Hope for the Western Slope

Now that I've returned from my trip to the field (and gotten my baggage finally... a whole other story), I'm finally sitting down to catch up on blogs. I actually ate much better on the western slope than I thought I would. Unfortunately, I also didn't take as many pictures as I thought I would, but here's what I ended up with.

In Grand Junction, this was painted on an abandoned building behind our hotel. "Hope for the Western Slope". This helped set the tone for the rest of the trip, at least foodwise for me. Our first night in Grand Junction was a Sunday, so several of the restaurants I wanted to try were closed (welcome to small town USA!). Luckily, our hotel rooms had a microwave, so an Amy's black bean burrito was my dinner for the night. I was also able to make my own oatmeal in the morning (which I did all week) and brought some single servings of soy milk as well.

Night 2 was a little rougher. We were in Green River, Utah. Ray's Tavern is a famous geologist's hang out (not sure why). See their sign bragging that it's the place for everyone? Everyone except vegans that is. They had a Boca burger on the menu, but it wasn't vegan and besides, they cooked it on the same grill as everything else. Bleh. So I ended up with an iceberg lettuce salad and a plain baked potato. Better than nothing I guess. This is where my snacks came in handy.
Night 3 we were in Moab, Utah. It probably wouldn't have been too tough to find a decent meal in this touristy town, but I was even luckier to meet up with a childhood friend who made me this tasty salad using local greens....
And veggie sushi filled with asparagus, mango, tofu, carrots, green onions, and arugula. Plus there was a big bowl of cherries and some coconut sorbet (mmmmm) for dessert. Thanks Meg for an amazing dinner and of course your company!
Our final night we were back in Grand Junction at a local restaurant for the group dinner, il bistro Italiano. The chef was very sweet and made me a huge bowl of pasta with lots of veggies, a portobello mushroom with red sauce, and a salad. I ended up stuffed but somehow still had room for one of the oatmeal chocolate chip cookies I brought with me (Uncle Eddie's brand).
And here's one of the more scenic pictures I took in Colorado National Monument, with some storms brewing in the background. I love being out west, the scenery was amazing. But my stomach and dry eyes and skin are glad to be back home in Houston.

Rock Hound

This might surprise you, but as a geologist I seldom get to actually look at rocks anymore. Mostly, I sit in front of a computer or in meetings like the rest of the working world. But this week, I get a chance to actually get up close and personal with some spectacular rocks in Colorado and Utah. And the scenery isn't bad either! (this photo of the Delicate Arch was from a previous work field trip)

I'll be staying in Grand Junction, Colorado as well as both Green River and Moab, Utah. Don't worry I have lots of snacks packed (seems like half my suitcase is full of food!). And luckily I also have friend in Moab who was kind enough to offer to cook me dinner one night! I'll be updating on Twitter and maybe sending a few phone pics.

But, don't want to leave you without any food posts. Here's a quick dinner that John fixed us this week, Sesame Soy Curls with Asparagus and Quinoa from vegan yumyum. I tried to get John to guest blog about it, but he's a little shy :-) Another tasty way to eat soy curls.
I'll return on Friday to catch up with blogs and hopefully get a post in of my own!

Go Vegan Art Car

Saturday was the 21st annual Houston Art Car Parade, and this year there was a vegan-themed entry by Society of PEACE! We spent the last five weeks painting this car. I'll let the pictures speak mostly for themselves...
The view of the trunk, which says "Peace begins on your plate" and "We are not food, clothing, test subjects, or entertainment". Isn't the monkey cute with his little banana? And the mouse? And check out our vegan license plate!
A view of the front and top of the car. The car design was inspired by vegan artist Peter Max. We were so lucky to have an artist in our group to do the drawing, Michelle did an amazing job!
During the tailgate party, we took the opportunity to do some outreach and set up a vegan literature table.
A vegan close-up.... I love the strawberries!
And just so you know we didn't starve, here's some of our snacks.... chips, carrots, hummus, grapes, pasta salad ....
Tings, empanadas, and peanut butter cracker sandwiches.
Here we are driving in the parade! We heard so many positive comments, lots of "go vegan" shouts, and plenty of smiles, waves, and peace signs.
We handed out vegan postcards with fruit along the parade route. They went fast! Notice our Vegan fake tattoos (brought back from Seattle by by mom)? We also got shirts for the occasion with the art car design on front and our Society of PEACE logo on the back (view and purchase one here).
And more food, muffins! Almond quinoa and low fat banana muffins both from Vcon.
I promised you more cake, and here it is. This is my first fondant covered cake! I swirled green and blue fondant to match our Society of PEACE logo. We all returned to our place after the parade and got to enjoy this treat, as well as some air conditioning (no ac in the car and it was in the 90's!).
Inside shot! The cake was red velvet with a vanilla buttercream frosting. More about fondant in a later post...
John snapped this photo of me waving from the car during the parade. By the end of the day we all felt like we'd been in the vegan Miss America pageant!
Although our car didn't win any prizes (there's always next year...), we were happy knowing that we got out the "Go Vegan" message to over 200,000 Houstonians!

Vote for our Vegan Art Car!

Voting is over now.... :-)

Houston Vegans Celebrate!

This past weekend, Houstonian vegans gathered to celebrate two milestones..... the 6th birthday of the Go Vegan Texas radio show and the opening of a new all vegan restaurant, World Veggie Cuisine. **Update 06-06-08 Sad to report that World Veggie Cuisine is no longer open** First, the food. The buffet was huge, about half raw items, and included cajun, ethiopian, and comfort food. On my plate below I have bbq seitan, lentils with injera, potato salad, sprout salad, chickn empanada, green salad, and black beans. This wasn't even close to everything that was served. The food was delicious, and I think my favorite was the potato salad. It's very exciting to have another vegan option for dining out!

After dinner, we honored the founders and hosts of Go Vegan Texas, including Janice Blue (pictured below), Shirley Wilkes-Johnson, Jerrilyn Halbert, and Kristen Lee Ohanyan, as well as their longtime sound engineer Mark McGuire. They told the stories of how the show began, challenges over the years, and hope for the future. We are so lucky to have an all vegan radio program here in Houston!
We also had a raffle to raise money for Society of PEACE. The prize? A vegan cake that I baked and decorated. Almond torte with a strawberry mousse and fresh strawberry filling and frosted with an almond buttercream. The raffle raised over $50!
Here is a close-up of my buttercream flowers (yellow chrysanthemums and pink rose) in my basketweave "basket" with a rope border. This is probably my best rose to date! I've had some issues with my icing being the right consistency. But with my new stand mixer (thanks honey!), things seem to be improving. Oh, and since several of you asked how I got the embroidered affect; it was easy! Simply ice your cake smooth then wait approximately 10-15 minutes for the icing to crust over. Then, take a paper towel (this is where the print comes from, so they will vary by brand) and a fondant smoother (or your hand) and essentially "iron" your cake.
Since the cake was being raffled off, I wanted to sneak a taste of my creation. So using the leftover cake after leveling, I made my own little mini cake. The mousse came out kind of runny, but it was still delicious! And as it turns out, I got to have another taste, since the person who won the raffle graciously shared the cake with everyone after the dinner. Aren't vegans nice?
I hope you're not sick of seeing pictures of cakes, because there's another few headed your way soon. That, and pictures of the art car! The parade rolls tomorrow! Expect a full report by Monday....

mOle!

In honor of Cinco de Mayo, I made my first mole sauce! I used the recipe for the Chile Chocolate Mole from V-con. Then I just sauteed some lightlife chikn strips (my first time trying these as well), onion, and zuchinni and topped with plenty of the mole. This sauce is amazing, and if you haven't had a chance to make it yet, go do it! It's not one I've seen much of on other blogs, so I just thought I would give it a little plug. On the side we had a salad with grape tomatoes, crushed blue corn chips, mango salsa, and guacamole. And yes, that's tequila in the background. A perfect way to celebrate this Mexican holiday. Ole!

I know I have been slacking on the posts lately. I've got several lined up that I need to get to.... battle vegan cheese, a vegan restaurant opening/Go Vegan Texas celebration, and some other random stuff. My excuse? Lots of art car painting. And cake decorating. Both of which you will see in upcoming posts as well!

Living Longer

While channel surfing, I caught a few minutes of the Friends episode where Rachel turns 30 and they flashback to everyone else's 30th birthday (i.e. Monica getting drunk before surprise party, Ross and his fancy car that is trapped via parallel parking). This felt a bit surreal knowing that I am fast approaching (a tad more than 16 months away) the age of the Friends characters that I watched a teen and in my early twenties. And it just so happened that this weekend we also helped a good friend celebrate her impending 30th birthday with a surprise party. I was in charge of the cake, chocolate with chocolate mousse filling and mint frosting. The candle set also came with a red "OH NO" which I chose to leave off. Like my top border? It's one I just learned in my second cake decorating class (which wraps up this weekend), so it still needs lots of work.

In addition to cake, I also brought a salad (my favorite roasted fennel with hazelnuts and creamy shallo dressing from V-con) and a vegan main dish. I tried to recreate the lasagna I had recently at the PPK Texas Gathering, since Crystal posted the recipe on her new blog, Vegan Explosion. I really wanted to leave the olives out, since I usually dislike them, but I stayed true to that part of the recipe and I think they really added a great flavor to the tofu ricotta. The only thing I did change was using fresh sauteed mushrooms instead of canned. If you notice my new twittering updates (sidebar), you'll see that I enjoyed leftovers of this for lunch today.
Now I know I've posted about Mighty O's several times before, but I just had to brag one more time. My mom brought these back for me after spending a week in Seattle helping my sister move to her very own condo. One of them was the special seasonal flavor; chocolate oreo. But I didn't hog them all to myself, I brought them along to an art car decorating party. I can't wait to show everyone the car (less than two weeks till the parade!), it is amazing, but here's a sneak peak at one unfinished part.
And finally, while we were driving to the birthday party, I saw this bumper sticker on a Texas-colored Ford truck "Live Longer, Eat Beef". I scrambled so fast to get a photo of this, I just couldn't believe it. I didn't know whether to laugh or scream. I ended up laughing with the birthday girl (a vegetarian) about it. Laughing and not eating animal products is what really helps you live longer.
Here's hoping that none of you are following this bumper sticker's advice....

One Year of Blogging

I had so many good intentions of a big one year blogiversary post. But with my business travel to Calgary last week, a busy weekend of running around, and top of everything getting a cold for the first time this year, it just didn't happen. Suffice it to say that the last year of blogging has been a wonderful experience and I thank every one of you who visits the blog and takes the time to read my sometimes random monologues. I have gotten so much more out of blogging than I had ever imagined, and for that I am thankful. (**here's the part where I blow out my imaginary candle and wish for many more years of productive, entertaining blogging**)

Over the weekend, we celebrated Earth Day with our local vegan society (Society of PEACE) with an all vegan picnic in the park! Everyone brought their families and we had about 40 people turn out on a gorgeous spring day. The picnic was BYOP&S (plates and silverware) in order to be more Earth friendly :-) Here's my plate, filled with a veggie dog (provided by SOP), twinkie, enchiladas, prospect park potato salad (from Vcon, which I made), fruit salad, green curry w/potatoes and chickpeas, broccoli salad, cabbage salad, and macaroni salad. More food came after I got my plate, and I tried a few including a bean salad, lentils and rice, and local green salad. All very yum.

The afternoon was full of lots of eating, chatting about veganism in Houston, and watching the kids (and adults) run around and play. Here's John and I... me with my dessert plate that included carrot cake, fat free chocolate cake, and chocolate peanut butter cookies. Like my new Vegan shirt from Cosmo's?

Just to prove that I haven't solely been living off of potluck food, here's some food from my kitchen.... Dinner last week of cumin lime tofu (from ED&BV), sauteed french green beans, and a baked sweet potato. I loved the tofu, especially with the crunchy pumpkin seeds on top. This will definitely be made again.

And I was a lucky recipient of some sourdough starter from the amazing Bazu!! John is a huge fan of sourdough, so he was especially excited to see this arrive in it's little green package (with a cute origami figure) in the mail. I began by making some sourdough pancakes to familiarize myself with the whole process. These were light and fluffy with a nice hint of sour. See all those instructions by the plate?!? I love how baking is a science. The next challenge will be making the crusty San Francisco style sourdough bread. You have not heard the last about sourdough here. Thanks so much Bazu for the starter!!

And finally, while in Calgary last week I had some roasted beets and asked myself why I had never made any on my own. I took care of that last night. Just a simple salad with mixed greens, walnuts, shredded carrots, and a maple balsamic vinaigrette. The beets are topped with a bit of sea salt. And to imagine I hated beets as a child....

Hope everyone did a something kind for the planet today..... Happy Earth Day!

PPK: The Texas Gathering

That's right, a room full of vegans with lots of homemade vegan food, two adorable chihuahuas named Charlie and Betsy, the game Apples to Apples, and all in Texas! This past weekend I made the drive up to Austin to attend a ppk potluck, done up Texas style. I made cupcake toppers especially for the event (oh, and cupcakes too... lemon macadamia with lemon buttercream and chocolate with peanut butter filling and chocolate ganash), because every Texas event has to include our lone-star studded flag (and here is a fun factoid for yall, we are the only state allowed to fly the Texas flag at the same height as the US flag because we entered the nation by a treaty rather than annexation).

Look at all the food!! For more food porn, visit here.

Here is my plate, I think I sampled pretty much every dish that was there. Let's see if I can remember them all (from the top moving clockwise): lasagna, macaroni salad, tempeh salad (which I also made), fruit, pasta salad with tofu, enchiladas, and in the center some carrots with ranch dip. I ate my dessert plate so fast I didn't take a picture, but I had a toffee bar, a chocolate chip cookie, and a cupcake.
And since someone asked for the recipe on the ppk boards, I figured I would list it here too. All ingredient amounts are approximate since I usually just toss them in and taste test until it's right. There were a few tempeh virgins at the potluck, and I didn't hear any complaints!
Southern Tempeh Salad
Ingredients:
1 8 oz. package of tempeh
1/2 cup vegan mayo
1 T vegan sour cream (optional)
2 T chopped fresh dill
1 T fresh lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup red graped, halved
1/2 cup walnuts, roughly chopped

1. Cut the tempeh into cubes and steam for approximately 10 to 12 minutes. Place tempeh in a bowl. Mash the tempeh with a fork so that no whole cubes remain.
2. Once the tempeh has cooled a bit, add mayo, sour cream , dill and lemon juice. Adjust amounts as necessary.
3. Add chopped celery, grapes, and walnuts and combine. Season with salt and pepper. 4. Chill and serve.

Here's the Texas Gathering crew! I had fun getting to know other ppkers/Texas vegans. Of course, we all kept forgetting everyone's actual names and called them instead by the ppk name. I almost made cupcake toppers with everyone's avatar... next time I guess. Hopefully at our next gathering, I won't be the only Houstonian!

And a trip to Austin in the spring wouldn't be complete without gratuitous bluebonnet pictures. I thought about posing one of my little cuppies with them (as pretty much every parent does with their child), but was afraid the sun might melt the buttercream. Can you spot the ladybug that instead posed for me in the picture?

A special thanks to the ppkers who organized and hosted this monumental event!

Vegan Bloggers on the Radio!

I will be cohosting a local radio show, Go Vegan Texas this coming Monday, April 14, and the topic of the show is vegan blogging! We will be interviewing two of your favorite bloggers, Bazu from Where's the Revolution and Emilie from The Conscious Kitchen! The show will be airing live from 10-11am CST. You can listen to it live on the internet here (or go to the homepage and click on the picture of the cow). Or if you would like to listen to it at your leisure, you can find the show on kpft's archives. We will be discussing some of the following topics (time goes fast on live radio!):

• Path to veganism


• Blogging as a form of activism


• Blogging as a means of connecting with new people, as well as friends and family


• Veganism and travel


• The anatomy of a blog post


• Meeting other bloggers face to face


• Favorite posts


• How much time do you spend on your blog? Reading and commenting on others?
  

I would love to hear everyone's comments about these topics, maybe I'll even have time to mention a few on the radio. I hope you take the time to tune in and listen to the show! And please forgive me if I sound a bit nervous :-)

**Update**
Thanks so very much to those of you who tuned in, have downloaded and listened to, or are planning on listening to the show!! (link to the archives above) I really appreciate all of your support. I thought the show went wonderfully and I must thank Bazu and Emilie for being such amazing guests. Kristen (one of the GVT hosts) has asked me to join her again in the studio in June, which I'll be looking forward to. Here are a few pictures, one is of me in the studio and the other two are the drool worthy treats that I made from their blogs so we could taste test during the interviews. Let's just say I left the studio with empty plates!