Bye Bye Tara

Today was my last chance to see Tara before she moved to Montreal. We celebrated by hittin The North Star one last time. Here she is with about as much veggie burger as time that I'm gonna see her and lookin great as usual.
Bye bye Tara, all the best in Montreal. I miss you already! This could be my nicest sounding post yet.

Carnival

You know those tastes you can remember from being a kid? Like foods from the carnival or things cooked over a fire with your family etc etc. Today was a time machine back many many years. Another night of snacks to correspond with sports and fighting! haha. Tonight that included CORN DOGS!
I'm sure this looks a little different compared to getting them from a cart at the fair. This is the updated corn dog, which would have anyone perplexed when told they were vegan, served with a southwest style sauce. I can't take all the credit on this one as I merely skewered the veggie dogs and gave them a light corn starch dusting. Chill gave them the batter dip and worked the deep fryer plus made the sauce. These turned out amazing and I'm looking forward to eating them many many more times.

Buy Me Gifts

I know that I love cooking and coming up with recipes but it's also nice to see what other people have created. It can also be a nice source of inspiration...so if you feel like spending some cash, on me specifically, here are a few ideas!
Vegan Brunch
Babycakes
The Vegan ScoopVegan Soul KitchenThe Urban Vegan
Good thing my bday is approaching right?

Cat Metal

Two things that I like in this world are black metal and cats. Now most often you would think death in relation to black metal and then you think about cats and you are officially bummed out. That is not even close to the case here though...this is more of a black metal costume/outfittery type of situation. A cat gauntlet is my preferred form of black metal costume and here it is.
This is Madball, one of my new roomies, and she is not down with letting people pet her or pick her up. I put her in the gauntlet and she just chilled out, this is also known as the cat submission hold. Any cat falls prey to this hold and will chill out regardless of how crazy they are. Boom.

Return of The Teese!

Well there was one magical flavor of Teese left in my fridge from the bounty that Nate brought back and I had promised him that we would partake in it together. I had to put forth an admirable amount of restraint to wait for him, so today was a great day. A day filled with a reward for playing that waiting game. The Teese cheddar sauce was warmed up with a little soy milk so that it was nice and smooth and I added some sundried tomatoes to it. Some veggie fusilli was cooked up and tofurky italian sausage was browned and mixed in with the pasta and then the Teese sauce was poured over and then enjoyed!This sauce is super easy to make and I'm a fan of a creamy mac n cheese and this def hit the spot. The only problem is that now I want more! Not exactly the worst problem in the world, I know. Hopefully that particular problem will be dealt with real quick.

Finally, New Food!

After trying some fancy new pumpkin french toast from Isa's new book Vegan Brunch and it turning out very very tasty with no tasty tasty pics, there was some leftover pumpkin in the fridge. There has been an idea swirling around for a while in my head and now having pumpkin and vegan cream cheese just sittin in the fridge...today was the day to put it into action. Behold...pumpkin spice cupcakes with cream cheese icing filling topped with cinnamon whipped cream!They turned out quite good for a first try. Few things might need to be tweaked but it's pretty much good to go!

Also, after looking at/wanting that new Vegan Brunch cookbook, I may compile a list of cookbook wants for anyone out there that just feels the need to buy me a gift.

Reflecting

Recently I was on one of my friend's Podcasts(Hotcakes) and we were talkin about music and the new Cam'ron record and reflecting back on the hayday of Dipset and I was immediately thrown into remembering this amazing video posted on the Mishka Bloglin a while back.

I can't get enough of classic Dipset shit and how can you dispute a man countin a stack that big whilst freestylin?

Burning Fight, Friendly Fire

I wasn't able to make it to the pretty much amazing 90's hardcore fest in Chicago that happened not so long ago. I was just perusing some friend's blogs and Wade linked an amazing photo set by Matthew Miller from the fest. It made me feel a touch bummed out since I missed what seemed like an amazing show. Here is the one and only Matt Holden just chillin in the back.
Go and peep the rest of the pics here since there are so many nice pictures.

Mad Love

I was chillin after catchin the season finale of 30 Rock last night and it was completey amazing, which I'm sure I've said on here already. Nothing wrong with a little reiteration though. I wanted to catch Asher Roth on the Jimmy Fallon show. I found one thing out early, Fallon is not exactly funny. Asher made up for it with a dope song backed by The Roots. I was also surprised to see Black Thought rocking a King Stampede fitted so I hit up my homie Teddy King over at BoundlessNY/King Stampede to let him know they were getting some TV love. Dude hit me back and said he was gonna give me props on the blog.
Does it count my name was misspelled and I didn't get linked? haha. It's all love though, let's hope I get some goodies for the mistake made.

Diggin In The Crates

Here is my version of diggin in the crates! I came across an old picture which combines many great things into one. A classic landmark, a good friend that I haven't seen in a while and a mythical shirt.
Even though I'm still relatively confined to the house so I'm using it as my excuse but Fringe, Lost and 30 Rock all delivered with amazing season finales. "Classic case of fruit blindness"

Lost, Calzones and Smores!

What better way for Lost to go out with a bang than with a little bit of deliciousness...or maybe even more than a little. It's not in the title to this post but there was def some RC Cola consumed along with this feast. First off is the calzones and here they are gettin nice in the oven.
The filling for these bad boys is some veggie italian style sausage sauteed to brown it a bit and when it is almost done cooking I added some soaked and diced sundried tomatoes, diced artichoked hearts and spinach that had been chopped up. Took it off the heat and covered the pot and let the spinach wilt. Then I added a very small amount of tomato sauce to bind it together. Then put a little Teese mozza and folded the dough up. Then brushed it with melted margarine that has a little garlic powder and oregano in it to help it brown up nice.
These turned out amazing. Could very well have been the best calzone I have ever had...my calzone back catalog is a little slim though. Time for dessert!!! Here are some smores in the making using Dandies vegan marshmallows.
Sometimes you get a little greedy and put too much marshmallow on your smore and it's hard to get them off the baking sheet. The chocolate is a little hard to see here since I didn't give the smore a little smush down to have it run down the marshmallows a little bit.
I will apologize/ask for forgiveness with the pics in this post since I was so hungry and in a hurry to watch Lost. On that note, getting my mind blown by the show and this food.

Happy Mother's Day!

I'm quite certain that most of us have a mother that we can thank for being here today and since I'm still in the recovery process, why not celebrate with a little brunch? Add some friends and it sounds pretty good to me! Today was a new little french toast idea brought to life. Start off with some normal french toast but coat it in crushed corn flakes before tossin it on the griddle.
When they are done, top them with a little bit of vegan cream cheese icing infused with fresh raspberries and a little bit of raspberry drizzle AND maybe a dusting of icing sugar.
Quite possibly the best french toast I have ever had. Why not end it with a little "Happy Mother's Day" to all the moms who may or may not read this blog.

To Ashes!

New video from one of my favorite bands and I'm still glad that they never bite their tongue.

Nachos!

Sometimes one of your friends named Nate goes to Chicago and comes back with some of this kinda magic
So then you're pretty much forced to make some delicious food. The choice was made, nachos for the second last Lost of the season. Tried something a touch different by grilling a veggie chicken breast and letting it cool down then chopping it into smallish pieces. Cooked off some onions, garlic and jalapeno until they were just getting soft and then hit them with salt, pepper, chili powder, cumin and a touch of cinnamon. Added a can of drained and rinsed black beans, some canned tomato juice and a little agave nectar. Put the grilled chicken back in there to warm through. Line a pan with foil and tortilla chips, cover with warm filling and some grated mozza Teese and under the broiler...
Once it gets nice n melty pull it out and put some freshly diced tomatoes on there...
Then pour some nacho Teese sauce over top everything!
Nate almost put the whole pan back before we sat down for Lost!
Put some salsa and guac in bowls and you're livin your life to the fullest. Now go pick up some Teese and enjoy.

Motivation

As each day passes I have been getting slowly better and gradually increasing my mobility and have been wanting to eat more delicious food. Since I don't really want to be in the kitchen for long I have been trying to think of quick dishes that aren't effort intensive. Today brunch was just that with soyrizo tofu scrambler and roasted potatoes. I had help with it and didn't take a picture of it, I think I was just too hungry and forgot. For dinner I had an idea...why not make a quick warm peanut sauce with onions in it and use this to grill a veggie chicken breast and also use it to top said breast? I put some vegenaise and avocado on the bottom of this new burger and topped it with the grilled breast, onions and sauce.
This just needs something with a little bit of acidity or bite to round it out and I'll be perfectly happy. It was nice to have something different.

Necessities

Since I got this glorious cup I just had to put it to use. What better way to do that than a little hot chocolate along with a cinnamon bun? I did a little internet snack shopping and a cinnamon bun was part of that. It is kinda nice to not have to go through the trouble of baking to get a cinnamon bun even though homemade is better. Without talkin too much about something small...here was my 30 Rock snack tonight.
MMMMM