Eating our way through the state fair
Yesterday, Shane and I made our annual trip to the Minnesota State Fair. We go ever year for the exhibits, carnies, fire eating munchkins, and of course, the food! You’d be surprised at how much vegan crap there is to eat at the state fair if you know where to look. Even if you’re on of those weirdo health food vegans ( I know you’re out there!) there are plenty of choices, including fruit galore. The first nosh of the day was had here:
Delicious piping hot french fries, yay! Had with soda and ketchup of course.
Root Beer from Shane’s favorite root beer shack:
Frozen apple cider pops (sooo good and only 75 cents!):
Falafel on a stick and hummus with pita chips from Holy Land:
Not pictured are the samples we had: Shane had some Peace Coffee and we both had a kettle corn sample. I wasn’t impressed but Shane liked it. We didn’t go on any rides but we did make our way through the haunted mansion:
And walking through the midway is always fun:
-Kala
Stripey Cookies!
When I saw the recipe for yummy looking stripey cookies on Have Cake Will Travel today, I knew I had to have them. You see, it makes a tiny batch (only five cookies) and we’re almost out of all sort of baking supplies so these were perfect. I really wanted to make the recipe just as it was written, but we were low on margarine so I had to use 2TB of marg. and 2TB of non-hydrogenated shortening instead of all margarine. I also had to add a little more liquid, but I usually do.
It’s a great, easy recipe and the cookies came out super yummy. But the true test for all baked goods is how tempting they are during the photo shoot:
Yum!
-Kala
Shane’s Vegan Hundred
Its my turn to playing along with the Vegan’s Hundred posted on the Bittersweet. I’ve only bolded things that I’ve had vegan versions of, I have crossed out the booze due to the edge and sauerkraut because I can’t get past the odor. –Shane
Your mission, should you choose to accept it:
1) Copy this list into your own blog, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Post a comment here once you’ve finished and link your post back to this one.
5) Pass it on!
1. Natto
2. Green Smoothie
3. Tofu Scramble
4. Haggis
5. Mangosteen
6. Creme brulee
7. Fondue
8. Marmite/Vegemite
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Nachos
12. Authentic soba noodles
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Taco from a street cart
16. Boba Tea
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Gyoza
20. Vanilla ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Ceviche
24. Rice and beans
25. Knish
26. Raw scotch bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Caviar
29. Baklava
30. Pate
31. Wasabi peas
32. Chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Mango lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Mulled cider
37. Scones with buttery spread and jam
38. Vodka jelly
39. Gumbo
40. Fast food french fries
41. Raw Brownies
42. Fresh Garbanzo Beans
43. Dahl
44. Homemade Soymilk
45. Wine from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Stroopwafle
47. Samosas
48. Vegetable Sushi
49. Glazed doughnut
50. Seaweed
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Tofurkey
54. Sheese
55. Cotton candy
56. Gnocchi
57. Piña colada
58. Birch beer
59. Scrapple
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Soy curls
63. Chickpea cutlets
64. Curry
65. Durian
66. Homemade Sausages
67. Churros, elephant ears, or funnel cake
68. Smoked tofu
69. Fried plantain
70. Mochi
71. Gazpacho
72. Warm chocolate chip cookies
73. Absinthe
74. Corn on the cob
75. Whipped cream, straight from the can
76. Pomegranate
77. Fauxstess Cupcake
78. Mashed potatoes with gravy
79. Jerky
80. Croissants
81. French onion soup
82. Savory crepes
83. Tings
84. A meal at Candle 79
85. Moussaka
86. Sprouted grains or seeds
87. Macaroni and “cheese”
88. Flowers
89. Matzoh ball soup
90. White chocolate
91. Seitan
92. Kimchi
93. Butterscotch chips
94. Yellow watermelon
95. Chili with chocolate
96. Bagel and Tofutti
97. Potato milk
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Raw cookie dough
Kala’s Vegan Hundred
I’m playing along with the Vegan’s Hundred posted on the Bittersweet blog today! I’ve only bolded things that I’ve had vegan versions of and the only things I’ve crossed out are the boozy bits cause I’m not a boozy kind of gal. So…
Your mission, should you choose to accept it:
1) Copy this list into your own blog, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Post a comment here once you’ve finished and link your post back to this one.
5) Pass it on!
1. Natto
2. Green Smoothie
3. Tofu Scramble
4. Haggis
5. Mangosteen
6. Creme brulee
7. Fondue
8. Marmite/Vegemite
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Nachos
12. Authentic soba noodles
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Taco from a street cart
16. Boba Tea
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Gyoza
20. Vanilla ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Ceviche
24. Rice and beans
25. Knish
26. Raw scotch bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Caviar
29. Baklava
30. Pate
31. Wasabi peas
32. Chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Mango lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Mulled cider
37. Scones with buttery spread and jam
38. Vodka jelly
39. Gumbo
40. Fast food french fries
41. Raw Brownies
42. Fresh Garbanzo Beans
43. Dahl
44. Homemade Soymilk
45. Wine from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Stroopwafle
47. Samosas
48. Vegetable Sushi
49. Glazed doughnut
50. Seaweed
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Tofurkey
54. Sheese
55. Cotton candy
56. Gnocchi
57. Piña colada
58. Birch beer
59. Scrapple
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Soy curls
63. Chickpea cutlets
64. Curry
65. Durian
66. Homemade Sausages
67. Churros, elephant ears, or funnel cake
68. Smoked tofu
69. Fried plantain
70. Mochi
71. Gazpacho
72. Warm chocolate chip cookies
73. Absinthe
74. Corn on the cob
75. Whipped cream, straight from the can
76. Pomegranate
77. Fauxstess Cupcake
78. Mashed potatoes with gravy
79. Jerky
80. Croissants
81. French onion soup
82. Savory crepes
83. Tings
84. A meal at Candle 79
85. Moussaka
86. Sprouted grains or seeds
87. Macaroni and “cheese”
88. Flowers
89. Matzoh ball soup
90. White chocolate
91. Seitan
92. Kimchi
93. Butterscotch chips
94. Yellow watermelon
95. Chili with chocolate
96. Bagel and Tofutti
97. Potato milk
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Raw cookie dough
Oh Fudge!
Oh how I love dorky titles for blog posts! Almost as much as I love fudge. Peanut Butter fudge to be exact. I made a little pan of this stuff a couple of days ago and it didn’t last long, it was sooooo good. I’ve made this before, it’s my stand-by peanut butter fudge recipe, but it’s so much easier to do now that I’m using a gas stove. Yay for the power of fire! Recipe:
Peanut Butter Fudge
Ingredients:
-2 cups sugar
-2 TB light corn syrup
-2/3 cup vanilla soymilk
-1 TB margarine (I use Earth Balance whipped)
-1 tsp. vanilla extract
-1/2 cup natural peanut butter (salt free)
-chocolate chips (optional)
Also needed: large saucepan, candy thermometer, 8″ baking dish
1. In the large saucepan, combine sugar, corn syrup, and soymilk. Bring to a boil on high heat, stirring constantly until the mixture reaches 234 degrees F. Remove pan from heat. Please be extremely careful, hot sugar mixtures are like napalm.
2. Add the margarine and mix until well combined. Let the mixture cool until it’s warm but not insanely hot. Stir it once and while during the cooling process to break up any sugar crystals.
3. Add in the vanilla and peanut butter. Beat with a hand beater until the fudge is matte and airy. Press the fudge into the baking dish and sprinkle with chocolate chips. Cool well before serving.
4. Enjoy!
-Kala
Shower Cupcakes
No, not cupcakes you eat while showering, that would be gross! I made these little lovelies yesterday for a friend’s baby shower at Borealis. A bunch of us worked together on a really cute knitted and crocheted blanket for her wee one and there were other little gifties as well (Here’s the Flickr link for those interested).
There was a huge spread of food and a surprising amount of it was vegan! Of course, I’m one of those damned vegans who doesn’t like raw veggies for the most part, so I stayed clear of the veg platter (raw broccoli, ewwww). The cupcakes I made are a very standard go to recipe that I might share one day (sometime after I die maybe?) It’s one of those recipes that I worked on for a very long time to get right so I’m annoyingly protective of it, in public anyway. Of course, there will be no holding back when Shane and I write the inevitable cookbook…
-Kala
Homestyle Yumminess
You gotta love foods that come in loaf form. They’re oh so yummy and comforting, even when it’s icky hot out and the air conditioner is blasting away. Tonight we had a favorite, the lentil burger recipe from Hot Damn and Hell Yeah pressed into a cake pan. If you haven’t checked that book out yet you should, it’s super cheap and worth the price just for the lentil burger recipe. To round out the meal, we had mashed potatoes and gravy (from a packet of course!) and some peas. Yum!
-Kala
A Tale of Two Candy Bars
The other day, Mr. Husband and I were at one of the five bazillion natural foods co-ops in the Twin Cities looking for some munchies and stumbled upon some candy in the checkout line. I was pretty excited because at my level of lactose intolerance, there are only a couple of candy bars that I can have because most vegan chocolate is made on the same equipment as dairy chocolate and has traces of tummy ouchy evil in it. But anywho, what I picked up was the Boom Choco Boom bar by Enjoy Life, a company that specializes in allergy friendly foods:
So how does it taste? Pretty darned good. It’s not life changing, but it’s a yummy chocolate bar that I can have and doesn’t cost ten million dollars (this one was under $2). Shane also picked something up, but I’ll let him tell you about it:
For my part I picked up another Crispy Cat, the toasted almond one to be exact. Well, I continue to be underwhelmed by the Crispy Cat folks. The filling was a little better tasting than the roasted peanut I posted on several weeks ago. However I would never have guessed it was almonds had I not read the wrapper, the flavor is a generic nutty flavor, but nothing screams almond. The Chocolate was not as good as the peanut, it had even more of an energy bar flavor and did not have a good mouth feel to it at all. I can safely say that is that for the Crispy Cat.
-Kala and Shane
