pizza and donuts

Seriously, can a man have a happier birthday than this?

• freshly ground and brewed Blue Bottle Coffee when he wakes up
• a Wawa Hoagie for brunch
• Pizza for dinner with a gourmet cream soda
• and a Giant Donut for dessert

I don't see how.  Oh, and gourmet mustards for gifts.  Yeah, I'd say Mister's having a pretty happy birthday.  He'd probably prefer his "cake" didn't have pretty pink candles, but hey, some days you're the bird and some days you're the statue.

After a couple cups of coffee, I showered, dressed, and set off on my quest to Williams-Sonoma (I could honestly go broke there, especially with MAC right across the street).  I had one main objective:

Mister loves donuts.  I remember when I learned that - I don't think we'd been dating all that long, but let me set up for you what my perception of him was at that time: When Mister and I started dating, he was the manager of the mechanical department of a Bike Line store on the Main Line suburbs of Philadelphia.  He was actively involved in mountain biking, urban trials, and competitive racing.  He had the talent to have gone from high school into a professional soccer league, but went to college instead.  He lived on Clif bars and water, from what I could see.

What I'm trying to say is Mister took really good care of himself and ate healthier than anyone I'd ever met.  So, imagine my surprise the first time we went on a road trip and he explained the necessity of starting at Dunkin' Donuts.  It was then I saw a darker side of Mister.  A side that can't live without egg 'n' cheese bagel sandwiches and donuts (though, to his credit, these are absolutely "sometimes treats").

So, many donuts later, here we are and at the stroke of midnight last night, I said "happy birthday" to Mister for the tenth time.  So today, I wanted to make him a huge, dual-flavored birthday donut.  The flavor selections were carrot cake and spice cake - I figured they'd go well together.  Unfortunately, we may never know.

I started out by making the recipe for Carrot Cake Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, and although it does make a very tasty cake, I think it's better left to tiny cupcakes - it didn't want to hold a ring shape and when I inverted it out of the cake pan and onto the rack, it pretty much fell apart.

Ugly, yes, but very good.  We ate half of it before dinner (it's not very big - don't judge).  My second try went a little better.  Actually, it went so much better that it didn't matter that what was supposed to be one layer of a two-layer donut cake fell apart and fell into our bellies.

The second "layer" was made from the spice cake recipe I tested for Dynise's cookbook over the winter. Fortunately, there was enough puffing-up agent in the batter to make this one create a whole round (and stable) donut all by itself!

I left it on the counter to cool down while Mister obediently averted his eyes anytime he had to pass through the kitchen and I got ready for dinner.  We didn't go anywhere very special (aka fancy), but I wanted to get dressed up and Mister humored me.  So, instead of a classic pizza joint where Mister could just keep wearing his t-shirt and jeans, we went to a fancy, gourmet, Stephen Starr pizza joint where it was hip enough that I could dress up a little without looking like a jerk.

I was happy to see my old friend, the Marinara Pizza, with it's perfect, fresh-tasting, home-made pizza sauce with fresh oregano leaves and paper thin slices of garlic sauteed in olive oil before being added to the perfectly cooked pie.  Mister had the wood-burning oven in his direct line of sight and was very amused by how carefully they made sure each pizza was cooked "just right," apparently quite invested in a job others might not consider "skilled labor."

Just below mine was Mister's Margherita Pizza, with more delightful sauce, melted mozzarella, and huge basil leaves.

After we'd stuffed ourselves with thin-crust pizza and some green things we ate as appetizers, we headed home and I began the process of making icing for the donut.

I discovered that Tofutti "cream cheese" is stronger than my measuring cup.  When it's not Mister's birthday anymore, I'll have to get him to fix that somehow.

Shortening intrigues me, disgusts me, and impresses me, all at once.  I have had this shortening for a long time - long enough that I can't remember when I got it.  Honestly, I totally expected to open it up and find it had changed colors, grown hair, or had little friends living inside of it.  I mean, it's not even refrigerated!  Yet, it looks just like it did the first time I opened it (aside from the missing bits).

Anyway, I creamed together the cream cheese and the shortening and then added powdered sugar incrementally.  Probably a little too much, but I was following the recipe, so....

Well, okay, I added like 2 teaspoons of soymilk to make it a little more spreadable.  Aside from that, I followed the recipe.  Once I'd terrorized poor little Angst with the electric mixer, I had a nice pliable frosting for the donut.

Angst wishes it was his birthday.

creature comforts

In case I've failed to mention it so far today, it is SO COLD in Philadelphia.  We're headed into our second major cold snap - as in, today was the warmest weather we'll see this week and after only five minutes outside my face was in pain from the cold.  Add to all the freezing-to-death the fact that another chaotic and stressful week has only just begun at work and I'm already exhausted and you can probably imagine I was in a "let's be comfy and eat ourselves into hibernation" mood tonight.

While I prepared our Cajun Rice and Beans from The Accidental Vegan, Mister and I discussed how ravenous we've both been lately and how it can only be attributed to our bodies' natural survival instincts trying to fatten us up for the winter.

Mister and I have some odd conversations, but him blowing my mind with existential philosophy while we ate water ice beside a small stream in Manayunk one Spring day was one of the things that won my heart to him.  The fact that he's the handsomest man I've had the pleasure to call mine doesn't hurt.

Anyway, after all the cold, you would think I would have made the thick, hearty potato chowder...and I almost did.  But then I remembered looking at the weather forecast this morning and seeing that the warmest it will be tomorrow is 27 degrees, I figured the soup dinner is probably better suited to tomorrow.  Besides, along with the bone-chilling cold I brought home from the train station, I couldn't shake my desire to make my favorite rice-n-beans recipe.

I used a yellow pepper instead of green and pink beans instead of red.  I did this because there were two green peppers at the store and one was gross and because I couldn't find small red beans.  A happy side effect was how different it looked from the last time I made it - I figure, if I'm going to repeat a dish this frequently, I should at least make an effort to have it look different.

To proceed with our eating-our-way-into-hibernation trend, I couldn't escape the desire for dessert.  Alas, there was no chocolate hiding in my cupboards and I finished the last Sweetzels a couple of weeks ago.  No sweet treats were anywhere...until I pulled my long-patient can of pumpkin puree from the cupboard and grabbed VCTOTW from my cookbook shelf.

I made the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cupcakes before and I neglected to add the cinnamon piping then as well.  Does it enhance their deliciousness?  Possibly - someday I'll find out.  Are they still amazing without it?  Absolutely!  I think it's time for another...

One final note, in case I forget by tomorrow night: when I had carefully scooped one cup of pumpkin out of the 15 oz can, there was still some squishy bright orange glop still in there (I'm sure you can imagine).  I want to have pumpkin oatmeal tomorrow, but I knew I would be super sad in the morning if I just stirred in the leftover pumpkin without enhancing it in some way...it doesn't taste like much on its own.  I transferred what was left from the can into a small tupperware container, then sprinkled on some cinnamon and probably about a heaping Tbsp of brown sugar, poured on a dash of vanilla extract and whisked it all together.  Hopefully, it will make for a fun, bright orange breakfast!

done with leftovers, on to soup

Sometime after I finished last night's post, Mister and I both decided we were hungry again.  I do think my hunger was partially due to the power of suggestion as a friend had mentioned (via Twitter) that she wanted to be hungry again so she could eat leftovers.  That got me thinking about the leftovers we had in the fridge from "greek thanksgiving," so I pulled out the broccolini, olive oil, and Mediterranean Sea Salt blend and sauteed me some greens.  I started with half the broccolini, but it was just so good, I went back and had the second half, too.  Ignoring the olive oil (I'm good at that), how many calories can a green veggie really have?

About 10 minutes after I scarfed down finished savoring the last of my broccolini, the scents wafting in from the kitchen got to Mister and I found him foraging through the fridge and cabinets.  He asked what there was to eat, I made a few suggestions, and he decided he was too lazy to eat (i.e. too lazy to make something to eat).  I asked him if he'd like me to make him something, he smiled, so I got to work reheating the last bits of Savory Sausage and Peppers in the same pan I used for my broccolini, allowing the garlic-herb-salt-tinged oil to add more flavor to the leftovers.  As that was sizzling away, I warmed up the last of the mashed potatoes in the microwave (I'll admit, I use it begrudgingly, but there have really been times that microwave has come in handy), then laid a little pillow of mashed potatoes at the bottom of a bowl and scooped the sausage melange over top and delivered it to my hungry Mister.

The only leftovers we have, well, leftover, are of the apple pie persuasion, and I believe the plan is to heat our last slices up in the oven once our bellies have emptied a bit from dinner.

Segue, anyone?

Before I started cooking tonight, there were three choices left on our 5-option menu, but I already knew I wanted to make the Caldo Verde from Vegan on the Cheap.  Today was the first day we didn't have to do anything at all and we both took full advantage of that, drinking cup after cup of the Snickerdoodle coffee I bought at a Coffee Bean out in California.

It was so good.  It was about 3:30 before either of us made any effort to do something a person could define as productive.  For me, it was taking a shower so I could go get kitty litter (yes, I live the glamorous life, try to tone down the envy).  Mister, at 3:45 PM, decided he wanted to try his luck at Black Friday so he could buy a multi-terabyte hard drive for very little money that my dad told him about last night when he was flipping through store circulars while Mister amused himself on his iPod and Mom and I cooked.  I'm sure you'll be shocked to learn that they were all sold out.

Anyway, the total ten minutes I was outside to get the kitty litter (and spy a new "bakery" in the neighborhood - Cookie Confidential grand opening today) was quite enough to make me want soup for dinner.  The best part is that it's going to be even colder tomorrow!

The soup smelled phenomenal simmering away on the stove while I tried my hand at freeform "cheese" slicing.  I mentioned in a previous post that I picked up cheddar Vegan Gourmet "cheese," but it only comes in block form.  Fortunately, the block is about the same size as a piece of bread, so I just sliced off two big slices and plunked them onto the bread I already had toasting on the skillet.  As you can see, the package declares with great enthusiasm that this cheese substitute melts.  I'll grant that it took me three tries to get the Rice Vegan to finally melt all gooey like it's supposed to, but even on the first try it came far closer to melting than this stuff did... I'm sure it tried, but I was skeptical from the get-go; after slicing the pieces for the sandwiches, I cut off a little more to taste and the texture was so much like a cross between hard-boiled egg whites and extra-firm silken tofu that I couldn't see how it would melt.  Mister was a trooper - he coated his sandwich in ketchup and plowed through it in about 6 bites.  I took my time, trying to gauge how I feel about this one, despite that there was nothing that resembled melting going on.  It has a pleasant flavor, but it smells a little like mildew and scent is kind of important.  Nevertheless, the cheapskate in me my frugal side won't allow me to give up and chuck what's left, so I'll probably try broiling it on an open-face sandwich tomorrow or Sunday, just to see if I can actually convince it to melt.  I don't think it will ever find its way past Mister's lips again, though.

The soup was good - hearty and full of potatoey-kaley goodness, but nothing spectacular, so if I make it again, it will probably be by accident or a year from now.

I had this horrific moment today when I thought tomorrow was Monday.  Mister and I did a little dance in the kitchen (the only place with enough room to dance) when he informed me that tomorrow was actually Saturday - I am absolutely not ready for Monday yet.  I have laundry to do, a new menu to plot and shop for, a Christmas tree to set-up and decorate, and I really want to make Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes from VCTOTW.  Also, heaven forbid a weekend should pass without a new oatmeal recipe!  See you tomorrow, MoFos!

chickpeas and chocolate

Before you ask (in case your memory is super-sharp), No, I have not made chocolate hummus yet.  It is most definitely still on my imaginary To Do list, but it is yet unmade.

Why don't we back up to last night's dinner then?  We took a second go-around with Colleen's Saffron-Spiked Moroccan Stew, but this time I left off the saffron.  Despite that exclusion, when I tasted the simmering broth halfway through, it was undeniably sweeter than I thought it should be.  I held off on adding a glug of tamari like I really really wanted to and instead doused it with a healthy shake of salt.

It's really a very attractive dish - bright and colorful, just brimming with the colors you can imagine as scarves tied to the poles holding up tents at a Moroccan bazaar.  I served it over top of Israeli couscous, and I would like to record here, for future reference (most likely my own), that it takes about 7 minutes of boiling for Israeli couscous to be al dente.  Israeli couscous is delightfully light, so it felt like I was eating a fluffy white cloud.

Mister had picked up something I consider utterly revolting at the corner store because he thought it would help him sleep.  We've been having another fun bout of insomnia, so at this point, I was pretty on board with almost anything non-habitforming that would help him get some much-needed sleep, but I really wasn't expecting this:

Drank is formulated to thoroughly relax the person drinking (dranking?) it.  On the back, where it touts the chillaxing ingredients, such as melatonin, valerian root, and rose hips, it also carries the following "pieces of advice."  It is not advised to have more than 2 servings in a 24 hour period - mind you, there are two servings in one can.  Also, it is advised that the user drinker not drive while drinking it.  I read a review of this magical beverage and became a little doubtful that it was anything more than some genius attempt to make a dime off my husband's inability to sleep soundly.

He wanted to drink it right after dinner, because he was thirsty.  I had to beg him to hold off until later,  "just in case" it worked and knocked him out.  Meanwhile, I was hurrying to get a batch of cupcakes done by Midnight - Mister's birthday.

Peanut Butter Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, frosted with melted Dark Chocolate Dreams.  These are absolutely the richest baked treats I have ever made.  They are so good, but holy cow!  These are the first cupcakes I have ever made that were so intense, Mister and I could both only handle one heaven-sent cupcake each. 

I just realized how gluttonous that sounded.  Unfortunately, I'll take this moment to confess - normally, if I make cupcakes or muffins, we each have 2 right out of the oven, and if I make cookies, we usually have between 5-6 the night I make them.

Anyway, Mister made it to Midnight, I said "Happy Birthday" and presented him with a frosted cupcake (since birthday cakes always have icing), and then I let him drink his Drank.  I tried a sip, and ironically, it tasted like a watered-down energy drink.  I prefer the bite of Red Bull, as well as its effects, but I will say one thing:  Mister slept like the dead last night.

We had a pretty relaxed day in celebration of Mister's Birthday as well as his first day off since last week.  We slept until about 11:30, which is more and more rare these days, and after a leisurely time waking up, we took a little field trip to Mister's Toy Store: Radio Shack.  He was like a child, rifling gleefully through bins to find the strange little things he will stick together to create a sound-making apparatus (some people call them amplifiers).  About 30 minutes later and a bit lighter of purse, we left with Mister's Bag O' Goodies in tow and he's been playing with them pretty much all day.

Meanwhile, I made Curried Cauliflower, Garbanzo, and Tomato Salad from The Complete Vegan Cookbook.  It had to marinate for a few hours, so I started my chopping, mixing, and marinating during the rainy afternoon.  By dinner time, all I had to do was tear up the butter lettuce and scoop the vegetables over top of it.

In addition to being pretty, it tasted pretty good.  Although the cauliflower was steamed before I marinated it, it was still pretty crunchy and it took me a while to chew my way through dinner.  Nevertheless, it was filling but not bloating and now I am relaxing with a few squares of dark chocolate and a glass (or two) of Montepulciano.

turn that frown upside down

If there was a painkiller for frownyface, I think it would be called "a cupcake." At the beginning of VCTOTW, Isa postulates on cupcakes' inherent ability to bring joy. I got to experience that in all of its fullness today.

I work for a weight loss company (which shall remain nameless). It is the fourth quarter and we are staring Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Chanukkah right in the face, as well as all the eating associated with these holidays. Suffice it to say, our sales people are bored to tears. However, those of us who know what's coming in the 1st quarter of the new year (aka, "diet season" thanks to all those this-time-I-mean-it resolutions) are presently running around like crazy people trying to get everything in place, get everyone trained, get events planned, get samples and scripts and streamers and balloons (in company colors, of course).

The Director of all this madness has been running around non-stop, with a perma-frown on her face and her eyebrows constantly furrowed in thought. As she passed my desk today, I called out, "Smile!" to which she responded "Not yet." Then I said it.

"I have cupcakes!"
She screeches to a halt, breaks into what can only be described as an irrepressible smile and changes the course of her footsteps to make her way over to me. Like a child being offered a tray of candy, she bashfully but excitedly picked her cupcake and then, I swear this is true, took the time to truly savor it.

Asking what spiced it, she tasted each component individually as I named them: cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, white pepper...that one took her a moment, but when she caught it, her face lit up all over again as though she had just unraveled the greatest mystery.

Now, the reason I compared cupcakes to a painkiller, rather than a cure, is because the numbing effects eventually wear off and push you back into whatever they had previously blocked. Moments after the last crumbs had made their way past her lips, the perma-frown regained its position. It made me happy, though, to offer just 5 minutes reprieve.

I'm also grateful I had such a great cupcake story to share, since dinner was quite unremarkable. It wasn't bad or anything, it just wasn't anything special. If I make it again, it will probably be as filling for some kind of vegetable. The Valencian Rice and Red Beans certainly took some nice pictures, though!

Angst loves cupcakes

At least, Angst fervently believes he would like to eat one of the Chai Latte Cupcakes I just made from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.
They aren't terribly interesting to look at since I failed to follow the decoration instructions. But I'm sure if I had sprinkled them liberally with confectioner's sugar and then sifted the cocoa, cinnamon, and nutmeg over a cupcake stencil to make a nifty design, they would probably be much cooler looking. Nevertheless, they taste just like a freaking chai latte and that blows my mind. Actually, they also taste like Chai Luna Bars, which really makes me want to stop by Whole Foods on my way to work tomorrow... Or maybe I'll just have another cupcake and wait until I go food shopping in a few days.
I had a bizarre experience at work today that I would like to ramble about for a few minutes before I go to bed.

About three years ago, I discovered that I am actually capable of making my own soup and that it is actually much better (in many ways) than canned soup (even Amy's, sorry), which I had happily eaten for the first twenty*ahem* years of my life. In that instant, I forswore canned soups...until today.

I am generally a huge pain in the rear of our Cafe manager at work. I bug him almost relentlessly about the ingredients in things like, well, soup. As I've alluded to in the past, it just doesn't occur to some people that using chicken or beef broth as the base of a soup makes it not vegetarian anymore, even if everything else used to grow in the dirt. We have actually discussed the tomato soup in detail and I inadvertently introduced him to the PETA website while he reluctantly disclosed to me that the tomato soup is nothing more than Campbell's. He probably thought I would call him out on the inauthenticity of more or less advertising home-made soups and then pouring a vat of Campbell's Tomato Soup into an electric tureen, but I was actually thrilled, because that particular soup is 100% vegan.

The point of all that was to tell you that I ate Campbell's Tomato Soup out of a "styrofoam" to-go bowl with a ridiculous plastic soup spoon at my desk today. I realized about halfway through the soup that I felt almost melancholy and nostalgia was washing over me. I paused, spoon hovering between the bowl and my mouth, trying to locate the source of this sudden reflection when I realized it was the soup! The last time I had tomato soup out of a to-go container was when I worked in the alternative school and nonprofit social service agency. For some reason, I distinctly remember that day as the day I realized that Campbell's Tomato Soup leaves a fire-red tint on your lips if you don't wipe them with a napkin after you eat. My mind kept going back, though, further down the road of food-related memories. I remembered so very many times throughout my childhood, adolescence, and even early adulthood when we all had Campbell's Tomato Soup with grilled cheese for dinner or lunch on a lazy weekend, and how my dad always dipped his sandwich into his soup. I was not a fan of my food touching any of my other food, so I found that both appalling and intriguing as I slurped my soup and then ate my sandwich, or the same in reverse, but never together. I also thought of how many times my mother made that same combination of soup and sandwich for me when I was sick or sad or doing homework for countless hours of my junior year of high school.

I don't know how long I thought about these things, and I can only hope no one I work with caught me staring dumbfoundedly at my soup today. It's not thanksgiving yet, but I'd like to add those memories to my list of things for which I am grateful.

pineapple adventures and my IKEA kitchen

I didn't get a chance to post anything last night due to the completely hands-on experience that was dinner...and dessert! By the way, they were both positively luscious.

For dinner, I decided to make Potato Leek Soup (because I can't get enough thick, creamy potato soups!) accompanied by Sauteed Baby Broccoli with Olives and Pine Nuts, both from The Vegan Table.
My mouth is watering just looking at it! I went a little crazy with my immersion blender - most people enjoy the velvety texture of a thick, blended soup. Not my husband - he needs chunkiness. I think there were about a dozen chunks of potatoes left in the whole pot...I forget how quickly that little bugger does its job! Anyway, the leftover soup will be my lunch tomorrow, but I will not have any broccolini to munch alongside, as we finished it all up. The presentation of the whole broccolini stem is grand, but unless you want to bring your paring knife to the dinner table, I would recommend cutting the broccolini into bite sized bits before you saute it. It made for an entertaining dinner, though!

Around 11 PM, I found myself standing in the middle of my kitchen with Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World in my hands, fumbling through the pages and looking back and forth between the time apparatus and the book. Finally, Mister took it upon himself to explain to me that it is never too late for cupcakes. Our conversation ended like this:

Me: So, you want cupcakes?
Mister: Yes.

So I strapped on the apron, preheated the oven, and got all my ingredients together and whipped up a batch of these tropical sweeties:
I love pineapple upside-down cake to begin with, so the Pineapple Right-Side-Up Cupcakes did not disappoint. There is a cup of crushed pineapple in the batter itself and then you take another cup to make into this wonderful gooey topping that actually stays put once you allow the cupcakes to set in the refrigerator for a half hour.

We each had two.

Today was incredible. Well, actually, it starts in yesterday, which was the only day off my husband and I share. We got to brainstorming and scheming a little late in the day, but the end result of our toils is that I have a semi-IKEA kitchen! There's more work to do, but it will have to wait until the weekend again. By the time we're finished (hopefully by the end of this month, if not sooner), our home will look nothing like it did when we started. I would love to say I wish I had "Before" pictures to post a before/after makeover kind of thing, but honestly, there is no part of me that ever wants to remember the chaos and disaster that existed before IKEA made everything right. I'm still impressed that we fit the following things into the backseat of my Chevy Prizm:
2 decorative shelving units (for my baking stuff)
1 industrial-strength wire shelving unit (from Lowe's, for all of Mister's miscellaneous crap)
1 kitchen trolley/island
1 TV stand
1 magnetic notice board

I'm even more impressed with how much of that I was able to assemble without Mister's help (about half). Anyway, we were hungry little hippos after putting everything together, cleaning things, restocking shelves. Oh, and did I mention that my husband is Superman? Here is another list, this time of all the pieces of furniture he has removed from our second floor apartment without anyone else's assistance (he only keeps me around because I cook):
our couch
an oversized chair (Angst's, by the way, and he didn't appreciate its disappearance)
an old, solid wood drysink (think buffet/cabinets)
an old round dining table

I'm most impressed by the couch, personally. I think the people at the thrift store are, too.

Anyway, back to the hungry, hungry hippos. Mister made lunch earlier: SmartDogs on whole wheat rolls. We assembled them, with fixin's, on my new kitchen trolley, to my great delight. After all the work was done and the sun was long set, I suggested we eat dinner and since he was such a great help today, I let Mister choose from the newly posted menu on the freezer door. He chose Pasta Della California from Veganomicon.
I had never cooked with avocado before. Actually, I had never purchased, cut open, pitted, and/or diced an avocado before. That is part of the reason I chose this recipe for this week's menu - a nagging little veggie voice in the back of my head, saying, "Try it; you might like it!" What I learned from this experience is this: No matter how busy the people stocking the bins at Whole Foods look, ask them to help you find a ripe avocado. I had no idea what I was looking for, so I'm pretty sure what I came home with was NOT a ripe avocado. First, it was nearly impossible to pit. My impression was that you just cut around the pit and gently twist the two sides so they pull away. Second, I got the impression from the way Isa wrote the recipe that the flesh of the avocado was supposed to be mushy. I have heard others refer to how delightfully creamy avocados are. My avocado was neither mushy nor creamy. Live and learn!

I can hear the pineapple cupcakes calling my name...gotta run!

oh what a night!

Mister and I just had the most wonderful evening! We went to a photography exhibit, met up with a bunch of blasts from my past, then ended the outside part of our evening with an amazing dinner at Horizons.

For anyone in the greater Philadelphia area, let me talk about the photography exhibit. It opened tonight with an artists' reception as a part of Design Philadelphia, a week of tours, exhibitions, lectures and other fun stuff. If you get a chance to wander up to Biello Martin Studio in Old City, they opened the new exhibit tonight and Naked Design will be running through the month of October. It features photography by seven different artists, posing a nude model with an item of Michael Biello's sculpture. One of these artists is my friend, Melissa J Hays and her work is wonderful - I'm not just saying that. It was great to see her, as well as a swarm of other people I haven't seen in years. A little overstimulating, but a ton of fun.

After the exhibit, Mister and I decided to make a night of it and headed over to Horizons for a gourmet vegan dinner. We both had the grilled seitan with mashed yukon potatoes and spinach. We also shared the truffled fingerling fries (another dish that always makes me say "mmmm..." with each savored bite) and a Yucatan Chopped salad. I've never seen anything like it - it was actually molded on the plate, rather than lettuce and other things thrown haphazardly around the dish (tossed, if you will) and garnished with tasty potato chip type sticks. We saved room for dessert, which was phenomenal - Autumn Parfait. It was beautiful and a delight to the tastebuds. There was some sort of cake in there, diced and sauteed seckel pears, tiny halved figs, toffee pudding, cinnamon ice cream, and topped with a coconut milk based whipped cream. It was amazing.

The highlight of my work day was when a new colleague who arrived just in time for me to share my chocolate cream cheese cupcakes brought me a sort of present. She was given Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World as a gift and she is letting me borrow it over the weekend...hopefully I'll have fun baking stories later - I looked through the book and table of contents and found more than a few recipes I'd like to try.