Christmas 2008: Christmas Day

This was my main entree on Christmas Day: pasta with vegan meatballs. Seasoned up with garlic salt, olive oil, and red pepper flakes.

There was also a nice fruit selection that I nibbled on throughout the day:

Christmas 2008 - Christmas Eve Dinner

A bit late with posting all of this, but better late than never, right?

First up, Christmas Eve. We went to a family dinner at the Nicollet Island Inn, a very fancy restaurant in Minneapolis. None of the menus shown give any indication of vegan food as an option, but I spoke to the executive chef and wound up with a wonderful five course all vegan meal.

First Course: Haricot Verts tossed with fresh ginger, balsamic vinegar, hazelnuts, and fresh herbs. *excellent*

Second Course: Parsnip Purée -- a variation on the parsnip bisque served to everyone else. Puréed parsnip with julienned Granny Smith apples in the center along with olive oil and walnuts and puffed wild rice. *beautiful* People at our table remarked at how much nicer the presentation was for our dish.

Third Course: Shaved Root Vegetables - presented like a slaw of sorts. Included: carrots, parsnip, sweet potatoes. *good* not the star of the night, but still tasty.

Fourth Course: Mushroom Risotto with black truffle and some other mushrooms. *excellent!* I am a huge mushroom fan, so this dish was positively delightful and delicious. My partner is not quite as big a fan of mushrooms, so I ate part of his dish as well.

Fifth Course: Passion Fruit Sorbet -- served in champagne glasses. *awesome* A delightful end to a fabulous meal.

Overall, it was easily one of the top three gourmet vegan meals I've ever had. Probably top two - Chamber Kitchen being the other. It was an excellent experience, and I would definitely consider going back for a special occasion. There are a few pictures up at the Flickr site, but I do not want to post them here because the quality is awful. The lighting was WAY too low to get a decent shot. Ah well, the food was so EXCELLENT. If you are willing to overlook the poor quality, the pictures are located HERE.

Chocolate Peppermint Beverage with Toasted Coconut Marshmallows

YUMMY. This is heated up West Soy chocolate peppermint soy beverage, topped with delicious toasted coconut vegan marshmallows from Sweet and Sara. Such a delicious winter treat.

Tofu with Cous Cous and Corn

Baked, battered, and pan-fried tofu squares with sides of cous cous and corn. The cous cous is seasoned with Earth Balance vegan butter and lemon pepper, the corn is seasoned with lime juice and cayenne. The batter/breading for the tofu is Hooters brand, I believe. (I know, it sort of grosses me out that it's Hooters brand, but the seasoning is pretty good.)

Roasted Vegetable Wrap

This was served at an employee orientation I attended. Roasted veggies mixed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The vegetables included: zucchini, yellow squash, onions, and bell peppers. It was served with an apple and some plain chips.

Pasta with Spinach and "Stuffing"

The night I made this the only pasta I had in the house was lasagna noodles. So I broke the noodles up and boiled them to have some pasta. I also made some "stuffing" (technically dressing since it was never stuffed in anything) from a premade package of seasoned stuffing I found that had no animal ingredients. I melted a bunch of Earth Balance vegan butter and mixed it with boiling vegetable stock, then added that mixture to the dry seasoned bread chunks. This carbohydrate overload was balanced with a generous helping of spinach.

Mini Wheel and Mini Farfalle Pasta with "Meat" Sauce

The picture doesn't show the perspective very well, but the pasta really is miniature versions of these shapes. The "meat" sauce was made by cooking Whole Foods brand vegan meatballs in pasta sauce and then crushing them up with a potato masher. Adding extra seasoning like olive oil, salt, garlic salt, pepper, and cumin helped punch up the sauce even more.

Holy Land Vegetable Pie with Artichoke and Garlic Hummus

Here is a vegetable pie from Holy Land, the oft-mentioned local manufacturers of excellent Middle Eastern foods.

This time around, I bought a vegetable pie from an open chiller in a market, and picked up some artichoke and garlic hummus to dip the pie in. The "pie" is sort of like a huge samosa: potatoes, peas, and other veggies surrounded by a pastry/bread crust. Of course, as with everything from Holy Land, it is not nearly as good as when it is made fresh from the store, but it's still a wonderful snack.

Mac and Chreese with Spinach and Broccoli

The mac and chreese is from Road's End Organics, which has been mentioned a few times before.

This time around, it was shells and chreese, and for the side dish I sautéed spinach and steamed up some broccoli. I flavored the side dish with some lemon pepper and olive oil. It's simple and delicious, a common theme on my food blog, if you haven't noticed.

Erbert's and Gerbert's Veggie Sandwich

Not a terribly exciting photo, but a tasty sandwich nonetheless. This is from Erbert's & Gerbert's, a sub sandwich place that delivers. This sandwich is called "The Jacob Bluefinger" and I veganize it by asking for no cheese, no mayo and instead get extra avocado and some dijon mustard. The sandwich includes lettuce, tomato, and sprouts. I also usually get a huge deli pickle.

More Product Reviews

I promise that in the coming days there will be more things I actually cooked rather than products. In this next year, I will also be able to cook a lot more at home and I'm VERY excited to do so!

Until then, here are some products I've been really enjoying.

First up, Phil's Fresh Foods. It's a line of frozen burritos, with two vegan choices. I've only ever had the "Veggie Fajita" which is a satisfying frozen burrito with good ingredients.

Next: Food Should Taste Good, a brand of chip/crackers made from excellent ingredients. I believe their whole line is vegan. I've had the jalapeño, olive, buffalo, and multigrain varieties. They are fantastic with salsa or hummus.

Coconut Milk Mocha Almond Fudge Ice Cream

Um....Let's just say I have not been this excited in the frozen section of the grocery store in a LONG time.

I am completely in love with So Delicious' line of Coconut-Milk Based non-dairy foods. Not just the vegan ice cream, but the yogurts as well.

I mean, my name is The Saucy Coconut! I LOVE coconut flavors. I'm also a HUGE fan of coffee and coffee flavored things, so this item REALLY made my day. VERY good. Almost all of their coconut milk based items are soy free, too, so it's a nice alternative for soy-based vegan treats.

Speaking of which, I also discovered that they now have a variety of coconut milk frozen novelties, such as this one:



Little vegan ice cream sandwiches. These are not soy-free as there is some soy lecithin in the chocolate wafers. VERY tasty. I really want to try the other flavors. I also saw a chocolate nut covered coconut milk based frozen novelty, which looked fantastic. yum yum yum.

Root Beer Float

I felt really indulgent so I went out and got some root beer and a pint of Tofutti Vanilla Ice Cream. YUMMY.

I have not had a root beer float in YEARS, and this really hit the spot. Also, I had never tried Tofutti Vanilla Ice Cream. I must say it's probably the best plain vanilla vegan ice cream I've ever tried. The only disappointment I had was I didn't have a straw to drink it out of! Not one single straw in my house! It was still fantastic, though.

Pizza! Sausage Pizza with Follow Your Heart Mozzarella

Here's a pizza I made back in September, but never had the chance to upload the photos. Well, here they are. These are vague directions because I can't quite remember what I did over two months ago.

The crust is premade from Whole Foods. Then I spread straight tomato paste all over the crust, and tossed it in the oven to crisp up a bit. At the same time, I cooked frozen vegan meatballs in a pan on the stovetop, smashing and crumbling until they resembled ground beef. Then I seasoned the heck out of them: fennel seeds, oregano, garlic salt, and some other Italian seasonings.

Once the crust in the oven was slightly crisped, but not fully cooked, I pulled it out. I formed the meatball crumbles into tiny sausage balls and placed them on the pizza like any sausage pizza would look.

Then came the cheese -- Follow Your Heart Mozzarella. I shredded the entire block of cheese which was WAY too much. I spread it across the pizza, then popped it back in the oven. After about twenty minutes, I put the pizza under the broiler and watched it VERY carefully. After lots of bubbling and even a little browning of the cheese it was done!!!! I quickly sliced it up and ate it!

One more pic, this time of one piece:

Update: I'm Still Eating, I Swear

Update: Here is a photo of the bowl I purchased that I speak about later in this post:



The Saucy Coconut is still alive and still eating.

This shortage in food posts will continue until sometime after December 15th. You see, The Saucy Coconut has a full time school schedule (the last semester, yay!) and also has another job other than posting on the interwebz about the joy of food. (Surprising, I know.)

Not to leave this post completely food-free, I have two mini reviews to give.

The first, St. Martin's Table. Yes, it's a Christian-based place that is a bookstore as well as a sit down restaurant serving soups, salads, bread and sandwiches. I'm not religious, unless food is a religion (which I would gladly lead.) It's an all-vegetarian place, and there is always one vegan soup available. I am a BIG fan of soup, particularly during the big cool down during October into November. It's the time of year to pull out all the sweaters and cardigans, even some scarves and mittens. The soup that I had was a curried potato kale soup which was great. I did not take photos, unfortunately. However, they were also selling handmade bowls for $10 and I picked one up immediately.

A short tangent about dishes and eating utensils. I love bowls, they are by far my favorite dish to eat from. I also have a fondness for the hybrid plate-bowl, those shallow bowls that are as wide as a medium sized plate. I also prefer forks as an eating utensil to anything else other than chopsticks. Only if I absolutely MUST eat things with a spoon (most cereals come to mind as well as particularly brothy soups) will I use one.

I recently watched the movie Ratatouille (2007), the animated Pixar/Disney movie. For those who don't know, the movie takes place in a French restaurant and centers around a little rat who has exceptional cooking skill and befriends a clumsy garbage boy in order to teach him/use him to become the best chef in Paris. If you love cooking and media-related cooking stuff, this is for you. I certainly don't have children, but I really love anything Pixar does, and this is no exception. Great movie, worth renting.

Also, Top Chef, one of my favorite TV Chef-Centered shows, and by far my favorite "reality" show, starts Season 5 on Wednesday November 12th. Click the link for a rundown on contestants and other misc. information. This season it's in NYC.

Chin Chin Café - NYNY Casino in Las Vegas, NV

The Chin Chin Café is located inside the NYNY Casino and offers a very thorough menu which describes how any of the dishes can have soft or fried tofu in place of meat. They have a special vegetarian brown sauce and everything is made to order. Our waitress was excellent at investigating ingredients for certain sauces to make sure everything we ordered was fish and oyster sauce free.

Pictured above: fried veggie potstickers served with garlic soy sauce and chili sauce rather. We requested a special sauce since the usual sauce had fish or oyster sauce in it. Whew. Sorry to overuse the word "sauce."

First up, Peanut Noodles with fried tofu. The waitress told us all of the ingredients of the peanut sauce and it was very basic: peanut butter, soy sauce, chili sauce, oil, and one or two other things I can't remember but were definitely vegan.



A close up showing some of the tofu under the noodles:



Next, the Kung Pao dish with fried tofu. They altered the sauce a bit as the original has chicken broth or something in it. This dish features a TON of red bell peppers, peanuts and water chestnuts. Awesome.



Another photo, on my plate:



Chin Chin's is probably my favorite restaurant to eat at inside the casinos on the strip. Very accommodating and very tasty.

Veggie Wrap and trail mix - Bellagio Casino, Las Vegas, NV

I recently traveled to Las Vegas, NV, and enjoyed quite a few delicious meals. It takes a little more searching to find truly satisfying vegan food (something other than just french fries) but it exists.

Pictured above: a veggie wrap with no cheese filled with alfalfa sprouts, tomato, cucumber, lettuce, served with a little garnish salad of cabbage, sprouts and veggies as well as a pickle. It also came with a plate of french fries. This was off of the room service menu at the Bellagio.

Pictured below: tasty trail mix from the Bellagio gift shop, Tutto. Why take a picture of it? It was impressive for trail mix: pepitas, roasted soy nuts, roasted flax seeds, raisins, goji berries, sliced almonds.



We also ate at a fast food type of place in the Bellagio called "Snacks," where they had vegetarian lentil soup and fries. They also had a veggie sandwich but we didn't get it or inquire if it had cheese or other non-vegan items.

Minnesota State Fair - Roasted Corn, Vegan Tamales

The Minnesota State Fair is a huge event. Over at their website, they show detailed daily attendance which totaled 1,693,533 over 12 days this year.

What is the best part about the fair? The food. And while I don't eat the pronto pups or cheese curds, there are plenty of other choices around.

The number one stop on my list has to be the Corn Roast. It's quite the massive setup: a line of workers (usually high school age) rotate on two sides, carrying corn cobs from the huge roasters, hand dip them in vats of butter and hand them off to throngs of people who have already paid for the delicious corn.



Of course, I get mine with no butter, which disrupts the line a little bit, but they are used to requests such as that and promptly get me my corn. Pour on salt and pepper - enjoy! Just be careful not to burn your mouth:



What else is at the fair? Holy Land (my previously mentioned favorite local maker of falafel, hummus, and other Middle Eastern treats) has a booth, there are places to get fresh veggie trays and fruit, salted plain soft pretzels tend to be vegan if you request no butter, fries...they even had a place that had an advertised "animal product free" Asian noodle dish. I wasn't able to make it over to that intriguing booth.

Instead, I fulfilled my food dreams by finding the Midtown Global Market booth, which featured different food vendors each day. I struck gold when I saw that La Loma Tamales was there the day I went. They serve vegan tamales, confirmed because I buy their handmade frozen vegetable tamales and the ingredients say they are free of cheese and lard and other animal products. I also made sure to ask the various cooks and servers. I love these tamales. At home, I put sriracha on them or eat with beans or other foods. They are delicious plain, though.

The pictures don't do justice to their deliciousness:

Motherbiker - The Triple Rock Breakfast

This is a breakfast masterpiece. Herbed tofu scramble mixed with veggie sausage is on top of a layer of homefries and smothered in vegan nacho cheese. Served with wheat toast. Giant portion, feeds me all day long, and into the following day.

Another picture:



Delicious.

Spinach Salad from Cue at The Guthrie Theater

Here is a lovely salad from Cue, a restaurant inside The Guthrie Theater. A nice pile of baby spinach, tossed in a vinaigrette and topped with chopped Marcon almonds. The salad is surrounded by delectable little raspberries.