Monday, October 27, 2008

VeganMoFo day #27 - The best southern food EVER

I just got home from another cooking class at PCC (seattle area co-op). It was Southern Vegan Comfort taught by Dawnula Koukol. Dawnula is really funny, tells great stories, knows a lot about cooking and is an awesome chef.

Chessa from Maybe Local Vegan also took this class at a different location. So now you have 2 testimonials to take this class. If you're not in the Seattle area, sorry for tempting you.

This is the only cooking class for the fall quarter that Andy would take. Because it had biscuits and gravy.

Here is the food....

Spiced Pecans - YUMMY. Andy hates nuts, so I got to eat his too :) This was the only food in this class that I got to take from him...


Miss D's Smokin' Collards. The BEST ever. Typically I hate the bitterness of collards, but these had no bitterness at all. Just a big pile of smoky deliciousness.


Vegan Buttermilk Biscuits and "Sausage" and Mushroom Gravy. OMG, these biscuits were so moist and flaky good. And the gravy was sooo good. I found out from Dawnula that you shouldn't use a sweet "milk" in gravy otherwise when it thickens up, it will have a gross sweet flavor. Could be the reason that the last batch of gravy I made got sweeter as time went by. That was because I was using a rice and soy blend. The sweetness of the rice milk was a bad move. Lesson learned. Thanks, Dawnula!


Bread Pudding with Maple-whiskey sauce. YUMMERS. I love bread pudding - the apples and currants were a bonus!


BTW, a worm pile can sometimes include Kobie. That's because Tubs LOVES Kobie. Technically Kobie isn't a cat, so I wasn't lying about the worm pile rules & regs in my house where max = 4 cats in a pile. Now watch Faline and Nibbler make me a liar by hanging w/ their enemy cats.

15 comments:

Jen Treehugger said...

Oh WOW!!
What awesome looking food. I'm lovin' the Smokey Collards.
How cute are Tubs and Kobie!! It's a mini worm pile.
LOL!

Tara said...

The biscuits and gravy look fantastic! Kobie and Tubs are adorable!

Kelly said...

That sounds like such a fun class. Are those mushrooms in the collards? They look delicious. Silly question, but what counts as a sweet milk? I typically use unsweetened plain soy milk in things and haven't had any problems.
Your biscuits and gravy remind me of some vegetarian biscuits and gravy a friend made for my presidential debate party that were amazing.

VeganView said...

Aww I want to be in all this fun! You had me at the pecans, they look scrumptious along with everything else!

Bethany said...

The collards have mushrooms and onions in them. super tasty.

Sweet is of course relative. She used unsweetened soy milk. The defacto soy milk in my house is actually a blend of rice and soy. So I'll have to keep this trick in mind and also get plain unsweetened soy milk for savory dishes.

I'm thinking of making these nuts for presents. They were so yummy.

River (Wing-It Vegan) said...

What an awesome display of vegan goodness!! I'm officially jealous of your cooking class! :)
You have the cutest pets ever!!

Lisa -- Cravin' Veggies said...

I am seriously jealous of your cooking class! I've never tried collards. Might just have to now, though! Very cute pets! My cats don't snuggle... they tolerate each other, but don't particularly like each other. Snuggly animals always win me over. Check out www.dailycoyote.com. She has the best photos of snuggly pets.

Bethany said...

the cooking classes have been kick ass this quarter. I think my feedback on "more vegan" classes is working.

they only snuggle between fights :) Their innocent (ha!) cuteness is made up for by the nasty fights Nibbler and Tubs get into. They must be separated by doors or there will be scary fighting. Guess who gets the most scratches? Me when I break them up.

For the Love of Guava said...

seriously with the taunting!! I want to take one of these classes!!!

Zoey said...

Hi Bethany,

All that food looks so good. I keep thinking about taking a vegan cooking class but I always end up putting it off. Thank you for sharing your pictures!

KZ said...

i love this food genre. comfort food is great for hibernation/winter time! yummmmy

Michelle said...

i always forget how much i like collards until i make them. those look particularly good!

jess (of Get Sconed!) said...

Maple Whiskey Love.

Chessa said...

I'm so glad you guys enjoyed the class! I was hoping I wasn't over-hyping it, but really, it was pretty freaking awesome!! I just made some smoky collards the other night for my green-aphobic parents, and they were a big hit!

I wonder when the new schedule of PCC classes comes out? I need to get on the ball next time, I missed a bunch of good ones!

Bethany said...

I don't know when it comes out. I check their website once in a while, but it is still on the fall schedule.

I totally missed out on the class done by the guy from the essential bread baking company.

If you get the catalog by mail, it comes early enought that you can get into classes. this time I sort of ignored it, assuming it would be the same old stuff I had already taken. big mistake there were tons of new classes.