Another one of my creations. Somehow my posters have a certain vibe to them.
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There are many more fun NARN fundraising events that I'll be working on this year. stay tuned. I'll also be doing other events w/ them. Come check them out, you'll be glad you did. Their event calendar has tons of things on it, something for everyone. If you're shy and want a buddy to hang w/ let me know and we can go together.

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I have no idea why I waited so long to try Vegan w/ a Vengeance's Phad Thai recipe. It's spot on! And fast! Since it's just the 2 of us, I prep for a full batch, cook 1/2 one night, then the other 1/2 the second night. they are not kidding when they say you have to make a full batch in 2 wok sessions. It makes a mountain of phad thai deliciousness.

I've been sick lately, so my time normally spent working out will be channelled into this post. Not dying on the couch type of sick, but just not energetic or feeling great sick. sick enough that my once a week Coke tasted wrong. oh the horror!

So I will blab to you about seattle happenings in tidbit format because that is all my sickness addled mind can handle...


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It's almost time for Vegfest - April 10 & 11. If you haven't been before, stop by and sample tons of food and watch some cooking demos or health presentations. good stuff. I'm volunteering w/ Andrea , so it's bound to be fun.

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I've eaten at Turnpike a bunch of times and sucked down way too much daiya coated pizza. It's soooo good! If you live in the Seattle area, check it out. Don't be alarmed if it's not mentioned on their website or menu board. They have it, just ask. No pics because I'm out of blogging practice, but if you look really closely you can see the daiya stretching as I eat my pizza (in my mind). ps. they have the best crust.

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In case people didn't know, Wayward is moving to 5253 University Ave as I type. I think they should be open this weekend if all goes as planned. tick tock tick tock, I smell hashbrowns.

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I've been haunting Loving Hut, a Vietnamese vegan restaurant. Not for the Vietnamese food, but for their veggie cheeZeburger & fries. It is the BEST in Seattle, it even has special sauce (mayo + ketchup). Their menu has pics, so check it out. mmmm...


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Chocolate Almond Midnight in mini cupcake form (Millenium Cookbook) that I made for NARAL's Chocolate for Choice benefit - 70 or so of them. There were 2 other vegan bakers there and we almost dominated a table. One of them won w/ her vegan kahlua cheeZecake. woohoo vegans!
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ok, I better just give you a pic of a cat and end this post, so I can go check out some blogs before it's time to lay on the couch. I give you Peepa and his 1/2 assed sweater that I knit him. No, I'm not into dressing up cats that don't want it. Peepa totally wants to be dressed up because he can never be warm enough. Next time I will knit in the round w/ a less ugly yarn.

I'm almost back... but not quite yet. I wanted to let fellow Seattle people about some events that are coming up.

Vegan Bake Sale at Sidecar for Pigs Peace
December 12 & 13 from 1 to 8 PM

Vegan baked goods... need I say more? I'm hoping that there will be lots of holiday cookies to chow down on. I'll be there Saturday until 4 PM and very briefly on Sunday to drop off some more baked num nums.



Live just outside of Seattle? The bake sale is a great excuse to make a journey to Seattle. In addition to what I consider a normal trip to Seattle (eating out, then going to sidecar), you get the bonus of the bake sale and all of the holiday items at Sidecar.

If you’d like to donate a baked good for this event, please email my alter ego, seattlebakesale[@] hotmail [dot] com for more information.

All proceeds go to the Pigs Peace Sanctuary.

Pigs Peace is a safe haven of love for pigs and their friends (other animals). It is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to providing a safe home for unwanted, abused or neglected animals in need and is committed to spreading the message of compassion and respect for all animals.

Sidecar For Pigs Peace
5270 B University Way NE
Seattle, WA 98105

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If you're looking for somewhere to spend Thanksgiving and you're in the Seattle area, here are 3 vegan potlucks. Note that the AFA potluck is not on TG, but earlier.

•Action for Animals Thanksgiving Potluck
4-8pm Sunday, November 22, 2009
203 21st Ave. NE, Seattle, WA
Contact Amanda@afa-online.org if you have any questions

•Veggie Activity and Adventure Group's Thanksgiving Party/Potluck (I'll be attending)
5pm Thursday, November 26, 2009
736 N 90th St, Seattle, WA
Visit the meetup page for more details and to RSVP

•Seattle Vegan Meetup Group's Thanksgiving Potluck
4:30pm Thursday, November 26, 2009
Wayward Vegan Cafe 901 NE 55th St, Seattle, WA
Visit the meetup page for more details and to RSVP

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Even though I'm not back, why not clear out some pics that I've had kicking around since July? It's all from Vegan Brunch. mmmmmm.... I've made all of these recipes many many times and will continue to do so.


Basic Omelette w/ mushrooms and cheddar cheezly. It would have been even better slathered in pesto (which I have done before).
Swiss Chard Fritatta. Easy to make and can be made the night before for maximum laziness.


Chelsea Waffles. Best w/ a lake o' maple syrup - can you tell I grew up in VT?

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Had these Mozzarella Sticks at Wayward (using Daiya). Not part of their regular menu :(. Might be for the best because my meals would consist of mozzarella sticks and hash browns. Ah, vegan mozzarella and wayward, you make me think of one of Rhianna's songs:

When the sun shines, Wayward and I will shine together
Told you I'll eat here forever
Said I'll always be your customer
Took an oath to order hashbrowns 'till the end
Now that it's raining more than ever (totally in Seattle)
Know that we'll still have each other
With your melty mozzarella ella ella eh eh eh

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Peepa and his bff, the sun. Not really any chance of blazing sun like in this pic now that we're into November. Poor Peepa.

Earlier this month, Andy & I took Thrill of the Grill, a vegan cooking class at PCC. It typically takes a lot of nagging to get Andy to take cooking classes, but not when it's taught by Dawnula Koukol. She really knows her stuff and she is really funny, a good combo in my book.


Chickpea and Potato Fritters with Cilantro Relish. Wow, these were great. Super crispy on the outside and potato deliciousness on the inside. The relish went perfectly with it.



Tempeh and Nectarine Skewers. Grilled fruit with tempeh, need I say more? The main ingredients of the marinade were vinegar, mustard, ginger, chipotle.

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I'm soooo hungry right now. Too bad I couldn't eat jpg's for dinner.

The Seattle Vegan Meetup group (meetup.com) is having a potluck picnic on Saturday, June 6th. I went to the 4th of July picnic last year and it was fun. There was also a LOT of delicious vegan food. I hope I see you Seattle peeps there.

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The Furry 5k is on Sunday, June 7th. It raises money for the Help the Animals Fund, which provides veterinary care and supplies for sick, injured or abused orphaned shelter animals.

I'll be taking the walking option w/ Kobie, Andy, some friends and possibly a new foster dog. Kobie loves to hang out and eat sandwiches, which is what we'll be doing after the walk.

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Andy's bday was this month. I decided to make him a bday feast. 4 items doesn't make a feast, but I was tired all the same.

I made miso soup (no pic) using this stock recipe (dashi). It was the easiest stock I've ever made. Just boil up some kombu and dried shitake mushrooms, then strain.

I asked Andy if he wanted green tea, he said "can't we have orange soda"? About 1/2 way through the meal, I asked him why he wasn't drinking his "tea". Apparently, he confused the orange soda (in the teapot)for green tea because natural soda is not nuclear orange.


I made the chinese dumpling recipe that I got in a class I took at PCC. It worked out well because it called for rehydrated shitake mushrooms, so I used the ones from the dashi I had made. They were perfection. I cheated and used a gyoza press.

3 kinds of Sushi. (V'con Elephant Roll: avocado & chopped peanuts), (teriyaki tofu/green onion/red pepper/cilantro), (avocado)

Tomato Soup Cake with lemon glaze & zezt. The recipe is from Passions, a truly bizarre soap that was cancelled. It is a spice cake.

Campbell's tomato soup is accidentally vegan. I replaced the butter w/ Earth Balance, eggs with Ener'G egg replacer, milk with a soy/rice milk blend. I typically tone down the amount of certain spices, but I followed the recipe on the spices. The batter should be sort of thick, but not so thick that it is hard to smooth in the pan. I always add more soy milk. The batter looks really nasty, but when it's baked, it looks and tastes really good.

Lemon glaze = powdered sugar, lemon juice, soy milk, vanilla. You just add stuff until it's the right consistency. Start with powdered sugar, then slowly add/mix lemon juice. I add soy milk when it starts to taste too lemony, but is still too thick. When I'm happy w/ the consistency, I add in about 1 tsp of vanilla. You have to taste it a lot. As you can see from the picture, I always make a huge mess with this stuff.
In honor of Andy's bday, Peepa practiced yoga pose #2329B aka Downward Facing Tummy Lick. Yes, he is cleaning his stomach.

ok, yeah, I'm a geek. Can't/won't help that. As I'm sure you already guessed, I went to Portland. Woohoo. Very fun and FILLING. As a disclaimer, there were 4 of us eating all this food. There was also a baby, but he brought his own stash of food, though I think he was very tempted by our food.

WARNING: This post will have you spacing out like you're watching TV because it has so many pictures. You won't see any pics of the Portland scenery, it's all food.

Before I get started, I must shower the stumptown vegans with praise. Their blog educated me on the Portland vegan scene. I read the entire blog, got very very hungry and sad because I knew I couldn't go to all the places I wanted to go to - though happy for Portland vegans because they have lots to choose from. Milkshake cart and french fry cart, we will meet some other day. I was very happy with the choices we made in restaurants & pizza.

The day before we went, we dropped Kobie off at the kennel.

We arrived in Portland around noon and ate lunch at the Hungry Tiger, Too. They have 2 menus, one just for vegan food. If only that would be the standard everywhere.
Squash filled wontons with a spicy sweet sauce and coconut milk on top. crunchy and tasty.
Polenta fries with spicy sauce and sour cream
Tofu Scramble special

Mac n' Cheeze. It was very mild tasting, could have used some nutritional yeast and spicy mustard. T(empeh)LT with tater tots. I ate way too many of them.

Vegan Mini Mall. I was in too much of a food coma to take a picture of it. I think the tater tots might have been my downfall because I wasn't even slightly interested in getting a doughnut at sweetpea. Fear not, Andy bought one and I ate 1/2 a few hours later. The best yeasted doughnut ever.

I bought a bright red Food Fight! tote bag. For the past few years, I tend to get tote bags instead of T-shirts when on vacation. I also give them as xmas gifts hoping they will be used.

Portobello Vegan Trattoria

After a walk in the park and a nap at the hotel, we headed off to Portobello. I was very excited to go out to a 100% vegan italian restaurant.

Chao Cheeze & baugette. The chao cheeze is made by the people that make fieldroast. I really like this cheeze.Flavored oil with bread and veggies for dipping. I forgot the name of this appetizer, begins w/ a B. It was really good w/ bread.

Onto the main course...

Ravioli. mmmm... can't go wrong w/ this. The white flecks are salt, not my camera acting up.

Giant delicious Beanball on top of zucchini noodles. Picture blurry, Bethany hungry.

Gnocci. Very tasty. Do I even need to say how good this meal was?
Portobello on top of mashed potatoes w/ broccolini. This was so good, that Andy was possessive about eating his 1/2. I think he loves mushrooms more than he says.
Broccolini. Yeah, you've seen it before, but I wanted to let you know about every detail of our feast.
Pot o' Potatoes. Mmmmmm... Why can't all mashed potatoes be served in a cute little pot?

Asparagus. Tired of looking at pictures yet? Too bad, there's more.
Tiramisu. Oh, yeah!

Chocolate Hazelnut Espresso Tarte. This was really really rich and had an intense coffee flavor.

Hotel Deluxe After dinner, we had drinks in the lobby of the hotel we were staying at, Hotel Deluxe. I had my first cosmo, and it was ok. I ended up trading w/ Andy because he couldn't handle the super spicy somethingorother he had ordered. It was an interesting combo of really spicy Hot Monkey pepper vodka, passionfruit, and other stuff plus about 99% more allspice liquor than needed. potent, but it sort of grows on you.

Our friends ordered Laphroaig (mentioned in "American Gods") and a champagne cocktail that had a stick of crystalized sugar for a stirrer.

The Hotel Deluxe was a very nice hotel, but we really wanted to stay at the hotel that used to be a school. Chalkboards in every bedroom.

Hammy's Pizza. I wasn't really hungry when I ordered. I just wanted to experience pizza delivery. The pizza was good. I'm not sure it's possible to compare to Seattle's Pizza Pi because they are so different.

Greek Vegan minus the mushrooms plus pineapple. (Mushrooms, artichoke hearts, green & red bell peppers, roasted garlic, & Greek olives on a pesto/marinara base topped with homemade vegan parmesan (contains nuts))

Paradox Cafe. The Vita Cafe was moving, so we went to the Paradox. I thought it was fabulous.

Tree Hugger. Sort of disturbing that you're on the menu, Jeni.
French Toast. mmm...
Seasonal Benedict. You gotta love tofu covered with pesto and spinach. Yes, the potatoes were perfectly crispy on the outside and deliciously soft /firm on the inside.
Fiesta Burrito. Well, that's the end of the road. I hope you didn't fall asleep or drool too much.

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While we were away, I'm pretty sure this was happening at home. The shadow is Chippy watching Peepa do yoga.