C'est La Vegan

I couldn’t think of a better way to end Vegan MoFo (and to celebrate Halloween at the same time) than with our beautiful cat, Maya!  I wanted to write about her for my last MoFo post because she had a lot to do with us going vegetarian. I think when you live with an animal, [...]

I know that the pasta up there looks a little crazy, but man did it taste good!  I bought it at the Mangi Con Amore stand at the Hollywood Farmers Market in anticipation of wanting a simple weeknight meal, and that shape – Traditional Trofie – was recommended as going really  well with pesto sauce. [...]

Ah, Biscuits and Gravy, one of Ryan’s all-time favorite dishes.  Before I stopped eating meat, I’d never had “real” biscuits and gravy.  Being the picky eater that I was, the idea of blobby, white sausage gravy grossed me out.  Gravy was definitely not something I ate as a kid, and even as an adult I [...]

I saw Nigella Lawson make this Middle Eastern roasted eggplant dip on one of her cooking shows years ago, and since then I’ve made it many times for get togethers at our place, or as a dish to bring to a party. This doesn’t have an overpowering eggplant flavor, so even if it’s not your [...]

Last week in my  Bakin Wrapped Dates post I mentioned a Date Cake that I’d made, and here it is!  When I first passed the date stand at the Farmers Market I had a flash of this cake that my Mom had made when I was little.  I probably remembered it because dates sounded really [...]

A few years ago I saw a Good Eats episode featuring fried plantains.  They looked and sounded so good, and I made a mental note that I’d have to try them someday. Cut to breakfast a few months ago at Hugo’s Restaurant.  They were featuring a special that had plantains as part of the dish, [...]

The other day when I was looking for a particular post, I came across this photo in a draft that I had totally forgotten about.  I have no idea how this slipped through the cracks!  I meant to write about it this summer, and just forgot I guess.  Poor loaf. I made this when Ryan [...]

Recently when I was buying our produce at the Market, I passed by the date stand (Dates by Davall) and thought I’d take a look.  The woman at the stand encouraged me to try the samples, and I have to admit I was a little freaked out to eat one plain. I’d read about them [...]

I love this photo.  I know that tomatoes feel like summer, so these aren’t exactly seasonal.  But it’s hot here again, so when the weather is so confusing, why not just go with it? Man oh man did I HATE tomatoes as a kid.  I wouldn’t even touch ketchup or tomato sauce.  I wonder how [...]

I’ve been obsessed with trifles for a long time.  For years I would save cake scraps in the freezer (much to Ryan’s annoyance), just waiting for the day when I would use them in this amazing dessert.  But I didn’t have a trifle dish, so that was my excuse.  Then I finally got one, however, [...]

I finally got the chance to eat some Taste of Life a couple months ago, and I’m probably the last vegan in LA to try this stuff!  It’s certainly old news to many, but since becoming a vendor at the Hollywood Farmers’ Market, Ryan and I have had it almost every week.  Apparently they’ve closed [...]

Back at the end of August (was it really that long ago?), I wrote about our trip to Santa Barbara wine country and Ditmar’s Apple Farm.  These are some of the beautiful Gala apples we purchased on the trip.  I meant to write about the apple cake that I made after that trip, but the post [...]

When I became a vendor at the Hollywood Farmers’ Market, I had no idea what the other vendors would be like.  We’d done some other farmers markets and most of the people were very nice, but you never really know what you’re in for.  So driving over to Hollywood that morning, I was pretty nervous. [...]