sweet fiend.

There are days when I feel like my whole life revolves around fake cheese and vegan marshmallows. And since these products are in big demand, it's our job to provide them. It's a tough life I lead, I know.
So we recently started carrying a new vegan marshmallow making kit from New Zealand, and I whipped up a batch last night. Hey, it's research! I have to answer questions about these kinds of things all day! I had a lot of fun making these. It involved two pots on the stove, one with boiling sugar syrup, and the stand mixer running at full speed. It was really cool seeing a small batch of ingredients froth up into a big bowl of fluffy, white marshmallow goo. They firmed up really quickly too. About an hour later I was cutting them up and dusting them with cornstarch.



One kit made a whopping 60 big marshmallows, but they are not cut all the same size. I'm queen half-ass when it comes to stuff like that. But still , it's a ton of mallows! So I bet you're wondering how they taste. They actually taste great. My only complaint is that they are not quite as sweet as I was expecting. But this could easily be remedied by using powdered sugar in place of the cornstarch for dusting. The texture of these is pretty right on.

Next up, marshmallow testing. How will they stand up to roasting, melting into recipes, and in hot cocoa? I must find out. In the name of important vegan retail research.

blurry food. tastier than it looks?

Oh, sorry! See, I have this block about posting without the photos to back it up. We've been eating tons of food, but our sad little point-and-shoot camera hasn't been behaving. It's only focusing about 30% of the time. And my descriptive skills ain't all that. Or are they?

For dinner one Thursday eve, we had some most welcome house guests. Oh, what a delight for this eager hostess! My hands became the ultimate tools for preparing an Italian feast of monumental proportions. The splash of semolina into boiling water signaled to everyone that a gastronomic experience was about to be had...

...or whatever. I made a lasagne. With kick ass semi-homemade ricotta. If you have access to Tofutti cream cheese, I strongly suggest making this and layering it into your own lasagne, or stuffing it into manicotti tubes.

Vegan Semi-Homemade Ricotta

1 lb. firm tofu, drained
1 8 oz. container of Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese, room temp.
2 Tbsp plain soy milk
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 cup fresh basil, finely chopped
salt and pepper to taste

In a large bowl, crumble tofu and mash with a fork. Add entire container of cream cheese and mix with your fork until the tofu and cream cheese are thoroughly combined. Add soy milk to thin the mixture just a bit. Stir in garlic and seasonings until evenly distributed. Use this rich, yummy mixture anywhere you would normally use a savory ricotta cheese.

A few nights ago, we made the Spicoli Burgers from Dreena's ED&BV. I wanted to try these because I'm loving the high protein in hemp seeds. The burgers were pretty tasty, although I will probably jack them all full of seasoning next time I try them.
Enjoy the blurry:



Something else we enjoyed from ED&BV was the polenta fries. These are cornmeal coated polenta sticks that have been baked. A nice change from the typical potato!



I don't have any new kitty pictures to share, but hey! The store parking lot was tagged again recently! Some more cool stuff:





I like the little bird looking guy on the right. He reminds Ken and I of the bald eagle from the Muppet Show.

Song of the Living Dead

Goin' to a zombie musical tonight!!

any excuse to eat potato salad.

Ken and I enjoyed a lazy day off last Friday for Independence Day. We had grand plans to go for a light hike at Kennesaw Mountain, but those plans were eventually shot down by our apathy and desire to stay in air conditioning. So it goes.
We even kept the food simple, but I just had to make potato salad. My family aways had potato salad for the summer holidays, and it seems to taste best when eaten outside. Weird, but true! I whipped up a batch of herbed potato tomato salad (recipe from DEOTS zine), and I coated some May Wah vegan chicken nuggets with the cajun spice seasoning from Yellow Rose Recipes. Any excuse to use more of the huge tub of bright red Hungarian paprika I have, I'm all over it. These were really delicious. I'm definitely going to try that same rub on tofu next time around. Anyway, we also had baked beans, and more fake meat in the form of May Wah citrus sparerib cutlets.
Ken approves:





And for dessert, a big, luscious vegan strawberry milkshake topped with whipped cream:



So, I have a question for you folks. Lately I've had a strong desire to eat foods with grill marks, so I'm looking into an indoor grill-type of thing. What's your favorite? A basic grill pan? George Foreman? Eh?

Oh! And I have to mention that my husband is my favorite person in the world. Well for many reasons, but he did something especially sweet and wonderful this weekend. He knew I realllly wanted to go see Tom Waits on the last stop of his tour, but we really can't afford overpriced $100 tickets these days. Well, Ken bought a pair back in May the day they went on sale and kept it a secret from me until he actually drove us to the venue this past Saturday. So we got to see Tom Waits and it was fantastic! Truly one of the highlights of my concert-going career.
I love my Ken. All together now: Awww.

Crappy video from an amazing show.

excuses, excuses.

Oh, where to begin. Being busy + not feeling too well + lazy = lack of blogging. Many apologies. Hey, look! It's Moe eating corn!



Last night we had a simple southern dinner, typical of what my family ate regularly during the summer when I was comin' up. Except replace the tempeh with a fried pork chop (yick). The Georgia corn is really sweet right now, delicious. It went well with some kale and tempeh stir fry, seasoned with lots of tamari and toasted sesame oil.



After dinner, we decided to plan ahead (for once)and make a ton of burritos to freeze for future lunches. The supplies were as follows:
- 1 lb bag of dried black beans, soaked and cooked
- too much bulk rice, cooked
- 2 vegan taco seasoning packets
- 1 onion
- stack of tortillas
- 1 block of Vegan Gourmet Monterey Jack

This made eighteen burritos, for a total of $.88 each. Next time we will cut the cost down by skipping the Vegan Gourmet and adding corn or spinach. I'm sure I could have found a better deal on tortillas too, but oh well. Still, a lunch for $.88 ain't too shabby!