boys like girl-treats, too!

It would be something of an understatement to say my cupcakes were a success.  I'm not a big braggart (ordinarily), but I have irrefutable evidence that my cupcakes were a hit - 3 previously cupcake-filled containers came home with me empty.  Then there were the nearly vulgar sounds some colleagues made while eating them.  Personally, I'm a fan of the eyes-widening, mouthful-of-cupcake-smiling reactions, of which I got many.  I've kept you in suspense long enough - wanna see 'em?

of course you do

Let's travel back in our magical phone booths to... 24 hours ago (Mister's been watching Dr Who)...

Although I honestly bought the wine specifically to make the icing, I knew I was only going to use a couple of ounces and it would be such a shame to waste that whole big bottle...  Nothing says "I'm ready to bake!" like a glass of wine balancing on top of two small cookbooks.... nothing, maybe, but a brand new apron (seriously, I don't think I can have too many - I'm becoming an apron addict).

I wish I could have gotten more of the apron in the picture, but my arm isn't long enough to do a full body self portrait, but that cute little pattern just repeats along the body and down to the cute little gathered hem bits.  Okay, so clearly I have to take a picture of the whole apron by itself because that last part made No sense.

This, right here, is probably my favorite part of the whole recipe (except the Eating It part).  This is the part of the recipe that made me fall in love with the oddly-named Funeral Cake.  This part of the recipe actually smells better than the part where the cupcakes are baking.  I know - you don't believe me - but go ahead and melt Earth Balance in a saucepan with oil, water, and cocoa and tell me you couldn't die happy.

Go ahead.  I'll wait.

Anyway, once I was done salivating from the scent of the cocoa boiling on the stove and had cleaned up enough to feel comfortable touching it, I poured the chocolatey mixture over my dry ingredients (which includes so darn much sugar I actually ran out and had to sub in some brown sugar to make up the difference - way to plan ahead and check your ingredients, Natalie - apparently flour wasn't the only thing keeping me from baking) and mixed it all together until it resembled oily fudge.  I filled the cupcake liners to the top and just look at them pretending to be pure chocolate candy cups!

Once they'd finished baking (about 25 minutes was perfect), I managed to let them cool to Nearly Room Temperature (the closest I'm likely to get any time soon) before trying to ice them.

I put about a cup of confectioners sugar in a bowl, then carefully sprinkled in 2 Tbsp red wine.  I stirred it up good with my little whisk, until the sugar had all melted into the wine and the icing had a puce kind of hue going on.  Never a big fan of pink-purple, I added another teaspoon red wine for color, but then the icing was way too thin.  In the future I will likely do the same amounts but either

a) use 1.5 cups sugar OR

b) put everything (cupcakes and icing) in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Despite the huge mess I made, I ended up dipping the top of each cupcake into the icing, swirling it around a little and then setting it down on the tray they live on in the refrigerator.  I put them all in the fridge overnight and it definitely helped the glaze set but not before it dripped all down the sides, making quite a mess when people pulled off the wrappers today.

The woman who inspired me to make these was extremely grateful and astonished I could combine two great things like chocolate and red wine, but she took her cupcake home to eat for dessert tonight, so I have to wait until tomorrow for her reaction, but everyone else gave me instant gratification.  The gents loved the cupcakes and used many descriptive words to tell me how much.  Another colleague has now specifically requested the Strawberry Creme cupcakes that were part of yesterday's brainstorm.  Fortunately, the incredible reactions I got on this batch are definitely provocative enough to get me back in the kitchen in time to bring those cupcakes in next week...

nothing ventured, nothing gained

So, I've been thinking of baking on and off for a couple of months.  Obviously, the best time to do so is during the first May heat wave in years.  Let's back-track, though.

A few times recently the Baking Bug bit me, only for me to open my cupboard and discover (repeatedly, since I don't learn the first time) that I have less than one cup of flour.  Not too many things you can make with that little flour.  A few times recently, Mister's been up to his old tricks, wandering into the kitchen, wanting "something," only to be thwarted by the fact that neither of us has replenished the flour, so again - no baking.

This past weekend I was around cakes almost every waking hour.  I watched batter being made in large quantities and enough frosting (they call it "icing" in the South) to fill a plastic storage bin other people would use for their winter clothing or to corral cleaning supplies.  I was surrounded by the heavenly scent of cakes baking - chocolate, almond pound, vanilla - and watched as they were prepped for icing and then decorated efficiently and skillfully.  I was even lucky enough to have some batter slung at me while I was eating my breakfast, as a sister-in-law reacted in time to save a full cakepan from overturning but too quickly to put down the spatula first.

Needless to say, after a weekend like that, all I wanted to do last night, my first night home, was bake cupcakes and even decorate them.  It's rare that I bother with icing my cupcakes, as I explained over the weekend, because you have to be patient enough to let them cool and I just want to eat them while they're still warm.  Nevertheless, when I started daydreaming about what I would make and how I would decorate, I was rudely awoken to the continued Lack Of Flour in my cupboard.

~*~*~*~*~

Over the weekend, we moved the retail and service portion of our flagship store (which is currently our corporate headquarters) into a new location, just two doors down.  Despite the move being so close we didn't even need movers' assistance, and despite a bunch of hardworking individuals pulling a 14-hour day while I was sitting in Georgia sniffing cake batter, things are still a little crazy as everyone gets settled.  A little (okay, a decent bit) of that chaos is leaking back into the "old" building, where me and other administrative folks are still in residence.  By the end of today, one of my colleagues was clearly in need of some TLC and good, old-fashioned, female-tilted relaxation.  

I hatched a plan on my walk home: moist dark chocolate cupcakes, topped with something decadent.  Maybe I would get a decorator tip and food coloring and make a red rose topping (a wee bit ambitious for someone who has never actually decorated a cupcake outside of smearing an improvised "cream cheese" icing on top and carefully placing chocolate chips to look randomly sprinkled on).  No.... I try to stay away from artificial ingredients, so why would I use food dye?  Ah!  Strawberries!  Yes, I would puree fresh strawberries and then make a pink "buttercream" to frost the tops of these decadent chocolate cupcakes.  Hmmm.... suddenly, the light flavor of a strawberry creme topping seemed better suited to vanilla cupcakes, which I had no interest in making.  Then I remembered a comical conversation about Tequila-tinged cupcakes and rethought the strawberry theme - I'll stop at the liquor store, pick up some Pinnacle Whipped and macerate some berries in it, then plop them on top of a chocolate frosting!  But then there's the issue of transportation... thinkthinkthink... I've got it! 

~*~*~*~*~

As I sit here, telling ridiculous stories and dragging this post out as long as possible to make up for all the words I haven't been sharing, I am breathing in the thick, delicious aroma of newly baked chocolate cupcakes.  I used Dynise's recipe for Funeral Cake in her new book Celebrate Vegan.  I actually tested this recipe for the book, so I knew its intense flavor was exactly what my colleague (and I!) need to make it to Friday.  It is taking every ounce of my imaginary self-control to stay away from the cooling cuppers (though I think the large amount of batter I scraped from the sides of my mixing bowl and ate while they baked helped...)

I know, I can feel your sarcasm seeping through the computer as you think "Wow, Natalie, you made chocolate cupcakes?  Good freakin' job."  No, no, friends - it gets far better.

When I stopped to get flour on my way home (and strawberries, just in case I changed my mind), I also picked up a bottle of sweet red wine.  Again, nothing much new here, so let's skip right to the Big Innovative Moment this has all been leading up to:

If I actually let the cupcakes cool without eating them, I'm going to whip up a glaze using that wine.  The cupcakes alone are enough to give you a foodgasm, (have I mentioned you need to get the book??) but if the icing comes out even half as well in real life as it does in my brain, the complementary flavors will kick these sweets up a notch and a half.  Current plan is to do a cup of confectioners' sugar with 2 Tbsp of the wine, then more or less paint the glaze on or possible dip the nicely domed tops of the cupcakes to allow a little Hershey Kiss-shaped action on top.

No pictures tonight, sweetpeas, nor confirmed recipes - I promise I will return tomorrow with pictures, recipes, and reactions, but for now it's time to get to sleep so I can get up early and ice my cupcakes!

snowtober??

One thing I have to admit I love about news & weather websites/TVstuff is how easily and frequently they sensationalize any possible divergence from "normal" weather.  Last winter, we had a "snowpocalypse" and I will admit, last January saw way more snow than I can remember in the last 15 years - in fact, the only time I remember more snow was January 1994 when they were cancelling school by the week and I actually only had three days of school in January.  That was, as you say, epic.

So, enter today.  Well, last night, actually, weather.com started predicting a snow storm with actual accumulations along the northeast corridor, including Philadelphia.  By the time I left work, they had updated it to the season's first Nor'easter.  If you are unfamiliar with the term, let me break it down like this: really really sucky windy storm that usually comes down from Canada to mess things up real good between Virginia and Ohio and up to Maine, generally involving heavy cold precipitation of some sort.  Now, I like snow a lot, but a nor'easter was not what I wanted to hear.

So I wake up this morning to my alarm, believing I can probably head out to the suburbs and teach before anything serious starts, if it's even more than just crappy rain.  I'm lying there for just a minute before rising and I hear it:  tap, tap, ping, tap, etc.  I think to myself, "No...it's not freezing rain.  Not yet," and get up, pulling my bathrobe warmly around me as I head into the kitchen for breakfast.

Angst is in the window, smacking at the snowflakes.

Yup.  Snowflakes.  In October.  I mean, for heaven's sake - it's not even Halloween yet!  Everyone was freaking out all over Facebook, swearing they were going to move if we were in for another winter like last year, or worse.  Me?  I'm kinda hoping for it :)

Anyway, because it's so unusual for snow to start so early in the season ("normal" first snowfall in Pennsylvania - with any accumulation likely - is mid-December), everyone, including weather.com, is now talking about Snowtober.  I guess that's kind of clever.

In case you were wondering, I did not ride the train a half hour out to the suburbs for the privilege of teaching at least three students who didn't bother practicing.  Instead, I watched really awesome make-up tutorials on YouTube by this angelic little English girl, Klaire de lys, and then completely neglected to paint my own face.  Poor Mister.

Eventually, I got it together to make dinner, which really couldn't have been anything other than Black Bean Soup with Kale and Rice from Vegan on the Cheap.

I was so relieved when the soup came out so chunky and substantial, because I know Mister's not a fan of soup dinners and he didn't eat much all day, but he seemed pretty happy about everything except eating his dinner with a spoon.  I had forgotten how rich the broth is, and what a fabulous mouthful all the ingredients come together to make.  Some sweetness from the carrots, creamy black beans, chewy rice, bitter kale, and tangy tomatoes were all brought together and spiked with a savory broth with simple spices.

Nevetheless, I knew Mister would be craving something more to eat later on, so when I was washing up the pot afterwards, I put a stick of Earth Balance out to soften.

Right now, my home smells incredible.  I started out with the intention to make Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting, also from Vegan on the Cheap, but decided I had very little interest in the frosting.  I started to just make chocolate cupcakes, but then decided to "doctor" them a little, resulting in a cupcake version of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, which were always among my favorite [Trick or] Treats.

It was a simple alteration, really.  I started by filling each cupcake tin about 1/3 of the way

then I dropped about a half teaspoon to a scant teaspoon of peanut butter (I used chunky 'cause that's what we stock, but you can use whatever makes your little heart sing) into the center of each future cupcake, pressing down very lightly to set it in place.  The dough is actually pretty stiff, so you shouldn't have trouble.

Once the PB was safely nestled in a little chocolate nest, I plopped the rest of the batter on top, filling each cupcake paper almost to the top, taking care to ensure it fell completely around the glop of PB, encasing it.

After teasing Mister and I with a luscious smell for about 25 minutes, these little beauties were finished cooking and ready to cool as much as we would allow them to...

Back to Klaire de lys for a few minutes...ah, so that's how they did the make-up for Black Swan.
And other stuff I don't really need to know.  Thank you, YouTube!

Okay, back to the cupcakes.

So good.  Seriously.

There were a couple of things I'd like to tweak in order to make this recipe completely my own and utterly scrumptious.  Cooking Light got me in the habit of mixing up my flour to lighten it and then gently spooning it from the bag to my measuring cups before leveling them off.  The idea here is that you use less flour = less dense baked goods = fewer calories.  I think I need to abandon that for these cupcakes, in order to make them the dark, dense, fudgy outside I want them to be.

I think they could hold a little more peanut butter, too.  I think a full teaspoon, maybe even heaping, would be in order here.

I also need to remember to check how much cocoa powder I have before committing to a chocolate cupcake recipe.  I didn't have exactly a half cup of it left and I think that was to the cakes' detriment.

Believe me, these will be made again.  And again and again and again, especially if we have a really snowy winter.  Once I've "perfected" them, I'll share a recipe.

coming up for air

Should I cry about being a bad blogger again?  While I always feel a little guilty/bad when I miss a few days (because they always end up being more days than I thought), sometimes I think it's better just to be quiet.  After all, nothing is more boring that reading about dull, mundane events in someone else's life.

Actually, the past several days have been anything but dull, I just didn't think they really needed to be captured for all time in the pages of this blog.  I haven't been doing anything special with dinner - in case you didn't notice, every item on the current menu is an "old favorite" or at least "past success," so there weren't any ground-breaking discoveries to share.

So, what have I been up to?  Well, I spent the weekend teaching and shopping.  Food shopping, clothes shopping, shoe shopping - you name it.  As a result, I had plenty to say on Pretty Woman in an Ugly World, so if you have some time, why don't you read about my experiences?

• Macy's: The Good
• Macy's: Part 2, subtitle: Cross-Dressing is not Good Customer Service

Yesterday, I started my new job!  So that's fun, right?  Absolutely exhausting, too.  See, it's funny - for the last several years, I have been the one standing up in front of a group of new hires and teaching them about the company, processes, products, etc.  Now, I'm in the learner's seat and it's fun to see the other side - the side that is slightly bewildered, not by the information, but the speed at which it is delivered.  I'm learning quickly, though, which is good since we have a special event this weekend and need all hands on deck, so to speak.

I actually had intended to post last night, but was quite exhausted after all that learning and could not even focus on the screen so I just went to bed after convincing myself to wash the pots and knives so I could just come home and cook tonight without having to clean up.  That's another thing:

I get home when it's still light out.  You may or may not realize how incredible this is, but it is rare that I need my sunglasses on the way home from work, since I usually got home around 9pm.  Today, I was sitting on the bus for my 15 minute commute home (can I tell you how much I love that??) an hour and a half earlier than I would have been leaving my old job.  It was such an incredible feeling that I found myself grinning like a fool and the other folks must have thought I'd lost it.

Tonight, I made and ate dinner, cleaned up leftovers and started this blog before the time I would have even been putting dinner on the table two weeks ago.  Again, I cannot express (and I have a lot of words) how wonderful that realization was.  Not only are we eating dinner closer to times that "normal" people eat dinner, but I also don't have to start dinner the very moment I walk in the door to ensure that we can eat and I can clean up before bedtime.  I'm still getting used to that - four years of walking in the door and immediately starting dinner is a tough habit to break.

Enough about all that - let's have a food parade!

The last meal I made before starting my new job - Rotini with Spicy Vegetable Ragu from Vegan on the Cheap, at Mister's request.  If you haven't noticed that he always gets what he asks for, just keep reading.

It was tasty and pleasantly spicy, but I think I must have overcooked the rotini because it kept falling apart.  I feel like that happened last time I made it, though, so I might experiment with a more stable pasta shape in the future.  

I hate having an open package of Tofurky sausage lying around for very long, so the very next meal I made was the delightful and hearty Savory Sausage and Peppers, also from Vegan on the Cheap.

Depending on where you live or how much you care about the weather in other places, you may or may not know that it was miserable here in Philadelphia yesterday.  The temperatures didn't quite make it past 65 and it was pouring rain - in fact, it was the most opportune time possible for me to learn about the leak in my umbrella, as I was standing in the rain, in pumps, waiting for the bus...and then walking through a 2-3" puddle to get into the bus....poor shoes, poor feet.

Needless to say, after Mister finished coddling me and petting me and telling me what a cute little drowned rat I was, I stripped off my shoes, soaked stockings, wet clothes, and put on my "comfy clothes."  All I could think of cooking was something warm and slow and hearty...

Today, on the other hand, started out quite grim and foreboding, but by lunchtime the sky was clear and sunny and the weather turned out to be beautiful.  It almost seemed a shame to be inside a training room, and once again, I could feel sympathy for the hundreds of new hires I taught over the last few years, especially when the training room had no windows.  Nevertheless, preferring to see opportunity rather than obstacle, I just thought of how lovely it will be to take picnics in Rittenhouse Square this fall.

Speaking of lunch, from the rumors the seasoned employees are spreading and the way we've been treated so far, it seems the boss knows quite the way of "wining and dining" his new employees - we've been taken out to lunch or had lunch ordered for us and there will be a big grand opening party this weekend with food, fun, and open bar.... what a great introduction to the company!  From what I can tell, people are their primary focus and I'm completely on board with that - it is evident that every employee is valued, and because they feel appreciated, morale is high enough that everyone is completely pleasant and invested in passing on those "good vibes" to the customers.  What a great place to work.

Tonight, I made Kedgeree from The Accidental Vegan because if I didn't, Mister was going to eat all the kalamatas I bought for the recipe.  The recipe actually calls for mushrooms, but we don't do mushrooms, and long ago I decided that the earthy flavor of kalamata olives was an adequate substitute for them.  Regardless, Mister loves kalamatas, so though he knew he wasn't supposed to eat them, I could see the level in the clear plastic container dropping...

I love how dark emerald green the kale is...it's really gorgeous.  I used lacinto kale because it's a little easier to work with than curly kale and I think it went well in this recipe.

Shortly after dinner, Mister started poking around in the freezer and then the cupboards.  He did the same thing a few nights ago, so I asked him if he wanted something and this time, he told me.

So I made him cupcakes.  He didn't know whether he wanted cookies or cupcakes, so I gave him a few choices.  He chose Peanut Butter Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, but I didn't feel like making the ganache-drizzle topping, so I just plopped 4 chocolate chips onto each cupcake while they were baking.

Nom.

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!

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.

a few of my favorite things

Raindrops on kittens and whiskers on roses...

I was thinking earlier today about the number of times I've posted about some new ingredient or kitchen toy and said it was my new favorite thing: polenta and miso come to mind. But trust me - for every time I've said something was my favorite thing, there were at least four other things I didn't say that about to prevent repetition (and the obvious fickleness of having a different favorite thing almost every night).

Because I don't really have any fun stories about dinner (other than more proof that I shouldn't ever take Mister food shopping with me, no matter how much I think I need his help), I will share a list of my current favorite things:

1. Blender sauces. Seriously - does it get easier? I don't think so. Grab some of this and some of that, throw it into a blender/food processor and press play. Within seconds you have a smooth or chunky, velvety or gritty, voluminous sauce. I love that.

2. My "new" kitchen. I have my happy place and to my great delight, it is organized and efficient just like the pictures in the IKEA catalog. Where are my Martha Stewart mixing bowls? Oh! They're right here, on the top shelf - I don't have to push anything aside or give myself a pinched nerve trying to pry them out of the dark corner they ended up in when I needed something else they were hiding. They're just there - out in the open and waiting to be filled with flour and spices and soymilk and turn them into tasty treats! Where is my chili powder? Did it get pushed over the edge of the counter by Tarragon and Rosemary? No! It's right here, neatly corralled in its little tray on the second shelf of my kitchen trolley! To say I've found bliss could very well be understating the situation.

3. Making cupcakes. This had to make the list, but it's funny, because until Isa and Terry had to go put out their silly cupcake book, I NEVER made cupcakes. Seriously - never. I don't like icing! But I have learned that a cupcake without icing is a muffin, and decorating my little sweet-treats is part of the fun!
So far:
Carrot-Ginger-Macadamia
Chocolate-Covered Banana
Chocolate Cream Cheese (not vegan, but easily veganized)
Peanut Butter & Jelly
Pineapple Right-Side-Upcakes
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip
and coming soon - Mint Chocolate and Chai Latte (saved the best for last - who am I kidding? It's only October!)

4. Angst, curled up on my dining chair because it's the only thing that hasn't moved. He's so cute, all snuggled up against my coat or scarf, leaving me fuzzy bits of kitty love (to pull out of my lipstick after I wrap my scarf around my neck, heedless of the fur flying).

I could probably keep going, or even divide into sub-favorites, like my favorite cookbook, favorite cooking tool, favorite thing to listen to while I'm cooking dinner or baking, favorite smells...but I don't want to bore you (or run out of things to write in future posts).

I did remember something today. Mister became a vegetarian about 8 months before I did. I didn't understand his crazy ways and one night, after a few unsuccessful attempts to go out for dinner ending in his apartment because there was nothing he could eat anywhere nearby, I asked him to help me understand why he was being so inconvenient. He shared with me all of the information he had come across that led to his decision and we even had the "how much difference can one person not eating meat make?" discussion. The end of it (I thought) was me saying "okay, well, that's great - you keep doing that and I will respect your decision... but it's not for me." About two months later was when I became a vegetarian. In those two months, my mind muddled through the seeds of thought Mister had planted there and as time passed, they began to germinate and take root and eventually, took over. There was one specific moment in time when everything came crystal clear to me and I said, "me, too."

The reason I thought of that is because I fear I've done it to myself again with this whole honey thing. I can't get it out of my mind. It's not like I think about it all the time, but I do think of it frequently, as though my mind's mouth is turning it over and tasting it from every angle. Just like my slow, thoughtful conversion to a meatless diet, the more I think of honey and bees and nature and exploitation and general thievery, the more I begin to understand the argument that honey is not vegan. I'm sorry if my harping on this is getting old, but I really want to understand where I stand on this. Here are my most recent thoughts:

Honey is bee food. It's not meant for us to eat. Honestly, that's the beginning and the end of any logical discussion. Bees collect what they need to to make the honey and they make it to feed themselves and the rest of their family. That is such a simple fact to overlook that it completely escaped me until...today, I think. Because honey is so widely available with shelves full of different flavors (clover, orange blossom, wildflower, etc), we believe bees make honey for us to eat it without even realizing that we think so. Truth be told, though, even when you're talking about factory-farmed honey bees who technically ARE making the honey just so we can eat it, the bees don't know that - they are under the unfortunate impression that they are saving up food for the winter. There have been a lot of recent studies showing how beneficial honey-consumption can be for humans with health issues - eating local honey can alleviate allergy issues, for example. We never stop to think, though, that the same nutrients that make honey so good for us are what make it the only reliable food source for bees through the winter.

Another thing that struck me about honey comes from knowledge acquired through my workplace. Honey is a low glycemic food. For those who don't know, the glycemic index measures how quickly food is digested and how that digestion impacts insulin production. Food high on the glycemic index (candy, white bread, soda, etc) is digested quickly, sending a shock of sugar into the blood, causing a spike in insulin production - this is the "sugar rush" you get, but there is always that crash, leaving you feeling without energy and probably hungry again. On the other hand, foods low on the glycemic index digest more slowly, releasing sugar into the blood stream over time, resulting in a pretty steady level of insulin production. These foods stay with you longer, giving your body time to glean maximum nutrition from what you've eaten and helping you to actually feel satisfied for a longer time. Honey as food for bees to eat through the dead months + honey as a low glycemic food = lightbulb going off over my head about exactly how WRONG it is to replace carefully crafted honeycombs with a sugar-water mixture - it's not even close to the same nutritionally. Hopefully, you understood everything I wrote about the glycemic index. If not, just ask.

Anyway, this is the point where I remember that knowledge is dangerous. Once I research something and seek to understand it, it lodges itself in my brain and forces me to see the thought process through to its inevitable conclusion. It kind of worries me that I've only cracked the surface of topics related to veganism that I want to cover this month...

a short fall off the vegan wagon

Today was a vegan fail. Obviously, it didn't happen on purpose, but I want to start out by restating a point I made at the beginning of VeganMoFo - I am not actually vegan, I'm just trying to be as vegan as possible this month for authenticity and to see if I could commit myself to this lifestyle. This may come off as a cop out or an excuse for not "sticking to my guns" today, but there was a lot on the line. There was definitely a point where I knew I had to give up for just a moment, but tomorrow is a new day. I'll start from the beginning, where initially, our heroine (me) battled temptation and won...then the deterioration.

Today, Mister and I were going over to my parents' house to see my sister, meet my baby cousin, and see the rest of my (little) family. My mother had asked me to make cupcakes and next weekend is my dear father's birthday, so I made Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. There was a bit of hemming and hawing, though, as I started to gather the ingredients and discovered that I did not have 1/3 cup of oil, nor did I have a full cup of sugar. While I weighed the merits of Earth Balance buttery spread (cold) and vegetable shortening (room temperature), I also tried to figure out what to do about the sugar situation. I'll admit - my very first thought was to substitute honey, because I have been in the habit of using honey in my baked goods. Given my current internal conflict about honey, I ended up using the half cup of sugar I did have on hand and adding 1/4 cup of maple syrup. I figured the maple would complement the pumpkin and cinnamon anyway. So, battle #1, I win.

We took the cupcakes (and my sister's tent) to my parents' house, which was a veritable shrine to cows (and not in the way PETA would endorse). There was a big bowl of provolone cheese cubes on the table, next to red pepper-encrusted asiago wheel. I stuck to the red pepper hummus and bruschetta. The light meal included roast beef and melted cheese sliders and spinach-cheese squares. My mother has worked very hard over the past several years to accommodate my wacky decisions. I am very sure of two things: I do not think I shared my October Vegan Experiment with her, and I do not think it occurred to her that cheese is not vegan because we have never really discussed what it means to be vegan. So, I could not turn down these spinach cheese squares that she made because my husband and I don't eat meat. She also made a very tasty pumpkin spice cake and went through the trouble of whipping her own cream to put on top... I cannot allow my mother to do such a great job without recognizing that.

After a trafficky, 35-mile ride home, Mister and I were ready for a more substantial dinner, so I set about making the Ginger Cakes with Garlic Vegetables.
It was so good and look how pretty and colorful it is!

I've already posted the recipe here, so if you like what you see and would like to try it, go for it! I made a couple of changes this time, upon which I will expound now.

I used MorningStar Farms Asian Veggie Patties this time, instead of the Ginger Teriyaki veggie cakes I used last time. They are wonderfully flavorful and spicy, and when you cook them on the skillet, they get all crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. They pack only 100 calories per patty and only 4g fat with the 7g protein. So far so good! Then we take a closer look at the ingredients and find egg whites, whey powder, and a bunch of sneaky ways animal products find their ways into vegetarian food. So, that was the second vegan fail, though it was really quite by accident.

When I started to saute the veggies for dinner, I was awestruck by how vivid and beautiful the rainbow colors of the vegetables were, so I took a picture!

broccoli and peppers and carrots, oh my!

As I may have mentioned the first time I made this, I am falling in love with miso. It is the most delightful combination of subtle and flavorful. I could eat miso rice all by itself. I will most likely be experimenting with miso gravy in the near future, as I have a big happy tub of brown rice miso in my fridge right now.

I'll leave you with one last picture of my very tasty dinner - it kind of looks like a star. Enjoy!

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!

vegan cupcakes take over my brain

Chocolate and pumpkin and chai, oh my! I'm done for, seriously - this almost-winter-winter-still-winter baking season is going to be deadly for my figure. I blame Isa and Terry and most of all, my new colleague who kindly let me borrow her copy of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World to look over this weekend. On the back of the book there is a warning: "prepare for Total Cupcake Domination" and it's true - my life will never be the same.

I flipped through the book, just checking things out and I started marking off a few I wanted to try this weekend (tomorrow) and soon came to the realization that although I have been saying for years that I don't like cake...I can't live without this cookbook. I need to make:
Pineapple Right-Side-Up Cupcakes
Chocolate Mint Cupcakes
Banana Split Cupcakes
Toasted Coconut Cupcakes with Coffee Buttercream Frosting
Chai Latte Cupcakes
Tiramisu Cupcakes
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Cinnamon Icing (cinnamon??? mmmm....)
Apple Cider Cupcakes
Cappuccino Cupcakes with Espresso Creme

I would say that those nine alone are reason enough to hunt down and make this book mine.

And of course, the book is sprinkled throughout with cunning and sarcastic commentary. For example, at the beginning of the book, Isa and Terry provide an A to Z list of reasons to have a cupcake cookbook, including these two gems:
LOVE: Nothing says love like a cupcake does. If you don't bake someone a cupcake then you don't really care about them.
VOLUPTUOUS: Doesn't your butt need a little extra padding? Sure it does.

I will leave it at that. And one last thing: buy this book.

In other news, I put together my menu for the upcoming week so I can shop for it tomorrow before going to another fantastic event in the evening (what a fun weekend!).

1. Tomato-Rice Soup with Roasted Garlic & Navy Beans (from Veganomicon) I have looked at the recipe a few times, but it looked like a lot of work. Then I saw it on a blog I visit and it just looked too good to not make. So I'm making it this week.

2. French Lentil Soup with Tarragon and Thyme (also from Veganomicon) Yes, it's the same one I made just a few weeks ago, but it's really that good. I tried to resist. I failed. I'm sure other people repeat recipes more frequently than monthly.

3. Pasta Della California (also from Veganomicon). It looked fun and I can't have soup for dinner every night.

4. Seitan Chow Fun (from Vegan Express) You didn't think I was leaving poor Nava behind in my Isa-worship, did you?

5. Ginger Cakes with Garlic Vegetables

Tonight we had Savoury Shepherd's Pie from How It All Vegan. It's one of Mister's favorite dinners. More or less anything involving potatoes, especially mashed, will make my husband happy. I guess he's a seitan-and-potatoes kind of guy after all. I made my mashed potatoes in my food processor and it was definitely an interesting experience. I don't know if it was the Yukon Gold potatoes (usually I get red potatoes) or the soymilk or the Earth Balance, or possibly just the food processor, but they were much glue-ier than normal. Or perhaps I've just gotten too used to prepackaged, microwaveable mashed potatoes. They still tasted good and I didn't get any complaints, and there were a few absolutely perfectly creamy and buttery bites.
Other fun bits about dinner: I used up the last of my French green lentils instead of my SuperFresh generic lentils and I believe I could taste a difference. As I've mentioned before, I'm not a big fan of onions. I just hate their texture and despise the way they stay on your breath for what feels like a week. Then there's the whole dehydration thing. Anyway, most of the time, when a recipe calls for onions, I just ignore it. In fact, I've gotten so good at ignoring the word "onion" that I don't even see it in recipes anymore. When I looked closely at this recipe that I've made dozens of times, I saw that it called for an onion (like damn near every vegan/vegetarian recipe seems to) and a little lightbulb ignited over my head.

The same great colleague who brought me a big bag of chocolate mint a few weeks ago brought me a bag of bounty from his garden the other day. It contained:
lemon thyme
spearmint
a wine red hot pepper, and...
chives!

So I grabbed the bag, pulled out some very long chives and (after washing them, of course) chopped them up nice and small and added them to the sauteing veggies. It brought a fun and unique taste to a dish I've made so many times before and with NO aftertaste. Color me happy.

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.

almost vegan just like I'm almost famous

Now, these tasty little cupcakes could be my ticket to superstardom, if I do say so myself. The only problem is that I don't really have a recipe. I have a recipe in my brain, but it's one of those kinds of things where you know how to get to your best friend's house, but you couldn't tell someone else if they were holding a gun to your head, you know? I will have to make them again sometime so I can figure out an official recipe (and because they're supertasty), at which time I will share it.
Or maybe I won't. Maybe it'll be my little secret.

Anyway, I'll be taking these little sweeties in to work tomorrow since I made them at the request of a very helpful co-worker. He's gone "above and beyond" to help me more than a few times and when I asked him what his favorite cupcake was, he had to come up with the hardest kind to make. Admittedly, these probably do not look like what he had in mind, but I promise (if you're reading, Mike) that they taste like it. I had to have one....you know, to make sure I wouldn't poison my colleagues...

They are not vegan, so I will not be counting this post towards my October-Vegan-Fest. They could very easily BE vegan, but I didn't want to use tofutti cream cheese in these treats for my omnivorous colleague the first time I made them. I used honey, too, but I'm still trying to figure out if I feel like that goes against vegan ideals and if so, why. But that's another post for another time.

don't you wish you worked with me?