Obligatory reminder to please please please check out and enter the raffle if you haven’t, prizes and good karma await you!  Even if you just pass the link around, that would be a big help.  Onward!

Saturday was Brian’s 29th birthday, a day which usually really excites him, but the last few birthdays have been kind of…crapped on, but we managed to have fun anyway.  Two years ago, we rented a pinball machine place for two hours, ate pizza and cupcakes, good times were had.  Last year, I made him mint chocolate chip cookies AND a key lime pie AND peanut butter cucpakes, and our friend Nick gave him a present that is Not Safe For Blogs, but it involved music and assless chaps.  This year, Brian was not up to a party, so I decided I would make him donuts.  This is kind of selfish as I haven’t had a donut in five freaking years, and we live in the home of Mel-O-Cream donuts, a midwest chain.  But then I realized that he would probably be mad if I deep fried things without him, so I surprised him with a bowl of risen dough and a borrowed Fry Daddy.

To back up, we started our day by going to the Farmer’s Market.  No wait, we started our day by being woken up for the third day in a row of guys fixing the roof, which literally shakes our whole room, at 6:30 in the morning.  Also, I took a Zyrtec.  That was Bad Decision #1.  When we got home, I was already about to fall asleep, so for our post-market breakfast  I threw together some tofu/daiya/tofurkey breakfast sandwiches.

Then I brought my pillow downstairs, we turned on Arrested Development to drown out the banging, and I took a nap under a dog.  When I woke up, the roofers were gone (it was 100 degrees for all three of the days they were up there), I felt like crap, and Brian was about to leave to have lunch with his mom.  While he was gone, I made the dough, did some dishes, and cleaned out the fridge.  Then he came home and with jazz hands, I revealed the surprise.  Pro tip:  jazz hands make everything more impressive.

Since I know you’ll ask, I got the recipe from Kelly when I put the call out on google+ for vegan donut recipes.  It’s from her new book so I can’t post it, but I was given other suggestions so here’s one, and apparently there is a recipe in Vegan Celebrations as well.

While our results weren’t perfect, it was a learning experience.  We used a plastic cup to cut them, and I think the lack of a sharp cut led to them not puffing up as much as they should.  I made a coconut milk glaze (which I made a little too thin), and then I had planned to make this curd but with lime juice and zest.  Then I realized I had used all of my cornstarch to make the glaze (I had to make my own powdered sugar), so I tried using tapioca flour, which…well, it wasn’t curd.  I was able to thin it out with the lime juice and more coconut milk, but then when we tried to fill the donuts from the sides it leaked out.  So they were messy, but delicious.  Now I know that donut making isn’t THAT scary.  It is gross when you smell like oil from head to toe afterwards, though.

(Bigger photos are on flickr)

Here is where the bad decisions come into play.  Thanks to the lack of sleep over the past few days and the Zyrtec, and the fact that I ate a ton of donut holes (only one whole donut, though), I took another nap and had to peeeeeeeel myself off of the bed at 6:30 to feed the dog.  Fried foods and I are not friends, and the sugar rush and crash didn’t help.  We went out to dinner with friends and I gleefully said, “I’ll just have the garden salad.”  I felt much better after I ate a big bowl of vegetables.  Then I ate another donut.  Because I am STUPID.  I went home and slept for eleven glorious hours.

This morning, I opted to deal with the burning eyes and general crappy feelingness in exchange for staying awake.  I did NOT eat the last donut.

Last month, Brian and I went to see The Thermals in St. Louis.  Funny side story, they were opening for Matt and Kim, and Brian and I had no idea that Matt and Kim are super fucking popular until we were eating across from the venue and saw the line wrapped around the block.  I didn’t bother trying to sneak my camera in because it was clear we wouldn’t be getting into the stage area and I was right!

We had some issues getting around town at first, thanks to road construction and dear god, I never want to hear an electronic voice say “Recalculating!” as long as I live.  So we ended up with less time than I had planned, and kind of had to fly through our pre-dinner destinations.

Our first stop was Sweet Art bakery.  They’re all vegetarian and have vegan bakery items daily, and they tweet those selections each day.  I asked the day before what they would have and they told me, so I knew what to ask for.  I was hoping to get a sandwich to tide me over until dinner, but since we were running so late I just decided to loot the bakery.  Unfortuantely,  it wasn’t cupcake happy hour, but I got two cupcakes and a brownie, which I promptly ate and it was big, fudgy, and delicious.

I’m sad that I didn’t get to eat lunch, just a glance at the menu on the wall made me excited.  But the cupcakes were awesome, I ate the vanilla xgfx one with chocolate buttercream after the show,  and the cherry almond one the next day.  The frosting wasn’t too sweet and there wasn’t too much or too little of it.  I am definitely going back every time I go to St. Louis!

After quickly dashing to Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s to look for Field Roast slices for a friend (and failing), we headed over to Pi Pizzeria.  Brian and I tried to eat here when we saw Ted Leo, but the wait was horrendous.  This time we planned ahead and showed up almost two hours before the doors across the street at The Pageant even opened (which made the line around the block even more bizarre).  The wait was still horrendous, and we couldn’t wander too far because we had one of those vibrating ‘your table is ready’ things to hold onto.  It was crowded and loud inside, and I was really hoping we would get a table outside.  I almost had a stroke when a guy showed up, alone, thirty minutes after we had and was almost immediately seated at a two-person table outside.  But I have no idea how they decide who goes where and when, so I kept my stroke to myself for the next 45 minutes that we had to wait.

So was it worth it?  For the ambiance, no.  I felt crowded as fuck and we could barely talk.  For the pizza?  Hells yeah!  Pi has daiya, match meats, and all kinds of toppings.  Their thin crust is vegan, supposedly to get a vegan deep dish you have to call the day before (?) so they can not butter a pan.  I knew this was going to be a pricey pizza, so I resisted the urge to dump fifteen toppings on and went with artichoke, sundried tomato, and roasted garlic.  Brian had mushroom on his half, and the waitress asked if he wanted daiya or dairy cheese on his half (um, ew, they’ll melt together).  Also, since we didn’t get drinks or an appetizer the price wasn’t too crazy, I want to say $20 but I don’t remember for sure.  It’s definitely a treat, but vegan pizza that isn’t just a cheeseless Papa John’s pizza usually is.

I don’t know if they take reservations, but in the future I wouldn’t try to eat there on a weekend or at dinnertime without one (or maybe try one of the other locations that isn’t right across from a huge music venue).  We still ended up missing part of the first band.  P.S.  The Thermals were aweeeeesome.

I am not a big 4th of July fan.  I’m not especially patriotic, especially after sending my husband off to do two tours in Iraq.  I don’t drink, I don’t like being kept up until two a.m. listening to fire crackers, and obviously I don’t want to go to meaty cookouts.  Especially if said cookouts are prefaced with, “We will have [meat], [other meat], [third meat], [non-vegan side], and chips.  Sorry, Katie!”  So i’ve turned the 4th into another holiday where I just make a big meal composed of whatever the fuck I want.  Especially since the beginning of July is my veganniversary!  Five years, what what!

My menu was pretty simple.  I had been hoarding a pack of tofurkey beer brats and vegan buns that I got from Whole Foods last month.  I had an abundance of produce from the Farmer’s Market, including cucumbers that I shouldn’t have bought because my cucumber plant in the garden is blowing up.  I also had a crazy amount of summer squash, and some asparagus that had gotten shoved to the back of the drawer, so after removing the smelly tips, this was its last chance to be eaten.

(Sorry for the poor photos, it was already half dark out.)

All of the preparation was pretty simple, I spent more time peeling and chopping than anything else.  The kitchen looked like the set of a vegetable snuff film by the time I was done.  The cucumbers are marinated in a vinegar/water/oil solution with salt and pepper and a little sugar, the squash was cut up with potatoes and roasted in the oven with fresh herbs, the asparagus was grilled and then tossed into the oven, and the peppers and onions were sauteed.  Brian and I spent most of our day on dessert, so we didn’t want to make anything time consuming or fancy for dinner.

Hello, lovely!  The cake has actually been in the fridge for a week, it’s a summer fruit buckle cake (tester for Isa and Terry), I made a double batch just so I could have a second one for the holiday.  It’s full of sweet cherries, blueberries, and awesomeness.  I’m really excited for this recipe to come out, it’s easy to play with so you can mess with the oil/sugar content quite a bit without a big impact on the final product (I replaced half of the oil with applesauce in this one).  Then Brian and I made Rad Whip for the first time, and I broke out the ice cream maker to make peach ice cream with fresh peaches.  I used the basic recipe from Veganomicon, and threw in just a little bit of cinnamon.  It was AMAZING and i’m sad that it’s all gone now. 

Now to move backwards through food porn time!  Woooooooooooooooosh!

I realize that summer officially only started a few weeks ago, but I don’t care.  Is it above 70 degrees?  Are all of my sweaters packed up?  Is the Farmer’s Market up and running?  Are Brian and I fighting over the air conditioner?  That’s how I measure the start of summer.

I had the brilliant idea that I should exclusively take salads to work, I will get more vegetables in me and since I eat at my desk, I will have a longer lunch trying to eat a big salad instead of a teeny box of noodles.  Well, all that really means is I have a longer time to get interrupted by things like the phone.  Whatever, i’m sticking to it as much as I can!

Salad #1 is mesclun mix, cucumbers, leftover grilled asparagus, and leftover soycurls.  A container of homemade vinaigrette and Joanna’s minty fruit salad are also in there.  P.S.  There are two things that make me think, ‘yep, summer!’ One is putting pesto on everything, the other is making that fruit salad.

Salad #2 is more mesclun, cucumbers, half of the biggest organic mango i’d ever seen, and tempeh mixed with veganaise.  I was kind of sick of the vinaigrette I had made and didn’t have a lot of time, so I just steamed the tempeh in the microwave while I was putting everything else together and then just mixed it with the veganaise.

On Memorial Day, I decided that Brian and I were going to have a pizza party.  I mostly decided to make multiple pizzas because Brian is a one-topping (usually mushroom) kind of guy, and if I am going to go through the trouble of making pizza, I would like to have a little more fun.  We made one with just Upton’s Naturals Chorizo, one with potatoes, seitan sauage and mushroom, and then my fancy pizza.  I laid down some pesto, then threw on a whole mess of caramelized onions, garlic, and sundried tomatoes.  Then I decided to make a stuffed crust because I wanted to use up the bag of Daiya I had bought, so the little bit left didn’t get lost in the depths of the fridge.

One of my favorite summer activities here is going to the Farmer’s Market.  I love getting up super early, riding my bike downtown, coming home and putting all of goodies away, getting some chores done, and then spending the hottest part of the day upstairs watching t.v. until dinner time.

Delicious Farmer’s Market brunch!  Pesto grilled tofu, red flannel hash from Vegan Brunch, strawberries with mint and agave, and collards.

One thing that helps get me out of bed on Saturdays is the fact that I can now buy a hot vegan breakfast at the market.  I KNOW!  There is a fairly new local company who sells mostly vegan (and i’m pretty sure all vegetarian) food items at our health food store, and they have a booth at the market.  The sell smoothies, something with eggs in it, and the most amazing tofu tacos ever.  The tofu is pressed like crazy so it’s nice and chewy, and the sauce is to kill for.  Seriously, I am about to murder this girl forthe recipe because I tried to replicate the sauce at home and failed.  The only bummer is that instead of selling smaller tacos two for $6, the now sell fuller ones for $4 each, which means half of your filling falls out.