Oh look. It’s only February 22nd and I’m just posting this I decided to make some black-eyed peas for our New Year’s Day meal to bring prosperity and good luck for the year. I just seasoned them up with some onion, garlic, cumin, salt, pepper, and liquid smoke. They were really tasty. I made some brown rice, collard greens, and hush puppies to round out the meal. I finally found a recipe for vegan hush puppies that I love. I used the recipe from the Hot Damn & Hell Yeah/The Dirty South Cookbook. I don’t make fried foods that often but I should make an exception for these hush puppies.   They were so tasty. They held together perfectly and crisped up nicely on the outside.

January 1st was also my veganniversary! Twelve years as a vegan. Yay!

We went to Café Manna in Brookfield, WI when we were visiting the Milwaukee area in July. Rob had a two-day autocross at Miller Park. We’ve been to Café Manna once before, back in November 2009. We both enjoyed it even though it is a bit on the expensive side. Since we were on a mini-vacation, we decided to splurge. I’m glad we did because I would have hated to miss out on one of the most delicious appetizers I’ve ever had:

Pepita Guacamole Potato Skins

Here is what the menu description says: “Crispy potato skins loaded with our creamy pepita guacamole and drizzled with ancho cashew sour cream. Topped with our house made pico de gallo. “

 

I absolutely loved this! It was amazing. I even licked my fork and knife clean. If we hadn’t been in a crowded restaurant, I probably would have licked the plate clean too.  I split this with Rob and he loved them just as much as I did.  This was probably the most expensive appetizer we’ve ever ordered. It was $11 but it was totally worth it. I’d go back here and just eat this.  I even ate the ancho cashew sour cream and normally I scrape vegan sour cream off anything I get.  It was THAT good.

Rob ordered the Thai Red Curry Orzo for his dinner. It was tofu, veggies, and orzo in a Thai red curry sauce.  He enjoyed it.

I ordered the Black & White entrée which is black bean and quinoa cakes over veggies with a pineapple sauce.  This was really tasty and filling. I liked the contrast of the sweet sauce and the black bean/quinoa cakes.  Yummy!

Since we were on a mini-vacation, I wanted to order dessert. Rob said he was full but “decided to split my dessert with me” after I ordered.  I believe this vegan cheesecake was also raw. It had a tasty nut crust. The cherry sauce was delightful. It was a delicious end to our evening.

I like Café Manna. It’s a great place if you are looking to splurge for a special occasion (a mini-vacation counts!). The staff was really attentive and friendly.  The food was awesome and we left completely stuffed in a good way.

My parents came out for a visit last week and my mom bought me the “Peas and Thank You” cookbook by Sarah Matheny.  Thanks Mom! I decided to try out the Mac & Cheese recipe because I had all the ingredients handy. It also didn’t look like it would take that long to make. I’ve actually never made a vegan mac & cheese with store-bought vegan cheese before. I usually made the recipe from Vegan Vittles where you make your own cheese sauce. The Vegan Vittles recipe is still yummy but this mac & cheese is Fantastic with a capital ‘F’.  Of course, using Daiya Cheese is a must. Their vegan cheese is awesome and really does melt.

The mac and cheese went together quickly. I’m not big on mustard but will put up with it if it just mustard powder in a recipe. This was so tasty and I will definitely be making it again soon. I served it with some steamed broccoli.  Rob was at his autocross yesterday when I made it and I taunted him by sending him a pic of it. As soon as he came home, he wanted to know where his bowl of mac and cheese was.  It reheated really well. I’m always trying to find new recipes to take for lunches the next day so I think I found another winner. Speaking of packing lunches, be sure to check out Lunch It Punch It.

Here’s a link to the RECIPE.  After reading through the Peas and Thank You cookbook, I think I found quite a few more recipes to try that will be great for lunches the next day.  Be sure to get your hands on a copy (see if your local library has it).

Are you ready for pics from last summer? Sure you are. We went back to Michigan in August 2010  to celebrate my grandma’s 99th birthday which was at the end of July. She requested a lemon-poppy seed layer cake for her birthday cake so that’s what she got. I made the cake layers here and brought them with me. I made the frosting at my parents’ house. We got take-out from Country Restaurant in Dearborn  for dinner. Everyone had lots of yummy Middle Eastern food followed by cake for dessert.  We had a lovely time visiting with my grandma.

Grandma posing with her cake:

Everyone loved the cake including the birthday girl:

For Christmas 2009, I got a food dehydrator for a Christmas gift. It’s an Excalibur. I really like my food dehydrator but the company has HORRIBLE, just plain horrible customer service. I got the runaround when they kept delaying my shipment date.  It is probably one of the reasons I haven’t blogged about my food dehydrator until now. Over the summer, when sweetcorn was in season, I dehydrated some corn as a snack for Rob. It turned out great.  This summer, I’ll have to dehydrate more corn and try it out in a homemade soup mix.

Dehydrated corn:

Apparently I was taking to long to photograph the food:

And to change gears completely…no pun intended…last year I got a new car! It is a Subaru Outback and I just love it. The all wheel drive is great. It has a cloth interior (obviously!) but I have heated seats. I can’t believe the gas mileage I get with it. In the winter, I have been getting around 25.5 mpg. That’s the kind of mileage I got when I had my Ford Focus! We traded Rob’s car in towards the Subaru and Rob now drives the Focus. He likes the Focus because it is really easy to get all sorts of parts to upgrade the car for auto-crossing! You can check out Rob’s blog here: Car Blog Chicagoland.  Here’s a pick of my car when we were in Madison, WI last summer.

Hopefully it won’t take me another two months to post an update. Have a great day

Happy New Year…..just a few weeks late   I have a whole backlog of stuff I want to blog about so be prepared for posts about the past six months. Back in November, I got a copy of The Vegan Girl’s Guide to Life by Melisser Elliott for my birthday. I really like the book. One of my favorite recipes is for Banh Mi Sandwiches made with portobello mushrooms. The are super yummy. The Do Chua, which is a mix of pickled daikon radish and carrots, was so tasty. The sandwich was also topped with jalapenos, cucumber, and cilantro.  We made the spread listed in the recipe to put on the bread. I think it had tahini in it. I’d make these again and again. Rob absolutely loved them as well.

We went back to Michigan for Christmas. It was a very quick trip but it was nice to spend the holidays with my parents and grandma. My grandma is 99 now. Long time readers of my blog know that I get my grandma a bottle of maple syrup as a gift for birthdays and holidays (we also get her a lovely flower arrangement too). My grandma LOVES maple syrup (and pancakes). She was very excited about the maple syrup and exclaimed “Oh, it is the good stuff.”

One of the vendors at our local farmers market sells maple syrup from a farm in Wisconsin. Our town had a Christmas market last month and this vendor was there. I was very happy to get her the “good stuff” maple syrup for her Chrismas present. I also picked up some for myself. This maple syrup is fabulous! I even snitch a spoonful of it when I’m cooking or baking with it. Rob teases me that I’m like Buddy from the movie Elf. Let me be clear…I draw the line at maple syrup and spaghetti.

Here’s my grandma with her maple syrup:

And of course, what fun are holidays if you can’t decorate the elderly?

I also wanted to mention that Udandi has a new blog venture called Lunch it Punch It, which encourages you to pack 10 lunches before eating out. Each time you pack a lunch, punch the card (you can print them out at the website). When you have 10 punches, you can eat out. I’m redeeming my completed cards on soy lattes from the local independent coffeeshop near my work. They are expensive though and limiting my caffeine consumption is always good. Better for my health and my pocketbook. Yay!