Google Search: Absolutely Perfect Vegan Pancakes

2 cups flour (1 cup white/1 cup whole wheat)
2 TBsp organic sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups soy milk
1/4 cup canola oil

Combine dry ingredients in large bowl
Add wet ingredients & stir
Fry em up
Eat em up

How I need a drink, alcoholic of course, after the heavy lectures involving quantum mechanics.

3 How
.
1 I
4 need
1 a
5 drink
9 alcoholic
2 of
6 course
5 after
3 the
5 heavy
8 lectures
9 involving
7 quantum
9 mechanics.


From my current book boyfriend, Big Bang, The Origin of the Universe (by Simon Singh)

Francine, Happiness is a Picnic in the Park

In the basket: Pepitas pesto hummus (made with CP's fresh rosemary and basil), black cherries still lurking in the fridge, my "I am the (vegan banana bran) muffin"s and signature sandwich of rosemary-grilled tofu with cucumber, tomato, pesto-veganaise & basil on wheat. Mmmm.

"I am the (vegan banana bran) Muffin"

In the resurgence of Twin Peaks fever that has swept up me and my peers, I type this blog swaying with the eerie rhythm of The Pink Room. With such sexiness, one must look left to a heavily pixelated Jacques and Laura for more.

Here are my Twin Peaks "I am the (vegan banana bran) muffin"s.
2 T Earth Balance
2 T organic sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 ripe bernanas
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unprocessed bran
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
pinch of salt
cho-cho chips at your discretion

• Pre-heat 375/line muffin pan with 10 liners
  
• Combine flour, bran, baking powder & soda, cinnamon and cho-cho chips in a large bowl
  
• Mash bananers in a separate bowl with a potato masher. Set aside.
  
• Heat Earth Balance, sugar and vanilla over low heat til melted.
  
• Combine butter mixture and bernaner mixture in the large bowl with flour mixture. Mix until combined and then stop.
  
• Fill the liners loosely with the batter and cook for 12-15 minutes.
  
• Let cool on a cooling rack.
  

Muffins will be soft, not at all too dense and look almost exactly like Laura Palmer.


Next up: My High School Sandwich
See also: CandyPenny's Damn Fine Pie

Cherry, Cherry

I've been ill with a kidney infection. Those lil beans of mine have had me down for the count since returning from the West. But today: fresh, and brimming with antibiotics and a tylenol tolerance, I returned to the kitchen to make use of the huge bag of black cherries that sat in my fridge neglected. Meditatively, I pitted about 3 cups of cherries, resisting the urge to feed my dry blonde locks (Are they still locks if they're like 4 inches?) their bright juices. Filling liners with Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World's basic chocolate batter split with spoonfuls of cooked cherry, I made a decadent cupcakes so moist and delicious I had to call reinforcements to take them off my hands.

For those interested in raunchier vegan porn, see below.


Tomorrow: Use the chaotically speckled bananas.

P-E-O-R-I-A, Peoria

What would possess one to visit a city during a heat wave that shot temps to 110 degrees? The largest thrift store in North America would! Braving the underestimated "dry heat" of Arizona, I browsed the majority of Goodwill-Peoria's 92,000 square feet of thrift delights and captured the closure of checking it off my list of travels. On that list it sat for years, an Outlook contact folder compiled through the idle hours of office work within the pipe dream of authoring a thrift guidebook to the States. No book deal here though, simply a report made available by the highly prestigious e-publisher, Blogger, available for the hearty price of a few clicks.

Arizona and I don't mix. I, much like the plant life adapted to my beloved home of temperate deciduous forest, am not cut out for 103 degree temps, especially those still lingering at 9 p.m. My visit to the desert challenged me with several physical ailments and resiliency, in my escalating age, dwindles. Luckily, day one had me only slightly lethargic and was no match for my years of thrift expectation.

There is a feeling I get in the parking lot of a new thrift store. Much like a book spine uncracked or a love unventured, there is a perfection in its unknown, bolstered by the imagination and untainted by such trivialities like reality. Would behind these doors bring back the satisfaction of my early years if thrift-hunting? Second Hand Rose in Copiague, Long Island in 1994. The Super Salvation Army on Steinway Street in Astoria in 1995, Domsey's on Kent avenue in 1996 when Willimsburg, Brooklyn was still a shithole? (Before "cool" was so easy and marketable.) There was only one way to find out: Quit taking pictures of the damn place and get in there!


Peoria, AZ's Goodwill store was large, that is for sure, but the store's record-breaking footage included a very large and closed area for pricing, as well as a large area for furniture under the name of something like Bertha's Used Furniture. Considering this (and the very spacious aisles and lay-out), I have seen far denser thrifts in my lifetime. The Goodwills in Tacoma (1415 E. 72nd Street) and Seattle (1400 S Lane St), WA come to mind. Still, scanning its contents killed about two hours (and $33.00).


Like many Goodwills, the clothing selection was not a highlight. I spent the most time pouring over bric-a-brac and kitchen stuff, scoring practical finds like a vintage potato masher and a huge wok that put the circumference of the one I brought home from Thailand to shame. Also in my basket, several small plates and bowls (some that later broke in a hasteful rental car return after a brush with Joe Law. Mosaic project!) that inspired thoughts on meals and treats to fill them with. What else? Quilted bags. Horses. Cross-stitch patterns. Anything orange. The usual... All-in-all, I'd classify Goodwill-Peoria as good. But far better were the unsuspecting onesy shops of Mesa, AZ.

Vegan Arizona Report

Green
2240 N Scottsdale Rd # 8
Tempe, AZ 85281
(480) 941-9003
This adorable 100% vegan cafe seemed to congregate hipsters from Arizona's woodwork (different hipsters, ones that smile at you) and rightfully so! Their "new American vegetarian" menu was jam-packed with options ranging from soup/sandwich-y to Asian-infused bowls to frozen treats and sweets. The large space also contained a small area for vegan pantry staples like Ricemellow, agave nectar and Newman's sandwich cookies: many items they used to make their vegan "flurries" called tSoynami's. Beside the selection of food, the operation was tip-top with a whole table of complementary drinks (iced coffee, lemonade, limeade, etc), local art on the walls and stellar service. In the bathroom, vegan hand wash and recycled toilet paper scored them even more points in my book. The only down point was drinking from a Styra-foam cup.

Pictured is our meal of Artichoke Gratine: a warm, creamy artichoke dip with a mean punch of nutritional yeast with corn chips
Mum's meatball po'boy with a side of tahini cold slaw
A rocky road tsoynami with vanilla soft serve, chocolate syrup, walnuts and scoops of Ricemellow.


Mandala Tearoom
7027 East 5th Avenue
Scottsdale, AZ
(480) 423-3411
Mandala Tearoom is an small, upper scale organic vegan restaurant in Scottsdale. Well worth the trip into yuppie-ville, the restaurant exceeded my expectations at every course and the prices were right. The menu contains a good selection of vegan dishes, both raw and hot, hot, hot, along with an inspiring list of teas and "elixirs". Knocking my socks off til the the very last course, I wished I had more time to sample the menu. Next door to the restaurant was their "Apothecary boutique" and spa services. On another note, it was nice to see that they offer take-out but at a surcharged price to cover the cost of eco-containers.

Our appetizer of tea crumpets: Rosemary spelt foccacia lightly toasted with 3 different spreads: artichoke + garlic, white bean hummus + sautéed greens and roasted tomato + fennel. Scrumptious.
Ziti al forno: organic pasta tossed with a creamy tofu ricotta cheese + spinach filling -- topped with house marinara sauce + nut parmesan cheese-served with toasted garlic foccacia breadRawviolis Marinara: thinly sliced organic beets filled with nut "rawcotta" cheese + smothered in a living raw tomato marinara sauce.
Last but certainly not least was the tiramisu cake: layers of subtly sweet vegan creme, coffee-soaked vanilla cake and chocolate. Just perfect. Clean and not overly sweet.


Casbah Teahouse
624 N. 4th Avenue
Tucson, AZ
(520) 740-0393
The Casbah Teahouse is a eco-friendly vegetarian restaurant and teahouse in Tucson. During the summer months, the Casbah staff moonlights as a traveling caravan, doing the folk, bluegrass and world music festival curcuit in the Pacific Northwest. The place is adorned beautifully with gypsy garb and statuettes and oozes goodness and positive energy. The restaurant has a good selection of Middle East-inspired veggie fare, smoothies, teas and vegan and wheat-free desserts. And Although I enjoyed my visit to their gorgeous hemp tent eating area a good deal, I didn't particularly like the food.

The hummus, the cornerstone of the Middle Eastern meal, was straight up tahini paste with nil flavor. My seitan casbah gyro was okay. Nothing I couldn't make at home in a flash.
The banana mango smoothy was all chalk and little fruit. Still refreshing during the massive heatwave.

Song Art #2

Vegan Milano Cookies

After this recipe incubated in my "inbox" for weeks, it was time to put my unemployed hours to greater use and get crackin' on it. This messy cookie assembly required the patience of idle weekday hours and itunes at no one-in-my-building-is-home levels. The culmination: a king-sized, slightly fatter vegan version of the Pepperidge Farm classic.

Next conversion challenge will be the Italian tri-color bakery cookies my family loves so much. I'll have to illicit the help of the Italian stallionesses!

Song Art #1

Chard = Reverse Flowers

Intermission: 5 year old mariner's revenge

The Perfect Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

1) Pre-heat 350 degrees

2) Mix dry ingredients in large bowl:
1 cup flour (1/2 white & 1/2 whole wheat)
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. sea salt
1/3 cup cho cho chips

3) Mix wet ingredients in small bowl:
1&1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/3 cup real maple syrup
1/4 tsp. black strap molasses
1/4 cup canola oil

4) Mix wet in to dry.

5) Cook dollops on ungreased cookie sheet for 11 minutes. Let cool on rack.

The Other Portland

Remember that kooky 7th-Day-Adventist eatery in downtown Manhattan with the $4 vegan lunch buffet? Well, in a gluttonous decision to spend my day off jetting up the Eastern seaboard, I visited Portland, Maine. And within the city's small downtown area lies the smaller version of said eatery, Little Lad's-Portland.

The price of the lunch buffet was the same as in New York City-4 smackaroos-but the selection and space was smaller. The charming, friendly and low-key ambiance was also the same, backed by a television looped with 7th-Day-Adventist propagan..I mean, footage. The wholesomely happy host loved that I was snapping pictures of my food. When I mentioned my visiting the NY restaurant he beamed and asked I tell them next time that Little Mike sent me.

I filled my plate with hearty heaps of Shepard's pie, spoon bread, citrus carrot salad and herbed tofu and ended, as in NYC, with the delicious mint-chocolate "Needem", pictured below the buffet plate. In the bowl, a superior fruit salad that seemed to have every fruit under the sun, including plum and yellow cherries, topped with Little Lad's delicious cashew-based sweet cream (recipe here).


My lunch was scrumptious and super cheap. Sure, I wasn't interviewed by a television crew or given a free bag of flavored popcorn, like in New York... but then again I was not with fellow vegan temptresses CP and FS/AS.

Buffalo Soldier

Being the significant other of a JetBlue employee, I am awarded his flight benefits. Without the variable of being able to afford airfare, spontaneous excursions will be a-plenty this summer as I continue to struggle with settling into normal life here, otherwise know as work. For our first air venture together, we chose Buffalo. Not at all a glamorous destination but one that afforded a doable weekend itinerary of thrifting, nature and food.

Opting for taking the extra charge of a GPS system in the rental car, the otherwise unknown terrain of Western NY became an easy, almost disturbingly mindless minor roadtrip. First stop was the Salvation Army Thrift located at 2196 Seneca street. Typical, by Salvy's standards, I snatched up more unnecessary decorative purchases for my apartment, including a huge pristine matador and bull wall tapestry, and a turtle planter, and some more clothing that will most probably fit me awkwardly. Also in my goody bag the first of what became a reoccurring theme of thrifting in Buffalo, a 80's exercise leotard.

Cognizant of Salvy's 6 p.m. closing time, we hit another one at 1080 Military road. This huge store did not live up to the parking lot excitement however. I nabbed a cross-stitch kit for my mouse pad, a Moby Dick paperback with impressive cover art and a one of them ironic and witty vintage tees that sell in NYC for double digits. More impressive were the two Amvets thrifts that were next programmed into the GPS, one at 1833 Elmwood and the other at 1900 Ridge road.












Buffalo is indeed a strange city. Being college is out, the place was a ghost town, save for many day mayors. Along with the many interesting sociological observations, this home seemed to be the personification of the weirdness in the air: vacant yet populated.

Real vegan offerings are slim in Buffalo but many websites reported Betty's as vegan-friendly. After a yummy lentil soup & a Boylan cola, I ordered the only item on the menu that could be made vegan and remain substantive, the grilled veggie wrap (its official name was yummwich). Despite it's lack of dressing or accompaniment, the wrap was delicious- stuffed with sweet potato (a nice touch), onion, pepper, mushroom and the usual suspects. It never sogged and fall-out was minimal, two problems that usually turn me off to ordering wraps.













The following it was onward to one of the great wonders of the world, Niagara Falls where I rainbow chased obsessively. Not since working in Chelsea had I seen so many rainbows! It was a beautiful day to see the falls, and relatively uncrowded to boot.













Before heading back to New York, New York, it was mealtime again. New York Restaurant offer a full vegetarian menu of mock meats. Pictured here is the sweet corn and bean curd soup I order at these joints with the hope it'll be like Seattle's Bamboo Garden, and almond beef on top of ginger rice. Yummy but lingered heavy in the belly making the silly shenanigans of Clifton Hill less enjoyable.