San Fran Part II- Maggie Mudd!

So to celebrate my soy intake I went to San Fran to see my awesome friend Margy who was in town for a conference.  And.... I finally made it to Maggie Mudd!

I can't tell you how much I love living (eating) on the west coast- where you can go out to an ice cream shop and the people know what a vegan is.  So many vegan options in this town.  

After my trip to maggie mudd where all I wanted in the world was a vegan brownie sundae (yes they have them, but no they are not wheat/gluten free).  So I came home with a mission.  And with a love of awesome dessert mixes (thank you Betty Crocker for all the good days when I was a young omnivore) I tried a gluten free brownie mix with a little ice cream, homemade chocolate sauce, and whip cream.

I have to say- the mix was pretty good.  I have a slight aversion to rice flour- it always tastes so grainy.  But all the chocolate-y goodness worked well with it.  It baked really well, with slightly gooey center (probably due to a terrible oven) and the result- moist, rich brownies.   I topped it off with some bomb ice cream- Purely Decadent Coconut Milk Cookie Dough and Cherry Nirvana- Ohhhh- it was good!

I added a little homemade Chocolate Sauce and some vegan whipped cream (always better when it comes out of a pressurized can).  I would offer the chocolate sauce recipe, but I have never measured anything, well- it goes something like this:

vegan chocolate sauce:

Heat 2 tbsp margarine, add a couple handfuls of sugar, mix until melted, add a splash of vanilla, and some soy milk (maybe 1/2 cup??), once good and hot add cocoa (I dump it until it looks like it will thicken), and stir until it begins to get thick and delicious looking- if you want it fudgey, heat and mix adding soymilk when you need liquid until the sauce is no longer shiny (thank you grandma millie).

mmm....

Turtle food

I have three beautiful box turtles.  Each of them came from a bad situation and I hope that we provide at least an adequate existence for them.  

My first turtle Magnolia was hit by a car back in NJ.  She came to me from a friend who does animal rescue who with the help of her vet husband put maggie back together and rehabbed her.  She lost most of a hind leg and a few toes and had s

ome damage to her shell.  So to the missing limb she sometimes gets stuck places so she could not be rereleased.  She is a Eastern box turtle

Salvia and Saffron came to me a little over a year ago from a woman local here in Santa Cruz who unofficially rescues pet turtles.  She had something like 20 box turtles that needed homes.  I was only going to adopt one, but came home with two.  They were pets, probably wild caught and sold into the pet market- they are older/ adults.  Saffron has scars from a dog bite and a hole in his shell that someone drilled to probably chain him up.  I think he was found after escaping.  

In the warmer months I keep Salvia and Saffron outside all day and Magnolia visits during the warmer hours of the day.  They hunt for snails, slugs, and pill bugs and I supplement them with fantastic organic veggies and fruit with occasional protein.

I spend more time everyday feeding the turtles than I do my 4 other pets (dogs and cats).  They are in for the winter so it takes time in addition to making their food to clean and make sure their heat and humidity are good.

Since I prepare food everyday for them- even when I'm not cooking for my family, I thought I would share some of the things they like to eat:

fried eggs and egg shell

melons

lettuce mix

fresh strawberries and tomatoes (store bought not as interesting turns out!)

grated squash

blueberries

kale

mango

Making up for lost time...

Who doesn't love a giveaway!!

Modish is giving away all these beautiful handmade goodies!

Giveaway ends on Sunday night!!

Check out the blog and the giveaway!

PS- politiks

Thank goodness for California as Prop 2 passed!!! If you voted or supported it- thank you so much!  (I speak for the chickens)

Shame on California for passing Prop 8. 

Tomorrow our little family of three will take part in the international protest against prop 8- you can find more information about it and a local near you at jointheimpact

Get involved!! 

Saffron and Salvia the rescue turtles

san fran part I...

Well, it's been awhile since I picked up the ol' keyboard, work has been busy and with a 5 month old in the house you never know when the opportunity will arise for showering, blogging, reading, eating, etc.  I don't know where time goes, but I imagine it's the same place as all our socks.

An update on the food elimination trial for the baby's skin-

I am back on soy (thank god! have you ever met a vegan that didn't eat soy? I have, but he really only ate sprouts and I don't like sprouts that much).  So only wheat/ gluten (yes two different allergies, but for my purposes omitted together) and nuts are void from my diet these days.

So.. in rejoicing in the re-admittance of soy into my diet I went to san fran twice last week to see my awesome friend Margy while she was there for a conference.

First on Thursday eve I met her at her hotel room and we drove the less than one mile to a chinese restaurant (that was supposed to have fantastic veggie meat alternatives.  Without eating wheat (and yes, I realized later that almost all soy sauce has wheat, so probably ate wheat with this meal- it's like starting to be vegan all over again!) we choose some tofu based dishes.  We got a tofu with mixed veggie sort of dish- which was standard and a lemon curd yuba dish.  I've tried yuba (it's the skin off the milk when they make the tofu) in a few different forms.  This was not one of my favorites.  It was fried and it left the roof of my mouth scratched and sore.  But for some reason it's chewiness and super sweet lemony sauce made me keep eating it.  And then my mouth was even more raw and sore.

On Saturday we tried to eat at Greens a place I've always wanted to patronize, but the Gods were not in our favor, as the pouring rain cancelled our picnic of Greens to Go, as did the fact that we walked in at 5:05, which was 5 minutes to late for their to go counter and a cranky baby wasn't going to fly in a nice restaurant like Greens.  So we went to the Herbivore, an old standby and a little more forgiving for baby noise.  Dinner didn't go so well, with Margy and I taking turns to eat so that one of us could walk with the baby.  Yep, he wasn't ready.

the Herbivore is good though, and they had something for me with my dietary issues (pad thai with a tomato base, no nuts!).  We seem to go to the Herbivore every time we are in San Fran- which is fine I enjoy it and they have vegan breakfast foods which is my most favorite food to eat out.  But this is like, um- trip number 6 that involved the herbivore- so it's time for something different.  Any suggestions?

part II.... Maggie Mudd and my ice cream obsession

I will leave you with a little bit to be thankful for- more pictures of our free ranging neighborhood turkeys- there were at least 30!! in our driveway on Monday!  And today I counted 31 in the yard behind the house.  I might argue that is too many turkeys in one place.  I feel like we live on a turkey farm.  My dog is sick from eating lord knows how much turkey poop.  But two of our neighbors feed them the best turkey food on the market and it's paying off, that and our dwindling population of coyotes, and I'm sure they are too big for the bobcat to take on now... who released these things?? (the USFWS) 

Look at these handsome boys!!

Country Girl Gardens

When back in Tacoma (my sort-of hometown) last May I stumbled upon Country Girl Gardens in the middle of this giant, awesome flea-market like building called Sanford and Son Antiques.  I think this maze of shopping intensity has probably been in its downtown tacoma location for some time, and I may have even been there before, but wow! this time I was truly into this place.  There are tattoo parlors, handmade clothing, retro everything, antiques, etc. etc.  

But, back to Country Girl.  Among all this chaos was this lovely little shop with beautiful organic clothes and handmade lotions and bath products.  There was a little kitchen set up right behind the counter where all the action happened.  The woman (the owner I think) in the store was super nice and had some suggestions for my expanding belly (I was almost 8 months pregnant at the time).  Anyways, not all her products are vegan (beeswax) but I bought a wonderful tin of the dark chocolate mint body butter.  Let me tell you- I'm not one to use products on my skin.  But, I want to lick this stuff right off.  The smell is so awesome I can't even believe it.  I frequently forget it's in my night stand, so that every time I find it- it's a real treat!   Anyways, check out her website  I think you would like what she has- and it's always good to support a sister with a small business.

VOTE

Don't forget to VOTE!!!! 

Thank your polling people for their long underpaid day!!

You could even make them delicious vegan cupcakes

Soup and Stout.... mmmmm

Listening to Obama's last big rally... feeling hopeful.... feeling nervous... he's in Manassas- I grew up next that little strip mall city- who knew there were so many dems?

so last night was a special cookin night- soup and beer!

I made a yam, sweet potato, squash soup with Quinoa and Butter beans- it was so! good

It was my last night of beans (today I started soy- kicked it off with a vegan chocolate shake from Saturn Cafe).  

For the soup (inspiration came from the Mothers Vegetarian Cookbook):

2 acorn squash

1 yam

1 sweet potato

4 cloves of garlic

6 cups of water

2 tablespoons of grated ginger

2 cups of cooked quinoa

3 cups of canned butter beans

1 handful of chopped parsley

1/2 cup of tahini

I peeled and cubed two acorn squash one yam and one sweet potato (this took forever!), peeled garlic and sliced the garlic into chunks.  Sauteed the garlic in the bottom of the soup pot in a little olive oil, added the water and squash.  I had lots of time between putting the kidlet to sleep and trying to help the husband make beer- so I cooked the squash and roots until they were very soft.  Once all cooked I let it cool a bit.  Then I threw into a blender the tahini and ginger, then added the squash/ root mush.  I blended until almost smooth ( I like squash soups a little chunky).  After blending in two batches I poured it all back into the pot, added cooked quinoa, parsley, and beans.  Then warmed it all up- it was fantastic.  Topped it off with a tiny bit of maple syrup and some pumpkin seeds I roasted from our jack-o-lantern.

For the beer- Tyler used a kit from the local home brew store.  It was for a delicious smelling stout.  He added some organic dark roast coffee grounds to add to the coffeeness that makes stout amazing.  The 'tea' smelled like chocolate and coffee ( I am salivating just thinking about it, see picture of the inside of the tea bag below- I'm sure this has a technical name, but I have no idea what it is).

And after cooling, filtering, spilling, and adding yeast it is ready to sit for a few weeks to become the beer goodness that it is going to be! 

Can't wait!

busy busy

It's that time of year! I love California because you can pumpkin pick in short sleeves.  Making beer and soup tonight, baby's fussy, not much time...