crack the plates

Wow, y’all, have I been up to no good. Of course, like the good southerner that I am, by “no good” I mean EVERYTHING AWESOME. Let’s start with the little sign of summer I discovered on the back porch over the weekend:

Yup! That’s eggplant!

Ok, so honestly, this post should probably be about five separate ones. Over the course of around thirty pictures, I’m gonna tell you all about Sugar-Coated Radical, Atlanta’s only fair-trade chocolate shop; why (dairy) milk is whack; why all Atlanta vegans should eat at Ria’s Bluebird and/or Sauced; where to get vegan brunch in a pinch (and at a value); what’s up at Fernbank; why local raw food rocks (and where to get it) and finally, I’ll share two of my top ten foods of 2011 (thus far!).

I know, right? Intense. Hang on and enjoy the ride!

Last night Nate & celebrated month twenty-eight by making Spaghetti-Nos and watching Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. If I hadn’t been so tired, I probably would have cried a pond – Nausicaa and I have a lot in common, and movies about compassion towards strange things always get my little vegan heart tied up in knots. (Google images: ohmu. Can you love it?!)

The amazing Isa Chandra Moskowitz veganised the childhood favorite to many; I knew my sweetheart meant business when he actually printed out the recipe and brought it home from work. I surprised him by gathering up all the ingredients and cleaning the kitchen so we could cook when he got home from work. Alas, no anellini – but I did find some super cute (and super tiny) mini-bowties. A big salad with tempeh bacon bits and Sanctuary Dressing (from Isa’s Appetite for Reduction) accompanied.

Cook’s meatball notes: I used breadcrumbs made on-site at the Dekalb Farmer’s Market. In retrospect, I think Isa would include these with the “too-soft” variety. Or maybe I should have used a little bit more wheat gluten than was called for (and kneaded more vigorously) to achieve that dubious lunchroom meat texture. I have not actually ever had Spaghetti-Os, but I think they were supposed to have more a gummy, punchy texture. These were definitely quite soft.

Sigh. Following a post about fake chicken wings, I fear this blog is starting to look a bit like we live on vegan junk food. But hey, the salad is bigger than the main course!! (Not to mention the fact that veganised junk food is approximately infinity times healthier than the original.)

Let’s get this embarrassing fact out of the way: my bf & I are the kind of saccharinely sweet couple that celebrates monthly anniversaries. Groan, right? Well, generally the “celebration” just means a slight uptick in cooing at each other & maybe a vegan chocolate or two, but every once in a while we mix it up & do something interesting. As in the case of tonight’s dinner:

or

that’s

• organic vegan mashed potatoes (unsweetened soymilk, earth balance, salt, & freshly cracked black pepper)
• bhindi masala: okra with cayenne, ground mango powder, turmeric & tomato
• kitchen-sink homemade barbeque sauce (a slight adjustment to Isa’s recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance, featuring blackstrap molasses, peanut butter, liquid smoke, tabasco, maple syrup, vidalia onion, and tomato) simmered long & slow and poured over thrice-baked tofu

In return, he drew pictures for me of one of my most favorite things EVER! Goombas. Yanno, dese guys:

In other news, I used a paint-brush to line my eyes with some electric teal with blue sheen eyeshadow in an attempt to achieve this look. I actually did a pretty good job! Now we’re probably gonna go raid the free kids’ section of the movie gallery. Hurrah!

After that last intense (for a food blog) post, I feel the urge to post some pictures of tonight’s dinner:

Doubled recipe of the Asparagus and sun-dried tomato “Frittata” from Vegan With a Vengeance, made with tofu, nutritional yeast, mustard, and many other disparate ingredients that don’t sound like they’ll taste all that good together but actually makes one swoon. One of the best recipes in the book.

Looking to do something with the Dandies Candies marshmallows I brought back from Chicago (aside from gobble them straight from the bag), I googled and discovered a recipe from a fellow VeganMoFoer p.h.d.elicious called Chocolate Confetti. Simple concept: chocolate + peanut butter + fat (eBal!) + vegan marshmallows makes a veg very, very happy. :-) I threw in peanuts and added a little salt.

Befitting an anniversary, I scooped out half a container of Turtle Mountain’s Purely Decadent Cookie Dough soy ice cream, drove a sharp piece of bark into it and covered it with organic chocolate sauce and peanuts. Yowzah. (To my credit, I didn’t eat it.)

And for those who care, a picture of our darling Ra-Ra type Unix, a veteran open-source user. Yay Ubuntu 9.10! Hoorah Karmic Koala!