Don't forget to wipe your feet.

Hi there crispy xgfx pumpkin bagel. Welcome to my mouth.

My pre-baked friends waiting to satisfy my every need.

I awoke with a vision of pumpkin bagels whizzing around my brain circuits. I had to have some, and I did-- fashioned just the way I like with coarse salt and sesames, toasted and adorned with Tofutti and cherry tomatoes. Oh yes, so good.

Here's a video so you can pretend you're sharing with me.

You can have one, but only one, OK?
xo
kittee

This post is part of VeganMoFo 2010 - the Vegan Month of Food. Get more MoFo info by checking out VeganMoFo Headquarters Itn'l, where you can subscribe to a bunch of vegan blogs and ohh and ahh to your heart's content.

San Francisco Sandwich Compendium - Guest Blog Post!

WARNING: I am contaminating Kittee's normally gluten-free blog with dreaded wheat gluten. I am so sorry, and I hope I don't leave you with a tummy ache, because that shit is just not cool. Read on if you love sandwiches and can tolerate gluten!

Hi! I’m a displaced Canadian in California banging it all up on Kittee’s blog, and I am here to talk to you about San Francisco sandwiches. My name is Gabrielle, and Kittee was kind enough to offer up her blog for guest-posting since I wasn't industrious enough to get things moving on my own (not-yet-existent) blog.

First…some Kittee appreciation is in short order. Kittee rules! When I’d long-finished my undergrad degree (in fine arts, aka useless but fun!), and was psyching myself up for my MFA, I went through a massive vegan cookbook/zine/blog blitz and came out of the whole affair with Kittee’s Papa Tofu as a fave zine and Paku Paku as a favored site. Mostly it was due to Kittee’s amazing veganized Ethiopian recipes, since I’d just began an obsession with Ethiopian food, but it was also Kittee’s creative flair complete with adorable illustrations, innovative recipes, and general all-around awesomeness that kept this lady on my radar for a long time until just recently when I had the pleasure of interviewing her for a MoFo feature. It was a blast, and when I one day meet Kittee in person, I know I will love her just as much as I do now as a mere E-friend. In short, thank you Kittee for letting me grace the pages of Cake Maker to the Stars and talk sandwiches.

What IS it about deliciousness smushed between two pieces of carbs that is so appealing? I don’t know, but SANDWICHES!! I never really gave it much thought, but I have made some spectacular ‘wiches in my time. I think that I never fully appreciated the beauty of non-homemade sandwiches until I moved to San Francisco, the land of Ike’s, aka, THE BEST SANWICHES OF ALL TIME. But this is not just about Ike’s, kids. In fact, in addition to Ike’s, I’ve had epic offerings from a hole-in-the-wall deli in the Lower Haight, gorgeous tortas from Gracias Madre, stellar Banh Mi, vegan cheese steak goodness from Jay’s Cheesesteak, a pretty tasty shawarma and a tempeh bacon breakfast sandwich from Herbivore, a stacked bagel with falafel from House of Bagels, a simpler veggie-hummus bagel from Javalencia, and (embarrassingly) more!

The biggest name in vegan sandwiches in this city is, without a doubt, Ike’s Place. I salivated over their menu long before I even knew I was coming down to SF to live, and was disturbed by all the controversy surrounding Ike’s that eventually led to the original restaurant closing. Ike’s SF is currently looking for a new permanent location, but in the meantime they are slinging sandwiches in SF proper out of Lime in the Castro. Personally, I’ve only had the pleasure of experience Ike’s once, but it was as epic as ever.

The Vegan Brutus: Vegan Breaded Chicken, Artichoke Hearts, Garlic Sauce, and Soy Cheese on Dutch Crunch

I ordered this baby as per my girl Melisser (see below)’s suggestion. This was indeed an epic sandwich for the ages. I was a little hesitant upon ordering it because I’m not the hugest fake-meat fan, but luckily this guy had lots of veggies, the freshest bread, and a garlicky spread to fulfill my greatest sandwich desires. Standard practice for me is adding a layer of sriracha, so you can bet that that happened.

The next sandwich I experienced more than a few times since my workplace used to be located way out in the Outer Sunset, truly no-man’s-land by San Franciscan standards, was the veggie sandwich with lots of avocado and hummus from Java Beach Café. This really is just your basic sammich, but in the pictured version I’d slathered Vegan Mom queso all over and washed it down with a GT’s kombucha. If you’re out in the Sunset at one of Java Beach’s locations, I enthusiastically recommend this guy.

Veggie-Packed Java Beach Sandwich

On my bike commute home, I ride through the Lower Haight, which is a veritable sandwich wonderland including places like Café International, Rosamunde Sausage Grill, and Love N Haight. At Café International I have enjoyed the tofu sandwich with a side of the awesome sassy attitude of the co-owner, at Rosamunde an apple-sage brat piled high with hot peppers and sauerkraut, and at Love N’ Haight, the unbeatable vegan chicken sandwich.

Delicious tofu sammich from Cafe International

Perfect Field Roast brat at this surprisingly vegan-friendly German sausage grill

I certainly still have a ton of other SF sandwiches to experience, but here are a couple more to round out this round-up! The first, something I adore but was hard to find vegan when I lived in Vancouver, BC, a Vietnamese Banh Mi from Banhwich in the Sunset; the second, a seitan “cheesesteak” (sans cheese but big on flavor) from Jay’s Cheesesteak in the Mission; a perfect torta from Gracias Madre vegan Mexican restaurant; a tasty marinated tofu ‘wich from Herbivore which features spotty service and oft-underwhelming food offerings but is 100% vegan and has decent sandwiches; and finally a piled-high veggie sandwich from my neighborhood favorite Velo-Rouge, which features lots of bike racks and a free tire pump along with great food-offerings and friendly-as-hell food service. So, kids, know that SF has your back as far as vegan sandwiches are concerned, because I’ve been here less than six months and have already noshed on a slew sandwiches!

Gracias Madre Torta Lunch Special

Vegan Banh Mi from Banhwich Catered by my workplace

Finally, I’d like to take this opportunity to pimp out a just-released book by my friend Melisser Elliot, aka, The Urban Housewife. Melisser is a dear friend-for-life for several reasons: 1) Melisser went to check out my current home in San Francisco, charming my roommate and solidifying my awesome digs in the Richmond district, 2) I recipe-tested for Melisser’s just-released book, The Vegan Girl’s Guide to Life, and the most memorable dish for me personally was her portobello Banh Mi Sandwich, and 3) Melisser is the only born-and-raised in SF friend I have (to my knowledge!). I met Melisser in Kyoto of all places, just over a year ago, where I do believe her husband Ryan and I enjoyed tempeh sandwiches while Melisser enjoyed delicious soy milk ramen at Café Proverbs. We enjoyed our time together so much that we met up again in Tokyo at NON, an all-vegan izakaya where we ordered roughly 100 things, and finally, I ended up contributing to Melisser’s book. Oh, but it doesn’t end there! Melisser’s SF bakery Sugar Beat Sweets is run by amazing ladies such as Jordan, Erika, Jennifer, and Megan, who have become some of my favorite people and greatest friends since I’ve been down here.

Anyway, both Kittee and I are contributors to The Vegan Girl’s Guide, and the book is an image-packed, beautiful and fun guide to the vegan lifestyle, not just for girls! If you head over to the official site for the book and order one there, Melisser will even sign it for you!

In conclusion, thanks Kittee for allowing me to guest-blog, thank you for reading, and thank you SF for knowing your damn sandwiches. Happy MoFo, y’all!

This post is part of VeganMoFo 2010 - the Vegan Month of Food. Get more MoFo info by checking out VeganMoFo Headquarters Itn'l, where you can subscribe to a bunch of vegan blogs and ohh and ahh to your heart's content.

Sambar Salivations

I can't stop thinking about the sambar we made yesterday. ETA: and neither can Amy, 'cuz she posted about it today, too. Her pictures are way nicer than mine, so scoot over to her blog so you experience sambar in 3-D.

One of the amazing things about sambar, besides how delicious and nutritious it is, well--you can make it out of whatever veggies you have floating around your produce bins. Especially this time of year, since sambar does particularly well with squash, both Summer and Autumn varieties and other things usually lurking in the kitch'n like carrots, potatoes and onions. Our soup happened to be on the sweeter side, because we used carrot, spaghetti squash, onion and this gorgeous icicle beet. The flavors were so earthy and spicy and good.

So the only hard part about sambar is taking the time to make the sambar powder, although you can make up a big batch, which will last for a long time. In South Indian cooking, dal often does double duty--it may get fried and ground along with spices, and in the same dish. it may also be cooked in water the way you would typically expect.

We took a couple shortcuts with our sambar, the first being frying the spices at one time, instead of individually. Pictured above: coconut, fresh curry leaves, cinnamon, fennugreek, chana dal, peppercorns, red chile, whole coriander, whole cumin and white poppy seeds are fried in a little oil, then ground in a coffee mill to make sambar powder.

To make the sambar, toor dal is cooked in water (our second cheat--we used quicker cooking pink masoor dal) until soft. Meanwhile whatever vegetables you're using are sauted, more spices are fried, then everything, including sambar powder, is mixed together with extra water, tamarind and salt. Since I am a cilantro lover, I topped mine with bits o' it. We ate ours with xgfx pretzels, which were great, but vada would've been super respectable, too.

xo
kittee

P.S. Tomorrow I am lending my blog to a secret guest!
P.P.S. The fenugreek has started to germinate!

This post is part of VeganMoFo 2010 - the Vegan Month of Food. Get more MoFo info by checking out VeganMoFo Headquarters Itn'l, where you can subscribe to a bunch of vegan blogs and ohh and ahh to your heart's content.

Xgfx Pumpkin Pretzels Go Dip, Dip, Dip.

I was able to squeeze another cook-date in with Amy today! It made me so happy! I woke up and the sky was shining, and the sun was beaming and the leaves were falling, and the air smelt like fall, but it was warm! Ahhhh.

We planned in advance, so we knew that xgfx soft pumpkin pretzels would be in the works. But then, Amy got wooed by the fresh curry leaves sitting on my counter (she'd never had them before), and because my fridge was cooperating with produce, we whipped up a big pot of sambar, too!

The pretzels? We fashioned them from oat, sorghum and corn flour, with a little yeast, flax and the devil's own magic (xantham gum) thrown in for good measure. They were wonderful (though I may play around with the recipe another time soon for additional tweaking), and we ate some bites with Zatarain's whole grain mustard, some more with our deliriously delicious fig preserves from Monday, and then even more were dunked into our sweet and spicy soup!

Amy needs to stay.

xo
kittee

This post is part of VeganMoFo 2010 - the Vegan Month of Food. Get more MoFo info by checking out VeganMoFo Headquarters Itn'l, where you can subscribe to a bunch of vegan blogs and ohh and ahh to your heart's content.

Fenugreek Look Like Bedbugs.

Following a tip from someone on the PPK forums, I visited a really nice, fairly stocked East Indian grocery store today. Bonus 1: Not too far from the house. Bonus 2: They sell fresh curry leaves, and Bonus 3: The folks who run/own it are crazy helpful and nice--they were really engaging in my quest to find some cream of rice cereal (I have some xgfx upma plans in the near future). While they didn't have what I wanted, the owners were super interested and asked me to let them know if I end up finding any. Upon further Googling, I'm pretty certain I'll be able to find this at a conventional supermarket.

Besides my beloved curry leaves, they also had the devil bunny brand of papadam I like--with cumin seeds even! Papadam trivia: 1. Did you know papadam are naturally xgfx? 2. And, did you know you can easily toast them over a gas flame with tongs, or microwave them on a plate for about 30 seconds (watch carefully, they burn super fast).



Because I am all out, and because you can never have enough, I scooped up some chana besan (chickpea flour), while I was there, too.--and cumin seeds, which I didn't photograph.
They also had a pretty neat assortment of cookbooks. These little tiny ones were all over the bookstores in South India for only a few rupees, they cost a bunch more here--some are awesome and some don't convert to Western cooking so well.
I was really surprised to see this tiffin book, too. I actually bought a copy of it when we were there traveling, it's good for South Indian specialties like dosai and idli 'n' stuff. If you're reading this locally, you might want to head over there to scoop it up, especially if you're fond of dosai, sambar and culinary escapades.
When I got home, I was all drunk off the smell of fresh curry leaves and cumin seeds. So I pulled out a bunch of fenugreek/methi seeds and set them in some dirt to sprout. I've been wanting to grow some fresh methi for a long time, I've never tried to cook with it before.

Fiji Emporium
7814 N. Interstate Ave.
Portland, Oregon
Phone : (503) 240-2768

This post is part of VeganMoFo 2010 - the Vegan Month of Food. Get more MoFo info by checking out VeganMoFo Headquarters Itn'l, where you can subscribe to a bunch of vegan blogs and ohh and ahh to your heart's content.

Cook Date Love Date Wedding

The Vegan MoFo Roundup has already been posted, and here I'm sitting down to write my first entry of the day. But dang-tootin', postin' this late makes sense when you've experienced an action packed kitchen frolic of a day like I have. Honestly, today I partook in one of the best cook dates of my long 42 years. There was a lot of hot kitchen chemistry between us, too, if you know what I mean. She stirred when I wanted to pour, I whisked when she wanted to sift, we made sweet culinary synchronicity. It felt great. She's even coming back on Wednesday to help me make xgfx soft yeasty pretzels. I wonder how we'll pass the time while the bread is risin'?

So? What kind of magic did we do today? On the short list: cheezie kale chips made from roasted hazelnuts and love. White chocolate chocolate fudgie xgfx brownies. Fig preserves--not just any boring fig jam mind you, but let's climb-a-ladder on a crazy, windy, rainy day with a bad shoulder and pick nine pounds of figs awesome. And what? Should we add some ginger and cinnamon and vanilla to that pot? Yes yes yes.

These awesome photos all courtesy of Amy.

And in-between these adventures, we had a snack of mac 'n' cheeze (pictured and described here) from the fridge (the recipe for which you can find in Melisser's brand new Vegan Girls Guide to Life), with half dehydrated cheezie noochy kale pieces slathered all over the top. And of course, we started the day right with some almond milk/banana/strawberry smoothies decked out with omega goodness in the form of Udos oil. I'm feelin' pretty content right now.
So I offer lots of love to all my fellow MoFie Bubs, all 650 of you so far. A temporary 2010 blog roll up has been posted on the MoFo Blog, and come Wednesday, after everyone has signed up, there will be a complete list along with an .opml file, which can be downloaded into any RSS Reader. We'll also be offering a Google Bundle, which can be subscribed to--so folks with Google Reader will be able to read all of these amazing blogs a little more easily. And because we like to be as awesome as possible, we'll also have a page setup where you can find International blogs and a little who's who of cookbook author MoFo participants.

If you're like me and inject nutritional yeast into your veins, relish tofu balls and rejoice in soy yogurt, please head over to Louise Hagler's blog and give her a little bit of love. I'm so freakin' happy she's joining us this month, I can't stop pinching.

Until then, blog on my lovies, blog on.
xo
kittee

This post is part of VeganMoFo 2010 - the Vegan Month of Food. Get more MoFo info by checking out VeganMoFo Headquarters Itn'l, where you can subscribe to a bunch of vegan blogs and ohh and ahh to your heart's content.