Now back to our regularly scheduled blog post…

I’m not sure what it was but for some reason I got in the mood for some seafood. Granted, I was never a big seafood person back when I ate it but I couldn’t resist the urge to try something new and exciting. I’m signed up for the Meatless Monday newsletters—which are decent, outside of their occasional obsession with “healthy” dairy/egg recipes—and a while back they featured a recipe for mock crab cakes. I don’t ever remember eating crab cakes but they sounded pretty good and the recipe proclaimed them to be extremely easy (and quick) to make, so I went for it. Big mistake!

As you undoubtedly know (if you are a regular reader of our blog), I’ve had more than my fair share of recipe mishaps. Usually they revolve around me just not being able to follow a recipe correctly but occasionally it is not really my fault. Enter “Rick’s Mock Crab Cakes” recipe. I didn’t thoroughly read through the recipe before diving in and several times I was left scratching my head wondering what the hell was supposed to happen when. Steps were obviously left out in several places (e.g. dividing the bread crumbs and what temperature to preheat the oven to). Normally I can improvise enough when I screw things up or if the recipe screws me up but this time I was completely flabbergasted (yes, I did just used that word). Colleen picked up on my increasing level of anger and quickly searched the internet for the place where “Rick” stole the recipe from.

In the end, I had a semi-working recipe but the recipe was so crumbly that it should have been called “Rick’s Mock Crab Dust.” To add insult to injury, this “quick” recipe ended up taking me 1+ hour to make. The picture below shows the still in-tact patties after they emerged from the oven. Overall, it was not a pleasant night for me. Amazingly enough, the leftovers I had for lunch the next day were actually quite tasty. If only it wasn’t for the cooking-induced rage, they might have been worth it.

After a couple weeks passed, thoughts of seafood started dancing in my head again. Crab cakes were out of the picture but I did stumble upon a recipe for Tofu Fish Sticks from Shmooed Food. I’ve used recipes from this particular author before and the comments were glowing so I felt confident going in. Big mistake! Ha, just kidding! Making the tofu fish sticks was everything that the crab cake experience wasn’t: quick and easy! They were also quite delicious; so much so that they might make it into our regular meal rotation (when we aren’t feeling like tofu nuggets). I made some tartar sauce to go along with the fish sticks and all was well in our somewhat-near-the-sea abodes. Don’t you love fairy tale endings?

- Sat

Low and behold, or rather, high and behold, on the top shelf was a new brand of fruit snacks, Au’some Fruit Nuggets, made by Florida’s Natural and they are vegan!  They have a really visible list of “frees” – lactose free, gelatin free, gluten free, etc.  And they are also made from 66% real fruit juice.  I know, not 100%, but it is better than the Safeway ones.

When we first opened the box we were really surprised.  The packages were TINY!  We thought we got ripped off – but then you open them and  even more surprizes.  The snacks were tiny – and hard.  They were like the chiclets version of fruit snacks – little, hard, and chewy.  But they are AU’SOME!  It is like the fruit EXPLODES in your mouth – you have got to try them.  And if you don’t like them, send the rest of the box to me. 

We have had better luck finding them at Target than Von’s (Safeway).  The box in the picture above is not the kind that is marketed in the US – I couldn’t find a picture of one and am too lazy to take a picture of ours.

Last night we finally took them out for a spin.   My first impression (as the one preparing them) was that they were pretty big.  Most spring rolls that you get at the store are on the small side.  There were only 4 in the box but I decided that the size made up for the quantity.  The wrap on our rolls was busted up and flaking off but didn’t seem inedible.  After 20 minutes in the oven we finally got to taste them.  I let Sat try them first – I already knew they were going to be heavy on the mushrooms so made sure to give him 3 of the 4.

After Sat’s first bite (and following facial expression) I was a little worried but tried them anyway.  It was the weirdest spring roll I have ever had.  It was oddly sweet and looked really weird on the inside.  We should have taken a picture but totally forgot.  It was chock full of mushrooms – so much that Sat asked if there was meat in it!  After about 1/2 of my roll I decided I didn’t really like it and gave the rest to Sat.  Although Sat wasn’t ga-ga he ate them all and thought they were decent with sweet-n-sour but otherwise not that good.

I think we would give it a 1.5/5.  Not awful, but we won’t be buying them again.

~Colleen

Apple Crisp

Today we honor the humble Apple Crisp.  Why it is humble, I don’t know, because it FREAKING ROCKS!  Simple ingredients, easy to make and nearly fool proof.  This is one of the few times I will post a recipe (from memory).  And no, it is not my recipe, it is from my favoritest cookbook ever – the Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book (that for some reason Sat and I call the “Betty”)

Apple Crisp With Ice Cream

Humble Apple Crisp
Lots of apples, peeled, seeded, and sliced thin
2-4 tablespoons of granulated sugar
Some lemon juice to prevent discoloration (I dilute with water to make it go farther)

1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 c rolled oats
1/2 c flour
some cinnamon (teaspoon-ish?)
1/4 c. softened margarine

Prepare apples and put in lemon juice water mixture until completed.  Rinse apples and place in baking dish of choice (I used a glass pie pan).  Stir in granulated sugar.  Combine the rest of the “dry” ingredients in a medium bowl.  Cut in butter until mixture is “crumbly”.  Spread mixture over top of apples.  Bake at 375 for 20-30 minutes.  Serve with really good ice cream.

Well, first I’ll mention that I had used the last bit of butter for the no-bake cookies.  Instant potatoes minus the butter totally suck.  Don’t make the same mistake we did.  And we were also out of the brown gravy mix – you know, that packet you get from Vegan Essentials?  I decided I was feeling froggy and was going to make brown gravy compliments of an internet recipe.  It was super easy, super quick, and seemed to have the perfect gravy consistency.  We definitely didn’t fall in love, but it is nice to know that there are some options for us.  Next time we are going to have to really tweak the recipe so that it doesn’t taste quite so “yeasty”.  I thought adding Kitchen Bouquet would help – but it didn’t help enough.  Better luck next time!

~C

P.S. The Target near us re-opened today!!!  YAY!!!  And a Happy Birthday shout-out to Ashley!!

I love cookies.  I love them so much that we had cookies instead of cake at our wedding.  This past Friday I was suddenly taken with a craving for No-Bake Cookies, one of my favorite cookies from my childhood.  I remember making them with my mom and then following her as she dropped them to pick up all the little “bits” left on the wax paper.  Fortunately, this recipe is SUPER easy to veganize and doesn’t change the cookie at all.  Make them – I promise you will love them too!  Just make sure that you heed the timing advice – boil it too long and they will be chocolate-peanut-buttery chalk.  I think next time I won’t veganize them so that I can eat them all and don’t have to share with Sat.

~C

I was having a little trouble coming up with something to write for VeganMOFO and Sat told me I HAD to write for MOFO.  For inspiration I went to the best sources that I had – the vegan blogs on my Google Reader.  It is amazing the host of information that can be delivered to your inbox as it is created/deseminated. I thought it would be fun to list the vegan blogs that an omnivore reads.  Yes, I said it – I am an omnivore that reads vegan blogs regularly.  So here is my list, and some notes.

• Life on the vegan highway – Don’t only read about personal vegan experience, but 3 generations of veganism.
• love like a vegan – veganism from the perspective of a college student.  And she likes to bake – yay!!
• Vegan Dad – canadian Vegan – wasn’t sure it was possible.  Lots of good ideas for picky eaters (like me!) that like “meat”
• VeganYumYum – Great photos, kinda complicated recipes, but fun to read
• Walking the Vegan Line – Fun food and local (Texas) flavor.
• Eat Air – Recipes, reviews, and cute baby photos.
• The Urban Housewife – Dude -this is me!  I mean, not literally.  She just started a bakery – so lots of sweets
• seitan in my motor – German vegan – I am going to have to brush up on my german to read the new bilingual posts!
• Everyday Dish – Blog of the amazing online cooking show that has taught Sat and I a number of vegan cooking techniques.

I do tend to do the link hopping as well – someone mentions someone else’s blog and I check it out.  Sometimes I add it (if I have time at the moment) and sometimes I don’t.  I also have this SUPER friend that I used to work with who shares posts with me on Google Reader (and you can too!  Just give me your Google name and I’ll add you to the shared list – you’ll get my shared items too) whenever she finds something vegan or bacon related.

Alright, too long of a post about nothing and so much at the same time.  Note to self – don’t try to write a post during the VP debate!

~Colleen

We’ve been getting lazy with our fruits and veggies and, as a result, we are accumulating a backlog of produce in our fridge. Particularly troublesome is the amount of lettuce we have floating around our fridge. We usually get about 2 heads of lettuce from our CSA but this week we ended up with 2 heads and a bag of spring mix. Plus, I don’t even think we have touched our lettuce from last week.

So, what’s a couple of crazy kids like us supposed to do? Sit around and cry about it? Maybe.

Wait, no!

We gotta fight. Fight hard! That’s why we are creating a challenge to ourselves (and maybe our readers): every meal this week needs to include lettuce. I’m not talking about 7 days of garden salads either; we’ve tried that and it just doesn’t work. We’ve gotten some good suggestions via Facebook (lettuce wraps sound good) but we still have a long way to go before we can meet this challenge. Please, oh fair blog readers, supply us with your favorite non-salady uses of lettuce. You will be rewarded with our eternal love.

Oh, and stay tuned for the results of our challenge. Can we make all 7 days?

- Sat

I am really bummed to be leaving SSHL and pretty scared about starting the new job. But I am excited. It is going to be really challenging at first but I know I am going to rock it. It is what I do.

Time to tell about something fun – VEGAS!! This past weekend Sat and I took a small trip to Las Vegas. We have been needing to have some work done on our bathroom that would require us to be out of the apartment for a few days and my parents were planning to be in Vegas this past weekend so we decided to book the repairs and hit the road. We had everything planned and taken careof, including houseing for the cats. Until the last minute. My buddy SB from work offered to take the cats a while ago and then just recently found out she was going to be housing some really young kittens during the time our cats were supposed to be with her. It ends up the kittens hadn’t been vaccinated and came with bugs so Sat and I decided to attempt to find alternate arrangements for our kitties. We couldn’t find anyone until the day before! It was super stressful getting that taken care of but MK from work saved the day!

And so the trip. . . I got off work on Wednesday at noon and the plan was to quickly drop off the kitties in North Park and head out. Well, those silly plans. Of course Sat was running a little late (he was working hard to get things together) and didn’t get to the library until quarter after. We ran quickly to North Park and tried to drop off the kitties as fast as we could. Well, have we ever told you that Roxy gets car sick? Probably not, because we didn’t know until we were on the interstate. So when we got there not only did we need to dro the kitties off and get them comfortable, but we also have to clean out the kitty keeper. Fun times.

We finally got on the road for Vegas around 1:15. Thankfully the ride is a pretty straight shot taking the 15 all the way. Unfortunately, that is not the directions we got from Google maps. And then there was the construction and the missed exit. So it was quite the comedy of errors. Luckily, the day was saved in Baker, CA!! We had planned to stop there for a little geocaching and to see the World’s Largest Thermometer. Well, what we DIDN’T know was that Baker is also home to Mad Greek!! I had seen Mad Greek on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives on FoodNetwork and had dreamed of going but quickly forgot about it. Well, I got to go! And I had myself the best gyro in the US – for REAL! It was AWESOME. So it was definitely worth it. We did also get a picture with the World’s Largest Thermometer (see below) and also stopped by Alien Fresh Jerky (fun place!).

We didn’t get to where my parents were staying until close to 7, but it was alright. We had a chance to get settled and get some grub before having to see my parents. It ends up that my parents only got a 1 room place instead of two so we were welcomed by the site of our bed – the couch. Kind of a sad surprise, but it was okay. Or at least I thought it was until I touched the sheets. They were like SANDPAPER. So that made for a few sleepless nights.

On Thursday we spent the day wandering the strip with my mom (dad was in meetings most of the day). It was fun seeing all the hotels/casinos and how elaborately they are decorated. We had lunch at the Bellagio and then did a little gambling while we were there. At first we were all doing pretty well. Mom ended up on top I think, Sat lost it all, and I made $2.50. Sat and I haven’t been in a smokey place for a while (thank you, no smoking indoors in CA!!) so just the smoking got to be a little much for us. We finally left the strip around 6:45. If only we had known that the Bellagio lights go off at 7! So we did just miss the lights, oh darn. After all day on the strip we spent the night chillin and grillin. We had some pork chops, grilled chicken fajitas, and riblets.

On Friday we spent the day at Red Rock Canyon. I may not ever go back to Vegas for the strip, but I would TOTALLY come back for for Red Rock Canyon. It was BEAUTIFUL and had some really great trails and vistas. We had an awesome time just walking around and doing some geocaching. Although we had done some geocaching with my mom on the strip we got to show her what REAL geocaching is like in RRC. Mom did a really good job keeping up, dad only did a few caches with us. I think everyone had a great time. Dad found where he wants to build his retirement home (although he will never be able to build it in RRC). All in all a pretty awesome day.

After running around for a few hours we finally got home around 2 and had lunch and just hung out for the rest of the day. Mom and I rented and watched Brokeback Mountain which I have been wanting to see for a long time. Well, it was not at good as I was hoping it would be. I guess I had just built it up so much. . . and then it was an artsy film, not something I usually like. There were some really cool shots/pictures but other than that I really didn’t like it. Oddly enough, Sat didn’t think it was that bad (he started watching it about an hour in).

Alright, I need to go help get dinner ready. . . but I am SURE that Sat will finish the post for me! There is more – and there will be TONS of pictures on Sat’s Flickr soon too!

~Colleen