Vanilla Lavender Cake...

I wanted to make a nice dessert for Valentine's Day, but none of the recipes I looked at appealed to me. Everything was chocolate this and chocolate that, everything was heavy, decadent and 'romantic' I'm okay with the romance but everything being pink or red, and everything being chocolate was a bit overwhelming and overdone to me. I wanted something lighter, that was fun, fluffy, and romantic, yet light, and springy. I kept coming back to the idea of something 'floral' which seemed to really fit the bill in my mind. I thought vanilla rose, only I didn't have any rose petals, and then I remembered the Lavender extract I picked up at the Botanical Garden last summer. I was further reminded that I still had a lot of leftover lavender from when I made a lavender Chocolate cake a while back.

Suddenly everything clicked. Vanilla is light, but a bit boring on it's own, Lavender really jazzes it up and breaths new life into an otherwise ordinary cake. I do not normally use food coloring but considering it was Valentine's Day and I wanted the color of the frosting to match the mood and the romance I decided to give in, and I'm glad, I think it really heightens the overall presentation and makes you feel like you're eating something special.

Vanilla Lavender Cake

3 Cups All Purpose Flour
2 Cups Sugar
2 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp salt
1 3/4 C Vanilla Almond Milk
1 C Canola Oil
1/4 C Apple Cider Vinegar
1 Tbsp Vanilla Extract
4 Tbsp Dried Culinary Lavender

- Preheat Oven to 350'F and grease two cake pans.

- Mix the dry ingredients into a bowl. Whisk the Wet Ingredients1 together in a measuring cup.

- Make a well in the center of the dry mix, pour the liquid in and stir to combine but do not over mix.

- Divide the batter between the two pans and bake in the oven for 25-35 minutes.

Lavender Frosting

1/2 C Earth Balance
1/2 C Coconut Oil
3 C Powdered Sugar
1 tsp Lavender Extract
2-3 Tbsp Almond Milk
6 Drops Red Food Coloring
4 Drops Blue Food Coloring

- Combine the Earth Balance and the Coconut Oil in a medium sized bowl and blend it together using a hand mixer.

- Add in the powdered sugar and blend until smooth.

- Add in the extract, almond milk and food coloring. You may have to tweak the number of coloring drops you put in to get the right kind of purple.

Assemble -

Place one cake on a plate. Frost the top with a generous amount of lavender frosting. Place the second cake on top and use the remaining frosting to frost the top and sides of the entire cake. Serve and enjoy!

Restaurant Review: Cartems Donuterie, In Vancouver...

So, once I heard that there was a donut shop in Vancouver selling vegan Earl Grey donuts I knew I had to check it out. In fact when we were in Vancouver last September visiting family that was the very first place we went the morning of our arrival.

Apple Pie

The shop is in what I think is a somewhat weird location, and it seems kind of 'off the beaten path' but the inside makes up for it's lackluster exterior. The shop is warm and inviting, with sleek wooden floors, big tables, and delicious aromas. The staff were all super friendly and super nice. We ordered quite a few donuts and asked several questions and they were very patient with us.

Classic Chocolate Glaze and Earl Grey

 
 




Maple Walnut and Earl Grey

The Donuterie is not specifically vegan. They sell omnivore donuts and gluten-free donuts as well, but what I like about them is unlike other non-vegan places they have more then just one or two options. They have an entire case devoted to vegan donuts and the flavors are both classic and creative. I mean, and Earl Grey donut! How awesome is that? They also make pretty good coffee. Though the place is a little expensive, it is totally worth it, especially if this is a 'treat yourself' experience rather then an every day one.

If you're in or around Vancouver you have to check them out! They have two locations, I went to the one on W. Pender.

Apple Fritter

Cartems Donuterie

534 W Pender St, Vancouver

2190 Main St , Vancouver

Restaurant Review: Blue Star Donuts, Portland, Oregon....

Blue Star Donuts is a great little place we found by accident. I was in our hotel room reading reviews of Voodoo Donuts because we were planning to go there. So many people gave it bad reviews for service, attitude, and cost, which was discouraging. However many of them recommended Blue Star Donuts as an alternative option for vegan donuts in Portland. Of course I wanted to try both places, and I am so glad we did.

Blue Star is a Gem. The donuts are soft on the inside, crisp on the outside. They're creative, delicious, sweet but not too sweet, and just perfect in every way. The two times we went they only had 3 vegan flavors, but that was enough for us. They had a classic powdered sugar donut, one with blueberry glaze, and another that was Olive Oil Orange. All three were fantastic but I think the blueberry one was my fave. Personally I did enjoy Blue Star more then Voodoo, and the service was better and friendlier.

My one recommendation is that if you go, and you should, you go early in the morning because by afternoon you'll definitely need to wait in line.

Blue Star Donut Locations

 

1237 SW Washington St

(503) 265-8410

Open until 7:00 PM

Portland, Oregon

 

921 NW 23rd Ave

(503) 265-8659

Open until 8:00 PM

 

3753 N Mississippi Ave

(971) 254-4575

Open until 8:00 PM

 

3549 SE Hawthorne Blvd

(503) 477-9635

Open until 8:00 PM

Vegan Mofo #6: Tarte au Citron...

So... I wanted to make a dessert, and not just any dessert but a French dessert, and not just any French dessert but a tart. Why did I want to make a tart when I hate working with pastry dough? Who knows, but at the time it seemed not only to be a good idea but a delicious one as well. I chose something simple, Lemon Tart, it has few ingredients and seemed fairly easy to veganize and so without much experience making tarts from scratch I dove in.

The thing I really loved about this tart is that the pastry dough was a sweet dough - as many French pastry dough’s are - it perfectly complimented the simple tart. This also happens to be the easiest vegan tart or pie pastry I’ve ever worked with. Seriously, it doesn’t seem to matter who’s recipe I use or what is in it, but I am never able to get a vegan pie or tart crust off the counter in one piece, my pies are always misshapen - though no less delicious - but this tart turned out pretty darn perfect, except I’m not an expert at crimping.

Unfortunately there was a minor problem unrelated to the crust, while the overall flavor of the tart was amazing, and the texture was pretty good, there was this white foam that settled on the top. I’m not sure why, or what caused it. It didn’t change the taste at all, just doesn’t make the tart look very professional. Possibly I should have used a different milk, maybe soy was not a good choice and I might have been better off with coconut. At first I thought I wouldn’t bother with posting the recipe but blogging isn’t always about success right? And it isn’t about being perfect, you can easily use this as a guide and change the milk to see if something else works better. If you know why this went foamy on top drop me a line, and maybe I can try it again so the finished product ends up looking as good as it tastes.

Tarte au Citron 

1 Recipe Sweet Pastry (Recipe Follows)

1 Cup fine sugar
1 Cup Lemon Juice
1 Cup Soy Milk
3 Tbsp Grated Lemon Zest
2 tsp Agar Agar Powder

Sweet Pastry 

2 3/4 Cups All Purpose Flour
Pinch of Sea Salt
½ Cup Non-Dairy Butter
3/4 Cup Powdered Sugar
5 Tbsp Non-Dairy Milk or as needed.

Instructions - Crust 

- Combine the flour and salt in a bowl.

- Cut in the butter and combine it with the flour until it forms coarse pebbles.

- Add in the powdered sugar and mix to combine

- Drizzle in the non-dairy milk a couple of Tbsp at a time until the dough comes together enough to be workable. You can add more milk or a little water as needed to make the dough stick together but make sure you add a little at a time, you don’t want the dough to be wet.

- Once dough is at the consistency you like, place it in the fridge for 20 minutes to chill.

- Remove the dough, roll it out onto a floured work surface. Roll the dough to fit your fluted tart pan. Then carefully transfer rolled dough to the pan. Crimp the edges, and use the tines of a fork to poke holes in the bottom.

- Put the crust in the oven and bake for 10 to 15 minutes until the crust is cooked through but not browned. You want the pastry to remain as pale as possible.

- Once crust has finished baking, fill, and chill.

Instructions - Filling

- Whisk the Sugar, Lemon Juice and Soy Milk together in a medium sized pot on the stove over medium heat. Bring to a boil.

- Add in the agar agar, and whisk together. Continue whisking as it gently boils, about five minutes or until thickened slightly.

- Remove the pan from the heat. Gently fold in the lemon zest Pour the lemon mixture into the cooked crust and then place the tart in the fridge.

- Refrigerate for 4-8 hours until tart has set. Slice and enjoy plain, or dusted with a bit of powdered sugar.

Our 8 Year Anniversary...

The 25th of August was me and my Husband’s anniversary, and though our celebration was pretty low key this year we did start the day off right with a delicious breakfast. I didn’t go all out this year as I tend to do some years because I didn’t get home from work until 8am and then we had a little overnight getaway planned. I chose three simple - yet tasty - dishes from my new copy of Mastering the Art of Vegan Cooking by Annie and Dan Shannon (of Betty Goes Vegan fame)

A combination of something savory and something sweet sounded just right to me and so I started with the Cinnamon Peach Skillet Rolls. Yes, these are exactly what they sound like, Cinnamon Rolls filled with sliced peaches with a peach glaze. Oh my god! I don’t know why I don’t make Cinnamon Rolls more often! They are a bit time consuming but always so worth the effort. Unfortunately my cast iron skillet wasn’t near big enough to accommodate the rolls and so I ended up just baking them in a glass dish, but that’s okay, they were amazing regardless. We each ate 2 right out of the gate, and they didn’t survive longer then a second day, that’s how fantastic these were.

For the ‘main’ course I made the Tofu a la Goldenrod which is a simple plain seasoned tofu scramble served over toast and drenched in a milk based gravy. It probably sounds weird, and if you’re like me you might even think that sounds slightly disgusting, but trust me, it was soooo good! The only reason I even made it was because it was simple and I thought I could at least utilize the tofu scramble even if I wasn’t interested in drenching it in gravy but I’m really glad I took the chance on this dish as it was super filling, and so unexpectedly wonderful. I loved the flavor combo of the tofu, the toast, and the savory gravy.

As a side I made the Roasted Red Flannel Hash, which is a standard Hash of potatoes and beets baked in the oven with red onion and some spices, there’s even kale thrown in there for good measure. This was pretty good too, though I thought it could use a bit more salt, but that’s me.

It was a fantastic way to start our anniversary, and the perfect opportunity to try out some new and interesting recipes.

9 Days of Valentine's: Part 9....

Sadly our 9 days of celebration have come to an end. Part of me is really sad about it because we were having so much fun and eating so much delicious food. But, the other half of me is really happy to finally go back to eating salad, like... just salad... till like.... the end of time. Ha.

Our last hurrah was quite the meal indeed. It had everything you could ask for in a grand dinner. A salad, a hearty main course, a decadent dessert, and a bottle of good wine.

We started with the Italian Chopped Salad from Chloe Coscarelli’s book “Chloe’s Italian Vegan Kitchen.” Now, if I’m being honest I wasn’t expecting much from this salad. I made it because it had a nice picture and it was super easy and I had everything called for on hand. I figured after a week of vegan meat and decadence we could use a little veg. But man, oh man was this salad fantastic! Seriously, it was about 1000 times better then any Italian Salad I’ve had in any Olive Garden type restaurant.

The salad contains romaine, tomatoes, green onion, kalamata olives, basil, chickpeas, salt, pepper and crumbled tofu. The dressing is a simple mixture of olive oil, red wine vinegar, agave, salt, Dijon mustard, and garlic. It sounds so easy but you wouldn’t believe the flavor. Normally I don’t like raw tofu in my salads but I liked this a lot because it was just 7oz and it was just enough to give the salad a texture of cheese. If I didn’t have a main course that needed digging into I would have eaten this entire salad myself it was that good.

But speaking of main courses, for our final celebratory meal I chose another dish from Alicia C. Simpson’s book “Quick and Easy Vegan Celebrations.” Truly the Fusilli in Cabernet Sauce with Portobello Brisket sounded too good to pass up. There are a few steps involved in making this meal and I ended up not evening getting started until after 8:30pm but surprisingly the whole thing came together really quick.

First things first, make your portobello brisket. Lucky for me sometime in the afternoon I went over the recipe and saw that while you could get away with only marinated the shrooms for 20 minutes it was best to do it longer. So I think I ended up letting these marinate on the counter top for about five hours. Turning them over occasionally. The marinade is made with olive oil, red wine, garlic, shallot, Dijon Mustard and tarragon. Once you’re done marinating you roast these guys in the oven for 20 minutes then slice them up when they cool down a bit. The smell is heavenly.

While your shrooms are roasted make your sauce. It’s fairly simple, shallots, garlic, Cabernet Sauvignon, agave, basil, red pepper flakes, rosemary, salt, stock, crushed tomatoes and tomato paste. Combine all that in a pot, then let it simmer.

That’s the hard part, once all that’s done you plate your pasta, drench it in some sauce, scatter some sliced shrooms on top and serve. I actually decided to drizzle a little of the extra mushroom cooking liquid over top of my pasta. The marinade sauce was too good to go to waste and when combines with that meaty, earthy mushroom liquid that seeps out during cooking - OH MY!  My husband and I really had to control ourselves and not go back for seconds because we knew a great dessert was in store for us.

For dessert I went back to “Chloe’s Vegan Italian Kitchen” and made her Tiramisu. This was actually a super last minute decision that kind of hit me for no reason. I was just flipping through the book and the picture looked so good, and I thought it might be a nice finish to our celebratory week and I just happened to have everything on hand - except the ingredients to make the coconut whip cream but I did have a tub of So Delicious Coco Whip in the freezer! - The thing is, it’s strange that I would want to make a Tiramisu in the first place because it’s never been a dessert I was crazy about. Sure I’ve had plenty of non-vegan versions in the past and thought they were so-so. I’ve made a couple of vegan versions myself and thought they were better then their non-vegan counterparts but still kind of hum-drum. Chloe’s Tiramisu though, is out of this freaking world! No lie. Probably, hands down the best tiramisu I’ve ever made and ever eaten anywhere! My husband who’s also never been a huge fan of Tiramisu agreed completely and had we not already been so full from dinner we might just have finished off the entire bowl.

I love how ridiculously easy Chloe’s version is. You make a vanilla cake, cut it in cubes soak it in coffee and rum, layer some whip cream over top, dust it with chocolate and repeat. She says to leave it in the fridge overnight - which we did. - and then it’s ready to eat. Of course I used store-bought whip so it might taste different with home-made, but I’ve been using Chloe’s book for a while now, and I don’t think I’ve ever had a recipe fail from her. She is amazing, and she is especially amazing at dessert. Seriously, this girl should be right up there with Vegan Cook Book Goddess’s such as Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, Isa Chandra Moskowitz, Terry Hope Romero, and Joni Marie Newman.

So that’s it, I hope y’all have had as much fun following our celebration as we did creating it.  I’m definitely sad it’s over, but don’t worry, I have a few more cool posts planned in next week and a half before I leave for Europe.

PS: And incase anyone was curious though we loved every meal of the past 9 days our favorites were. Coq Au Vin. Osso Bucco. Seitan Parmesan with Garlic Green Beans, Potatoes with Germolatta and Red Velvet Cupcakes and Italian Chopped Salad, Fusilli in Cabernet Sauce with Portobello Brisket and Tiramisu. In no particular order, they were all fan-freaking-tastic!

9 Days of Valentine's: Part 5...

For Day 5 of our celebration we went French once again with another recipe from Annie and Dan Shannon’s book “Betty Goes Vegan” This time I picked the Coquilles St. Jacques which sounded both fancy and interesting to me. I’ve never had Coquilles St. Jacques before - vegan or otherwise - in fact I’d never even heard of it until I picked up this book. Most likely this is due to the fact that most of my life I had a strong aversion to seafood and even after I grew to like some sea-dwelling creatures I never liked Scallops.

Coquilles St. Jacques in the pan before transfer
into the tart pans

The recipe that The Shannon’s use in their book is one made famous by Julia Child, but what The Shannon’s don’t tell you is that Coquilles St. Jacques is really just French for Scallops. In fact, it’s a very particular kind of scallop not the actual name of a specific dish, and so if you went to France and ordered Coquilles St. Jacques what you’d eventually end up getting would probably not be this exact dish - unless you could specify in French how you wished your scallops to be prepared - but I digress. Coquilles St. Jacques Scallops are popular in France as well as Spain and there are many ways to prepare them, though this recipe - thanks to Betty Crocker and Julia Child - seems to be the most common preparation in North America.

Fresh from the Broiler 

The Shannon’s version of the dish includes hearts of palm, artichoke, mushroom, red onion, and vegan shrimp - I used Sophie’s Kitchen Vegan Prawns - sauteed in butter. White Wine, Herbs de Province, lemon juice, parsley and a few other seasonings are thrown in to simmer, and then the whole thing is scooped into individual tart pans, topped with breadcrumbs and vegan mozzarella and broiled just long enough to melt the cheese and toast the bread. It looks fancy, and sounds like a lot of work but really this was a super quick and easy dish. Now, I’m not exactly sure why the Shannon’s used vegan shrimp rather then vegan scallops in the recipe considering Coquilles St. Jacques literally means Scallop of Saint James, but my guess is it’s possible that their book was written - and published - before Sophie’s Kitchen Vegan Scallops were on the market, or before they were widely available. Had I known prior to writing this post that scallops were supposed to be used in the non-vegan dish, I might have replaced the vegan shrimp with vegan scallops. In fact, I might just make it again with that switch in mind, anyhow, Sophie’s Kitchen Prawns were nevertheless a good fit here. They had the texture of shrimp, a subtle flavor that reminded me of actual shrimp and the whole dish tasted great together.

Because one can’t survive on Seafood Tarts alone, I also made a side of Potato Gratin Dauphinois from Robin Robertson’s book “Vegan Without Boarders” This is basically your standard gratin - or scalloped potatoes for you North Americans, - made with a home-made cashew cream, vegan sour cream, and vegan cream cheese. There is absolutely nothing healthy about it, it is rich beyond belief but it is oh so good! Possibly one of the best gratin’s I’ve made. Sprinkled with a little sliced green onion this made the perfect accompaniment to our Coquilles.

Then, for the Coup de Grace I made the decadently delicious and super easy Molton Chocolate Cake from Joy, Angel and Jorge’s book “Vegan Holiday Cooking from Candle Café” This recipe was also suppose to include a raspberry coulis but as I said to my husband ‘ain’t nobody got time for that’ and so I sliced some fresh berries instead. The cake is a pretty standard chocolate cake, the batter you pour into some greased muffin cups then you stuff about a tablespoon of chocolate chips into the middle and bake for 20 minutes until the cake is mostly cooked through but the middle is still soft. Flip the cakes out, and serve with berries or coulis. The minute you cut into your little cake all that ooey-gooey chocolate from inside comes drizzling out, making every bite heavenly. Though this particular cake doesn’t have a European element, it was featured in the books Valentine’s Day Chapter and so that was good enough for me.

Check back tomorrow, we’re going Italian yet again!

9 Days of Valentine's: Restaurant Edition...

No Chicago is not snow-free this winter
I forgot to take a picture of the front yesterday so this is
a picture I took during the summer

Are you wondering what the surprise I talked about yesterday is? Well, it’s that my husband and I found out that for this entire week one of our favorite restaurants The Chicago Diner is having a special Valentine’s Day Menu. Now, despite having already picked out 9 Romantic dishes to cook for our little celebration, once we caught sight of the menu we really couldn’t pass it up.

In our relationships I’m the one that does the cooking, I cook everyday regardless of how busy I am, how tired I am or how sick I am. - I typically need to be either very sick or very tired, not to cook. Each evening I cook dinner, many other days of the week - though not necessarily every day - I also make a breakfast or lunch depending on what our schedules are, and how hungry we are. So on average I make two meals per day. My husband doesn’t cook at all, and that’s alright with me. He can make a killer pot of pasta, and an amazing jambalaya and occasionally he surprises me with these, but usually when he wants to ‘give me the gift of food’ it involves taking me out for dinner. Which is just as good in my opinion since we don’t often go out to eat.

Of course going out on actual Valentine’s Day would be a nightmare. We usually avoid going out on actual holidays, opting instead to celebrate early to avoid crowds, so we decided to hit up The Chicago Diner yesterday, in the late afternoon when we figured the ‘holiday’ crowd would be at it’s thinnest. We were right. We had The Diner virtually to ourselves and we enjoyed a nice leisurely meal, of laughs and love and damn good food. The Valentine’s Menu was limited to 1 appetizer, 1 entree, and 3 dessert options. Which was nice. Don’t get me wrong, I love having options, but there is such a thing as having too many options you know?

For drinks we ordered milkshakes, because hello, it’s THE CHICAGO DINER! Milkshakes are a must! My opinion was that we could have wine anytime, but you can only have milkshakes every now and then. I got my usual Peanut Butter Cookie Dough shake which is out of this world, my husband got his usual mocha which is also very good.

We got the appetizer which was Dates stuffed with Jalapeno’s wrapped in Vegan bacon. Oh my god were these delicious! Seriously, one of the best appetizers I’ve ever had. These were sweet, salty, savory, with just a touch of spice and they were served with a sweet tart sauce that tasted like Tamarind. So amazing, I wish we’d had more.

Since the Diner’s appetizers are so good, and my husband is a hungry man we decided to order a second appetizer off of their regular menu. The Thai Chili Wings. These are incredible, I think I’ve mentioned them before but I’ll do it again. They’re seitan wings, drenched in a sweet spicy Thai chili sauce, served with a squeeze of lime and Sriracha Ranch for dipping. Fan-freaking-tastic. Though we had a hard time decided between this and the Poutine, such a difficult choice always.

Our entree was a braised Portobello Mushroom cap served on a bed of creamed leeks, with a Potato-Daikon Cake, and asparagus. Man, this was good too! That mushroom was so chewy and delicious, the asparagus was cooked to perfection! The leeks were perfect, sweet and savory and buttery, and the potato cake, oh boy, well that was my favorite part. Like eating a German Potato Pancake - almost.

For dessert I went with the Strawberry Rose tart, which was a chocolate crust, a strawberry coulis in the middle, with rose essence and rose petals, topped with some whip cream. This was amazing! It wasn’t too sweet, and the contrast between chocolate, strawberry and rose were all wonderful. I loved that the rose flavor was very prominent but not overwhelming.

My husband chose the Chocolate Whoopie Pie with Lavender filling. He gave me a bite and this was just as good! Subtle lavender cream in the middle of two big, soft, moist chocolate cakes in the shape of hearts. Also served with a delicate whipped cream. Amazing!

Interestingly despite all that food we left The Diner feeling pretty good. Honestly most of the time we leave the diner my husband and I either feel like we’re going to throw up or die. And I have to say that isn’t any fault of the Diner, it’s all on us. We always order WAY too much food, and we always eat it all! This time around I don’t think we necessarily ordered less food, but it was the kind of food we ordered. It was mostly vegetable based, when normally at the Diner we stuff ourselves with seitan, tempeh, poutine, bread, burgers and all the bad, decadent stuff. Yesterday we ate relatively ‘light’ by comparison and left feeling perfectly satisfied and happy. The Diner always makes us happy, and this was a lovely way to celebrate an Early Valentine’s Day.

So if this all sounds good to you, and you live in the Chicagoland area be sure to drop by The Chicago Diner sometime this week. I think Saturday is your last chance for the Valentine’s Day menu so get there fast! And check back tomorrow for Part 4 of our celebration.

The Chicago Diner - 

Halsted Location 
3411 N Halsted St
Phone: 773-935-6696
.
Logan Square Location 
2333 N. Milwaukee Ave
Phone: 773-252-3211