The ultimate comfort food - shepherd's pie!

Lentil Shepherd's Pie, to be exact. I stumbled upon this recipe years ago on vegweb, and make my own version of it often. I like to add garbanzo beans, corn, extra garlic and onions, and some chili powder to the other spices. I also like to use the tiny orange lentils because they cook so quickly that you don't need to precook 'em! Woot! Add extra tomato sauce if you do this, though, because it sucks it right up! Mmmmmmmm!

the filling cookin' up

Just out of the oven... and check out my awesome new casserole dish! Steph got it for me for Solstice, and it has a pretty glass lid!

Why did I put it on it's side? I'm a weirdo. And salad!

Winter is definitely the season for comfort food. Walk to work in the dark, spend the day working inside (though I do get to go outside with the kids for at least half an hour a day), and then when I leave work it's dark again! No wonder Portland is full of a bunch of drunks! Anyway, food! My other major comfort foods are enchiladas and nachos. Mmmmmm. What are your ultimate comfort foods?

P.S. Do you guys like my new layout and colors? I can't believe I stuck with a basic template for so long! Does the text hurt your eyes like white text on black background does to me? I hope not!

Zippin' around in my Zipcar

Have you heard of Zipcar? It's a pay by the hour car sharing service, and I'm kinda in love with it. I haven't had a car in years (I had a car for a year when I was 18), and while I can walk, bike, or take public transportation pretty much anywhere I need to go, there are some places I just don't make it out to. Like Bagby Hot Springs, one of my favorite places in the world. Or my friend's Asian grocery store in Hillsboro. Or New Seasons. I've been putting it off for a long time (I was worried it would cost too much), but I finally got around to getting a Zipcar membership last month! My plan is to only let myself use it twice a month, so it won't really affect my monthly budget, and so far I've used the pickup parked .19 miles from me to pick up a cat tree, and used the hybrid .17 miles from me to pick up Jesse from work and get some takeout way out on 82nd (more on that later). I rarely get to drive, so I always get a little excited when I get the chance. Driving the pickup wasn't too exciting other than being up high off the ground and having a sweet sound system, but driving the hybrid was AWESOME! It makes no noise when you start it, and everything lights up in this badass neon blue, and I just totally felt like I was driving a race car even though I wasn't speeding at all!

Yeah, I'm all that.

So, I saw a post on the PPK about the outer SE vegan Vietnamese restaurant Nhut Quang, and that the business had really slowed and they need some love from the Portland vegan community. It's located on 82nd (one of those far-away places I never make it out to), so I decided to get a Zipcar and go get some takeout. After driving around the block only one time, we found it! We were all excited until we noticed the closed sign in the window. It was 6:30 on Sunday, and they're supposed to be open until 8:00. Of course Jesse started laughing at my lack of planning skills (I did only look up hours on the internet and didn't call), until I told him to take the bus home if he was gonna be mean! haha Then I remembered that there's another veg Vietnamese place up 82nd and Division I've been wanting to try, so we headed over there. After driving around in circles for like 15 minutes and almost giving up, I finally spied it on 84th and Division. Woohoo!

Van Hahn is a tiny little restaurant operated by Buddhist nuns. As such, the service is slow (it took 10 minutes for someone to come out of the back and give us menus), but the food is cheap and tasty! We ordered steam buns, dumplings, spare ribs, yellow noodles with tofu, and the broccoli combo (comes with an assortment of fake meats). Honestly, we both agreed that next time we'll just order a ton of dumplings and steam buns because they were the tastiest by far! Everything else was good, just not great. Jesse really liked the fake beef, though.

the tasties before plates

close up of the entrees

In other news, there is now a Radical Cheerleaders for Animal Rights blog! We just started it so there isn't much there, but check it out and subscribe to it! We'll post events coming up, and photos of old events, and keep you in the loop on all things radical and AR in Ptown. Woot!

Gettin' crunk in the kitchen

So I'm doing a little testing for Vegan Crunk's upcoming cookbook (yeah, yeah, I know you're jealous!) and oh man, do I love that Bianca! I tried two recipes out today and all I can say is YUM!!!

Vegan Crunk's Corn Casserole - I could eat this everyday

Vegan Crunk's Chili of Awesomeness (my name, not hers!) :)

This weekend has flown by! I went in to work yesterday (trying to make up some of those pesky snow days) and after that I was at the Red and Black's one year anniversary at their current location party! The Red and Black is an anarchist, worker owned cafe that has always been veg, and just went vegan a few months ago! Woohoo! I think every vegan in Portland might have been jammed in there, and it was fun to see everyone out supporting our community. Yay Portland! There were lots of bands and the Radical Cheerleaders for AR performed (sorry, no pics this time!), and free vegan cake!

Adelit@s - guerrilla armada con melodias

Have a great week everybody! xoxox

Sweet potato fries, and my nemesis - The Sauerkraut Jar!

First of all, why have I never made sweet potato fries before? They are delicious, full of beta carotene, so pretty, AND they are easy to make! Just don't buy your sweet potatoes at Whole Foods... I spent $6-something on 2! Yikes! For the fries, I used this recipe, which I thought was great except that the fries needed a longer cooking time. After surfing around for different dips, I decided to make a curry mayo. It was awesome! I used 3/4 cups Vegenaise, 1 tsp. curry powder, 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, and 3 cloves of crushed garlic. Delicioso!

On to my evil nemesis, The Sauerkraut Jar. Dun dun duuuuuuunnnnn! I also made some Tofurkey brats, and was planning to have one with some sauerkraut. Jesse wasn't home from work yet, so it was just me and the jar. I've never had too much of a problem before, just use a little hot water, or bang the edge with a butter knife, but this one hated me. I yelled and screamed at it, but it still wouldn't budge! After a few minutes of walking away and coming back to try again, I thought I almost had it! I twisted it really hard and *pop* went my wrist. Being the stubborn bastard that I am, I twisted some more, and then *!POP!* went my wrist. Owwwwwwwwwwwww! I don't know what the heck I did, but I couldn't hold the camera or my plate up after that. My wrist still hurts today! The Sauerkraut Jar kicked my ass. But, we'll meet again! And next time, my wrists will be much stronger! Bwahahahahahaha!!!

Sweet potato fries, curry mayo, pathetic Tofurkey brat with no sauerkraut, mandarin

Happy New Year!

Today is my 4 year veganniversary. Though the transition from vegetarian to vegan took me (literally!) years, going vegan is the best decision I have ever made. It is better for the animals, better for the environment, and better for my own body and soul. Thank you all for your commitment to veganism, and to changing the world through delicious food. Cheers!

Salud! Strawberry chocolate chip pancakes and a mimosa

Presents for the kitty cats!

Guess what my spoiled kitties got for the holidays? Not one, but TWO cat trees! I got them one, and Jesse's parents surprised me and got them one, too :) . They are in kitty heaven! Zoey was declawed by her previous owner (we adopted her from the Humane Society), so I was concerned about her being able to get up them. Unfortunately, the 6 ft. one is just too big for her to get up on top of, but she's loving the top of the 5 ft. one! There's a little cutout in the bottom of the bed part for her to jump up through. Happy kitties!

Once she got to the top, Zoey didn't want to share!

She eventually gave in!

It's ginormous! I custom ordered it from a guy that makes these in his spare time (let me know if you want his contact info - they are really cheap!) and I think I should have put one more ledge on it... whoops!

I tackled the cinnamon rolls from JoVB - pretty good! I subbed whole wheat pastry flour because I was out of all purpose... so they were a little heavy. Still tasty, though!

My favorite present! These are soooooo Chelsea! Jesse's little brother always gets me awesome gifts :)

Have a fun and safe New Years Eve everybody! Jesse and I are going to see his friend's band play and I don't know what else afterward... 2009, I can't believe it!

My latest obsession - pancakes!

It's been snowing like the dickens here in Portland! Actual snow is a pretty rare occurrence here, so the city basically shuts down when the roads get slick. PSU was closed for 2 days last week, and had late openings for 2! It was sort of annoying because my vacation is supposed to be most of this week and all of next week (we're closed for children, so it's optional inservice time), and now I'll have to make some of that time up or just not get paid... I was planning to go in tomorrow, but I just found out we're closed again! Yikes!

One awesome perk of being around the house unexpectedly last week (other than frolicking in the snow) was that I actually had time to make breakfast! I read on one of your awesome blogs that Bisquick is vegan (sorry don't remember which...), so I decided to pick some up and try it out. Pancakes have always been a big frustration for me; I've tried a ton of recipes and they've all turned out like crap! Recently I had a breakthrough with the basic recipe from VWAV, and finally figured out what the batter is supposed to look like and when to flip the damn things (thank you so much Isa!). I have a dinky kitchen with NO counter space, so I thought I'd try the Bisquick out to cut down on dishes to wash and all that. Oh man, is it easy! And the Heart Smart kind doesn't have any weird crap in it. I've found that replacing the egg is totally unnecessary, just use equal parts Bisquick and soymilk. Here are some of my recent pancakes:

Chocolate chip soynog pancakes

Strawberry blueberry pancakes with tofu scramble and hashbrowns in the background

Strawberry flax walnut pancakes

I recently moved the living room furniture around a bit to make space for the Solstice Tree, and the kitties seem to love it! I actually really like it, too. It isn't a whole lot different, but I moved the big cozy chair into a corner where you can't see the tv, and it makes a really lovely spot for reading, and also creates a view out the window in a different direction than I've really looked before.

The cuties!

Lights on!

Lights off! Yay!

Happy Holidays everyone! Peace, love, vegan, and all that good shit :)