Tasty Tester Roundup

I had a few days off this week, so I recipe tested my butt off!

First, the sweet stuff from Carla's Vegan Bakesale testing:

Rich Brownies...the egg replacer is pureed raw cashews! So decadent and genius! Gently spiced with hints of cinnamon and ancho chili powder. So nice! Malva Bundt Cake...a super moist, sweet, and comforting apricot bundt cake! It even got an Apricot Jam Glaze for extra sweet and stickiness!

Pineapple Mango Mint Upside Down Cake...something sunny and flavorful to make watching LOST even MORE enjoyable!! Mint and pineapple? Yes, yes, and yes!!!

Now for some savory stuff from Melisser's upcoming The Vegan Girl's Guide to Life!

Chipotle Twice-Baked Sweet Potatoes....spicy, smoky, and just all around amazing!! Perfectly paired with some homemade veggie burgers. Also, holla for the great local sweet potatoes!

And then there's Austrian Potato Salad! How can you not loooooove potato salad?! I even got these yummy local new potatoes and chives for it! Similar to a German potato salad, served warm with tons of onions and dill pickles in it. Mayo free too! Potatoes are the bomb, and so is Melliser!

Vegan MoFo: Sustainability Sunday!

Welcome to Day 27 of Vegan MoFo (month of food)!! The KC Vegan Crawl, aka Sustainability Sundays, was hoppin again this past weekend! Lots of great peeps came out to support sustainable, delicious vegan foooooood!

At my supper club, it was Oktoberfest 2009!! All German food all the time!

For the meal: Homemade Vegan Brats with Braised Local Cabbage and German Potato Salad (all local veggies, too!). Of course, there was lots of Organic Kraut to be had!!

For dessert: Apfelkuchen! For all the English speakers, that's German Apple Cake! I got my recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking and it turned out soooo great! I am in LOVE with this warm, cinnamon-y, moist cake. Love.See, Dane loves the German-ness...And Anna reeeealllly loves the German-ness!!And for the second leg of the vegan crawl, at Dane's place....more local food gooooodness!

Spaghetti Squash Saute: local sketti squash with onions, garlic, mushrooms, zucchini, and olive oil. So many good things all at once!!Lima Beans in Tomato Sauce: lima beans. simmered in tomato sauce. what more could you ask for?! yum!Pomegranate Tart: pomegranates, blackberry jam, and pineapple in a dense, buttery tart crust. I think it actually might be a pan-dowdy due to how it's made and such, but whatever. Just words.Then we all carved ourselves some local pumpkins!! Perfect ending to a lovely, autumnal Sustainability Sunday! Here was my creation....totally fitting to my personality. ha.

Vegan MOFO Day 1: Vegan BLT Sandwiches!

Vegan MoFo is here again, everybody! For those of you who don't know, October is Vegan MoFo, or Month of Food. This gives all us vegans...especially the foodies!...a great excuse to talk as much as we can about food, cooking, cookbooks, veganism, health, etc. And you know we love to talk about what we eat, not to mention talking about what everyone else is eating, too! So all in all, Vegan MoFo is like our month-long food porn fest. yeah.

For the first day of Vegan MoFo, I will share about my underground restaurant. It doesn't have a name or anything yet, but I'm working on that! Basically, I serve food restaurant-style out of my apartment once a week on Sundays. I make one meal and dessert, and whoever hears about it and wants to come is MORE than welcome! It's going around by word of mouth right now, and word of blog I suppose, so I hope that it will continue to grow as I keep working at it! This past weekend was the fourth installment of the "supper club" type get-together, complete with all the good stuff....

The main dish: Vegan BLT Sandwiches!! One of my favorite things to make in the summertime to celebrate the abundance of awesome tomatoes. Since I still had plenty to use up at this end of summer period, I figured BLT's were a must. They have tempeh bacon (see a few posts ago for that recipe!) from local tempeh, crisp organic lettuce, my mom's homegrown tomatoes, avocado, and vegan mayo, all on homemade millet bread! What a sandwich!!

On the side, I made Local Potato Salad (made with local potatoes, red onion, garlic, and carrots!)...

The other side was Citrus-Spice Pickled Watermelon Rind from Terry Bryant's Vegan Soul Kitchen cookbook. I loved these!! I saved all my watermelon rinds from my last local watermelon of the season and pickled them with lemons, oranges, and spices. Delicious! A perfect item for that summer to fall transition!!
And NO meal would be complete without dessert!! In keeping with the local produce theme, I decided to make a tester recipe from Terry Hope Romero's upcoming Vegan Latina cookbook: Sweet Corn Ice Cream!!

Corny, creamy, simple, delicious. Even more irresistable when I topped them with Praline Pecans!! I mixed barley malt syrup, Earth Balance, soy creamer, cinnamon, salt, sugar, nutmeg, and pecans together and poured the mixture over the yummy ice cream...
Let's just say I had no complaints!

More MoFo to come!!

Lemon-Dill Potato Salad

Gonna have a picnic this weekend? You should make this potato salad!! It captures the flavors of summer perfectly and has a great balance of tangy and sweet...it would be perfect with some sandwiches and lemonade on a warm summer day!! I whipped this up after getting some amazing dill at the farmer's market and it turned out really well. Enjoy!!

Lemon-Dill Potato Salad (serves 6 or so)
4 medium russet potatoes, cubed
1 cup frozen peas, thawed and rinsed
¼ cup red onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
¼ cup celery, diced
1 bunch fresh dill, finely chopped
2 Tbs apple cider vinegar
Juice of 1 small lemon
¼ cup dijon mustard
¼ cup vegan mayonnaise
2 Tbs olive oil
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp black pepper
¼ tsp paprika

Boil potato cubes for approximately 5 minutes, until just tender. Be sure to not overcook the potatoes, as the salad will become too mushy. Drain and rinse potatoes with cool water, set aside to cool completely.In a large bowl, whisk together the vinegar, mustard, mayonnaise, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and paprika. Combine until well mixed. Add all other ingredients, besides potatoes, and stir to coat. Lastly, add in the potatoes and stir just until coated with dressing, ensuring to not over mix or mash the potato cubes. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Weekend Goodies

For the first weekend after school started, what better way to celebrate and relax than enjoying some yummy food?! Last night, we had a pot luck and bonfire...perfect for commemorating the end of summer! Here are some of the things people brought (and almost everything was vegan! what good friends!):

A green bean and almond salad:

Fresh Watermelon...in lovely ball form:

Vegan Rice Krispie Treats:
And homemade sausages!! These were soooo awesome!!

Here is Sarah making up the brats...she based them on Julie Hasson's recipe, which is apparently super-easy! and tasty! Sarah is an awesome cook!!And here's the Picnic Potato Salad I made, with three different kinds of potatoes-purple, new, and sweet:

Picnic Potato Salad (makes about 4 qts.)

1 lb. new potatoes, diced

1/2 lb. purple Peruvian potatoes, diced

1/2 lb. sweet potatoes, diced

3 carrots, shredded

1 cup peas

1 red onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup celery, diced

1/2 cup chopped parsley

Juice of 1 lemon

1 cup Vegenaise

1/4 cup dijon mustard

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp paprika

1 tsp dill

In a large pot of salted water, boil the potatoes until just tender...but don't overcook! please!

Drain potatoes and run cold water over them to stop the cooking process. Set aside to cool.

Combine all of the vegetables and cooled potatoes in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, combine the lemon juice, mustard, veganaise, and spices. Pour dressing over potato-veggie mix and gently stir to coat everything evenly. Chill for 30 minutes or so before serving.

For the bonfire, Steve and I bought some Sweet & Sara marshmallows...in toasted coconut flavor! These made AMAZING s'mores!!! I am now obsessed.
For our Sunday morning breakfast tradition, a bunch of us met up at the awesome Cafe Berlin...seriously the best breakfast in town! There are tons of vegan options, they use local veggies, and the staff is wonderful. What's not to love??
I had the Mediterranean Breakfast--a favorite for sure!!
It's a big plate of tofu scrambled with scallions, parsley, and spinach...with a mound of their homemade hummus, homemade (delicious) pita bread, local cherry tomatoes, and kalamata olives. This is worth getting up early for!

Have a good Labor Day! :)