I celebrated my 6-year vegan-anniversary the way any respectable vegan would, with avocado toast, and coffee with coconut creamer.


This is my first winter in Philly, and I knew it would be a little milder than New York, so I was expecting a little less snow, maybe a few less days below zero... But not a disappearing winter. Winter in Philly is pretty much non-existent this year. We have only had a couple of really cold days, maybe even getting to the 20s, but most winter days here are 40 degrees and feel like a regular ass fall in New England. It's too bad, because I fell in love with the winter in NYC, and I see this year they have gotten a much better winter than down here, but alas, I will make curry anyway. I made the Down Home Curry from Isa Does It, which is so easy and customizable. I added whatever veggies I had on hand and cranked the spiciness up to 11. No one can take my winter food anyways from me!!


Alex is big pizza fan, and so on one of our cold nights here we heated the house up by making pizza. We used some gardein chicken strips, red sauce, made the mozzarella sauce from Chloe's Vegan Italian Kitchen and topped it with shredded basil. It was so good and Alex was so happy with it-- but I still would have preferred to eat this as a bowl full of pasta instead!! #TeamSpaghetti4Life


Alex whines when he doesn't have cookies and the only way to make him stop is to make him some cookies. I suppose I win, too, since I get cookies when I'm done. These are the Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies from The Super Fun Times Vegan Holiday Cookbook, but I left the chocolate chips out of the batter and just pushed them into the top of the baked cookies for a makeshift-hershey kiss kind of cookie. They were pretty much impossible to stop eating.


We know how to weekend:

My fave recipe from Super Fun Times Vegan Holiday Cookbook that I've made so far is the Chipotle Mac & Cheese. This recipe has been on her blog for years, but I hadn't made it in a while on account of her coming out with the roasted red pepper mac in Isa Does It. But I will say that this one has reclaimed the #1 slot for best mac. I have made this again twice since taking this photo!


Every day is Taco Tuesday in my apartment. Alex loves to make tacos, and he gets really creative with his little condiments and spreads. Me, I just like the staples: black beans & rice, tofu or seitan, a crunchy slaw, guac & hot sauce. He likes to go all fancy and make a "special tomato compote" but by the time he is done making all his components, I am done eating my tacos. I have zero patience when it comes to waiting for tacos.


The Bean Bourguingon from Super Fun Times Vegan Holiday Cookbook, was so amazing. It was the perfect winter stew, and served over creamy mashed potatoes, it takes on a new life as the most comforting thing you ever ate. Alex said the coconut oil made the potatoes "too coconutty" and wouldn't eat them. More for me :)


We have been spending a few hours a day on the weekends at coffee shops, me reading, Alex working. I love One Shot Cafe right nearby my place in Northern Liberties. So far this year I have finished three books! That's really good for me, since I'm kind of a slow reader and have pretty bad attention issues. Even if I can't focus, I still like going to the coffee shop and settling in for a few hours to just relax, sip your coffee and be present. A day to be grateful you don't have any kids yet.


More tacos! These are when I was going to make the Cinco De Mayo fajitas from Super Fun Times Vegan Holiday Cookbook but then I realized that it is only seitan, onions and peppers wrapped in tortillas, and so I just made that plus slaw and guac and turned it into taco night, yet again. The Pinto Bean Seitan recipe from that book is really easy and came out perfectly, which is what I used for these.




We started a little "Pizza Fridays" tradition, where we go to Blackbird after work on Fridays. I pick up Alex on my way home and we go get slices. He always gets a sandwich and fries (which I eat a lot of) and I get two slices. This is the Balboa slice, but I like their Haymaker slice, and their Spicy Barbecue slice as well. Let's be real I will eat any slice available and like it.


I made the quesadillas from the Cinco De Mayo chapter of Super Fun Times Vegan Holiday Cookbook. These were great, and I will definitely make them again. However, this book is unfortunately riddled with errors or just bad directions. Honestly, I think this is the first cookbook of hers that is pretty unreliable. So this recipe said to chill the cheese in the fridge for three hours or overnight, and when I was done making the cheese... I had no idea why it would need to be chilled. It was a spreadable consistency, and the photo shows a very messy and kind of drippy cheese sauce. I said, screw this, I'm not waiting three hours to eat this, and proceeded to make the quesadillas with the cheese straight out of the blender, and they were no worse for the wear. Later the next day, after the cheese had chilled overnight, I made more using the leftovers and could tell absolutely no difference after the cheese had been chilled. This is just one example of a minor issue, among several other issues I have found with recipes in this book, the most egregious being the chocolate buche de noel cake, and an experienced cook would be fine (most of the time) but yeah, not for beginners. Kind of disappointed! Where were the editors and testers on this one?? For Superbowl, I made four recipes from the Superbowl chapter, one of them being the Philly Cheesesteak Casserole. The recipe says to line the casserole dish with slices of bread, and then make the filling, but never actually specifies to pour the filling over the bread slices, then top with breadcrumbs and bake. While the filling was great, the bread at the bottom simply soaked up grease and got super tough and over-chewy, making the casserole very difficult to cut through, even with a steak knife. Next time I would cube the bread after cutting off the crust, and make the bottom of the casserole a light layer of bread cubes, or leave the bread out all together.


My coworker took a vacation to Ecuador, and returned with vegan chocolates from Ecuador for me! It was soo delicious and I ate it all within a day and a half.


At the end of the month we went to NYC to see American Football, visit our friends, and hit up some spots to eat, old favorites and new.


We went to Champs upon arrival, and during the wait, got Dunwell Doughnuts. Damn, they are the finest doughnuts in all the land. Dottie's donuts really do not have shit on these. Sorry, Philly, but your vegan donut game ain't that strong.


I made a reservation at Modern Love Brooklyn, knowing I would be in town on this weekend, and Modern Love opened up just one month after I moved to Philly, so I was super bummed not to have gone yet, and needless to say, very excited to go.
We began with wine, and the arancini, risotto balls stuffed with almond cheese, and deep fried. I don't know why they were served in this super awkward cereal-bowl, but these were definitely the best thing we had that night. The sauce was great, and there was a nice bit of lemon zest coming through. These set the bar pretty high!


I knew I wanted to get the Mac and Cheese even before we arrived. I had been checking the menu a few days before, and following along on Instagram to see what kind of specials they were offering, and I knew it was going to be the mac and cheese, and that it was going to be great. Wrong. I am so sad to say that this was extremely disappointing. The noodles were so far overcooked that they were basically falling apart. The sauce was not cheesy at all, and nothing like the red pepper mac in her book. The tofu had a nice pecan crust, but the tofu itself was unseasoned. There was kale and cauliflower too, but they were cold. Sad face.


Alex got the Surf and Turf, Glam chowder with Seitan chops, popcorn fried cauliflower and roasted radishes. The seitan was pretty good if I remember correctly, but it was served right on top of the chowder and the flavors all got muddled and.. bad. He really wished those radishes were red potatoes, and honestly so did I. The cauliflower was good. It was crunchy and satisfying, and provided a crispy element to a murky, muddled, wet meal. It was also enough food for four people. Just way too much food. We would have taken it home if we lived there, but couldn't as we were headed off to the show. Boo.


The pies they post on Instagram are so beautiful and I am always so awed by them and I knew I definitely needed to get pie when I went. I knew it would be the best pie, by the author of the Pie book, which I learned to make amazing vegan pies from years ago. Wrong. This pie was bad. The crust was dense and hard, not flaky at all. I really would have loved this to be heated up, since everybody loves a warm apple pie with vanilla ice cream. Hell, I think I remember getting warm apple pie from Burger King as a kid. Even Burger King warms up their stupid apple pie. The ice cream was nice, and the coconut whip was good, though unsweetened (this is dessert). The apples were cold, not super soft. Just a big sad eleven dollar slice of pie with a side of tears.
I hadn't heard any bad reviews, and I'd been reading all of my friends' takes on the restaurant, every one of them loving it. But when I went, the service was so bland and not great at all either. Our waiter was so blah, did not say hi or what can I get for you, just kind of showed up with a notepad and stared. My wine had weird bits in the bottom of my glass. Isa was going table to table saying hi and how is everything but stopped before she got to mine! That's not an honest complaint, I know she can't get to every table, I'm just a big fan and would have loved to say hi. Boo. I am so sad to say that I will probably never go back to Modern Love. The food wasn't very good at all, and with such great options in NYC and Philly, there just isn't any point. You broke my heart, Modern Love!


ANYWAY, life went on, we saw one of our favorite bands that night, we hung out with our good friends and hit up some good spots that we used to frequent. We were only in town for a day and half, so we didn't have much time to meet up with others or go to more spots, but we will be back to NYC again soon, perhaps this summer.
Also, This week is Valentines Day, and I got a reservation at VEDGE, the most awesomest dopest best restaurant I've ever been to anywhere, and I'm going to eat a lot of amazing food. Also I got my taxes back and am briefly rich, so I have lots of new makeup finds to share with you, perhaps I will do a Valentines Makeup Post, if any of you would be remotely interested.
Super excited for the rest of February and all the other months coming, I'm in Philly, I'm doing my thing and life is good.
Love & Miss you all!!
KZ

This is 2nd street, where they often have festivals like they did on this day. There was tons of flea-market type stuff, but also lots of food. Pretty much every place serving savory food had a vegan option, and we were pretty blown away by that. We got some cauliflower asada and seitan wings with a few Yards each, because daydrinking in the summer at festivals is fun and I will be old someday.


We definitely hit the city hard trying out as many new places to eat as possible, but I have also been cooking when applicable. I want to make everything I haven't made from Isa Does It, and I still have about 30 recipes left somehow! My IG friend, @veganpastryschool inspired me to make everything from the book, as she is doing the same. She is better at making food look good in photos than me. Above is the Tempeh Orzilla, a recipe not new to me but I just really wanted to make it.


At the 2nd Street festival I got this pillow, because I really needed a new pillow and this one has Patti Smith on it and in the picture they are at Coney Island and I just had to have it. I am reading her book, M Train, now. Alex got it for me as an anniversary present <3.


I tried to eat healthy for a moment, and made this spiralized veggie salad with the peanut dressing from Isa Does It, but it didn't function quite like I'd hoped it would. I guess I just got the idea of rice noodles in my head while I was making this and then when it came time to eat the cold crisp veggie noodles, they didn't live up to my brain's anticipated rice noodle craving. At least there was avocado on it.


The internet says the best vegan cheesesteak in Philadelphia is at Blackbird Pizzeria. I got cheesesteaks at a few places and this was probably the best. I have a confession to make. As a non-vegan, I never would have liked a cheesesteak. I don't really like sandwiches... I hated anything I had to chew too much or that was too hard to bite through, and the idea of a steak sandwich would never have sounded good to me at any point in my life. I know there is no steak on this sandwich, and very thinly sliced homemade seitan, doused in a homemade vegan whiz sauce, and it was pretty good for what it was. But honestly, I just don't think cheesesteaks and me were ever meant to live happily together. I'm not actually from Philly, so hopefully they'll let me stay after having said that.


Green Eggs Cafe has three locations in the city, and one happens to be in my neighborhood. In my opinion, they do a great job making a vegan perfectly comfortable there, offering lots of options and variations of items to make them vegan. I got the breakfast burrito that had tofu, corn, housemade vegan chorizo and pico de gallo. It came with these amazing refried black beans that had great smoky flavor and a proper amount of guac. I loved my dish, but Alex didn't love his. He got the veggie burger that is listed on the menu as vegan, but when he ordered he was told that the bun wasn't vegan, and they gave him an option to have it on toast instead. He went with it anyway and unfortunately the burger wasn't good, they had buttered (with Earth Balance I think) the toast, which he really didn't like and doused it with chipotle mayo. He was really disappointed with it, so if you go, get the breakfast burrito!! Be aware that the portions at this restaurant are huge. Some of the plates I saw coming out of this restaurant had enough on them to feed about four people.


What is a Philly-Style Bagel? Well, it's a bagel that is boiled in beer before being baked! To that I say, Alright! Philly Style Bagels in Fishtown has a line out the door, amazingly nice people, great coffee, and great vegan options. They have two types of vegan cream cheese, earth balance, jam, cashew butter and almond butter. With Philly Style Bagels within walking distance, I want for nothing.



Don't think we haven't been putting our patio table to good use. We have been doing some evening drinking of Yards with friends out on our patio and damn do we love it.



The first visit, I ordered the Breakfast Burrito, because a restaurant is only as good as its breakfast burrito. This one was pretty standard, your tofu, cheeze, bacony bits and not much else. It was what you want from a breakfast burrito, and somehow I'm only just realizing now that I didn't douse it in guac, which is normal practice for me. Next time.


Alex, on both visits, got the chicken and waffles, as he is wont to do, and as he always did at Champs.


More from Isa Does It, this is the Trumpet Mushroom, Tofu and Asparagus Sauté over mashed potatoes. Okay, so I made a pretty giant vat of mashed potatoes and made four different dishes to go with them. This fit the bill, a veggie sauté with a fair amount of sauce to soak into the potatoes. I love mushrooms, y'all.


There's a Barcade within walking distance and they have 2 types of vegan tacos for $2 each and I'm unemployed so basically I have been here more than I care to admit this past month. The beer selection is great and on Fridays they have happy hour during which you can get 2 tacos, a beer and nachos (no cheese for vegans, but hey free chips) all for $10. Hipster Blue Plate Special.


West Philly seems pretty great. They are home to the only bodegas that I have seen in Philly and it pains me that I cannot walk two blocks and get bread, beer, vegan peanut butter cups and dish soap in one trip at 3am anymore. The institution of the Bodega is amazing, and I miss it. Check your boxes of pasta for maggots first, but besides that, I miss my bodega. I digress. This is what a Dottie's Donut looks like.


After Dottie's, we went to Philly Zine Fest. I picked up a few cute zines and got excited to make my own. I am currently in the process of making two!


Tonight  I made Chickpeas and Escarole in White Wine Broth from Isa Does It over mashed potatoes. They didn't have any escarole at Whole Foods (I miss my bodega) so I got a mixture of spinach and mustard greens instead. This dish was so amazing. It had lots of tang from the caper brine and a spicy hit of red pepper flakes. This read so authentically Italian for me. I want to make it for my father-in-law, who I always cook Italian food with. I think it want to marinate some tofu in roasted garlic and lemon, then grill it, and serve it over the top. Also, this was ready in 20 minutes. You can't beat that for Monday,

More Philly food and fun soon--
xo,
KZ

 I moved! Alex and I live in Philly now, and a lot has changed since my last post. Things have been extremely hectic, both good and bad, but now we're here and I'm looking forward to building a new life in Philly. We just started exploring our new neighborhood in the past couple days, and it seems ripe with vegan options, and I do plan to eat all the vegan cheesesteaks at all the various locations across the city (and the options are plentiful), and I intend to start with Blackbird because everyone says it's the best. I already ordered (and got delivery!!) from there a few times, but so far haven't tried the cheesesteak, and no, I don't know why not. I ate at V-Street and basically cursed the whole time because it was so good. I am anxiously anticipating my upcoming reservation at Vedge later this month for our first wedding anniversary dinner, and I plan to eat everything on the menu. I will go into debt for this dinner if I have to. It's that good. Plus, I'm dying to give it a chance to remind me that it knocks Dirt Candy on it's ass, because as you remember, Dirt Candy got high marks from us when we went in February. My outfit that night was on point, so I think it makes my memory of our dinner there even fonder, but anyway- we're coming for Vedge and we're going to eat all its tofu and give zero fucks.
So in my new apartment, I was bestowed a new kitchen, place of cooking, plentiful counterspace, a vent(!), and most importantly, baby's first dishwasher. What it lacks in natural light, it makes up for in gorgeous countertops over 2 feet deep, magical cabinet real-estate and enough space for a tiny table, on it's merry way from Amazon. I made this salad in it, my fave salad probably ever, buffalo tempeh with super perfect summer cherry tomatoes, from a Whole Foods I now live dangerously close to, and Terri Ranch, because I obviously wouldn't leave town without grabbing a bottle to bring to the new land of PA.


When we were driving to Philly in a moving truck, I remembered that my favorite beer is from Philly, and we couldn't get it in NYC, so I was super psyched to remember that we could have it again and loudly exclaimed, "YARDS!" and perilously freaked Alex out, who was driving during the very early morning hours in the pouring rain, and made him think we forgot our keys or something. Nope, just remembered about beer. False alarm.



Not a very vibrant photo, but the frosting is colorful too. Again with the bad lighting and unedited photos. Duly noted.


Frosting game needs work. Also I brought my cake frosting turntable back to Massachusetts to leave in my mom's basement and now I want it back! Also, I never make enough frosting! I wanted to write something on the cake, but didn't have enough frosting left and it started melting. More cakes soon, more practice, more better.


I've made a couple things from Isa Does It in my new kitchen, mostly because they are easy and old favorites. This one is Seitan with Broccoli and Pantry BBQ Sauce. It's one of Alex's favorites, which works out well for me because it is so easy.


I want to be blogging more during this transitional phase of my life, in addition to doing more of the things I love to do but hardly found time for when I was in New York. I am looking for jobs, but also taking my time to find the right one, change fields, try new things, meet new people, and use this move as a way to start over and work on changing the things about my life I don't love and fill my life with more things that I do love. Can't wait to see all the new sights, eat all the vegan food (which there is tons of here), and hang with all the Philly vegans and punx alike, so hit me up if you are nearby, passing through or know someone who is.

More soon and with more frequency,
KZ <3