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.

Things I Ate This Weekend September 26, 2011

I was a bad food blogger this weekend and didn’t take a picture of everything I ate, so here are just a few of the highlights.

Vegan Sushi

Veggie platter from Pan Africa (Seattle, WA)

Fried plantains with mango sorbet and chocolate sauce at Pan Africa (Seattle, WA).

Almond tarts with mango sorbet at Pan Africa (Seattle, WA).

Not food, but these cute socks make me happy.

Monday, Monday, Sure Isn’t Sunday September 20, 2011

Today was such a Monday. One of those days where everything at work seemed to go wrong, from the minute I hit the building. They are doing construction and today they were laying down carpet, which means glue. Stinky glue, which is probably (make that certainly) not vegan, but I was less concerned about that and more concerned about the fact that that stuff is toxic and was filling my lungs with all kinds of nasty chemicals. Add to that a database that kept telling me it was corrupt and you have a crappy day.

As I kept willing the database to just give me my data, I kept daydreaming about what I would do in a few hours to cheer myself up. A trip to Lush seemed in order, as I had somehow let myself run out of bath bombs, which is tragic. They have a special deal going on a tin of 9 bath bombs, all but one which are vegan, so I bought it, of course. The one that isn’t vegan, has honey in it, but I may just use it anyway, as honey is one of my flexible things right now. [Sidenote: I tell people that if honey is the only thing that makes something not vegan (and I am not purchasing it for myself, or in this case, purchasing it separately) then I will still use it. If I am intentionally buying the product then honey makes it a no-go.]

Bath Bomb Set from Lush.

Another cheer up? Vegan pho. The vegan world (at least my vegan Twitter pals) have gone pho crazy in the past few weeks, so they are certainly feeding my cravings. The pho place was out of tofu, but they made up for it by adding extra veggies. They assured me that “tomorrow we will have tofu. You will come back.” So, I guess, pho tomorrow too? 🙂

Vegan pho, no tofu this time.

All in all, my Monday ended up OK. Minor Monday annoyances can usually be fixed with a little vegan comfort food and retail therapy.

What brings you comfort after a bad day?