Make or Eat a Local Dish (Pizza Time!)

Today's Vegan MoFo prompt is all about making or eating a local dish. I've been making plenty of food this month, so I thought it would be nice to go out!

Local cuisine in New York City pretty much screams pizza, so we headed over to a great spot nearby!

I wrote about Two Boots several years ago when writing about my favorite vegan dining spots in New York.

While I lived near a Two Boots in Manhattan, I'm happy to say that there is also one in Brooklyn not so far from our apartment!



The real star of the show at Two Boots for me (and for most vegans, I imagine!) is the pizza pie they call "V for Vegan."



It features Daiya's (tapioca-based) mozzarella cheese, artichokes, and shiitake mushrooms, checkered with a healthy dose of red pepper pesto and basil pesto.



Since writing my last entry, I've been to both the Brooklyn location (pictured here) as well as the one on Avenue A in NYC. They have a great, fun ambience--and I really love this vegan pizza!

Tips and Tricks:
These guys really cater to people with dietary restrictions, and offer a wide variety of vegan, dairy-free, and gluten-free options--just ask your server!

Favorite Late Summer Food: Peaches!

Peaches--what says summer better than a beautifully sweet and juicy peach?

I don't often think of them as a "late summer food" but this year they are perfectly in season (at least in my part of the country!) this September, and I'll take all of the last gasps of summer I can get!

I love the peach cobbler recipe from (surprise surprise!) Vegan with a Vengeance. It pairs well with ice cream but also holds its own, and is super quick and easy! You just mix the peaches up with a few spices, sprinkle your crumble on top, throw it in the oven and you're done!

If you're looking for some other recipes online to tickle your peach fancy...might I recommend:

Vegan peach ice cream from gluten-free goddess

The minimalist baker's vegan peach crisp (which is also gluten free!)

PPK's brown sugar peach spelt muffins

Peachy!

Barack Obama Meal--i.e. Seitan Piccata with Broccoli

I'm going to keep today's entry short but sweet.

Today's Vegan MoFo prompt poses the question--what would you make if Barack Obama was coming over for dinner?

I interpreted this as--what is your absolute favorite meal that you'd love to share with someone to really make an impression?

My answer--seitan piccata!! Seitan piccata is one of those meals I always enjoy when I go to a fancy vegan place (like Blossom or Candle 79), but somehow it always seemed a bit too crazy to make in my own kitchen. But no more!

Where did I go for this seitan piccata recipe you ask? Do you even have to ask? Veganomicon. But then I discovered that Isa has recently posted a slightly revised version on PPK! Either way, you won't be disappointed. This is so good (tasting the sauce made me do my happy dance). I made the chicken stylee seitan with this and I really love it for the taste and texture. Delish!

In discussing the post with one of my friends, her response was, "What does Obama like to eat?" Of course! So a quick google search told me--broccoli! I've paired my seitan with some broccoli (your welcome Obama!) sautéed with garlic, a splash of white wine and a pinch of oregano, basil, and thyme (and salt and pepper of course!).

If this plate looks a bit bare, let's just say I had some trouble with my yellow potatoes, so my mash never made it to the plate...but I'd definitely recommend serving over some mashed potatoes. That's the perfect piccata pairing, in my book.

Sharing a Meal

Today's prompt is all about sharing a vegan meal with a non-vegan. This was not much of a challenge for me, as I love having friends over for dinner! Most of our friends are omnivores, but they of course still love coming over for a good vegan meal whenever they're able.

For this entry, I thought I'd invite over one of my old friends who actually inspired me to start this blog in the first place several years ago. She's a curious woman by nature, and having not known any vegans particularly well before us, she was always asking, "but what do you eat?" After many meals together and sharing countless baked goods, this question no longer comes up, but she is always happy to come over and share a vegan meal together!



I had never made her a nut-based sauce, so I thought we would try out my fettucine recipe. It was a big hit! She and my husband especially liked the balsamic salad dressing I threw together for us, so I will be including that in a future post. Bon apetit!

Kitchen Tour Time!

Living in New York City definitely inspires creative space-saving solutions in your kitchen.

We just moved to Brooklyn this past year, and have since expanded our kitchen storage considerably, though by the average American standards, I suppose our kitchen is still a bit small.

I was actually quite impressed with all of the creative ways in which my boyfriend had re-arranged his teeny Manhattan kitchen when I moved in with him several years ago (see below). The microwave went above the refrigerator. Behind that? More storage, which needed to be accessed with a step stool (at least by me). He had removed the doors from the cabinets so that we could still access the area, even with the microwave partially blocking it. He also removed the cabinet door over the sink, and dedicated the shelf directly above the kitchen sink to the drying rack, which was actually quite genius because our only counterspace was about 14" square!



In order to have more shelf space, we opted for multiple, but rather short shelves, which meant we had no place for tall cereal boxes, so cereal would come out of the box when we bought it, and be stuffed on the shelf inside of its bag. It was quite a tight space, but we definitely made it work!

These days we have a lot more space (relatively speaking!)...and I've expanded our storage even further with a great baker's rack.



It's a big step up from my kitchen storage during graduate school:


Our new baker's rack, with a butcher's block, is perfect for storing my favorite cookbook go-tos, spices, and baking supplies, while also supplying an additional counter space. We got this at the Container Store and they have a lot of great options for building your own setup.



Since we are going on a kitchen tour today, I thought I'd talk to you about a few of my kitchen essentials.

The top shelf of this rack is perfect for little odds and ends that I use frequently in baking and cooking--we keep all of the sugars, the all-purpose flour, and some various other sundries up here. I love to use the little chalkboard labels on our containers, because if you end up using the containers for something else down the line, you simply wipe off the name, and write in the new one! I also keep our gigantic cashew jar up here (which is always running low), and some straws for smoothies. We like the Susty party straws since they are made in the USA of sustainably harvested compostable paper, and they come in a bunch of fun colors!

We try to keep one side of the butcher's block clear for prep space while cooking, but it's also a great place to keep the stand mixer off of our main countertop. We recently acquired the stand mixer as a wedding gift and it gets a lot of use! I've made several batches of homemade pasta, loads of vegan ice cream, and of course it's also great for mixing batters and especially icing (like for all of those cupcakes!).

On the next shelf, we have some of my favorite cookbooks (there's not space for all of them here, unfortunately!), as well as the spices. Having access to all of my spices was really important to me, since I'm constantly grabbing them as I cook, so I thought a lot about how I'd like to store them. Ultimately this little stepped, expandable shelf worked great. We also put a clear liner on this shelf to keep things from wobbling around and potentially falling through.

Finally, on the bottom, I've got some small bins to store all of my baking supplies, mixer attachments, etc. Then there's our large food processor (essential for shredding, and making things like pesto and dips), and finally, our Vitamix. The Vitamix was a big investment when I bought it several years ago, but if you're an avid vegan cook it is a real lifesaver. It makes nut-based sauces a real breeze, and I'm not sure I could make some of the harder vegan cheeses without it. It's also fabulous for making anything from sorbets to soups! It even comes with a recipe book that includes many great vegan options. And cleanup is a real breeze. I may not use it everyday, but it gets used several times a week at least and I really don't know what I would do without it!

And we have an amazing zester--another wedding gift!

I'd always hated zesting before we got this thing--the zesting holes on our grater were so teeny tiny that it often felt like I was juicing the fruit rather than zesting the rind, and getting all of the excess zest out of the grater was such a pain, if not impossible! Plus, constantly checking to see how much zest you have gets old really fast. This Kitchen IQ zester totally changed the game.



Somehow it zests remarkably quickly, you can check how much zest you have on the back (brilliant!) and the container in the back has this nifty feature where it actually scrapes against the grater as you remove it--ensuring you get every last bit of zest out of there!



The rest of our kitchen is relatively straight forward.



We have a great Simple Human utensil holder (above) with a built in spoon rest (which just slides off of the front), and a Simple Human dish rack (below) that while on the pricier side, I am pretty much convinced is one of the best dish racks on the planet.



Well--that was quite a full post! I hope I've left you with lots of food for thought!

Vegan MoFo Day 12: Favorite Cookbook

Today's Vegan MoFo prompt is all about your favorite cookbook. So I want to share a little cookbook with you all called:

Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World !

When I first started eating at vegan restaurants years ago, I lamented the fact that most of the baked goods I tried were drier and denser than their non-vegan counterparts. My boyfriend at the time worked at a used book store, and he would bring home piles of vegan cookbooks. You can see some of my other favorites here.

Before long, we had discovered Isa Chandra Moskowitz's, Vegan with A Vengeance, and I realized that baked vegan goods could be not only tasty and satisfying--but absolutely delicious.

Despite being a huge Isa fan (Isa Does It is my new go-to), I only bought Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World a few years ago--but it quickly became an instant classic. I had been piecing together her dessert recipes from the cookbooks I owned for years--but this book distilled one of my favorite desserts into one packed volume. A whole cookbook filled with cupcakes you might ask? YES.

Some of my favorites:

Classic chocolate (oreo and peanut butter bomb variations are a must-try)




I may have made the oreo ones more than once...




Red velvet (I've made these too many times to count!)



Apple cider


I also love the coconut chocolate with coffee frosting!

The variations seem truly endless--I still feel I've barely touched the tip of the iceberg with all of the creative varieties!

I'm not even sure what these are? Peanut butter with chocolate chips? Whatever they were, I promise you, they were delicious.



I've been repeatedly told that many of these cupcakes are the best cupcakes ever. I have to say, I'm very much inclined to agree! If you like cupcakes and baking, this is very much the recipe book for you!

Here are some marble cupcakes--yummy!



Ok--now go forth and get cupcake-ing!!

Vegan MoFo Day 11: B-12

Today VeganMofo is all about focusing on a nutrient.

There's one nutrient that all vegans should be aware of--vitamin B12!

B12 is not only beneficial (it can help with memory loss, diabetes, depression, osteoporosis, IBS, and many diseases) it is also an essential vitamin, that your body needs to function. It's important for your brain, blood, skin, hair and nerve cells, among other things. It is even said to help protect against cancer and heart disease.

Where can you get some, you might ask? That's where things get a little tricky for people eating primarily plant-based diets--B12 comes from animal products, including meat, milk, and eggs.

If you eat a plant-based diet, you'll likely need to rely on fortified food products (such as many soy products and cereals) and possibly a B12 supplement. Finding out if vitamin B12 has been added to a food product is simple enough, you can just check the nutrition fact panel on the food label.



One of my favorite sources of B12 is nutritional yeast (pictured at the top of the page, and used in the scramble below). This is a staple in many vegan cheeze recipes because of it's naturally cheesy flavor. Most recipes however, call for relatively small amounts. Getting your recommended daily value from nutritional yeast alone can be tough, and the amount of B12 can vary from brand to brand, so you'll definitely want to check the label to see how much B12 is in a serving.



Mushrooms can contain B12, as do fermented foods such as tempeh or miso, but the amounts can be quite low. Indeed, many agree that it is very difficult for vegans to get the required amount of B12 from plant-based foods alone. Additionally, Vitamin B12 is better absorbed by the body when it is taken along with other B vitamins, such as niacin, riboflavin, vitamin B6, and magnesium. Multivitamins and supplements are therefore a great option for vegans--and most vegan supplements will include a healthy dose of B12.

If you do not wish to take a supplement or do not think you need it, you can have your levels checked at your doctor's office. Be sure to ask about how often you should have them checked. Your body can store B12 for years, so if you have eaten animal products in the past, it is possible that your body is still storing B12, but these levels can change over time.

For more information, see this article from the Vegan Society and this one about Vegan Sources of Vitamin B12, which lists specific foods that are fortified with or contain B12.