Easter Eats

My family doesn't really celebrate Easter anymore, but I spent plenty of time with family and friends over the weekend anyway. Not really in an Easter celebration, just hanging out and eating a lot.

On Saturday afternoon, I drove to Jonesboro, Arkansas (my hometown) to have a picnic with my best friend Sheridan (we've been best friends since junior high, but now she lives in Little Rock ... she was also in Jonesboro visiting her family). Here's Sheridan enjoying a Vegan Bologna Sandwich with Tofutti American Cheese and Mustard:

We picnicked in the huge empty field beside my parent's house. It was a little chilly, but still really fun. Her boyfriend Drew took this picture of Sher and I:

We also had chips and bean dip ... and this awesome Vegan Strawberry Bread Pudding:

It was supposed to be strawberry/rhubarb bread pudding, according to this recipe (click the link to see for yourself). But we couldn't find fresh rhubarb. Didn't really matter though because this was perfect without it.

Even though I'm 28, my parents still give me Easter baskets. Though my dad ordered me a vegan chocolate Easter bunny last month, my parents gave me another Easter gift on Friday — cute new PJs, an iTunes gift card, a Kroger gift card, and this Oster 12-speed blender!!!

My dad read my last post about my stupid old blender and felt sorry for me. Now I can crush ice, make super smoothies, and puree soups! Thanks mama and daddy!

On Sunday, my parents and I stopped by my Granny's house because she'd made a few dishes that she wanted me to test for my cookbook, like this Beans and Greens Soup:

It was comforting and wholesome, and we decided the final recipe would be even better with added diced tomatoes. She also perfected her tasty Vegan Strawberry Pie, another cookbook recipe:

And Granny gave me an Easter basket filled with her home-canned goods — tomatoes, cucumber relish, pickles, green beans, and some garlic from her garden:

Happy Easter!!!

Sufferin' Soup

Since I'll soon be writing a story on Bryant Terry's Vegan Soul Kitchen for the Memphis Flyer (the altweekly paper where I work), I'm trying to test as many of his recipes as possible. Last night, I made his Succatoash Soup with Garlicky Cornbread Croutons:

Let me start by saying that this is a damn tasty soup, especially with those crunchy cornbread croutons and broiled corn kernels on top. But I had a bitch of a time trying to make it thanks to my stupid blender. I hate my blender.

After cooking the limas and corn, you're supposed to puree it in "small batches." But I was impatient and loaded the blender at least three-fourths of the way full with piping hot soup. I knew that was a recipe for disaster, but I did it anyway.

I held the lid on tight and hit the blend button. But my hand over the top wasn't enough to stop the pressure. Hot soup exploded all over my countertops, my stove, my walls, my floor, my face. Ick! Huge, huge mess. But I perservered by starting over and blending in smaller batches.

Unfortunately, my blender sucks and didn't do the best job pulverizing the cooked limas and corn. Bryant's soup looks much creamier in the photo illustration in his book. But regardless, it was really delicious.

On another note, I just returned home from a rooftop party (that was actually held in a ballroom due to the threat of inclement weather) at the Peabody Hotel. My favorite local band — Lord T and Eloise — played and they were amazing.

Lord T and Eloise

If I had to pick a musical mascot for my blog, they'd be it. They dress in colonial formals and powder wigs and play aristocrunk with rapper Al Kapone ... it doesn't get much crunker than that. Seriously. Crunk. Memphis crunk.

The Good, the Bad, and the Raw

Another first Tuesday of the month, another raw food cleanse gone by. Today's uncooked eats were all courtesy of my favorite book, Ani's Raw Food Kitchen. The morning started with this bowl of Luscious Lemon Pudding with Fresh Strawberries:

I'd wanted to make Ani's Fruit Parfait — raw nut-based pudding, fruit, and dehydrated buckwheat oat groats — since I borrowed my parents' dehydrator. But for some crazy reason, my Whole Foods doesn't carry raw buckwheat (at least not that I could find). Instead, I settled for this parfait sans buckwheat. Tasty, light, lemon-y, delicious.

Lunch wasn't quite as successful. I'm not sure what drove me to make the Japanese Miso-Shitake Soup since I'm kinda squeamish about exotic mushrooms (especially eaten raw!):

The mushrooms were too squishy and the soup broth contained WAY too much olive oil for my tastes (even after I cut the recommended amount in half). The whole bowl was just slimy. I ate about half before I couldn't take it anymore. Luckily, I had this Garden Salad with Sesame Sunflower Croutons as well:

Before hitting the gym after work, I scarfed down a Fuji apple and an Apple Pie Larabar.

But the highlight of the day was this awesome dinner — Sun Burger on Sesame Sunflower Bread with Sun-dried Tomato Ketchup and Hot Mustard Sauce:

Since I had the dehydrator for awhile, I made the recipe that's been calling my name since I bought Ani's book. The "bread" is actually more of a flax sunflower seed cracker. Ani suggests dehydrating for less time to make it more pliable and bread-like, but she also said the more cracker-like "breads" keep for months in the fridge. So I made a big batch and dehydrated for extra time.

Here's what the Sun Burger looks like on its own:

Lots of veggies, flax, and sunflower seeds. Yum! And these aren't dehydrated for as long as the bread so they have a softer texture. The "ketchup" and "mustard" really made this meal something special. I served the burger with a huge ass garden salad:

Four hours after dinner, I'm still satisfied. That's an amazing feat on raw day! Other than the icky soup, today's eats were some of my favorites over the year I've been doing this monthly cleanse.

Tofu Eggless Salad Rocks My World

I rarely get food cravings since my meals are typically planned out by the week. I crave whatever I have written in the menu for whatever day I'm on. But sometimes, I NEED a Tofu Eggless Salad Sandwich:

This is one of my favorite warm weather staples — creamy crumbled tofu mixed with Vegenaise, plenty of dill, celery, and onion. Yum yum! Perfect with a few natural potato chips and a small green salad.

Here's my recipe:

1 pound extra firm tofu, drained, pressed, and crumbled
2 stalks celery, minced
1/3 cup green olives, chopped
2 Tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped
1/2 cup Vegenaise
1/4 cup pickle relish
1/2 tsp. turmeric
1/4 tsp. dill weed
1/4 tsp. sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. Spread on sandwiches right away or chill in the fridge.

Makes about 8 sandwiches.

Hey Testers!!! I've posted a recipe for my Dijon Pecan Seitan over at the tester site. Check it out...

Happy Birthday Daddy!

My awesome dad turned 55 on Friday! When I asked what kind of cupcakes he'd like, he requested something low-fat (he's watching the calories) but with peanut butter and chocolate. Now, we all know peanut butter isn't low-fat, but he's cool with "good fat." He just wanted me to sub applesauce for oil in whatever I made.

So I used the opportunity to make a lower fat version of the Peanut Butter Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World:

I used 1/3 cup applesauce in place of the 1/3 cup oil. I also subbed almond milk for the soymilk because that's what I had on hand. And I learned a valuable lesson — you cannot make faux buttermilk by adding vinegar to almond milk. Unlike with soymilk, the almond milk gets chunky and gross. I had to throw my measured almond milk with vinegar out and pour another cup full sans the vinegar.

Here's my dad, decked out in his Harley hat and tee, blowing out his two birthday candles (there's no way I could fit 55 in there!):

And my mom (also sporting her bling-bling Harley belt ... though she's scared to actually get on a motorcycle) enjoyed a cupcake too:

For dinner, we went to Cozymel's, a Mexican chain restaurant that makes fresh guacamole at the table. They don't have any totally vegan dishes on the menu, but I ordered the Lettuce Wrap Vegetable Fajitas without cheese. So, so good. Sorry I didn't take pictures there.

Happy birthday, daddy! And yes, he reads the blog.

Vegan Soul

I'm not the only Memphis vegan specializing in Southern cuisine. Cookbook author and Bluff City native Bryant Terry has been cookin' up vegan soul food for much longer than I. He's the co-author of Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen and the just released cookbook, Vegan Soul Kitchen: Fresh, Healthy, and Creative African American Cuisine.

Bryant grew up in Memphis' Whitehaven neighborhood, but moved to New York City later in life. He's a huge inspiration for my cooking and his delicious dishes prove that Southern food doesn't have to be all about grease and fatback. I'm reviewing his latest cookbook for the Memphis Flyer, the alt-weekly newspaper I write for.

But you can't review a cookbook without making some of the recipes. Duh! Earlier this week, I made two of Bryant's favorites (both are located in the Top Six Good Eats section). This Cajun Creole Spiced Tempeh with Creamy Grits was out of this world good:

The dish is Bryant's take on traditional shrimp 'n' grits, a staple in the Deep South. The spiciness of the tempeh contrasts well with the creamy corn grits. And on the side, I cooked up his Citrus Collards Raisin Redux:

I didn't know it was possible to cook greens for a minimum amount of time and still manage to mask the bitterness. Down South, we typically cook our greens to death — at least an hour. They lose their bright green color, but they taste amazing. However, Bryant's method only takes about 15 minutes and they taste like heaven.

I'll be reviewing the book for the newspaper soon, so I'll post a link at that time. Until then, I'll be testing a few more of Bryant's dishes.

Beans 'n' Cornbread

It don't get no more Southern that a big ol' bowl of beans and cornbread (and yes, I meant to use a double negative and an improper contraction). On Monday night, I hit up my pantry for a Navy and Black Bean Soup Mix:

It was one of those mixes with a seasoning packet and a mini package of pasta and sun-dried tomatoes to mix in at the end of cooking time. It'd been in the pantry forever, so I finally decided to toss it into the soup pot.

And everybody know you can't have beans without cornbread. That would be insane! So I took this opportunity to work on my Jalepeno Cornbread recipe for the cookbook:

My original cornbread contained flax seed in place of eggs and it always seemed too gummy. So I made this batch without the seeds and it worked great! It still needs some kind of binder cause it got little crumbly. But I'm working on it!