Vegan MoFo: Milkshakes are pretty great

Milkshakes. They're pretty fantastic, amiright?

My faves to find around town include The Chocolate Moca from Back to Eden and the Strawberry shake from Sip.

But you know what the very best milkshakes are?  Those shared with friends.

Tommasina and I made milkshakes today with fresh peaches from the CSA box, a banana, almond milk, and So Delicious vanilla ice cream.

Do you have a favorite milkshake flavor?

Vegan MoFo: Pizza Night

It's pretty sweet having bread master, Julian, staying with us for a bit.

Among other tasty treats, last week he made a batch of pizza dough from The Bread Bakers Apprentice, letting it hang out in the fridge until we were ready to use it. The next day he harvested a ton of basil from the garden and whipped up a healthy amount of pesto, some of which is in the freezer, waiting to be used.

Mighty fine bubbly action.

We had quite the pizza feast.  Toppings included the pesto, tomato sauce, melty gooey Follow Your Heart, black olives, sun dried tomato spread, shaved fennel, mushrooms, arugula, red onion slices, and fresh avocado.  I throw together a salad to go along with our carbfest- arugula, chickpeas, thinly sliced red onion, diced apples, and raw pumpkin seeds, tossed with olive oil, apple cider vinegar, nooch, and salt and pepper.

We were loosing daylight, so sadly four pizzas went unphotographed!

Tonight, Julian is cooking up an Indian feast (which I think you'll be able to read about here tonight).  I'm sitting on my butt, MoFoing while inhaling the aromas coming from the kitchen.  It's pretty nice to have someone else cooking after you've worked all day!

You three, pose awkwardly with your pizzas!

Vegan MoFo: A Quick Weeknight Meal

Quick!  Dinner time is approaching and you haven't planned a meal for your family.  What should you make?  Last night I faced this very dilemma (as I do multiple times a week) and made something that all four of us proclaimed 'downright tasty'!

And so a creamy (and healthful) pasta dish made its way out of the kitchen and into the tummies of our household.

Remember that delicata squash I received in my CSA this week?

Well, I cubed it and set it steaming for a few minutes while I started on the the rest of the meal.  I based a sauce off of the cheeze sauce in Vegan Diner, working with what I had on hand, adding some silken tofu that was open in the fridge and the delicata squash.  The squash added an even creamier texture to the sauce, packed in some nutrients, and added a greater depth of flavor.  Try it!  (I wouldn't recommend summer squash, though.  I wouldn't recommend summer squash in general- blech!)

I boiled some pasta, throwing in collard ribbons during the last minute of cook time.   Then I tossed the pasta and sauce together, topped the dish with more sauce, then a pile of collard ribbons, and finally some chopped tomatoes from a friend's garden.

Crappy night-time photo.  C'est la vie.

Voila!  A quick, tasty, and healthful weeknight meal, featuring collards from our garden!

Vegan MoFo: Pie!

Have you ever been to a pie potluck?  I had never heard of a pie potluck and thought that I was a genius for coming up with the idea, but apparently they've been done before!  Why a pie potluck you ask?  Well, I LOVE pies, but they take too much time and patience to make for just a regular ole occasion, so I never make them.  Well, it was my six year veganniversary last week, so I decided to throw a pie potluck in celebration.

In addition to a big salad (we needed something green to go with all the pies!), I made a pumpkin pie and the broccoli quiche from Vegan Brunch.

The pumpkin pie recipe is one I've been working on for a while.  I use the Libby's recipe from the can and veganize it.  I've tried different things.  This attempt came out a little too pudding-y, so I'm not going to post the recipe yet.  The flavor was perfect, I just need to tweak the consistency.  Matt made a raw fruit pie with a macadamia/date crust and cashew cream that was pretty wonderful.

Other Portland MoFo bloggers were in attendance.  You can read all about L&J's adventures in pie-making over at Of Capsicum & Things.  Their blackberry/apple and mini pot pies were a wonderful addition to the potluck!  Kittee has been keeping everyone on edge of their seats by releasing the secrets to her mulit-layer mini pies post-by-post.  I wish I could have gone back for seconds, but everyone snatched up their portions and that was that.  Also in attendance were Tommasina and Julian from Kale Them with Kindness.  You can see Tommasina's beautiful blueberry lattice pie in the photos above.  Julian made awesome apple hand pies that were being glazed when I was snapping photos.  Panda With Cookie whipped up some super tasty peanut butter chocolate whoopie pies.

Of course I didn't take photos of everything at the potluck.  Suffice it to say, with 15+ folks in attendance, the potluck was pretty epic.  Will do again!

PS- Go win some beans by entering a giveaway posted  by yours truly.

Vegan MoFo Day One!

Welcome, Mofies, to another year of Vegan MoFo!

My garden blog will be shifting gears for a little while.  During the month of October, you will find a new post about vegan food every day here.  While I have chosen to go theme-less this year, you can expect lots of dishes with ingredients from our garden.

This is my fourth year participating in Vegan MoFo and the third year that I'm lucky enough to be part of the amazing team of volunteer organizers.  This year, I'll be doing the Iron Chef Challenges over at veganmofo.com .  Follow along, won'tchya?

Another exciting feature of MoFo this year is the arrival of my best friend, Tommasina.  She and her partner have decided to make Portland home, at least for a little while.  And they're staying with us as they get settled with jobs and a place to live.  This means lots of yummy homemade food is being created in our house!  Aaaand I persuaded them to blog along over at Kale Them With Kindness.  Go say hello!

Got beet juice?

Tommasina made fresh juice from the leftovers of the previous CSA box.  Cheers!

Emerson waited in vain for juice to spill.

To coincide with the arrival of my CSA box each week, Mondays will feature my fruit and veggie allotment.  So here it is:

The sunflower is actually from our garden, not the CSA.  Isn't it a monster!

Clockwise from the top left: 4 ears of corn, 1 delicata squash, 1 white onion, 2 tomatoes, 3 heads of cabbage, 2 zucchini, 2 apples, 3 purple plums, 7 white peaches, 5 red plums, 8 jalapenos, 2 green bell peppers, and 2 yellow squash.

I can't wait to read and comment along with the Vegan MoFo community!  Happy MoFo!

Slightly off-theme

I'm the first to admit that I'm a little obsessed with my pups.  It's a good thing I don't carry around a photo of them in my wallet, because you could be sure I'd whip it out all the time and expect people to "ooh and awww" over my black and white beasts.

This week I received the ecofelt ornaments I commissioned from Panda With Cookie in Andy's and Emerson's likenesses.  They're pretty cute!

How do I justify this post on a garden blog?  Well, the photos were taken in the garden.  Duh!

Happy bees. Happy gardeners.

I adore bumblebees.  They remind me of dogs, as they happily roll around in the flowers around my garden.  Matt takes his adoration a step further and pets them lightly with his index finger when given the chance.  I'm not sure it's a mutually-enjoyed experience.

A bumble enjoys the Spirea douglasii (western spirea) in the front rain garden.

A few weeks ago we were lucky enough to have a representative from the Portland Audubon Backyard Habitat program visit our garden.  The program has four elements: removal of aggressive weeds, naturescaping with native plants, stormwater management, and wildlife stewardship.  After the rep toured the garden with us, noting the natives we've planted and other efforts we've made to create a more sustainable and wildlife-friendly outdoor space, she made some calculations and gave us the news.  We were immediately Gold Level certified!  And here's the proof.

We also took Metro's "Pesticide Free Pledge"

It's nice to be recognized for the work we've put in, but more importantly, we hope that by displaying the sign in our front garden, we'll promote the idea of creating sustainable habitat in urban spaces.  The Backyard Habitat program is pretty great.  Not only did the Audubon rep send us a report including planting and habitat enhancement suggestions, but we now get discounts on plant material from various nurseries and sales throughout the area.  You know this makes me happy!

Do you have similar programs in your home town?

No bees here.  I'm just loving the pops of sunflowers throughout our garden!