I mostly just care about the food for Superbowl parties. If my team is playing, I'll of course pay more attention and get excited for touchdowns, but I usually prefer to be in the kitchen and bringing out the snacks. As soon as everyone sees me come out they look so excited to see me, but really they are just excited for what I'm bringing for them to eat. This time I made the Life-Affirming Nacho Dip from Oh She Glows, a dish that I constantly see on my friends' blogs getting rave reviews. It did not disappoint! I ate quite a lot of this, even using carrots to dip -- which is strange since it's made from a carrot base.



I also made the BBQ Chickpea Snack from The Abundance Diet. These were gone pretty quick, since I only made about 1 1/2 cups, or 1 can's worth of chickpeas. Can't exactly go wrong with something called BBQ Chickpea Snack.


I tried the Kite Hill Ravioli the other day. I got the spinach ricotta flavor. I swear there's only about 10 ravioli in each package, so basically one package feeds one person. I threw away the receipt, but I think I paid $8 each. They were good, but not mind-blowing. The price was too crazy to buy again. It made me want to make my own ravioli more often. I think I could make them just as good, and the labor of love makes them just a little more tasty. Nye mean?


The ravioli reminded me of when Alex and I first moved away, we used to eat frozen ravioli all the time. Such formative years! A few years later I was making my own tortellini by the hundred and selling vegan cupcakes to everyone I knew. It feels like a million years ago.


Last night it was windy and chilly and Pot Pie was speaking loudly to me. I made the Vegetable Pot Pie from Thug Kitchen 2, using their recipe for Coconut Oil Crust, leaving out the sugar, adding a little salt, and some dried basil. It's a whole wheat pastry flour crust with tons of coconut oil, so it was super flaky and delicious.


I loaded the filling with leftover veggies and even roasted some cauliflower and broccoli to sprinkle over the top. Roasted cauliflower is like butter. It's so amazing! So toasty and nutty, almost like nothing else, at least no other vegetable I can think of.




Dip Night!! Okay, my mom used to make what she called "dip night" for my brother and I when she didn't feel like cooking. She would make some frozen nuggets or something we never usually ate, leftover cucumber slices,and celery sticks and then pour different salad dressings into little silver "dip dishes" and we got to dip different veggies into different sauces and it was so fun! We begged for dip night all the time, which was a strange win for my mom, because it was virtually no work. Now I have translated much of this tradition barring the "no work" aspect. One night, the night of the big snow storm where we got 3 feet of snow(!), I got dip night in my head and I just couldn't let it go. So I went to the crazy mobbed store for vegetables and tofu, the only types of food left. I got home and made tons of dip! Left to right is the Roasted Red Pepper Dip, Creamy White Bean Pesto Dip, Roasted Garlic Dip, and Spinach Artichoke Dip, all from Thug Kitchen 2. I also made the Cornmeal Roasted Potatoes from the book, breaded tofu cubes, and had veggies and triscuits for dipping. Dip Feast!


The following night Alex was sick of dip, and demanded pizza. He is so spoiled! I made this pizza inspired by the In Ricotta Da Vegan pizza from Paulie Gee's that I love so very much. I used tofutti ricotta, which I immediately regretted, since making my own from cashews and tofu is soooo much tastier, and some spicy sausages from my freezer. Not the same as the restaurant, but still good.



A few days a week, Alex walks half way to work with me and we stop at Coffeed to sit and chat before I go off to work for the day and he stays there and works. I have been getting Matcha Soy Lattes a lot, and this time the barista made it pretty for me! It always makes it more fun to drink when it is pretty like that.


Another weeknight dinner was the Queso-ish-dillas from Thug Kitchen 2. The queso is made from butternut squash, and the filling is pinto beans, tomatoes and cabbage slaw. They really sing when you hit them with a big scoop of guac. Who wouldn't sing when hit with a big scoop of guac??



Since I am childless and in my late twenties, it's prime time to make #irresponsbilepurchases. Such purchases include 8 Sleater-Kinney albums with limited-edition presses with 7" singles and autographed posters and hard-cover alternate-artwork-deluxe-2-disk-white-180 gram vinyl .


I spent many snowy hours reading while spinning these new beloved purchases. My life is dope.


After having a bad experience at Roberta's this fall, I vowed not to return. I like Paulie Gee's just as much, and now I think even better, and they have so many vegan options there. Roberta's just got a little old to me, waiting 2 hours to get a tomato pie with mushrooms for $15, and don't forget the $9 beer, sometimes even in a can. And if you have bad service just once, it should probably be enough to keep you away forever. Alex, however, did not share the same opinion, and the pizza was calling his name one afternoon after the shop-up. We walked over, and the wait for 2 (at 3pm on a saturday) was already 60 minutes. We hung out and played Street Fighter while drinking delicious, albeit overpriced IPAs while we waited in the lovely snowy backyard. The pizza was very good, even though I think Alex ate most of mine. I am not really a pizza fiend, totally on #teampasta but I understand that Alex needs pizza to live, in the same way that I need pasta to live, so I understand.




 I made both Kebob recipes from Thug Kitchen 2 which were both involving grilled tempeh and veggies, but one had pineapple with sweet & sour sauce, and the other had chimichurri sauce. I made their Twiced Baked Spinach Potatoes to go alongside. Fun, but time-consuming if you're not using an outdoor grill. I'm living that #apartmentlife so I'll always be grilling on a mini grill pan with a standing fan blowing the smoke out the window. Classy.


I feel like this was the bro-iest meal I ever made. I feel like I will see this meal on all the weight-lifting people's instagrams later. I made it for the deliciousness, which was imminent. It was the Blackened Broiled Tofu from Appetite For Reduction and the Roasted Parmesan Asparagus from Chloe's Vegan Italian Kitchen.  And a Fireside Chat to drink!


One night I was feeling like pasta, and nothing else would do. I made some angelhair with red sauce and the Italian Chopped Salad from Chloe's Vegan Italian Kitchen which was very nostalgic of the kind of food we get to eat when we visit my father-in-law in Florida. I can't wait to go this year!

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 :)

I totally tricked my husband by calling this soup "Broccoli Carrot Soup" instead of it's actual name, "Cheddary Broccoli Soup" from Isa Does It. If you never ate broccoli cheddar soup out of a bread bowl from Panera, then you may not understand the thrill, but for the rest of the human population, I give you a version that is MUCH BETTER than any soup Panera has ever managed to scoop into a bowl, made of bread or otherwise. It is super cheesy, hearty and amazing. I served it in an actual bowl, but I used bread slices as my utensil. The spoon is only a prop for the picture.


During Vegan Mofo, I mostly just posted on Instagram for whichever prompts I could manage. Here is the one from the prompt to veganize an old family recipe. Maybe the only food I missed when I went vegan was scallops. My mom used to make this baked scallop casserole that I loved, and so I figure why not try to veganize that? I'd seen some impressive vegan scallops on Olives For Dinner's blog from mofos past so I went with the king oyster mushroom stem idea. I sliced the stems in scallop-sized pieces, and soaked them in a garlic and veggie broth bath. After that, I seared them in my skillet. Then I made a cashew cream sauce using cashews, leftover scallop marinade, and a nori sheet. I poured the sauce over the scallops, then mixed in a ton of Ritz-style vegan crackers and dotted with Earth Balance (don't judge me). I baked it until browned. Observe.


The scallops tasted really tough, and I think maybe I should have not seared them, or I don't know I'm not sure. Maybe they should have been cut into smaller baby scallops. Who's to say? Flavorwise this was spot on. It tasted like the sea from the nori sauce, and creamy from the cashews. The crackers were some sort of Ritz knock-off that were just cheaper and accidentally vegan. I don't usually buy crappy products like that but it was for the sake of veganizing a casserole, and so I strove for authenticity above all else. I hear you judging me. Quit it.


We finally went to a shop-up at Spreadhouse, a random coffee shop that virtually serves no vegan food normally. They host a shop-up for vegans every once in a while, so we went down, hung out with our friend Lauren from Cake Thieves, ate macarons and Yeah Dawgs, and Alex got this bbq seitan sandwich from Monks Meats. I ate one of the pickles off it.



Whenever I ask Alex to cook, he makes one of two dishes: BBQ chickpea salad, or Potato Leek Soup. Guess which one this is?


It's a family favorite in our house (tiny apartment) and the recipe we use is from Isa Does It. It's pretty amazingly easy, you just chop a couple things, sauté, simmer, and blend. So simple-- just don't tell Alex. He's a beginner.

I had pickles on the brain ever since I got some pickles from Brooklyn Brine at the shop-up a few weeks ago. They were so unbelievably delicious and they were perfect for me while I was doing my salad and smoothie reign-of-terror diet, because whenever someone would eat cake in front of me, or drink a beer in front of me/spill a beer on me, I just ate one of these pickles, and everything was calm again. When I ran out of them it was rough. The hanger sets in quick. That's why we went to the Pickle Shack in Brooklyn. We went on my post-salad diet, which is no diet at all. We began with fried pickles, because it's pickle heresy not to.


They have the best beers at the pickle shack. I got a Founder's Mosaic Promise. Alex thought we could share. Pffft. I ended up drinking 2 1/2. They were delicious.


I ordered the Carolina-style BBQ Pulled Mushroom Sandwich. And a Kale Salad, of course. Old habits die hard. It came with a pickle and I made a strange noise while I ate it. Alex thought there was something wrong with me, but actually it was just a really good pickle.


Can someone please explain wtf this stone slab is doing here and where tf is my plate???


The mushroom sandwich was dope, as I knew it would be. Alex went for the veggie burger, and that's a rookie mistake. A good veggie burger is very few and far between. You order it only when you must, or when you know it is the best thing on the menu. This $16 pile of mushy seitan was not worth it. He said it was okay, but I took a bite and deemed it under par. Isn't it weird how the best veggie burgers are found in the strangest places?? My favorite veggie burger ever is made at a non-vegan Brew-pub called Harvest Moon in the college town of New Brunswick, NJ, home of the grease truck and "Fat Sandwich." No seriously- it's the best veggie burger I've ever had.


Dat ketchup tho. They make their own and it is something worthy of a standing ovation.


For dessert we split the Huckleberry cobbler. The definition of a cobbler is disputed. Many consider it the same as "crisp" with an oat-brown sugar topping baked on top of the fruit in a large dish, some consider it a dish of fruit with cake batter poured over it and baked, others consider it cake batter with fruit on top of it and baked, and some people think of it as shortcake, just fresh fruit with biscuits. This version of cobbler, was a berry-cake sort of stew with a scoop of vegan vanilla ice cream on top. Now, let's be clear. The main event is the ice cream. But somehow all together, you get the sweet berries with a little savory (corn) batter the cold ice cream all meeting the hot berry-stew. It sounds weird but it's very, very magical.



Another day during vegan mofo, you were supposed to make a dish that someone or something famous would eat if they were vegan. I was slightly confused by the question, since we all could eat vegan food, whether we are vegan or not, so I waited until some other people posted theirs before I picked mine. It was kind of an homage to a character or to a person who is known for loving a dish, like Popeye, who loves spinach, or Garfield, who loves lasagna. I quickly noted that doing a cartoon character was the easiest way to go for this, and decided if the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were all vegan, they'd order this pizza from Vinnie's. I'ts a vegan "chicken-parm-style" pizza, with marinara, teese, and some kind of vegan chicken bits. No anchovies, of course, since that is the Turtles' one specification about their pizza.


We took a little road trip up to North Adams, MA to go to the Mass MoCa museum. North Adams is in the top left-hand corner of the Berkshires by the borders of VT & NY. It's a really pretty drive, albeit a long one, but it was actually starting to look a little like fall up there.






 Some of the pieces are performance art pieces, which I've never been a big fan of, nor understood in general. But I did enjoy Jim Shaw's exhibit, Entertaining Doubts. Very surreal but satirical. I want to see his show in NYC later this month.
Here's Alex looking  like he's too cool for art school:




This is the first time I felt like moving back to New England since leaving home after college.


NYC is great. I will miss the shit out of it when I leave. But we can't stay forever.


We went apple-picking with Jessica and Ava while we were home! Ava's first apple-picking trip! She's only 17 months, but we decided to bring her along to help pick apples for fun! The tractor that picked us up had a little dog in the front :)




I love how cheap things are in MA. We filled a gigantic bag full of apples that was overflowing with apples, at least like 50 apples, for $25. I also got a huge butternut squash for $2. Did I tell you how I paid $15 for 6 peaches at the farmers market by my apartment?? WTF is the deal??


I love fall! I can accessorize fully! Here I am modeling the Vegan Fall 1 catalogue for the season: black leggings and flannel plaid dress, vegan belt, jean jacket, acrylic scarf, purple high socks, vegan boots, and knit hat. All this can be yours from the KZ collection this fall only.





So anyway, Alex's dad is a singer, and he played a show at the Big E! He got us some tickets so we could see him play before we went back to New York for the week. It was fun to see him play, especially since I don't think I've seen him play in over 5 years!


When we got back to NYC, it was chilly and wonderful. Fall has been making me want to stay in bed and snuggle forever. It's finally not boiling temperature in my apartment and I can pull the covers over me without fear of waking up a puddle. Not just in a puddle-- but KZ being just a puddle. It is finally Chili Weather!!! I made a batch of my favorite chili and cornbread and watched a movie, Heathers, to be exact. It was odd, but I liked it anyway.


While my friend Amey from Vegan Eats & Treats was in NYC visiting, I got to meet up with her for dinner at Peacefood! We were busy gabbing about all things vegan and NYC so all I managed to take was this photo of my favorite thing from Peacefood, the fluffy quinoa salad. I've been following Amey's blog for years so it was great to meet her and her husband finally!


We have so many shows to go to this fall! We had tickets to Beirut at Radio City last week! We haven't been there in at least three years, so it was nice to go back. It's really an amazing space. It's so beautiful inside, and very different from the spots we normally see shows at. Last time we had better seats, but this time we were in the very last row of the orchestra. We could still hear fine, but being up close is definitely cooler. Beirut was great! It always gives me nostalgia listening to them. It puts me back in college in Painting I, listening to Gulag Orkestar while I painted with acrylics, listening to "Postcards from Italy" on repeat. Basic? Maybe but it still makes me nostalgic.



Alex begged me to make strombolis again. It's a serious job, and it's not very healthy for you, but once every 6-8 months I'll give in and we reminisce about our Stuff Yer Face days where I learned to drink beer and eat bad salad.





Highlight of the weekend was seeing Destroyer at Webster Hall. He was so amazing. This was my first time seeing him live, but I went with a bunch of people who'd seen him a lot of times and said he's always amazing. He had a full band with horns, saxophone and keyboards, along with the usual drums, bass and guitar, but I could hear each instrument really perfectly. The whole band was really on, and I always appreciate when the band puts on an amazing performance because it isn't always the case. A+ to Destroyer, I've been a fan for many years.



Of course at the first sign of cold weather I had to make the Dilly Stew With Rosemary Dumplings from Isa Does It. This soup is so comforting and amazing for cold weather days. Just make it, and you'll understand. No really, make it, and like it. It will hypnotize you into enjoying the cold weather. It's happened to me before.


I still have about 10 apples left from apple-picking, but I had about 20 before I made this apple crisp! I was making my soup and thought I could throw this together while it simmered. I used the recipe from Vegan Pie In The Sky because I'd never actually made that recipe before and I actually had all the necessary ingredients on hand, like apple cider :) I used the remainder of my So Delicious Cashew Ice Cream to top our bowls.






More fall food to follow!
<3
KZ