Thankful for Kind Cupcakes & Pie

The thing about Blogging is that I've discovered I kind of suck at it. Blog posts are supposed to be short & sweet (good reads for people with short attention spans who have a million and twelve other things that they could be looking at on the internet) and frequent (none of these crazy long breaks of several weeks -or in my case months- between posts).

Despite resigning myself to the reality that I suck at it, I find that I really do enjoy it. Kind of like singing. It's totally therapeutic. And having avoided blogging for a few months, I have a greater appreciation for how much I do enjoy it, if for no other reason than because I like talking about kind food, and I like looking at pictures of kind food, and I like preparing kind food, and I like going out and eating kind food and then talking about the kind food I ate. Same goes for kind shoes and kind purses and kind makeup and kind car seats.

Kind stuff is awesome.

Which brings me to my latest kind obsession. For my birthday in September I got a stunning cookbook: Chloe's Kitchen by the incredibly talented and adorable Chloe Coscarelli.

She gained recognition after blowing away the competition on Cupcake Wars with her vegan cupcakes, and has been charming the world with her insanely delicious food and lovable personality ever since. She definitely won me over, as evidenced by my almost daily quality time with her cookbook.

I seriously want to quit my job and just stay home all day and cook and bake stuff out of this book.

Anybody would after trying the recipe that sealed the deal for her on Cupcake Wars...the Ginger Nutmeg Spice Cupcake (Chloe's Kitchen p. 201).

I tried this recipe last month in preparation for Thanksgiving (us crazy Canadians celebrate in October). We spent Thanksgiving with some lovely friends, and I was especially thankful because they were hosting our first totally vegan Thanksgiving :) Not all our friends are vegan of course, but it is especially convenient having Thanksgiving dinner with the ones that are.

I was tasked with bringing dessert, and of course Chloe's cupcakes instantly came to mind as the perfect fall dessert...I mean, how could you go wrong with pumpkin, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, vanilla, and a Cupcake Wars championship title? Yahhhhh...you really can't.

Unless you're allergic to cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves, as is one of my co-workers. Then you could totally go wrong with this recipe. But that's the ONLY time, because this recipe is otherwise seriously perfect in every way imaginable.

The cake itself is moist and the spices come through beautifully, balanced perfectly with the fluffy vanilla bean buttercream. It's super easy to make too...the hardest thing about this recipe is scraping out the vanilla bean. The date caramel is the perfect finishing touch, and is also super easy to make...I just threw all the ingredients in my magic bullet (I did find that the recipe yielded wayyyy more date caramel than I needed). Now I just need to get one of those squeeze bottles for drizzling it on the icing.

I was so thrilled with the results that I gave into my inner fangirl and tweeted the pic to Chef Chloe...and being the sweetheart she is she made my night and re-tweeted me, because she is awesome like that :)

So these cupcakes were definitely a go for Thanksgiving dinner, but to put a festive spin on them I colored my Thanksgiving batch orange (with natural food coloring of course).

And to keep them safe I transported them in my nifty little cupcake transporter, a birthday gift from my bff :)

And because I'm Polish and we're all about overdoing it in the food department, I also made Cosmos Apple Pie from Vegan Pie in the Sky (p. 125) topped with Rad Whip (Vegan Pie in the Sky p. 199) which I paired with Luna & Larry's Coconut Bliss Ginger Cookie Caramel ice cream, resulting in the most amazing pie-ice cream combo to ever grace a Thanksgiving table. It was declared (and I quote), "The most incredible apple pie any of us have ever tasted."

Rob's Rating: 
Ginger Nutmeg Spice Cupcakes - 4.5 Happy Tongues
Cosmos Apple Pie - 5 Happy Tongues

My Rating:
Ginger Nutmeg Spice Cupcakes - 5 Happy Tongues
Cosmos Apple Pie - 5 Happy Tongues

Both desserts were absolute perfection in my opinion. I definitely felt the earth shatter and heard the cherubim singing.

It was a pretty perfect end to an incredible kind Thanksgiving dinner of white borscht, millet cakes, breaded Gardein cutlets, mashed potatoes, scalloped potatoes, gnocchi, and veggies.

The table looks so pretty without a big dead bird in the middle.

Indeed, I am thankful for the start of kinder traditions.

And in the spirit of sharing our thankfulness, I'm thankful for my handsome Galahad's first mom, who sent me the above pic, and I'm thankful that she entrusted me with him when she had to find him a new home a few years ago.

And I'm thankful for banned ads, because when something is banned it makes people all the more inclined to watch it.

And I'm thankful for sanctuaries and rescue organizations and wonderful, compassionate people who appreciate the beauty and value and dignity of all sentient beings.

And rainbows. I'm definitely thankful for rainbows.

Viva Las Vegan!

Ahhh Vegas...a land of indulgence and debauchery, where you can forget about reality for a while and lose yourself in a world of entertainment, gambling, eating, shopping, and not have a care in the world.

Until you get the Visa bill.

But let's not bring ourselves down with silly things like the unpleasant reality of financial responsibilities. Rather, let us lose ourselves in a world where vegan fine dining is quickly emerging among the steak and lobster and (nasty) foie gras typically found in the multitude of classy Vegas restaurants.

:)

This year, as we did the year before, we went to Vegas to celebrate my bff's birthday.

It was an extra special trip for her because it was also her babymoon :) Yes indeed, bff Jr. will be making his appearance this December :) Superduper exciting!!

I've been to Vegas a few times, and one of my favourite restaurants is Sensi at Bellagio. The space is very calming, almost spa-like, with beautiful blues and beiges and browns and water features and a glass kitchen in the centre of the restaurant so you can see your food being prepared.

Sadly, in recent years we had stopped eating there because of the nasty Sonoma foie gras on their menu. Last year when our friends ate there they left this helpful suggestion on their receipt...

Given that foie gras sale and production was banned in California on July 1, 2012, I was hopeful that the Sonoma foie gras would be off the Sensi menu this year.

And indeed it was!

I was thrilled, especially since I had heard amazing things about a vegan risotto that was not on the menu, and I was eager to try it. So we made a reso and met the bff and her husband/babydaddy J for a delicious evening of Sensi awesomeness.

Appies to start the evening off...I think yes.

Heirloom tomato melon salad and arugula beet salad (easily veganized)

Light, tasty. Pretty perfect appies, in my opinion, though Rob the Husband was a little bored. 

His boredom was short-lived, however, upon being presented with his sweet corn risotto entree:

This was pretty dang spectacular, and I have no idea why they don't feature it on their regular menu. The sweet corn really makes this risotto something special, lending a fantastic contrasting texture to the typical creaminess of the risotto. Why is this not on the regular menu??? Insanity.

As per our waiter's suggestion, I ordered the Diver Scallops with Asian vegetables and Jasmine rice, except they replaced the scallops with tofu. Meaning, they actually cut the tofu into the shape of scallops and seared it like they would sear scallops. Awesome :)

My tofu looks like scallops :) I love that :) :) :) And I'm a huge fan of Asian veggies and curry any day of the week, especially when there are mushrooms involved, so yah, this dish was absolutely perfect. I love seeing creativity and care go into specialty dishes, and I love when a chef treats a dietary request as an opportunity to get creative in the kitchen, not as an inconvenience.

Seriously great dinner. And you know what goes great with a seriously great dinner? Seriously great dessert.

Now, normally, I don't get too enthused about desserts from non-vegetarian restaurants, since I always end up with the default sorbet. Which is still delicious, don't get me wrong. But because it's literally the ONLY dessert that most restaurants have to offer in the tittymilk-free department, it's just not that exciting.

Unless it's served in an ice sculpture.

Hells yes.

Sensi delivered. Amazing, creative food. Wonderful service. And a badass ice bowl to make a normally ho-hum sorbet dessert something memorable (the coconut sorbet on the bottom left, by the way, was remarkable).

And how better to distract people from their car payment, I mean, dinner bill, than with a light-up receipt pad.

And of course, we had to express our joy at seeing the diseased livers of tortured, force fed ducks and geese off the menu.

My printing looks like that of a 12 year old.

And to let the world know how awesome Sensi was for removing the livers of tortured, force fed ducks and geese from the menu, I tweeted my joy.

And Bellagio responded!

Yes, I got really excited when Bellagio tweeted back at me :) Cuz I'm a fangirl like that.

After seeing Cirque Du Soleil's Elvis show (holy crap what a great time...stacking 4 guys vertically one on top of the other...CRAZY) we ended up gambling back at Bellagio, and since it's Vegas, if you're hungry at 1am, you eat, so we ate.

And even though the latte art on J's tittymilk latte was pretty lame...

...I was actually impressed with the food we were able to order at that hour.

Mushroom tacos and a portobello sandwich? Works for me.

The next day, because my favourite food in the universe is Ethiopian food, and Ethiopian food always has lots of vegan options, we journeyed off the strip in search of an Ethiopian place, and ended up at Mercato.

The equivalent of a samosa stuffed with lentils

The thing about Ethiopian food is that it doesn't look particularly appetizing (I've had friends compare it to vomit at various stages of the digestive process), but it tastes amazing. The spices and flavours are bold, and you can't beat the variety you get in one sitting. My favourite is always anything cabbage (2:00 above).

This meal, which also included a HUGE tomato salad in which we barely made a dent, two of those lentil samosa things, and a Coke (I know...I'm going to hell) cost just under $20. In Vegas. $20. That's like the cost of a cocktail on the strip. Apparently we risked our lives venturing out there, as our cab driver warned us that this wasn't the safest area of town, but it was worth it. A carcass-free meal for $20. How can you go wrong?

The Visa was only relieved temporarily, as later that evening we returned to the strip for dinner at Encore. Any Wynn/Encore restaurant is a given for us, considering the incredible vegan menus they feature since Steve Wynn's vegan conversion. 

Sadly, most of the restaurants at Wynn and Encore still serve foie gras, and as much as I would love to support the vegan incentive at these establishments, the nasty foie gras on the menu overshadows the phenomenal vegan options, and I can't dine there in good conscience. 

Happily, there are a few that do not serve foie gras (or at least didn't have it on the menu when we were there), and among them is the gorgeous, classy Sinatra. 

Here at Sinatra they have a beautiful vegan menu, and a seriously beautiful vegan Caesar Salad. 

Considering how they stack the leaves you could play Jenga with this thing (I am totally dating myself with that reference). But I ate it before any Jenga playing commenced, as the creamy, fragrant dressing was irresistable.  I could have ordered two more of these and called it a night, but then I would have missed out on my Gardein Marsala with forest mushrooms and potato gnocchi.

This was soooo creamy and rich and ridiculously caloric I'm sure, and Wow, was it ever impressive. Gardein never fails to amaze me, and when it's prepared by an executive chef, magic happens. That right there is love on a plate.

Anybody who thinks they could never give up meat needs to try this dish, because you get the best of everything on that plate...incredible, satisfying food with no hormones, no suffering, no death, and no artery-clogging cholesterol. Still a lot of fat, I'm sure, with that decaent marsala sauce, so this would never be a daily indulgence, but at $33 a plate, that's a good thing.

I also got to sample Rob's heirloom tomato soup and agnolotti with asparagus sauce.

Those orange droplets in the soup are basil oil. Seriously stunning soup. The agnolotti was delicious too, but way too small for Rob in terms of portion size. He could have eaten at least twice that, and he was finished before I was even halfway through my entree. We often joke about what we affectionately call "Voila!" portions at fancy shmancy restaurants, but in this case, even though the dish was very rich and carb-laden, it was definitely too small. Either that or Rob was just especially hungry that evening. Usually I'm able to polish off more food than him. 

The benefit of Rob's small entree was that he ordered his own dessert. Usually he just has some of mine cuz we're both too full to order two, but this time it was dessert double duty. 

My frutti di bosco with coconut sorbet came with the cutest candy spring. It would actually spring when you pushed down and released it. I was ridiculously entertained.

And of course I helped myself to Rob's chocolate plate of awesomeness.

Oh look. Vegan desserts that aren't just sorbet. What a concept. Take note restaurants of the universe! Not just for the sake of people with an aversion to the idea of consuming tittymilk, but maybe for like the 60 percent of people with lactose intolerance. And that's a conservative number.

But I digress.

Thumbs up Sinatra for an absolutely stunning carcass-free dinner in the land of indulgence.

And stepping out onto the adorable butterflies on the floor at Encore was pretty sweet too. Such a gorgeous hotel.

We came back to this end of the strip the next day for brunch, to Tableau at Wynn.

My pineapple juice looks so classy with a pineapple juice colored rose beside it.

Blueberry pancakes? Yes please.

Tofu benedict with potato hash? Yes please.

Yet another successful excursion to a Wynn restaurant thanks to their awesome vegan menu.

And no trip to Vegas would be complete without a visit to Wolfgang Puck, who I love not only because his food is yum but especially because he refuses to serve foie gras at any of his restaurants. We have made it a point to try all six of his Vegas restaurants, and with the bff's official b-day dinner at Cut this time around, we now only have two to go.

Cut, you say? Vegans eating at a steak house? Egad! What are we thinking? Granted, when the server brought out the cuts of raw beef for J to select his steak from I was more than a little turned off, but I was still looking forward to a decent meal. 

Butter lettuce with avocado and champagne-herb vinaigrette (they just left out the bleu cheese). It was a good appie, and like the Sinatra Caesar salad, I loved the way it was assembled. 

Unlike Sinatra and Sensi, Cut didn't really have anything to offer in terms of a vegan entree. The best they could do was put together a medley of side dishes, which was still very tasty. 

Clockwise from top left: honey glazed root veggies (honey's a grey area for me), roasted potatoes, wild field mushrooms with Japanese shishito peppers, and a bunch of beans and peas. It was good. The mushrooms were actually very, very good. Everything was tasty, and even though it wasn't really an entree, and considering we were eating in a steak house, I enjoyed it and was grateful for it.

Dessert...surprise surprise.

Still, it was a Wolfgang, I didn't have to worry about foie gras on the menu, and the ambience was very cool...super modern and industrial. A swell way to end our Vegas excursion and a swell place to celebrate the bff's b-day.

All in all, Vegas was an awesome time.

Stellar eats. Stellar gambling.

Stellar Stella McCartney store.

Stellar new Stella McCartney Falabella purse :)

Yahhh :)

But she deserves a blog post all her own.

Boon Burger...Keepin' it Classy in the 'Peg

I recently took a little trip out to Winnipeg to deal with some *ahem* family issues, which actually resulted in a full out blowout in true white-trash style outside on a driveway in a residential neighbourhood like something you'd see on an episode of Cops, complete with a skinny dirtbag in a wife-beater with his jeans falling down his ass shouting expletives that would make any grandma blush...unless that grandma didn't speak much English, and thankfully mine does not.

This is the part where I'm supposed to say haha just kidding...I wish.

Needless to say, this wasn't the most pleasant trip to my hometown.

To make up for the overall unpleasant nature of this visit, Rob the Husband and I took advantage of our down-time and took refuge in Canada's first all vegan burger cafe, the delightful and amazing Boon Burger.

Four days in a row.

Boon Burger was featured on You Gotta Eat Here  not too long ago, so you know they're doing something right. You can fast forward to about the 7:30 mark in the episode to see Boon, or you can watch from the beginning and see the story on Jelly Modern Donuts...drool. If they busted out a vegan donut I'd be there in a heartbeat.

This was my first time in the 'Peg since going vegan and since Boon Burger opened, but I have had the privilege of trying their food before. Rob had made a trip over in December and brought me back a burger, which I ate at room temperature driving home from the airport. And while I was able to get an idea of what Boon was all about from that imported burger, I was super excited to be able to try it out fresh.

Day One: 
The first thing that caught my eye when I walked into Boon Burger was the plate of brownies on the counter calling my name. I ordered one of those immediately, because the burgers looked pretty big and I didn't want to be too full for dessert. They served it up with a little cup of vanilla soft serve (the flavour of the day), and holy crap was this ever a chewy, fudgy, indulgent brownie. It's the perfect size to get your brownie fix without grossing yourself out, and for $2.50, is a most worthwhile addition to any meal.

Rob's cousin became a huge Boon fan after we introduced him to the world of vegan burgers at Loving Hut a couple of months ago when he came to visit us in BC. Since then he's become a Boon regular and has been tagging us in his fb posts at Boon and rubbing it in our faces every time he goes. Thanks, dude. Thanks. He came with us to Boon on this day and had the Backyard BBQ Burger minus the sauerkraut. What Polak doesn't like sauerkraut??

My first burger was going to be the one Rob had imported for me back in December...the Bacun Cheese Burger.

It's traditional and awesome with daiya and smokey bacun (tofu bacun that is) and typical condiments. The patty is their Boon patty made with mushrooms and brown rice. This was seriously delicious and especially satisfying in terms of taste and texture. When you watch how they make the patties on You Gotta Eat Here you can appreciate how much goes into them. They are baked, which is not typical for a burger, and this results in a truly unique and delicious burger experience. Top that patty awesomeness with gooey melty daiya and accentuate it with a couple of smokey bacun strips and you're good to go.

Rob had the less traditional Thanksgiving Burger, which the owner made and showcased on You Gotta Eat Here.

This is unlike anything I've ever had before in terms of a burger experience. The potato-crusted patty sits between layers of yams, cranberry sauce and gravy. OMG. No, really...Oh. Em. Gee. I cannot even begin to describe the insanity that is the Thanksgiving Burger. It's super messy and when you take a bite out of it the gravy and cranberry sauce dribble down your chin, but ohhhh is it ever worth it. Especially when you get a particularly sweet mouthful of the glazed yams. It's just comfort food bliss at its best.

Being my first time at Boon I of course wanted to try everything, so we also ordered a Caesar salad and poutine and a vanilla shake, which complimented everything beautifully but proved difficult to finish. I was definitely glad I ate that brownie first :)

Day Two:
Having ordered way too much food the day before, I resigned myself to stick to just a burger and no sides...but started off with a brownie again. This time it was served with blueberry chocolate soft serve...which at first appeared to be a mistake, like someone started making blueberry soft serve but then someone added chocolate and then they were like oh crap now what? But you know what? The blueberry-chocolate, intentional or not, totally worked. It was actually my favourite out of the four flavours I had over the four days I was there. So of course we ordered the shake as well:)

I had the Backyard BBQ Burger, which came with sweet mustard and sauerkraut, but unlike Rob's cousin the day before, I was a good Polak and kept the sauerkraut.

Really really tasty. Thumbs up bbq sauce, thumbs up sauerkraut, and thumbs up to their in-house mayo. No need for the unfertilized products of chicken reproductive cycles in the mayo at Boon.

Rob had the Bombay Talkie Burger, another one featured on You Gotta Eat Here.

Once again, Holy Crap did Rob ever nail his burger selection. This one is made with the buddah patty (a curried chickpea patty) and topped with yams, bacun, daiya and an insane bombay sauce. Like the Thanksgiving Burger, the Bombay Talkie has the most delightful sweetness to it, which contrasts beautifully with the curried patty. There is just soooo much great stuff going on in this one burger.

Wow. I realize I'm gushing like a fangirl. Well, if Wentworth Miller and Chris Pine came in vegan burger form, they would be the Thanksgiving Burger and the Bombay Talkie.

Day Three:

This was a special day for us at Boon because we brought Rob's Babcia with us for her first vegan burger experience. After we explained exactly what "vegan" meant (in her 87 years she had never heard of such a thing), she and her government-issued teeth were up for anything.

Including a brownie to start. Yes, I am so predictable. Chocolate soft serve and chocolate shake today. Score.

We decided to only order two burgers since Babcia would only eat a fraction of one, so I got the Salsa Burger... a black bean patty with avocado, daiya, corn chips and (duh) salsa.

The chips added a fun, crunchy texture which reminded me of when I used to put chips on my sandwiches at picnics. I knife and forked this one because I cut up a half for Babcia, which she didn't eat. She was too busy working her way through Rob's Oslo Burger.

The Oslo Burger was consistent with Rob's pattern of ordering burgers with a sweetness to them. It came with caper sauce and cranberry sauce, as well as gravy, beets and sauerkraut. And once again, holy crap was it delicious. Seriously delicious.

I discovered on this trip that I really like a hint of sweetness in my burgers. I didn't have a single bad experience with any of the burgers I tried, but the ones Rob ordered had an edge over mine, and I'm realizing it's the unique sweet flavours they had going on.

Babcia really enjoyed the Oslo burger, and couldn't believe there was no meat in it at all.

87 years old!! Such a sweet lady :) How does she stay so active? Frank's Red Hot Sauce...she puts that sh*t on everything.

Day Four: Morning of departure... 
The way our flight was scheduled, we had just enough time on our last day in Winnipeg to hit up Boon just after they opened, eat comfortably, and make our flight back home. I hadn't had a burger with Boon's red pepper peach chutney yet, so I tried the Buddah burger made with (surprise surprise) the Buddah patty and slathered in chutney and curry mayo.

Definitely another winner. Is this place capable of making a bad burger? The Buddah Burger was very Indian-inspired in terms of the noticeable curry flavour, and just really, really delicious. I ordered sesame fries, which are baked and crispy and salty and perfect, just the way I like 'em.

For his last Boon meal, instead of trying something new, Rob went with the tried, tested and true Thanksgiving Burger. As they placed it in front of us the gravy and cranberry sauce dripped out over the patty making for a pretty delicious photo op. I mean, just look at that drippy goodness!

That's a beautiful burger.

I did have the brownie again (four for four!), which was served with blueberry soft serve, and of course we ordered the blueberry shake.

Four vegan shakes in four days. No tittymilk. Whose brilliant idea is it to put tittymilk in a shake when there are such ridiculously delicious tittymilk-free options?? Wake up ice cream overlords!

Well, until the ice cream overlords come to their senses, if you are in the Winnipeg area and you desire some seriously delicious soft serve or a seriously delicious shake and you'd rather not have that shake made with cow tittymilk, hit up Boon. And if they happen to have the blueberry-chocolate again, do a happy dance, cuz damn that was a unique and delicious flavour.

I'd like to find something negative to say about this place just so this post isn't all "I'm vegan and this is a vegan burger joint so ima just praise the shit out of it for the sake of supporting a cruelty-free business that is in line with my moral compass." Ummm...the visa terminal wasn't working on our last day there so we had to pay cash. How dare they have a technical problem?

Seriously, though. The food here is amazing. Not just passable meat-wannabe vegan fare. Truly amazing. The flavours are creative, the quality is superb, and the love is definitely evident in the food. Some of the burgers are messy as hell, and to be honest, my first experience with the square burger bun was a tad disconcerting. A square bun? Revolutionary.

The faves? Thanksgiving and Bombay Talkie.

Pricing? Around $8 per burger. More than typical fast food, but unlike a typical fast food burger, a Boon burger is generously sized and will actually fill you up, and it isn't made of crap. Even Babcia was happy with the price for the product. When a woman with candy in her pantry from 1994 thinks a burger is a reasonable price, you know it's so. Killer cruelty-free burgers and a clear conscience? I'm sold.

And for the record, no it wasn't Rob the Husband in the wife beater with his pants falling down his ass...although he did shout a few expletives. Rob's never worn a beater in all the years I've known him, and I've always wondered what he'd look like in one....hmmm...t-shirt tan with bright white shoulders and tanned forearms...

Yahhhh, never mind.