Squirrel’s Vegan Kitchen

Yesterday Jim and I did Portland’s annual Night Ride. The Night Ride starts at Portland’s Amtrak station at sundown and is a 15 mile (actually it was 16.3, but whatever) journey through Portland at night, with 1,000 other people. People are encouraged to come in costumes or pajamas and they have contests for the best dressed. Too self-conscious for costumes, Jim and I opted for our pajamas.

The best costume I saw was one of a guy dressed up as someone from Ghostbusters. He had a complete suit and a homemade ghostpack (I think I made out a chainsaw housing in there somewhere). There was one rest stop showing short films about bikes and another that had a disco party. It ended around midnight, back at the train depot. We had a lot of fun and for two kind of out of shape people slept really, really well.

This morning required a breakfast for champions, so I decided to treat us with my absolute favorite breakfast food: crepes. Recently I was reminiscing about high school French class and making crepes smeared with Nutella, so at Food Fight the other day I indulged in some
Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter made by Peanut Butter Co. Oh lordy, Nutella was never this good.

I smeared the crepes with the Chocolate Peanut Butter and then topped them with some soy yogurt and pureed dark sweet cherries (from frozen). The creaminess of the yogurt combined with the cherries and the chocolate was amazing. On the side we had roasted potatoes with onions, garlic, zucchini, and sweet corn and some apricot slices on the side. It was a heavenly breakfast. Jim isn’t a big fan of crepes, but he said these were the best he ever had and he wished we had more. Yay! Now I just need to get him to start requesting crepes and we’ll be in business.

There are a lot of vegan candies out there, intentionally or otherwise. Food Fight recently got in some AMAZING peanut butter cups, they also carry the Sjaak’s filled chocolate bars, which are incredible. There are Tree Huggin’ Treats, which are also tasty, albeit a bit too spendy for my tastes. But the missing treat, IMO, has been Peppermint Patties. I LOVED Peppermint Patties (and Junior Mints) back in the day and wanted some for Jim’s Christmas stocking this past year, so I was excited to find these patties by The Vegan Baking Co. I should have known better, from how dissapointing their peanut butter cups are and the fact that they make candy but call themselves a baking company, but alas, I ordered some and was let down. First off, there was not nearly enough chocolate and way too much peppermint filling, the balance was all thrown off. Secondly, the filling was gritty and far too sugary sweet. With much sadness, I gave up.

Then, this weekend, I decided to try my hand at it. I’ve been working on some vegan caramel lately (it’s not quite right yet, hopefully I’ll have it figured out soon and I’ll let you all know) and have been playing with corn syrup. You can find organic corn syrup at a lot of health food stores now, I’ve even seen it at Fred Meyer. Anyway, I decided to try my hand at making some Peppermint Pucks, and I’m happy to say I was very successful.

Oh boy, did I have a happy husband! He kept eating at the filling long before the patties were anywhere near completion. And to help spread the joy of chocolate, and the joy of making yummy things and not having to run your oven during the summer, I’m putting up the recipe on my recipes page. So check them out! It makes a lot, but they are extra good stored indefinitely in your freezer, then they are cold and refreshing.

As a side note, from mistakes I’ve made in the past, be sure you use peppermint extract and not just mint extract. Mint extract tends to be spearmint, which makes things taste less like a treat and more like toothpaste.