The Vegg...

The Vegg is now at Sidecar, so I had to try it out. It must have made an impression because it forced me to blog :).

The Vegg is a powder that you mix with water to create a vegan egg yolk. Their site has some pictures of user made recipes. Some have instructions, some don't. Overall, there isn't much info about the Vegg from the makers of Vegg. The packing is very generic & reminds me of the generic craze in the 80's with the black & white basic labeling.

The instructions say to mix the small bag of Vegg with 1 liter of water. Then it will keep for 2 weeks. That seems very impractical to me. I measured it out into a smaller portion, which I will refer to as the mini Vegg.

A mini Vegg has the same Vegg:water ratio as the bag's instructions:
1 tsp Vegg
50 ml water, which is just shy of 1/4 cup.

Rather than making a mess with the food processor for such a small amount of Vegginess, Andy whisked it for about 1 min. That seemed to work, though I will eventually try the food processor method to see if it gets thicker - not that it wasn't thick enough.

I wanted to see how the Vegg tasted by itself with tofu, so we made a basic scramble:
1 block of tofu (around 14 oz)
2 mini Veggs
black pepper
salt

Crumble the tofu in a frying pan, add Vegg, and heat. season with black pepper & salt.

It was pretty good, but could have used another mini Vegg. After I had eaten 1/2 of it, I sprinkled with a small amount of nutritional yeast, black salt, cayenne & cumin and it was amazing. I think it was mainly upping the black salt content.

Anyhow, I hope you all have the opportunity to try out some Vegg action :).



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Here's a pic of the out of control hat that I crocheted for The Judge. He doesn't wear it that often, but he likes it a lot because his purring increases when it's on.

Package Swap!!!

I did the Cook.Vegan.Lover package swap this year. If you haven't done a swap before, I highly reccomend doing one. Shopping and receiving gifts are fun, but the best part is getting to know somebody new via email.

My partner was Liz from Vegan Food Rocks, an awesome lady from the east coast. Email revealed that we have a lot in common. The package I sent was sort of caramel centric. The package I received was really yummy and I almost forgot to take pics. What can I say... when I get a package filled with treats, I want to try them right away :)

Here are the goods...
a really cool note & some cranberry floss. I'm thinking elves dip the floss in the cranberry bogs all so I can keep my teeth cran sparkly (which I do). PS. what do you think of the color of my kitchen wall? It helps brighten up those gloomy winter days in Seattle.
mmm... onto the chocolate! The pistachio is my fave, though the others are close behind.

Just in time for tea & toast season. Cocoa & toast season doesn't happen until January. Plus some granola for topping off oatmeal. Ha! Who am I kidding, I eat it straight from the container.

Now for the best raw macaroons ever! They were spicy hot and I mowed them down right away. & Liz Lovely cookies from the awesome state that I grew up in, VT. w00t! Wait wait, Liz Lovely cookies from the lovely Liz!

Thank you Thank you Thank you, Liz! Thank you, Lindsay, for hosting!

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Now introducing 2 new additions to my furry family... for some reason I don't have any action pics, just the lazy kind. Tubs is trying to train them, but he admits it will take a while.

Lady Fiona Stardust - Lady + Fiona from Burn Notice + Stardust, a book & movie that I love.
Harry Potter - His track name had Harry in it, and as soon as I saw that, Harry Potter stuck in my head.

Vegan Vida Con was AWESOME

I got back from vida con on Monday afternoon & I'm still recovering. I even took a nap on Tuesday which is rare for me. The conference was really fun & I met lots of new blogger friends. I'm not sure I can really explain how much fun it was! I think I'm still processing. I sort of felt like a little kid being let loose at Disneyland with a bunch of really nice people to hang out with. If you have a chance to attend the next one (2013), do it!!! If you don't have a chance, do it anyhow :)

In a way the fun hasn't ended. Tomorrow night there is a get together at Highline in Seattle @ 9 PM to keep the fun alive & I'm going.

I also started a Seattle Vegan Bloggers meetup on meetup.com. So join if you're a Seattle area blogger or if you're going to be in the area.

I took the train from Seattle to PDX and now I'm convinced this is the way to go. I even lugged all my junk onto more transit after the train. I'm just that cool (ha ha).

Ok, I'll zip it so we can get to the pix of the food I had in PDX.

~Homegrown Smoker cart. OMG. I'm still fantisizing about it. The owner was trained by his dad on how to use a smoker and he applied it to seitan, thus he is "homegrown". He really knows his stuff. I love how he applies his delish mac no cheese to almost everything he makes.

side of mac no cheese & some deep fried pickles w/ the BEST ranch dip ever.

coconut battered deep fried oreos (in my hand), a reuben & mac no cheese. All I want to do is to head down to pdx for some smoker goodness. ~Portobello. This was my 2nd time going to Portobello and it's still a great place for a fancy dinner. Tomato consomme - it was cool, light and refreshing, just what was needed after a day of humidity.
gnocci. light & fluffy and perfect. not at all like some of the lead like bombs that some people try to pass off as gnocci. Tiramisu & a trio of ice cream (blueberry, salted caramel, chocolate). It was hard to decide which was the best. the ice cream had a perfect texture. if only they would sell it in the grocery stores...

~Blossoming Lotus. Wow. Crispy Thai BBQ Salad. It was a mix of crispy noodles, lettuce, lime cilantro dressing, raisins, curried cashews & soy curls. The soy curls were so perfectly done that you would never have guessed that they used soy curls. nothing like what I've done / could do with soy curls. every bite was so good that I didn't want it to end. The lighest and most delicous coconut cake for dessert. For drinks, I had a mango margarita that had spicy pepper booze in it + cilantro. soooo good. The other drink in the picture had a middle ice cube that was flavored. fancy pants!
~Red & Black Cafe. This place is on the other side of the block from the vegan mini mall. They have really great bread and delicious food. This is the tempeh mock tuna sandwich. I like how they ground it all up and seasoned the hell out of it. very tasty. I ate it on the train ride home.
~Sweet Pea Bakery. part of the vegan mini mall and a great place to go for a sweet treat or something savory. Notice the danish in the bakery case. mmmm...
Sweetpea's everything bagel w/ some vegan bacon & scallion schmear. words cannot describe how amazing it was. I need a tub of that stuff. oh, and the tea is the earl.
~The Sweet Hereafter. The food was really great. I can't remember all of the dishes & i'm too lazy to go on FB to find them. I do know that I had the lower sandwich (the bahn mi). note that it's really LOUD in there.

~Sizzle Pie. this pizza was served at the Vida Con Gala. I had the one w/ gluten free crust and it was really good. not to mention that Upton's Natural's special seitan that they brought down for the conference.

~Bob's Red Mill tour. I can't believe how hi tech Bob's is. They do a ton of testing there, which is a good thing.
Bob's Red Mill store has lots of vegan options. Warning, the portions are HUGE and most humans cannot finish. Share!

~Dave's Killer Bread. If you visit Bob's store, go across the street to Killer Dave's Bread and pick up a sindawg. it's fabu.

~Fran Costigan's chocolate cooking demo at the conf. She talked about chocolate transfer sheets, made truffles & a cake. YUM! I'm going to have to get some of those transfer sheets to play with.

~Opening night reception for the conf. Sweetpea cupcakes & Heidi Ho cheese. My fave flavor was the smoked gouda. nice.

~It's cat time! This cool cat is Macaroni from pdx. He was hanging w/ his people. He's the type of cat that runs towards a camera because he is so friendly.

news flash: slacker blogger to attend Vida Vegan Con

Yeah, I know I've been a total slacker at blogging & I'm going to the conference.... so I suppose I must post something before going. Hopefully all of my favorite bloggers will be there and will also hunt me down.


I have a whole slew of pics from my trip to Portland/OR coast/WA coast this spring, but they are still on my camera. I blame all of this on my cell phone because it makes me take pics w/ it and post directly to facebook. after all that, blogging seems like a lot of work :).

for the past month & a half, I've been getting my house painted inside and out + having my lawn replaced because it was an overgrown hell hole. It all looks so much better now which helps curb my annoyance of having to tend the sprinklers. I sort of feel like I'm in a live action game called The SIMS: sprinkler edition.

Earlier this year I made a bday cake for Northwest Animal Rights Network. Andy did the grass & chocolate fondant stars. I made the NARN logo in chocolate fondant & the animals in regular fondant. naturally the fondants were vegan. chocolate recipe was a veganized version from The Cake Bible. The cake was chocolate & marble & HUGE. The "lawn" was uneven on purpose, just like my own lawn. yeah, blogger is really stupid about autorotating. I give up :)
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Chippy is 1/2 sunning himself on the stairs. maybe it allows himself to stay cool enough to get more time in the sun.

Maui baby! part 3

ok, this post is all due to Andrea. She got me to check out River's blog (which is even more cool than normal because this month is Halloweegan) and now here I am posting something. Andrea is tricky :).

Before I blab about Maui (a trip I took way back in the spring), I need to give a shout out to the bake sale I'm organizing.

Vegan Bake Sale
October 23rd & 24th
Sidecar in Seattle

I can attest from doing this bake sale 5 times before this that there is something for everybody. delicious! Here's how I recommend planning your trip to the bake sale: have a great breakfast / lunch at Wayward, then head across the street to the bake sale. Should I also mention that Sidecar has a bunch of new stuff?

If you'd like to bake, please email seattlebakesale [at] hotmail [dot isn't is annoying that spammers force me to chop up an email addy?] com

Now onto Maui... and believe me I could use me some Maui today. It's gloomy here.

For me these are the bfasts of fantasy - perfect fruit including maui mangoes, toasted bagels and most imporant, we ate them out on the balcony overlooking the water.

bfast view. the inlet that you see in this pic doesn't have the clearest water for snorkeling, though not murky water shark death either. The reason to snorkel here is that every day, there are at least 6 GIANT turtles. This tiny inlet is directly south (and adjacent) to Napili bay. Btw, if you go to Maui, check out Napili bay beach. It has a steep slope, so you can lay on the sand and the surf will shoot you up the beach and back down. it's really fun, but be prepared for a bathing suit filled w/ sand. Miso mayo on a bagel, hell yeah! the purple fruit is some strange HI thing that was pretty but didn't taste like much. cleanup duty by a very brazen vixen or dude. not sure which.bonus of banana bread from mana foods that I put in the toaster. it's hard not getting pb on your english muffin when Andy is working the toaster.
This wasn't bfast, just a random fruit snack
Joy's Place
I love going to Joy's place because you can get both raw and cooked food that tastes great after getting slammed around by the waves.

joy roll (fresh roll wrap around nori, sprouts, carrot, avocado, and more)
indo crunch wrap (my fave). I forget what the crunch part is, but it's all good.

hummus wrap

smoothies and a coffeechai drink

raw chocolate pudding & raw macaroons

The Scary Ride To The Airport

On our way home, the main road to the airport was closed due to a brush fire. Typically rental companies forbid their cars being driven on the road that is on the NW tip of the island, but the fire left them w/ no choice but to allow it. There is good reason because it's really narrow and winding. It is different than the road to hana because there road really doesn't fit 2 cars and there aren't many places to pull over. Luckily for us, we only met up w/ 1 car going the other direction.

not only narrow, but if you go off the edge, you're going for a death ride.

keeping some distance from the motorcycle (that passed us on this road) and freaky mini van driver dude that had a need for speed.

Whole Foods

After the "fun" narrow road, we ate lunch and bought food for the plane. They have a great food bar that has lots of vegan options. Even a station that had more than 1 made to order vegan sandwich.

Fresh rolls covered w/ a tasty sauce. you can see my brother's fingers patiently waiting as I take some pics.

Pizza w/ Daiya. I really got to snacking before I remembered to take a pic. Excellent whole wheat crust :)

Phew! That's my Maui trip. Next time I go to Maui, I'm staying in a hotel (vs. a condo) because Maui is vegan friendly enough that you don't need your own kitchen.

If I remember I will update this post w/ the 1 place that sells vegan choc covered macadamia nuts. personally I find them to be gross because the chocolate doesn't have a high enough cacao % for me. I prefer my macs roasted & salted. The store is either the KMart or Walmart in the airport town.

Faline aka Lady Cat hanging out in the cat cage. Please note the well kept grass. ha!

Maui, baby! part 2

Here's a simplistic map so you know where I stayed and where some of the places I went to. This time I'll focus on Hana and Fresh Mint.

I can't imagine a guide or article that talks about Hana not going on and on about the road to Hana. Yeah, it was twisty turny, but not life threatening like they say (I didn't go all around the island on the road. Just to Hana, then turned around). As long as you know how to yield for the 1 lane bridges, you're good. Oh, and don't hold up locals or other people by going too slow w/ your looky loo touristy ways. Again, common sense. If you're in the lead and have more than 5 cars stacked up behind you, then pull over and let them pass. The road is really LONG and if you get carsick, you'll love the twistyness of it all. Plan ahead before you go because there are a ton of places to stop and check things out, but almost all of them unmarked and chances are you won't know that you're missing a hike or whatever. Here are some pics taken from the car. As you can tell, I'm more of a let's get there already types vs. let's take out sweet time and stop a bajillion times.

At Hana, we went to the Hana bay black sand beach. Not really that exciting. blabbity blab meander around for a bit. Then went to the Wai'Anapanapa State Park. The views were incredible. In the pic below, you can see a black sand beach. We went swimming there, but for only about 1/2 hour because the surf was pretty rough.

This is a panoramic view of the park. Off to the right, there are lots of lava rock that you can climb around on and get blasted by ocean spray. To the right of that tree, there is a rock island w/ what looks like rabbit ears on it.

Just outside of Hana (maybe mile 29?) sits Coconut Glen's Big Dumb Coconut Stand. Translation - vegan coconut ice cream that is really awesome. Way better than anything I've ever had before.
My 2 flavors: toffee coffee & spicy something. And the "spoon" is a hunk of coconut husk.


On the way back to Napili, we stopped off in Paia to eat dinner at Fresh Mint, an all vegan place. You gotta eat here if you visit Maui. If you go early enough, you can get in some grocery shopping at Mana Foods down the road.

The pics below are of 2 visits to Fresh Mint for 3 people.

Fresh Rolls Fresh Mint Salad
Spicy Lemongrass Soup - oddly there wasn't any lemon flavor until I squeezed in the lemon juice. Lemongrass Not, but still good. Soy Fish in a Clay Pot. I love this dish. gingerific.
I can't remember what these were called, but they tasted great. basically tofu wrapped in yuba & nori.Banana Fritters floating on a sea of tapioca pudding. dessert, mmm...
Also, no clue what this was :).
Kung Pao in bad lighting. ~~~~~
Here's Chippy doing some detective work. If you think for even a second that your cats don't invade your privacy -- think again. Oh, that's not a delicious chocolate shake, that's some Vega; which Chippy is not interested in.