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Month: November 2011

Post-MoFo Giveaway: VEGAN Holiday Kitchen

Post-MoFo Giveaway: VEGAN Holiday Kitchen

The winner of Vegan Holiday Kitchen is commenter #87—Cara! Congratulations! Be sure to check your email so we can get your contact information and send the book off to you.

 

I was thrilled to receive a copy of Nava Atlas’ gorgeous new book VEGAN Holiday Kitchen to review, and even more excited to be able to give another copy away to one lucky reader of the MoFo blog. The photos in this review are courtesy of fellow MoFo organizer Amey, who posted a review on her own blog, Vegan Eats and Treats. I chose an un-photogenic beige soup, and am too embarrassed to show the internet my attempt at braiding challah dough, so Amey graciously agreed to let me use her alluring photos!

Mixed Greens with Green Apples, Beets & Pistachios

The book is stunning—hardcover, full-color, with plenty of photography done by Susan Voisin of FatFree Vegan Kitchen, and boasting more than 200 recipes. This is the kind of book you take straight to the couch with a cup of tea, a warm blanket, some bookmarks (or if you’re a slob like me, your dog-earing fingers), and a pen and paper for grocery lists. One thing I immediately noticed and loved about VHK is that there is no lengthy intro taking up a huge chunk of the book where recipes could be! Instead of spending ninety pages explaining what agave nectar and nutritional yeast are and touting their health benefits, Nava simply includes pertinent ingredient information as sidebars next to the recipe that contains it. The book focuses on major (and mostly Western world/US) holidays; Thanksgiving, Christmas, Passover, Rosh Hashanah, Hanukkah, Easter, Independence Day; and there is section at the end for potluck, brunch, and party appetizer dishes. I had an extremely difficult time deciding what to make first, and eventually settled on the Creamy Wild Mushroom Soup from the Thanksgiving menu, along with the Vegan Challah from the Rosh Hashanah menu.

A wild mushroom devotee, this particular recipe both attracted and worried me due to the intriguing addition of silken tofu and white beans blended into the soup after it has simmered, to add the creaminess. The recipe also called for the mushrooms to be simmered in water separate from the soup’s base rather than being sautéed , which is something I’ve never done in my many years of cooking mushrooms, and I wasn’t sure if it would do justice to the beautiful locally foraged shiitakes and oyster mushrooms I was using for the recipe. Fortunately, I opted to trust Nava’s every direction, and ended up with silky, earthy, and slightly tangy (due to some white wine, which pairs gorgeously with mushrooms) soup. My boyfriend isn’t a fan of mushroom soups and I’d even bought him a frozen Amy’s pizza in case he hated it, but after he got over his initial textural issues, we polished up the eight servings in an obscenely short amount of time.

Having never had non-vegan challah before but being certain I love the vegan version after making it several times, I was drawn to Nava’s recipe, which uses pureed squash as both an egg replacer and to make the breads a subtle shade of orange. Breads are not my specialty, but I had had kind of crappy go of life last week and punching and kneading dough on Sunday afternoon suited me just fine. The dough rose enthusiastically, and there was surprisingly little hands-on time required, just a couple of long rising times during which I caught up on terrible television shows and made the soup. The two loaves came out soft yet dense, with a subtle sweetness and a crispy crust. Will make again, and often.

Other recipes I have dog-eared: Baked Thanksgiving Risotto; Hearty Lentil and Mushroom Shepherd’s Pie; Lemony Spinach and Chickpea Soup; Marinated Mushrooms, Asparagus and Artichokes; New World Wassail; and pretty much everything Amey made, especially the Three Sisters Stew.

Three Sisters Stew
Asian-Flavored Tofu & Cucumber Platter

To win your very own copy of VEGAN Holiday Kitchen, simply leave a comment telling me what your favorite holiday dish is, to either make or have someone else make it for you. This particular giveaway is open to people with addresses in the US and Canada, and I will pick a winner at random on Thursday, December 1st at 10am PST.

I’ll start! My favorite (finicky) holiday dish is a pull-out-all-the-stops seitan roulade. I haven’t done one yet this year, but am planning it for some time at the end of December when I’m visiting family in freezing cold Alberta, where kneading and simmering seitan is the only way to keep warm.

The Fifth Annual Mofie Awards! Round Three…

The Fifth Annual Mofie Awards! Round Three…

This is it, the final winners of the Fifth Annual Mofies! Thanks for the memories.



Best Cooking With Kids goes to Cold & Sleepy Cooks, for her ABC theme and her daily kiddo pics.



Hottest New Ingredient goes to Vegan Culinary Crusade for Vegan Lisa’s post on Raw Caramel Chips, which introduced us to lucuma powder.



Most Epic Post goes to Three And A Half Vegans for creating an entirely edible Candlyland! Need we say more?



Best Use Of Chia goes to Spinach Pancakes from Spa Bettie. This could double as “Best Use Of Spinach”, too!



Best Around The World Adventure goes to Meet The Wikos where Erinwiko took us from Sicily to Sri Lanka and back again!



Most Fantastic How-to goes to Sugar Skull! Kristin made her blog’s namesake (SUGARSKULLS!) and held our hands through each step.


Best Theme goes to Don’t Eat Off The Sidewalk for her amazing Dinner And A Horror Movie theme. Katie kept us laughing and screaming and eating all month, while still managing to blog here and do the Iron Chef Challenges. Maybe she wins best Mofo-er overall?

Thanks for playing, everyone! Hope you had fun. Winners! Please email us to receive a little banner to display on the sidebar of your blog. And thank you to Amanda at Will Draw For Cookies for creating the banners.

The Fifth Annual Mofie Awards! Round Two…

The Fifth Annual Mofie Awards! Round Two…

Well, we are actually going to split these awards into 3 posts so that each recipient may basque in the glow of winnerdom. Here we are in Round Two of the Fifth Annual Mofie Awards. Give everyone a round of applause! A standing O! Or a standing V?

Best Photo

Best Photo goes to these Pumpkin Pancakes at VK Rees Photography. This tall stack of pancakes had us opening up our mouths in hopes that some syrup would fall in.


Post Most Like To Inspire Frying goes to Olives For Dinners’ Faux Fish And Real Chips! How badly do you want to squeeze lemon over everything and gobble up the screen?

Best Cat goes to Joyfulgirl’s inaugural MoFo post. Nothing says adorable like a kitten being terrorized by a huge container of pumpkin puree.


Best Childhood Recipe Recreation goes to i-40 Kitchen’s Sausage Balls! Because we all get a hankering for that food we loved when we were seven.



Most Droolworthy Speedy Dessert goes to Madcap Cupcake’s Chocolate Cherry Ice Cream. The only equipment needed for this decadence is a blender, and for that she deserves 10 awards!

That does it for Round Two of the Mofies. Stay tuned for Round Three…
PS Winners: please email us so that we can get you a small banner for your blog’s sidebar.

The Fifth Annual Mofie Awards! Round One…

The Fifth Annual Mofie Awards! Round One…

Ok, it’s actually the first annual Mofies. But we’ve been talking about doing an awards ceremony for five years, and that counts for something, doesn’t it?

Our methods for determining Mofie recipients were ground in rock solid, airtight science. We used an intricate method that analyzes all of the available datas and scrutinized algorithms. And then we said “Fork this!” because really, everything was getting too complicated which is why we’ve never gotten around to creating the awards before. So, instead we went with the k.i.s.s. method. Keep it simple, stupid! Each VeganMoFo organizer created two categories and chose the winner. After all, no one knows MoFo like we do!

And from the bottom of our vegan hearts we want to thank all of the MoFo participants. It was so much fun to scroll through our feeds and read what you had to say all month. Whether it was a fun story about road-tripping it just to eat your favorite pizza or a tender story about recreating your Nana’s meatballs vegan-style, we were right there with you.

This is round one of winners, we’ll post the second round later today. And we do have one more category that will be chosen by YOU the readers, so stay tuned for news on that. Winners, please contact us so that we can send you a small banner to use on your sidebar.

Now, without further ado, we bring you MOFOS OF THE YEAR!!!

Best Use Of Tofu goes to Vegans Eat Pencil Shavings for her Pan Fried Vegan Oysters with Chili Lime Pomegranate Molasses. What an amazing use of vegan seafood, agar and all.

Jojo

Blog That Convinced Us To Go To A Superbowl Party goes to Jojo at Vegan In Brighton for her awe-inspiring Football Food Sunday posts. We loved to read about each finger licking item this Brit cooked up for her American football feasts.




Best Way To Support Farm Sanctuaries
goes to My Zoetrope for her charity watercolors that raised money for For The Animals Sanctuary. We loved all the bears and cats and talking sandwiches she produced all month, and a few of her paintings might even reside in our kitchens now!


Best Use Of Pumpkin goes to Kathy at Busy Vegan for her Pumpkin Spice Cheap-o-chino. She served us autumn in a glass in and it costs only pennies. And for that we are forever thankful.



Most Impressive Food Project goes to Fork And Beans for her monthlong adventures in vegan and gluten-free candy making! From Snickers to Butterfingers, Cara kept us coming back for more.


Best International Dish goes to Vegan On The Prowl’s South Indian Gunpowder. Rithika gave us a condiment that’s just great for elaborate dosas or simple veggies, and might also take honor for best use of chickpeas.

That does it for round one. Catch up with us later on for round two of the Fifth Annual Mofie Awards!

Hey UK! GOOD Hemp Hamper Giveaway

Hey UK! GOOD Hemp Hamper Giveaway

And the winner is….Erica!

WHAT: Now, if you live outside of the United Kingdom, please feel free to gaze and contemplate polyunsaturated essential fatty acids on your own, but if you reside within the United Kingdom, simply leave a comment with a link to your favorite recipe that uses hemp – doesn’t have to be your own, just something you’ve tried – and you’re in the running to win a GOOD Hemp Hamper (£50.00), which includes their fancy hemp oils, hemp milk, hemp seeds and you guessed it – hemp protein powder.

Image from the GOOD facebook

HOW TO WIN: Leave a comment with a link to your favorite recipe that includes hemp, and I’ll pick my favorite tomorrow morning over my morning hemp milk latte!

Let me know in the comments by 9am PST Tuesday and I will pick the UK winner then (who will in turn, send me Cheezly, right?!)

SERIOUSLY: Please make sure you leave an email address that you check! We ask that you respond within 24 hours. Hemp is serious.

________________________________________________

Find out more about GOOD hemp products on their facebook.

Iron Chef Roundup – Breadcrumbs

Iron Chef Roundup – Breadcrumbs

The amount of entries for this was smaller than usual, but everything was impressive! Two people even turned other recipe failures into new meals for the challenge. Mark your calendars for the next challenge, which will be posted December 9th!

Zoa took a failed batch of seitan and turned it into Seitan-stuffed Tomatoes with Moroccan Spices.

Richa turned some leftover Chana Masala into these cute little Baked Potato Tikkis.

Cara took her favorite elements of a popular Georgian recipe and turned it into Breaded Nutty Tofu Balls en croûte and Nutty Breaded Eggplant Slices with Walnut Parsley Cream Sauce.

Danni made a pantry-friendly bean loaf, and included recipes for Cauli-tatoes and a Butternut Squash cake!

Corrina went old school with Butternut Squash Tofu Balls, that are based on a Dreena Burton recipe that I love! Tofu balls forever.

I love it when people aren’t too proud to talk about their baking/cooking failures, I think it’s educational. I love it even more when they are able to turn their failures into something new, waste not and all that. If you feel the same way, you’ll enjoy this epic tale of Tiffany’s Autumn Fruit Strudel Rolls.

Cadry made Cashew-Cheese Stuffed Jalapeno Poppers, I can practically taste the combination of cashews and miso in the filling.

Kristen made Panko-Encrusted Ginger-Wasabi Brownies, which she says is ‘not very original’, but I say: whaaaaaaaaaat?!

Iron Chef Challenge for November

Iron Chef Challenge for November

Hey hey!  Did you enjoy your two week break for blogging and cooking like mad people?  I know I did!  I got so many episodes of Teen Mom and Supernatural watched.  It was nice.  This month’s challenge was Isa’s idea, so you can thank her (or blame her if you hate it).  In case you missed the tweet, the second Friday of every month will be the Iron Chef weekend here on MoFo.

A quick review of our few simple rules/guidelines:

1. Whatever you come up with has to be new, nothing from a cookbook or a blog, not something you posted last week that happens to involve the secret ingredient. It’s fine to use a recipe for a jump-off point, but make it your own!
2. Entries are due at 5 pm CST on Sunday (but it takes me awhile to read all of the entries so if you’re a little late it’s no big).  Note, i’m extending the deadline a little bit since i’m posting this later than I usually like to.
3. Have fun and be creative!

And the secret ingredient is…

BREADCRUMBS!!!

It doesn’t matter if you’re coating something with them or binding something with them, if you use a wheat bread or a gluten-free bread.  Maybe even crumbs made from carrot or banana bread?  Since the US Thanksgiving is coming up, and some of us will be stuck with a few extra rolls or half a banana bread (does anyone else have a family where everyone shows up with an unannounced dessert or is that just me?).  I think this will be a great way to compile recipes for using up those leftovers.

Allez Végétalien Cuisine!

Tuesday Post-MoFo Round Up

Tuesday Post-MoFo Round Up

How is everyone enjoying post-MoFo life? Me, I’m a little wistful, so I’ve launched myself deep into the sanity threatening world of NaNoWriMo to distract myself from MoFo withdrawal. Which is not to say I haven’t whittled away plenty of valuable writing time surfing the vegan blogs. I bring you some of my favourites from this past week!

So I married a vegan catered for 75 lucky guests. On the menu? Winter soup shooters, golden lentil dumplings, hummus and muhammara, roasted sweet & spicy nuts and more.

More in parties, Bianca from Vegan Crunk attended a Heathen Housewarming! The food spread looks great, but I’d be all over this homemade Grave Hill Vineyard Swamp Cider.

Over at Bonzai Aphrodite, the adorable Thanksliving Coloring Zine by Nathalie VanBalen is reviewed. As the type of adult who stares at children colouring in restaurants with envy, I want a copy!

MoFo’s own Jess still owes me an exclusive email review of all of this amazing food at the new Native Foods in Portland.

Thanks to Hipster Food, I’m making mashed potatoes tonight.

Hannah Kaminsky does everything from taking incredible photos, creating the best sweet vegan recipes, and—a girl after my own heart—growing oyster mushrooms in her kitchen. With them she created these vegan Oyster Mushrooms Rockefeller (including a recipe!).

Also no slouch when it comes to food photography (understatement of the year), Celine from Have Cake Will Travel posted these Raspberry Sour Cream Mini Coffee Cakes. I’ll take three with a cup of afternoon tea.

Americans! You must make this pumpkin cheesecake with pecan crumble topping for Thanksgiving. Everyone else: Make it now. If you’re still waiting for your copy of Vegan Pie In The Sky to fall from the heavens into your hands, you’re in luck with this freebie recipe. (edit: I thought American Thanksgiving was this weekend. Sorry! So maybe you should all just make the pie tonight)

And since nothing can top that, have a happy Thanksgiving (US), a sombre Remembrance Day (Canada), and enjoy all those other holidays I’m too ignorant to know about.

World Vegan Day Post-MoFo Random Round-up

World Vegan Day Post-MoFo Random Round-up

Yes, MoFo ended yesterday, but I’m glad to be back doing another round-up today. If you haven’t already, check out Katie’s post and do something nice and vegan for yourself or someone else in your life.

Even though MoFo was officially over yesterday, lots of folks are still going strong, cooking and posting.

Check out these amazing Tempeh Seekh Kebabs at Hobby and More. They look delicious and judging by the ingredients, they must be really flavorful.

Tempeh Seekh Kebabs

After the early first snowfall, I don’t want many cold salads, but I could go for this Warm Spinach and Fig Salad on West Philly Vegan. This looks like it would keep me feeling full and warm for hours.
Warm Spinach and Fig Salad

If you’re in Texas, check out one of the food carts mollyjade features on Lone Star Plate. Check out this Jerk Tempeh Sandwich with Plantains! I’d definitely leave my office at lunch way more often if that was waiting for me.
Tempeh Jerk Sandwich

I’d love to finish off my meal with this Thin Mint Andes Chocolate Cake over at The Vegan Version. I still haven’t spotted the So Delicious Coconut Holiday flavors in my area, but I’m all over this recipe as soon as I see the mint chocolate!

I’ve been trying to stay away from too many pumpkin recipes because I know we still have many months of official pumpkin season, but I just couldn’t resist this Pumpkin Spicy Praline Cheesecake from Exploits of a Vegan Wannabe. Pumpkin cheesecake with sweet and spicy pecans in the crust? Um, yes!

That’s it for now. See you soon!

Happy World Vegan Day!

Happy World Vegan Day!

A lot of people have said that they don’t want MoFo to end…so you will be pleased to know that we are going to keep the blog going all year now! We haven’t worked out all of the details/schedules yet, but we should have a few posts a week comprising of round-ups, blogger features, and giveaways.

Since today is World Vegan Day, and i’ve seen how much effort so many people put into MoFo, I think we should all treat ourselves! The best way to treat yourself today is obviously to support vegan businesses!

If you’re in the US, go over to Cosmo’s (Georgia), Food Fight (Oregon), Vegan Essentials (Wisconsin) or Pangea (Maryland) and get yourself darn near anything, from chocolate to vitamins to clothing to stickers. The easiest way to pick a store is to pick the one closest to you, which is easy since they’re all over the country. In the UK, try Vegan Store. Australia, The Cruelty Free Shop. Canada, Boutique Viva Vegan or Karmavore.

If you want vegan beauty items, check out Vegan Beauty Market, no guesswork or reading labels because everything is vegan!
And here are some favorite items that I dug up today!

I found these adorable reusable sandwich bags via Vegan Etsy, they are so cute and useful! The Johnson Family Zoo also sells reusable produce bags and a few things for babies too.

Herbivore has two new shirts that are super-stylish and long sleeved, which is important because it’s getting cold. I love the cut of the Wings shirt, and the Kale thermal is unisexy!

It’s No-Shave November, which for me means that I will spend the month watching my husband’s beard get ridiculous and wild. If you or someone you know has wild facial hair that needs to be tamed, get some vegan mustache wax!

Christy has been making and selling her adorable handstamped necklaces for awhile, but they are still perfect for a pretty, subtle, animal-friendly message.

For a cozy accessory, check out Treewool Knits, all handmade and vegan knitwear! A lot of stuff is on sale too, I personally like this Afternoon Tea Cowl.

Now go out and buy yourself something nice! What did you do today to celebrate World Vegan Day?