October | 2011 | jenojoon

Oct 31 2011

cocktails, do stuff, drinks, food, fun, halloween, in the kitchen, life, nachos, travel, vegan food, Vegan MoFo

Vegan MoFo 2011 Comes to an End

I signed up at the VERY last moment for MoFo (Vegan Month of Food) this year. I’m so glad I did! Even though I took a couple weeks break in the middle due to a work trip (read about my food adventures in Los Angeles here and here), I really enjoyed writing about food (especially NACHOS) for the month of October. I can honestly say that I never got tired of eating nachos this month. I even ate nachos multiple times without taking pictures or blogging about them. I just really do love nachos that much!

I discovered tons of new and interesting blogs and made some new bloggy friends! And of course I kept up with my regular vegan food blog reading.

I especially enjoyed the testing of Creepy Cocktails, masterminded by SnarkyVegan. This was a perfect Halloween activity for me. Cocktails, creepy toys, butterscotch schnapps…

I will definitely participate in Vegan MoFo again next year. I’ll be thinking about my theme for the next 11 months or so… but it will probably end up being Nachos again- I mean- why not? A few of my friends have crowned me “Queen of Nachos”, so I think I’ll roll with it!

Oct 30 2011

4 Comments

travel, vegan food, Vegan MoFo

Vegan Eats in LA- Part 2 Cupcakes & Pizza!

Here is the second installment detailing some of the yummy food I ate on my recent work trip to Los Angeles. I talked about the amazing sushi here.

One night we went to a little hole in the wall in downtown LA called Garage Pizza. I found it on Yelp and we decided to try it because it had vegan and non-vegan pizza options. We walked about 10 blocks from our hotel and we were a little sweaty by the time we got there. It was close to 100 degrees that week in LA. My omni dining companion and I each enjoyed a cold beer while we waited for our food. We both ordered calzones. I ordered the Vegan Calzone. Garage Pizza does not allow for any substitutions, which was fine with me. The vegan calzone had what I believe was Follow Your Heart mozzarella style cheese, vegan sausage, and peppers and onions. The crust was perfect. The insides were a little watery, but tasty. (the side of dipping sauce was bland and cold- only real drawback here) I know that doesn’t sound like the most appetizing review, but believe me, it was pretty good! I’d go there again for sure! (sorry- forgot to take a photo)

After eating our calzones we walked around the corner to Babycakes NYC, a vegan and gluten-free bakery in New York and now in LA. The little bakery was seriously adorable! All pink and girly with a giant painting of two fluffy white kitties. It reminded me of a rich little girl’s bedroom from the 60s…

babycakes pumpkin spice cupcake

The guy and gal working the counter at Babycakes were also adorable and very friendly and helpful. I ordered a pumpkin spice cupcake, my companion order a ‘Sammie’ which was two oatmeal raisin cookies filled with buttercream frosting in the middle, and we also bought some day old banana bread slices to have for breakfast the next day. Everything was great! The cupcake was more muffin-like and was made perfect with the rich, sweet frosting. The Sammie was probably my favorite of all (I got to have a bite!), and the banana bread was still super moist even when it was two days old!

On the last day of the trip, on our way out of town actually, we stopped at Masa of Echo Park, again because I found them on Yelp stating they had vegan pizza. And they sure did!

vegan pizza!

I ordered the 12 inch thin crust pizza with Teese mozzarella, garlic, veggie pepperoni, and roasted red peppers. It cost $3 extra for the vegan cheese and $3 extra for the veggie pepperoni, plus the regular $1.50 extra for each of the other toppings. (ouch!) It was tasty, but nothing can compare to Daiya cheese for melting ability and taste. I ended up taking chunks of the Teese off because it got rubbery as it cooled. (to be fair, I never liked big chunks of melted dairy cheese when I ate that stuff either…) I ate half the pizza and took the other half home to enjoy later. It was delicious cold!

So that wraps up the high points of my trip. I can’t wait to get back to downtown LA for sushi and cupcakes!

Oct 29 2011

16 Comments

cocktails, fun, halloween, vegan food, Vegan MoFo

Creepy Cocktails!

The fabulous and fun Julia of SnarkyVegan came up with two delicious and Halloween-y festive martinis. She gathered a group of bloggers to test them out, play around with them, and then post about them!

First up is The Great Pumpkin!

the great pumpkin!

Part 1- Pumpkin Mash

mix really well in a small bowl:

2 tablespoons pumpkin puree

1 tablespoon soymilk or soy creamer- I used Silk Pumpkin Spice soy drink (for extra pumpkin-ness!)

1 tablespoon agave syrup or brown rice syrup

1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Part 2- Booze

2 ounces vanilla vodka

3/4 ounce butterscotch schnapps

Part 3- Shake!

Mix the pumpkin mash and booze in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake vigorously.

Strain into a sugar & spice rimmed martini glass (I mixed raw sugar and pumpkin pie spice, rimmed the glass with agave on my finger, and dipped the rim in the sugar mixture)

Garnish with fun Halloween-themed toys.

Bottoms up!

Creepy Cocktail #2 is The Graveyard Smash!

help meeeeeeeee

In a cocktail shaker mix-

1 1/2 ounces vanilla vodka

1 1/2 ounces cream de cacao liqueur (you could also use Frangelico here for a hazelnutty treat)

squirt of vegan chocolate syrup

splash of soymilk- optional (I also made a variation with canned sweetened illy espresso that was fantastic!)

ice

Then-

Rim a martini glass with chocolate syrup (just use your finger here). Dip the rim in crushed Oreos or Newman-Os.

Finally-

Strain the cocktail into the cookie crumb-rimmed glass. Sprinkle with more crushed Oreos (creepy graveyard dirt!)

Garnish with fake dead things and enjoy!

creepy crawlies

Happy Halloween everyone! I hope you all enjoy the weekend as much as I plan to. Halloween is the best holiday ever invented!

You can see the other fun variations here:

the tasty vegan snarkyvegan

kohlrabi and quince

amanda eats slc

little things big things

tak-home-a

will work for veggies

Oct 28 2011

5 Comments

do stuff, food, fun, halloween, in the kitchen, vegan food, Vegan MoFo

Trick or (Popcorn) Treat!

Chocolate and peanut butter is my favorite flavor combination for sweet stuff. I created this recipe for Kala of VeganCraftastic‘s fabulous Halloween Zine called “Late October”, which she is selling in her etsy store. This would make the perfect treat for a Halloween party, to give as treats, or just to eat all by yourself!

trick or treat, smell my feet (eww)

Trick or (Popcorn) Treat!

Chocolate/Peanut Butter Crispy Popcorn Treat

1/2 cup light corn syrup (or brown rice syrup)

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup peanut butter (smooth or chunky)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 c semi-sweet vegan chocolate chips

pinch of sea salt

10 cups popped popcorn

2 cups rice crispy cereal

various tiny candies of your choice (I used tiny orange jack-o-lantern candies)

Mix the popcorn and cereal together in a BIG bowl and set aside.

In a small sauce pan heat the syrup till bubbling. Add the sugar and stir constantly till dissolved. Add the peanut butter and stir until melted and incorporated. Add the vanilla, chocolate chips and salt and continue to stir until completely melted and combined.

Immediately pour over popcorn and use a wooden spoon to stir it all around until evenly coated. Work quickly so the liquid doesn’t harden. Mix in the tiny candies. Spread on parchment or wax paper in an even layer and let cool for at least an hour.

Serve in a big, festive bowl, or divide up into goody bags and give as treats!

give me something good to eat!

Oct 27 2011

7 Comments

adventures, food, halloween, travel, vegan food, Vegan MoFo

Vegan Eats in LA- Part 1 Vegan Sushi!

Last week and the week before I was in Los Angeles for a trade show for work. I ate a few amazing vegan meals and a few ok vegan meals. I didn’t get photos of everything because, honestly, by the time we got to eat most days I was totally starving and the last thing on my mind was snapping pics! And the photos I did get were in dark restaurants on my phone… so anyway, on to the food!

beautiful painting in Shojin's ladies' room

First up was ABSOLUTELY THE BEST MEAL I’VE EVER EATEN. EVER. Shojin vegan sushi restaurant in Little Tokyo, downtown LA. Going to a totally vegan restaurant is such a treat for me. For one thing, we don’t have one in Bakersfield, and secondly, it is amazing to be able to just ORDER. Anything you want without asking questions or asking to hold this or hold that. Yay!

We started with the Shojin Gyoza. The menu said, “filled with many kinds of” and that’s it! So, I’m not sure what the many kinds of things were, but whatever the many kinds were, they rocked! (no pic of this)

Next I got the Kale Caesar Salad- it was also amazing, and I also did not get a photo… it was too good to stop!

Next my dining companion (who is an omnivore and also totally love this place!) and I shared two rolls. The first one had the best name of a dish that has ever existed. Pirates of the Crunchy! Holy yum was this ever good. It was topped with fried tempeh in a crunchy tempura batter and spicy mayo. I wanted to go back every day and order two of these just for myself!

Pirates of the Crunchy!

Our second roll was the Rainbow roll and it had marinated peppers over top that mimicked the texture of fish on a typical rainbow roll. This dish was completely gorgeous!

beautiful rainbow roll

We finished off our meal with the Halloween Cake. This was a chocolate cake with orange layers of sweet potato filling, topped with a fudgy frosting. It wasn’t overly sweet and it was so up my alley! It was served with a tiny scoop of vanilla ice cream and some fruit. It was a completely lovely meal!