Falafel and French Toast...not together, though...

Two things I have to rave about: Falafel and French Toast! (Sorry, I love alliteration.)

First, the Falafel! Last night, my mom and I went to dinner at Kansas City's renowned Jerusalem Cafe, before watching LOST. The restaurant in the Westport district of KC looks small and humble, but it has the BEST falafel I've ever eaten! They are consistently voted the best Middle Eastern food in KC. My faaaavorite thing to order there is the Falafel and Hummus Sandwich which comes in homemade pita bread with lettuce, onion, tomato, and their special tahini sauce! It is so good and so filling and so cheap and so healthy! I crave this ALL the time!My mom got her absolute favorite, too: Tabouli Salad. They have wonderful tabouli, and it has so much parsley in it that you pretty much never have bad breath again! You can get it as a dinner portion and it comes with their warm homemade Pita Bread on the side!
Next up: French Toast! I cannot emphasize enough how much I adore breakfast for dinner! Tonight, I made Bianca's (of Vegan Crunk) tester recipe for Cookin' Crunk, Sorghum Molasses French Toast! It is your basic vegan french toast, made with a tofu batter and whole grain bread of course, topped with a foamed sorghum syrup! The foam in the syrup comes from a pinch of baking soda, which thins out the sorghum a bit to make it more pourable, but also gives it a fantastically light and airy texture that compliments the thick, hearty toast perfectly!I served it with Scrambled Tofu, chock-full of veggies...especially chard! This was a perfect savory accompinament to the sweeter french toast. Brinner is served!

Mezze Platter!

Tonight's dinner was an amalgamation of different yummy Mediterranean-based items, aka a mezze platter! I love the idea of having a little taste of everything, to give your taste buds more of an adventure than the average meal, and it is also a great way to clean out your fridge :)
The mezze platter that Steve and I shared for dinner was awwwwwesome and consisted of: muhammara (recipe from Vegetarian Times), warm whole grain pita bread, roasted local eggplant with garlic and olive oil, local cucumber slices, chopped local tomato, soy feta from Sungeria Foods (!!!!), kalamata olives, and Vegan Dolmas from Whole Foods (they come in a jar, packed in a lemony-olive oil brine. omg.) This was wonderful, and I was so happy to have foods like dolmas that I rarely get to enjoy!

Close-up of the delicious Vegan Dolmas

Close-up of the roasted local eggplant and Sungeria Foods' soy feta

All of the goodies together on my Mezze Plate!

On another note (or two...) yesterday's tradition of meeting at Cafe Berlin for breakfast was another amazing experience! For the record, breakfast is the best meal. Anyway, since Steve and I are such regulars there, and we are pretty well-known for our food habits (crazy vegans!), the head cook there, Eli, has made us up a few specials things every once in a while. Cuz we're cool like that. Yesterday, he whipped us up a vegan version of a Slinger. This breakfast was big and savory and hearty. WOW.

For those of you who don't know, a slinger is a popular diner breakfast dish, and it originated here in Missouri...in St.Louis to be exact! The general idea is this: hashbrowns piled with scrambled eggs, chili, cheese, sometimes salsa or sour cream, then flanked with buttered toast. Sounds like a heart attack just waiting to happen, right?! But none of that crap would do for us!! Our customized vegan version of the St. Louis Slinger was so much better: Roasted home fry potatoes (red and sweet), scrambled tofu, veggie chili, sauteed greens and red onions, then a garnish of fresh scallions and cilantro, then flanked with whole wheat toast that was eventually slathered in organic strawberry jam. Top that off with a hot cup of organic fair trade coffee and good friends, and I'm pretty sure that breakfast will be your new favorite meal!!!

St. Louis Slinger...vegan-style!

For dessert tonight, we had the Chai Latte Cupcakes from Isa and Terry's Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World (duh.), which I topped with some Vanilla Buttercream Frosting before dusting with the cinnamon-cocoa mixture. These are especially yum when paired with some chai tea. Not to tell you what to do...but do that!!

Chai Latte Cupcake

Muhammara

Like I have said before, I love dips. I think it's such a shame that many vegans seem to be confined to plain old hummus (not that it's not incredible!!) when it comes to creating an amazing mezze platter! So, when I first tried muhammara at a Middle Eastern restaurant in Kansas City, I was hooked! Then, the most recent issue of Vegetarian Times had a recipe for it in their "easy entertaining" section! yay!

Luckily, summer has blessed me with lots of red bell peppers and our local Middle Eastern foods store had a great selection of pomegranate molasses...so this recipe was really a breeze! Try it next time you want to have a mezze platter for dinner with friends or just a good dip for snacking!

Muhammara (makes 2 cups or so)

2 cups walnuts

3 large red bell peppers

4 Tbs olive oil

4 cloves garlic

2 tsp salt

2 Tbs pomegranate molasses

**pinch each of cumin and crushed red pepper (my addition!)

Preheat oven to 375 F. Spread walnuts on baking sheet and toast until light brown and you can smell them...about 10 minutes. Place peppers on greased baking seperate baking sheet and bake at the same time as the walnuts, for about an hour, until the skins are blackened and super soft. (The recipe calls for you to peel the peppers after you bake them, but I left the skins on, cuz that's how I like it, and it was still rockin'). Saute the garlic in 2 Tbs of the olive oil for about a minute until fragrant and caramelized. Puree all of the ingredients in food processor until smooth and creamy, then season with salt and pepper to taste. **I served mine with veggies and toasted pita bread and it was awesome! It also tastes good with a little Sriracha sauce...if you like it hot :)

Recipe from July/August 2008 issue of Vegetarian Times