Sacred Chow and the Holiday Green Festival

Yesterday was the US Veg Corps first annual Green Holiday Festival, which was a vegan holiday shopping festival in NYC. Dennis and I headed in to Manhattan to check it out, even though our Christmas shopping is already done. I was really looking forward to seeing the guest speakers and picking up some vegan chocolate. 

 

We went the festival to scout things out, and then we took a walk down to Sacred Chow for brunch. Sacred Chow is a cute and tiny little cafe on Sullivan Street. They’re know for the Tapas, which, sadly, I have not tired yet. I’m not a big coffee drinker but I had a hankering for a cappuccino. Mmm… foamy!

 

 I had the Breakfast Sandwich. Yes, that giant mound of food is a sandwich! A yummy, yummy sandwich.

 

  Dennis had the Biscuits and Gravy. Biscuits and gravy were one of his favorite dishes growing up, so he was super excited about having it recreated vegan-style at Sacred Chow.
 
After brunch, we took a nice stroll through Washington Square Park and then up walked back up to the Festival. We wandered around and bought a few gifts for ourselves. We bought some books, a necklace from For the Animals Sanctuary, some Rescue Chocolate, and a bottle of Cold and Sinus Blaster to get us through cold season. Victoria Moran gave us Main Street Vegan buttons too! Victoria gave a really wonderful talk called “Life After Veganism”. Her new book Main Street Vegan is due out in April. 

 

 Here’s a very windblown me with Victoria after her talk. Check out her awesome vegan boots!
 
  And here’s a picture of a cute little squirrelly that I posed for me in Washington Square Park. Isn’t he adorable? 
 

Spork Fed

 

Spork Fed by Jenny Engel and Heather Goldberg is chock full of delicious, gourmet vegan recipes, but you don’t have to be vegan or a wiz in the kitchen to cook from this book. The recipes are easy to follow and use common ingredients found at just about any grocery store. If you want to learn how to make your own tofu and seitan, this is the book to use. If you’d rather use store bough versions, that’s fine too. The book has a nice clean layout so that the instructions are easy to read, and it’s full of mouthwatering photographs. There are trivia tidbits and nutritional information scattered throughout as well as suggested menus. Jenny and Heather have their own “Sporkie terminology” which makes you feel like you’re in the kitchen cooking with friends. I really loved cooking from this book, and I have lots of recipes still bookmarked, so I know I’ll be hitting the kitchen with it again soon.

  

 I started out with Mushroom Bourguignon. I made this the day that NJ was hit with a freak snowstorm in late October, and I went out into the dangerous streets to get red wine for it. It was totally worth it, as this dish was amazing.  This is the perfect warming dish for a cold snowy day – I almost want it to snow so I have a good excuse to make it again.

 

The next day, when it was warm and sunny and hard to believe that we had been hit with a blizzard 24 hours before, I made Seitan Scallopini with Mushrooms in Red Wine Sauce. I didn’t purposely pick two mushroom and red wine recipes in a row, but after making this I realized that the two go together really well. This was incredibly delicious!

 

 If you know people who don’t like broccoli, you need to make this Broccolini in Pecan Brown Butter Sauce for them. This dish was so full of flavor that Dennis and I couldn’t get enough of it. 

 

This Ginger, Maple and Mustard Glazed Tempeh was super fast to make and really delicious. It went perfectly the the broccolini.

 

 This Cashew Cream Fettuccini Alfredo with Sautéed Spinach and Cheese Crisps looks super fancy but it was very easy to make and came together really quickly. And the cheese crisps make it seem like it was a dish that came from a restaurant – not my own kitchen.

 

 

The Triumph of the Lentil Giveaway!

 The Triumph of the Lentil by Hilda Jorgensen is chock full of recipes for delicious, quick and healthy, soy-free vegan meals. The recipes are all made with whole-foods, and as the name suggests, quite a lot of them use lentils. Seitan and other beans such as chickpeas and cannellini beans make an appearance too. Just about every recipe has a photo and each recipe states both the amount of kitchen time it takes up the the total time it takes to prepare and cook. Food sensitivities are taken into account and each recipe is labeled to let you know if it’s gluten-free, low fat, nightshade free and onion and garlic free. The book begins with info on replacing soy, a vegan nutrition primer and some basics on cooking beans and whole grains.  There are even chapters on healthy baking and raw desserts. I’m looking forward to baking the peanut butter cookies, made with chickpea flour! This book is a must-have for your vegan bookshelf, especially for those who have soy sensitivities. 

 

On a side note, Hilda is Australian so the book has an international flair. What we know as cookies are called biscuits, bars are called slices, Swiss chard is called sliverbeet and raisins are called sultanas. The terminology isn’t so foreign that you won’t know you’re doing though, and in most cases the “American” word for something is listed in parentheses after it. The recipes include temperatures in both celsius and fahrenheit, and both grams and ounces are used for measurements.

 

One lucky person will win a copy of The Triumph of the Lentil! To enter to win, simply leave a comment on this post telling what your favorite lentil recipe is. The contest ends on Friday, December 9th at midnight EST. I will announce the winner on Saturday the 10th. US residents only, please. Good luck!

 

 

 

Nasoya Giveaway Winner

 Congratulations to Jessica, who won this week’s Nasoya giveaway!

 

And some exciting news from Nasoya—the launch of its first mobile app! The app called All Things Tofu is available for free in the Apple and Android markets and is a build off Tofu U.  All Things Tofu brings the step-by-step recipes and demonstration videos from Tofu U to cooks’ mobile devices, allowing tofu lovers to access their favorite tofu guides while in the kitchen, supermarket and beyond.

 

All Things Tofu features include:

 

  • Meals: Dish Whiz, Nasoya’s Tofu U recipe search tool, allows users to select the type of meal, ingredients, and dietary preferences to generate a customized tofu recipe.
  • Rate and Share: Rate your favorite recipes and share with friends via email, Facebook or text message.
  • Pledge: Take the Tofu U healthy living pledge and get rewarded! Cook tofu once a week for a month with the help of Nasoya coupons. Graduate from Tofu U and receive fun gear like a Tofu U t-shirt or Nasoya gym shorts.
  • Reels: A video series demonstrating tofu tips such as where to find it in the grocery store, how to press and various preparation methods.

 

 

Vegan Pie in the Sky

 

 While I’ve always had a sweet tooth, I will admit that pie is usually the last thing I would pick when choosing dessert. I usually go for rich chewy brownies, cupcakes with fluffy frosting or cookies with gooey chocolate chips. But recently I’ve been rewatching my Twin Peaks dvd box set, and that dashing Agent Cooper is such a good ad man for “damn fine pie”, that I’ve found myself with a hankering for some. Lucky for me, Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero have just released their newest book, Vegan Pie in the Sky, and they have never steered me wrong before. My life literally changed when I started baking with recipes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and I was crowned “The Cupcake Queen” by my friends and coworkers, so I knew Vegan Pie in the Sky would change the way I look at pie. And I was right.

 

I’ve been baking up a pie storm for the past few weeks, and I’ve discovered that I really do like pie! There are so many different varieties of pie – how could I not one or two, or eighteen of them? There really is something for everyone: buckles, brown betties, crisps, cream pies, fruit pies, hand pies, cheesecakes and more. There’s lots great information on baking, such as how to keep your cheesecake from cracking and how to get the skin off of peaches. Don’t know the difference between a buckle, a betty and a cobbler? Isa and Terry explain all. The recipes are easy to make and the instructions are written with a sense of humor, so nothing is too intimidating for baking newbies, and baking veterans will have no problem whipping up a delicious pie to impress their friends and family with. Hmm… I wonder if I’m going to need to change my title to “The Pie Queen”?

 

I started out baking something simple. This Apple Crisp was the perfect way to use some the apples we brought home from apple picking.  

 

 And since we still had apples left after the crisp, I made an Apple Brown Betty.

 

I made this Brownie Bottom Peanut Butter Cheesecake for my book club meeting and it was a huge hit. Fortunately, my book club is small so there was lots of pie leftover for Dennis and I to snack on later. 

 


I made this Pecan Pie for a vegan Thanksgiving potluck and it didn’t last long. I will admit that I cheated here and used a store bought crust.

 

 

And what Thanksgiving feast would be complete without pumpkin pie? This Pumpkin Cheesecake was absolutely divine!

 

 And here’s a picture of me with Terry at her recent book signing in Montclair, where she answered all of questions about pie making, baking and vegan cooking.

 

 

 

 

Dr. Fuhrman