Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Long time no see

Wow, its been a while. I was cooking, but I also got caught up in reading the Harry Potter series, so I became a hermit!

First of all, I found out yesterday that I get a scholarship next year, woot! So now I can buy groceries and not worry about not saving that money ;)

So lets start with dessert. Some of the girls from work decided to have a tea party, so I made some chai cupcakes from VCTOTW. They were deliciously spiced and had a really simple topping of cocoa powder and powdered sugar. Yummy!

I tried some more adaptations of recipes from Looneyspoons, and I'm quite happy with the results. First I made a broccoli cheese soup using soy cheddar, soymilk and Tofutti sour cream. It was delicious. The only change I'll be making will be to melt the cheese more before adding the sour cream, so that its more cheesy.

And I also made a baked mac n' cheese. This had vegan parm, soy cheese and Tofutti cream cheese. Very creamy, and I loved the bread crumb topping. It had a strong onion flavour, but nevertheless was good. I think it might have gone well with some ketchup too.

Now the fun news. I just got back from a trip to Toronto to visit some high school girlfriends. I had so much fun, we went shopping and went to a club and there was a lot of eating involved. We even went to Fressen (since it was the closest of all the veg places at the time) and we really enjoyed it. We ordered a basil fettuccine, a pesto gnocchi, beer battered tempeh fish (which rocked) and a mushroom puff pastry. And of course, dessert. We weren't too crazy about the dessert, which was some sort of nut roll, but it was still good. The plating was amazing too.


11 comments:

Judy said...

Glad to see you back! I love Looneyspoons, actually I love all of their books. Have you seen their show on the Food Network?

Ooh, sounds like you had fun in TO! Don't you just love that city? Great looking food too!

Melissa said...

Judy, I really did love my trip to TO. I never saw what the big deal was and wasn't overly excited about the city, but now I see it can be really fun. Plus it was just what I needed after being a hermit all of June!

I have seen their show on the Food Network, although I don't watch it (or anything else) regularly.

theONLYtania said...

Woot, I'm glad you're back. I was this close to commenting that you graduated and forgot about us.
Those chai cupcakes look great, good choice for the tea party. Is Looneyspoons a cookbook I don't know about that I need to get? Because I could really go for some broccoli cheese soup.

Michelle said...

i'm so glad to "see" you back! sounds like you had fun in TO.. next time you go, definately try out Fresh, and Vegetarian Haven!!!

i go to TO mostly for the food ;) oh, and because my bestest friend in the world lives there LOL. can't forget her!

KleoPatra said...

Yay, you're back!!! Great photos, especially lovin' the fruit on the bottom (sounds like a yogurt ad!). So happy you got to go to Toronto (i love Toronto) and have fun with your friends. Tempeh fish must have been sooooo cool!

Unknown said...

I love your cupcake!

You weren't kidding about the fancy plating - that's the nicest I've ever seen! Everything sounded and looked so good!

Caty said...

Your chai cupcake looks delicious! And the plating is fantastic, especially the dessert.

Carrie™ said...

Not overly excited? Toronto is an awesome city! I wish I could get in more often. I've never eaten at Fressen. I've heard it's quite posh and pricey, but with really good food. You should check out the Veg Food Fair in September. Another good reason to go to Toronto. (pssst...I have it from a VERY reliable source that Sarah Kramer is coming again this year)

Anonymous said...

Glad to see you back! the food looks good.

Kati said...

Welcome back and congratulations on your scholarship! Fressen looks amazing - I will have to get up to Toronto one of these days.

Kumudha said...

Great blog!