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Author: Gabrielle

I'm Gabrielle. I like cats, dogs, books, cooking, writing, vegging out, travelling, and hiking. And maybe some other stuff, too.
Roundin’ up Saturday: cats, eats, fields, kimchi, fall (the best things in life)

Roundin’ up Saturday: cats, eats, fields, kimchi, fall (the best things in life)

Somehow, tragically, the last time I posted a round up on Caturday I forgot to post cats. My cats Lenny and Puddy have pledged at least one visit to the litterbox each every day in September—can we please get a round of applause for Madame Puddington and Leonard (Lenny) Cohen for not a day missed!

Lenny has not slain Puddy; Lenny just prefers the dark side.

Cool. Back to MoFo.

If you are lucky—Saturdays might be a day for farmers’ markets visits and possible a meal out. Even though I was working, I was lucky enough to experience both today. The vegan poutine I was able to procure (at Heartwood in Halifax, NS) has me dying to replicate its deliciousness. Thanks to Tofu Mom, I have a gravy to start with. (PS: photos of gravy are not boring if there is the promise of marmite, a must, in the gravy).

Marmite lava bubbles in cashew savoury goodness.

Oh to be eating Venezuelan food with Abracaposus at Kaxapa Factory in Playa Del Carmen! Seriously, does it get any better?

This is what a Kaxapa looks like.

My personal favourite:

Arepas! Possibly the best sammich invented?

There should always be time to be in the fields on Saturdays, right? Especially for events such as the Norwich FarmShare that just happened to have Dearly Beloved Bakery on hand with its vegan cakes.

Do you ship to Canada?

Ooh la la! Olives for Dinner made these delectable kimchi-stuffed sausages from Vegan Finger Foods (a formidable book, get it!).

Kimchi stuffed in everything forever man. And yeah, I’m talking in donuts, your morning coffee, your car’s glove compartment, in your sock drawer. Don’t ever stray too far away from some kimchi (so you can stuff it in something). Kimchi should know no bounds.

LOOK AT IT. Look at the scallion artistry. The perfectly scattered black and white sesame seeds. The ying and yang telling of the promise of kimchi settled resplendently into a vegan sausage.

Popcorn and Nooch takes charming inspiration from The Four Seasons with this gorgeous fall salad with ingredients from all of the seasons.

When you fall, in the fall you’ll see. September can be heavenly!

Have a lovely Sunday tomorrow. I hope you are able to take a walk outside wearing a scarf because I am still boiling to death here so I shall live vicariously through those of you enjoying my favourite season! Keep posting! Home stretch! Many people (such as myself) are still reading as voraciously as ever.

Caturday Mofoisms

Caturday Mofoisms

Hi Mofoers! I am super stoked to be reading all of your creative and delicious content! Really, I am beyond impressed and inspired by your commitment and ideas, and I thank you all for taking me away from work for many blissful moments just burying myself in vegan food. So today was Caturday, and my cats woke me up at 4am to angrily meow in my face because they knew I might have missed a roundup/they wanted Fancy Feast. First off, are you reading this on Sunday morning? Do you need a hangover cure? Fortunately, Joni has you covered with a Bloody Mary to cure all that ails you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Admittedly, my eyes glazed over the burgers and went straight to the decadent world of avocado fries. The author lives in Dublin (jealous!) and has the best blog name ever. Please make some avocado fries. It’s for the animals. iheartcrapkitchen You Americans with your fancy cheese! I am not alone in my privileged pout about Daiya being the only vegan cheese available in my part of Canada. Sure, it could be worse, but why can’t I try stuff like Don’t Fear the Vegan‘s Vtopian?! As a long time fan of Végan à Montréal (how else am I going to retain those years of French Immersion?), hearing Terry Hope Romero’s Viva Vegan’s Portobello Feijoada described and raved about en français has me wondering what has taken me so long to make that dish! Go ahead and call it favouritism because it is exactly that. I just can’t get enough of my pal Amey’s words and doodles. Here she praises the book Salad Samurai, draws a samurai, and makes salads. The only way she could do one better is to show her cat Yummers eating the salads, but here, watch this asparagus video instead.   Mouthwatering Tempeh Taco Salad Bowl from Terry Hope Romero’s Salad Samurai. We should end Caturday with a dessert, no? Or better yet, a dessert camping treat that makes us forget it is September and we are still planning our June, July, and August 2014 camping trips. The lovely Lindsay at veganchai brings us s’mores bites! I know, I know, I’m sorry. I don’t have a Trader Joe’s either. But those of you that do best be making a Sunday trip to pick up some cocoa swirl! (fellow Atlantic Canadians–Pete’s, Superstore, and Costco all stock speculoos). Bye for now MoFos!

Chickpea Mag Giveaway!

Chickpea Mag Giveaway!

Update: the lucky winners are….

Kelly Garbato (Summer ’12 issue)

hungryvegan (Fall ’12 issue)

Congrats!

Hello MoFoers! Have you heard of Chickpea Magazine? If not, you are in for a treat. Chickpea is an all-vegan magazine featuring delicious recipes, gorgeous photography, and fascinating articles from volunteer contributors. Look, I’ve worked for a (different) vegan mag, and I can say that without a shadow of a doubt, Chickpea is awesome. There might even be a Chickpea-sized morsel of sadness missing in your media life if you haven’t yet uncovered this hip publication full of vegan wonders.

But we have you covered. Chickpea has generously offered two issues of the magazine (one of the summer ’12, and one fall ’12) to two separate lucky US residents. Sorry internationals! We have done our best at MoFoHQ to open many giveaways to non-US residents this year (believe me, because I do not reside in the US and there are MANY giveaways I would have loved to entered had I not been obviously affiliated with the organizers). Anyway, we don’t need you to post this to Twitter/Facebook/Pinterest/email it to your grandma or anything like that to enter. Simply comment on this post and I’ll pick the winners randomly by November 2. Which is soon, so comment away!

Good luck, and happy halloween!

Sunday Round-Up

Sunday Round-Up

Hi MoFos! Happy Canadian Thanksgiving. I seem to always post on Canadian Thanksgiving. I hope you fellow canucks are having delicious seitan roasts and impeccably roasted Brussels Sprouts, because I’m sitting here with a glass of wine and some crackers. Oh, work.

Anyway! I’ve been loving reading the MoFo-ing this year. Here’s my random Sunday round-up from MoFoHQ.

Erin Wiko’s theme is unbelievably adorable. Who doesn’t love a cute dress? Who doesn’t love a cute dress paired with a homemade strawberry-basil jam? Monsters, that’s who.

When it comes to MoFo-ing, Amey is no slouch. Who else draws up adorable doodles of their furry family and partner? Amey made a Pad Thai Salad from Appetite for Reduction, and this is her depiction of her own raw onion breath.

The Snarky Chickpea made what I wish I was eating for Thanksgiving: Chickpea cutlets, mashed potatoes, and charred Brussels sprouts.

I had never heard of biscuits and gravy before I lived in America, but it is indeed a beautiful creation and Lazy Smurf’s version from Vegan Diner makes me so, so jealous.

Finally, who doesn’t love Janis Joplin-inspired food? Even if you don’t (but you should), you’ll drool over this tipsy omelet.

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.

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.

MoFo Swan Song: Sunday Round-Up

MoFo Swan Song: Sunday Round-Up

On my last MoFo round-up, I just have to say that it has been an immense pleasure being involved this year. Not only did I blog regularly during MoFo for my first year, I also had the honour of writing some round-ups and giveaways with the superstar MoFo PPK team. This experience combined with my time at Vida Vegan Con just makes me want to smooch you all in the least creepy way possible. Okay, cheezefest over. Here’s today’s round-up!

Starting things off with a spooky bang: Ghoulish Shepherd’s Pie from Snarky Vegan. I am a lazypants these days and had a boring old Amy’s frozen shepherd’s pie last night, but my day would have been infinitely better if I’d been served this one.

I like planning my food-tourism far in advance, and on my list when I finally make my way out to visit my sister in Boston and reunite with New York City, I plan on tracking down The Cinnamon Snail vegan food truck. Apparently these award-winning vanilla bourbon crème brûlée donuts (!) are frequently available when the Snail is in NYC.

I’m always sad about the fact that more people think they don’t love tempeh. Aside from the initial un-sexiness of “fermented bean curd,” what’s not to love? Check out this excellent tempeh primer and resultant balls of fermenty goodness from The Vegan Weight Watcher. Bonus: the tempeh wingz from MoFo’s own Katie are also recommended, and I can vouch for their deliciousness.

I’m obsessed with Colorado and I don’t know why! Okay, it’s probably the mountains, but it’s also the vegan-friendliness, exemplified by this vegan buffalo chicken roll from Sun Deli in Boulder. Once I embarked on an entire trip to visit a university in Boulder even though I was 99% sure I wasn’t going to go to grad school there. I wish I’d had Vegan Coloradical as my tour guide.

You’ve no doubt already experienced jealousy and resentment over those of us lucky enough to be testing for Terry Hope Romero‘s upcoming world food cookbook. I haven’t found near enough time to delve into testing, but I did spend a good few minutes salivating over this Tofu Bo Bun tester from Living Free. Veganized Vietnamese food is amazing!

Vegan Chai (sorry, vegan chai) hates capital letters AND tomatoes, but we’ll forgive her when she serves up this amazing TLT (sorry, tlt).

As she is also part of the MoFo team (and a special friend of mine), I couldn’t end my round-ups without gushing about Amey‘s MoFo theme: a spice a day! Today’s dried rose petals resulted in this gorgeous rose petal & almond tea, in a Tin-Tin mug!

For dessert, and leaning into tomorrow’s holiday (and the final day of MoFo 2011), feast your eyes on these lovely ghost sugar cookies.

Happy Halloween!

MoFo Giveaway—PPK Gift Packages

MoFo Giveaway—PPK Gift Packages

Winners!

Jake, “Well, it’s gotta be Isa’s Seitan & Broccoli With Pantry BBQ Sauce – that combo has scored me some major, major points. If I get lucky and win, I’ll tell ya what they were.” So tell us!
Crystal, “Maple PECAN PIE for this vegan Canadian Mofo. I live in maple syrup Capital and I would eat this any time of day. Possibly for my birthday which is just around the corner. VEGAN MOFO and Isa forever!”

Check your emails soon!

Isa Chandra Moskowitz has pretty hair and she likes cats. She’s also part of the original enigmatic creative force behind this whole Vegan MoFo entity, and though she couldn’t do it without all of you—bloggers, readers and Post Punk Kitchen disciples—there’s a reason people such as myself identify as PPKult members (okay, not really—but some of my best friends with pretty hair hang out on the PPK forums and duh, Isa and Terry books are the best vegan cookbooks).

Today’s giveaway is courtesy of the mighty PPK, and it’s a damn good one. Two winners will receive a package of goodies that includes the brand spanking new Vegan Pie In The Sky by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero (lovingly dubbed VPITS), a PPK t-shirt, and a PPK apron to shield you from errant hunks of icing sugar, frozen berries, flour, and other inevitable suspects as you embark on some serious pie-baking.

I recipe-tested for Vegan Pie In The Sky, so I ate a lot of pie. I have always fancied myself more of a cook than a baker, but after making so many insanely delicious pies, and really never having many problems doing so (icing cupcakes is a different beast), I’m proud to say that VPITS has armed me with tons of circular desserts to impress everyone from my 94-year-old British grandma to my beer-guzzling hockey game-watching buddies to my mum’s home bible study group. Think Boston Creme Cake Pie, Pear Frangipane Tart, and my personal favourite: Pucker Up Raspberry Pie. There’s also a crazy Curried Macaroon Pie that is up there in my favourites. Pie is just special, you know? As the PPK write-up says, “Can you picture Agent Cooper from Twin Peaks waxing over a piece of angle food cake? No way. His black coffee must come saddled with a slice of honest cherry pie.”

With this PPK apron, you weirdos can pretend to be Isa’s boyfriend!

Want PPKers to recognize you on the streets? Of course you do. You’ll, of course, be able to choose your preferred size.

I twisted Isa’s arm (not really! She loves everyone!) to insist that this giveaway be open to both the US and Canada, so Canadians—you owe me one, and make me proud. To be eligible to win one of the two packages, all you have to do is comment on this post telling me your favourite recipe from the PPK blog. Even though I’m un-eligible to win, I’ll start. I am nuts for Isa’s White Wine Garlic Chanterelles. I will pick a winner at random around 9 AM PST tomorrow. Good luck!

Sunday MoFo Round-Up: I Want It All

Sunday MoFo Round-Up: I Want It All

Greetings, MoFos. Sundays are lovely. I’ve made waffles and raked leaves, and we drove out to one of the last island farmers’ markets of the year. There is a big sheepdog to my right and a nerdy boyfriend organizing his Magic The Gathering cards to my left. We are considering going to a pumpkin patch tomorrow. Basically, I’m all cozy and I hope you are too, because we are so close to finishing and conquering the wonderful Vegan Month of Food. Let’s take a look at what stood out today.

If you’ve been vegan for any length of time, you’ve probably already experienced the phenomenon that is cheese-less pizza appreciation. Suddenly, even the idea of putting Daiya on your pizza is kind of weird, considering how much it takes over the other ingredients’ flavours. I would happily eat up this caramelized onion and squash pizza from I Eat Grains any day.

What’s in Robin Robertson’s slow-cooker? should be a regular feature in the soon-to-be-a-reality vegan tabloids. Today, it’s seitan posole.

I am absolutely loving think. care. act.’s tour of veganized regional Germany. Today? Northern Germany’s intriguing Pears, Beans, and “Bacon”.

Gimme this breakfast.

WHAT! Dandies bars from Three and a Half Vegans. Homemade vegan chocolate bars in your pie hole.

I just started testing for Terry Hope Romero’s upcoming world vegan food cookbook, and it is absolutely amazing, since Viva Vegan is one of my favourite cookbooks of all time. Proving its awesomeness are these beautiful arepas sandwiching yellow chili grilled mushrooms and fruit slaw from Cupcake Kitteh.

No plans for this (or next) Sunday night? Take a cue from Amy Zucchini and throw yourself a sushi rollin’ party.

Have a marvellous week!

Sunday Feasting: A Round-Up of Dreams

Sunday Feasting: A Round-Up of Dreams

Hi guys, Gabrielle here. I’m starving. Give me all of your foods! No, seriously. My google reader has me seriously craving a dream feast made up of MoFoers’ recipes. Grab a snack and join me as we imagine-eat our way through this thing of beauty.

But! Before we proceed, make sure your nails are painted teal, okay? It’s crucial! It just happens to be National Feral Cat day. Don’t let the national thing turn you away, non-Americans, feral cats are everywhere, awareness is always a great thing, and your nails will be teal.

I think most vegans have made up a meal out of side dishes at a restaurant before, and to be honest, I don’t mind it one bit! Especially if something like this curry-roasted cauliflower from The Urban Vegan is on the menu.

That pretty little squash on my counter has its future determined: delicata squash circles.

Moving on to mains, the Crabby Crafter (adorable blog name!)’s green and white bean casserole with spicy sweet potato wedges looks just dazzling.

I have no self-control when it comes to Ethiopian food—injera gut be dammed. I would eat the hell out of this plate of Aussie-Ethiopian plate from Meet the Wikos.

Vegan MoFo’s own Luciana only ate half of this breakfast burrito! If I didn’t love her so much after meeting her at Vida Vegan Con, I would mock her dainty appetite (and inexplicable affinity for chia kombucha).

Next we’ll zip over to Stuttgart, Germany, where we will munch on these amazing Italian vegan gelato “conos” with Vegan Miam.

Forgetting my theme (if there ever was one) let’s get distracted by Jojo’s adorable Football Food Sunday (she’s a Brit who is watching American football! Hilarious!), featuring avocado fries, barbecue tofu, and loaded potato skins. Give me this spread for a (hockey) game any day.

Oh right, vegans eat salad! How about this gorgeously plated gnocchi potato salad with green beans and quinoa?

Everyone who knows me knows how much I love mushrooms—the more exotic the funghi the better. So I’m pretty stoked on Veg-am’s mushroom instalments for 1 food 5 ways: here is the herbed polenta cups with mushroom onion stuffing.

Finally, I will leave you as I pop a hundred of these peanut butter thumbprint cookies into my mouth from a Toronto farmers’ market via Until We Eat Again.