baby, it's cold outside

... and I hate it!

In the midst of the snow and cold and damp and grey and dark, I'd rather deal by having a flashback. Let's flash back to July and some blueberry picking, shall we?

can you just feel the warm sunshine?

can you just smell the green freshness all around?

can you see all those bursts of blue juiciness?

can you see those flies Japanese beetles doing naughty fly Japanese beetle things?

can you see Daiku picking away?

can you taste the fresh, fruity, plump and tangy blueberries?

can you feel your fingertips beginning to thaw just a bit?

baby, it's cold outside

the UK 100

There have been a lot of local versions of the Vegan 100 list floating around- for example, the NYC 100 and the Portland 100. I've wanted to play along, but there is no Syracuse 100! So instead, I decided to take this UK 100 list posted by Liz and try my hand at it- after all, I did live in England for a few months! I'm curious to see how I do. If you've lived in the UK, or have visited, or are just an Anglophile (Britophile?), why not play along?

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!



All items on the list refer to the vegan version. Please don’t contact me to tell me that butter isn’t vegan, for example. I mean a vegan version of it!

Hampshire watercress
Haggis
Montezumas chocolate
Melting mozarella Cheezly
Tartex

Granose Mock Duck
Sosmix
Churros at Terre a Terre
Yorkshire pudding
Beans on toast
Crumpets
Mushy peas
Aldi croissants
Bourbon biscuits
Holland and Barrett fruit flapjacks
Linda McCartney sausages and chips
Marmite on toast
Kent black cherries
Marmite breadsticks (If Marmite crackers count...)
Beanfeast
Sunday roast at The George (hey! what about the Elvis Burger at the George??) Anything at Birmingham’s curry mile
Rhubarb crumble with Swedish Glace
Paskin’s full breakfast
Jersey Royal potatoes swimming in butter
Evesham asparagus
Potato farls
Bubble and Squeak
Sticky toffee pudding
Irn Bru
Bacon buttie with tomato sauce
Marigold bouillon powder
Booja Booja truffles
Scones and jam
Bird’s custard (I still have a huge container of it here at home!)
Anything at Dandelion and Burdock
White chocolate
A bought pizza with cheese in the UK
Hot cross buns
Staffordshire oatcakes
Bread and butter pudding
Summer pudding
Pickled onions
Potato from the Baked Potato Shop in Edinburgh
Weatherspoons curry
Irish stew with dumplings
Mashed carrot and swede (mmm... somehow, roast root veggies taste better in the UK!)
Pease pudding
Christmas pudding
Cranachan
Blue Sheese
Faggots
English muffins
Pringles
Scotch broth
Walker’s prawn cocktail crisps (I miss these!)
Mildred’s mushroom and ale pie
Masala dosa
Realeat fishcakes


Worcestershire sauce
Mushroom ketchup
Pickled walnuts (I have a jar of these at home, but haven't opened them yet)
Ribena
Anything at Vbites Co-op donuts
Picalilli (and brought some jars back- yum!)
Ryvita
Anything at Saf
Chip shop curry sauce and chips
Parmezano
Warehouse Café bangers and mash
Innocent Smoothie
Vimto Eccles cake
Semolina pudding with jam
Linda McCartney country pie Scallop (potato fritter)
Elderflower cordial
Spotted dick
Victoria plum

Marigold braised tofu
Clive’s pie
Wagamama Yasai Chilli Men
Sarsaparilla (this is British???)
Spring cabbage
Holland and Barrett Porkless Pie
Henderson’s relish
Scottish raspberries
Scouse
Colcannon
Fry’s Peppermint Cream
Hobnobs
Roast parsnips
Booja Booja ice cream (could not afford this!)
Champ
Pimms (mmmmm)
Rice pudding
Nuttolene
Beef and Tomato Pot Noodle
Sesame Snaps

37... not bad, eh? This just proves that I need to come back to the UK soon! Anyone wanna buy me tickets???

the UK 100

what was I eating this time last year...?

Just a flashback post from the archives tonight... If you remember, Daiku and I were living in England last Fall, and by the end of October, we'd established a pretty good food routine and were trying to eat like the locals.

Breakfast might be some delicious scones with margarine and jam.

Dinner might be sampling a vegan entrée from Sainsburys supermarket, such as the steak above, with some mashed potatoes with greens, and some local Kent apples on the side.

I even started making proper puddings! The one above was made with some stewed and spiced sour cherries, topped with Bird's custard (made with soya milk), and some crumbled ginger biscuits on top. I was proud of myself!

And tea. Lots of tea. Always tea. Long live tea.

what was I eating this time last year...?

apples apples apples!

Daiku and I have guests over at our house quite often. And Autumn is a very fun time to have guests, because we live smack dab in the middle of apple country! So on a nice Sunday recently, we took our friend and guest Julian out to pick some apples.

She had fun!

We had fun!

and, for under $15, we came home with enough apples to make into 2 jars of apple butter, 2 full-sized and 4 hand-sized pies, and juice, with enough left over for some serious snacking.

What are some other mofo-ers doing with apples this month? Head over to my apple round-up over on VeganMoFo Headquarters for a sampling.

apples apples apples!

because it's still summer, dammit!

Ok, I'm seeing too many fall-related blog posts lately! People, it's still summer until this coming WEDNESDAY. I don't want to hear about your pumpkins and squash and Halloween costumes and hot cider! It's summer! I refuse to give in to fall until I absolutely have to!

So in that vein, a little flashback post from last summer...

What do you do when you come across some insane heirloom tomatoes in the Downtown Syracuse Farmers Market? Like the big buddy above, weighing in at around 4 pounds?

How about a tomato focaccia?

How about letting them play the star role in the meal? Doesn't a nice fat tomato drizzled with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, and fresh basil look so much better than some big roasted dead thing?

Oh god, I am do damn vegan...

because it's still summer, dammit!

simple and fresh summer eats

I thought that the last day of August would be a fitting moment to reflect on what I love so much about food in the summer. It's light, it's fresh, it's full of flavor, and sometimes, it's from right in the back yard! Here's a typical lunch from back in July: marinated zucchini salad (zucchini from the farmers market), potato and green bean salad (potatoes from our garden, green beans from the farmers market), and a fresh grilled panini (homemade sourdough bread, brushed on the outside with olive oil, and dill from our garden). How can you not feel good after such a meal?...

simple and fresh summer eats

belfast!

Oh hi! Where was I...? Oh yes, well, before my computer crashed (major boo...) I had almost caught this blog up to all my travels from back in the Fall and Winter. Last I left you, I was finishing up my trip to Copenhagen. As I was flying to from there, my friend Meghan was flying from Washington DC. We met up in London to fly together to Belfast the next day.



Can you tell we were a little exhausted by the time we were getting in? But Northern Ireland immediately welcomed us- even though we were there practically in winter, look at this green greeting we got as our plane was landing!



greeeeeeen!



Once again, our stay was made possible because of the generosity of a fellow PPK-er, Loretta, a.k.a. fezza. She and her partner graciously welcomed us into their home, where we got to have a great time with them, play their wonderful cat and puppy, and eat lots of wonderful vegan food!



Here's Angus the awesome.



And Poppy the pup! They were beyond adorable.



Fezza took us around and we got to see some of Northern Ireland's greatest sites, such as the Giants Causeway, above. This place was amazing.



We got to tour the city of Belfast and see the reminders of the not-too-distant troubles that went on there. Here is something I've always wanted to see in person, the mural in tribute to Bobby Sands.



We got to go to the famous Crown Bar, the most beautiful bar I've seen.



There, I got to try my first hot toddy- and fall in love with Irish whiskey! Mmmmm. Perfect on a cold winter night.



There aren't that many vegan or even vegetarian restaurants in Ireland, and this underscores the awesomeness of staying with vegans. Local delicious food! Above, you see Meghan and me snacking on delicious home-made sandwiches on our flight back home. (Ha ha, other EasyJet passengers!)



Here's a delicious curry that Fezza's partner made for dinner. It was so delicious and warming on a wintry night. (I apologize for the blurry photo- I was in too much of a hurry to start eating!)



Perhaps my favorite Belfast meal: This Ulster Fry-up, the breakfast of champions, vegan style! Here you see beans, mushrooms, tomatoes, sausage and bacon, and best of all some grilled potato bread. Mmmmmm! This was my first "proper" British breakfast and it was so lovely.



Lastly, Belfast was an awesome city for shopping. It is where I scored the cat dress, above. Festooned with funny kitties, it is my favorite item of clothing now!



Meghan and I want to thank Fezza for her incredible hospitality, friendship and most of all, all the delicious vegan candies and biscuits that she fed us! Thank you also for letting us play with your adorable pets. 6 months later, I really miss Belfast, and hope I have a chance to go back one day.

For more Belfast photos, including more mural images, click here
.

belfast!

Ghent!

Mea culpa! When friends and family start complaining about lack of blog updates, I know that I've been abandoning the blog! So let's take off where we left off... Last time, Lisa and I had finished our journey through Lille, and we were headed to the Belgian town of Ghent.

Ghent was simply beautiful.

Our host, Karen.

climbing many, many stories to the top of the bellfry, from which we could see the awesome architecture of the town,

...including the cathedral where where we got to see Jan van Eyck's "Adoration of the Lamb", also known as the Ghent Altarpiece.

This piece is magnificent in all it's multi-dimensional Northern Renaissance glory and made an art history fangirl out of me. (The photo is from the web, since no photography was allowed in the Cathedral).

On to the most spectacular stuff: Belgian vegan food and drink!

fresh juices, made to order

a vegan all-you can eat buffet!! there was so much choice there, it was unbelievable. Lisa and I especially loved a cauliflower gratin that they had... I've been trying to emulate that dish ever since...

including dessert and (organic, vegan) Belgian white beer, of course.

good friends (left to right: Lisa, Karen, Tess (another fabulous Belgian vegan), and me)

No visit to Belgium is complete without frites, of course! The menu above shows you all the veggie selections (the ones with *s next to them mean vegan) - and those were just the burgers! There was also a vegan gravy available, gravy being a traditional Flemish dip for fries.

Frites! And veggie burger! And veg. chicken nuggets, oh my! Fried food HEAVEN!

On our way out of town, we stopped in at yet another vegan restaurant, this one a co-op run by volunteers and devoted to fair trade and just, in addition to vegan and delicious, food. Above, just one of the dishes we enjoyed there, an appetizer of hummus served with homemade bread.

The only restaurant where I've ever seen nutritional yeast offered as a side order! Can you spot it in flemish in the menu above?

Ghent was such a lively, lovely, and politically active town. Finding vegan food was no problem at all, especially since our hosts were there to guide us through the best. And at every turn, reminders, like on the plate above, to "think globally and eat locally." I gotta love it.

Speaking of thinking globally, Ghent is an incredibly bike-friendly town! Especially to an American's eyes, this sea of bikes was awe-inspiring! Biking is not just a green mode of transportation, but a way to work off all the insane amounts of delicious vegan food that you'll eat if you ever find yourself in Belgium!

To see all our Ghent photos, click here. Next up, Berlin!

ETA, 22 March: I'm sorry I didn't include the restaurant names in this post! Here they are:

- Tasty World (juices, smoothies, salads and sandwiches: Hoogpoort, 1, 9000, Gent)
- Komkommertijd (all-you-can-eat vegan buffet restaurant: Reep 14, 9000 Gent)
- De Frietketel (frites and burgers! Papegaaistraat, 89, Gent, 9000)
- Lekker Gec (the fair-trade restaurant and teahouse : 5-6 St Pietersstation)

(thanks for the reminders, Karen!)

Ghent!