VeganMoFo: You're Either In or You're Out

There's only one week left until the season finale of Project Runway. And there is still one more round of eliminations tonight! In anticipation, I designed cupcakes for a piece from each of the designers Bryant Park collection. Below they are lined up for judging with Heidi, Michael, and Nina. Tim Gunn is scurrying around in the background to give advice.
Kenley vs. the World - She is known for her 50's style dresses and of course her headpiece with feathers. You can't see the headpiece on the model in this photo, but trust me, she has one. This cupcake employs a frosting layering technique, with the feathered texture achieved by a #67 tip. Hometown favorite Jerell (he's from Houston!) - He is known for his detailed eclectic designs that are always glamorous. This cupcake is styled with a layer of dark chocolate ganash and embellished with silver dragees and gold luster dust stripes and swirls.
Rooted Korto - She is known for her classic designs mixed with tribal details, always using rich textures and colors. This cupcake highlights those bold colors and uses a variety of piping techniques.
Organic Leanne - She is known for getting "back to the Earth" with her structural and sophisticated designs. This cupcake starts with swirls of frosting and is lined with oversized confetti dots and accented with a silver dragee.
So who do you think is the winner? And remember, with cupcake fashion, one day you're in and the next day you're out. Auf wiedersehen!

VeganMoFo: Pass the Radioactive Vegetables Please

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip....

For today's installment of vegan mofo, I cooked up a TV-themed dinner to an episode of Gilligan's Island. Gilligan reels in a mysterious crate containing seeds, but he failed to see the warning....
The seeds produced carrots, beets, spinach, and other vegetables as fast as the half life of radium-216m (7 nano seconds)! Then it was time to dig in and pass those vegetables!Mary Anne's favorite vegetable was the carrot, and these radioactive carrots had so much carotene in them that her eye sight allowed her to see miles away! Here she is pointing out a potential rescue ship as the Skipper and the Professor look on squinting.
Mrs. Thurston Howell III (aka "Lovey") just adored sugar beets! All that sugar made her a bit hyperactive though and she actually ran around the hut cleaning.
Gilligan ate more than his share of spinach, and the radioactive amounts of "oxalic minerals" enabled him to pick up entire tree trunks and even the Skipper!
So how did we eat our radioactive vegetables? I roasted the beets (along with fennel), sauteed the spinach, and made a curried carrot soup. And although we didn't experience the same effect as the castaways did, at least we didn't have to "apply the principals of theoretic chemistry to the problem of radioactivity" and eat soap to "prevent the bombardment of radioactive chemicals", as the Professor puts it.
Hope you enjoyed your three minute tour!