Vegan Food Swap Reveal July 2012 July 30, 2012

I did the food swap hosted by Cat at The Verdant Life again this month. This time more non-bloggers participated, and I was assigned a non-blogger named Anne to send a box to. Since she lives more than 100 miles away from a Trader Joe’s I decided to send her a box full of my current favorite treats from TJs. I bought cookie butter, seaweed snacks, sea salt chocolate covered almonds and more. I forgot to take a picture though, so you will just have to imagine the goodness.

I was sent a box by another non-blogger named Tiana. She sent me a box full of some goodies from Trader Joe’s as well, including the seaweed snacks I had sent to Anne, funny enough.

She included some vegan cookies from Trader Joe’s I had never seen before, some pomegranate jelly, the aforementioned seaweed snacks, a roasted brown rice green tea that sounds interesting, a bag of cinnamon and agave sweet potato tortilla chips that sound amazing. The last item was a bag of peanut butter filled pretzels that I opened about ten seconds after opening the package. They were the perfect snack to eat while watching world class athletes complete at the Olympics.

If you want to participate in the swap next month sign up here, if you are in the United States. If you are in Canada, sign up here. If you are somewhere else in the world, start your own swap! Don’t worry if you aren’t a blogger, you can always guest post on Cat’s blog, or on the blog of the blogger you are paired with.

Thanks Tiana, I love the treats!

Wild Prairie Bakery July 22, 2012

I turned 27 almost two weeks ago and all I really wanted for my birthday was vegan cake. Not just any vegan cake would do, though. I wanted one that was like the (non-vegan) cake of my childhood. Every year, my Mom would get me a chocolate cake with raspberry filling and piped frosting flowers on top. To fulfill this desire, I made my way out to Wild Prairie Bakery in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle.

Wild Prairie is run by a very sweet woman named Megan. She bakes an assortment of cookies, cupcakes and pain au chocolate every day, as well as baking cakes for special orders. I went out there the Saturday before my birthday to have brunch and to order my cake.

It was a very nice, sunny Seattle weekend day, so when I arrived I wasn’t completely surprised to find that I was the only person in the bakery. People were missing out though, I had a wonderful brunch of tofu scramble with fruit while I finalized my cake order decision.

Brunch menu

The tofu scramble was chock full of veggies, lots of kale which is always a huge plus in my book. My only complaint would be that a side of fruit should be more than a strawberry and a slice of orange. The small amount of fruit did mean that I had room to order a pain au chocolate (which I failed to get a picture of) so it isn’t all bad.

Tofu scramble with fruit

By the time I finished eating, I had settled on a chocolate cake with vegan chocolate butter cream filling and raspberry frosting. I asked Megan to decorate it with “whatever flowers inspired her.” I returned on the day before my birthday to pick it up, and I couldn’t have been happier. It was beautiful.

My beautiful birthday cake

I took it to work the next day to share with my (mostly omni) coworkers, and they loved it. I believe a happy dance was performed by one of them upon the first bite. I loved it as well, it was super rich, but not too sweet. The frosting was thick (it had been refrigerated due to the buttercream filling) but not so thick so you felt like you were eating fondant, and it tasted like fresh raspberries, because it was made from fresh local raspberries picked just days ahead of time.

Wild Prairie will be hearing from me each July, if not many times before then as well.

Wild Prairie is located at 2019 NW Market Street, Seattle WA 98107.

EDIT: Wild Prairie Bakery is now closed, the owner had to close up shop due to health issues in late 2012.

Chloe Coscarelli Book Signing July 1, 2012

In late May I had the fun opportunity to attend one of Chloe Coscarelli’s book signing events to promote her new book, Chloe’s Kitchen. It was held at Book Larder, a bookstore in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle that sells nothing but cookbooks. It is a small, adorable space with a full service kitchen space in the front for cooking demos. 

The store owners made Chloe’s famous Cupcake Wars winning ginger nutmeg spice cupcakes for attendees to enjoy as we lined up to get our books signed.

Mini vegan ginger nutmeg spice cupcakes.

Chloe is just as lovely and sweet in person as you would expect, she signed my book as I chatted with her and her mother about the faux Hostess cupcakes (“Chloestess cupcakes” as she calls them) that I made for a bake off at work that won in the vegan category. I don’t look very thrilled to be meeting her in this photo, but it is because I am trying to teach the woman taking the photo how to use my iPhone. Trust me, I was much happier than I appear.

Meeting Chef Chloe.

Chloe’s book is full of wonderful recipes, all simple and easy to make. This is the kind of food that I would make to impress my omni friends and family. I have made the yoga cookies (page 245), Chloestess cupcakes (page 205), and the stuffed shells with arrabbiata sauce (page 149). All are dishes I would make again for myself or take to a potluck.

If you haven’t already I would highly recommend adding Chloe’s Kitchen to your cookbook collection.