Thursday, August 20, 2009

summertime rolls.

It's still hotter than Hades in Atlanta, but that hasn't stopped me from dreaming about the cooler times ahead. In fact, we just recently ordered some fall/winter vegetable plants! The idea of growing some of our own food is a really exciting one, for sure. We have zero experience with gardening, and our front and back yard shows it. So we decided to start things off by growing veggies in planters on our back porch. That's a lot less scary than dealing with our monster yard and all the trouble that goes with it. Lookit! Cute little vegetables!

greens

We ordered kale, rainbow chard, spinach, collard greens, and romaine lettuce from Tasteful garden. The plants arrived looking very healthy. Now let's hope we don't kill them with our lack of skillz. They've been planted for a little over a week now, and are doing pretty well so far.

Baby romaine:

baby romaine

Baby collards:

baby collards


This summer has been so dang hot, the kitties are being even lazier than usual. Lots of laying around and being cute.

Miles is not a gentleman:

not a gentleman

Moe is always a gentleman:

moe gentleman

Together, but separate. Sadly, these two really can't stand each other.

brothers

You know what's nice in the summer? Friends who happen to own vegan soft serve machines! And friends who know how to make homemade, vegan waffle bowls to eat said vegan soft serve from.

vegan soft serve

waffle cones

It's a rough life, but I manage.

And talk about rough! Have you guys heard of the latest in vegan cheese, Daiya? Well, of course you have. We have been trying to bring it into our store for the past few months, which has proven to be almost as frustrating as buying a house. But, if the planets align correctly, we shall soon be offering Daiya cheese. Finally. And lucky us, we were sent SAMPLES! Believe the hype, ya'll, Daiya is the stuff that cheese dreams are made of. We have been putting it on everything from lasagne and grilled sammiches, to burritos and tofu scrambles. And of course, pizza.

Here's a regular pizza (spinach, black olives, onions) with Italian Style Daiya:

daiya pizza

And here's a cheeseburger pizza with Cheddar Style Daiya:

daiya cheeseburger pizza

In case you're wondering, this cheeseburger pizza consisted of Match Vegan Ground Beef, Smart Bacon, pickles, onions, ketchup, and mustard. And of course the Daiya Cheddar. Oh my, Daiya is sooooo good. It melts perfectly, and even stretches! And soy free? How perfect can this food be? The only minor complaint I have about Daiya is that the two flavors kinda taste the same to me. But both taste great, so whatever!

I tried getting a picture of the cheese stretching, but the stretch broke as soon as the photo was taken. All, well. It still looks delicious, doesn't it?

daiya pizza

We also topped some rustic Italian bread with Italian Style Daiya and sundried tomato & olive bruschetta. Yum, yum.

daiya bruschetta

I know that Daiya is not yet widely available, so I apologize for rubbing in how awesome it is. But it is my full time job to bring vegan goodies to you, so watch our website for Daiya in the near future!