Reason #346 Why Denver is Awesome

Vegan BBQ chicken pizza from The Rebellion. The clincher: it's cheap, too. Word to your mother.

Cookies for My Homegirls

Chocolate-and-rainbow-chip cookies for my mama

Since Mother's Day will soon be upon us, let me take a moment to tell you about my own mother. She is an incredibly sweet, loving, selfless, supportive, empathetic, badass chick. She reads like a fiend and, like all the women in her family, is batshit crazy (but in a good way - I mean, unless you cross her, and then she's apt to cut a bitch). And it is her who I have to thank for my stunning good looks and ravenous sweet tooth (thanks, Mom).

For Mother's Day I always used to make her a big brunch, but now that I live 1800 miles away, a care package will have to do. I sent her the above cookies (my regular chocolate chip recipe with some rainbow chips thrown in for festivity) and a couple of books that Shawn and I thought she'd like. Dessert and reading material are a surefire way to my mama's heart.

I also recently did some baking for the other important lady in my life: my dog, Dobby. Shawn and I adopted her from a shelter in 2003 when she was about a year and a half old. Not a day goes by where I don't thank various deities that this smelly beast is a part of our lives. We don't know her exact birthday, but we know it's probably somewhere around this time of year, so last weekend I made cookies just for her.
Peanut-butter-carob-chip cookies for the Dobster

When I remember her sweet, scrappy face looking back at us from behind those bars at the shelter as she stood on her hind legs, imploring us to love her, it makes me want to spoil her rotten. And so that is what I do, and that is what every animal deserves.

Happy Mother's Day to all of you moms, whether your children are of the human or furry variety.

Paninies and Cupcakes and Bike Rides, Oh My

Cheesy panini: the grilled cheese sammy's more sophisticated cousin

I make a lot of grilled cheese sandwiches (with homemade cheeze filling, not the store-bought stuff) because they're cheap, easy, and I always have the ingredients on hand. Fortunately, my husband never seems to tire of them. I recently mixed it up a little and made them into paninies with roasted red pepper and fresh basil, brushed with olive oil and grilled on the grill pan. The cheese was modified from the grilled cheeze recipe in Vegan Vittles. The result was the grilled, gooey perfection you see above.

In other grub-related news, my husband's office threw a party for the opening day of baseball season (complete with one of those hot dog rollers, no shit) and his boss asked me to bake something. I'm not really a sports fan, but I am a fan of baked goods and themed food, so I was happy to oblige. Hence these cupcakes, based on the fauxstesses from Vegan with a Vengeance:
Because of the white-on-black coloring, they actually looked more like footballs, but no one seemed to care.
That's that money shot, baby.

Some other things I've recently shoved into my pie hole:
Scrambled tofu with with chickpea gravy

Curried chickpea patties (a tester for Joanna) with peach mango salsa

Wait, don't leave! I'm not done with you yet, my little pretties. You may already know that Josh Hooten is riding his bike the 600 miles from Portland,OR to Orland,CA to raise money for Farm Sanctuary in May. His goal is to reach $10,000 and he's more than halfway there. You can lend your support to this worthiest of causes and awesomest of dudes by donating here. Any little bit helps, so there's no shame in donating five or ten bucks. However, if you wanted to sell a kidney or take out a second mortgage on your home in order to facilitate a mega-huge donation, I'm pretty sure that would skyrocket your status to Level 20 Vegan - even if you're not actually vegan. Read about Josh's preparation for the ride here: Bike Ride For Animals.

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.

Banana Butterscotch Bars (or something)

So I haven't quite gotten the name worked out, but these fudgy 'nana bars boast just the right amount of sweetness and spice and are topped with a generous sprinkle of butterscotch chips. Perfect with a cup of coffee and not terribly bad for your health, either. Here in Denver I can obtain virtually every vegan baking chip imaginable at East Side Kosher Deli, but if you're not lucky enough to have access to the elusive joy that is vegan butterscotch chips, you can substitute chocolate chips or just omit them altogether.

1 overripe banana, mashed well
1/4 c applesauce
1/4 c non-dairy milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp canola oil
1/4 c + 2 tbsp brown sugar
1 c whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp vegan butterscotch chips (chocolate or white chocolate will also do, but b-scotch is the best, yo)

Preheat oven to 350 F. In a large bowl, add the wet ingredients and sugar to the mashed banana, and mix well. Add the dry ingredients and combine. Spread into a lightly-oiled 8x8 inch pan and sprinkle with the chips. Bake for 20 to 22 minutes, until they pass the toothpick test. Don't over bake lest your bars become dry and cakey rather than moist and fudgy.

C is for Cookie (and Cake...and...Cale?)

Grapefruit icebox cookies from the the cookie test kitchen.

It's that time again, wherein I inundate you with some of the latest goodies from Isa and Terry's upcoming vegan cookie book.

Carrot raisin spice chewies, made into sandwiches with Better than Cream Cheese frosting

More Swedish chocolate Balls, as they were quite the hit in Shawn's office.

Espresso fudge brownies - best brownies ever. Yeah, I said it.

Since what this post obviously needs is more sweets, here's the birthday cake I recently made for my friend Abbie:
Vanilla Kittee cake brushed with coffee, frosted and filled with coffee buttercream and bittersweet chocolate ganache. Thanks to Mel for the inspiration.

The requisite money shot

And, because I actually do eat real food despite what one may infer from the content of this blog, here are some greens with beans and polenta, plus some tomatoes and wine and garlic and other stuff that I can't really remember:
I could live off of kale and polenta, and I kind of do.

For the Love of Pancakes

Man, there's just something about pancakes. I can think of few things more comforting, cozy, and satisfying than a big stack of pancakes and a pot of strong coffee shared with my husband on a lazy weekend day. As has been previously mentioned, we really love brunch around here, and I must say that banana pancakes are my personal favorite. This is my tried and true recipe.

I find that the banana provides ample sweetness, especially considering that I'm just going to smother the pancakes in syrup anyway. If you prefer them sweeter, add a tablespoon or two of sugar. Don't skip the carbonated water here - it makes the pancakes light and fluffy.

Banana pancakes
1 over-ripe banana
1 cup non-dairy milk
1/2 cup carbonated water
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon (opt.)
pinch of salt

Mash the banana with a fork until it's good and mushy. Add the wet ingredients and mix well. Sift in the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. (I don't have stress to you the importance of not over mixing your batter, right?)

Preheat griddle or pan to medium high heat and spray with cooking spray. Once the pan is hot, ladle the batter onto it in a circular motion. When the edges appear dry and bubbles start forming in the middle, flip the pancakes over and cook for another minute or so.

Transfer cooked pancakes to a covered dish (or to an oven-safe plate and cover with foil) and keep in the oven at 250 degrees F until ready to eat.

While we're on the subject of foods to break one's fast, Shawn's weekday breakfast of choice is bagels. Annoyed with the non-veganness of some cheaper brands and the high cost of some other brands, I recently threw up my hands and said, "Screw it. I'll make my own." I used the recipe from Isa's upcoming brunch book - the aptly-titled Vegan Brunch - subbing half of the flour with whole wheat. The results were delicious (albeit a bit misshapen) bagels on the cheap, son.

Word.