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.

Where do you stand on no-fat-added cooking? If you’re a vegan who reads cookbooks and keeps up with blogs, you’re likely familiar with the concept of “steam-frying” in particular. I first became acquainted with it years ago, via Bryanna Clark Grogan’s Almost-No-Fat Cookbooks and Vegan Feast blog. Isa covered it in Appetite for Reduction, released December 2010. The vegan cook who seems to be getting the most attention for no-fat-added cooking lately is Lindsay, of Happy Herbivore, with her eponymous cookbooks – but the methods are nothing new.

Basically, steam-frying proponents say that instead of starting with a little oil in your pan (and then adding the onion or other vegetables or proteins), you should save yourself the fat and use a little water for “frying”. (It’s not “frying”, at all, of course – frying by definition means using fat.) The water sizzles and steams the food. Over high heat, it will evaporate quickly, but you just need to add a splash of water to keep it going. (And be sure to work that thin spatula, ‘cuz stuff sticks!)

Can you guess my position on steam-frying?

Probably: I have long been a staunch opponent. ”I will use less fat”, I concede, “perhaps one tablespoon instead of three. And I’ll even measure it so I know I’m not cheating. But I will not “steam-fry” my food!” As a classically-inclined cook, I took the idea of doing without a little oil in the pan as an almost personal affront. Oil is necessary for caramelization, even cooking, and crispiness… AKA, deliciousness! I love fat, flavor, richness, lusciousness – and I love my big fat body, too!

But here’s the thing: I had never actually tried true steam-frying before today. And when I did, I made something truly tasty.

My first steam-fried red curry with onions, garlic, bell pepper, tempeh, potato, and spinach.

I was shocked. Dumbfounded. Speechless. How does this taste good? It’s wrong! After all, one of my culinary adages has long been the following: everything good starts with a fried onion.

Now I’m eating my hat and admitting the truth: I managed to make something delicious with no added oil.

I should point out, however, that this dish was by no means fat-free: it contained a scant half-cup of coconut milk, which contains 17 grams of fat. The tempeh has 11 grams per serving. Put these together in the amount that I ate, and I got 14 grams before we even started thinking about added oil (which would contribute another 7 grams if I stuck to one tablespoon).

(HEY! MAYBE THAT’S WHY IT TASTED SO GOOD! The tempeh and the little bit of coconut milk saved the day! I shall have to try this steam-frying business with a lower-fat dish.)

Still, I’m glad I saved myself the 7 grams and attendant calories. I love fat, but honestly, I didn’t miss it. And that’s the point, right?

Here’s what I did:

• In a large skillet I heated about 1/3 cup water on high.
• Once it was simmering, I added onion: I started with half a small organic red onion, diced, and half a small organic white onion, diced.
• Then a large organic garlic clove, thinly sliced, and half a large organic red bell pepper, chopped.
• Stir-fried these in the water til the water evaporated, then added a little more water, then permitted to evaporate again.
• In the meanwhile, mixed about 1.5 tablespoons of red curry paste in some hot water, added 1.5 tbsp organic, fair-trade sugar, 2 tbsp organic lime juice, 1.5 tbsp organic tamari, and about 1/2 cup organic coconut milk.
• Poured over the onion sauce and let it simmer violently.
• Crumbled a block of organic tempeh over, heated through, folding with my spatula often.
• Added slices of cooked organic potato, mixed and heated through.
• Added handfuls of organic spinach and steamed gently.
• Served!

In conclusion: steam-frying may be an awesome power to wield, but it must be employed thoughtfully. At best, it will save you some fat/calories without detracting from the overall finished flavor, but it won’t give you the crispy/caramelly flavor and texture you expect on onions/veg/proteins. Use in moderation. :-)

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.

exciting things are happening! Metro-Atlanta counties will be getting 3.2 billion for schools, Sunday liquor sales for the first time in over a century (except in Forest Park), Ohio voters ‘emphatically’ reject Kasich’s anti-union law, and the crazies in Mississippi won’t get their way.

Meanwhile, Nate and I spend the evening doing crafty things: making video game/8-bit Perler art, or “sprites“. We wanted to DO something – not just sit around and worry. Create, not imbibe. And time really flies when you’re making sprites, all the better for those of us keeping an eye on returns.

First, I cooked a mostly from-scratch meal for the first time in possibly two weeks? Intense emergency dentalwork + the worst cold in years put me out of commission… but I’ll be back in time for Crack the Plates deliveries on Tuesday, hooray! Tonight, just a simple homemade tomato sauce with sauteed seasoned soy curls over tortiglioni – easy, but still with a sense of accomplishment. Mostly, though, we made things:

Nate finishing a project.

My Mario garden. Interested in perler crafts? Learn more here.

Perl lookin’ pretty.

Taking note of her father perilously balancing a netbook, Unix decided she just had to join him. He was not so pleased.

“What, papa? Dis are problem?” “Ok, I are guess not Unix.”

And that’s how we spent election night 2011.

(October is VeganMoFo and I’m blogging about why more vegans should move to Atlanta, Georgia – a diamond in the dirty south. See the first post for the manifesta.)

I am not in the habit of waking up early. I enjoy morning’s peace, but lately I’ve been going to bed past midnight and getting up as late as possible – usually between 9 & 10, slackers! Travel & meal delivery work (which includes early farmer’s market trips) are just about the only compelling reasons I have to drag myself out of bed before nine.

Reason 2: Dough Bakery

Except, of course, for Dough Bakery – the pop-up vegan bakeshop at the corner of Hurt Street and Dekalb Ave. Vegan owners Laura & Kevin own the building and bake everything from scratch, but they’re still holding out for the begrudging blessings from state & local licensors that will allow them to open for realsies. Til that glorious day, you’ll need to like them on facebook, follow them on twitter, and sign up for their e-mail list so you’ll be among the first to know when they announce their quietly-famous Stealth Sunday brunches. The notice usually goes out just before the weekend.

Because they have a limited stock and always, always, always sell-out, plan to arrive sooner than later. It’s usually mostly sweets with some savory food, and while everything is delicious and in short supply, the savory stuff goes first. Today, for instance, they stocked just eleven of these ooey-gooey sausage, egg & cheeze-filled handpies. Only six were there wen I showed up at almost 8:30!

That’s locally-Gutenfleischers-made sausage at the bottom, Dough’s own proprietary “egg” blend in the middle, and everybody’s favorite Daiya on top, all tucked inside an extraordinary savory crust.

Just beautiful.

Today Dough had bread loaves, banana & pumpkin whoopie pies, a great big peach coffee cake, sticky buns with walnuts, cinnamon rolls with lotsa icing, snickerdoodle cookies, and maybe a couple of other things too. I have never been disappointed with anything from Dough Bakery and like most great cooks, they just keep getting better with experience. So buy as much as your budget will allow and know that you’re helping a great new independent vegan-owned-and-operated business get off the ground. Their prices are really reasonable, too – almost every week I try everything on the menu for a total of around $20. This week my tab was sixteen and I used Square to pay.

Pumpkin whoopie pie.

walnut sticky bun

peach coffee cake

cinnamon roll

another inside view

There’s no reason not to take MARTA to Dough – like Brick Store featured yesterday, it’s right next to MARTA. Brick Store sits atop the Decatur station, while Dough is across the street from the Inman Park/Reynoldstown station.

BONUS: a picture of my cat Rarry, who had a bee in her bonnet this morning! Runnin’ around, actin’ a fool – I think she’s really into the basking in the sun with a cool breeze combo. (Did I mention that we have gorgeous weather here?) Oh, and scratching the hell out of the little couch. There’s always that.

Farewell, wherever ye fare! – but seriously, move to Atlanta. Another reason up tomorrow!

I’m pleased as punch that another round of meal deliveries found their way to fridges in Atlanta! From midtown to Decatur to East Atlanta and beyond, folks will be eating well this week.

The third round was particularly exciting because I added a new family! For those interested in the business side, I’ve been serving the same three families since delivery one. These folks – the “first week faithfuls” – are incredibly special to me because they took a chance when I was just starting out, and supported me as I worked out all the kinks. I couldn’t have been able to get off my feet without them!

Of course, I am looking for limited expansion, which is why I was thrilled to add someone new this week. I say “limited” because I’m actively discerning the upper bound of my orders and will likely be placing a weekly maximum soon. This is not because I’m not ambitious, or because I don’t care about reaching a wider audience. I do. Just not… now.

For now, I’m totally satisfied serving a handful of my friends. After all, that’s what inspired this whole project: friendship, partnership. Teaming up with innovative, interesting people who already care about food & sustainability but don’t have the luxury of time to make the kind of food they want to eat… because they’re pursuing other passions! From sewing to running small businesses to programming & other web-work, my friends inspire and challenge me, and I’m grateful for our mutually-supportive relationship.

Week three, shall we? Click “more…” to keep reading and see lots of pictures!!

Today’s news: a heat-stricken US on the cusp of default, a body count in Oslo that continues to rise, Amy Winehouse found dead, and folks so desperate they’ve taken to stealing GRAPES and BEES and shipping meth in CAT FOOD. Yeah, lots to be miserable about.

Thankfully there’s also a grand gala opening for New Paltz’s only vegan & fair-trade chocolate shop, thrilled New Yorkers getting ready to wed tomorrow, a vegan featured in my local paper, my cats sleeping in the same bed, and a leading Republican with a last name that lends itself to dick jokes.

Oh, and the famously-offensive Dairy Council retracted their hideously misleading and super-sexist “Everything I Do Is Wrong” campaign. You see this? You hear about this? Yeah. In weak moments I feel like I’d be OK if everyone I knew just gave up dairy. It’s so weird and wrong and if you use it you’re not only supporting an industry that exists to cruelly hijack the reproductive systems of cows (hellooo feminism+food!), but you’re giving a thumbs-up to the assholes who think it’s hilarious to give PMS-sufferers the finger! Sigh.

Enough with the reality check. Let’s go dream about vacation…

wednesday 13 july 2011: our last full day of fun in the Hudson Valley area

One of Nate’s dear friends – who he met when he was eight! – has been giving tours at the Vanderbilt Mansion near Hyde Park for a few years, so we decided to go hear how he’d perfected the spiel. It was fantastic! Dimitri wrote the tour himself and delivers it with a clever eye for his audience. Ever the historian, he shyly confessed two tracks to the narrative, or how he frames it differently depending on his tour’s demographic. If they seem younger and more left-leaning, he highlights the wealth and obsolescence and decay – the “had it comin’” we liberals lap up; if they’re older and more conservative, he focusses on the family’s deep commitments to philanthropy, education, and social services. What a guy, eh?

Some (possibly illegal) pictures:

the Vanderbilt Mansion, Hyde Park, NY

And on the sixth day, the vegans deepened friendships, drove carefully, and copiously ingested sodium.

Or something like that!

Hey pals, thanks for checking back! I’m home in Atlanta now, listening to american analog set and shaking my head over the volume of posts I need to share in the next few days. The good news: we just got internet back after going without since early May! Going day-by-day seems like a decent strategy now, so here goes:

tuesday 12 july

Started our day by adding several more miles to the clicker en route to Pine Bush, NY for take-out from Pure City Healthy Vegetarian Restaurant, at new friend Mark’s suggestion.

On Sunday a bunch of Atlanta-area folks gathered at Sauced for the first Atlanta Vegan Drinks! Inspired by the success of NYC’s Vegan Drinks, @atlvegan Brett worked with chef-owner Ria Pell to develop a special menu and cocktail for the kick-off event. Brett’s hope for Atlanta Vegan Drinks is that, by bringing together a diverse group of people, we might expand and support our local vegan community. A little birdie told me he did some work on the next get-together today, so go ahead and follow @atlvegandrinks on Twitter for the most up-to-date information!

As anyone who was there would tell you, the first event was an unparalleled success. Ria & her partner Kiki welcomed us like guests in their home (their third home!). Our servers were delightful even as they managed a way-bigger-than-expected crowd. The back porch atmosphere was eclectic and inviting, with three sets of family-style tables that encouraged mingling as best as possible. And the food – yowzah! Just check out the menu:

Ticks/asterisks denote what we ordered – and believe me, we loved every bite! My only regret is not splurging for a signature cocktail… next time, next time!

Check out those big ol’ smiles! We honestly couldn’t have been happier. Thanks again to the Sauced/Bluebird team for such a memorable evening!

Last Wednesday I got a certain bee in my bonnet, an urge to cook everything in my Vegetable Husband CSA basket in a single night. It was inspired by the basket’s arrival, an already-full fridge, and the desire to cook a (pretty darn close) farm-to-table meal. Since the produce, from Serenbe and Jenny Jack Sun farms, was likely picked just before it got to me, I wanted to honor its perfection, and the dedication & ingenuity of those who procured it, by cooking it immediately.

Besides, there was like, nowhere to store it.

So what’d this crazy vegan do? She cooked her whole CSA in one night, of course!

this basket…

• head lettuce, Serenbe
• beets with greens, Serenbe
• broccoli, Serenbe
• collards, Serenbe
• sugar snap peas, Serenbe
• green garlic, Jenny Jack Sun
• mixed squashes, Jenny Jack Sun
• sweet yellow onions, Jenny Jack Sun

inspired this…

Vegetable Husband Tasting Menu

raw beet salad, local mulberries

lettuce-and-mint-braised sugar snap peas

summer squash with fennel, lemon zest, pepitas

broccoli and georgia peach with mango juice, black sesame seeds

summer squash mélange

southern-style collard, beet, and broccoli greens