Elvis and Morrissey go to New York City for Vegan Cupcakes

Last weekend my husband and I went to the East Coast Vegan Mecca (NYC) to celebrate our one year wedding anniversary. Unfortunately, our digital camera battery died as soon as we turned it on, so I have no food porn to gaze at smolderingly and drool uponst*.

We stayed at East Village Bed and Coffee, which I wholeheartedly recommend. The price is so right and they have a dog, which is good if you are the kind of person who will literally die if you don't smoosh a dog once a day. I don't like dying.

Our first stop was Wild Ginger. It's one of those restaurants where you want everything and you think, "I haven't even scratched the surface. I must go again!"

Our second stop was Babycakes. I've been doing the gluten-free thing lately and it feels so good. It's nice to have a gluten-free cupcake. They're pretty muffin-y, but really, really good. If you are going to get only one, don't mess. Get chocolate.

Next stop, Pure Food and Wine. They have a cheese and cracker plate with Dr. Cow cheese, rosemary crostini and mustard (hold the honey). I could eat that every day for the rest of my life. Unfortunately, it looks like you won't be able to get any Dr. Cow cheese anywhere until March. Until then, I am working on figuring out the rosemary cracker. I made some last night and they came out pretty good. I'll post pictures and a recipe when I find my camera battery charger.

We went to Sacred Chow two mornings in a row for breakfast. This place is great and the servers are so super nice. I fell off the gluten wagon here with a biscuit breakfast sandwich.

We also went to the Vegetarian Dim Sum House, Pukk and Lula's Sweet Apothecary. At Veg Dim Sum House, maybe you should ask what you are getting, because we accidentally ordered a bunch of weird, slimy things. Their chinese broccoli is amazing. At Pukk (my favorite restaurant of the trip), definitely get the Spinach Toast. And at Lula's... enjoy eating ice cream at an old-timey sweet shop.

Other highlights of the trip were seeing The Little Mermaid on Broadway (neon and rollerskates!), renting a Karaoke booth where my husband was Elvis and I was Morrissey, and getting photobooth pictures, which I had never done before.

*probably not a real word, but I've been Netflixing The Tudors a lot lately and it inspires a lot of bastardized ye olde english in my household - like "dothest thou microwave me a bean burrito, because I AM THE KING OF ENGLUND!!!"

Vegan Mofo - Day 22, Beat It Until It Resembles Dough or Why I Blow At Vegan MoFo

I've had no shortage of delightful vegan gastronomic experiences this month. I had plenty of things to write about. Dinner at Grezzo, for instance. It was a beautiful experience. I totally geeked out. But I froze up when I thought about writing about it.

It's been one of those months. I am chalking it up to the melancholy I am prone to that intensifies when it becomes cold and dark outside. Tonight, I found myself eating Purely Decadent Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough soy ice cream while making chocolate chip cookes from The Joy of Vegan Baking. It's a cookie dough squared kind of day.

I'm even having bad, vegan nightmares. Last night, I had a dream that I was a teenager in a home for vegans with cancer. I was making friends, swapping recipes on index cards. Every once in a while someone would be put to sleep (!?) and it was horrible. I thought it was my turn and the person with the needle said, "Your doctor made a mistake, you don't have cancer." I was shaking and I yelled, "You must think my mom is crap!" What I think I meant was, "Why couldn't my mom have just taken care of me, especially since I wasn't really sick." I need some sun.

Vegan MoFo - Day 6, Butternut Noir

So, I had this butternut squash, see. Blonde. Curves in all the right places. I found her hanging around in a shady part of...

my garden. I would keep going in this direction, but the part where I roast her in the oven and puree her is a little creepy. Here's the recipe I created tonight for a simple butternut squash soup:

• 1 butternut squash, cut in half lenthwise, seeds scooped out
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 tbs olive oil (+ more for roasting garlic and squash)
• 3 cups veg broth (I used Imagine No Chicken broth)
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1/4 tsp rubbed sage
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbs apple cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 425. Brush the cut sides of the butternut squash with olive oil and place them, cut-sides-down, on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper (probably not necessary, but I love parchment paper). Put the garlic cloves under the nooks of the squash halves. Stick it in the oven for 40 minutes. Try not to burn your arm like I did. Remove the squash and garlic from the oven and when it's cool, scoop the flesh of the squash from the skin.

Heat the olive oil in a pot on medium heat. Saute the onions until they're transluscent. Add spices and saute for one minute. Add squash, garlic, salt and broth. Bring to a boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and puree the soup - however you like to do that and with caution. I used an immersion blender. Stir in the apple cider vinegar and eat it up!

Vegan MoFo - Day 5, Tings Rap

Check it.

After yoga class, I went to 'ho' Foods for a snack

And I came out with a big old bag of vegan crack.

The other yogis get Lara Bars and kombucha tea

But not me

And not my d o double g.

We got tha T to tha I to tha N to tha G.

We got TINGS, y'all!

And despite my best intentions

I feel like I've got cotton in my small intestines.

Know what I'm sayin'?

Vegan MoFo - Day 4, Day of Reckoning

First, let's talk about the post for Day 3. The Emperor's New Post, if you will. It was constructed entirely of gossamer threads and if you can't see it, you're a fool!

Either that or I was tired and in a miserable mood. I wanted to talk about my favorite pizza place, but didn't want to taint it ("she said taint") with angst. Anyway, the best pizza place in the GALAXY is Nice Slice. Nice Slice is located at 267 Thayer Street in Providence, Rhode Island. If you do not know how to parallel park, get someone nice to drive you there. I think that's why it's called Nice Slice. Their fake cheese is the business, but don't try to get them to tell you what kind of cheese they use. You will get shut down like a used VHS tape store.

I recommend the vegan bbq "chicken" pizza. We've also been getting a pizza with "steak," ranch sauce, peppers and onions. They have every topping imaginable. I think you can even get a pizza with cranberries on it, if you're into that kind of thing. And their thin, whole wheat crust is sublime. They make great sandwiches, too; the "meatball" parm is my favorite. I also like that the guy who works at the counter knows my dog's name, but not mine.

In other culinary news, I advise you to not buy Global knives from ebay. If it's a really good deal, they're probably fake. The fact that the knife would not sharpen should have been a red flag. But the knife BREAKING IN HALF while I was cutting a POTATO kind of sealed the deal. The funny thing was, for a split second, I thought it was my arm that broke in half.

Vegan MoFo - Day 2, Vice Presidential Debate Partay

We had a Vice Presidential Debate mini-party at my house tonight with my husband and I and our friends Jen and Markus. In honor of this event, the names of the recipes I made will be changed to reflect the themes of the evening. I made Save the Moose Burgers (Dreena Burton's Spicoli Burgers). I made There's No Such Thing as Pollution Toxic Sludge Shakes (chocolate, peanutbutter, banana shakes). Markus made Finger Pointin' Fries (oven baked fries). And I also made some Joe Biden's Sensibly Steamed Broccoli. As I anticipated, it was the comedy event of the season. There was even a drinking game. We took a drink every time Palin said "heckuva," every time she winked, and every time she said/did anything cutesy/folksy. Thank god we were only drinking water. We would have all been totally wasted.

I had a bit of a meltdown before the debate. My Vitamix - the fancy, expensive blender that my husband and I bought to stimulate the economy - seemed to have crapped the bed while making the Toxic Sludge Shakes. But it had just overheated. And in honor of the debate, I don't care about the reasons why it overheated; I just want solutions for the American people.

Vegan MoFo - Day 1

This is day one of Vegan MoFo, the Vegan Month of Food. I created this blog specifically to be a part of this vegan blogging extravaganza. Hopefully it's easier than NaNoWriMo, which I tried a couple times and managed to write about five of the 50,000 words required. Womp, womp.

I figure that a good first topic is breakfast. One of my favorite breakfasts is Chai Spiced Oat Bran. This is a modified recipe from Real Simple magazine.

• 1 1/2 cups hemp milk (or non-dairy milk of choice)
• 1/2 cup water
• 3/4 cup oat bran (or other hot cereal, like Bob's Red Mill 10 Grain)
• 5 chopped dates
• 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1/8 tsp cardamom
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• chopped cashews

Bring hemp milk, water, dates, spices and vanilla extract to a boil. Add oat bran, lower heat, and simmer for 2 - 5 minutes or until liquid is absorbed. Top with chopped cashews. Yum!

In other vegan news, apparently one can be vegan-ish by not eating meat, but eating cheese and wearing leather. If I knew how to embed video, this is where I would put it. In the meantime, here's the link. Watch from 1:50.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCSiP6Z_YhQ

*%$@#$!!!!