Isa’s Chewy Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies with Soy Milk

Isa’s Chandra Moskowitz’s “Chewy Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies.” Click on the pic for the recipe. Or pick up a copy of “Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar: 100 Dairy Free Recipes for Everyone’s Favorite Treats.”

Awww….This is the last day of Vegan Mofo III, and I hate to see it go!  Oh well.  If we have to put MoFo III to bed, let’s put it to bed with comfort food: soy milk and cookies. I’ve made this cookie recipe twice. The first time I made it, my husband and I wolfed these cookies down so fast, we didn’t have time to photograph them!  Oh well. The second time’s a charm.   You can find the recipe for this cookie right here, on Isa’s crazy, informative and entertaining vegan website, the  Post Punk Kitchen. Or you can pick up the book she co-wrote with Terry Hope Romero, Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, and get a head start on your holiday baking.

Thanks for visiting me during Vegan Mofo III.   I hope to be back and doing it even better for Vegan Mofo IV.  But until then, I’ll still be blogging regularly from my very, soulful kitchen.

Peace,

Faith

Sexy (Vegan) Sadie Struts Her Stuff

What’s a “food-porn” blog that doesn’t show a little icing every now and then? “Sexy Sadie” and “Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough” cupcakes from the Sweet Avenue Bake Shop: Serving Cholesterol and Cruelty-Free Decadence since 2007.

Marc Skinner, Photographer/Guest Blogger

Participating in the Vegan Month of Food can be daunting the first time out.  It’s exhausting spending every second thinking one of two things: the ubiquitous “What’s for dinner?” and the even more distressing “I wonder if I’ll ever be able to eat dessert again.”

So, when the opportunity to get out of the kitchen and let someone else do the cooking, driving, and blogging came along, my wife jumped on it.    (That’s why I’m writing  today’s post.)  And what’s a better way to escape the kitchen than to take the family out on a nice little day trip that ends with yummy cupcakes?  I couldn’t think of  anything better.  (As I already mentioned, lately I’d been missing dessert.)

Our great escape was a road trip up North to visit the Sweet Avenue Bake Shop in Rutherford, New Jersey. The Sweet Avenue Bake Shop serves up a variety of vegan sweets, but mostly it’s a  “gourmet vegan cupcakery.”  (I know.  I looked up “cupcakery” in the dictionary, too.)  We sampled the “Sexy Sadie” (best “red velvet” anything I’ve ever tasted, topped with a truly awesome vanila icing.)  The “Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough” cupcake was a cute, baked confection that actually tasted like raw chocolate chip cookie dough. (How did they do that?!?)  Our 2 year old devoured the “White Chocolate Chai Latte” cupcake.  Our 4 year old is a little ghoul in training, so it took her a minute to choose between the two Halloween-themed cupcakes: “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and the “Corpse Bride.”  She settled on the “Corpse Bride,” then slowly savored the icing. (By the way, Sweet Avenue also sells “icing shots.”)

Sweet Avenue Bake Shop is a family run business. The owners/bakers (that’s two of them on the right, not the left) are friendly and helpful.

They rotate through a menu of  about 30 flavors at a time,  serving at least 12 different flavors each week, to vegans and non-vegans alike. (The non-vegans form a devoted, neighborhood clientèle, so shhhh!  Don’t tell them there aren’t any eggs or dairy products in the cupcakes!)  The bakers don’t use any pre-fab mixes.  They make their own dough and concoct many of their own flavors using really good stuff, like Madagascar vanilla and imported European chocolate.  They bake everything in small batches, so if you want a lot of cupcakes, call and order in advance.  (They also do mail order, deliver door-t0-door, and cater events.)
Okay, so at this point my might be thinking this is nice, Marc.  But what does this post have to do with “Soul Food?”  Well, I admit it: I can’t find cupcakes on any “official list” of “Soul Food Desserts,” per-se.  (I can’t find tempeh on the list either, but I hear Bryant Terry’s working on it. )  All the same, I don’t think since the 1970’s there’s been a single, soul-food cooking mama who hasn’t had to make a few batches of cupcakes for a bake sale or two.  So in my opinion, you have to consider the spirit in which the item was cooked.  Was the cook creative?  Were the flavors intense yet blended well?  Did everything just melt in your mouth?  Were there moments of pure, insane decadence?   Yup.    When it comes to baking cupcakes, Sweet Avenue definitely “puts their foot in it.” That counts as “cooking vegan with soul,” to me.

Now, what’s for dinner?

“Vegan Peace Waffles,” Anyone?

Hubby’s cell phone pic of my tasty “Naked Vegan Waffle.” Click on the waffle for recipe!

Mmmmm, waffles!

Breakfast is different around the world.  From country to country and from house to house, you just never know what you’ll get when you wake up in the morning.   Still…most people are picky about the way in which they start their day.  For that reason, some people say you shouldn’t mess with breakfast.  I understand this sentiment, because the thought of making pancakes or waffles without milk or eggs gave me pause.   I wasn’t worried about a change in flavor, so much.  But I was worried about a change in texture and compositional integrity.  I don’t like big, doughy messes, and when I wake up in the morning I am not in the mood for failure.  I worried that vegan recipes for  pancakes and waffles wouldn’t pan out.  So I fretted.  And I procrastinated.  And my kids ate cereal.   For weeks.  And then I fretted some more.  And then I found this website: WaffleParty.com And then I learned that my fretting was wasted energy.  That waffle you see up there?  It tasted every bit as yummy as it looks.  There was no compromise in waffle flavor or integrity whatsoever.  Serve these to your non-vegan friends, and the only thing they’ll have to say to you is “yum-o.”  These waffles stack up.

Anyone who’s been throwing “Waffle Parties” since 1998 knows a good waffle when they eat one. Considering Dave and Jen Wheitner’s “Waffle Parties” have been vegan since 2007, they’ve had lot’s of time to work out the kinks.  But why in the world do these people host “Waffle Parties?”   Good question.  I can’t really figure out why they started all this.  But whatever the genesis, today it’s the fun and friendly way in which they help people promote healthy, compassionate and sustainable ways of eating all over the world, during the months of May and June.

Make Waffles, Not War? On September 24, 2009,  in Pittsburgh, PA, Dave and Jen held a “G-20 Vegan Peace Waffle Summit” to express their support for environmental, food security, human rights, animal rights, and public health causes.  They offered their “Vegan Peace Waffles” to anyone in Pittsburgh who was participating in G-20 activities.  Now how cool was that?

Vegans everywhere share a concern for the health of our planet, it’s people, and it’s animals.  We all dream of a peaceful and creualty-free future.  However, nothing is going to change if we don’t act.  So the next time you want to make a difference, don’t club your friends and family over the head with veganism.  (Not sustainable.)   Instead, dust off your waffle iron, feed some folks, consider throwing a waffle party, and make a few people smile.   Then tell them the truth in love.  Talk about the food we eat and it’s impact on our our health and happiness.  Talk about how our choices affect food availability to people all over the world.  Talk about the environment, the animals, whatever you want if you can broach it in a way that won’t cause nausea and indigestion.   And then send people home with a recipe for vegan waffles, because breakfast is a great way to start a the day….and it’s even better if you start it the vegan way.

Blueberry Lavender Scones – Tami Transcends Tofu

"The addition of blueberry & and lavender makes this scone really special...perfect to share with a friend over a cup of tea!" ~ Tami

This recipe comes from Tami over at the blog Tami Transcends Tofu.  Tami modified Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s basic scone recipe from Vegan Brunch, by adding lavender and blueberry to the mix. These scones are delightfully crisp on the outside, moist and flaky on the inside.  Enjoy these warm. The faint taste of lavender permeates the dough very nicely.  (But be careful. If you are using dried lavender, you might not want to use 1/4 cup.  I did, and there’s a slight bitter bite to mine.  Still, we are gobbling them up!)   And the pop of juicy blueberries in every bite just makes me want to melt down to my knees.  Now go on….click right here.  Get this recipe.   And then tell Tami I sent you.