Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Did you know that it snows in Colorado?

Blizzard beginnings, from my bedroom window

Just when I thought spring had finally sprung here in Denver, we were hit by a blizzard. Being a native Floridian, blizzards have always seemed something of a myth to me, simply a hyperbolic way to describe, you know, a bunch of snow. Turns out they really exist, and once my husband made it back from work after being sent home early and braving the interstate, we had a cozy day lazing about with our dog and watching the snow pile up outside.

Two days later and just in time for the weekend, the roads were clear and the sun was out, so we went with some friends to have amazing vegan pho at Pho Duy.

Between the sun and nice, hot bowls of pho, we were sufficiently thawed to take a spur-of-the-moment detour for some ice cream at Sweet Action, a new ice cream parlor on Broadway. (I'm still incredulous of the fact that I now live somewhere where I don't have to drive an hour to get decent vegan food at a restaurant, much less be able to impulsively stop for ice cream at an ice cream shop.) All of their ice cream is homemade and they always have a couple of vegan flavors, as well as honkin' vegan ice cream sandwiches in their freezer.
Vegan ice cream sammich and a cup of coffee, with coconut lemongrass ice cream hiding out in the background

I have always generally tried to cook healthful meals based around whole foods, but I've been focusing on this even more lately in an effort to combat all of the less-than-wholesome foods we've been eating out. (Pizza, milkshakes, and seitan buffalo wings, anyone?) On the baking front, I'm toying with a few recipes but none are quite ready to be revealed to the masses*.

*My three readers

I'll leave you with some recent testers from Isa and Terry's upcoming Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar.
Naked figs, chopped and ready to be made into...

Soft Whole Wheat Fig Bars (these put any store-bought fig bar to shame)

Big Fat Rice Krispy Squares - just like your mom used to make for your class in elementary school. Except, you know, without the ground up cow bones.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

that blizzard is insane! Florida weather went straight from beautiful spring (breezy 70* days) to wretched summer (humid 80*) to now preparing us for hurricane weather (cloudy skies & rain) - I almost wish we could get something as exciting as a blizzard.

fig bars!!! I was craving fig newtons the other day (haven't had them in years) so I bought newman's fig bars and they were too much bar, not enough fig. I am excited for that damn cookie book, although my ass does not need it.

Unknown said...

I hate Columbus for the snow... I hope we don't get a sudden surge too. I think Denver is much worse though. Bummer.

Mmm... vegan rice crispies.

Becca Elouise said...

The blizzard was actually pretty fun, but now I'm over the cold. We're getting more snow now in spring than we did during the winter. Colorado is crazay.

I still can't say that I miss the oppressive FL heat and humidity, though.