hominy... get it on the plate, girl.

Hominy and grits aren't exactly the same thing, but close enough. Maybe I just wanted an excuse to quote a Tori Amos song in my title, okay?

These pretty little grits cakes are topped with some slow cooked kale.


And were served along side some seitan-based Spicy Buffalo Bites.



All three of these recipes are from Alicia Simpson's upcoming cookbook, Quick and Easy Vegan Comfort Food. Alicia understands that Southern foods equal comfort to many folks, and especially to me! QEVCF offers much more than just Southern selections, too. Quick and Easy Comfort Food has a release date of September, so you still have some time to recover from that early summer wave of vegan cookbooks. Keep your eyes peeled for this one!

Los Angeles- the long, long blog post.

Hey ya'll! We just got home from another trip, this time to the Animal Rights National Conference in Los Angeles. I'm sorry to say that we didn't go to attend the workshops and talks this time, but to exhibit. We still had a great time though, even if a big chunk of our time was spent in a weirdly-lit hotel ballroom. We met many of our customers in person, which is always nice. And we got to hang out with some friends, which made the trip even more fun. But you just want to know about the food, don't you?

On the night we arrived, we were starving from our long day of travel. Unfortunately, the hotel we stayed in was right next to the airport, which isn't really close to anything. Letting our stomachs rule the day, we got a taxi to take us to the Native Foods in Westwood, in the middle of rush hour traffic. That shit cost $30 one way. The food at Native Foods was basic, good, vegan fare. Nothing earth shattering, but I would still love to have a place like this in Atlanta that served great vegan sandwiches and veggie bowls. I had a "save the chicken" wrap with fries and edamame, and Ken had a veggie bowl with kale as the main focus, I think. It had some of the mock chicken in it, as well.





I did enjoy Native Foods, and I would definitely try them again if I should every be back that way. I have to say though, when we were there, the place was so dirty. The dining area was up in a small loft, which had mabe six tables. The tables were all crummy and dirty, needing some serious attention from a wet cloth. The floor was sticky, too. We were so travel weary that we didn't really care at the time. And the bathroom. Oh, lordy the bathroom! It was the worst. I mean, unflushed toilet, used, open-faced maxi pad, paper towels waded up on the floor, sink covered in water... whoever was in there before me must have bathed a dog in the sink just after tossing her nasty pad around. It was awful. But, I'm sure it can't be like that all the time. We must have just caught them after a busy lunch rush or something. For the record, I left the bathroom in better condition that I found it, by wiping the sink, flushing the toilet (twice, even), and using a wad of paper towels to toss the pad in the trash can. Blech.

Don't you want to hear more about food after that lovliness?!

By the next night, we had learned about Veggie Grill. This place is amazing. Veggie Grill is a fast food type of establishment, only vegan. And the service was really friendly and quick, too. We loved Vegie Grill so much that we ate there two days in a row! If Veggie Grill were in Atlanta, I would eat there all the dang time. I had the Sante Fe Crispy "Chicken" with sweet potato fries, and Ken had the Chipotle BBQ with steamed kale. Everything was A+.





The fries came with this amazing vegan chipotle (?) ranch dippig sauce. I'm pretty sure that I don't need regular access to that sauce, for the sake of my waist. That shit was gooood.

Veggie Grill was located in a strip mall that was across the street from a Whole Foods. We decided to waste some time there, and randomly stumbled upon VEGAN COOKIE DOUGH GELATO being served at the gelato bar. What, what?!



With our bellies full of vegan fast food and gelato, we thought it might be a good idea to walk back to the hotel. After all, the hotel was only three miles away and the taxi to get us there cost $20 this time. So off we went.
... two and a half hours and maybe five miles later, we found ourselves being blown up against a chain length fence, with airplanes landing just over our heads. Let's just say the area around our hotel and the airport isn't exactly pedestrian friendly. There was a bus, but we didn't know which one to take, and we didn't have cash on us anyway. I got a sunburned forehead from that one. Good times.

On our fourth night in LA, we headed out to the valley (I think it's the valley...) with a group of friends to a fancy place called Madeleine Bistro. Madeleine Bistro is a pretty nondescript looking place, with decor that was so bland I couldn't even tell you what it looked like. But the food! The food wasn't food, it was cuisine. Everything we tried was so delicious and creative. Ken and I shared several small plates:

Yellow corn grits, ragout of wild mushrooms and haricots verts



Lemon-rosemary seitan, grilled asparagus crepe



The bigger macque (two no beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese…)



Chocolate soufflé, vanilla ice crème



Cannolis, Italian strawberry salad



Yes, I ordered grits and a vegan big mac at a fancy restaurant. You can take the girl out'the trailer park, but you can't take the trailer park out'the girl, I suppoose. But they were fancy grits!



New friends and old friends. That's Ken over there in the Cosmo's tee, then Chad (from Food Fight), Jackie (from Alternative Outfitters), Sara, Elsbeth, Josh (from Herbivore), Ashley, Will (Green is the New Red), Dave?, and me. It was a great night after working the exhibit table all day.



Chad's shirt says, "Never Trust an Ex-Vegan". True, true.



Jackie and Josh. This was my first time meeting Jackie, and she is such a sweetheart! Okay, Josh is a sweetheart, too.

Although Los Angeles had plenty of good vegan food to offer, we really were there to work. We set up a Cosmo's table in the exhibit room, where we spent three days talking with nice people, meeting some of our customers in person, and selling the good stuff.

Our table:



We were set up right next to the Earthlings table, which was a sad reminder of why we were all there to begin with. it was a bit hard to hear the audio from this film running next to us all day, and to see people stop and watch the footage, then break down and cry. It's probably the most violent movie of all time, and it's all real footage of how humans routinely treat animals.



Colleen Patrick-Goudreau stopped by our table, so I had to play the fan girl and ask her to pose with her new book, The Vegan Table. She was very nice, as I expected. And her husband laughed at my use of the term "fan girl". Hey, I'm obessed with vegan cookbooks. What can I say?



This is Danielle. She works at Follow Your Heart, also known as The Magical Place Where Vegenaise is Born.


We also met Diana and Eric, creators of Happycow.net. Such nice people, this family! We love Happy Cow. Their site is essential when traveling. They also had their adorable little baby girl with them, whose name, I'm sorry to say, I do not remember.



We met a lot of other amazing activists, including several of the folks from Sea Shepherd. I wasn't gutsy enough to get them to pose for photos, though. I hate to bother people with cameras.

Except Josh. I don't mind bothering him with photos. Here he is with Erik Marcus.



On our last night in town, we were invited to a get together. Some friends were house sitting and dog sitting a tremendous home in the area. Actually, I have no idea where it was. I wasn't driving, and I wasn't really paying attention to how we got there. But I'm glad we went, because we had a wonderful time hanging out with people, swimming in a heated salt water pool (!), and grilling out vegan food.

Ken helping man the grill.




The next morning we packed up and flew home, weary but happy.

Biscoff Cookies! The only tolarable thing about flying. I can get these at a store near our house, but I only really want them on planes. I still think that Biscoff cookies crumbled into cinnamon ice cream would rule, though.



Thanks for reading, if you made it this long! I have some good cooking planned over the next few days. Getting back into the swing of things.

baking my troubles away.

No other activity calms me down more than the act of baking. It's not just because I get to enjoy something tasty at the end, either. Luckily, I have spent a lot of time building up my pantry so that I can usually have all ingredients to make something, no matter what day it is. This is a good thing lately, as stress has been trying to get the best of me "in this economy". Ugh, I hate when people say that, now here I am saying it. But when your bills are being paid (or not) by retail, that's the way it goes sometimes. You'll never take away my baked goods, stupid economy!! **shakes fist at economy**

Hey, look how cute this is!



That's a Cinnamon Roll Biscuit. I love cinnamon rolls, but I don't make them very often because they're so time consuming with all the rising and what-not. I was recently sent a review copy of Go Dairy Free, and was immediately drawn to this recipe. The dough is of the basic biscuit variety, and you just roll it the same way you would for cinnamon rolls. I plopped them into muffin tins for baking, and they came out great. So quick and easy!

Isn't that little display stand the cutest? You can find one for yourself at Vegan Dish.

This afternoon, we are heading over to my in-law's house for my mother in-law's birthday. I made these big cookies to take along with us.



I adapted the Peanut Better Cookies from Vive le Vegan using sunflower seed butter and chocolate chips instead. I also doubled the recipe and scooped the dough with an ice cream scoop to make 'em huge. I like these a lot. They're soft, chewy, and not too sweet. If you haven't tried sunflower seed butter before, I can't recommend it enough. It's perfect with strawberry preserves for a sammich.

And just as proof that we do actually eat food that's not flour-based, here's some Creamy Potato Asparagus Soup from VWAV.



Hot soup in the summer is only weird if you don't have air conditioning, I think.

Happy Sunday, ya'll.

Portland envy.

Did I mention that Ken and I recently visited Portland, OR? Well, we did! Last weekend was the Let Live Conference, which is a fantastic animal rights event that does a great job providing information for activists at all levels. Inclusion played a big part during Let Live, with heavy-hitting speakers such as Kim McCoy (Sea Shepherd), Will Potter (Green is the New Red), Nathan Runkle (Mercy For Animals), Gene Baur (Farm Sanctuary) and many others making themselves available for conversation with attendees. The final talk of the conference even covered the topic "Moving Beyond Our Differences", where the discussion focused on different factions within the animal advocacy movement, and how we can all work together to meet a shared goal, even while taking different approaches to our activism. We learned a lot, met some cool and inspiring people, and basked in the glow of the most vegan-friendly city in America.

Kim McCoy opened the conference with some great words about community in the movement. And hey! Here's the video!

Kim McCoy opens the 2009 Let Live Conference from Let Live Foundation on Vimeo.

You can see more videos from the Let Live Conference here.

There was even a karaoke night on Friday, with vegan soft serve. Vegan soft serve! Karaoke is so silly that you pretty much have to enjoy it. Ken and I sang a duet of Jackson (Johnny Cash & June Carter). Luckily, there are no photos or video to prove it. None that I know of, anyway. I did manage to get some hilarious photos of our friend Josh singing karaoke. He sang Gay Bar, which always reminds me of this.



Here's one of Gene Bauer and Jasmin Singer doing a karaoke rendition of What's Going On.



Chad from Food Fight! and Isa from... oh come on. You know who Isa is. Singing Add it Up from Violent Femmes.



Speaking of Isa, while we have some of the same friends, I had not met her before last weekend. I kept seeing her around the conference, and I finally decided to spaz out and introduce myself to her while we both happened to be in a stairwell. I actually stopped on the stairs and introduced myself while she was walking up the stairs. Yes, I'm a total fucking spaz. Why didn't I just follow her to the bathroom and introduce myself while she was mid-pee? It might have been less awkward than the encounter we had. Geez.

Anyway.

Most of our short visit was spent at the conference, but we did manage to get out a few times and enjoy the pretty, climate-controlled vegan bubble that is Portland. And I'm sorry to say that I hardly took any pictures, either. By the looks of my photos, you would think that we only went to Sweetpea Bakery. Well...




All vegan, every single treat in the damn case.







The first night we arrived, Sweetpea was where we shoveled dinner into our mouths. We had deli-sliced seitan sammiches, and a Raspberry Almond Linzer Bar:



Then we went there again the next morning for Biscuits & Gravy, washed down with some yeasted donuts.





The rest of the stores in the vegan mini-mall weren't open that early, so we headed out to the conference for the day. Lunch was catered at the conference by Los Gorditos II, an all vegan Mexican joint. I have not photos to prove it, but trust me, it happened.

On Saturday night we made our way to a place called Chaos Cafe for dinner with friends. This was a vegetarian place with a ton of vegan options. I opted for a version of my favorite food in the whole world, the sammich. This sammich was filled with avocado, tofu, lettuce, tomato, and a zesty tahini sauce. It was pretty much perfect.



Ken ordered some kind of tempeh and kale over quinoa with other stuff I can't remember, and it was delicious as well.



We were beat-down tired from our East Coast to West Coast travel, so we just hung out on Saturday night with our friends and gracious hosts, Josh, Michelle, and Ruby. Here's Michelle and Ruby making some foodstuffs:



Breakfast on Sunday was courtesy of Sip. Sip had a table set up at the conference where they were whipping up fresh smoothies, parfaits and milkshakes. I loved my soy yogurt, fruit and granola parfait. I had a taste of Ken's tropical smoothie, and it was awesome, too.



After the conference was over, we had a chance to hit up the vegan mini mall. The world's first vegan mini mall consists of four all-vegan businesses- Sweetpea Bakery, Herbivore, Food Fight! and Scapegoat Tattoo. It's really exciting to see these businesses coming together to serve the vegan community. Warms the heart, it does. We happily spent our vegan cash in every business except Scapegoat, since neither of us are in the market for more tattoo work at the moment. But maybe on our next trip to Portland, who knows?

Herbivore's window, with a hilarious new tote design:



Our trip was way too short, so we will definitely have to go back soon. If only to try the food cart that sells fried vegan pies. We went for the pies, but the cart was closed on Sundays. Damnit.

vegan bake sale!

Whew! I need to catch my breath. Since I'm a delicate flower, stressful things like travel and other solid obligations tend to leave me shuddering in the fetal position. But I've also had some fun times!

First up is the vegan bake sale we put together as a part of the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale. By "we", I mean Laura and I, along with Kevin, Lisa, Steph, Britney, Ashley, and the folks from Dulce Vegan. What a fine spread we had!

I made some sweet potato cinnamon rolls, which were a modified version of the Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll recipe from Don't Eat Off the Sidewalk #2.


I also made some huge sandwich cookies. I started with the Chewy Chocolate Raspberry Cookie recipe from Veganomicon, and made them as big as a baby's head. Then I filled them with some raspberry buttercream of my own creation. I was really happy with how well these turned out, and I was thrilled that they sold quickly.



In front of the sammich cookies you can see the crispy rice pops. I just made some cocoa crispy rice treats using Dandies Marshmallows and Koala Crisp Cereal. Then I formed them into a ball around some lollipop sticks, and dipped the ends into some melted white chocolate. This is SO not baking. But hey, they were easy and cute.

Everyone else made even better goodies, and people bought them like crazy. In fact, we raised a whopping $700 for CatSnip!

Aloha Bars by Lisa:


Jamaican Callalo Pies by Laura:


Scones and cookies by Dulce Vegan:


Mini Bundts and Whoopie Pies by Laura:


Cookies and Cream Cupcakes by Britney:


Magical Coconut Bars by Ashley:


Cupcakes by Lisa:


Me and my buddy Kevin. Kevin made some homemade vegan hot dogs and hot dog buns, but I didn't get to photograph them before they were all sold out. They were the hit of the sale!


A lot of people came out for the sale, even though it was blazing hot outside! Thank goodness Laura borrowed a tent from work, or we would all be dead from sun stroke.









It was a really fun time, and I'm looking forward to doing it all again next year. But hopefully in the spring, when it's not 95 degrees out!