Joan Jett, Cupcakes, and Cooking Demos!

Sorry for the lack of posts since Thursday ... I'll catch you up on what's been going on. On Thursday night, I led a Tofu Chocolate Mouse cooking demo at our monthly Food Awareness vegetarian group meeting at Wild Oats. Thanks to Steph from Poopie Bitch for snapping this photo:


Sorry, but there are no final photos of the mousse. It's really simple to make though. Just blend one pack of silk tofu in a food processor. Melt down one bag of vegan chocolate chips in a saucepan and add 3 tablespoons of maple syrup and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Pour the chocolate into the processor and blend with the tofu. Voila!

On Friday night and Saturday, the Dutchman and I (and my friends Sheridan, Greg, Misti, and Holley) got crunk at the annual Beale Street Music Fest in Tom Lee Park on the Mississippi River. We saw Joan Jett, Lou Reed, Arrested Development, Disturbed (not that I care, but that show made the Dutchman's day), and heard part of My Chemical Romance (my favorite band at the festival that unfortunately got sort of rained out). Not only did we see plenty of great shows on four stages throughout the park, but we ended up covered in mud ... every year, the festival is somewhat rained out and the park becomes a giant mud pit.


Needless to say, I ate nothing but crap while I was there Friday night and all day Saturday. My dinner at the show last night was a heaping mound of Saratoga Chips, those thinly sliced grease-drenched homemade potato chips commonly sold at fairs and festivals. Each year, they usually have one booth (out of like 100) selling vegan burgers or burritos. But this year, I searched high and low and could not find it. So I settled for crap food.

Then today was my mom's birthday, so I made whole wheat vegan Coconut Heaven Cupcakes from Vegan with a Vengeance:


Again with the fattening, not-so-heathly food, but hey, at least I used whole-wheat pastry flour and light coconut milk. These were aptly named because they were, indeed, heaven.

On Saturday morning, before heading down to Music Fest, I went to the Memphis Farmer's Market for the first time this season! I love the farmer's market so much! It's only open on Saturdays from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m., and I've been busy and/or out of town since it's grand season opening two weeks ago. It's still early in the growing season, so pickins were slim. Here's my small haul:


I brought home some fresh arugala (in the plastic bag), one bunch of kale, and some wild Vidalia onions. I also picked up a special treat for my dog, Datsun. A lady at the market was selling Pupcakes for $1:


I forget what was in them, but I believe it was vegetarian, just not vegan. It definitely had cheddar cheese in it. But Datsun's an omni so he didn't mind.

Also, the Liz Lovely cookies I won on Jess The Domestic Vegan's blog came in on Friday. That was super fast!


There are five kinds: Cowboy Cookies, Cowgirl Cookies, Peanut Butter Classics, Ginger Snapdragons, and Mochadamia Mountains. I plan on doing cookie review posts as I sample each one, and though I tried the peanut butter cookie yesterday, I'm going to save it for an entire post later this week because this ones getting a little long.

On a final note, I want to say thanks to Alice in Veganland for awarding me the "E for Excellence" award for my blog!


This really means a lot to me. I've only been doing this since December, and it's become such a fun obsession. I think I have more fun photographing my food now than I do eating it! And that's saying a lot because I'm an eater. I'm now going to pass the award on to three others (whose links I will add in the morning from my work computer because my home computer doesn't give me the option of linking...does anyone know how to fix this btw?)

And the E for Excellence Award goes to (drumroll, please):

Steph from Poopie Bitch
Kittee Kake at Kittie Kake
Melisser at The Urban Housewife