Out of practice.

I've noticed that my usual brilliant writing has taken a shit in the last year. I completely own this one. I'm lazy, I have a shitty work schedule, and coming home and throwing some noodles in a bowl with frozen veggies and peanut sauce is hardly blogworthy. I also think I may have sacrificed some precious brain cells. So please, bear with me as I grow back my writing (and creative cooking) legs.



Here's what I'm working with tonight:



Brown basmati rice, some tofu, leftover diced tomatoes, red curry paste, coconut milk, and an onion. I knew it would be a curry of some kind, but I had to get the rice going really fast because it was already 11:00pm, and I have set standards for myself with MoFo. By midnight, or I am a disgrace.



I ended up skipping the tomatoes, and making a red coconut curry tofu with peas. Ah, peas. I just knew I had to have a bag in the freezer. I love them so much. I'll hang on to the tomatoes for something else. Does anyone have some extra creative juices they'd like to give me?

Brokeity ass broke.

So, the trip ended up costing me a wee bit more than I'd planned. I have a little wiggle room once my cell phone bill is paid, but not enough to go dropping mad cash at Whole Foods like I need to.



So, the Vegan MoFo theme until payday is: Eat What's in the House. Today's lunch: Smokey Acorn Squash Chili. Items used: one acorn squash, one onion, two cloves garlic, some leftover kidney beans, two chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (found that in the back of the cabinet), canned diced tomatoes, and some spices. A little agave and cinnamon made it interesting.



Another sucktastic picture. The breakroom isn't exactly a photo studio, what with the formica and fluorescent lights.

For tomorrow...something with that can of coconut milk lurking in the cabinet? Um, black mango tea? Uh...some Newman's Own Marinara? I guess it all depends on how the election turns out. I may just eat cereal for the next few days.

Happy World Vegan Day!

Oh, and Happy Vegan Month of Food! Day one!


I came home today after a long weekend with friends in Chicago. I'm pretty jealous because a) Chicago has way more vegan choices for restaurants, and b) the tap water is drinkable. I'm also in love with Ellie and Tim's beautiful house and pantry. A pantry! I now have a new prerequisite for future apartments.

Ellie picked me up at the airport on Friday, and we went straight to Demera. We have a tradition with Ethiopian Diamond, but this is a new place that deserved our gusto for all things served on injera. The tikle gomen was amazing. The ye-misir wot: heavenly. We destroyed our lunch before I had a chance to take a picture of it in it's whole form, so here's the damage:



Afterward, we hit the Asian market and Whole Foods. Once loaded up with provisions, we planned out the food and timing for the Haunted Housewarming. We caught a sliver of a show at The Empty Bottle, and headed home. Saturday was going to be busy as hell, so I insisted on brunch the next morning. We went to Lula Cafe in Logan Square. It got all kinds of raves on Yelp for it's vegan-ness, but I was stuck with one menu item. Tofu Scramble, which I wanted anyway. What didn't do it for me was the cubed tofu (I like my scramble scrambled), the goddamned cantaloupe in the fruit dish, and that stuff there on the right? Not Earth Balance.



The Gimme Lean sausage patties and the coffee were good, and it fueled us for our day in the kitchen.

I truly suck at life because Ellie and I made a TON of sushi, and I got no pictures of it. Two platters each of nori rolls and inari parcels. I made three batches of rice; one that was made pink with beets, one that was yellow with shiitake mushrooms and green onions, and one that was red with raw beet, carrot, and spinach. We rolled cucumber, bell peppers, green onion, and avocado. The inari pouches (plain fried, turmeric yellow, and spicy red) were stuffed with ginger and the different kinds of rice. I guess they were a hit, because they were inhaled.

Ellie whipped up a batch of my Mediterranean Red Lentil Iron Chef Soup:



And I finished making the cupcakes as people started to arrive. They are gluten free, chocolate with peanut butter caramel filling, and chocolate ganache. This picture sucks.



The weird holes on top are from filling them by hand. Chunky peanut butter + Wilton pastry bag = peanut butter caramel explosion. Which doesn't sound that bad, but it is when you have guests storming the kitchen.

Now, as for Mofo...I have been contemplating several themes. Magazine recipes veganized, candy week, squash week...but am looking for more. Tomorrow will be a late night post, I'm sure.

In case you missed it...

Mofo is November this year. I was disappointed, because I seriously need a kick in the ass and was hoping I'd get it sooner. Anyway:

PROS: I'll be in Chicago until the first, so my first entry will be about all the yummy stuff I ate/made while there.
Thankgiving!
Two words: Squash Week.

I can't think of any cons, since my creative mind has been a dusty, echoey storage bin lately. But I have been thinking about themes, hoping for some Iron Chef memes, and looking forward to a Facebook wall full of delicious porn.

No promises, but I'll try to warm up this month in preparation for the marathon that is Mofo.

Trying out some fancy

I know, there's lots of stuff to talk about. Iron Chef (me!), the Waffle Party, my trip to Los Angeles, my first annual 39th birthday, and blah blah blah. I've never had so much to blog about and had so little time. It used to be the reverse.

So, just quickly, for tonight, here's a taste. My friend Ed told me that some restaurant in St. Paul served a chickpea-wild-rice burger. Not to be outdone, I ransacked my kitchen in search of ingredients. I had dried chickpeas, so I did a fast soak and slow cooked them. I had some wild rice, but...ew. Have you seen what happens to bagged grains if you don't use them for eight months? I can't even say it, let alone type it. So. Grossed. Out. I did, however; have a brand new bag of brown basmati (which I immediately transfered to a Rubbermaid container). This is what I came up with.

Chickpea and Basmati Burgers (with mashed potatoes, sautéed garlic scapes, and a balsamic reduction. Someone thinks she's all gourmet n' shit)

I made a ton of these and I just need to tweak it a little before I post a recipe. If you want it. It kind of sounds like how vegan food sounds to asshole omnivores (before you get all upset, notice I said "asshole omnivores," not "omnivore assholes"); kind of beige, a little hippie, and for sure blah. Not the case. They were very hearty in texture (one might say, "meaty"!), sweet and savory, and a little spicy. More to come.

Mistress of my domain.

Brandon the Awesome set me up with downhomevegan.com because he's rad and I'm a luddite when it comes to all this .com stuff. It appears to be working. You should see www.downhomevegan.com up in the url bar instead of the blogspot.com url. Right?

Anyway, today was supposed to be potluck day, but it looks like everyone called off due to rain. This is a mixed blessing for me, as I have just rolled out of bed (goddamn Rescue Me keeping me up til 4:00am), and I have nothing to bring. The thing starts in an hour, and here I sit blogging when I could be running to Whole Foods and then jumping on a bus out to Tangletown to possibly no one. I have an LA trip to save for (now that a simple mistake led to a MILLION repercussions with my money), and I have dinner with my brother tonight.

I also hate the rain. It sucks ten times worse when you don't have a car.

Catching up.

Oy, I have not much of an excuse for staying away for so long. One is that I am lazy, and the other is that I lost my camera. But then I found it, so laziness wins out.

Much stuff going on in the little vegan world in Minneapolis. I'll start with two fun and successful bake sales! The first one was to benefit Kinship Circle; an organization organizing rescues for abandoned and injured animals after the Haiti earthquake. The Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale (Twin Cities style) took place at Ethique Nouveau on April 24. Here are some pictures from both (this was also my chance to get some shots of the new store!) :

This tree is in the front window. I love that they bought Aqua Globes.



Beautiful jewelry, handbags, and cosmetics.





Those avocado brownies were awesome. Really. I swear.



These cranberry-almond muffins got many five-star reviews.



Celeste's truffles. By popular demand, they also appeared at the next bake sale.



These are mine. Lemony macadamia white chocolate scones, and double chocolate muffins.



On May 14, I attended a sushi class at the home of Ciree Linsenman. I had a blast (hanging out with other vegans usually is), and found out that assembling sushi is really not that hard. I'm looking forward to having some friends over to roll our own. These pictures were taken with my new Samsung Behold II phone, as I had misplaced my camera. As you can see, it takes pretty okay pictures of food, while my digital camera leaves much to be desired. I guess six years is long enough. Time to get a camera that takes good food pictures, dammit.

Gobo Boats: red quinoa with pickled burdock root. Color is from beets.



Tavo Tavo Maki.



Tavo Tavo Maki, pre-rolled.



Rainbow Inari parcels.



Black Dragon Back Roll (in the back, with the bok choy sticking out).



Coming soon: Waffles! Iron Chef! Skin Trade movie premier! Stay tuned.