one of about 3 so you might not want to take it to the Pretty Food Shindig you were planning on but it would fit right in at the Hell Yeah Tasty Food Get Down.

Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day: Peanut Butter Brownies

Yes! There is a dessert chapter in Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day and I wanted to try at least one for my MoFo purposes. I picked out the peanut butter brownies sandwiches and am quite pleased I did. The brownie part is like a cross between a cookie and a brownie. So a bit hardier that a soft brownie but still with a slight brownie texture. Slapped in between is a peanut butter frosting and you can't go wrong with peanut butter frosting. I love these. You should make these. Quadruple the batch and you'll be the belle of the Halloween ball.

Paul Cooks: Squash Casserole

This Wednesday had Paul cooking squash like a Tennessee farmer. Last year the I-40 Kitchen published a couple of squash casserole recipes for MoFo. How can you not love something called a squash mold? This was delicious and I highly recommend breaking this one out for your upcoming Thanksgiving celebration. Throw it down with some of his fabulous rolls and pass out in a pile of leaves.
Paul may or may not be a snacker and may or may not have nibbled at that corner before I got the photo.

Tasteless Tablescapes

Well well. Your guests will simply swoon when they come over for your fabulous dinner party and find the cat licking leftover rice off the table instead. Distract them with his cat cuteness and everyone will forget all about the food you promised. Hopefully they brought some dessert you can eat instead.

Isa Does It Testers: Sesame Tofu

Sesame tofu in a big ol' salad. Cooking tofu that I love has been a steep learning curve for me. I can never seem to get it as firm and flavorful as I would like. This sesame tofu recipe may have solved any tofu woes I had. I love the texture I got and can futz around with the recipe to get a plethora of flavours to always have a good and tasty protein source to toss into my big ol' salads. I think one of my favourite things about testing for Isa books is that the ingredients are usually simple but the results are always great.

We Have A Winner!

Thanks to everyone who entered my giveaway! The copy of Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day goes to.....

.....drum roll please......

too cheap for pinenuts! No-Tuno Wonder Boy with helmet o' rye! Send me your address and the book will zoom to you soon.
Happy Sunday night y'all!

Food Haiku: Cookies

Sweet oatmeal cookie
or perhaps chocolate chip.
I will eat you all.

The Local Food Review: Whole Bowl

The Whole Bowl is an excellent option if I don't have a good meal in the house and am busy trying to get some crafting done. There's nothing fancy going on here, just rice, beans, salsa, olives, avocado and some of their yellow saucy sauce. I love having a healthier option that I can grab when needed instead of just eating a bagel and a cookie. They're usually nice and add some extra avocado for me since I get the vegan version. 

Friday Fun Halloween Theme

 Ice Cream! I was sad to leave my beloved Donvier hand crank ice cream maker back east when I headed west last winter. I got that for $5 at a stoop sale in Brooklyn and made many a fine ice cream with it. I was thus thrilled when I stumbled upon a mini half pint ice cream maker from the fine folks at Donvier at an estate/yard sale about a month ago. I inquired and found the price to be a whopping $1 so I took it with glee. There she sits, in all her icy glory.

 The ice cream recipes I usually use are for about 2 pints, so I needed to scale down for the wee half pinter. The maker came with a handy little instruction guide on the box as well as a basic recipe. I veganized that baby and got my churn on. Here's a poor quality blurry photo of that Donvier magic happening.

 This post may indeed be fun but it isn't really Halloween themed. I did put the ice cream in an orange container to really up the festive quality though. I got those vintage tupperwares for 25 cents at the same estate sale. 20 minutes to a wee serving of homemade ice cream. Long live the Donvier!

Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day: Burgers and Giveaway

Contest has ended! I will update later today with my winners! Thanks y'all!

 Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day even without bread. I love beets and I love barley so the Beet and Barley Burgers were perfect for me. These involve a lot of work getting everything minced up for the mix but the result is delicious. I did slightly small ones since I did not have any buns at the ready and served with a side of fried cabbage. These are wonderfully hearty and filling. They have the aforementioned beets and barley but also have black eyed peas, carrot, garlic, green pepper and spices mixed in.
I'm keeping the mix in my fridge for the week to just shape and fry up for a quick dinner any night.

Also, thanks to the generosity of Celine and Tami and their publisher Fair Winds Press, I have a copy of Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day to give away today! Fun! To enter, simply leave a comment on this post creating the name for a Sandwich Superhero and what their special power is. Contest ends on Saturday, October 20th at 11 pm (PDT). The magical Harvey Cat will pull a random number from a hat and I'll email the winner the next day. Make sure there is some contact info in your comment cause if I can't find the winner I will draw again the next day. Support vegan authors! Support your local bookstores!

Paul Cooks: Gingerbread Apple Pie

It's Wednesday, which means Paul is cooking. The balls theme apparently didn't work out so instead I'm just posting whatever Paul has cooked this week that we've managed to capture on camera. Today we have pie. We went apple picking at Kiyokawa Orchards this past weekend and brought home some newtown pippins that went into the pie. The gingerbread apple pie from Vegan with a Vengeance. A mighty good pie. I made the apron which makes more sense if you've been watching Storage Wars lately or maybe just really like the wow factor of pie.
Pie.

Tasteless Tablescapes

Laundry. It needs to be done. Leave your guests a box o' Borax with some washing liquid or powder of choice and a handful of quarters. Simple, elegant. I recommend going for a clear or white so you keep that minimalist color scheme going.

Isa Does It Testers: Marbled Banana Bread

I am quite lucky to be testing for Isa Moskowitz's upcoming cookbook Isa Does It. Mondays will be devoted to some of the stuff I have enjoyed or others have greatly enjoyed from my testing.

I am no fan of the wily banana but I made this marbled chocolate and banana bread for a friend who loved it and I may or may not have polished off a couple of pieces myself. The recipe for this is posted over at the PPK blog. Get those old bananas mushed and get to baking!

Food Haiku: Scones

Sweet biscuit-y scone
How I love your dry roundness.
Never triangle.

The Local Food Review: Off The Griddle

Saturdays are for checking out some of the lovely food establishments in the SE Portland neighborhood.

Today's burger and fries is courtesy of Off The Griddle which has sadly closed at the end of September. I love their burgers and wanted to give them a shout out because they will have their storefront cafe A.N.D. Cafe open through the winter as they prepare to move to a bigger establishment. A.N.D. is equally delicious, just without the homemade burger joy. They are located at 5420 E. Burnside. I recommend choosing from their selection of waffles or one of the rotating specials. Super nice owners and staff and sizable portions so you'll have some lunch ready to go for tomorrow's climb up Mt. Hood.

The Friday Fun Halloween Theme

Pumpkin cheddar biscuits! I think I post about these every year and they never get old. These are not specifically a Halloween item but they are a must when fall comes and there's a bit of nip in the morning air. I have worked at my biscuit technique for a good while now and am finally popping out some tall airy vegan biscuits. Love.
The recipe was published in VegNews last year and is from the fabulous Bianca who just came out with Cookin' Crunk. Head over to her blog to get a copy.

1 t apple cider vinegar
1/3 c soymilk
1 c flour
1 c whole wheat pastry flour
2 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 c shredded cheddar
5 T Earth Balance
3/4 c canned pumpkin

400 oven
-combine milk and apple cider vinegar and set aside
-In large bowl mix flours, baking powder and salt. Add cheddar and mix. Add EB and mix til coarse crumbs form

-And pumpkin to soymilk and whisk, then add to dry ingredients and mix together.
-pat dough out to 1/2" thick on lightly floured surface and cut out the dough.
-Bake 12-14 minutes or longer as needed.

Panda With Cookie on Modern Cat

My paper cat cut out was featured on Modern Cat today! I love that little guy in the box.

Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day: Bierocks

 I am a fan of both Tami and Celine, who are some of the nicest people I have had to pleasure to meet through the magic of the internet. Their book Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day was just released last month and I'll be posting some reviews here every Thursday this month.

First up, Bierocks!

Who can resist a rye bread stuffed full of sauerkraut, flavoured tempeh, carrots and onions? Not I. These were the first thing that caught my eye and my first sandwich attempt. These are a bit time consuming with the rising of the dough but the end result is well worth it. I got 8 out of a single recipe and these were quite filling. They kept quite well in the fridge for a few days and were easy to re-heat in an oven or toaster oven. Delicious!

Celine and Tami have very generously let me post the recipe for these today.
Bierocks:
For the filling:
1 1/2 c veggie broth                    
1/4 c red wine vinegar                        
2 T tomato paste                           
2 t onion powder                             
1 t cumin seeds                                
1 t paprika                                     
1/2 t fennel seeds  
1/2 t lemon pepper                        
2 minced garlic cloves                   
1 t vegan Worcestershire                      
8 oz tempeh minced                        
2 T olive oil                                   
1 c minced onion
2 c chopped cabbage
1 c sauerkraut drained
1/3 c grated carrot
1 T dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste

In medium saucepan combine broth, vinegar, tomato paste, tamari, onion powder, cumin, paprika, fennel, lemon pepper, garlic and Worcestershire sauce and bring to boil
Reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes
Place the tempeh in an 8 inch pan and cover with marinade. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
Heat 1 T of olive oil in large skillet on medium heat. Drain tempeh reserving the marinade and add tempeh to pan.
Cook, stirring, for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and set aside.
Add the second T of olive oil to pan and cook the onion and cabbage for 5 minutes. Add sauerkraut, carrot, mustard, salt, pepper, tempeh and marinade and cook for 5 minutes. Let cool.
                       
For the buns:                                    
3 c ap flour                                              
3 T light brown sugar                   
2 t instant yeast                                   
1 t salt                                              
1 t caraway seeds                                    
1 c dark beer at room temp               
margarine for brushing                             

Combine all ingredients except margarine in a large bowl and stir together.
Knead for 8 minutes on a floured board, adding more flour or beer by the T to make a workable dough. Form into a ball.
 Oil a large bowl and place the ball in it and cover with a towel. Let rise in a warm place for 1 1/2-2 hours or doubled.
 Divide dough into 8 pieces. Roll out into 8 inch rounds. Scoop half a cup of filling in the center and fold the dough around, sealing at the bottom and shaping into a bun. Place on a baking sheet.
Repeat until you have 8. Let rise, covered with a towel for 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden. Brush
                                                                     with melted margarine and serve!

Paul Does Balls: Sausage Balls

I will be presenting cooking exploits from my friend Paul every Wednesday this month. Balls not guaranteed.

If you're an astute observer of the MoFo happenings you will remember last year's project over at the I-40 Kitchen. Johnp tackled a number of southern childhood favourites and mastered the sausage balls of my childhood family reunions. Ain't no shame in Bisquick, y'all!

For his first cooking project Paul baked up a batch of these. Everyone loves food in ball form so even though these are never photogenic we all know brown food tastes best.

Tasteless Tablescapes

This month I'm focusing on some minimalist tablescapes. The past few years have been all about the over the top, fancy, even perhaps expensive tablescape. But now we are toning things down and getting right to the heart of what really matters. Like this lovely display that has a can of beans with can opener. It says "Open it your damn self" while also saying "Get your own spoon".

Vegan MoFo Returns!

Welcome! Welcome, fellow stargazers. It's my third year participating in the Vegan Month of Food blogging. I will be here all month with exciting daily themes. I just know you can't wait! Here's my breakdown:
Monday!  Tester recipes from Isa Does It, Isa Moskowitz's upcoming cookbook

Tuesday! Tasteless Tablescapes return

Wedensday! My friend Paul will be cooking. I thought it should be Paul Does Balls but I'm not sure if that's going to happen or not.

Thursday! Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day. I'll be posting photos and reviews of the new vegan sandwich book from Celine Steen and Tamasin Noyes.

Friday! Halloween Theme. I love me some Halloween things. 9 out of 10 posts will probably feature pumpkins.

Saturday! The Local Food Review featuring some of my favourites in SE Portland, OR.

Sunday! Food Haiku.

I will also be doing some Monday round ups over at the main Vegan MoFo page and the occasional crafty update. Onward! Onward friends!