Filed under: Uncategorized
Well, I’m certainly having a busy summer, I’m not sure about all of you. Beautiful weeks and dreary weekends have finally relented and we’re having beautiful weekends too, so between taking some yoga classes, cycling, and keeping busy with some new projects, I’ve been away from the computer and from cooking as much. But, I have a backlog of pictures to share and some yummy food has, indeed, been noshed on.
Through the great Stumptown Vegans blog I discovered a new pizza place flying under the radar- Pizza Fino in North Portland. Jim and I threw on our shoes and jumped in the car at the chance to try a new pizza place. It is owned by the same woman who owns Bella Faccia in NE, so their roasted red pepper and white bean sauce will seem familiar to some local vegans. We loved the classy-hipster decor and all the vegan options! 2 vegan sandwiches, 3 appetizers, 2 pastas, soups, salad and, of course, pizza!
Jim couldn’t hold back from starting in on our appetizer, the delicious Ci Ci al Fino. Roasted garbanzos with an eggplant, olive and mushroom puttanesca on top, with loads of fresh herbs. The flavor was amazing, the only thing missing, IMO, was some sort of bread to eat with with and to sop up the juices.
We got the vegan pizza, which comes with their roasted red pepper and white bean sauce, as well as their delicious marinated tempeh (it was Bella Facia’s tempeh that taught me to love) and your choice of 3 toppings. We chose black olives, mushrooms and artichokes. Wonderful! It was big enough to more than fill us and was $14, not bad for gourmet pizza, considering I’ve spent just as much or more on cheeseless Papa John’s and we all know how great that is.
Jim has been showing more of an interest in cooking lately and even came up with the idea to make lentil tacos.
He sauteed onions and garlic and then mixed in 3 cups cooked lentils with some taco seasoning. We ate them on tortillas with lettuce, Tofutti Sour Cream, salsa, avocado, and a spritz of lime juice.
Another Jim dinner was brown rice spaghetti with veggie meat balls and some sauteed zucchini on the side.
He seasoned the zucchini with this herbed pepper blend some friends of ours got us on a cruise that we’ve been using often.
A quick dessert:
A whole wheat chocolate cake mix from Bob’s Red Mill that I got at VegFest a few months back, baked with a handful of chocolate chips and a handful of frozen raspberries tossed in, topped with a light dusting of powdered sugar. Yum! It was so moist and chocolatey.
A yummy breakfast-for-dinner with lemon blueberry pancakes and some tofu scramble. The scramble had garlic curls, zucchini, black olives, potatoes and loads of herbs. I love scrambles because I make a heaping skillet full and the leftovers reheat for an equally yummy lunch the next day.
Pizza at home using one of the Rustic Crusts that I believe Dreena tried before. Nothing beats homemade crust, but this was tasty on a whim and was full of whole grains.
As always, topped with artichoke hearts, mushrooms, black olives and, at Jim’s suggestion, halved veggie meatballs. The meatballs didn’t really do it for me, but Jim loved it.
Ambitious and determined to enjoy fava beans during their limited season, I made a garlicky fava bean spread.
It took about 2 hours, start to finish, to work with the beans. First you shell them, then boil them until tender, then you have to get the thick, white skins off before you can do anything with them. But the dip was so good and I accomplished the busy work while watching Ghostbusters II, so it went by quickly. That movie has one of the best animal-revenge scenes ever filmed. When the evil goo is starting to take over the city it takes over this hoity-toity woman’s mink jacket and all the minks come back to life, attack her, then take off down the street. Anyway, I just threw the beans in the food processor along with some garlic, salt, pepper and olive oil and away it went. So yummy, well worth the work.
One of my most ambitious baking project yet- a wedding cake! But it wasn’t for a wedding, just for a Hawaiian-themed bridal shower.
I decorated each layer with icing and marzipan flowers. All three layers were a different flavor, but they all shared the same butter cream frosting.
The bottom tier was a pink champagne cake with a rum cream filling.
I made each layer separately, so they ended up two slightly different shades of pink. I had never even heard of pink champagne cake before my co-worker mentioned having it for her wedding, so I set about working on a recipe for one, making 3 practice cakes before the real one. This one turned out good, but I still want to perfect it.
The middle tier:
was the chocolate cake from the black forest cake recipe in DTV. I filled the middle with the raspberry filling from the blondie recipe in VwaV, less one tablespoon of cornstarch because I didn’t want to make it too stiff.
The top tier was lemon poppy seed with the same raspberry filling in it. The tart flavors really complimented the creamy frosting well.
The bride-to-be was very excited about the cake, as was I to make it, and everyone at my work seemed equally excited and impressed by it, but I was surprised to hear some of the negativity that was said behind my back about the cake. It was surprising because rather than it being the “ew, what’s in this weird vegan food?” variety, it was more along the lines of “why did she have to make this weird cake that none of us can eat?” Because you know how vegan food is exclusively for us, no one else can eat it. And then I got “compliments” like, “It was good, Kris. Obviously it didn’t taste like cake, but it was really good.” WTF? How does a cake not taste like cake? Seeing how only half of the cake disappeared (I have a lot of co-workers) and hearing the things that I did really took some of the wind out of my excited sails. I know that this is just the way things are when you have to work and live with omnivores, it’s just all that much harder when it’s something you spent hours working on and lovingly creating. Sigh. All that really matters was that the bride-to-be loved it, I suppose.
I hope that everyone is having a great summer and that you’re all enjoying the amazing produce that is at its peak right now. Happy cooking!
25 Comments so far
Leave a comment
Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
Damn Kris, those cakes look amazing! That sucks about your coworkers making snide comments.
If you get back to Pizza Fino, try the meatball sandwich, it was so good!
Comment by Mindy July 1, 2007 @ 4:10 pmwelcome back to blogging! as usual, all the food looks amazing
Comment by VeggieGirl July 1, 2007 @ 6:15 pmLove the cake - especially as everyone got to have 3 different ones for the price of one!!
Comment by Carla July 2, 2007 @ 7:18 amSilly people talking about the cake - it seriously looks and I’m sure, tasted, lovely.
And thanks for the plug with our site! The ci Ci al fino looks like it has my name written all over it.
Comment by getsconed July 2, 2007 @ 11:47 amI’m sure it tasted like cake. People are so weird. At Christmas I brought some tempeh thingys, said it was vegan, and nobody would even taste one. Went to a potluck with the *same* people on saturday, brought not only vegan food, but RAW vegan food, didn’t tell anybody, and three people asked me for the recipes of all three dishes I brought.
Comment by Erica July 2, 2007 @ 11:50 amI am not a vegan (please don’t crucify me), and I just wanted to say that I am appalled at the behavior of your co-workers. I wish I could apologize on their behalf, but I guess some people are just too ignorant to try new things and appreciate other people’s viewpoints. I am sorry you did all that work, though. I bet the people that did try it were surprised to find they liked it, but were embarrassed to say anything. As a side note, I’ve done lots of cakes for showers, and none of mine have ever been finished. I’ve found that any time you are counting on mostly ladies to finish a dessert, it never happens because half of them are watching their weight and the other half have stuffed themselves on the rest of the food before the cake was served. I’ve found that lighter-tasting desserts get devoured, though.
Comment by Jacki July 2, 2007 @ 1:17 pmI am embarrassed to be an omni. I can’t believe people are so rude. I wish I could have had some of your cake - it looks fabulous!
Maybe they meant it did not taste like it came from a cake mix
Comment by Tamara July 2, 2007 @ 1:52 pmWow.. that wedding cake looks impressive! I’m so sorry about the comments of your coworkers… things like that really upset me, so I’m sure you took it better than I would have. The pizza place sounds impressive too, and not that expensive for all those wonderful toppings!
Comment by laura jesser July 2, 2007 @ 2:31 pmWow, the bridal cakes look wonderful and I have no doubt that they tasted like cake! Because they are cakes!!!
All the other food looks great too, I love Jim’s lentil taco ideas. It’s great to hear he’s been into cooking more and I’m glad you’re enjoying the summer! Miss you.
Comment by Leslie July 3, 2007 @ 10:00 amFirst of all, kudos to you for creating such an amazing and professional wedding cake! Second of all, words can not describe the frustration I feel when I read the comments of your co-workers- why, why, do people feel that vegan food is somehow different, that non-vegans can’t eat it? Why?
Comment by bazu July 4, 2007 @ 6:19 amI wish I had your energy in the kitchen!!! About the cake comments and reactions to it being vegan, I’ll share a story. I was once at a cooking class that I payed for before becoming vegan. The rest of the class did not eat the salad that was made because the instructor pointed out that it was “vegan” and therefore I could eat it. So, did those people avoid salad for the rest of their lives because they discovered it was vegan? People are weird about food.
Comment by Diane July 4, 2007 @ 7:31 amI’m so sorry about the comments that you found out about. I’m sure your cake was delicious. Omnivores sometimes have food hangup issues that have NOTHING to do with the food you bring.
Comment by Cherie July 4, 2007 @ 8:56 amThere’s no way that beautiful creative cake didn’t taste fantastic! People who say things like that are just ignorant about veganism. I know how frustrating it is. Yours and Jim’s food all looks so great!
Comment by atxvegn July 4, 2007 @ 12:26 pmLentil tacos!
I have to try that. Jim is sure creative!
I am in love with your bridal shower cake! ALL the layers! Even that adorable hula-girl bride topper! Pink Champagne cake?? How did you do that? Do you have a recipe you based it off of? I love it!!
I can see why you’d be discouraged by the ignorance of others who say stupid things like, “We can’t eat it.” So if you made a salad or brought a veggie platter to a party…no one else can eat that? They are ridiculous! I think they are used to boxed cake chemical crap and don’t know what to do with whole food. Vegan cake is awesome, and my family loved the vegan cupcakes we made, and none of them are vegan! Don’t worry about the ignorance you had to face. You did and amazing job on that cake and all of us are SO impressed!!! Good for you!!!
Comment by Candi July 4, 2007 @ 9:29 pmi’m so digging the lentil taco idea.
your cakes look beautiful and i’m sure tasted like some of the best cake around. people can be so strange when it comes to vegan foods. they refuse to get past their preconceived notions that it’s some alien sort of concoctions. glad the bride to be was happy. that makes it a total success.
Comment by Don't Get Mad, Get Vegan! July 5, 2007 @ 5:55 amCake is cake. And those cakes look damn tasty! And exquisitely decorated.
Comment by Sarah July 5, 2007 @ 7:52 amWow, what an amazing lineup of food! How lucky you are that Jim helps out so much in the kitchen. Oh, and I thought your wedding cakes looked amazing and delicious. I am getting married in a few months in Boston (if it were in Portland I would have definitely hired you!) and I am really hoping that people don’t react that way to my vegan cake, which I am super excited about. Some people are just close minded about those things. Like you said though, the bride-to-be liked it and that’s almost all that matters. Maybe someday all the omnis of the world will realize how “damn tasty” vegan cake is!
Comment by Vegan_Noodle July 5, 2007 @ 1:04 pmThat cake looks freaking awesome!! And the pizza…MMMM I have already made two things from your wonderful book-check them out on my blog
Comment by julieannef July 7, 2007 @ 1:40 amI really wish you had made our wedding cake!!
Comment by vicki July 8, 2007 @ 1:20 pmso, here’s the deal…I will be at your doorsteap in like 2 seconds…please have something that looks YUMMYYYYYYYYYYYY (like above pictures)…
I want to eat my computer screen…could you move to the east coast so that we can be closer? We have liberal cities.
Comment by Joseph (lime) July 8, 2007 @ 9:01 pmThose lentil tacos sound great!
Your co-workers will never know how much effort you put into that wedding cake so it would be extra special. You’re a thoughtful friend. I’m glad the bride enjoyed it.
Comment by Jen B. July 16, 2007 @ 8:15 amWowser!! I am hiring you to make my wedding cupcakes. Guess I need to find a hubby first. That was a brilliant idea! What a lucky girl she was taht day. Forget those ungrateful other people.
Comment by sandy July 23, 2007 @ 11:02 pmSee you soon.
The cakes are so fun looking and sound delicious. Oh Kris, I am so saddened and angered by the comments your co-workers made. I think it’s rude and ignorant of them. Please don’t let them take the wind out of your sails. Your cooking is fabulous. You have a slew of followers and a cookook to prove it. How many of them have a published cookbook?
Comment by Vivacious Vegan July 23, 2007 @ 11:03 pmLovely!!!
Comment by johanna3 July 24, 2007 @ 7:33 amThe cakes are gorgeous and look delicious and I’m sure they were. Some folks just always feel the need to say rude things. Like my sister, when I said my husband makes the best (vegan) pizza in the world said “We’ll see about that. Everybody knows it’s cheese that makes the pizza.” Never mind that my husband has mastered the art of Follow Your Heart meltiness!
Comment by Nightowl July 30, 2007 @ 3:52 pm