Chocolate Peppermint Cupcakes

Happy Herbivore says she created this Pudge-Free Holidays recipe just for me and my love of chocolate mint. Trust me, that is a very high honor and one that I do not take lightly. In fact, I think I blushed when she told me! These are must-make cupcakes for the holidays, so go buy the e-cookbook!

I made a savory Happy Herbivore test recipe for dinner tonight. The quesadilla using Jalapeno Cheddar Cheeze didn't photograph well, so you'll have to take my word for it that it was good. Unfortunately, you have a long wait for the recipe; I'm not sure of the release date for the e-cookbook in which it will appear.

Sweet Harvest Muffins

These amazing Sweet Harvest Muffins were part of my baking and cooking extravaganza the weekend of October 25th. Yes, I prepared so many different recipes that weekend that there are still many left to share! That's not to mention all the baking and cooking I've done since that weekend.

I shared these Sweet Freedom test muffins with my yoga teacher and massage therapist, both of whom enthusiastically requested the recipe. Of course, I had to let them down easy because I can't share test recipes, but I promised to make them again. I'd say that's good enough!

Today has been blustery and cold (I run extremely cold, so anything below 75F is cold to me, but today was 65F in the afternoon and I was freezing!) and the only thing I've had on my mind is soup. I'm about to make Monkey Minestrone from Dreena Burton's Eat, Drink, & Be Vegan for the first time.

Traditional Thanksgiving Stuffing

Did this post's title throw you off or did it make you think I was crazy? Although the U.S.'s Thanksgiving is still nearly 3 weeks away, I made this stuffing as a test recipe for Happy Herbivore's newest e-cookbook, Pudge-Free Holidays way back in October. As a variation, I added leftover Grammy's Meatless Balls, which I tested from the same cookbook and blogged about here.

The little green pouch that sneakily made its way into the photo is my new camera case.

Vegyogini's test kitchen is open for the weekend, so I'd better get baking. Happy Saturday!

Lasagna

Can you believe that this lasagna was a first for me? Ricotta was always something I couldn't stand growing up (I never grew out of that) and that made lasagna a "no, thanks" food for me. Obviously, that means that I've never missed lasagna as a vegan because I couldn't possibly miss something I'd never eaten. However, I promised ma meilleure amie that I would give lasagna a shot sometime soon.

I had an 8 oz. bag of crimini mushrooms, 7.5 oz. of spinach, and 2 zucchini in the fridge, plus about 2 cups of leftover Marinara from Yellow Rose Recipes and it seemed like those were just the right ingredients to concoct my own lasagna. All I needed to buy was a box of brown rice lasagna noodles and I was ready to create!

My first step (after pre-heating the oven to 375 F) was to prepare vegan ricotta. I based it on the Basil-Tofu Ricotta from Vegan with a Vengeance with these changes: I halved the recipe and used extra-firm tofu, a small clove of garlic, 1 tsp of Toffuti Better Than Cream Cheese instead of olive oil, and vegan parmesan instead of nutritional yeast.

Next, I prepared the veggies. I dry sauteed the mushrooms and zucchini in a skillet over medium heat (I'd cut them into thin half-moons first) with about 5 garlic cloves (minced) that were on their way out. The reason I dry sauteed the veggies is two-fold: 1) I didn't want to add fat to the dish by sauteeing in oil and 2) I knew the veggies would release water after they'd been in the skillet for a few minutes, thus providing their own sauteeing liquid. I allowed the veggies to brown and then, once they released their liquid, added the spinach to the pan, put the lid on, and let the spinach steam until bright green.

When the veggies were ready, I started layering the lasagna in a 9"x13" Pyrex casserole dish. The layers were: a little sauce to coat the bottom of the dish, 3 lasagna noodles, 1/2 the ricotta, 1/2 the veggies, a little sauce, 3 lasagna noodles, 1/2 the ricotta, 1/2 the veggies, a little sauce, 3 lasagna noodles, the remaining sauce, and a ton of Teese mozzarella on top. I filled in the gaps of the dish with extra broken noodle pieces (the brown rice noodles were of the no-boil variety). Then, I covered the dish with foil, put it in the oven for 30 minutes, removed the foil, and baked it for an additional 25 minutes.

Please don't think this first attempt at lasagna was perfect because it most certainly was not. I didn't have enough ricotta (I'll make a full recipe next time), veggies (who would have thought that all those veggies wouldn't be enough?), or sauce. I'd use a slightly smaller dish (one that the noodles would fill easier) and I'd leave the foil on for 45-50 minutes, cooking for 55-60 minutes total. One of the noodles slipped and arched awkwardly and the Teese melted unevenly. However, my first lasagna was (well, is, since I'm still eating the leftovers for lunch every day this week as you can see from the above photo) absolutely delicious! I'm pretty excited about the little culinary world I just opened for myself and I've decided that the next lasagna should definitely include roasted or grilled eggplant.

Election Day!

Election Day is finally here! It's a day we've all been anticipating for what seems like ages. I voted at 7 a.m. before leaving for work, not wanting to stress about sitting in traffic on the way home and cutting it too close for my personal comfort. Isn't there something so incredibly satisfying about voting? I feel that way especially this year when California has so many important props on the ballot and, of course, this is the most exciting presidential election of my lifetime so far.

I actually wrote the above paragraph last night in anticipation of today's election. I did, indeed, arrive at my polling place at about 7 minutes to 7 a.m. and I was behind 50 people who had beat me there! The line kept growing and growing. Everyone there was in a congenial mood, chatting with strangers, and excited in general. An older man brought donuts for the crowd (obviously not vegan) and a woman brought her dog.

When it was finally my turn, I opened my sample ballot and VERY carefully filled in my real ballot. I literally triple-checked to make sure I didn't accidentally vote the opposite of how I wanted to vote. Finally, I was satisfied, took my ballot to the box, inserted it, and collected my "I voted" sticker, proudly displaying it on my Matt & Nat purse.

It was business as usual in the office until we got to about 3 p.m. Our assistant, who I also consider a good friend, had convinced me to hit happy hour with her (the restaurant offered a free plate of 3 little tacos and a free tequila shot per person who had their "I voted" sticker; both my tacos and my shot went to our assistant) to watch the election coverage. Our second stop was to be a free Obama party at the Century Plaza Hotel where Diane Feinstein, Barbara Boxer, and many others were slated to be. The doors were scheduled to open at 8:01 p.m. when the polls closed in California. When we left the office at 6, we never expected the tally to happen so quickly. The next thing we knew, Obama had 207 electoral votes under his belt, so we left happy hour for Ben & Jerry's (serving up a free scoop of ice cream, sorbet for me, to everyone) and then for the Plaza. As we walked toward the Plaza's front doors at 8:01 p.m., screams erupted. Obama had already won! The energy was intoxicating, the screams were joyful and hopeful and contagious. We joined the celebration in the hotel's lobby, but never made it to the party itself. People kept spontaneously bursting into chants of "O-BA-MA! O-BA-MA!" We would have stayed longer, but it was just too crowded and we both wanted to hear Obama's speech.

We made it back to the car just in time to hear the tail-end of McCain's concession speech. I will look up the footage later so I can hear the whole thing. I did, however, hear the entirety of Obama's speech and am grateful to have had that experience.

One of my closest friends has been tirelessly working on the Obama campaign for over two years. He is in Chicago celebrating tonight after driving people to the polls and performing other campaign duties. I both thanked and congratulated him tonight. Without people volunteering their time, campaigns would never get off the ground.

This is one of the most personal posts I've written and one that has nothing to do with food. Hugger Food will return to its regularly-scheduled programming with the next post in which I will tell you all about my first experience making lasagna. :)

Vegan Drinks Meetup

Saturday evening, Happy Herbivore, her husband, and I set off for the Vegan Drinks Meetup at Sante La Brea. Lex of vegan-la.com is the Meetup organizer and he very generously bought a round of drinks for everyone (mine was a passion fruit iced tea, although I think he really meant beers!). Thanks, Lex!



Some people ordered food, including Happy Herbivore's husband, who ordered the Blue Corn Nachos (from the menu: Toasted blue corn chips topped with black bean sauce, melted soy cheese, cilantro, and scallions). I tried the one chip that had some soy cheese on it and not a dreaded scallion. I didn't really care for the soy cheese, unfortunately, and the chips were far too salty. Also, there wasn't a black bean sauce, but actual black beans, which is just as good, if not better, in my opinion. While I wouldn't order these nachos myself (try Real Food Daily's Better with Cheddar Nachos, though!), I'm glad I got to try them.

A very sweet girl in a "Powered by Tofu" t-shirt was kind enough to share a bite of her chocolate peanut butter pie with us. Happy Herbivore said it best when she exclaimed, "It tastes better than how I remember a Reese's peanut butter cup tasting!" She was absolutely right, too. I took a bite and my eyes got huge. It was really good!

While I was hoping to meet all the L.A. vegan bloggers that I'd not yet met, I believe the only other bloggers there were the couple behind the Vegan Collection (check out their blog for some beautiful photos, including one of the chocolate peanut butter pie). That just means more new people to meet next time! Everyone I met that night was friendly, generous, and eager to engage in conversation. I had so much fun spending an evening with like-minded people and it was a great way to celebrate World Vegan Day!

Before the Meetup, I had an eat-and-run dinner with some of my family at our favorite Italian restaurant, Gio Cucina Napoletana. I can't speak highly enough of this restaurant (I briefly reviewed it for VeganMoFo 2007). They not only understand the definition of veganism, but they offer an amazing selection of vegan dishes, including 4 seasonal vegan daily soup specials. I usually get a bowl of soup when I dine there and this time was no exception. I was sold on the chickpea soup (the first time they've had that on a day I've eaten there) and it was deliciously hearty and comforting.

World Vegan Day 2008

Happy World Vegan Day! I'm waiting for my cup of tea to finish steeping while I listen to the rain outside. Yes, it's actually raining in sunny southern California despite what the old song says. To those of you celebrating Dia de los Muertos today at the Forever Hollywood Cemetery, I hope the rain is adding to the ambiance.

Having curly hair and being constantly cold, I'm not a huge fan of being outside in the rain. I'm always grateful when the rain arrives on a weekend so that I don't have to sit in 405 traffic, but today is not a day when I have the liberty to hang out at home baking and watching movies. I have a baby shower and a family dinner to attend before the fun part...a vegan meet-up! I think that's a fitting way to spend the evening of World Vegan Day.



Yet another wonderful way to celebrate is by purchasing Happy Herbivore's new e-cookbook, Pudge-Free Holidays. It's finally here and ready to help you create wonderful new memories this holiday season. Pictured above is the incredibly delicious Cornbread Stuffing with "Chorizo." This stuffing features the Southern Cornbread about which I posted a couple days ago from the same e-cookbook. Not only did I enjoy eating this stuffing, but I got multiple compliments about how good it smelled on the days I heated up leftovers in the microwave at work. It was definitely a conversation starter and simply solidified the notion that food is the best ambassador for veganism.

Before I end this post, here's a little anecdote from Halloween last night: I've lived in the same place for 10 years and had literally had one trick-or-treater here (it was 9 years ago) in that time. Obviously, I never buy treats because I never have trick-or-treaters. So, you can imagine my surprise when my doorbell rang last night and I found a miniature SpiderMan and a miniature Bob the Builder (a little girl, no less) on my doorstep. I had one individual-size bag of vegan chocolate soccer balls and one little box of raisins, but those weren't a match and I'm all about fairness. The only thing I found that I had 2 of was ProBars, the Original Blend flavor. The reason this is so awful is twofold: 1) I gave kids meal-replacement bars for Halloween and that is just intrinsically wrong; 2) ProBars are disgusting, loaded with fat, and highly caloric. (I had the Koka Moka flavor once and it was foul, then I tried 3 bite-size samples of other flavors at Whole Foods and they were outrageously salty.) Even though I'd never seen those children and their mother before, I still feed bad about it and wish I'd had something better to offer. Next year, I will be better prepared!

I'm so excited that November is finally here because it means we get to vote in 3 days! Have a fabulous Saturday!