Addendum And Then Some

Alright, in regards to my last post I have recently come in to even more information on the situation. Too good not to post really, so enjoy it. http://iamamotherfucker.com/ first and then listen to a few words from the man himself.. Thank goodness for the internet.

Harmony Joy Bus Ride

Sometimes I/we find the stupidest things funny. This just happens to be one of them.

If you go here it will most likely make the above video numerous times more classic. I for some reason find this funny on so many levels. This right here is one of those reasons.

Super Bowl!

That magical weekend has arrived again and you saw what happened the night previous. Now, for the festivities that surrounded the super bowl. This year, the deep fryer was added to the mix and that was the center of the majority of the things that were made for the big game. Chill was in charge of the majority of the snacks for today as I took care of last night so there won't be any real recipes found today. Why not start off with what everyone wants. Vegan donuts!!! Simple and plain with a vanilla glaze. Let's just say that I ate more than one.
Next up are some jalapeno poppers(not shown) and banana pepper poppers. They had the cream cheese and daiya cheddar etc etc filling with a nice light breading.
How about some breaded shrimp and cocktail sauce? A nice find in chinatown made for a tasty treat tonight.
Here are the wingz from Just The Food that I made for the evening. I found them to be a little rough to make with full fat coconut milk and the breading refused to stay on after they were cooked. If you can get past those two minor setbacks, they were pretty tasty.
A staple for any kind of food party, nachos. These guys had white and blue corn chips, vegan chili, italian and cheddar daiya, jalapenos and banana peppers and served with salsa, guac and sour cream. Still can't get enough daiya!
We'll end on a fancier note today with a little panna cotta served with mango,pineapple, blood orange and banana.
All in all there was too much food and we didn't even get to the corn dogs that we had planned for the night. A success I would say. Also, SAINTS SAINTS SAINTS!!!

Blue Bowls

Twas the night before Super Bowl and all through the house, snacks were served in blue bowls so shut your mouth! First off, a little mac n cheese.
I will state for the record that I love Daiya cheese. It just make the best everything and this mac n cheese is no exception. I can't for the life of me remember which blog I got the recipe for this from but a rough recounting of the situation will get you more than on your way to making some deliciousness.

Mac n Cheese

1 pkg pasta (your favorite kind)
enough water to cook it
1 tbsp margarine
1 tbsp flour
1 cup soy milk
1 cup shredded Daiya cheddar

Boil water for the pasta and put about half the pasta in the boiling water and cook according to the directions on the package. Have a little saucepan over med/low heat and add the margarine. Once the margarine is melted add the flour and stir until a light brown roux is made. Whisk in the soymilk and allow to thicken slightly. Add the Daiya cheese and mix until melted and uniform. Drain the pasta and add to the cheese sauce and serve while warm. Amazing. *If you wanted to get crazy you could microplane a clove of garlic into the roux just before adding the soymilk.

Next up is a new ice cream creation for me. Strawberry Rhubarb Cheesecake!
Let me just say that this is one of the best flavors I have ever made and the consistency was easily the best I have made. A huge success. I just added a few things to the vanilla ice cream from The Vegan Scoop.

Strawberry Rhubarb Cheesecake Ice Cream

1 cup coconut milk
2 tbsp arrowroot powder
2 cups soy creamer
3/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup vegan cream cheese
2/3 cup strawberry rhubarb jam

In a small bowl, combine 1/4 cup coconut milk with arrowroot and set aside.

Mix soy creamer, remaining coconut milk and sugar in a saucepan and cook over low heat. Once mixture begins to boil, remove from heat and immediately add arrowroot cream. This will cause the liquid to thicken noticeably.

Add vanilla extract, then whisk in vegan cream cheese.

Refrigerate mixture until chilled. Approx 2-3 hours or overnight. Freeze according to your ice cream maker's instructions. In the last few minutes of freezing add the strawberry rhubarb jam a spoonful at a time(luckily I had some homemade stuff on hand).

There you have it, the method to the madness for a night of good snacking.

Top EPs/Demos of 2009

Back to our semi-regularly scheduled programming now. Here they are and in a loose order from "worst to first"

Human Mess - Anger Problems (the cover of this record alone is enough to make the list)
Ghost Ship - Demo
Ancestors - II
Nomos - Demo
Bad Seed - Bad Seed
Parasitic Skies - Embers
Cosmic Church - Arcana Dei I, II & III (it was an ep trilogy that couldn't be broken up by me so they all make it together)
Cage - I Never Knew You
Best Coast - Sun Was High (So Was I)...this is making it on here based solely upon the title track of this 7", I can't get enough of it.
Vaccine - Demo

There may have been others that got released so close to the end of the year (read: Nazi Dust) that I just wasn't able to give them a good enough listen to make this particular list. We are one step closer to my elusive Top Ten Records of 2009 now.

SUCCESS!!!!

The last post I did was advertising for a vegan bake sale that I was putting together and this post right here is to tell you what went down at that very sale. As you can tell by the title of this post, the sale was a smash hit! Here is a look at the table as we were filling it up with all the goodies. Since I forgot to pull out my camera...pics "stolen" from Lorraine. Here are lemon bars, green tea cupcakes and chewy chocolate ginger cookies.
In this one we have chocolate covered pretzels, whoopie pies, almond sandwich cookies with choc buttercream filling, banana bread with choc chunks and cashews, banana bread with blueberries and chai cupcakes with vanilla bean buttercream.
The last of the table had rice krispie treats, peanut butter choc chip brownies with choc frosting and cookies n creme cupcakes.
Here are a few of the treats in action courtesy of Cam and you might notice something extra on there. Well, you did since it was a late addition and it was mini apple crisps!
Now just try picturing some more brownies, snickerdoodles and peanut butter cardamom cookies since those also made a late appearance.

Onto the real good stuff now though. The final count for the sale was $480. I was looking at a few different charities to donate the money to and researched what administrative fees were so that this sale could get the most bang for its buck and all that. I went to my bank yesterday to deposit the money and then in turn donate it to a charity and I noticed a white board stating that Scotiabank would match any donation made at my branch to the Canadian Red Cross Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund. I pondered it for an evening and decided that regardless of what the administrative fees were, $960 would go much further than $480. I made it official today, the vegan bake sale for Haiti has officially contributed $480 to the Red Cross Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund and with the donation matching it got bumped to $960. That is just truly amazing.

I would like to take an opportunity to thank everyone involved in this sale now. Thanks to Rachel, Tracy, Jay and Yuri for baking the goodies that were on the table. Thanks again to Tracy for helping secure the location of the sale. The Albert and The Albert Diner for letting us have the sale on their premises at no charge. Scott for donating his time and making a flyer. Everybody who spread the word of the sale whether it be via texting, bbm'n, blogging, facebooking or actual face to face conversations. Last and certainly not least everybody that came out and bought something and made this all possible. I can't even put into words my feelings for having this little dream turn into such an amazing reality. Don't worry, I'm already planning the next sale. Bigger and better things for everyone.