A Turkey's Birthday

My birthday falls on Thanksgiving every 11 years. This year, thankfully, was not one of them. I turned a whopping 23 yesterday, November 26th! My friend, who is only half a year younger than me, teases me that I have one foot in the grave.

Well, being that Thanksgiving and my birthday fall so close together, I decided to update on my birthday first because it was so much fun. Then in a few days, I'll do a short update on my Thanksgiving dishes and thoughts.

My sister threw a party at her new apartment on Saturday. It wasn't anything huge and crazy, but it wasn't small and sad, either. My bandmates were there, my family was there, my close friends were there. It was perfect. We popped in some Billy Idol, played with the kids, shot the shat and most importantly- chowed down!

First off, my poor sister was making a pasta salad meal when she broke a dish and the glass shards mixed in with the food. I felt pretty bad, but she seemed cool about having to throw the whole thing away. And speaking of breaking things, I baked some cookies (they came out huge and flat) but no pictures were taken because Mike tripped on the sidewalk on the way in. What does one have to do with another, you might ask? Well, my sister made the party Star Wars-themed because I love the saga. I decided to add to the decor with my Vader cookie jar. You can imagine the rest, but I'll type it anyway because I love teasing him about it. As we're walking up the stairs, I hear a smash behind me. Sure enough, Mike tripped and broke the jar on concrete. So much for the cookies. And I can laugh (I still am) because he didn't actually fall or hurt himself. He just owes me another Vader cookie jar.

I got a lot of good prezzies, mostly cooking prezzies. People love when you get a new hobby. It's so easy to pick things out. I got a wonderous food processor (FINALLY), a heavy-duty mixer, new cutting boards with rubber bottoms, a sharp knife that actually cuts food (don't get me started on my old ones), a new sifter, more measuring spoons and cups (I can NEVER get enough of those), pastry items, a zester, a soup strainer, etc... etc... I was like a kid in a candy store!

Anyway, time for foodie pics. My cousin, Bokoluna and her partner and my friend, Elly Blue, made a terrific lay-out.

Rice balls, capped with mushrooms:



Sushi... ::drool::





Dips and spreads for our pleasure:





And a beautious lay out it was:



But wait! There's more!

Quesadillas with yuca:



Yummy, buttery bread with a most delicious pesto sauce:





...and a garden salad topped with Annies tahini and tomato dressing.



All of these foods were especially delicious because they were cooked with love. :)

Not to be out-done (but I was anyway), I helped Mike make my favourite lasagna dish. This consists of whole wheat noodles (so you don't feel so guilty about it), organic tomato sauce, sauteed garlic, parsely, steamed carrots, toffuti (I like to cheat sometimes), herbed firm tofu, nutritional yeast and spinach leaves, all topped with garlic and garden pasta sauce.



Later, Michael and I sprinkled some Vegan Gourmet mozzarella 'cheese' on top of the left overs. In my opinion, that is the BEST fake cheese they have on the market thus far.

Okay, here is the part you've all been waiting for.

The cake!

You know how I've been going on and on about there not being enough white chocolate in my life? Mike fixed that right up! I sent him a recipe for white chocolate cake that I need to veganize. I don't have a printer at work, so he does the printing for me. Little did I know, he stole the recipe and decided to make it for my birthday. ;)

The cake had a chocolate candy-coated layer with an utterly delicious white chocolate inside, filled with strawberry jam. Now here's the BEST part. All week, he kept going on about his great decorating idea and how excited he was to do it. I couldn't imagine what it was. At our Thanksgiving dinner, I had to go in the other room while he transferred the cake into the fridge and all I could hear were 'Ooohs' and 'Aahhs' from the kitchen. You can imagine my impatience.

Finally, the day of my party came. My brother helped to fool me even more by asking his son if he saw the 'Darth Vader' cake when I was in the other room. He even played the imperial battle march while they were bringing the cake out. Right up until the last minute, I thought it was Vader. I was so, so, so wrong.

It was ME!





This came from a Photoshopped (by Mike, of course) headshot of me at one of our Acrasjia shows. Here is the original:



Mike never ceases to amaze me! He is a wonderous artist by nature. With my cooking skills and his artistic talent, we could open up our own cake shop! I'd just have to learn how the heck to work with fondant for those picky brides.

I asked Mike to explain how he decorated in 3d (in case any of you would like to give it a go) and here is his summary:

-First I melted some white chocolate chips in a double
boiler
-Then I lined a flat, round pan with wax paper and
poured the white chocolate into the pan
-I then let it cool overnight (though it doesn't take
that long)
-Next I mixed the ingredients and baked the two halves
of the cake.
-Then I let them cool and spread Polaner All-Fruit
strawberry jelly on top of the bottom layer.
-Next I laid wax paper over the image of Suzie and
traced over it with the point of a fork. Not enough to
cut the paper, but enough to leave an impression of
the image.
-I then laid the wax paper over the hardened white
chocolate sheet and cut out the design with a fresh,
clean, exacto blade
-I melted some dark chocolate chips in a double boiler
and then poured it over the two layers of the cake
after I had stacked them
-I let the chocolate cool a little then I took the
pieces of the face in white chocolate and placed them
in the still soft dark chocolate
-For the hair I cut thin slivers out of the leftover
white chocolate and placed them in the dark surface

If I were to do it over again I wouldn't have made the
chocolate layers so thick. it was hard to cut through
when carving the cake. I also didn't let it warm up
long enough when taking it out of the fridge. Part of
that was worrying about an impatient and snooping
birthday girl. -;>D

Well, after the party, my friends and I hopped over to a bar in Quincy and had the dance floor all to ourselves. Who could ask for anything more?

All-in-all, I had a kick-ass birthday. I got lots of nice cards and gifts and more importantly, my friends and family were there to make me feel loved. Oh, and great food was had by all! =)

Baby Cakes

Autumn is a season of birthdays in my family, including my very own next weekend! Two weeks ago, my nephew, Dylan, had his first birthday. My sister, not wanting to introduce him to processed sweets and junk, asked me to make a cake for him. She wanted, specifically, a cake that looked like Elmo (that was the theme, you see). That's easy enough. But here's the rub- Dylan is allergic to soy. Whenever his mum would eat it and then proceed to breast feed him, his face would break out in red rashes. So I was asked to make a birthday cake without soy product. Eeek! How can you ask a vegan to do such things? Every time I thought of ingredients I could use, I kept coming back to 'Oh, but that has soy in it TOO!'

Not to fear! I then remembered an 'allergy bible' a friend from a previous job passed along to me. This is a collection of typed up recipes that are wheat free, gluten free, egg free, dairy free and yes, soy free. She had used it when her kids were little because they were pretty much allergic to everything.

I fingered through it and found a simple recipe for chocolate cake. Sugar, flour, cocoa, veggie shortening, vanilla extract, white vinegar, salt and baking powder. Let me tell you, it was an extemely yummy chocolate cake and incredibly quick and easy to make.

Now, the frosting! I couldn't use a glaze because my sister wanted it to look like Elmo. That meant thick, colored frosting. After searching online for a non-soy butter based icing, I came up with one idea. Veggie shortening- 100% palm oil. I wasn't sure how it would taste in place of butter. I was a little wary.

So I tried it and guess what? It tastes almost exactly the same! I will admit, it's not as creamy as butter, but it has a very thick and smooth texture that worked just fine.

Now, for the dye. I am against using any chemicals in my food. Luckily, Wholefoods has a brand of food dye in stock that uses plant-based ingredients for color called India Tree. It's a whopping $20! Perhaps that's my most extravagant spend, not the coconut cups. I bought it because I really wanted to make my nephew's first birthday special.

Working with the dye is frustrating. Because the colors come from plants, it's difficult to get the exact shade you want. I used the entire red bottle because the frosting kept looking pink and then almost purple. Eventually I got a maroon-ish color. It took a while to get the yellow and red to come out orange too. The yellow tastes like cumin if you use too much. Not a flavour I want on my cake. The red (derived from beet juice) actually offers a hint of a juicy flavour. The blue, however, has no flavour.

I had Mike, quite the artist, help me design the face. Using a steak knife, he made outlines of the eyes, nose and mouth. We then proceeded to carefully frost and before we knew it, Elmo was staring back at us!

To add a little more to the fun, I baked strawberry cupcakes (using fresh strawberries) and painted them with the yellow and red frostings. Wallah!





Needless to say, Dylan love it! It was his first bite of cake- or anything sweet for that matter, save fruit! He stopped crying and seemed mesmorized by each bite!



The party was cute and fun.

The layout and my cutie nephew, Kenny:



I think I was the most excited about these hats (red eyes kept due to the devilish horn hats):



Oh, by the way, Mike keeps nagging me to point out just who, exactly, he is. Mike is my closest friend and guitarist of Acrasjia and artist man and wonderful person who hangs out at my house all the time and helps me do stuff. I just love him!

Mike:

For my other newphew's first birthday, just yesterday, it was requested of me to make a Cookie Monster cake. I used the same recipe but this time made the buttercream frosting with soy butter. Again, Mike 'carved' the face and we frosted him together. The blue dye looked a little silver until the oxygen hit it for a while. Then it became a dark blue.

Mike also had the idea of hanging a cookie out of the mouth. So using the delicious recipe from 'The Joy of Vegan Baking', I made up a batch of chocolate chip cookies. A slot was cut into Cookie Monster's mouth where the cookie fit nice and snug. The rest of the batch decorated the frame of his head.

Luckily, I was able to redeem myself from the last cookie disaster. Everyone, kids and adults alike, snatched the cookies and they were gone in the first hour. My oldest nephew, Kenny (who is 3), was the first to grab one. He loves his cookies!



Joey ate the cake up with absolute delite. :)



Here is the close-up of this moist cocoa cake (this one's for you, Kevin):



After having a left over batch of frosting and a couple of cookies that weren't as pretty as the rest, there was only one thing to do with them:



This is a kid's meal by far. Sugar on top of sugar. That was the best breakfast I've had in a long time!

My family, though supportive of my ethics and lifestyle, never really know what to offer me at parties, so they've given up trying to make dishes. That's okay. It gives me another excuse to cook!

I made an apple kugel- green apples, yams (though sweet potatoes would have been better), walnuts, cinnamon, matzo meal and apple juice baked in a casserole dish.



It's very reminiscent of apple pie, but a little on the dry side. I think next time I'll put apple sauce in the mix. Or maybe ice cream. ;)

Palladium Paradise and A Little Meme

*Update* I should mention that Karin Dailey took these professional photos and an awesome job was done!

So all that talk about rocking out at the Worcester Palladium and not a darn picture to show for it? No more! Here are some pro shots we paid a pretty penny for so now we can look like a legite band. ;)

So far we are a 4-piece, looking to expand two more members. Being that we're tuned low and play metal, we've been able to get away with no 'lower end' for a while. However! We just might be getting a bassist (after months of auditioning) very soon. His name is Steve and he's grrrreat! Okay, enough with the cheese. For now, here is the band as it has been for over a year.

From top left to bottom right: Mike- guitarist, Suzie (THAT'S ME!)- vocalist/crazy lady, Kevin- drummer and Matt- guitarist.



Because I didn't want to make this blog ridiculously picture heavy, I asked Mike to make a mosaic. See, he's a photoshop genius, so he does a lot of favours. Tee hee Anyway, because Flickr is totally awesome, you can click on it for a larger view. However, Mikey made some of the cool crowd shots too small! So, I decided to repost them underneath in all their glory.







Oh, and don't try this at home:



Now, for a meme I found off of Just the Food. You should do it too, even if you don't get all the way through mine. ;) I love reading other people's surveys and such!

1. Favorite non-dairy milk?
Okay, it's Silk, sugar-free. I hated it at first, but now it's perfect in everything that calls for milk. Now that I'm used to it, regular Silk tastes too disgustingly sweet. It's odd how your mind can get un-used to things. For a dessert-flavoured drink, however, I will go with Mocha Silk Milk.

2. What are the top 3 dishes/recipes you are planning to cook?
Pumpkin ziti, roasted tofu with stuffing and white chocolate cake with white chocolate buttercream frosting.

3. Topping of choice for popcorn?
Earth balance, garlic powder, salt, pepper and tobasco sauce.

4. Most disastrous recipe/meal failure?
That would have to be strawberry shortcake. I was a brand new cook at the time. I accidentally put a cup of baking soda in it. You can imagine the rest. My mother was a sweetheart and helped me make a new one. I always have that problem where if a recipe fails, I WILL re-make it immediately, the RIGHT way.

5. Favorite pickled item?
Don't think I'm a fan of pickled items.

6. How do you organize your recipes?
There are tons of them floating around, but I plan on getting a three-ring binder and putting them in sections by snacks, drinks, desserts, entrees, etc... in alphabetical order.

7. Compost, trash, or garbage disposal?
Well, I want to start a compost but my friend tells me that it will smell bad. For now, I use the trash, saving what I can, but boy do I wish I had a garbage disposal! Someday...

8. If you were stranded on an island and could only bring 3 foods...what would they be (don't worry about how you'll cook them)?
Pasta, roasted garlic potatoes and chocolate cake.

9. Fondest food memory from your childhood?
Circus cookies! Everyday when I came home from kindergarten, my mother would make me a peanut butter and jelly sandwhich with circus cookies while I watched my favourite shows.

10. Favorite vegan ice cream?
Wheelers Black Label Vegan ice cream. I've only tried it once. But it's THAT good. Buuuut... my favourite flavour ice cream always has been and always will be cookies and cream.

11. Most loved kitchen appliance?
For now it's my big soup pot, but I would love, love, love a state of the art food processor. I'm old fashioned. I don't have a lot of gadgets... which is probably why it takes me waaay too long to cook.

12. Spice/herb you would die without?
Garlic

13. Cookbook you have owned for the longest time?
Vegetarian Times

14. Favorite flavor of jam/jelly?
Grape

15. Favorite vegan recipe to serve to an omni friend?
My lasagna. I'm telling you, that Tofutti tricks EVERYONE!

16. Seitan, tofu, or tempeh?
Tofu. You can use it for anything. It's like the duct tape of the food world.

17. Favorite meal to cook (or time of day to cook)?
Dinner/Evening

18. What is sitting on top of your refrigerator?
A radio, a flashlight, a can of pencils and pens and batteries. Bad feng shui.

19. Name 3 items in your freezer without looking.
Banana, bread, corn niblets.

20. What's on your grocery list?
Mini pretzels, garlic powder, raisins, apple juice, diced toms, white kidney beans, curry paste, 2 cans of coconut milk, pasta, pasta sauce, milk and bread

21. Favorite grocery store?
Whole Foods- but it really drains the pockets. :-/

22. Name a recipe you'd love to veganize, but haven't yet.
White Chocolate everything

23. Food blog you read the most (besides Isa's because I know you check it everyday). Or maybe the top 3?
I read them all everyday. Just look to the right of my posts for names.

24. Favorite vegan candy/chocolate?
Tropical Source raspberry chocolate bars. My most favourite is white chocolate, but I have yet to try a vegan version. 6 years! God help me.

25. Most extravagant food item purchased lately?
Whole coconuts. It wasn't for cooking, it was to make cups.

26. What was your favorite food BEFORE becoming veg*n?
Before being vegan, of course it was white chocolate and anything with cheese. Before being vegetarian, I loved kielbasa, chicken cutlets and Italian subs.

More Soups, More Smoothies, More Beans!

More soups, as promised. Eventually I'll get to making some 'meatier' meals, such as pasta dishes, seitan, tofu, tempheh, etc... For now I'm having fun with beans and veggies.

A week ago, I made this lovely tortilla chip soup.



The recipe called for chili powder, so I was afraid it was going to burn my tongue off. My fears were allayed upon trying my first bite. Mixing cayenne and chili doesn't have to be as frightening as it sounds. The right amount of ingredients definitely added spice to the dish, but just enough to give it a little kick as opposed to ruining the entire meal (lord knows I've done that before).

I just threw together some home made veggie broth, diced tomatoes, salt, pepper, garlic, onions, tomato paste, cumin, jalepeno peppers (seeded) and chili powder. Once the soup was done simmering, I crumpled up a bunch of un-salted, organic tortilla chips (the fun part) and garnished with a slice of avocado. The avocado, in my opinion, should serve to be more than a garnish; it was so delicious, my step father was going back for more to toss in his soup!

Last night I made veggie borscht. For those of you who are new to the cooking world or just don't cook at all but enjoy my blog- you know who you are- here is a definition of borscht from wikipedia: Borscht is a vegetable soup from Eastern Europe, which is traditionally cooked including beetroot as a main ingredient which gives it a strong red color. Other, non-beet varieties also exist, such as the tomato paste-based orange borscht and the green borscht (sorrel soup).

My usual taste testers were afraid to try it for different reasons, but thankfully they were both pleasantly surprised at how good it was. I must admit, I was a little skeptical as well. Raw beets smell and taste like... dirt. So I didn't know how this would be. Not to fear! Sauteeing the vegetable in olive oil and simmering with the perfect blend of spices made the soup flavourful and nummy.



Isn't it so colorful? I grabbed the green-rimmed bowl, not realizing how Christmas-y it looked.

Again, I used home made broth- it really make the difference, I'm tellin' ya! Throw together a small red onion, lots of garlic, 2 large carrots, 4 beets, 1 cup cabbage, 1 cup spinach, 1 can of diced tomatoes, pepper and horseradish mustard to taste. Mmm mmm mmm... It was suggested that the soup was served with a side dish of biscuits and tofu sour cream, but I was too tired by the time I got this soup on the stove. I'll have to try that with the next soup (chive butternut).

More work/road lunchables! Okay, this picture may not look that appealing, but I can assure you that it is quite a delicious dish. The original name is lentil and black bean salad, but I think I'll have to call my version 'Lentil and Black Bean Mash'. I cooked the lentils for a tad too long and you know they get rather mushy if you just look at them for too long.



I normally can't eat too much bean salad or I'll just get sick of it. However, the right dressing combination can make your bean salad taste amazing. For this dressing, I used olive oil, flax oil, red wine vinegar, dijon mustard, cumin, garlic, salt, black pepper and a tiny bit of organic cane sugar.

I think I would like this meal best in a wrap or made into burgers.

Chickpea salad is also a great 'take to work' dish.


It's very simple and light. With home made dressing, you'll feel very healthy and skinny after eating it.

I like to pretend that I'm on a tropical island when it's really 40 degrees outside. It keeps the spirits up! To help get me into that state of mind, I made a citrus smoothie- simply mix together juice from a lime (limes are so little and cute!), 1 cup of orange juice, 1 frozen banana, a tbsp of maple syrup (the real stuff) and 1/2 cup of silken tofu for texture.

Then, to make it REAL fun, you drain and chop up a coconut and use the shell as a cup!



I have to say that I was very surprised to find whole coconuts NOT at Whole Foods, but at Shaws. Shaws! I had given up on the idea of using a coconut as a drinking cup until I happened to walk by a bunch at the supermarket. I couldn't tell you how excited I was to see those fuzzy creatures!

I owe it to Mike for draining, cutting and sanding these fruits. The cups are un-even, due to the fact that it's tough to get a perfect cut without the right tools, but he did a great job.

I think I might start collecting coconut shells and throw a big, tropical party in the summer when I get my new place. With the little umbrellas, people can feel like they are really by the beach, burying their toes in pink sand, shaded by palm trees and feeling the ocean breeze tickling their skin.

Or maybe they'll just feel like they're sitting in an apartment in New England sipping out of a coconut shell.

Some Soup and Lunch-ables

You'd better get used to soup posts because I make at least one pot a week!

Last week was the soothing carrot soup.



Lately I've been making a lot of 'stew-y' kinds of soup, so it was nice for a change, as the only 'meat' in this dish is the carrot. You'll notice in the picture that there are only three on a spoon- that's because there was nothing to hold them up! I usually cook with as very little salt as possible, so the carrots sunk straight to the bottom!

I sauteed some white onions with the carrots, poured on homemade broth and mixed in a pinch of salt, 1 cup of soy milk, a tbsp of Braggs sauce, a dash of pepper and, of course, tons of dried dill (okay, about a tsp).

I love, love, love dill. You'll probably find this seasoning in most of the recipes I use. It's got such a distinct taste that really brings out the flavour in most meals.

On to lunch-ables!

For work, there is absolutely nothing readily available for the munching. Not only do I prefer healthy, animal-friendly meals, but I like to save my money as well. No buying lunches everyday!

I used to find it difficult to pack wholesome lunches that would fill my tummy. I also hate using microwaves (I just don't trust the damn things) so that left out heating foods up. For the longest time I'd munch on plain rice and tofu or those sodium-filled soy cold cuts. While that can be exciting for a time, it's definitely not something your stomach should get used to. At last I began fingering through my recipe books for cold dishes, such as salads and sandwich spreads that can be easily tossed in some tupperware and carried to work. I couldn't believe how many choices there were to choose from! How could I have been snacking on processed junk for so long? Now I am no longer left starving and unhappy after lunch!

I usually make these meals on Sunday night to be as fresh as possible. I'll double or even triple recipes to make sure they last me through Friday.

Here are some of the more recent lunches I've made:

Cinnamon Rice



This dish is very sweet; it required simmering with a cinnamon stick for about 50 minutes. Included with the brown rice are mustard and cumin seeds, garlic, grated ginger (1 tsp), turmeric, cayenne pepper, green onions, carrots, peas and raisins. For the dressing, I used 2 tbsp of dark sesame oil, Braggs sauce and 1/4 of a cup of flax seed oil.

It was very nummy, but unless you are a huge fan of the spice, I would recommend removing the cinnamon stick about half-way through simmering time. It definitely had an over-powering flavour.

The next lunch-able I made was a bean and rice salad, a vegan staple if you ask me!



This was basically a smorgasbord of veggies and spices- red onion, tomatoes, red pepper, green pepper, corn, black beans, kidney beans, avocado, cilantro sprigs, cayenne pepper, tobasco sauce (just a dash to taste) and the juice of one lemon. I used an actual lemon for juicing, rather than the containers you buy at the store. It has much more intensity! Just mix all that with brown rice and 2 tbsp of red wine vinegar. I ate mine in a whole wheat wrap, using the homemade hummus and guacamole that was left over from that weekend. Mmm mmm good. And muy satisfying!

Lastly, for now, is the sesame noodle!



After boiling some buckwheat noodles, I mixed together cucumber, carrots, radishes, green onions, rice vinegar, Braggs sauce and sesame oil. I then topped it with homemade gomashio (a blend of raw sesame seeds, sea salt and kelp powder). The gomashio really made the dish happenin'. I had so much left over, I was throwing it in soups and on top of pastas for weeks!

Eating right and eating wholesome during the work day can keep you happy and on your toes. So get rid of the microwavable soup and cold cuts that have been sitting on the shelf for eons and make something! =)

Bloody Fingiz and Cookies From Heck

Well, due to a month of being sick and a month of preparation for The Palladium gig, I had no time to plan Halloween themed foods, create my costume, carve a pumpkin or even go apple picking! Halloween was practically non-existant. Now, this makes me very sad because Halloween is my absolute favourite holiday of the year. I don't know why. Maybe because it falls in my favourite season, maybe because I love horror movies and being spooked out, maybe because I love seeing kids be creative and dress up, maybe it's because I love cosplaying and creating unique costumes (often with the help of others), maybe I just love being creative in general. Or maybe, just maybe, I love apples. Whatever the reason, I skipped out this year. Almost.

Not to let this fine holiday completely slip through the cracks, I happened to see a comment on Isa's post from Bazu, about a finger recipe LindyLoo posted a year ago.

They are almond sugar cookies, shaped like fingers! Blanched almond slivers are used for the finger nails and it looks so creepy. I love it! A very simple recipe, tasty too. I have to say that the recipe directions for the dough didn't work out so well for me. The dough was incredibly dry. I had to add a lot of water to get it to a doughy consistency. Perhaps it was my mistake because the pictures of her cookies look absolutely terrific.

Either way, mine came out awesome. I couldn't find vegan/organic red decorating gel anywhere, not even online. :*( So I put a couple of drops of vegan & natural food dye around two finger nail beds. (I didn't want to waste my dye, as it was 6 bucks a bottle!)

The result?



Awesome! It gives me so many ideas for next year. Hopefully my costume will be done, I won't be sick and we can have a real party!

Now, for a blunder:

At my job, they had a bake sale to raise money for charity. When I heard 'bake sale', my ears perked right up!

I have a wonderful recipe for really soft batch chocolate chip cookies that everyone who has ever tasted loves more than anything.



Well, not this time.

My tub of sugar became infested with those little black bugs that live in your cabinets if you don't clean them out frequently. So I had to toss the whole thing! That means that in the middle of preparing my batter I realized, 'Oh. I have no sugar.' So I had to send out for them and all that was left in the supermarket was Florida Crystals demerara sugar. It was too late to go to Whole Foods. I was stuck.

So I tried it, thinking, 'What's the worst that could happen?' Let me tell you, demerara may be a very organic, raw, natural version of sugar, but it does NOT go well in cookies. It made the texture very grainy, like biting into a sand-filled cookie. The taste was a little 'off' as well, being that they add molasses.

Needless to say, no one liked them. NO ONE. Except for Mike. But I don't work with him, so it doesn't count. ;) Next time I go back to my organic cane juice sugar.

In any event, I won't be cooking with demerara in the near future. Not unless you have a recipe it actually works in?

30 Minutes of Fame

Well, we finally did it! Acrasjia played at The Worcester Palladium. We got there bright and early to snag a merch table. It turns out there were plenty to go around. Most of the bands didn't even set up any merch.



Our merch section was looking kinda dull, other than the awesome posters Mikey made up for us.

We got laminates, so it felt like the real deal. We had three for crew and merch as well. I must admit, it was kinda fun being able to hold them up for security to see every time we re-entered or went back stage.



Unfortunately, we could only hang our banner on the bottom of the stage for some of the crowd to see because The Misfits had a huge curtain hanging in front of their set up, getting in the way. To say the least, we are upset because we spent good money on that.

Well, we got to stand on the side of the stage as The Misfits did their soundcheck and I had no idea it was them. I thought it was a bunch of roadies who knew the music. Mike had to say, 'Yeah, that's the actual band.' Haha I had no idea. That just goes to show how oblivious I am.

There was so much awesomeness going on, it was unbelievable. All of our family and some friends were there to support us. We were on the main stage. Being Worcester, the crowd started filing in bright and early!

A couple of downsides would be that the sound guy was a jerk (as per usual) and wouldn't let me plug in my in-ear transmitter. I guess I'm not good enough to be able to hear myself sing over the loud, distorted guitars. He smiled at me like I was a damn fool for asking. I was kinda walking around, yelling about it and swearing about it. Next thing I knew, we had five minutes to get on the side stage. So I just dropped everything, mumbling and muttering to myself like a madwoman, and stood on side stage with the band.

Let me tell you- the very second the first band said, 'thank you' we were flying up on stage, scrambling to get ready. I had the stage manager repeatedly saying, 'Three minutes. Two minutes. One minute. Let's go, let's go! Guys, you go on now!' in my ear. Mike didn't get a chance to tune before hand, so he was frantically trying to rush his tuning. He ended up not completely finishing, but he was able to sneak some tweaking in during the first song.

You know what? The second the music started all my fears began to disappear. I was into it from the word 'go'! We had a very nice crowd and from what I could see, all eyes in the place were on us, even the other bands and crew that were just hanging out. One thing I'll never forget is all the people in the front row, looking up at us with wide eyes and awe. It was an amazing feeling. We got great rounds of applause and countless compliments after our set. Even a promoter wanted our info. I'll never forget that feeling. Hopefully I won't have to. Bigger and better shows are to come. That's the plan!

Since we couldn't have our own photographers and we had to pay NEPGM hired photographers, there are no pictures as of yet. They will be sending them to us within the next coupla weeks. By the way, when I emailed the photographer our info, she said, 'You guys were awesome!' I love it! Now we just need to record an EP, or at least a demo, so we can give people something more tangible to remember us by.

Anywho, for now, I leave you with silly pictures of us at the merch table:





Now, for the part you've all been waiting for- food!

As I said in a previous post, Michael and I always pack a lunch when we're going to be out and about for long periods of time with no wholesome food in sight. Even though there is an abundance of 'warm food' recipes out there, there doesn't seem to be a lot of substantial cold salad or sandwich recipes like I'm fond of. At least not in any of my cookbooks! But I've found a handful and I am happy.



To start, I made good, ol' potato salad. It's the usual recipe: soy mayonnaise, green onions, celery and, of course, potatoes. I leave the skin on because not only do I like the grainy texture, it is also very healthy for your body- a good source of fiber. I then threw in some crumbled firmed tofu for the 'egg', celery seed and dijon mustard. Mustard is definitely the happenin' ingredient in all potato dishes, in my opinion. If you just give it the 'dashiest dash', it can make it such an amazing flavour.

Then, to to try something different, I whipped up some couscous edamame. I always buy my couscous organic and by the bulk because boxed couscous has a lot of junk in it. What I love so much about couscous is its ability to absorb water in a very short amount of time. It requires no cooking, really.



I chopped up some asparagus, red onion and a shallot, threw it all in a pan and sauteed in some olive oil. I then added tamari sauce, balsalmic vinegar and a bit of maple syrup for a little sweetness. Mike wanted me to mention this, too- we could not find 'pre-shucked' edamame beans, so he had to sit there shucking them all by himself. He's such a good, little helper. :)

After having tried some of this dish hot and then cold at the venue, I think I actually prefer the dish warm. I don't know what it was about it chilled that didn't tickle my fancy. Mikey liked it, though, and that's good. :)

Finally, when we got home, I did some more cookin'. Of course! Being utterly exhausted from all the stress and excitement, I didn't want to prepare anything that was tedious or would take much effort, so I made potato cucumber salad! I just can't get enough potatoes (I also like to cook the whole bag before it starts growing sprouts)!



You'd be surprised how tasty this dish is, despite how easy it is to make. While you boil some potatoes, you chop up some cucumber, mix together Braggs sauce, red wine vinegar, flax seed oil, dill, horseradish mustard and dijon mustard. Oh mustard, how I love thee with my 'taters!

The food is so scrumptious and takes under an hour to prepare.

Then, as a snack to un-wind and reward for such awesome hardwork, I made some popcorn. I popped it right from the raw kernel (is there any other way?) in 2 tbsp of canola oil. But this wasn't just any ORDINARY popcorn. Nope! I happened upon a cajun recipe for a popcorn topping. You melt soy margarine, of course, and mix a tsp of lime juice. The spice itself is a concotion of paprika, thyme, oregano, garlic powder, black pepper, cayenne pepper and a pinch of salt. I actually didn't have any garlic powder, so I substituted with onion powder and chopped up some garlic to mix around in the melted butter.

The result?



HEAVEN! I love popcorn as it is, but this topping made it so much better. It was definitely flavourful and that bit of lime really puts it over the top with that added burst of goodness.

The popcorn container was actually purchased at an Iparty store. While I was in there looking for other party items, Mike and I found the container and thought it looked like too much fun to pass by. Normally I stay as far away from junk and spending money on crap as I can, but these were only 60 cents and they were just too cute.

So after modeling and photographing the popcorn, it was eaten in front of the tv, which was playing 'Children of the Corn', both in honor of Halloween and, of course, the popcorn itself.

Now, to go backwards in time a little bit... In September we decided to say, 'au revoir!' to summer by sipping on some tropical smoothies.



All it contained were these special ingredients:



The smoothie recipe called for any 'tropical fruit juice'. Instead, I grabbed a whole mango, chopped it up, mixed it with water and threw it in the blender with the rest of the ingredients. There's your fruit juice for ya! It was very tangy and sweet. Being one of the warm fall days, it was just perfect.

Ah, but then the realization that autumn was here:



Apple spirulina energy drink! I bought my apple juice from Wild Oats and you can't get any more organic than that. It looked like cider! Spirulina is a microalgae that comes in supplement form. It's 60% all-vegetable protein, rich in beta carotene, iron, vitamin B-12 and the rare essential fatty acid, GLA. It's chock-full of vitamins, minerals and phytonutrents. You can get this at any health food or vitamin store.

Though some of you may be frightened by green smoothies, fear not! It tasted just like yummy, safe, familiar apple juice while the spirulina offered a slightly, I wanna say almost citrus taste. It was yummy and extremely nutritious!



Later, I made some lentil soup. It was a simple recipe. Using my homemade broth, I simmered green lentils, brown rice, whole wheat pasta, celery, onions and tomatoes in one big pot. After adding a little bit of seasonings (pepper, cayenne, basil), the soup was complete! The recipe called for diced tomatoes, but I like to chop up my own and soak them in water. The fresher, the better.



As an addition to the soup, I made some biscuits- just flour, water, baking powder and soy margarine- with a VERY delicious miso mushroom gravy. Upon reading the recipe, I thought it might taste a little on the not-that-great side, but I couldn't have been more wrong! It was so delicious!

I sauteed some red onions and mushrooms in oil, then added veggie stock, Braggs sauce, cayenee, basil, dill and pepper. As a thickening agent, I stirred some unbleached flour into the pot. After it was thick and creamy, I quickly tossed in the miso before serving. Miso has many nutritional qualities, so it is best to put it in last before all the good stuff is cooked away!

I have a ton more foodie pics that need posting, but for now I will leave you with this. I know long, long blogs can get tiring after a while (for some). 'Tis much better when sprinkled with goodies than cramped with them! :)

Oh, yes...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!