crack the plates

Happy February! Do you love or loathe v-day? I’m pretty indifferent about the sentiment – I shower my Nate with affection year ’round, not just on the 14th – but I adore all the treats. One helpful thing about having been vegan for years is that I’ve been able to try a wide variety… and sporting a sweet tooth that just won’t quit, I have plenty in the off-season, too. Whether you’re buying for your vegan sweetie or just want to give cruelty-free this year, here are my tried-and-true picks for 2012:

Lagusta’s Luscious

Lagusta’s Luscious chocolates are heartbreakingly delicious and painstakingly made by hand with truly artisanal ingredients. Founded in 2003 by a passionate vegan chef, Lagusta’s Luscious artisanal chocolates combine a deep commitment to social justice, environmentalism and animal rights with the love of bold flavor of a true foodie and the obsessive commitment to artisan techniques of a chocolatier. We work closely with small farmers and producers in our beloved town of New Paltz, New York and across the country to source everything from our Maui vanilla beans (from a tiny two-acre vanilla farm) to the candy-striped beets grown by Farmer Jessica less than a mile away. From our 100% fair trade and organic chocolate to our 100% post-consumer recycled paper boxes and packing materials, we are a completely vegan business committed to sustainability without sacrifice. (from the website)

Now, from me: Lagusta is my hero. I fell in love with her tellin’-it-as-it-is style at her personal blog - found while searching for a vegan’s account of Alinea dining – and I stayed for the food. If you’ve hung around Crack the Plates for a while you know she inspired my own meal delivery, after running a successful one in New York for nine years. Now she devotes herself to the chocolate shop full-time. I don’t know how she manages it, but everything she does is perfect. Perfect. That said, her truffle flavors tend to be a bit more mature than you might be used to - beet-coriander, anyone? Sea salt seaweed shiitake? The best place to buy for the sophisticated eaters in your life, she’s also got plenty of the less-adventurous, including peppermint patties, peanut butter cups, and a pomegranate and lemon gift box. You simply can’t go wrong.

For valentine’s, she’s gifted the world with “a six-inch two-piece heart box made entirely of delicious edible semisweet chocolate is filled with nine artisanal treats, then carefully sealed with chocolate ‘glue,’ wrapped in a compostable vegetable cellulose bag and tied with a gorgeous red ribbon made from compostable vegetable fiber. Each heart is filled with two Cashew Rosewater Cream “Love” Hearts, two White Chocolate Strawberry Hearts, one Large Stone ground Cinnamon Solid Heart with cardinals with hand-painted red wings (painted with beet-derived tinted cocoa butter), one Intense Anatomical Heart with black salt, cacao nibs, coffee beans, and dried cherries, one Butterscotch Caramel wrapped in red damask paper, and Two tiny Blue Birds of Happiness—solid 60% chocolate hand-painted with blue and green wings.” $35. (Link)

Desiderio Chocolates

I was introduced to Vanessa Dione’s creations via head Vegansaur Laura’s late-2011 freak-out over Gourmellows. Gourmellows are half-marshmallow, half-truffle, all deliciousness, as Dione puts it. I totally agree, but I fell in love with the Nougatissimo. Her Gourmellows are a treat anyone could love, but the crunchy, fresh, abundant almonds, pistachios and hazelnuts bound in not-too-sweet-or-sticky vegan nougat (with the option of chocolate-covered) reduced me to a puddle. (Note to all my friends: giving me choco Nougatissimo earns you a permanent +1000. :-)) The caramels (Caramella) are also scrumptious. I recommend the vegan sampler so you can try everything and decide for yourself! At $7.50, it’s a steal! (etsy shop; her website: vegan line and inspiration.)

Sjaak’s Organic Chocolates

Based in Petaluma, California, Sjaak’s mission is to create the highest quality gourmet organic chocolates possible while simultaneously supporting a positive work environment, fair trade practices and encouraging sustainable agriculture through the use of organic, non-GMO ingredients. It is also the goal of Sjaak’s Organic Chocolates to build a socially responsible, profitable business that can be carried on for generations to come. (from the website). I’ve been happily eating Sjaak’s for years. Omnivores and dairy fiends who’ve been blessed with sampler boxes have loved every bite. Some of your v-day options include: organic raspberry bites, vegan “milk” chocolate nuts & chews valentine’s box, a giant tub – about 110 pieces – of solid fair-trade chocolate hearts, limited edition hearts of cherry box, individual hearts of cherry, nuts & chews in a limited edition handmade box, limited edition Birdie box, and the dark chocolate lavender truffles in a beautiful box. My favorites are the organic fair-trade European assortment ($9.95 for 9 pieces) and the English Toffee ($9.95/bag).

Note: If items are sold out on Sjaak’s website, look for them at Cosmo’s Vegan Shoppe, Food Fight! or another online vegan store.

What I Got for Myself: Spencer’s Market Be My Vegan Valentine Deal

I’ll be doing an entire post on my favorite Spencer’s Market soon, but the quick version is that it’s a private vegan weekly deals site offering limited quantities of small-batch vegan products at up to 70% off. Signing up is a breeze: Do so here. They just ask for your name and e-mail address and only e-mail you when new deals are out (once a week). Alas, the Vegan Valentine deal sold-out fast – but you can still get Obsessive Confection Disorder’s treats here. OR you can pick up the current Spencer’s deal – Green Tara Spirulina treats – and tell your healthy sweetie you want them around for a long, long time.

Sweet and Sara Vegan Marshmallows

Sweet and Sara vegan marshmallows are delicious! They’ve got all the gentle yielding puffy meltable sweetness of a “regular” marshmallow without all the total abhorrent yuckiness of gelatin. Despite their being made “from real strawberries”, the strawberry marshies are, in my experience, very delicately sweet and not very berry – they actually remind me more of pink cotton candy in the best possible way! This year they’re offering a beautiful chocolate-dipped strawberry marshmallow heart at $3.50 per piece.

Thoughtful Valentine Treats for a Crowd: Equal Exchange Kits

For office, classroom, and beyond, the “My Fair Valentine” kit from Equal Exchange chocolates is the perfect way to share v-day treats with a lot of friends. For $9.99 you get a kit of 24 mini chocolates and 24 cards with cute illustrations and fair-trade information. Spread awareness and love at the same time for a totally reasonable price. I’m kind of a loner these days, but if I worked in an office/was still a student, I’d definitely be snatching up several of these kits. It can be hard to just start talking to someone about the importance of fair-trade – especially if you don’t know them very well – but these precious kits make breaking the ice a breeze.

Unsweetened options

I’ve been drinking the “chocolate-covered strawberry” Valentines Tea from Adagio Teas since college. For Valentine’s this year they’re offering the Love Petals teas. Noting that they contain cream and chocolate flavors, I e-mailed the company to find out if they’re vegan. Fifteen minutes later I received a reply: ”None of our flavors contain dairy, and the chocolate chip pieces in our flavored teas are vegan as well.” Hooray!

Ways to give and give!

My dear best pal Jenny runs a small vegan baking and savory food business in Chicago called The Mixing Bowl Bakery. This Valentine’s day she’s offering cupcakes, chocolate-covered strawberries, frosted cookies, and oreo truffles at ridiculously low prices. (Think a dozen cookies for $14 and four giant chocolate-dipped strawberries for $5. Yeah.) The first two are local only (delivery and pick-up) and the last two are shippable. Ten percent of the proceeds from her valentine’s sales will go to Chicago-based Mercy for Animals.

I’ve noticed that lots of no-kill shelters and animal advocacy groups do special Valentine’s events, either by reducing the cost of adoption or simply highlighting potential future friends. Even if they don’t advertise anything, if you’re ready to adopt a friend, ASK! And if your house is full-up, it is always a good idea to donate to an animal advocacy group like Mercy for Animals (not PETA!) or a no-kill shelter. I am proudly 100% against buying animals while homeless pets are left to suffer and die. (Even if you have an allergy or feel you need to get a “special breed” there are plenty of single-breed rescues if you’re willing to do a little bit of work.) Further, non-profits like MFA and your local shelters rely almost entirely on donations for their operating costs. Every little bit counts! If you’re in Atlanta, I recommend PAWS no-kill shelter or my friend Elizabeth, who runs the wildlife rehabilitation center (specializing in raccoons) Tails from the Hart (current buddies-in-residence featured above).

for do-it-yourself folks!

I recommend the following cookbooks for making treats for your sweet: Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, Vegan Pie in the Sky; Vegan With a Vengeance (Nate requests the chocolate raspberry thumbprint as his vegan v-day gift); Vegan Brunch – the best way to start the day; More Great-Good Dairy Free Desserts by Fran Costigan; Ani Phyo’s Ani’s Raw Food Desserts (the chocolate fudge cake pictured here will blow your mind); Sinfully Vegan by Lois Dieterly.

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!

Hello friends and foes, les liaisons dangereuses y amigos!

I had hoped to give you an update before the 6th of this month, but I’ve been dutifully working on my thesis before tomorrow’s first meeting with my advisor in the new year. Blessed with a quiet home, good tea and coffee, and bountiful blankets for snuggling, I’ve been able to get a lot done. Today I hope to read many more articles, finish a book (or two) and, of course, write write write! But first, a cheery update re: what I’ve been up to lately.

As this post’s title suggests, my chief kitchen (my chef chef?) concern in 2010 (at least the early part) is finding a way to provide fast, delicious, healthy, vegan meals for myself and Nate …on a budget. Last year my strategy toward eating well & saving money was to to cook exclusively from fresh, raw ingredients–from scratch–all of the time. I was so committed to saving money on the grocery bill that I regarded even a can of beans a luxury and insisted on preparing my own from dry in the crock pot.

While using raw ingredients (including dry beans) definitely saved me money at market, I, like many women, was missing something huge: I wasn’t counting the cost of my time in the kitchen. A good 2-3 hours start to finish every night has a cost–a time expenditure, yes, but also a cost on one’s mental, physical, & spiritual energy. I was so caught up in a routine & way of thinking such that even if I had been at work, school, and volunteering all day, I would still come home, running on empty, and prepare a big lush meal that I barely had the energy to enjoy once I’d finished. While I might have been saving money in the grocery store, I probably expended way more in crucial non-cash resources.

So I’m doing something different this year. I’ll still try to delight you with my elaborate creations on a regular basis, but they’ll be more likely to feature a canned or frozen or prepared ingredient. I’ll still focus on organic, fair-trade ingredients, but will now have to navigate my desire for something prepared/more easily accessible with my desire to avoid a lot of excess packaging.  Of course, if you have any ideas towards these ends–especially recipes–please send them my way!

Here’s one of my early examples in 2010: spicy chick’n pizza. Ingredients: one store-brand organic pizza crust, one jar of non-GMO pizza sauce, chopped shallots, chopped onions, chopped garlic, frozen organic spinach, chopped organic mushrooms, and two Boca brand vegan spicy chick’n patties, chopped. Assemble (15 min), bake for 10 minutes (while reading an article), let sit for 5, voilà!

Cost: $5.59. About the same price as an Amy’s Kitchen organic frozen pizza, only double the size. About half the cost of a commercial delivered pizza, but way more nutritious and delicious (and organic), taking no more time than you would if you drove to pick up your pizza or waited for them to come to you. Win!

Further win, in the Italian theme: our cat Unix as stromboli (paradoxically, wrapped in an American flag throw)! She’s been doing a lot of burrowing lately.