Vegan Chili Cook-Off Deep in the Heart of Texas

This past weekend, Society of PEACE took a roadtrip to Austin, Texas to compete in the 20th annual Lone Star Vegetarian Chili Cook-Off. Don't let the sign below fool you, this was an all vegan event held at the Austin Farmers Market :-)

17 teams from around our beautiful state competed in the competition. Each team was charged with making 5 gallons of vegan chili. In case you've never had to make 5 gallons of chili yourself, here is what all the ingredients look like.... thank goodness all those cans are recyclable!
After the vegan police inspected all of our ingredients, we got started bright and early (around 8am) chopping vegetables, draining beans, measuring spices, and getting everything prepped to start our first batch of chili.
At high noon, the doors were opened to the public for chili tasting. Before we knew it, there people were lined up at our booth! From then on, it was an almost constant stream of filling up chili bowls, serving up cornbread, selling baked goods, and handing out vegan literature. With all the running around trying to make additional batches of chili, I barely had time to say hello to Diann from Eat'n Veg'n who stopped by for a sample. It was nice to see a familiar face!
So did I manage to actually eat any chili during the cook-off? The answer is, of course, yes. We did several tastings of our own chili to get the seasoning right, and John was nice enough to run out into the crowd for brief breaks from kitchen duty and bring me back almost all of the other chili entries.
Chili wasn't the only vegan food being served up at the Society of PEACE booth. We made several batches of cornbread (one with jalapeno and one without) that were complimentary with chili samples while supplies lasted (it went fast!). To soothe the taster's taste buds, we offered grapes as a palette cleanser. And to finish with something sweet, as a fundraiser we offered Stacey's pumpkin oatmeal cookies and my pumpkin pie brownies as well as chocolate and vanilla cupcakes (Happy National Vanilla Cupcakes Day by the way) swirled with Society of PEACE colors.
As the competition came to a close, we gathered around to hear the results of the judges voting as well as the crowd favorite. Imagine our surprise when we heard Society of PEACE called out... the judges awarded our chili 2nd prize!! It was a rewarding finish to a crazy day. I had such a great time making chili with our awesome team: Sergio, Stacey, John, Kristen, Tosh, and Cairo (he's hiding between Stacey and I). Be sure to check out Stacey's post about the day on her blog Te Amo Vegano! And Tara posted about her experience as a chili tester on her blog My So-Called Vegan Life!
Congratulations to everyone who competed!! And the next time someone asks you how a vegan could ever survive deep in the heart of Texas... send them to the Lone Star Chili Cook-Off!

VeganMoFo: Veggin' Out for Animals & the Economy

In recognition of World Vegetarian Day (Oct. 1) and World Farm Animals Day (Oct. 2), Society of PEACE encouraged all Texans to eat out and show our support of local vegan/vegetarian/veg-friendly restaurants. Additionally, it's probably not a bad idea to get out and support our struggling economy right now. So even if you're not located in the lone star state, get out there and support your favorite veg restaurant!

I picked up take-out from Field of Greens, a mostly vegetarian casual restaurant that can veganize almost everything on their menu. Even though I tried to encourage myself to try something new, I couldn't help getting my tried and true favorite.... the california club. Composed of toasted whole wheat bread, soy ham & tempeh, avocado, and veganaise with well-seasoned fries on the side.
And even though John isn't home yet from work, I picked him up an Eden Burger. Soy ham (subbed for soy chicken since it has whey in it), barbeque sauce, shitake mushrooms, and basil crusted bean curd on a whole wheat bun.
I don't often get dessert at Field of Greens (since I usually make my own!), but to celebrate Veggin' Out days, I ordered the chocolate cake. And after asking which chocolate dessert was better, the cake or the tofu pie, the FOG staff added in a small sample piece of pie! I think my vote (as well as the staff member I talked with) goes to the cake.
Speaking of voting, I must get back to flipping between the vice-presidential debates and Project Runway. More mofo tomorrow!