can't get enough of 'em
Almonds
Cashews
Pecans

like well enough
Pistachios
Walnuts
Macadamias

give or take
Hazelnuts, (Filberts)
Peanuts
Pine nuts

haven't had enough exposure to, so i can't honestly put it in a category.
Beech nuts
Chestnuts (my only exposure to had been a mealy soup.)

can't stand
Brazil nuts (with a passion)

so, i was checking out google trends, and i typed in "vegan" and the spikes were boring... so then i typed in "vegan recipe" and that was more like it. i think it's funny that there are spikes around thanksgiving and christmas. :-D

http://www.google.com/trends?q=vegan+recipe
(although now that i thought of it, i typed in just "recipe", and the spikes are still there. this is a lame VeganMoFo post. i'm sorry.)

in good news, i don't have to go to work today. i'll make bryanna's soy+seitan loaf and the pumpkin cinnamon rolls from don't eat off the sidewalk. since those are the most time-intensive things on my menu

i'm going up to xsaltyx's house tomorrow at 1:00 for dinner and rock band and then we're going to pop over to my mom and dad's house for dessert.

salty will be making:
Tofurky
Mashed 'taters
Stuffing
Tofurky gravy
Corn
Bread of some kind


i'll be making:
(2 super secret pies for vegan_cookoff)
green bean casserole
maple baked sweet potatoes
super secret dinner pie
cranberry sauce?

pumpkin cinnamon rolls
pecan pie
super secret apple pie

(i hope i didn't plan to make too much! i hope i get it all done by noon tomorrow. today is prep day. absolutely.)

i have 10 cans of diced pineapple that expire in february, so i'll be trying to use those up in interesting ways.

today i made the ancho lentil stew with grilled pineapple from v'con. (with a bunch of short cuts and lazinesses thrown in.)

didn't have whole ancho so i used ground (2 tbsp), and since i wasn't toasting the ancho, i used ground cumin instead of whole (1.5 tbsp) and since i wasn't going to be putting whole spices in a grinder, i then used 1 tsp of ground coriander. heh. it did save time, so no complaints here.

i used de puy lentils and grilled my diced pineapple in my toaster oven. (it needed at least 15 minutes, so i don't know if it was more energy efficient than broiling it in the big oven. maybe.)

anyway, it was very tasty. highly recommended. (i think this is one of the recipes i had wanted to make back when testing, but i was to lazy to find whole anchos. hahaha! i'm a jerk.)


so. 9 cans left. maybe i'll try to make some sort of pineapple bread pudding. but the eggs really were a huge part of the recipe. we'll see.

i finally got around to trying the silk pumpkin spice flavor. it's quite tasty. but! not tasty enough to shell out the moolah, besides i'm a little ooked at supporting philip morris so blatantly.

back in july, i contacted torani to ask which of their flavors were vegan, and i was presented with a pleasantly long list.
so i picked up a butterscotch one for mr carrot's butterbeers, and a pumpkin spice one for me.

i soon* learned that adding an oz to 10 or so oz of (kirkland brand [vanilla])** soymilk was quite tasty.

*within minutes
**because like i said, we're cheapskates, so we just get what's available at costco. i really wish they haven't discontinued the plain. i miss it so.

so. last night i mixed up a batch of the torani soymilk and poured a glass of silk's pumpkin spice, and because of the sweetness of the vanilla soymilk, i couldn't tweak my mixture to be more flavorful without it becoming much too sweet. so. i think i'll try it again with unsweetened soymilk. of course there are no cheap unsweetened soymilks out there, so doing this won't really save much more money than just buying silk's (but at least the money would be going to a different company)
anyway, the torani syrup is more "spice" than pumpkin. some folks have said that they wished silk's stuff was more pumpkiny. but in a side by side comparison, silk's was definitely pumpkiny. a flavor lacking in my DIY adventure.

hell, i might have to actually put in an order at natures flavors if only to get this.

time for the veganMoFo survey.
(originally posted at: http://foodsnobberyhobbery.blogspot.com/2007/11/veganmofo-survey.html)

( tl;dr )

so, i had this crazy idea a few months ago. i'd renovate an old ice cream truck (diesel? biodiesel? vegan grease? maybe from donut making?) cut out the sides, add glass or plexiglas for a "window case" refrigerate this "window case" and use it to both sell and deliver my goods. i hope that wouldn't be against any laws. there are plenty of street vendors. would a moving street vendor really be all that different?



here's the large size with all the text and stuff. if i linked to a 600 pixel wide pic, it wouldn't have been very legible, and i sure as heck wasn't going to hotlink the original. yikes!
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2131/2034840840_2f10bd9a00_o.jpg

so a few days ago, my husband had a great idea. he's going to be a full-fledged volunteer fireman (if all goes well, of course, but i have faith in him) mid december-ish. and his fire hall has a commercial kitchen. (the lack of which has been keeping me from starting my business. NJ, health code, blah blah blah. this health code benefits the larger businesses, by keeping the small businesses without a foothold. *sadness*) so. if i had a commercial kitchen at my disposal, things could theoretically go very well. here i was thinking i'd have to negotiate some sort of deal with a local bakery/coffee shop to use their kitchen on their off-time. which might have it's benefits, but i think having a kitchen all to myself, less people getting in my way, etc. would be better. i do think it would be better to have a partner, but if i had to go it alone, at least in the begining, i don't think i'd mind.

as for delivery options before being able to shell out all the moolah for my DIY delivery truck, that'd be a little dicey. see, we're a 1-car household. i sold my money-trap of a car over 3 years ago. mr carrot has flex time with his current job, and as of now he errs on the side of getting home after 7:00 pm. often after 8. heh. he does however have a possible option for telecommuting, so that'd be perfect. but! then what if i have the car when a call goes out? sure we live only half a mile from the fire house, on very level ground, so it'll take less than 5 minutes to bike there, but every minute counts and he really should keep his energy for the good fight. i suppose a <50 cc scooter would work. i don't think it'd waste much more time than a car would. especially considering it's 90% back roads to get to the fire house. i do have a moped from the 70's wasting away in the garage, but that wouldnt be suitable. it takes a really long time to pedal start. we'd need something with a key that'd start right away. oh, look at that. i've rambled. i've made it less suitable for veganMoFo. more like veganMoPed.

well, to bring it back to my business... if i clear $200 per week, i'll be better off than my current situation. (AND we'll always have muffins available. very much unlike our current situation.) and i suppose i could also leave some extra baked goods out for the guys. especially if they let me use the kitchen for free. that shouldn't be too hard to accomplish, would it? :-( if each muffin is 2 bucks, 150 muffins a week? oh boy. i'd have to get a lot of cafes on board. *crosses fingers* i suppose i could also contract out for "not-super-fancy birthday cakes" as well. i don't have much experience with decorating cakes.

ok. on friday, misfit asked what my daily dinners were, and whether i cook during the week or more on weekends.

well here goes. i'm kinda embarrassed about this, cause our typical meals aren't very healthy. i would like very much to cook more on weekends, but more often than not, there'll be a family (or friend) obligation or something, and honestly, we're lazy, so if there isn't an obligation, we usually loaf. back when i was unemployed it was great! not so much financially, but we were eating better. also, we don't plan ahead very well. heh. actually not at all, really. so now that i've written the disclaimer, here goes.

( follow me to the land of go-to meals )

like i said in my last post, we went to pittsburgh over the weekend to visit some college buddies of mr. carrot's. they were so accommodating. they made a tofurky, some greenbean, carrot and onion thing, cranberry sauce, a sweet potato + squash bake, a pumpkin pie , "spikced" cider, and a totally rummy pumpkin based eggnog that they made the leftovers into ice cream the next day. mmmm.

( cut, cause it got so looong! )

so, umm. let's just call this a tuesday post, shall we? *feels sheepish for having neglected 2 days of posts where i could have realistically posted at least a little something*

yes folks, you heard it right. foods... i DON'T like. what, vegans can't be picky? oh, i don't think so. contrary to popular belief, vegans tend to open up their options once meat and dairy is out of the picture. omnis fall back on meats and maybe a dozen or so veggies. vegans tend to try it all. so here we go.

fresh herbs. parsley and cilantro tie for first position, with basil following in a very close 2nd. however, once they're cooked, they're fine. it must just be some sort of volatile oils that i really can't stand. completely overpowers the rest of the flavors in the food it's supposed to be garnishing. no good.

quinoa, most carbonated sodas, black tea, and too much spinach in one sitting all tie for "makes my teeth feel gross." is it phosphorus eating at my enamel? dunno. just don't like it.

beets (bleh. too earthy.)

black olives. ew. ew-ew-ew. i suppose this applies to any of those "gourmet olives" too. gimme typical american salty olives with a pimiento and i am happy as a lamb.

papaya. ohgod! get it away! can't explain it. it never seems like it's supposed to be eaten. the flavor and texture are just wrong. wrong i say!

fresh bell peppers. volatile oils again? dunno. they're damn good after they're cooked though.

red delicious apples. seriously. they may be red, but they sure aren't delicious. they should change the name to red mealy apples. (i don't think i like macintosh apples either. can't remember.

brazil nuts. ugh! what the hell kind of "nut" is that anyway! dude! bleh! i can't explain it, cause i hadn't had one in a long time, but i think it also might be the texture. but maybe mostly the flavor.

and yes my friends. coffee. much too acidic for my tastes. i've made cakes and cookies with just a teensy bit in them, and it just never tasted good. in fact, i'd keep burping and tasting coffee, and feeling even more acidic. so no, coffee is not my friend. not at all. it does smell good though.

surely the list could go on and on. i haven't tried every fruit and veggie out there. but maybe some day. we'll see what the future holds.

hot and sour soup. from a restaurant. i liked it.
... umm. that's totally boring.

ok. now to make up for that totally lame excuse for a first experience... here goes my first experience with tofu prepared at "home"

tofu turkey (yes, from vegweb. i was obsessed with that website when i was a new vegan. it was really my only cookbook.) if you click the link and read the recipe, you will see that it calls for nothing but tofu as the turkey itself. no freezing, no marinating, no nothing to make the tofu seem less like tofu, and more like turkey. and to top it all off, i chose the crumble method. *shudder*

i was a new vegan. actually. if i remember correctly, that was my first day as an official vegan. i was living in a dorm room, freshman year of college. both of my suitemates had gone to spend thanksgiving with their family/friends. so i was left alone with my (illegal) toaster oven, ferris bueller's day off playing in the common room.... and a disgusting tofu turkey. i don't think i had very many spices, so i don't remember if i made the stuffing or not... i may have. but the awfulness of the turkey must have been so bad to overshadow whatever suitableness of the stuffing there was. i think that scarred me for quite a while.

so in closing, plain crumbled tofu pressed into a dome shape and then "heated up" should not be a substitute for a turkey. thank you.

my very first vegan cookbook was akasha richmond's "the art of tofu" (a morinaga publication, which means every recipe calls for mori-nu tofu. haha)

of course in true carrot fashion, i started off with the chocolate chip cookie recipe. it was good, but i couldn't help but tweak it. :-) i disliked the fact that it only took a few tablespoons of tofu. (seriously. why? although i suppose if you're cooking mor recipes out of the book, it won't go to waste) anyway, i doubled the recipe, to use up the entire box of tofu, and took 1/4 of the margarine away.

it was beautiful! everything i'd ever wanted in a cookie. my picky sister loved them and always requested them.
i loved them so much, i posted the recipe on vegweb and actually, it's my very first post on this blog. see?

that is!!! until that fateful day where i learned about hydrogenated oils. :-( up until that point i was using willow run margarine. i was soooooo happy with it. the cookies had that beautiful crispiness to them, what else could i ask for? i tried the recipe with earth balance (tub and sticks) and not only did they not have the flavor, but they were little dollops of cake. not cookie. not at all. my heart nearly broke that day.

i'm still on the lookout for the perfect crispy vegan chocolate chip cookie.
for vegstivus last year, gory brought his version of isa's choco chip cookies, and they were damn near perfect!

hmm. somehow this turned into a diatribe of vegan chocolate chip cookies and margarine instead of "my first vegan cookbook" well, anyway. i think the cookies were the only thing i've ever made from that book. heh. maybe i'll give it another looksee. maybe try something else for another VeganMoFo post. we'll see.

i posted this in my regular journal a few months ago, just not here. apologies all around. i did however update the pictures, so there you go.


( 108 bottles in the rack, more on top. )

i figured i'd go for one of the defined questions as my inaugural VeganMoFo entry.

i had gone to both 1010 cherry (before it closed) and harmony (before it changed hands and became new harmony. but i don't remember if it was a vegetarian place back then. this was back in 1993 or 1994, before i even became vegetarian, so forgive me if my memory is rusty.) although i don't remember which came first, so i'll just write about both.

in my freshman year of high school, i had become friends with an asian girl, and then in usual fashion i had become friends with her friends, so i would hang out in chinatown a lot. so here goes my memories of the restaurants. for harmony, we went only knowing it was a vietnamese place. no idea it was a vegetarian place and still, i don't remember if it was. i do remember eating bean sprouts though. and i remember the separated dining. one open space with tiles on the floor on the left, and another more "romantic" area on the right. new harmony seems to have kept the divisions, but both sides seem "romantic" now.

as for 1010 cherry, we had just happened upon it. (probably how many of their new customers found them)
i remember having this incredibly simple brothy tofu and spinach soup. it was soooo good. so good in fact, i went back in 2000 looking for it. but it wasn't on the menu. when i ordered stuff that time, it was no good. no good at all. a chestnut soup that was totally mealy, the "blintzes" were icky. the "sour cream" that accompanied the blintzes was brown and chunky and tasted like it had gone bad. and to top it off, there was a hair on the plate. sometimes it's better to hold on to a memory than to try to relive it.

(as for photos, i actually do have a picture of harmony. but it's totally on paper/negative. i had taken a photography course in my sophomore year, and i had taken a pic of the neon buddha in the window. i really liked the way it looked. especially in B&W. but alas, it's on paper, and i have no idea where my prints/negatives are. and even if i did know where they were, i'd then have to scan it, and you know as well as i do, that just ain't happening. and now that i remember that photo, i think it did say "vegetarian")

i figured since i've neglected this journal for far too long, that i'd participate in VeganMo(nth of) Fo(od)
<moody blues>so many entries i've been meaning to post</moody blues>
so this'll be the kick in the pants i need.

i will probably stray from the defined questions, as long as i'm making a post a day, and i won't rely on posting a pic. that's what's been keeping me from posting entries. i just spend too much time in photoshop. i gotta just get my words out there. i know i'm starting late, but i forgot it was supposed to be this month, and with the PPK forums being down, it wasn't in my face reminding me... (also, i kinda just decided to jump in)

p.s. corrie from http://whileyouwereinkenya.blogspot.com/ set up a google reader for all the participating blogs. so you can read them all on one page. so woot to her!

http://www.google.com/reader/shared/user/10401450510537964801/label/VeganMoFo