The shop-up was Saturday, and we made a plan to day drink. I got a Barrier Kapow and a Singlecut Full-Stack. I certainly didn't need more than that ;).


I mostly just spent the time sitting at the bar gabbing with Abby Bean and eating these broccoli cheese empanadas from Freakin' Vegans. It was great! A Yeah Dawg made an apperance as well as several macarons from Sweet Maresa (who else??) and a mini pecan pie square from Gone Pie. It was a seriously decent Saturday.

Here's me and Abby's dog 89 not looking at the camera. I always like the idea of spending some time at the bar with some good food and good people, watching whatever throwback 80s move is playing at Pine Box, and if I can pet a cute doggy too, the day is all the better for it.


We went grocery shopping after a long beer nap following the shop-up. Alex was amused by the small size and description of these apples. They were labeled "Lady Apples", you know, because ladies are small and tiny like this apple. WHATEVER KEY FOODS.


This is Tempeh Piccata which came from no recipe, but rather from my brain. I think I've watched Giada de Laurentiis make Chicken Piccata enough times in my life to know how to make Piccata anytime I want. I chose tempeh, which I browned before removing from the pan. Then I made a sauce with onion, garlic, lemon, capers and white wine, and cooked some broccoli florets in that broth while it simmered. I also roasted some cauliflower florets, because I just wanted to. We served it over angel hair, and that's it.


We couldn't decide where to go for lunch on Sunday, so we went to Smorgasburg in the new Prospect Park spot. The vegan options looked slightly slimmer than Smorgasburgs past, so I grabbed this BBQ Jackfruit sandwich with cole slaw from Chickpea & Olive. After I got it, I noticed a few more tents with vegan options, Monks Meats was there, and The Regal Vegan was making sandwiches too. They always have the Alchemy Creamery selling vegan Ice cream pops and stuff at the Smorgasburgs but I didn't grab one that day.


Alex got his beloved Calexico Beet Burger from Chickpea & Olive. They make a good burger. Beets, that is. I am a beet burger fan. Chickpea & Olive have some good bread. It's a very important part of the burger experience. If you get a so-so bun, you'll probably have a so-so burger experience.


We landed on pizza for dinner. We decided we love Chloe's Vegan Italian Kitchen and wanted to make something from it. We went with the Crumbled Sausage & Mozzarella Pizza. The sausage is made of pureed mushrooms and walnuts, that you just cook in a sauté pan until it gets dried out enough to make crumbles out of. It was a very strange method but the end result was super tasty.
The Mozzerella was a garlic cashew cream sauce that you just pour over your pizza after it's baked, and bake it some more for about 5 minutes.


I loved this pizza! I want to make more pizzas from the book for sure.


It looks even better on Instagram <3

The next thing on our list from project cookbook was the Homestyle Pot Pie from The Great Vegan Protein Cookbook. I really love pot pie, and this recipe was calling out to me. The picture in the book was just so pretty, so I knew I needed to make it soon. Maybe I'll start reviewing these cookbooks on here once I've made a lot more stuff from them. Would that be interesting?


I am normally a fan of crust on the bottom (as well as on the top) and most of the recipes for pot pie forego the bottom crust. This recipe gives you the option to do either one, but since I was making a bunch of stuff already and this was a weeknight, I thought maybe I'd just buy a pie crust and spread the cut-outs on top of the pie. Wrong! No vegan pie crusts were available at the store. There were some piecrusts that were already pressed into pans, but I didn't want that, and I didn't even check if they were vegan. I did see some gluten-free pie crusts too, but of course, they weren't vegan. No respect. I ended up making my own crust when I got home, which actually was pretty easy. I chilled it while I made a dessert, and chopped the vegetables and made the stew-part of the pie, then just rolled it out and cut-out shaped to lay on top. I think my crust wasn't big enough, since there were some gaps in between my shapes. It was tasty nonetheless.


More from our cookbook project soon :)