I did not get 20 blog posts up in the Vegan Month of Food :(

That was not for lack of subject matter...so many great vegan happenings and food, it really is hard to keep up !

My last blogpost for Vegan MoFo 2014 is a shot of Jamie's dinner... He insIsted it needed its picture taken, it was so pretty :)

Above, you can see the big stir- up of homemade seitan pastrami, peppers and onions, and cooked quinoa. I just sauteed the peppers and onions in a little oil, added chunks of the pastrami and some green onions. Lots of red pepper flakes and Montreal Salt. Not seen is the side bowl o kale (A big deal for a former kale hater !) , which he stirred into the quinoa mix. Jamie... You've come a long way, Baby !

We have both been traveling, me to AZ, he to DC. I just picked him up at Denver International and here we are, at Watercourse, before we even get home to Boulder. He has heard so much about the Chicken & Waffles here, we had to stop !

Extra gravy and kale for me !

I traveled down to Chandler, Arizona last week to spend a few days with my soon-to-be 86 year old mother and two of my brothers.  We all had a great time.  Mom is still pretty darn active and loving life and it is always fun to hang out with  my brothers.  I had intended on posting vegan -related stuff everyday, to keep up with my Vegan MOFO 2014 pledge, but the dang Weebly mobile site on my phone hit an apparently fatal glitch on day one and i was out of commission.   Grrr.   
But I did take some pictures with my phone, and I am back in Boulder now, so maybe I can catch up !

Mom likes to shop at Wal-mart.  While strolling the crap-as-food aisles with her  two items caught my eye.   The first one was a maple bacon frosting.   I know bacon is the darling of animal-eating foodies everywhere right now, but damn....I had to look !  And it turns out that it is quite possibly vegan....depending on what they mean by "natural flavors". And the fact that it says "may contain milk ingredients" gives me pause.  And surely, the palm oil they are using is not from sustainable palmfruit farms, but from the cheapest source possible.  Yikes.   And really....kind of hilarious ( in a sad way ) that the "freshness " of the hydrogenated fats, industrial colorings, starches and sugars are preserved by potassium sorbate, sulfur dioxide and sodium benzoate.

Next item up is some inject-able flavoring stuff that I suppose one could infuse a block of tofu or seitan, or even an eggplant with. But the tiny amount in the squeeze bottle, the insane amount of packaging carrying it, and the fact that the stuff is just high fructose corn syrup and artificial flavorings, why on Earth would you want to ?   Really depressing to see new crap like this hit the shelves.   I guess I need to leave The Bubble more often and see what's out there !  
  I guess I should end this post on a positive note, but frankly...I'm not feeling it.   Knowing this crap is being thought up, manufactured using precious energy and water resources and taking up premium supermarket shelf space does not bode well for our country.

Sigh. A few dinky tomatoes and a final sad harvest of the brave zucchini plants that kept on offering up squash through thick and thin. The plants were getting pretty ragged with some sort of squash malady and it seemed like a good time to end their life in the veggie bed. They will live on in the great community compost heap when they get picked up Friday. Until next year, farewell, Astia zucchini

!( glad i reserved some seeds from the packet for next year !)

What started out as a working lunch meeting with a fellow Boulder Rights of Nature board member , turned into a lovely, slow way down and enjoy the moment of summer sun and friendship kind of day.  I went to her house with some homemade coconut bacon, a few of the last vine ripened tomatoes left on our plants, and a bit of Just Mayo, cuz who doesnt travel without mayo, right ?   She had made a velvety splitpea soup ( using a dehydrated mix as a base and added some frozen peas...it was fantastic ! ) and introduced me to a really fun seaweed salad.  She had also made a "land salad" with some of her CSA goodies and had bread on hand ...so we had quite a feast !
About that working part of the working lunch meeting...uh, I think we need to reschedule, and in the interest of getting some actual work done... next time maybe we will just make peanutbutter and jelly sandwiches :)
 Thank you, my friend, for a great day :)

The wonderful splitpea soup with coconut bacon bits and note the bread with tomato and mayo... Yum.

Look how adorable and pretty !   Eating seaweed always brings me back to the ocean :)

Is that a tiny dragon in my seaweed? Why no... It is just more sea weed !   Almost too cute to eat !

Here' what K used. You just take a little out and soak it in water for seven minutes and then drain. The package suggests adding some thinly sliced apples and onions and a bit of your favorite salad dressing, but we enjoyed it on its own....love the different textures and colors as well as the flavor!

Well, dang...this sure looks useful...an aggregater that collects vegan-ness around the Googles !

http://vegan.alltop.com/
 

Saturday Farmer's Market in Boulder. We brought the big Santoku knife to be sharpened, and to load up one more time on corn for a corn-on-cob fest, this time with roasted fingerlin potatoes, carrots, beets and onions. And rosemary of course !

I sure wish we had bought a nice chef's knife ages ago... What a huge difference using a heavy, sharp well-balanced instrument makes when you are cutting up scads of veggies ! I was terrified of it for a few weeks, but know really wonder how i had gotten along without it. If you cook a lot, and someone is wondering what pricey gift would win your heart... Tell him or her to spend what they can on the best chef's knife they can afford :)

These lovely vegan treats are made for Julia's Kitchen at 3980 Broadway St in North Boulder. i keep meaning to get up there and have lunch.   So hard to decide which treat to get !   I finally decided on the huge thumbprint ( palm print ???) cookie... almond and coconut flours, brown rice syrup, raspberry jam... So good! Nicely browned with a soft center, and really, i could have shared more with Jamie , it was so big, but it was pretty darn addictive. Sorry J !

September 11, 2014
I don't get to Denver very often, but when I do we usually try and work in lunch at either City O City or Watercourse Foods.   We had recently heard that Watercourse had gone totally vegan ( they used to offer some cheeses and eggs ) and had changed the menu quite a bit.   I am happyhappyhappy to report that the changes are for the better !   The only thing missing was Jamie...he will love the changes too !

The reason for a Denver excursion this cold, rainy day ( is Summer over already ?! )  today was a  trip to the gigantic mega  Denver Coliseum Gem and Mineral Show with my son and daughter-in-law.  Sara makes really cool custom jewelry with beautiful gems and polished stones and some  exquisitely intricate wire-wrapping.   She was hoping to find some nice cabochons and stones to create more unique pieces to offer on her website, Great Horned Owl Design.   And wow....so many vendors...it was crazy !   I don't think we covered half of the territory...there was everything from teeny tiny highly polished gem stones, rough stones, beads, cabochons,geodes, petrified trees to complete skeletons of millions-year-old dinosaurs. Got an extra $98,000.oo kicking around ?   Why, you could take home a ( headless ) 9 ft long skeleton of some sort of water-dwelling thunder lizard, reconstructed and  freestanding with the help of iron supports for your convenience... no assembly required !    But Sara stayed focused  and came away with some sweet little Mexican Opal cabs and a really deeply-layered Labrodite to play with.   Check out her website, Like her on Facebook and visit her Etsy shop now and then to see what she's created :)

Here's what we had at Watercourse:                                                                                                                                                

One benefit ( the only?) of an early cold snap and snow fall is the sudden abundance of flowers in the house :)

Cosmos, Zinnias and Tithonia mix with some roses a sweet ( formerly) British neighbor brought over this morning. Temps dropped to 33 early in the morning, here in Boulder, and a dusting of snow.

Im making some marinara sauce with some of the smallish plum tomatoes. Adding fresh basil, rosemary, garlic and onion. Perhaps a little wine, too.

Finshed Summer's End Tomato Sauce and some Cosmo love :)

 Being the only girl growing up in a family with 4 brothers and a dad in the Navy must have inoculated me with a deeper appreciation of swearing than some people.  My Mom, who would not say sh*t if she had a mouth full of it .....she let me cook anything I wanted in the kitchen.  I leaned mostly towards baking.   And although I never had an Easy-Bake Oven ( not that I didn't covet my best friend's light bulb-powered cake-maker ! ),  my Mom would let me get those little boxes of Jiffy brand cake, brownie, corn muffin and frosting mix to bake  in the real oven.  Oh, and Bisquick was a major player in our house.   It could show up just about anywhere, from the obvious pancakes and waffles to drop biscuits  and breading for fried ( non vegan! ) chicken or porkchops.  I made many a Velvet Crumb Cake from the recipe on the side of the box.  And Bisquick is vegan !... so I might have to make another one soon.

So here I am, fifty-some years later , still obsessed with baking and still loving the well-placed swear word :)
So is it any wonder that I adore Thug Kitchen and have pre-ordered the upcoming cookbook ?   Do it here.  His  recipe for Frosted Gingerbread Bites is THE best gingerbread ...super moist, dark and gingery...seriously...give it a try, dammit  !