As we all know, being vegan does not mean missing out on delicious food. With the abundance of vegan desserts available, there is no need to ever skip the most important meal of the day, dessert. Here is a quick and easy recipe for chocolate mouse that uses on 3, yes 3, ingredients. Not possible, you say. Totally possible. Not only possible, deliciously rich and creamy. The trick here is making sure your bowl is ice cold. If you have an handheld mixer, this is very fast. If you are using a wisk, it takes a little time, but you’ll get a great arm workout. Aside from being creulty free, the best thing about this dessert is it is fool proof. At the end of the recipe are ways to handle any problems that you may have. And if you want to take this to the next level, serve
Very rarely do new kitchen experiments work right off the bat. Sure, if I am veganizing a recipe of mine, I can usually do on the first shot. But a new recipe idea I have never tried before? That is going to take some work. Sometimes it is close, but needs tweaking; other times, it can be a complete flop. However, every now and then I have a kitchen event that is such an epic disaster I can only laugh about it after the horror is gone. What follows is one of those moments involving chocolate… (and for those of you who were there in 2006 for the Chocolate Spin Art, that is not the event I am talking about. The rest of you are really intrigued by that now, aren’t you?) But I digress: Picture it, New York City, 2005: Ethan had done a day trip to Albany to see
One night when trying to come up with an idea for dinner I was stumped. It had been a long day and I was not up for cooking anything. I figured I would just make some pasta and sauce and call it a night. But I knew that as much as I like that, I would still be hungry and not fully sated. So I looked at what I could do with it and saw the answer in the freezer. As for where the name came from, that is all Ethan. One of his nicknames for our dog Phoebe is Kooka. For some reason, when I made this, the name Pasta Chick’n Kooka just sort of fit. This is really a jazzed up version of pasta with red sauce. This is a great dish for kids; they all love pasta and chick’n fingers, so why not put them together in
Ethan and I are selling our house. Our realtor, PJ DeCicco, knowing we are vegan, promised that at the brokers’ open house, all the food would be vegan. On the day of the open house, we took the dogs with us to work, so the house would be in perfect condition. When we got home that evening, there was a note from PJ saying he left something for us in the refrigerator. In the fridge was a box of red velvet and carrot cake mini cupcakes from Cake’s Babies. We called PJ to check on how the open went and also to make sure they cupcakes we vegan. He assured us they were and we dove in. They were fantastic: moist, flavorful and not too sweet. I knew I had to find out more about this company. I jumped online and read all about LaTasha Carter and her company. When
If you went to any kind of cocktail reception in the 70’s or 80’s you invariably either ate or at least saw Pigs in a Blanket. They were everywhere. Mini hotdogs wrapped in pastry that you could dip into mustard. However, they were chock full of animal products. Fast forward to today and our vegan, cruelty free version. I mean, why would we want to eat a friend like Esther? You can make them large for a meal or small for appetizers. As an added treat, I’m giving you two recipes for the price of one! For the large size, add bacon and cheese. It is a little difficult to add them if you’re making them appetizer sized. Yes, these contain a lot of processed foods, but these are treats for special occasions, like National Pig in a Blanket Day. Prep Time: 5 minutes Cooking Time: 12 minutes Servings: 4
Language matters. Words have power and meaning. As an undergraduate majoring in French, I had to understand the subtleties and nuances of words having multiple meanings, both of which could be correct at the same time. When translating a foreign language, translators have the daunting task of picking only one of the meanings. For example in French, the word flamme literally translated to English means a flame from a fire, but it can also figuratively mean flames of passion. A particular scene in the novel Madame Bovary illustrates this point. When read in the original French, both meanings work. However, in the translated English version, they had to use the literal translation, losing the subtlety and nuance of the scene. As a law student, I became even more practiced at the use of words. The distinction between using “and” versus “or” can have a huge effect in a legal document.
I graduated from Washington University in St. Louis twice: first in 1993 from the College of Arts and Sciences and again in 1996 from the School of Law. I loved my time as an undergrad at Wash U. I don’t know many people who loved law school. I made some great friends over the seven years I spent on the campus. I am still friends with a few of them, but sadly I’ve lost touch with most of them. I had such fun in my first four years there, including some nights I don’t fully remember. I learned a great deal about myself during these years. I cannot speak fondly enough about my time at Wash U. As much as I loved my undergrad years, my law school experience somewhat tarnished my opinion of the university as a whole. It was a case of one bad apple spoiling the whole
This Lemon Chick’n is not the Lemon Chicken that is so popular in American Chinese restaurants or mall food court Chinese stands. This recipe came to us by way of Ethan’s bubby. Ethan made it for me once when we were first dating. However, Ethan, not being a fan of eating chickens never made it again. Fast forward many years to the advent of Beyond Meat Chicken Free Strips. Shortly after we tried Beyond Meat for the first time, the Lemon Chicken recipe miraculously reappeared. I just needed to veganize it. I needed something to adhere the breading to the strips. I found using a mixture of flax seeds and water to be the best option. This is a great recipe to make when preparing a meal for both adults and children. You can stop this recipe after frying the Beyond Meat strips, set some aside and have a great
French onion soup topped with melted cheese was something I thought I said goodbye to when I became vegan. Traditionally made with butter, beef broth and dairy cheese, there is nothing vegan about it. However, with a little work it soon found its way back into my bowl. This soup is so rich even the most skeptical omnivore would be hard pressed to say it is not a traditional French onion soup. In fact, it is better than the traditional one as no one had to suffer or die for you to make it. Prep Time: 5 minutes Cooking Time: 1 hour, 25 minutes (this includes making the onions) Servings: 4 Ingredients: 1 Recipe Caramelized Onions 4 cups vegetable broth 1 not-beef bouillon cube 4 sprigs fresh thyme 4 slices of French bread (optional) 4 slices of vegan Jack style cheese (or mozzarella style) (optional) Directions: 1. Preheat oven to
Before we get to the actual restaurant reviews, here is some helpful information for you: 1. You may see soup listed as “crema.” Do not be dissuaded from ordering them. They are not actually cream based soups. A “crema” is simply a vegetable puree that is very thick and creamy, but they are vegetable-based soups. 2. Do not worry about finding vegan food in Madrid. You can find something almost anywhere. There are “kebap” restaurants everywhere. These are Middle Eastern restaurants that all serve falafel, hummus, etc. So, even if you cannot find a vegan restaurant, you will still be able to eat well. 3. Breakfast as a vegan will be a challenge. You might want to pack some breakfast/snack bars. Thankfully we had late dinners and slept in, so this was not a problem. A builder bar was our breakfast every day. 4. Speaking of dinner, forget about a
