Guys I think Magic Hat replaced their Octoberfest beer, Hex, my FAV, with this pumpkin beer! It's good but not as good as Hex. It does have a cool title and cool picture on it, so I'll allow it. BF doesn't like pumpkin either, so I'm obviously guzzling this in my moment of solitude. So anyways, what's your favorite Vegan Mac recipe?? I've tried like 1 of the 8 zillion, but I'm always open to new ones!
Happy Fall/Mac/Monday!
<3 KZ

Alongside, I made her Venezuelan Black Beans, which required "sofrito" which is mostly just an aromatic base of cooked veggies. I chopped for a while...


And then I had vegetable confetti! You can celebrate something with any leftover vegetables. Just kidding. Don't throw vegetables.


I used my bamboo steamer to steam the foil packets of seitan for this, but they wouldn't all fit nicely inside. After this, I bought a huge steamer pot suitable for tamales and steaming anything else the size of or smaller than a regulation-size basketball. So now I'm set up in steam-town.


The beans just had to be soaked overnight, but other than requiring a labor-intensive sofrito, they were the easy part.


I served it over her Yellow Garlic Rice, with a huge scoop of guac, and a Mexican beer, you know, for authenticity...


Ta-da. Dinner for 20. People-- not dollars.

I got the Masa Corn Cakes. I became instantly pleased when the plate was put in front of me based on the amount of avocado that was on my plate. They understand that my satisfaction with their restaurant is measured mainly in how much avocado they are willing to put on my plate. The corn cakes were gold, too.


While we were there, I spotted this little guy (girl?) down at our feet. I made my friends move out of the way so I could capture this photo. He was pretty. It's probably a girl, but..




For dinner, we went to Charlie Was A Sinner, a fancy restaurant I hadn't heard of before. Upon our arrival, I realized how fancy it was, and that I'd never actually been to a fancy restaurant before. They had tapas plates, which are basically little plates that cost the same as big plates. They recommend 2-4 plates per person, but for an average money-spender, the budget is more like 4 total. They specialized in cocktails, so I figured I should probably get one. I got the "Hasty Tasty" which was marquis de la tour, moscato grappa, monbazillac, and frozen grapes. I don't know what any of those things are, I was just reading them off their website. It was pretty good but very small. I don't know what I was expecting, but I'm a beer girl at heart.


Our first course (shared small pate) was chilled melon gazpacho. It was brought out with the melon balls and avocado slices in the bowl, then the waitress brought the chilled soup out in a small carafe and poured it over the top. It was very fancy, despite my pictures of it. It was super balanced, with really nice peppery notes, and lightness from the melon and lemon. There were also very tiny fennel croutons that added a tiny crunch. Plus avocado. This was probably my favorite of the four.


We got the chickpea fries that were served with a lemon aioli. These were voted least favorite of the four unanimously. They just weren't crisp enough, which didn't give them a clean enough bite. They felt heavy and chewy, and there just was simply not enough of the lemon aioli to balance the heavy fried part, which is a shame because I think a bit more lemon would have helped elevate them.


We got the Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Sorbet for dessert. It was really good, moist cake. The sorbet was good and not icy, as sorbet often can be. Underneath there were some macerated strawberries, which were great with the brownie-like cake. It seemed like they abandoned their attempt to fancify this dish, and just went for serious chocolatey goodness. It was awesome.






It was unlike any yogurt I've ever had. It was so fresh tasting, like someone really broke out and messed with one of those coconut jackhammer godforsaken kitchen gadgets that spews sticky coconut water all over yourself and your kitchen. Someone did that for me. And the freshness was amazing. It had a nice light finish, I think maybe some lemon was in there too. YUM.


It was dark quinoa on the bottom, then a layer of tofu-broccoli quiche, then a puree of butternut squash on top. It was really a perfect breakfast. It was small, but very filling. I left feeling like I had the most vegan breakfast of all time. Also, the most delicious while being healthy breakfast of all time.


Philly is really cool, you guys. If New York City and Philadelphia were two real vegan girls in their mid twenties, they would be best friends and bring overnight bags and have weekend getaways in each others' cities. NYC would have bleach blonde hair and band T-shirts with tattoos and wear her headphones all the time, and Philly would look a little more Classic-college girl with a Brown side-braid and pierced ears with studs, but also have a messenger bag with Compassion Co. pins along the strap, and have a bottle of kombucha in her left hand while she texted with her right. These girls would be different, but have much to learn from each other, and also much to share with each other. And now I've personified two vegan cities and made them best friends. World peace has been achieved. The Antichrist has just been revealed.