Good and Bad from Isa

I've been loving Vegan Brunch and think it one of Isa's best books along with my bible- vegan cupcakes take over the world.

I followed her simple but brilliant suggestion to add lemon pepper to my potatoes, I used chat potatoes because they are superior really. However, beware most of the lemon pepper options in the supermarket seem to have chicken in them, the salt free option doesn't though.

I have found mixed results with Veganomicon though, we loved the leek and bean cassoluet but had issues with the biscuits and had to throw them out.

We also made the seitan cutlets from,Veganomicon and they sucked, they were rubbery and even the taste was wrong it just tasted like gluten flour.

Vegans are Cool

On Sunday Mr T and I went to a vegan food party. The idea actually started out as a joke when I suggested we have an ice cream party and a week later we had all of the below yummy food.

Mr T made mini neat balls from Veganomicon, which were slightly overcooked but still tasted ok. They were especially good with gravy that our host made. It was even better when wedged between corn chips. Just trust me ok!



I made the postachio rosewater cookies also from veganomicon, which tasted ok but texture wise weren't right. They were really hard and oily. I thought I must have cooked them too long so I tried with the second and third batch to cook them less and then they were obviously undercooked and worse. The good thing about an all vegan party is that I don't have to worry about my cooking affecting their perspectives of veganism. If I make something crappy for non vegans I feel like that just supports the myth that vegan food is boring or inferior. If something doesn't go well for vegans though I know that they don't blame veganism and just realise that I'm a crap cook or the recipe is crap.


They were edible though especially with rose water peach ice cream which our lovely host made.


Our lovely host also made not one but 2 tarts and a cheesecake. I can't remember the exact flavours but I think it was something like: chocolate cheesecake with praline white chocolate on top and an oreo crust, maple peanut tart and a fruit tart.


And Mango Almond mini cupcakes


And Chocolate Lasagna-made with with soy cream, chocolate, peanut butter, puff pastry and maple syrup. It was friggin AMAZING!

Other guests brought along chocolate cupcakes and two turtle mountain ice cream tubs, corn chips and coopers beer.


Not only did everyone make and bring yummy food, but all of the others had great music taste. For example, I had a conversation with one of the others about how great the Woods album is. Anyone who appreciates Sleater Kinney is cool in my book. I can't believe i've found other vegans that have good music taste. Normally the two are mutually exclusive and I have vegan friends and then non vegan friends with good music taste.

Maybe next time we can have a savoury food party since the majority of food was sweet.

Chickpea cutlets

If you read any veg food blog you would have come across rave reviews everywhere about these chickpea cutlets fom Veganomicon. So I decided to eat them prior to getting my wisdom teeth out to treat myself while I could still eat chewy normal food.

They were ok but the texture seems a bit weird and they only seemed to have a hint of flavour. I haven't ruled them out completely yet though, since it may have been caused by Mr T baking them rather than frying them or that he didn't knead them enough (we don't normally knead in this house) or that he used corn flake crumbs instead of regular breadcrumbs (my fault I got them) or that he made them too thick. Besides, we have a big bag of gluten flour left to use.


Speaking of Mr T and his cooking, he figured that since he now does the majority of the cooking (due to the fact that I lost my cooking mojo and he still has his) he is going to start a food blog. I'll provide the link once it is up and running. I think it's great, there are not nearly enough male food bloggers !