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.

hello friends, another general living update. This has been a great week. Chattanooga treated us exceptionally well – Rock City was gorgeous and we had no problem finding tons of delicious vegan food (AKA Sluggo’s). Even the coffee shop had soymilk and stevia. But that’s all for another post. On Wednesday we celebrated our actual three year anniversary by trading homemade gifts, dining at Harmony Vegetarian for lunch, and putting up our Christmas tree in the evening.

I haven’t been collecting ornaments for too many years, but here are some I have/like:

glass cupcake, part of a set of four (also in white)

Little owls made of straw and wood.

A goomba, of course.

A peace dove picked up at my free sale.

A gourd owl from Nate last year.

A mushroom that clips to the branch.

Cheeky bumble tree topper.

Nate’s beer, a glass ornament found at a thrift store.

Owlie.

The most recent addition, from Nataleigh.

I wanted to get my tree up in time for the first dinner co-op of December. Every first and third Thursday I get together with a group of pals to have dinner at someone’s house. December 1 was my night. I made salad dressing (creamy Sea Czar from Professional Vegetarian (actually vegan) Cooking), chick’n noodle soup, roasted vegetables, crispy battered deep-fried tofu smothered in shiitake & portabella gravy, and baked apples with a poured-over homemade caramel sauce.

It’s just a soup and salad.

I love this soup! So easy! So warming! Onions, shallots, celery; carrots; broth; marjoram, thyme, sage, rosemary, a little shaved nutmeg; Soy Curls reconstituted, drained, and sauteed in a cast iron skillet with aromatics, shoyu, nutritional yeast. Combine. Simmer. Add noodles. Eat four bowls without blinking.

Roasted vegetables and smothered tofu.

Easy apple dessert: cored, stuffed with a brown sugar/flour/oil/spices/oats/nuts combo, baked in a pan of water infused with vanilla and cinnamon for 45 min; covered with a homemade caramel sauce. Recipe in the Modern Vegetarian (mostly vegan) Kitchen by Peter Berley.

Sarah & Nate

Elizabeth, Jacquie, and Aden

I love having friends over.

Today I met my new farmer-friend from Serenbe to pick up the beautiful order of vegetables they donated to this week’s meal delivery in return, basically, for mentioning that they have a CSA. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture and refers to the system wherein subscribers pay farmers in advance for a share of the next year’s harvest, which is then delivered to a central pick-up point on a weekly basis. Serenbe in particular is worried that folks in our parts (AKA L5P, Candler Park, Inman Park, Reynoldstown, etc) don’t know that they offer a CSA. Well, folks – be aware! Serenbe offers a gorgeous CSA!

Subscribers have three options: the full season share, the Spring/Summer share, and the fall share. The full season share runs 30 weeks from late April to late November. It’s $770, or almost $26 per week. A week looks basically like what’s above. The Spring/Summer share is twenty weeks from late April til September. It’s $600. Finally, the fall share runs 10 weeks from mid-September til late November at a cost of $300.

You might feel a sense of sticker shock if you’ve never seen CSA prices before. It seems like a lot up front, but consider how much you put in the mega-corp pockets of Wal-Mart/Kroger/Publix/etc getting produce shipped from Mexico, California, or god-knows-where? $26 per week for gorgeous, locally-grown, responsible vegetables is a bargain. Further, Serenbe’s prices are competitive. Vegetable Husband, another CSA I like, is $35 per week for approximately the same amount of food. They’re the high-end luxury CSA in my opinion because they include delivery To Your Residence. In contrast, Truly Living Well Center for Natural Urban Agriculture offers another similar program for about $17 per week. So Serenbe is a mid-range choice. I am looking forward to trying everything – look for another update with recipes next week!

The fun continued today with a visit to Criminal Records to help my lovely friend Lillian cozy up the store with Christmas decor. Apparently I can’t take a fuzz-free picture to save my life these days, but here’s what we finished:

Unpacking, assembling, fluffing, and decorating two artificial Christmas trees; wrapping a lot of boxes; making it look festive. We focussed on the back stage area since that’s where A**hole Santa will be on Sunday.

While decorating, an Ars Gratis secret agent came in to drop off a piece for Free Art for Free Art Friday Atlanta. From the official site: “Free Art Friday is an art scavenger hunt that happens on the first Friday of every month. Participants make art and place it around town for others to find and take home.” Plus, it’s totally ‘organized’ (to the extent that it is organized) by an awesome vegan artist, Kenn Twofour.

A handmade George bill with an ancient White Christmas album.

I helped him nestle it in the tree. Within minutes of texting the clues to Twitter with the appropriate Free Art Friday hashtag etc, someone had come to claim it.

I guess I was maybe a teensy bit disappointed that I was in Criminal to decorate and not to get free art, but that’s how it goes sometimes. I totally would have snagged the Ars Gratis piece. But I got over myself… and wouldn’t you know, just an hour or so later I was walking into my favorite vegan barbeque joint, Burnt Fork… and as I approached, I noticed and casually grabbed an Evereman zombie sitting in the window!

It was like the most natural thing in the world to do. Ambling up to my favorite restaurant – oh, there’s an Evereman. Free Art Friday. Yoink.

Such is the beauty of Free Art Friday. Anyone inclined to make something and share it with the world is welcome to do so. If you’re famous (ahem, Catlanta), people will refresh your Twitter feed and hunt ravenously. But even if you’re less so, whoever comes across your art is totally delighted to take it home. Evereman is definitely one of the more famous street artists, and while I’m not too into zombies, I’m really thrilled to have a piece.

If you’d like to keep up with Free Art Friday, you should totally follow them on Twitter and like them on facebook. Here’s the full run-down if you’re still not totally sure what FAFATL is all about.

Now, if you’ll excuse me… I need to go rescue my baby girl Unix.

This post is brought to you by our friends the adjectives – as in, let’s see just how many modifiers I can fit into a single subject line!

Turns out, quite a few!

Last night’s dinner was boss. No two ways about it, just crispy deep-fried tempeh surrounding a bed of sweet and sour greens, topped with the now infamous greens-ribs relish:

It started easily enough – cubed two blocks of tempeh (I used a multi-grain variety) and threw it into some bubblin’ coconut oil. I recommend chopping the tempeh carefully, with a very sharp chef’s knife while cold for a clean cut. Tempeh can crumble, yanno, and nobody likes crumblies in the fry pot.

Cook til brown, turning every couple of minutes.

The greens came together rapidly since I had cleaned and chopped them the previous night. I offered my own (possibly confusing) annotated instructions for this recipe in the last post on kolhrabi, but just for reference, here is the original recipe from Eight Weeks to Optimum Health by Andrew Weil:

ingredients

• one pound of greens (I’ve used kale, collards, turnip, kohlrabi, bok choy…)
• 2 teaspoons of canola oil (I use coconut oil only!)
• 2 large cloves of garlic, minced (I use a lot more than that!)
• 1/4 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes (ditto!)
• 1/4 teaspoon dry mustard powder (pretty much the only thing I don’t change!)
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar (or apple cider vinegar!)
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce (or wheat-free tamari!)
• 1 teaspoon light brown sugar (now you know I use more sugar than this!)

Wash and drain greens, remove any tough stems, slice leaves into 1/2-inch shreds. If using bok choy or Chinese cabbage, trim off the end, slice stems 1/4 inch thick and leaves 1/2 inch thick.

Heat the oil in a skillet (or a large covered pot! Less messy this way) over medium. Add the garlic and red pepper flake and stir-fry 1 minutes.

Add the greens along with the mustard powder and stir to coat with spices.

Combine the rice vinegar, soy sauce, and sugar and add to skillet/pot. Stir thoroughly! Cover! Cook covered over medium heat til greens are tender, about five minutes (more for collards, etc, yaddayadda).

***

Okay, back to the tempeh.

Drain the cubes on paper towels, sprinkle with salt immediately (Bryant Terry tells me that you have a very short window of time for the cooked tempeh to absorb the salt – don’t challenge him on this!). Transfer to a big bowl. Add freshly-cracked black pepper and nutritional yeast to taste. Toss merrily! Ok, done.

To plate, make a pretty little bed of cooked greens in the middle. Surround with tempeh. Top with greens relish, if desired – recipe to come in a future post. This is a great recipe for a date at home or meal-in-lieu-of-dinner-out. Dressed to impress, it looks special, tastes delicious, and makes you feel all-around fancy.

Please let me know if you try the greens recipe, and especially if you fuss around with the measurements. Andrew Weil calls it “Hot and Sour Greens” — I have willed it into Sweet and Sour Greens. Which ingredient will you highlight? Do tell!

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.

Since I didn’t attempt anything awesome in the kitchen today, I’m cheating and doing Whoa Wren’s VeganMoFo2009 survey.

1. Favorite non-dairy milk?

N & I drink Kroger’s Naturally Preferred Organic Red Box Plain soymilk pretty much exclusively. It’s organic, tastes great, and costs $5.00 a gallon (regular price $2.50/half gallon). With Silk climbing as high as $3.89/half gallon in this area, it’s the most economical.

NOTE: We love soymilk so much that, upon being asked at a job interview what he’d do with two million dollars, N said he’d secure a lifetime supply of the stuff for us. (To be fair, that was the “selfish answer”; he also answered magnanimously.)

2. What are the top 3 dishes/recipes you are planning to cook?

Kale creations, bhindi masala, baked winter squash (or spaghetti squash concoctions).

3. Topping of choice for popcorn?

The master recipe is thus: stove-top-popped corn with about a tablespoon of melted earth balance drizzled over it, then tossed, then drenched in Bragg’s aminos from the spray bottle, then tossed, then tossed with white pepper, then tossed with about a third a cup of nutritional yeast. It is so good, sometimes we eat this as a meal…because just thinking about it makes us crave it unbearably…okay, I’m pretty sure that I’ll soon be typing with nutritional yeast breath.

4. Most disastrous recipe/meal failure?

Devastatingly, I recently F-ed up two desserts in one night. Sigh.

5. Favorite pickled item?

Okra! And, you know, boring old cucumbers.

6. How do you organize your recipes?

The cookbooks are on shelves under the microwave. The printed-out collection resides messily in a structurally-unsound plastic folder-type thing. I also love to tape recipes to cabinets so that I can read them easily while working.

7. Compost, trash, or garbage disposal?

Compost. Thanks to our landlords, we have a super composter.

8. If you were stranded on an island and could only bring 3 foods…what would they be (don’t worry about how you’ll cook them)?

1) Stevia, because I’m addicted to it, but since it probably doesn’t count as a food per se I’ll name three more 2) Onions 3) Mushrooms 4) Watermelon

9. Fondest food memory from your childhood?

My mom’s cabbage; my dad’s everything-in-the-cupboards vegan vegetable soups; any of the insane birthday cakes mom designed and ordered for me. She did not mess around with the cake.

10. Favorite vegan ice cream?

(guest written by N): Purely Decadent COOKIE AVALANCHE by SO DELICIOUS/Turtle Mountain

One cannot understand the Avalanche of Cookies without appreciating the taxonomy and characteristics of the manner of things one can find in such an Avalanche.

Surely, one does best when one encounters a veritable King Cookie (gendered bias intentional) in the course of Avalanche consumption. To qualify as Kingly, this nugget of wonder must be of sufficient size; say, approaching roughly half the size of a double stuffed oreo. Such a joyous event happens only about once per carton (so buy several cartons at once).

Princely cookies, thus, are chunks of delicious that are only about a quarter the size of a double stuffed oreo. These are still noble finds and a lucky consumer should enjoy three or four of them per carton.

We suggest giving your Avalanche lots of attention; excavate it carefully by digging in your spoon and flipping over big hunks to seek Kings and Princes jutting out. Then gently carve out the findings and enjoy.

Truly, you will discover that the thrill of cookie archaeology makes the Avalanche the most compelling and fabulous of all vegan ice cream delights.

–N

11. Most loved kitchen appliance?

this one bowl that is perfect for containing things made with the hand mixer. Okay, not actually an appliance, but it facilitates an appliance!

12. Spice/herb you would die without?

I use a lot of salt, thyme, tumeric, coriander and cumin.

13. Cookbook you have owned for the longest time?

I grew up with my mom’s Southern Living Annuals. Of my own, probably Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini by Elizabeth Schneider. I wish everyone could have a copy of this insanely expensive but gorgeous book.

14. Favorite flavor of jam/jelly?

Black raspberry from the Amish

15. Favorite vegan recipe to serve to an omni friend?

The GRIT’s vegan chicken salad (featuring GRIT yeast gravy & GRIT viniagrette)…it went over tremendously at a fourth of july get-together. Or anything smothered in GRIT gravy.

16. Seitan, tofu, or tempeh?

I love seitan (especially Isa’s recipes!!) when I can get it, but I mostly cook with TVP from dixie diner and tofu.

17. Favorite meal to cook (or time of day to cook)?

time: when I’m not hungry.

18. What is sitting on top of your refrigerator?

10 boxes of Kashi cereal (Richmond Kroger is closing ‘em out at $2 a BOX!!); two bicycle helmets; a pair of bicycle gloves; two rolls of unbleached recycled paper towels; dust bunnies

19. Name 3 items in your freezer without looking.

Uhm, not to brag, but I can name basically every item in my freezer without looking. There’s a pound of quinoa, two pounds of Bob’s Red Mill vital wheat gluten, wheat flour, six quart freezer bags of whole raspberries from Michigan, several pounds of butter beans, a bag of Recipe Beginnings peppers, lots of dried Frontier herbs, a 6-lb block of SoyBoy tofu, two loaves of banana nut bread, blueberries from Monica’s great-grandparents’ house in PA, two boxes of Boca burgers, some homemade veggie burgers, bread flour, sesame seeds, frozen peas…the list goes on. Hm, now that I think about it, it’s actually kind of embarrassing to have all that food stored up. Good thing I’ve planned November’s blogging project to be eat-from-the-cupboards!

20. What’s on your grocery list?

I went shopping yesterday and today; yield: Mori-Nu tofu, granola bars, organic olive oil, organic water-packed extra-firm tofu, cereal, soymilk, onions, garlic, sweet potatoes, pickles, veggie burgers, and mustards.

21. Favorite grocery store?

Not too many alternative choices in Richmond. I love our Co-op, but it’s currently in transition and closed. Nature’s Nook is good for hard-to-find ingredients, but not really food. Meijer has a great fresh organic section but it also uses old-fashioned open freezer cases and for that reason I routinely boycott them. Embarrasingly, Kroger is really my BFF. Cheap soymilk, tofu, a decent natural foods section and tons of good manager’s specials.

In Atlanta: Your Dekalb Farmer’s Market & the Buford Highway Farmer’s Market!

22. Name a recipe you’d love to veganize, but haven’t yet.

ANGEL FOOD CAKE. I purchased Bryanna Clark Grogan’s recipe but I haven’t taken the time to make it yet. Maybe this month…?!?!

23. Food blog you read the most (besides Isa’s because I know you check it everyday). Or maybe the top 3?

Probably Kittee’s because she encouraged me in this whole VeganMoFo thing. And Bryanna’s Vegan Feast Kitchen. To be honest, I’m still finding my way in the vegan blogging community.

24. Favorite vegan candy/chocolate?

Catbar by Endangered Species chocolates; coconut marshmallows by Sweet & Sara. Ritter Sport marzipan.

25. Most extravagant food item purchased lately?

The aforementioned 6 freezer bags of Michigan raspberries I brought back from the visit with Jiji.

26. Ingredients you are scared to work with?

xantham gum, especially after Kittee’s post about it.

THE END