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.

ugh, I'm still sick. So far, my cold has the same pattern as Andy, bringer of the cold.

1*drify feeling, bit of a sore throat, no energy for about a week.
2*bam! 1 night and 1 day of severe sore throat hell
3*back to driftyland + hacking stuff up for another week.

--not much sleep during this whole thing, I'm sure that helps.

I'm in step 3 and hoping it is over soon. I've had about all the gross tasting sicky tea that I can stand. I want to get back to my beloved elliptical!

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Despite my sickness, I've been cooking because the thought of a can of soup makes me sick(er). So much for my plans of freezing soup and having it when I really needed it, because I already mowed my way through the small stockpile months ago.

I checked out Alicia Silverstone's Kind Diet from the library and have been trying before I buy. Her recipes are very simple to make, with 2/3 awesome results so far. The other 1/3 was just ok. I plan to try some more recipes, but I'm leaning towards buying it.

Azuki beans with kabocha squash. Just 5 ingredients, and AMAZING! I've made it 2x already and will make it many many more. There isn't a whole lot of work involved, either, which I love. I disobeyed a bit by roasting the squash (acorn, not kabocha) instead of peeling and boiling on top of the beans.

Crispy Brown Rice PB Treats. I added in some whole peanuts. I love these squares, made them twice to prove it. I like Barbara's or Erewhon crispy brown rice cereal for this. They taste just like Rice Krispies only better. Alicia was on Rachel Ray, and the recipe is posted here.

Robots unite! First there was the Donut Robot. Now there is the ChefStack, a robot that can crank out 200 pancakes per hour. If only Asimov were around to see this.

In comparison, here are Andy made pancakes. He switches back and forth from the Candle Cafe cookbook and Vegan Brunch, so these could come from either cookbook. The blueberries are from the recent harvest.

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Back in mid July, I was lucky enough to find garlic scapes at PCC. Garlic scapes aka ramps aka whistles are the flower stem of garlic. Some farmers cut off the stems before the plant flowers so that it can focus it's energy on the garlic bulb instead of making a flower. I'm all for that because I like to eat them. They have the texture of asparagus and taste slightly like garlic. I used them in a stirfry.
Next up is a veganized version of my mom's version of Rinctum Ditty. It's pretty simple stuff that might sound gross, but it's tomato cheezly goodness. If you search online, you will find recipes that ask for more ingredients and pour it over toast (as well as some disgusting definitions, ignore them). Using crackers is much easier than making toast.

• Heat up a can of stewed/diced tomatoes (use about 1/2 the liquid, reserve the rest).
• Add some grated cheddar Cheezly and stir once in a while.
• When the cheezly has melted, and it's runny enough (you might need to add some of the reserved tomato liquid), pour over crushed saltines.

I had a craving for English Breakfast recently, so I fulfilled it with canned baked beans, toast, slightly fried tomatoes, fried mushrooms, gardenburger brand fake sausage, and tea. Andy, if you're reading this, we're having this again for dinner tonight.

Glutino makes "Dark Chocolate Candy Bars". They look like chocolate coated styrofoam in the pic below, but they taste like kit kats! Seattle peeps, you can get them at Sidecar.

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Meet my newest employee, Tubs, Chief Laundry Guard. He makes sure the cats don't get on the laundry. Hey! Wait a minute!
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Kobie and I are going outside now to see if the blackberries are ready for harvest. I might as well take advantage of the plant that has invaded my yard.

Sutra was so amazing! I've been getting nagged by Jenna for a long time to go, but only recently made it there. Bad Bethany! I should have gone much sooner.

Sutra is a cozy little vegetarian restaurant with a funky cool atmosphere. The walls are painted w/ vibrant colors that I would want in my house if I could get the energy to paint.

They have scheduled seatings with a fixed menu. If you want a vegan meal, let them know when you make the reservation - you totally need reservations. It takes about 2.5 hours for the meal. It was a very animated environment, which is fun for groups. At the same time, it is easy to filter out the conversations and be all romanticky if you want.

We sat at the bar, which gave us the opportunity to see all of the prep action in their open kitchen. Well, yours truly saw it through a haze of wine - I'm a lightweight when it comes to wine, doncha know.


It was blazing hot when we arrived as it has been for weeks now. It was nice to have some frozen grapes before dinner started. If you haven't tried frozen grapes, do it. They are like a mini popsicle.
Zucchini, Avocado, Sesame, Basil, Fresh Cayenne Napoleon with a Tomatillo Nigella Sauce. Mmmmm! As you can see, the dinner is progressing nicely.
Chioggia and Yellow Beet, Sea Bean, Cucumber, Heirloom Baby Lettuce Salad with a Lemon Ginger Hempseed Dressing. Very delicious and fresh - It was assembled right before we ate it. The sea beans were interesting and salty tasting.

Now I'm off to eat a tofu salad sandwich while I dream of Sutra.

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Here is Tubs, taking a break from trouble making. You can sort of see Chippy in the background on some laundry. It's cat laundry, so that's ok. Like I could stop them - well, maybe if I put it away. Nah, too much effort.

Many many thanks to the talented Guava for crocheting me this awesome kitty hat and sexy glovelets for PIF! Aren't they gorgeous? I need them because Andy keeps the house like a walk in freezer during the winter. Now I will be able to knit, snack, and draw up yurt plans while I watch TV or listen to books on tape.

I'm modeling them in a blueberry field near Mt. Si. Perhaps it was a bit hot that day for a hat, but sometimes it is so hot that one hat can't make a difference. I was there on a meetup for the Seattle Veg Activity and Adventure group on meetup.com.

(I got my hair chopped, around 8 inches. All this nasty 90 degree plus weather we've had forced me to do it.)

Mt. Si was our backdrop for the u-pick blueberries. It looks like I took a blurry pic, but I didn't. It looked like that in real life because of the heat.


As if blueberry picking in the heat wasn't enough, we went on a hike afterwards at Twin Falls State Park. The hike was along this river.

Once I was back in the frigid waters, I just didn't have the strength to swim upstream to this much easier jump. It was higher up, but better because you were jumping straight down. No running necessary. This is Andy in action. Not the yellow cat, the jumper.~~~~~

This is Tubs earlier this summer. He looks sort of crabby because I'm disturbing his nap.

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PS. Jenna, I will post on Sutra soon. You were right, it was fabulous!

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.

Somehow I'm about 5 posts behind. I have lots to blog about because I have been stuffing myself w/ really good food lately. In fact, I'm currently eating a vanilla glazed doughnut from Mighty-O's. I blame it on PirateWA because he was eating one when I went into PCC to buy a tomato.

The U District Hillside Quickies started serving brunch on Saturday (only) and it is really good. It all starts w/ a choice of beverage (bottomless if I rememeber correctly) and muffins. I hit the blueberry jackpot with mine. What you're looking at is not french toast. It's 2 super thick perfectly browned tasty pancakes coated in maple syrup. I'm still dreaming about them.

It shared it's plate with fruit compote and scramble. It was a really unique and delicious scramble. If you aren't a saltoholic, then ask them to use less salt.
Oh yeah! Of course Andy had to order the biscuits and gravy, and I was super crabby because we ususally split our plates. My crabbiness disappeared after my first bite. I hereby proclaim that Hillside has the best biscuits and gravy in Seattle, hands down.
Dear Vegan Assistant,

Yes, I am grouchy. Perhaps this wouldn't be so if you did your job and massaged my back instead of annoying me w/ that camera all the time. How is one supposed to enjoy life if the catnip bowl is half full?

Yours Truly,
Spotted Devil Cat

Ok, that's not quite true. there will be a few days this summer (maybe weeks?) where it will be too hot for soup. It has been scorching hot here a few days in April. Today, it's been heavy steady rain all day long. I'm blogging to fill time before the cat in the hat comes over and makes a bigger mess of the house.


Lately, I've been spending most of my time cleaning out the den. Soon it will become my exercise and computer oasis. I will be moving the computer to the den because I use it less. The other reason is so the living room will look less like nerd central with all of it's cables and computers.

Back on topic... I made 2 soups in April.

The black bean soup from the Real Food Daily cookbook. Ahhh-may-zing! It had tons of flavor and the jalapeno lime creme on top was great. I found the recipe on Amazon. I will try a couple more recipes and If I love them as much as this one, then I'll buy the book. This is my attempt at trying to avoid building a library wing filled with (more) neglected cookbooks.

I can't remember whose blog mentioned that they had made the ever so delicious Quinoa Soup recipe from Andrea's Easy Vegan Cooking. I thank you, mysterious blogger, and I also thank Andrea for sharing the recipe.

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Cats aren't always going to wait while you fiddle around w/ the camera. In this particular situation, the important thing was to capture the action. The Judge invaded Tubs' turf (on top of the cabinets).

Here are the people participating in the double PIF. Thanks so much for joining me, it should be really fun.

Please email me your mailing address at "sdcatvegan [at] gmail.com", so I can send you your PIF loot. Note that it will take me a couple of months to make it. I'm slow, but steady.

Wingraclaire
Sal
Beastmomma
Tejolote
PirateWA
Charlotte





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I had to try this mango & coconut cake when I read about it a while back on Sal's (Alien on Toast) blog. Hats off to you, Sal, for sharing such an amazing recipe!

It was so good, that I've made it twice now. One of these days, the cake will last long enough to try the frosting recipe. The second time I added pineapple and it was even more fantastic. The mangoes don't have to be perfect, so if you get a blah mango, this is the perfect way to use it.

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Believe it or not, it's been really hot and sunny the past few days here in the Seattle area. Of course, we're now back to gloomy weather, but the sun bolstered my mood and I will survive until the next burst of sun.

Now that it is warmer, Kobie will be fighting me tooth and nail to stay outside all day and night until bedtime. Which is fine except when he is really hot and needs to cool down. Stubborn doggie! Here is a pic that I took through the window of him sleeping on the porch.


Tubs is pinning down Chippy so he can groom him. lick, lick, lick, bite. The nosy Judge is watching.

Tubs took off and The Judge moved in. Mostly so he can see what I'm doing. That's what a pesky photographer's assistant does.