Domestipithecus

Don’t worry, I won’t ask you to kiss me once ore even twice, but it has been a long, long time. In internet time it’s been almost a whole generation!

I have been cooking away and taking pictures when I remember. I think the wedding stuff settled down (oh the thank you cards I had to write, my hand be cramped up!) just in time for the holiday buzz. Not to mention we have THREE weddings next year (possibly 4) of good friends and relatives.

A good friend and ex co-worker got engaged in Vegas this year. She and her guy have been together for years and have been friends for even longer. I used to ask her all the time if she was engaged yet. She finally was able to beat me to the question by telling me she was This one is in June.

I think I mentioned that Boo’s sister got engaged in August. If not, Boo’s sister got engaged in August. We had all traveled to Hawaii for his brother’s wedding and she and her guy stayed an extra week. He proposed on the top of Diamond Head on their one year anniversary. Soooo romaaantic… Boo is officiating his sister’s nuptials and I will be a bridesmaid! Wait… I’m married now, does that mean I will be a bridesmatron? Ugh. This one is in October.

Our friend that officiated our wedding proposed to my other awesome friend after 5 years together. They are so perfect together and Boo and I are crazy happy for them. They are the awesomest. Is that a word? This may happen in Sept. They don’t have a date as they just got engaged this past weekend.

Boo’s cousin got engaged to his long-time love the day before our wedding. They kept it so quiet I didn’t even know until she had already flown back to their home (he stayed here to visit with family a little longer).  This one has no date and this is the “possibly 4″ I mentioned above. They talked about wanting something very small with immediate family only. Though, Boo and his cousin are very close and cousin considers Boo one of his closest friends, so we may end up going. We don’t know if this one will happen next year or in 2010.

Whew.

Married life is pretty much the same as before, with more stuff. Boo and I lived together for about a year before we were married so not a lot changed. Except we do the sappy “Good morning my wife” “Good morning my husband” thing.

So what have I been up to in the kitchen, you ask? Wait, you didn’t ask? Eh, I’m going to tell you anyway.

Broccoli and Noochy Mac.
Fresh broccoli from our box scheme

Amazing Mac and Cheez sauce from The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook which is our favorite nutritional yeast (nooch) sauce

Horrible picture of the meal (it tastes awesome)

I mostly just steam the veggies we get, so this is how the broccoli was prepared. Veggies taste sooo good just steamed.

To give the noochy mac an even homier feel, I like to cook some chopped up Tofurkey Kielbasa and add it to the mix. Reminds me of a grown up version of the hot dogs and mac and cheese I had when little.

A while back I asked a friend of mine what to do with too many sweet potatoes. Our box scheme has them in there quite often and sometimes there are just too many. He had a lot of great suggestions, but I ended up doing a delicious sweet potato soup. I pretty much cut up sweet potatoes, onions, one yukon potato and garlic and then tossed them with olive oil, dried sage and thyme.

Then I roasted them until I felt they were done (sorry no real recipe here), pureed and served.

This freezes great. All pureed veggie soups do. Roasted root veggie soups are a favorite in this house so now that winter is coming there will be more of them. I love making a huge batch and using up the saved Earth Balance containers to freeze it for lazy, cold nights. A little bread for dipping and you have an amazingly comforting, filling meal.

As a side note, I have to go to Whole foods today. So. Not. Happy. Of course, it was my scatterbrainedness (bzuh?) that made this have to happen. I need Earth Balance Buttery Sticks for my sweet potato biscuits I am bringing to the Thanksvegan feast. I don’t want to use the tubs because it is softer and the biscuits may spread to much.

Yes, I said Thanksvegan. I am lucky enough to be going to Boo’s parents’ home for the holiday. An all vegan household. Mom is making her own “turkey” and sides and I will be bringing the biscuits and a Tofurkey, just because Thanksvegan isn’t Thanksvegan without it.

Oh and I made Bittersweet’s pumpkin pie “ice cream” last night that I may bring a bit of. But Boo and I might want to keep it all for ourselves. It’s crazy good.

I promise to be a bit more posty going forward. I will definitely be bringing my camera to the Thanksvegan (I love that word) feast so you all can share in the yum.

Though, I would never actually ride a horse.

Monday after the wedding, one of my oldest and dearest friends came over for a home cooked meal. This friend (I like to call her Super Girl or SG for short), drove (well, rode - I am such a control freak) cross country with me when I moved to California. We met under somewhat embarrassing circumstances, but we don’t talk much about that

I made chick pea cutlets, mashed potatoes, steamed green beans (fresh from the just delivered produce box) and gravy. Yep, an old standard in the Ape household, but SG hadn’t had the good ol’ vegan cutlet o’chick peas before. It was nummy and really, no need for pictures as I think I have made it and taken pictures more than once before in this blog.

Last night I made a nice angel hair pomodoro, minus the basil. I just didn;t have any and didn’t feel like going to get any. It was my and Boo’s last day/night before he went back to work so we were playing it close to home. We also had some Delicata squash we had  gotten in a previous produce delivery. Those Green Bags are absolutley wonderful. I have 2 1/2 week old zucchini I am thinking about cooking up tonight that looks like I got it Monday. Anyway, I cut the delicata into slices, removed the seeds and roasted with olive oil and kosher salt. They were like yummy, sweet potato tasting squash rings.

Again, no pictures as I am not sure where the camera even is at this point.

Once we get better pictures back, I will post the food and cake from the wedding. And maybe a few pix of the bride and groom

Now I’m off to do my daily Wii Fit. Boo and I got it as a wedding present to ourselves. It’s great fun!

And ever so tired. Will be happy to get back to cooking and posting!

Soon, I promise!

This should be veganmofo post something or other day… um… 13. However, I have contracted the plague and cannot be arsed to care. The wedding is in *tries to do math and fails* this Saturday and I am on day one million (ok maybe day 4 or 5) of the worst sore throat I have had in forever and now allergy/sinus issues that make it so if I even attempt going horizontal, everything clogs up and leaks.

Sorry, not much for food here. Mostly been surviving on vegan chik’n broth and popsicles. Soooooo sick of broth and popsicles.

So, yeah, this post is me whining about being sick right before the wedding and apologizing for not updating.

and I am totally going to stop numbering these things as I feel bad as I get behind.

Today I received our shipment of white wine for the wedding. Finding white vegan wine is the biggest pain in the ass. Red isn’t too hard, but white is near impossible.

We decided to go with a local (California) company, Frey Vineyards.

Because we didn’t want to be too spendy, we went with their Sauvignon Blanc. A very tasty $10 bottle of wine. I sampled this and their “Natural White” table wine at my bridal shower and this one won out, even though it was more expensive. I don’t usually like white wine at all, but this stuff, I love.

We ordered a bunch of bottles because most of the wine drinkers at the wedding are white wine drinkers. There is a 10% discount when ordering 12 or more bottles from their site so really, it wasn’t too bad for what we were getting. We were paying for faster shipping because Boo was afraid that it would end up sitting on a truck in the heat somewhere.

Tuesday, we received a call from Julie at Frey. She said that we had paid for faster shipping but it usually gets to our area even faster than the shipping we chose if we just do regular ground and she would change that if we wanted. We thanked her and told her that would be great and that we had only done the quicker shipping because it was for the wedding and we were paranoid. She congratulated us and I told her that we really liked their wine and that we were having a vegan wedding and finding vegan white was so difficult. She was glad that they could help and wished us luck with the wedding.

The order arrived today with a sweet handwritten note on the invoice, “I imagine that every little bit helps out… so I increased your discount to 15%! Have a lovely wedding day and enjoy! Best Regards, Julie.”

So I am not so much blogging about vegan food as I am vegan wine, but it all goes to the same place, right?

I wanted to let everyone out there know what a great company this is and how amazing their customer service is. Not to mention, they have tasty wine.

I am lame and had this post all set to go for yesterday and totally forgot. So here it is now.

Thought I would throw the Vegan Hundred in here for my fifth VeganMoFo post. Tomorrow pics and such of my box scheme haul.

Also, I am going under the assumption that anything listed here is the vegan version of the item as I am pretty sure that most of the omni versions of this stuff would be crossed off everyone’s list.

1) Copy this list into your own blog, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Post a comment here once you’ve finished and link your post back to here.
5) Pass it on!

1. Natto

2. Green Smoothie link to a blog post out there in cyberspace (do we use that term anymore?) explaining the concept of a green smoothie

3. Tofu Scramble

4. Haggis

5. Mangosteen

6. Creme brulee

7. Fondue

8. Marmite/Vegemite

9. Borscht

10. Baba ghanoush

11. Nachos

12. Authentic soba noodles

13. PB&J sandwich

14. Aloo gobi

15. Taco from a street cart

16. Boba Tea

17. Black truffle

18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes

19. Gyoza

20. Vanilla ice cream

21. Heirloom tomatoes

22. Fresh wild berries

23. Ceviche I would only try this minus the cilantro. We all know how I feel about that.

24. Rice and beans

25. Knish

26. Raw scotch bonnet pepper

27. Dulce de leche

28. Caviar

29. Baklava  I make a kick ass vegan baklava that I am sure I will be putting up around the holidays.

30. Pate This is a favorite of Boo and I. It says “vegetarian” but the ingredients are all vegan. We can buy then at the Cost Plus World Food Market in the Grove (the other ones don’t carry it or only carry the mushroom one). We just stocked up.

31. Wasabi peas I dislike wasabi. A Lot.

32. Chowder in a sourdough bowl

33. Mango lassi I don’t like mango. Yeah, I know, what kind of vegan am I?

34. Sauerkraut

35. Root beer float

36. Mulled cider

37. Scones with buttery spread and jam

38. Vodka jelly

39. Gumbo

40. Fast food french fries

41. Raw Brownies

42. Fresh Garbanzo Beans

43. Dahl

44. Homemade Soymilk made without a machine!!

45. Wine from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more

46. Stroopwafle

47. Samosas

48. Vegetable Sushi

49. Glazed doughnut

50. Seaweed

51. Prickly pear

52. Umeboshi

53. Tofurkey

54. Sheese

55. Cotton candy

56. Gnocchi

57. Piña colada No rum for me. College. Bacardi 151. Just smelling rum makes my tummy roll.

58. Birch beer

59. Scrapple

60. Carob chips

61. S’mores

62. Soy curls

63. Chickpea cutlets every chance I get

64. Curry

65. Durian

66. Homemade Sausages

67. Churros, elephant ears, or funnel cake

68. Smoked tofu

69. Fried plantain

70. Mochi

71. Gazpacho

72. Warm chocolate chip cookies

73. Absinthe

74. Corn on the cob

75. Whipped cream, straight from the can

76. Pomegranate

77. Fauxstess Cupcake

78. Mashed potatoes with gravy

79. Jerky

80. Croissants

81. French onion soup

82. Savory crepes

83. Tings

84. A meal at Candle 79

85. Moussaka

86. Sprouted grains or seeds

87. Macaroni and “cheese”

88. Flowers

89. Matzoh ball soup

90. White chocolate     I tried this when I was a child and maybe a couple more times as an adult - just to make sure. I would never eat the vile substance again. I am pretty sure what I had was not vegan - though it did taste more like soap than anything. And it is not real chocolate. They need to come up with a different name for it.

91. Seitan (but not the boiled kind. I can’t take the texture/mouthfeel)

92. Kimchi

93. Butterscotch chips

94. Yellow watermelon

95. Chili with chocolate

96. Bagel and Tofutti

97. Potato milk

98. Polenta

99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee

100. Raw cookie dough

Boo and I headed south for a friend’s birthday gathering on Saturday. We took this as an opportunity to go to one of our most favorite veg places to eat. Papillon in El Segundo.

I used to go there at least once a week for lunch when I worked in town. Now that I’m an hour away on the wonderful Los Angeles freeways, I don’t get there as often.

Boo and I had dinner there after he proposed to me. And there we were, 2 years to the day from our first date and only 2 weeks until we tie the knot. We got all sappy and looking into each other’s eyes cheesy. BUT, I was still able to take some photos of our delicious food!

First we had the veggie fried wontons - these are soooo good we could have just orderd a few orders of this!

Then we had the nummy veg Hot and Sour soup.

And our main course was the House Special Tofu. This is our most favorite dish there. We love a lot of stuff but oh my this wins hands down. It was extra hot that night (the dish, not the temperature) and we like it that way. Of course, it was offset by the yummy brown rice.

We were going to split a Halo-halo for dessert but decided against it. Next time

Cheese.

Cheese is what I thought would be the hardest thing to give up in going vegan. Thanks to the discovery of nutritional yeast, miso paste and The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook… I shouldn’t have worried.

Boo and I have our Friday night pasta (usually a carb load for running on Sat) with the Amazing Mac ‘N Cheez Sauce and some fried up Tofurkey kielbasa thrown in for a fancy, vegan mac ‘n cheese and hotdogs. We call it Noochy Mac. Total comfort food.

We also enjoy the Cheezy Broccoli Polenta and the Classic Quiche.

Our favorite though… the Parmezano Sprinkles. Oh my head it is sooooooooo good. No need to ever think about those green cannisters of processed, crumbled goodness. Oh no… I can make my own re-used Earth Balance container full of unprocessed (well, I use a food processor) crumbled goodness. MmmmMMmmm…

In a past entry you can see I have also made some of the block cheezes in the book and they were good. Not Kraft singles level of “cheesiness”, but good enough. Soon I will forget the old flavor and hopefully even be disgusted by the thought of it (kind of already am).

Yep… cheese is difficult. More so than other dairy products and eggs.

Well, I’m sort of cheating here because it’s still Day 1, but I will be away from the computer for most of the day tomorrow so I am writing it up ahead of time.

The other day I made delicious “loaf” but in chicken patty form.

We also had some yellow crookneck squash, zucchini and sweet potatoes from our box scheme so I cooked up the squashes and mashed the sweet potato with some Earth Balance.

Nummy.

Happy World Vegetarian Day!!

Apparently it is also Vegetarian Awareness Month. Not sure who decided that or when it was decided…goes to look stuff up… “World Vegetarian Day was founded by the North American Vegetarian Society (NAVS) in 1977 and was endorsed by the International Vegetarian Union in 1978.”

World Vegetarian Month seems to be a little more modern and I can’t seem to find the origins of it, but what the heck? It’s a month to celebrate the veg life!! *dances*