Cookbook Review: The Vegan Table by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau...

I thought it was time for another cook book review since the last one went over so well, and what better book to review then Colleen Patrick-Goudreau’s “The Vegan Table.” This is actually one of the very first vegan cookbooks I ever got my hands on. I found it in my local library months before I’d even gone Vegetarian. I was however already leaning in that direction - which is why I was in that particular section of the library in the first place. Now, it’s been so long that I can’t remember exactly what came first me listening to Colleen’s wonderful “Vegetarian Food for Thought” Podcast, or me picking up her cookbooks in the library, but somehow I feel like they happened simultaneously and independently of the other. I don’t think it dawned on me at first that the wonderful recipes I was making out of that book from the library were penned by the wonderfully inspiring voice I was listening to each afternoon via the internet. Eventually something clicked though, and I put two and two together. In fact it was Colleen’s Podcast that was the final push I needed to make the transition to veganism. I think I borrowed this book from the library half a dozen times that year before finally receiving my own copy of it as a Christmas gift.

Right away I fell in love with this book because Colleen makes veganism so easy and accessible. Her recipes use simple, whole food ingredients - nothing strange or out of the ordinary, she doesn’t even use seitan. Still she comprises a variety of dishes in this book for every meal of the day, and she includes a ton of wonderful information about food, cooking tips, food lore, and veganism. I also really love that she has a section on vegan celebrations and party planning. These things are all extremely helpful to the newbie vegan, but they can also be utilized by long-time vegans too. Most of the cooking methods are quick and simple to master, and many of the recipes can be made without oil, soy, gluten, sugar, or salt, and there are specific indicators letting you know that incase you have these kinds of dietary restrictions.

Even after four years of veganism I still get use out of this book, in fact it’s remained one of my ‘go-to’ cook books especially for when I’m cooking for a ‘mixed crowed.’ For me, these recipes feel tried and true, they’re practically ‘no fail’ or at least I’ve never failed making hem and they’ve always been winners among even the most ardent ‘carnivores’ that I know. For me as a newbie vegan this book was an indispensable resource, and I learned so much by reading and cooking through it. Colleen writes in an easy, down to earth style that makes you feel comfortable and confident. She inspires you, and gets you feeling excited about cooking. Her passion for veganism, for cooking, and for education are clear on every page of this book, and I love that atmosphere her personality lends to the pages.

Some people have criticized the book for it’s layout - which I fully admit is a bit strange, but once you get the hang of it, it really isn’t hard to find the recipes you want. Some people have also criticized Colleen’s use of white flour, sugar, and non-dairy butter - particularly in her baking recipes, and I guess it can’t be said often enough that veganism and health-food are not necessarily synonymous. That’s not to say that Colleen’s recipes are unhealthy, but her baking recipes are also not ‘health food’ they’re baked goods, and most people I know like a little sugar in their cake. The fact that her baked goods do use white flour, sugar, and non-dairy butter is what makes the recipes so accessible to newbie vegans. If she was using a ton of crazy ingredients her recipes wouldn’t have the same air of simplicity, and they would be more intimidating to the average newbie. One of the greatest things about Colleen’s recipes is her ability to provide you with veganized versions of the familiar and comforting foods that you grew up without compromising on flavor or taste, while still keeping it relatively simple.

Though I haven’t made as many recipes from this book as I would have liked the ones I have made have been delicious, here’s what I thought.

Pan-Fried Asparagus with Lime Juice - LOVED IT
Tofu Benedict - Loved it
Tempeh Bacon - Very good
Swiss Chard and Caramelized Onions - LOVED IT
Spring Vegetable Risotto - LOVED IT
Pad Thai - Very good
Tofu Scramble - Very good
Marvelous Mushroom Risotto - I thought this was okay, but then I'm not the biggest mushroom fan. My husband loved it though.
Polenta Hearts - Fantastic
Roasted Red Pepper Coulis - LOVED IT especially over the polenta hearts
Red Velvet Cake - Personally I'm not a fan of this kind of cake but my husband is. I made it for his graduation and he and all the omnivores loved it.
Better Then Tuna Salad - Pretty good
Herbed Scalloped Potatoes - Pretty good
Golden Corn Pancakes - Loved it!
Creamy Polenta with Mushrooms - LOVED IT
Apricot Whole Wheat Muffins - Pretty good
Magical Miso Soup with Shiitake Mushrooms - Pretty good but I prefer my own homemade miso
Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Apples and Onions - LOVED IT this is a `go-to' holiday recipe for me now
Roasted Beets and Fennel Bulbs in Fennel Oil - I thought this was just okay, but then I'm not the biggest fan of fennel.
Pan-Grilled Portobello Mushrooms with herb infused marinade - loved it!
French Onion Pie - Didn't like it. However I did try this back when I just turned vegan, and didn’t particularly care for tofu. I wouldn’t be opposed to giving this recipe another whirl now that my tastes have changed.
Cauliflower with Spicy Vinaigrette - Loved it!
Masoor Dal - Pretty good
Fruit Sushi - LOVED IT
Frozen Mango Lassi - Loved it
Cuban Black Bean Soup - Loved it
Eggless Egg Salad - Loved it.
No Queso Quesadillas - LOVED IT
Muhammara - LOVED IT
Boston Baked Beans - Pretty good
Caramelized Tempeh Shawaramas - LOVED IT - my new favorite way to eat tempeh
Mushroom Pecan Burgers - LOVED IT
Tofu Spinach Lasagna - LOVED IT - a `go to' when cooking for Omni's
Traditional Vegetable Soup - Pretty good
Mashed Potatoes with Caramelized Onions - LOVED IT
Golden Mushroom Gravy - LOVED IT
Mushroom walnut Pate - LOVED IT
Tempeh and Eggplant Pot Pies - LOVED IT
Irish Soda Bread - LOVED IT
Gado Gado Vegetable Skewers - LOVED IT
Potato Salad in Radicchio Cups - LOVED IT
Tomato Basil and Arugula Bruschetta - LOVED IT
Basic Pizza Dough - LOVE It - this is my `go to' dough for pizza
Beet and Sweet Potato Pizza - Loved it
Pineapple Upside Down Cake - pretty good.

In short I would definitely recommend this book to just about anyone. It’s versatile enough for curious omnivores, newbie vegans, vegetarians and long-time vegans too. However if you’re looking for a vegan health book, or a No SOS book - salt, oil, sugar. - or a raw book, then this is not the right book for you, and you’d be better off finding a book that uses those words in it’s advertising.

This really is one of my favorite and most beloved cookbooks, so I hope that if you haven’t checked it out yet you feel inspired to do so now.

If you want to learn more about Colleen and the work that she does you can check out her Website, which is phenomenal by the way, and be sure to click on her Podcast!

The 30 Day Vegan Challenge Fundraiser Campaign...

I just wanted to take a moment to share with you a fundraising campaign that’s currently going on. Colleen Patrick-Goudreau - AKA - the patron saint of Veganism - has launched a campaign to bring back an updated and revised version of her inspirational book “The 30 Day Vegan Challenge” If you don’t know about The 30 Day Vegan Challenge you should! It’s a wonderful book, full of practical information about veganism, menu plans, recipes, tips for making the transition, guidance and you name it, it’s here. The original book sold 20,000 copies before it went out of print and was a major inspiration to so, so many people. If you ever listen to Colleen’s wonderful Vegetarian Food for Thought podcast then you’ve probably heard her read countless letters from fans, and listeners who attribute their making the shift to veganism directly to her, and this particular book. It really is wonderful, and when it came out it was one of the first vegan books of it’s kind. - Now vegan guides are popping up all the time, but Colleen’s is one of the few that I come back to again and again. Of course I was already vegan when I purchased the original book, I didn’t buy it to challenge myself to go vegan, I bought it to support Colleen’s work, as well as to have a comprehensive resource to share with friends and family whenever I got asked the inevitable ‘ insert common question about veganism here - questions. I bought it so I could fact check things on a moments notice, and so that I always had it handy, and because I find her words to be such an inspiration, such a breath of fresh air, and I love her kindness, compassion, and easy style.

So when I heart that The 30 Day Vegan Challenge was out of print I was sad that new people wouldn’t be able to experience this gem for themselves. Then I heard she was updating it, and trying to bring it back into print - to stay this time - and I got super excited. In fact, this is actually one of the books I’ve been testing recipes for, and trust me the recipes I’ve tried thus far are out of this world, and certainly worth the cost of the book. (Just a disclaimer here I’m not getting paid to test the recipes, it’s totally volunteer, I’m also not getting paid to promote the book, I do so because I believe in it.)

I do not have many heroes, and there are not many people in this world that I look up to, but Colleen is a constant source of inspiration for me. Her podcast was one of the driving forces in my shift from omnivore to vegetarian and finally to vegan. I could not have done it without her constant support, or without her recipes, and this book is like every podcast episode rolled up into one convenient, and tidy parcel. It would have been a nice thing to have when I initially went vegan, and so it deserves to be brought back for all those not yet transitioned or as Colleen would say for all those not yet ‘awake.’

So if you’re interested in making a donation you can visit her campaign page Here. You can donate any amount you want from as little as $1 - believe me even that makes a difference - to as much as $10,000. Each donation comes with a gift, from a exclusive recipe, to a copy of the book, to an e-book, to a private party with Colleen, and more. You can also read more about the book, the campaign and Colleen Here, as well as watch videos, and listen to her amazing podcast. Currently she’s only $3000 short of her goal, so at this point every dollar truly counts!

Do it for yourselves, for the ‘not-yet-vegans’ and for the animals!

The 29th Annual Toronto Vegetarian Food Festival...

This year my husband and I were fortunate enough to attend the 29th annual Vegetarian Food Festival in Toronto. The festival was held September 5th-7th which was serendipitous for us, because we were planning to be in Montreal then. Originally for our somewhat belated anniversary getaway we were going to go to Niagara Falls and then head straight for Montreal, totally bypassing Toronto, then I found out about the festival. The Toronto Veg Fest is the largest Vegetarian Festival in all of North America, it’s a 3 day extravaganza and always amazing. How could we pass that up? So as much as it pained us we decided to knock a couple of days off of the Montreal trip to attend the festival.

CN Tower

Amazing View!

We arrived in Toronto on Saturday afternoon, and after checking into our hotel we headed straight for the festival. I had never been to Toronto before and so the whole experience was new and exciting. There was some massive construction going on but lucky for us we had a GPS that helpfully guided us to the Harbourfront Centre where the festival was being held. Once we found a parking garage - pretty easy - we headed off to explore the ground. First I have to say it’s a beautiful location, right on the water with glorious views of the CN Tower and other absurdly tall skyscrapers. The grounds themselves were massive too, and jam-packed full of fun loving vegetarians, vegans and the veg-curious. There was live music, and a ton of awesome vendors - something like 150 different vendors in total.

The Awesome World Cafe 

There were local bakeries, food trucks, local restaurants, there were local advocacy groups, and product manufacturers. There were well-known vegan companies such as Daiya, Gardein, Earth Balance, Field Roast and Vega sampling out their newest products. I got to try the new Daiya cream cheeses which I thought were alright but not my favorite of their products. I got to try some samples of vegan coconut bacon, vegan chicken, new and interesting Kombucha’s, fair-trade chocolate and so much more. It was a total blast, although I found that first afternoon a little overwhelming. The grounds were just so big, and there were just so many people - thousands upon thousands - and I was in an unfamiliar place being bombarded with too much information all at once. It was a little bit of vegan overload for me you know? Hard to compute it all. So after giving everything a good look over and enjoying a few snacks we decided to go explore the city, and enjoy a proper dinner.

Steam Buns - White Potato Curry Bun Left
Whole What Cabbage Bun Right 

Of course we returned to the festival Sunday afternoon and stayed nearly till the end. We enjoyed a ton more vegan goodies like the Mac & Cheese Burrito from Hot Beans. We also grabbed one of their jackfruit tacos. We grabbed some delicious steam buns from King’s Café - 1 cabbage steam bun and 1 potato curry steam bun.  We ate some delicious vegan Jerky - probably the best I’ve ever had, even better then Primal Strips - some organic salad and then it was time to move onto dessert.

Mac & Cheese Burrito 

Jackfruit Taco 

From Bunner’s we got a delicious cinnamon bun and an Orange Spice cupcake., with I think a rose water frosting. - It’s been a couple of months so cut me some slack on the memory. - From Tori’s Bakeshop we got a delicious gluten-free Coconut Cupcake that actually tasted a lot like a corn muffin with a sweet frosting, good thing I like corn muffins! But the best thing we had dessert wise was probably their espresso cupcake with biscotti, so mind-blowing! We finished the decadence with a cone of wild blueberry doughnuts and a Strawberry Ice Cream Sandwich. So good!

Cinnamon Bun 

Orange Spice Cupcake 

Honestly I feel like we actually ate a lot more then this, but the festival is all kind of a blur for me now and these are the only pictures I have. I think the festival was just so much fun, and just so cool that we neglected to take pictures of what we were doing and what we were eating. The awe-factor you know?

Oh well, Hot Beans, Tori’s Bakeshop, and Bunner’s were all on my list of ‘must-visit spots’ for when I was in Toronto and so I was glad that we could knock ‘em all out of the way in one fell swoop at the festival.

Espresso Cupcake Left, Coconut Cupcake Right 

Of course if vegan festival food isn’t quite your thing there was plenty else going on. There were so many amazing speakers, a bunch of awesome cooking demo’s and even a world record breaking 550kg yolk walk by German strongman Patrik Baboumian. Pretty neat stuff. Among some of the guest speakers and demoer’s were Taymer Mason, Del Sroufe, Allyson Kramer, Doug McNish, Melissa Morgan, Jo-Anne McArthur, Liz Marshall, Gene Bauer, Jenny Brown, David Simon, Erin Red, Breeze Harper, Michael Gregor, John Pierre, Kristen Lajeunesse, and Jennifer Cornbleet. Pretty cool lineup no? Because of timing, and scheduling I didn’t get to see all the speakers that I wanted to, there was just too many cool things to see and do, too many great things to eat, it was hard to fit it all in even in two days, but I did make the time and the effort to go and see Taymer Mason.

Wild Blueberry Doughnuts

Strawberry Ice Cream Sandwich 

Taymer’s cooking demo was wonderful, and I’m really glad I got to see it. If you’re unframiliar with Mason, she wrote the amazing book “Caribbean Vegan” which you may recall I made quite a few recipes from over the course of this year’s vegan mofo. For her demo she made the Lentil Patties, and the Eggplant Seaweed Accras from her book, and both were delicious. Rather then all of us getting a minuscule sample we each got a nice plate with a hearty half pattie and a large accra. Mason was a pleasure to watch during her demo, you can really see the passion she has for cooking, and her easy, down to earth, friendly vibes made the whole experience great. Afterwards she was kind enough to stay and sign cook books, and I was lucky enough to have had the forethought to bring my copy of “Caribbean Vegan” along. It was a real treat to speak with her, and it’s pretty cool having a signed book you know?

Taymer Mason Cooking up some great stuff!

And I guess that about rounds it up for the Toronto Vegetarian Food Festival. We stayed till the end, took a nap under a tree near where they were cracking open coconuts, listening to music and people talking, and then what did we do? Well, we went to a restaurant and had dinner! I know we’re total gluttons, but that’s what you do on vacation is it not?

I’m really hoping we’ll be able to make the Toronto Vegetarian Food Festival next year.

Vegan on Vacation: Milwaukee, Wisconsin...

Lake Michigan and Milwaukee Skyline

Sunday the 25th was my anniversary, six years married, boy how time flies! My husband and I have been together as a couple for 9 years total, and to me that seems like a length of time worth celebrating, especially in this day and age. However, since we’re going on vacation next week it was a bit impossible to do anything too extravagant on our actual anniversary, but we still wanted to get away. Personally I really love day-trips. If you’re smart about things you can get a lot done in a day, and my husband and I are experts at whirlwind travel. Unfortunately most of the places that are within driving distance of Chicago we’ve already been too, and there isn’t that much of interest less then 3 hours from the city anyway.  Still, I wanted to do something, and so I started thinking about Wisconsin. I actually really like Wisconsin, it’s a pretty state, and out of all the times I’ve been there I’ve never once had a negative experience with anything or anyone. The people in Wisconsin are always brilliant, and friendly, and super nice. A total relief from the rude, and insane people that live in Chicagoland. So I was interested in going back, but I also wanted to go somewhere new. I briefly considered Door County until I remembered it was a 5 hour drive, and better suited for a 2 day getaway. Then I remembered that my husband and I have never been to Milwaukee. Milwaukee is a place we always talk about going, and somehow we never go, so I thought what the hell? No time like the present right?

Milwaukee Museum of Art 

Now I know what you’re thinking, you’re thinking Milwaukee? Really? Who goes to Milwaukee when they live in Chicago? Well, I do. In case it hasn’t been abundantly clear I’m the kind of person who wants to travel everywhere, I want to go a lot of places that most people have no interest in going. I love adventure, and I love to explore and I’m not typically interested in the kinds of things that other people are. You might think that Milwaukee is some lame-o Midwestern town, but you would be wrong. I had no expectations of what to expect when I got there and I was really surprised at how much I loved the city. My husband loved it too. I have to say that after living in the extremely overcrowded and overpopulated Chicago for the past six years, Milwaukee was a breath of fresh air. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever visited a city with such a low population density before and I loved it. Chicago you see is a city of 3 million people, (Not including the suburbs and year-round tourism) and that’s about 2 million people more then I can stand. Whereas Milwaukee is a city of just less then 600,000, and it didn’t exactly seem as though the tourism industry was booming there.  Now don’t get me wrong, I am most definitely a city-dweller. I love cities, and I love city life, but I am far more comfortable with Vancouver’s 2 million people. I could never survive living somewhere like Manhattan with 9 million inhabitants. So for me being in a city of less then 600,000 was brilliant, it felt like a ghost town to me and I loved it. I loved not having to fight for a spot to sit by Lake Michigan. I loved not having to fight for parking spots. I loved being able to walk down the street without having to bump into 50 people. I loved not getting pushed around at a crosswalk. I loved that cars actually stopped at cross-walks - they rarely do this in Chicago - I loved that people in traffic stopped to let us in - this also never happens in Chicago - I loved not having to wait in lines. I loved going into a restaurant and not having to wait 20-45 minutes for a seat even though it was prime dining hours. I loved how nice everyone was. Everyone we encountered was super nice, helpful and seemed genuinely happy - very unlike Chicago.

After living in Chicago, Milwaukee was like another universe, and the best part? Milwaukee is Vegan Friendly! Seriously, at only 1 hour and 45 minutes away Milwaukee is like a little haven.

Riverwest Co-Op

We started our morning off with a nice breakfast at The Riverwest Co-op Café. Which is a really cool all vegetarian Café next to a co-op. The Café has many vegan options, in fact most of the stuff on the menu can be veganized. They had so many amazing choices for lunch, but I really wanted breakfast since I don’t get vegan breakfast out very often. I ended up ordering the Breakfast Burrito with tofu scramble instead of eggs. My husband ordered the Breakfast plate which was a tofu scramble, toast, and home-style potatoes. Both meals were excellent. Their tofu scramble had such wonderful flavor and I loved the avocado, rice and beans that were also in the burrito. I was really tempted to get a shake, but I wanted to save my appetite because I knew we’d be going to several other places for food during the day.

Breakfast Plate - Tofu Scramble, Home-style Potatoes
& Toast 

After we ate I took a quick look around the co-op and they had some really cool stuff. All the usual health food and vegan items you might find in a Whole Foods or similar health food store,, plus they had local produce and some other local goods. Very neat. I have to say that The Riverwest Co-op has gotten some real mixed reviews on Happy Cow and so I wasn’t sure how our experience was going to be, but it was wonderful. I’m not sure what the negative reviews are all about but there was no mixup that our meals were suppose to be vegan, and everyone at the café was friendly. They did seem very busy and perhaps a bit aloof but they certainly weren’t mean as some reviewers have suggested. If you need a good meal in Milwaukee I highly recommend this place.

Breakfast Burrito 

After breakfast we went to The Miller Domes - or Miller Conservatory, as it’s officially called. - which is a very small botanical conservatory but it’s also a really cool place. We pretty much had it to ourselves which was nice. Unfortunately the tropical dome was closed on our visit, but I really enjoyed the dessert dome. I also really loved that their gift shop had so many cool books on herbal remedies, growing herbs, and growing plants in general. Very neat to see that in a small place like this. Then we headed over to the Milwaukee public Market to see what we could find there, and man is there some great stuff in there! Local produce, artisan foods and gifts. I bought a jar of Cherry Butter, and a jar of Plum Tarragon Jam because I’m a big fan of jam’s especially strange ones. I also bought some Chipotle infused Olive oil and Pineapple infused Balsamic Vinegar at ORO di Olivia. They had all kinds of cool Olive oils infused with different flavors and tons of awesome Balsamic Vinegars from the traditional dark to white. I wanted to buy so many bottles, but at $15 a bottle I limited myself to only 2.

Next we headed over to The Green Kitchen which is a cool little lunch spot in the Public Market. We weren’t exactly hungry after are delicious breakfast but I wanted to get something. Now, The Green Kitchen isn’t a vegan or vegetarian place, but it is vegan friendly. They have at least one sandwich and one wrap that is naturally vegan, and I think there are 2 others that can be made so by just asking for it without cheese. They also have a salad bar, smoothies, and fresh juices. We opted to get some juice to wet our whistles after so much walking around. I forget the name of the juice I got but it was a mixture of pineapple, grapefruit, strawberry and mango I think. My husband got a tropical drink as well with pineapple, mango, and some other stuff. Both juices really hit the spot, they were so delicious!

Boats on Lake Michigan 

Next we headed off to walk around Lake Michigan. Now Milwaukee doesn’t have quite the skyline of Chicago, and their Lakefront isn’t quite as developed but the one thing I loved about walking around the Lake here is that there weren’t a million other people doing the same thing. In fact we could walk or sit wherever we wanted because there were only a handful of others at the Lake, most of the jogging or biking. It was brilliant and we even saw a couple getting married by the lake. Very cool. This is also the site where the Milwaukee Museum of Art is, and it’s a really neat futuristic looking building. Great for taking photos.

The River Walk

After the Lake we tried to find this vegan bakery called East Side Ovens Bakery. I was so in the mood for some vegan brownies. Unfortunately they were closed when we got there, so we headed over to the evil Big Chain Coffee shop that starts with and S and got iced lattes instead. Not as good, but since it was about 90'F out we really needed the cool down. After sipping our drinks we drove back into down town and walked around The Third Ward for a while, looking around at shops and things. By then it was late afternoon and it being a Sunday a lot of places were closed but I didn’t mind. Coming from Vancouver and having been to Europe a few times I’m used to places closing down early.

The River Walk

When we’d had enough of The Third Ward we went down to the River and walked along there. It was a great walk because not only is it a beautiful area, but it was also shaded and a nice breeze was coming off the river. We watched Kayakers and Sunday Boaters enjoying the water and took lots of pictures of the buildings. Then we found the Bronze Fonz which my husband was particularly excited about. Now if you don’t know what that is it’s a bronze statue of the actor Henry Winkler, who played the iconic character Fonzie on the popular 70's t.v. show “Happy Days.” even though the show ended a year or two before I was even born I still grew up watching it. I used to watch the repeats in the morning before school, along with other t.v. shows from that time period and earlier. My husband liked the show too, but since I haven’t seen it in probably a decade I didn’t remember until we got to Milwaukee that it had taken place there - hence the statue. Pretty neat if you like pop culture things.

Customized Pizza - Marinara, Fried Potatoes, Artichoke,
Vegan Cheese, & Garlic 

All that walking got us hungry enough for some dinner and so we went to Transfer Pizza, which is also not vegan or vegetarian but they actually have 12 vegetarian pizza’s and all of them can be made vegan because Transfer has a vegan cheese option. Or you can create your own pizza. We ended up getting Bob’s Special which is spinach, mushroom, onions, garlic sauce, and cheese. We got vegan cheese of course and the waitress kindly informed us that the garlic sauce wasn’t vegan and said we could switch it out for marinara which we did. We also got a customized pizza with vegan cheese, fried potatoes, garlic, red sauce and artichokes. Both pizza’s were excellent though I think I liked the customized pizza just a little more. I mean fried potatoes on pizza? This is really a great idea and one I rarely ever see. I also really liked the atmosphere at Transfer, and our waitress was super nice and friendly.

Bob's Special - Marinara, Spinach, Mushrooms
Vegan Cheese, and Onions

After dinner we wanted some bar food. Or more accurately I wanted bar food. I had heard about a Bar called The Palomino and how it has excellent vegan bar food. To find vegan bar food in a non vegan bar is such a rarely novelty that I just couldn’t pass it up. So we went on over. I have to say I was a little nervous about it because The Palomino has gotten some really bad reviews on Happy Cow with people saying the food is greasy and that the staff are really horrible and mean. Many people said that the staff were indifferent to vegans but honestly that was not my experience at all. Our waitress was super nice and helpful. Not only was she really friendly but she answered our questions and was prompt with her service. We weren’t neglected or left on our own, so I’m not sure what those reviews are all about. I would definitely go back to The Palomino, in fact it’s exactly my kind of bar. I’m not a bar person you know, or a drinker, but really the thing I hate most about bars is that they’re overcrowded, way too loud, and usually full of smoke. That wasn’t the case at The Palomino on this particular evening. The music was a perfect volume and it wasn’t jam-packed. It had a small-town bar feel, and kind of reminded me of Merlott’s from “True Blood” in atmosphere.

Vegan Chicken Wings, Sweet & Spicy
With Vegan Ranch

Anyway, as for food we ordered the Chicken Wings - veganized of course - we got a combo plate of half spicy half sweet wings, which came with a vegan ranch. The wings themselves were made out of tofu and seitan and I have to say they were so realistic in taste that we actually had to ask the waitress if they were really vegan. She seemed amused by the question and assured us they were. I don’t know, maybe it’s because it’s been so long since we had actual chicken but these tasted spot on to me. Texture wise they were so moist, and the breading was perfect. Since we were pretty full from dinner we didn’t have a lot of room to explore more of the menu but we capped off the night with a fried vegan apple hand-pie. Which was super delicious, and moist. It was the perfect end to the night.

Fried Vegan Apple Hand-Pie

I actually had such a nice time that I can’t wait to go back to Milwaukee for another visit, and now that we know how awesome it is hopefully we’ll go back sometime soon. Chicago might be considered a vegan Oasis in the Midwest but being a city of 3 million it really should have numerous vegan options. On the other hand you typically don’t expect a city of less then 600,000 to cater much to vegetarians and vegans, but Milwaukee is super vegan friendly, to me they’re much more of a vegan oasis in the Midwest because you don’t expect it, and when you find it you’re so unbelievable surprised and outrageously happy.

PS: This is only a small sampling of the amazing vegan options available in Milwaukee. There were actually quite a few places for us to choose from when it came to dinner options, and a few places we’d originally wanted to go to were closed. So I’ll be sure to check out those places on my next trip to the city and let you know about them.

Riverwest Co-op Cafe
733 E Clarke St, Milwaukee,
414-264-7933

The Green Kitchen
400 N Water St, Milwaukee, Wisconsin at Milwaukee Public Market
414-273-8830

Transfer Pizza
101 W Mitchell St, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
414-763-0438

The Palomino
2491 S Superior St, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
414-747-1007

Veggie Fest! Naperville, Illinois 2013...

Veggie Fest Entrance

This weekend was the annual Vegetarian Festival in Naperville, Illinois, a two day event full of good eats, cool speakers, great demo’s, holistic health advice, free massages, free meditation lessons, activism, and so much more. Veggie Fest has been taking place during the second week of August for the past eight years, and I’ve been in attendance for the past four. It seems crazy to think that I’ve been going to this festival for four years and I’ve never once posted about it. I know the first year I didn’t post about it because that was before my time as a blogger, and before I was even a vegetarian let alone a vegan. The second year I was so excited to get out there and enjoy all the great eats in my first year of vegetarianism that I forgot my camera at home. Last year I did in fact bring my camera though I neglected to take many pictures and then once I got home updating about it totally slipped my mind. This year however I was a great blogger, I brought the camera and made sure to take a lot of pictures.

Live Music - Folk, Reggae, Spanish,
It's always a great mix of bands

Veggie Fest for me is the premier summer event, and I love it. Everything about it excites me and soothes my soul. I always end up talking to cool people, and learning new things. I love hanging around the activist booths and talking to other long-time and newbie vegans. It’s great to be in a big group of like minded people who are supportive. Being around so many cool vegans inspires me, and rekindles that fire inside that often dulls when there isn’t enough vegan stimulation around. That’s not to say that the non-vegans in my life aren’t supportive or inspirational, they are, just in a different way. The realities of the non-vegan world can be harsh, and sometimes it can be hard to deal with the constant meat-pushing culture all around you, that when you show up at veggie fest it’s like you’ve crossed into some magical oasis where nothing can hurt you, or bother you, and everything is uplifting. It’s always a great day for my husband and I.

Awesome Licence Plate in the parking lot

We decided to go on Sunday, which was the second day of the event. It opened at 11am, and we got there at 10 minutes to, but by the time we got our car parked and walked over to the grounds of the Science of Spirituality Center where the fest is held each year the gates were opened and we were ushered in. We started by registering. Then we headed off in search of what great vegan fun we could have. We were suppose to meet our friends J & L but they were running late so we decided to loop around. One of our first stops was the Book Publishing Company's tent, which is one of my favorite tents at Veggie Fest. I took a good long look at all the books on offer but really my eyes were only set on one. “Cookin’ Crunk” by Bianca Phillips. I have been reading Bianca’s blog Vegan Crunk  since shortly after I went vegan. It was one of the first blogs I happened to stumble across and I immediately loved it. She has a fun and easy style of writing that I appreciate and a real down-home, down to earth personality which I really like. Plus she always gives you the scoop on cool new vegan products and cool new vegan cook books. Since I always read the Veggie Fest Schedule online in advance I knew she was going to be at Veggie Fest this year doing a demo and I was uber excited about that. Her cook book has been sitting on my amazon wish list since it was published but I just hadn’t gotten around to buying it yet. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to do so, since I was hoping to get to chat with her and have her sign the book after her demo.

Empanada's and Guac

After buying the book my husband and I wandered into the food court where we promptly became excited for all that was on offer. Since Veggie Fest is a Vegetarian Festival not all of the food is vegan or vegan-friendly. Some years have been more vegan then others. The first two years we went were a bit low on vegan options, but last year was better, and I have to say that I think this year was the best yet. We started off by getting some empanada’s with guacamole and salsa. These were good, though I’ve made better at home. We followed the empanada’s up with a slice of vegan pizza! We were so excited to finally see Vegan pizza at veggie fest. Normally they only have vegetarian pizza and it’s always loaded with dairy cheese. This year they had a vegan slice with vegan sausage and it was super yummy! After that we took a quick circle around the grounds getting a preliminary look at the various tents, and then it was time to check out the first cool demo of the afternoon.

Sausage and 'Cheese' Pizza 

I was interested and excited to see Jennifer Cornbleet author of “Raw Food Made Easy for 1 or 2" do a chef demo. It was also the perfect time to get out of the sun as the weather had started heating up!  The demo was good and ran about thirty-five minutes or so. Jennifer had a great personality and really made raw food seem quick and easy. Her recipes all sound wonderful and she really takes some of the mystery out of raw food. For the demo she made a Raw Chocolate Mousse Tart with a Pecan crust. It was very simple and came together quickly, it was also delicious! The secret ingredient was avocado - as is the case with many raw mousses - and it was fantastic. I don’t buy raw cook books terribly often because I find many of them to be too fussy and involved, but after watching Jennifer’s demo I think I’ll definitely have to pick up a copy of the revised - and newly republished - edition of her book.

Jennifer Cornbleet during her Demo 

It was sometime during Jennifer’s demo that our friends J & L finally arrived. It was good to see them as I actually haven’t seen them since Christmas. Spoken with them on the phone and via social media of course but actually see them in the physical world? Yeah it’s been a while. So we chatted for a few minutes then took in the circuit, making our way back over to the food court. My husband ended up getting the vegan masala dosa from Art of Dosa, and I got a vegan corn dog. The corn dog was just okay, the dog part was delicious and tasted as good as I remember any traditional hot dog tasting. The Okay part was the corn batter. It wasn’t as crisp or flavorful as I would have liked, but then perhaps I wasn’t thrilled with it because I never liked regular corn dogs? Who knows. I always say I’m going to get one and then I never do, so this year I made sure to finally go for it.

Miyoko Schinner at her Demo 

After that it was time for the next demo, and this one I was super excited for. Miyoko Schinner of “Artisan Vegan Cheese” Fame. I saw her demo at Chicago Vegan Mania last year - yes I know I never posted about it and I’m sorry! - and she was fantastic, unfortunately at that time I didn’t have a copy of her book nor did I have the time to stick around and chat with her after her demo was over. Mania was well manic! I got her book a coupe of weeks after Vegan Mania and since I’ve made seven or eight cheese recipes from it that I have absolutely loved and adored. She really brings a whole new level to vegan cheese and her’s are seriously the best I’ve ever had. Much better then even the best store-bought vegan cheese. So I packed up my copy of “Artisan Vegan Cheese” from home with the intention of having her sign it after the demo.

Guy in an awesome carrot costume!

Her demo by the way was great. She is so full of life and energy. She radiates what it means to be a joyful vegan and she’s funny! I loved watching her, and even when things didn’t go exactly right - the stove heated to quickly and gave her a bit of trouble - she still kept her cool and rolled with it. She said that she’s more of a ‘throw a bit of this and a bit of that in’ kind of cook, and I can definitely identify with that. That’s really my style too, having to jot down everything I put into a recipe can be so tedious but it must be done if you want others to create it with the same luck as you. So for her demo she did a lox flavored cream cheese that she served on a bagels. I’ve never had lox before so I don’t know what that tastes like, but it reminded me of a seafood dip from my childhood. It was delicious! Next up she made a sun-dried tomato and basil cream cheese also served on a bagel and it was amazing! Lastly she made fresh mozzarella that she served in a panzanella salad. This too was fantastic. I loved that all these recipes were quick and easy, and they really re-inspired me to pick up “Artisan Vegan Cheese” again and make some stuff.

Great bumper sticker on  that cool car with the vegan
Licence plate. Love stuff like this! 

So after the demo was over, I went over to where she was signing the books and brought out my copy of “Artisan Vegan Cheese” the book signing line was quite long and so I didn’t want to take up too much of her time. I just told her how much I loved the book, how I’d made many cheeses from it and how even my husband loved the recipes I’d made from the book, which is saying something since he’s never been a cheese lover - vegan or otherwise. Miyoko was super nice, and friendly and I walked away feeling really good.

Corn Dog

After Miyoko’s demo we met back up with J & L who told us they were bailing on Veggie Fest. We’d hardly spent any time with them yet as they didn’t attend any of the demo’s with us, so that was a bit of a disappointment. They said it was too hot, and too crowded, and so we said our goodbyes and parted ways. I like being at veggie fest with friends, because I love the group experience, but it was no less fun with just my husband and I.

Delicious and Refreshing Frozen Soy Cappuccino 

After J & L left we walked around some more and checked out various booths. We went over to Mercy For animals, and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, and Vegan Mania tables. We went back to the Book Publishing Company’s table and then back to the Food Court where we sampled products by Earth Balance, Cobra Corn, Tasty Bites and other great stuff that I can’t exactly recall now. Then we wetted our whistles with some Frozen Soy Cappuccino’s! Which were super delicious and hit the spot!

Then it was time to head back over to the demo tents to watch Bianca Phillips! This is the demo I was the most excited about. She’s been around doing demo’s at different vegetarian and vegan festivals all year, and I get to read about all the cool things she makes on her blog so I was really curious to see which recipe from “Cookin’ Crunk” she was going to make. She ended up making the Creole Sausages which were really delicious. Now I’m a bit picky about my seitan, and since she prepared the sausages in advance they were cold when served which I would normally not like, but the flavor of them was really fantastic. I know they’ll be really great grilled or fried, and they had a fantastic texture. I also really loved that they were made with white beans as well as gluten flour. I think the beans gives them a much milder flavor then the kinds of seitan sausages that are made solely with gluten.

Bianca Phillips during her demo
Check out that cute 'Cookin' Crunk' Apron

Though Bianca’s demo was quite short I enjoyed it! She’s as easy going and funny in person as she is on her blog, and you really get a sense of her passion for cooking good comforting food. After her demo my husband and I walked over to where she was going to sign books. I was second in line and since the line wasn’t too busy yet I was able to talk to her for more then 5 seconds, which was super cool. She’s really sweet, and friendly and I walked away feeling pretty happy about my new signed copy of ‘Crunk’

It was around that time that my husband’s mom showed up with his cousin C. Neither of whom are vegan or even vegetarian - though C was vegetarian for a time. - His mom had decided to drop by and check the festival out this year to see what it was all about and she thought C might like to come along. It was nice to have them there and it was cool to take them around and show them the different things going on, and see them enjoying the food. Back in the food court my husband and I couldn’t refuse a plate of delicious sushi. Originally I wasn’t going to get any because I’ve had it before and it’s typically the same. Teriyaki shiitake mushroom maki. It’s good, but doesn’t blow my socks off. This year however they really gave their sushi a new look, and it had way more flavor. C bought some and when I saw her plate I couldn’t not try it, it just looked to good to be true.

Look at that amazing sushi! 

After we packed away the delicious sushi we shared some of my husband’s mom’s fries, and watermelon, grabbed some lemonades, and capped the food festivities off by each enjoying a slice of Pineapple Upside down cake. The fries, cake lemonade and watermelon I forgot to photograph but trust me when I say they were all good.

Once we were stuffed to the bursting point we did a few more circles of the grounds, and headed into the meditation tent to learn how to meditate on our inner light. This was my husband’s idea which surprised me because usually it’s me suggesting stuff like this. Originally I had no interest in meditating at that moment but he was going so I decided to go too. It was a fun experience, and peaceful. The meditation was guided by a lovely Austrian woman, and I felt so at east that I was ready to fall asleep. As for seeing my inner light, well I’m not 100% sure. I often see light when I close my eyes, so I don’t know if this is just a strange thing about me, or if I’m always able to see my ‘inner light’ perhaps I should meditate on it some more.

Crowd in the Food Court

After that it was time to head out. We ended up leaving around quarter past five which is the earliest we’ve ever left Veggie Fest. Normally we hang around till it closes down and listen to the music and dance, but with J & L gone, no more room in our bellies to eat, no more demo’s to watch, and having already looked over everything more then once it was time to head out. Leaving Veggie Fest is always sad, but as it turned out we left just in time, because about twenty or so minutes after we headed out it began pissing rain.

I can’t wait until next year’s Veggie Fest, but until then I have the Toronto Vegetarian Festival to look forward to - if there are any Toronto area vegetarians or vegans going, let me know maybe we can meet up! - and Chicago Vegan Mania just a few weeks after. It’s gonna be end to the year!

If you couldn't make it this year I hope you come out next year.
Veggie Fest is held Annually in Naperville the second week of August.
On the grounds of the Science and Spirituality Meditation Center.
4S 175 Naperville-Wheaton Road