how I spent my thanksgiving afternoon.

Making pumpkin cinnamon rolls from Don't Eat Off The Sidewalk #2. This is the chocolate variation, with the inclusion of chocolate chips and topped with chocolate glaze. They look much prettier without the glaze (above), but here are the finals:



As expected, Thanksgiving was a fatty, starch-filled success. My mother in law made the usual fantastic vegan dishes for us, including Tofurky, mashed potatoes, stuffing, roasted root vegetables, asparagus, and gravy. Sorry to rub it in for all you poor veg souls who had to sit in front of a big dead bird while picking at some questionable side dish. I remember those days, and they sucked. We're lucky and we know it!

Speaking of lucky, check out this week's delivery from Vegetable Husband:



So many apples this time! I'm about 90% sure a pie will be made soon. If not, then some apple fritters. We have already started in on the shitload of greens that arrived. This week's haul even includes broccoli greens, which I have never eaten before. It looks slightly kale-like, so that's what I thought it was at first. So exciting!

it's thanksgiving, yo.

I'm not usually a fan of biblical references, but the food in this comic particularly amuses me. Toast, popcorn, and ice cream? Awesome.

Food posts soon, I promise!

berfday loot.

Well, not really loot. But I did just buy myself a couple of cool prints for our kitchen! These are from Caged Tomato on Etsy.





I think I'm going to repaint our kitchen a light tea-stain color so these prints will go better. Yay! Happy birthday to me!

local vegan food

Honestly, I haven't been all that great about eating local. I tend to shop more at the regular health food store, and less at the farmer's markets. I admit, it's just due to my laziness. But I recently heard about a new service in Atlanta Called Vegetable Husband that delivers fresh local veggies to your door. The owner is a dedicated woman named Margie, who picks up her customer's produce direct from Georgia farms each Wednesday. We signed up for a one week trial to check out the goods, and this is what we got yesterday:



- Broccoli
- Turnips
- Baby Collards
- Apples
- Sweet Potatoes
- Mixed Salad Greens
- Sweet Peppers
- Kohlrabi
- Cilantro
- Jalapenos (tossed in for free, apparently)

We are really happy with this week's haul. So happy that we signed up for four more weeks. Hopefully this will keep us from making the same old thing each week, and we get the added benefit of eating food that hasn't been picked too early, transported across the country, and been touched by a hundred people. Yay!

Not only is the quality of the food great, Margie delivered it right to the store last night. Which is great, since we don't live within Atlanta city limits. I can't wait to see what comes next!

Here is dinner last night using many of the goodies from Vegetable Husband:



Garlicky baby collards, seitan with sweet peppers, mashed sweet potatoes (oh my!), and (not pictured) mixed salad greens topped with apple slices and flax oil dressing.

Now can someone give me an idea on what the heck to do with that Kohlrabi?

my, that is fancy!

handsome.

I really, really love my husband.

revisiting sunflower

While Ken and I don't eat out all that often, we do have our favorite places to go. Unlike most vegetarians and vegans in Atlanta, Cafe Sunflower is not one of them. Sure, it's usually nice, and the desserts are awesome. But when we do go, we tend to feel like we spent too much money for a merely adequate meal. Well, I am happy to report that we recently had the best Cafe Sunflower meal ever! Ken was the recipient of a Cafe Sunflower gift certificate for his birthday a few months ago, so we gave Sunflower another shot.

Smooth, creamy butternut squash soup as a starter:



Vegan lemon chicken served with almond rice topped with some sort of chili sauce, garlicky mixed greens and assorted veggies:



The lemon sauce was so subtle, not a hint of artificial Lemon Pledge flavor that I have had with other lemon "chicken" experiences. The veggies were perfect, and the rice was full of flavor.

Ken had tiramisu for dessert, which he didn't really care for. But our meal was so good that it really didn't matter. I had the chocolate raspberry mousse cake as usual, which is consistently good.


I'm so glad we tried Cafe Sunflower again!

our trip to Baaston.

So we had ourselves a little trip last weekend. Ken and I decided to exhibit at the Boston Vegetarian Food Fest for the first time. Let me start be giving major props to the Boston Vegetarian Society for putting this event on so smoothly. What a crowd! I'm amazed at the HUGE amount of people that turned out for this thing.

(crowd pic stolen from Laura)


We traveled up with some friends who were also exhibiting, Kevin and Laura. Once we hit Boston on Friday, we caught up with our friend Josh who also flew in to exhibit at the fest. Everybody was starving, so we hit up a vegan pizza joint called TJ Scallywaggle's. Prior to our trip, I had at least three people tell me that TJ's is the best place to eat vegan in Boston. To that I say pish posh. That's fancy talk for "I disagree". But despite my below average calzone and the cramped, dirty space, I would still much rather give my food money to a vegan retail establishment that's trying to do good and that lots of people have had positive experiences with, than to some meat-serving restaurant that will use my money to purchase more...well, meat. So there's that. Plus, I was so hungry that I devoured every last bite.

TJ's calzone:


After working our asses off at the fest on Saturday, we were ready for a really good meal. We headed out with a group of folks to My Thai Cafe. I ended up having the best pad thai dish in my life so far! I really wish I lived closer to My Thai Cafe so I could have this dish on a regular basis. So amazing!

Pad Thai with vegan shrimp and a side of peanut sauce:


Laura with an enormous platter of food:


Kevin, caught in the headlights:


Josh giving either a "toodle- oo" or a "howdy":


Some new friends, some old friends:


A couple of cute Canadians, Jae & Sarah:


A luscious lemon poppyseed cake:


It was nice to have some fun with friends in between all of the travel and the working. I'm already looking forward to next year!

hail to the chief!