Sampling Squares, Planks, and Bars

I was lucky enough to get some samples in the mail of "darn good whole foods" made by Honest Foods. When I am traveling or on the go at home, I always have a stash of vegan snacks in case I skip breakfast, can't find something vegan on the lunch menu, or I'm getting the munchies late in the afternoon. So I was very excited about the opportunity to add a few more to my usual repertoire. Inside the package addressed to "walking the vegan line" (which in itself was exciting to see), I received samples of all flavors from their two whole foods product lines: country squares and granola planks.

The country squares are a soft, chewy, whole grain bar that comes in four flavors: choco p'nut butter, apple ginger spice, farmer's trail mix, and cran lemon zest. All four are made with whole grain oats, almond butter, dried fruit, and other ingredients you can pronounce; with 6 grams of protein and a healthy dose of omega 3's. These were perfect for when I was heading out the door hungry. My favorite? Well, this shouldn't be a surprise to any of you that read this blog with some regularity, but it was the choco p'nut butter, followed by the farmer's trail mix (I loved the addition of pumpkin seeds in this one!).
For some strange reason I was less excited about the granola planks, probably because I tend to prefer soft and chewy things to brittle and crunchy. But these were a pleasant surprise! I enjoyed eating the blueberry vanilla crackle plain out of the box, the maple almond crunch crumbled as cereal in almond milk, and the pomengranate walnut crisp topped on vanilla soy yogurt. Check out the Honest Foods website for a list of places where you can purchase these to taste for yourself!
Since I was in the sampling mode, I decided to do more, but this time, no freebies :-) My sister highly recommended the Vosges "haut" chocolate, but with "haut" prices, I was glad to find some miniatures to taste that were a little nicer on the pocketbook. The flavors included the creole bar (coffee + cocoa nibs), red fire bar (ancho and chipotle chilies + cinnamon), oaxaca bar (guajillo and pasilla chilies), and the black pearl bar (wasabi + ginger + sesame seeds). These miniatures are worth savoring every bite, don't use these for a quick chocolate fix! I brought a few with me to share with a few girlfriends when we went to see the SATC movie, and I made mine last about twenty minutes into it. The clear winner for my tastebuds was the Red Fire bar... the fire of the chili and the spice of the cinnamon was a combination that awakened my tastebuds. Coming in second had to be the Creole bar, I loved the crunch of the cocoa nibs.
I think I could get used to this product sampling thing...

My Own Form of Detox

I am honored to have been chosen by VegNews to receive a VegBloggy award for 2008! I am so excited to see who else has gotten one (here's some I know of right now: conscious kitchen, vegan talk, urban housewife, bittersweet, veganyumyum, get sconed, fatfree vegan kitchen). The July/August issue hits newstands on July 1 (earlier for subscibers), so be sure to pick up a copy! And I really wish this was one of those awards that you could also give to five other bloggers so we could spread the love to all vegan blogs. Because really, I think we all inspire each other and are all deserving of recognition in the vegan/vegetarian community. I'm also excited that this gives me an excuse to stop in San Francisco at the end of the month (on my way to Las Vegas) for the Music Issue Launch Party. Hope to see some of yall there!

Now, back to my regularly scheduled blog post.... looking back on recent posts, there has been a lot of dessert! And I've seen several of you blogging about all the raw food and cleanses and detoxes you have been doing, and this is a great season for it! Now I'm not really on a detox, just a blog post detox (yes, just last night I had a brownie, but it was low fat!). All healthy food in this post. First, a grilled vegetable salad with corn, asparagus, and portobello mushroom over a bed of spinach with heirloom tomato and sunflower seeds.

The mushroom was marinated in red wine, olive oil, and dried basil. The corn was just basted in some olive oil and placed right on the grill for about 15 minutes. As you can see, the grilling of the asparagus was a bit tricky... we lost a few to the doldrums of the charcoal fire! I've tried skewering them in the past, but was just too lazy to do it that particular evening.
For Memorial Day, we brought out the grill once again for more corn on the cob and some homemade burgers! This was my first attempt at a homemade burger and it was not really very successful. I spaced reading the instructions earlier, and discovered the burgers had to chill 4 hours, time that I didn't have. So our tempeh mushroom burgers (grated beet lending the red color) kinda fell apart. John showed some mad skillz with the grill by managing to get them off in one piece!
And finally, the Taco Salad from Yellow Rose Recipes. Romaine lettuce with cilantro topped with taco TVP, avocado, tomato. Joanna's spice mixes (this one for the tvp) are the best. And no oil! Okay, so there was a dallop of sour cream, but the rest of the dressing was just fresh lime juice. I've been making a few things from YRR lately for the review I submitted to our Society of PEACE newsletter.
I hope everyone has a great weekend. Tomorrow I am going blackberry picking!

Birthday Baking

Two very special people in my life celebrated birthdays during the month of May, my mom and my husband, John. And birthday celebrations call for baking!! For my mom, I was excited to try out my new Wilton giant cupcake pan. To decorate, I decided to do something of a tribute to all my mom's hardwork on our wilton character cakes when we were growing up (I recall strawberry shortcake, cookie monster, He-man for my brother, among others), using the star tip, #21. The cake was hazelnut and filled a hazelnut chocolate mousse, topped with buttercream. I think from this distance the cake looks all right...

But up close it was just a big old mess! (I am hearing Cher say this from Clueless) From the start, there were problems. The cupcake pan doesn't really bake evenly and I didn't have the patience to bake the two halves separately. And then there were multiple decorating disasters.... a basketweave that refused to adhere to the cake, a top border that had to be completely removed, and by that time, I was just too flustered to do my drop stars very neatly. I nicknamed this "a cake only my mom could love".
Taking a break from birthday cakes, for John's birthday I made a strawberry rhubarb galette from a Millenium recipe (the recipe is online), one of John's favorite fruit combinations. The walnut pastry crust turned out great, and it was a pretty fancy little dessert that required minimum effort, especially from a Millenium cookbook (this is the first time I have made anything from it!). Next time, I would add about half the fresh ginger the recipe called for in the fruit filling, it was a bit overpowering.
And finally, an actual meal (it seems like real food always ends up at the end of my posts lately?!), the orange chipotle glazed tofu from the June issue of Vegetarian Times. Very tasty and so simple! This was also a recipe that John and I could agree on since I like sweet sauces and he likes spicy ones, and this dish was a little of both.
I finally got my new blog banner up after about six months of procrastinating! I went for a Texas theme that I'm sure makes my mom proud.

Daring Bakers Challenge: Opera Cake!

After months of seeing Hannah of Bittersweet and Jessie of Cakespy post their delicious concoctions from the Daring Bakers Challenge, and more recently from Shellyfish from Musings from the Fishbowl, and Bex from How to Feed a Vegan, I decided to get in on the baking action with my first challenge. At the unveiling of this month's challenge, I was both nervous and excited. As I read the challenge description for opera cake, I couldn't help but hum Toreador! (if you've heard Carmen, you will of course be adding the extra oomph to the end) I have certainly never attempted, or even eaten, an opera cake. But I've seen them, oh yes. Layers of almond cake with decadent coffee buttercream and chocolate mousse and glaze. It is enough to make a chocolate lover bust out in song (opera, of course). But the rules specified that this opera cake was to be light in color and in flavor. Although this was initially a bit disappointing, I knew that this was why I joined Daring Bakers... I make chocolate stuff all the time. I needed to attempt something new. So here it is, my Raspberry Lemon Opera Cake with a white chocolate drizzle (I am hearing Entre'Act in my head, an appropriate entrance that I also used for my recent walk down the aisle).
Being an "alternative" daring baker (the recipe we were given was a far cry from being vegan, I think there was something like 12+ eggs!), I had to change a few things and used different recipes for pretty much everything except the syrup that I soaked the cake in. Let's start with the jaconde, aka, the cake. I used the almond cupcake recipe from VCTOTW, because really, that little book has never failed me. I increased the almond meal for a more pronounced almond flavor, used raspberry soy yogurt (although I don't think you could really tell), and baked it in a jelly roll pan to produce three layers of cake. After cooling and gently removing the cake from the pan and cutting into three rectangles, each layer got a healthy drizzle of lemon simple syrup before the next element was added....
Buttercream! Raspberry buttercream that is. I used a raspberry syrup I found at our mega-liquor store (Spec's for those of you in the Houston area) as the liquid for a traditional vegan buttercream. I chose not to use any shortening since no piping was involved and I could afford a softer frosting consistency. Each layer of buttercream was topped with chopped fresh raspberries, adding both extra flavor and color.
The final two layers were the greatest challenge, a mousse and to finish it off, a glaze. In order to bring out the lemon flavor a bit more, I decided to make a lemon mousse. I used a silken tofu base, fresh lemon juice, lemon extract, sugar, vanilla, and some cream cheese to help it set a bit. I was quite pleased that there was some leftover after slathering it on the cake, the rest of the afternoon I happily dipped my finger in the food processor bowl until it was gone.
The white chocolate glaze I approached with much caution. Back in December I had a disaster trying to make a ganache out of some vegan white chocolate chips, and ended up wasting an entire bag. But I did manage to get enough white chocolate to drizzle (never posted about it, but you can see the cake here), so that's what I did this time. Much to my surprise, it went much smoother (literally!) than I had anticipated! It also provided just enough embellishment on the cake that all it needed was a few fresh raspberries for garnish.

It may not be the prettiest opera cake (I wish my edges had been a little cleaner), but let me tell you, it tasted divine. I especially loved the bites where I could squeeze an additional fresh raspberry on my fork. Totally worth the time, effort, and thought. Now I can't wait to see what next month's challenge is!
Be sure to check out other daring baker posts, listed on their blogroll.

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!