Tuesday, November 13, 2007

veganmofo survey


Ok. I'm exhausted. I just came home from giving a talk about surrealism. Dinner was some garbanzo beans doused with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and Trader Joe's "21 seasoning salute"... let's just say I'm not in a very bloggy place right now!


Well, I am grateful that Mary, over at Pickled Treats Last Longer posted this survey on her blog this past week, because it gives me a built-in blog post, so I can keep up with VeganMoFo even though I'm barely conscious. Yay!

Those of you who have the "great privilege" {sarcastic} of knowing me on Myspace probably know that I'm a hopeless sucker for these types of surveys. I don't only love answering them, but I love reading friends' answers as well- so feel free to do this survey on your blog! Let me know, because I'd love to come and read what you write. Consider yourself tagged.


1. Favorite non-dairy milk?
Soymilk- nothing has the body and texture of soymilk. You can cook with it, bake with it, and foam it up all fancy. Silk chocolate milk is a latter day miracle.

2. What are the top 3 dishes/recipes you are planning to cook?
I want to try Village Vegan's chocolate bread, Veganomicon chickpea cutlets, and Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan Moroccan Phyllo rolls

3. Topping of choice for popcorn?
We call it hippie popcorn: nutritional yeast, Bragg's, maybe a bit of garlic powder. Funnily, I think Bragg's Liquid Aminos is totally overrated, and I pretty much only use it for popcorn!

4. Most disastrous recipe/meal failure?
I tried some frikkeh (smoked bulgur) - and gagged. It tastes like pantaloons! I still have the box and as much as I hate wasting food, I can't bring myself to try it again.


frikkeh- icky!

5. Favorite pickled item? How could I pick one!?! (This is Mary's answer and I totally agree) I will have anything as long as it's pickled. I guess a really super duper sour dill pickle or sauerkraut or homemade pickled beets... or cabbage? It's hard to choose!

6. How do you organize your recipes? I don't! Currently, there are about a thousand recipes I want to try. Sometimes I write them down, sometimes I bookmark the recipes, but clearly, I need a better system!

7. Compost, trash, or garbage disposal?
We have trash. I'd love to move onto composting very soon, though. As it is, we generate very little trash compared to what I see in other households- we only use our weekly trash pickup service every other or every third week.

8. If you were stranded on an island and could only bring 3 foods...what would they be (don't worry about how you'll cook them)?
Medium grain brown rice, pomegranates, fresh cherries.

9. Fondest food memory from your childhood? Grandma's cooking. Smelling herbs as she chopped them- to this day, a whiff of freshly chopped cilantro makes me swoon.

10. Favorite vegan ice cream?
There's no one brand- I like Purely Decadent pecan praline, Temptation cookie dough, Tofutti Cutie ice cream sandwiches. Purely Decadent has a chocolate/banana flavor that I would love to try. And of course there's Wheeler's Black Label... please let them branch out to central NY!

11. Most loved kitchen appliance?
This is a toughie. It's a toss-up between pressure cooker, Magic Bullet, little frother... but then would I be taking my oven and stove and stand mixer and refrigerator for granted?

12. Spice/herb you would die without?
Bazu: fresh basil and tarragon Daiku: chili powder and cumin

13. Cookbook you have owned for the longest time?
This is a very sad question for me, because Daiku and I lost a large box of cookbooks during a move from Florida a few years ago. These included antiques (a very old edition of Escoffier!) gifts (including my first vegan cookbook that my friend had given me when I first went vegan 10 years ago! It was "Vegan Cooking" by Eva Batts.) Funny story: when Daiku and I first started dating, I noticed he had the same Eva Batts book- it was fate! So most of our cookbooks are fairly new. I do collect cheesy vintage cookbooks though, but those deserve their own post!

14. Favorite flavor of jam/jelly?
Apricot for those yellow/orange days, sour cherry for those red/purple days.

15. Favorite vegan recipe to serve to an omni friend? cupcakes! edited 11/15: vegan pancakes are pretty stunning, too.

16. Seitan, tofu, or tempeh?
tempeh - I like tofu and I'm ok with seitan, but tempeh is in a class all its own

17. Favorite meal to cook (or time of day to cook)?
brunch, by far! followed closely by breakfast. I'm also partial to "second breakfast," that meal you eat an hour or so after your virtuous, healthy breakfast failed to satisfy you.

18. What is sitting on top of your refrigerator?
Nothing- there's no room, since there's a cabinet right above it.

19. Name 3 items in your freezer without looking.
phyllo dough, bits of leftover biscuit dough to use for dumplings, lima beans.

20. What's on your grocery list?
Right now, a thanksgiving menu is beginning to take shape. But that's a surprise.

21. Favorite grocery store?
Greenstar Co-op in Ithaca. I feel like I'm cheating on the Syracuse Co-op by saying this, but Greenstar is like my mothership!

22. Name a recipe you'd love to veganize, but haven't yet.
not really a recipe, but my #1 missed food: cottage cheese

23. Food blog you read the most (besides Isa's because I know you check it everyday). Or maybe the top 3?
This is way too hard to narrow down to 1 or 3! If I leave comments on your blog, it means I love you!

24. Favorite vegan candy/chocolate?
sour patch kids.

25. Most extravagant food item purchased lately? last month in Ithaca, I bought little bits of maple sugar and date sugar. They were $8.99/lb. and $6.99/lb. respectively, so I've barely used them!

26. Veganaise or Nayonaise?
Veganaise! No question there!

27. What is one recipe or ingredient or cooking technique that you've become familiar with in the last year that you can't imagine you ever lived without?
Sourdough starter!! (Could you tell this was Bazu's contribution to the survey?)

28. Make up your own question to put here (and answer it!)


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26 comments:

Unknown said...

I was thinking of doing this, but the "name 3 blogs you like the most" or whatever made me think it'd be a recipe for disaster, as I would be hard-pressed naming ONLY three.
so I like your answer a lot, and might do this sometime later.

I'm so sorry about your cookbooks loss. and about the fact you like veganaise more than nayonaise. HA! just kidding. I like them both, matter of fact.

Anonymous said...

6. How do you organize your recipes? I don't! Currently, there are about a thousand recipes I want to try. Sometimes I write them down, sometimes I bookmark the recipes, but clearly, I need a better system!

I used to do that, but then it hit me that THE WEBSITES MIGHT GO DOWN. Now I use a program called onenote to copy over recipes. They're all on my computer now and it's super easy to organize them into different sections. Find out a way to organize and save them, stat! you'll be really sad if they disappear (or maybe I'm the only one who cries over lost recipes?). Get on it!

Melisser; the Urban Housewife said...

This was a fun read!

TB said...

1. I am SO about to look you up on myspace.

2. OMG pickeled anything rules my life. My two fav pickeled things tho? Claussen dills and Mexican pickeled carrots.

3. You MUST POST about your cheesy vegan cookbooks IMMEDIATELY. I am dying to know about them.

4. Sorry about all the emphatic caps.

TB said...

Oops, Freudian slip, I meant to write "cheesy vintage cookbooks" but apparently I was secretly wishing that you had a whole collection of "cheesy vintage vegan cookbooks." Can you blame me, though?

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

these surveys are so much fun to read - I love 'em! about the soymilk question: have you ever tried oatmilk? it definitely has the same consistency and "body" as soymilk; and I use it for baking, especially. give it a try! :0)

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

P.S. - I'm DYING to try Wheeler's Black Label ice 'cream'!!

Ashasarala said...

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this. :) I'm gonna be posting mine soon.

I'm with you on the veganaise. The taste is so different!

bazu said...

Hi guys!

Celine, I know what you mean. I'm not even trying the be diplomatic, there are honestly tons of blogs that I love and couldn't live without- and the list is growing every day! Oh, and we need to have a talk about Nayonnaise... =)

Emmie! Now I'm totally panicking about the websites going down- nooooo! Ok, you've convinced me to put more energy into actually saving and organizing recipes!

Melisser, thank you!

Textual Bulldog, yay! Another member of the pickles club! Oh, and how funny was that about the cheesy vintage vegan cookbooks slip? I bet some of those vegan books from the 70's would be pretty damn cheesy. Actually, I do have a "health food" book from 1971... I should post some of its most godawful recipes!

Veggiegirl, you are so right, oat milk is pretty thick. Hemp milk is, too. I've baked with both. I guess soymilk is still my favorite because the price and availability make it an "everyday" choice! Oh, you will love Wheeler's- but then, like me, you'll be sad you don't live in Boston! =(

Ashasarala, I can't wait to see yours! Go vegannaise! =)

Wellness From Within said...

I love love love these surveys! I'll be posting with my answers on my blos www.livafulllife.blogspot.com

Thanks!!!

Rachael said...

i guess i have to do this, huh? since i've read three of them today at least, not including the ones i read yesterday.

aTxVegn said...

This was fun! Except for the part about losing a box of cookbooks. If that happened to me I don't know if I could ever get over it.

I'll have to do this survey too. I'm about ready for a food break.

Vegan_Noodle said...

My survey is in draft mode right now, just waiting to be posted. Had so much fun reading your answers. Especially about what blogs are your favorite....you must love lots of em because I see your comments everywhere!
And of course now you have me curious as to what you're cooking up for Thanksgiving....
Definitely get on cooking the chickpea cutlets, they are awesome.

Unknown said...

I thought about doing that survey, too. It's a good idea, and definitely a great way to squeeze in a mofo post on a tired day.

errr... #28... ? ;)

Teresa said...

That really was a lot of fun. And I love the last question you contributed. When I was in high school I ate so many sour patch kids my mouth would be totally raw. Haha!

Thanks for sharing I'll be posting mine soon.

I hope you've gotten some rest after the long night

Rural Vegan said...

Ever eat so many Sour Patch Kids that your tongue gets raw? Yeah, I have a candy addiction. Fun read!

MeloMeals said...

Love this survey.. I may copy it.

Your cats are so adorable. I love how they were so cautious around the habaneros.

here is the link to my habanero sauce recipe.... very similar.. I LOVE habaneros..

http://melomeals.blogspot.com/2006/07/habanero-sauce.html

urban vegan said...

this was totally fun...like a kitchen biography. I really enjoyed reading about you and your taste. I don't usually do memes but I may have to jump on this one. Always great to learn more about the one and only Bazu

Liz said...

Thanks for taking the survey! I love reading everyone's answers to it.
I'm glad you answered the popcorn question: I love "hippie popcorn", too. So many other survey-takers say they don't eat popcorn...I just can't imagine that!

Susan from Food Blogga said...

What a fun meme this was to read, Bazu. What does it say about me that after reading all those responses, I'm totally in the mood for your popcorn! ;)

Mary Worrell said...

Shit! I forgot about pickled beets....damn. I feel like I'm cheating on my favorite pickles. I like soaking mine in balsamic vinegar for a day or two. Mmm.

And you just reminded me that I need to tend to my sourdough starter.

If I ever get wealthy and start a venture capital firm, my money would be allocated to vegan cottage cheese research. I'm with you there.

Bridget said...

Great survey!! The part about the pantaloons made me laugh out loud. Oh, and I am so with you about anything pickled! Yum!!!!

Anonymous said...

We have a lot in common. I love reading these surveys as well. I haven't done one recently so maybe I'll get started on it.

Oh and when I first became a vegan I was so excited to find Nayonaise on the grocery shelf. It seemed like a miracle. Until I ate it and almost gagged. I was able to use up the entire jar by HIGHLY seasoning it (soy sauce helped some) but blech! Disgusting. Imagine my joy when Melody of Melomeals talked about Veganaise and I learned there was an alternative.

Sjs said...
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Catherine Weber said...

I did the survey!!

Sjs said...
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