Around the World in 80 Plates: Italy (cont)

I will honest, these next ones I made back in September for Food Network Cookalong but never got around to posting it. First up is Giada de Laurentiis' take on Fritto Misto and I really wanted to share it with everyone  because it was so very delicious and is the recipe that showed me how amazing fennel bulbs could taste.

The recipe is basically vegan just having to replace the mayo with Vegenaise for the dipping sauce. She suggests a few veggies to try but I couldn't get my hands on good fresh green beans so I substituted mushrooms. The fennel was super scrumptious especially the browned caramelized bits. You have to make sure you slice them thinly so they get that way though. My only issue was keeping it all warm and crisp as I was frying it in my small pan on the stove top. This probably would have been a good one to break out the deep fryer. Everyone in the house tried this one out and found something they liked...Mac went for the cauliflower and my mom liked the chickpeas, Ryan and I loved it all!

To balance out the fried goodness I served the Fritto Misto with another Giada recipe, Caramelized Pancetta and Fennel Salad. Again, not terribly hard to veganize...it was just that pancetta that needed to move on out. I decided to make some Smoky Curls from Vegan Diner and tossed them in at the end in their place and as always, they were perfection! The caramelized fennel was sweet and garlicky, a very interesting combination that worked perfectly with the red wine vinaigrette. This one only the grown ups tried but there was a symphony of mmms around the table as we (gracefully) scarfed it down!

Food Network Monthly Cookalong: Emeril's Kicked-Up BLT

I started off this sandwich-y month with a BAM! Emeril's Kicked-Up BLT definitely had a little kick to it but it was so easy to veganize that I whipped it up for lunch on a whim one day. I, of course, went to my go to Smoky Curls from Vegan Diner which I have made so many times now I just wing it. I used Vegenaise for mayo and used white sandwich bread for the brioche. I know I could make my own, thanks to Celine, but I was going for quick and it stood in nicely. The Chipotle Mayo was definitely kicked up and what I would expect from Emeril. It worked nicely with the soy curl bacon and the avocado slices helped cool it down a bit. Mine was a little greener than Emeril's since I used slice green zebra tomatoes I picked up at the Kanata Farmer's Market on the weekend. I had never had them and thought they might be sour/bitter like the green tomatoes I had tried in the past but they are so tasty and sweet! Fresh local tomatoes always taste the best too! I really enjoyed this sandwich and even commented to Ryan that it was in my top 10 favourite sandwiches so it will definitely be made again and again. He, unfortunately for him, was at work while I was chowing down on it but I was nice enough to save him enough of everything to make one the next day and he  enjoyed it just as much as me. Kicked up sandwich heaven!

Don't forget to enter to win a copy of Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day! Just leave a comment on that post (click the link below) to be entered and if you would like to earn bonus entries, veganize a sandwich from Food Network and let me know at the end of the month. I will include you in our monthly round up and it will up the odds of you winning a copy of a spectacular cookbook! http://threeandahalfvegans.blogspot.ca/2012/08/food-network-monthly-cookalong-theme.html

Food Network Monthly Cookalong: Memphis-Style Hickory-Smoked Tempeh Ribs

Alright it's probably not what The Neely's had in mind when they developed this recipe but I think tempeh makes an excellent stand in for ribs. Is it on a bone? No (and yuck anyways) but it is easy to pick up each one and delicious when covered in BBQ sauce after being smoked with some hickory wood chips!

It all started with the thought "I wanna smoke something in that BBQ" so I went out and found a smoker box (HomeSense strangely) and some hickory smoke chips (Home Hardware) and then went searching through Food Network's website for something that I wanted to try to veganize. I browsed through and found that The Neely's (recipe here) had exactly what I was looking for. The switch to tempeh was an easy one for me since I have made BBQ sauced tempeh sticks before inside and always thought they made a good replacement for ribs. I cut mine into little riblet sticks by halving the whole cake of tempeh then cutting into one inch wide pieces. I mixed up the dry rub and (warning) it makes a lot that you will not need unless you are making a bunch of tempeh riblets. I used two packages of tempeh and still have a large ziploc bag full of the rub up in the cupboard. It will keep so not a bad thing at all but if you are planning on just making this once maybe scale it down to a 1/4 of the recipe. They suggest rubbing it on the ribs and leaving it for 8 hours or more. I didn't have that kind of time so I just rubbed it on the tempeh and let it sit at room temperature for 45 minutes to an hour and found it worked just fine.

I made 1/2 the sauce only because ketchup is a precious commodity in our house and I didn't want to use up most of a bottle. It was just enough for the two packages of tempeh with a little left over for dipping. It is a good but not great sauce in my opinion. It needs a little something...a little oomph! While we were eating the tempeh riblets I grabbed the bottle of Carolina-Style BBQ sauce from Vegan Diner that I keep on hand and gave them a few squirts, it really helped up the flavours.

As for the smoking process, I soaked the hickory chips for an hour in some water then loaded them into the little smoker box I bought. It is V shaped so it fits on top of the heat deflector plate inside the grill. I put it in there and started up the grill. Once it had heated up, I turned the two burners off on the side that didn't have the smoker box and put the dry rubbed tempeh pieces on the cool side. I turned the smoker box side down to medium-low as well (they suggest around 250 so use that built in thermometer to find which temperature setting works for you). After about 15 minutes I flipped the tempeh riblets over and then brushed a little bit of olive oil on each one. Since tempeh doesn't have a lot of fat in it I figured they needed a little something to keep them moist. After another 15 minutes, I flipped them again and basted that side with olive oil as well. By this point the chips in the smoker box had given all they had so I decided to turn that side off and turn the heat on the side with the tempeh riblets to get them a little browned on the outside. I used med-high heat and once they were nicely grilled, I slathered them with the BBQ sauce and let it get caramelized a bit. I took them off and put some more sauce over each before serving as well. I served them up with some roasted potatoes and grilled corn on the cob and they were quickly eaten up with lots of MMMs around the table! You could definitely taste the smoky flavour in them so I would definitely venture into smoking on the grill again. It's so much faster to smoke tempeh as well, definitely no need for three hours on there which makes it great for a quicker supper option.

My First Winner!

I know how exciting it is to win and now I know how exciting it is to give something away. It's true when they say it's better to give than receive...alright, they are at least on par with each other! I am so happy to say that random.org picked #46 which is Ashley F. (@las_dos_ashley) so you are the lucky winner of Vegan Diner by Julie Hasson so now you can try the veggie burger out!

And I decided that in honour of my 100th Twitter follower...I'm going to give away a second book. I took all the entrants from the Vegan Diner giveaway and picked another number from Random.org. This time I got #59 so pbandkelly (@LivinOnArugula) you win a copy of Sweet Vegan by Emily Mainquist.

Congratulations to both of you, please email your addresses to ryan_kelly@rogers.com and I will get your books packed up and out to you as soon as I can! I will definitely do another giveaway soon!

My First Giveaway

In honour of my first Vegan MoFo and my first cookbook review, I have decided that one lucky reader of my little blog will win a copy of Vegan Diner by Julie Hasson! You saw all the deliciousness that I made out of it and now it could be your turn to try out this wonderful book!

It's super simple to enter, all you have to do is comment below what recipe you would most like to try from Vegan Diner! You can even score another entry by following me on Twitter (@kellycvegan) and leaving another comment that you did. I will even do you one more, become a follower through Google Connect (at the top right of the page) and leave me another comment letting me know you did and that will get you another entry (and of course if you are already are doing either or both of those things you can leave a comment letting me know and it will count as well). I really want to give you this book! I will close the giveaway on October 18th, 2011 at midnight EST and head over to random.org and pick a winner so you have lots of time to get your name in there. Open to anyone who wants to win! (I'm springing for the postage, haha!) The winner will be posted on October 19th. Good luck everyone!!! I promise you, you want this book in your life!

And just to let everyone know, I bought both copies of the book and chose to do the giveaway because I enjoyed it so much!

My First Cookbook Review

I cant even believe how many amazing vegan cookbooks there are out there right now! I know I have about 15-20 out on my bookshelf right now and about 10 more on my Christmas wish list. One book that caught my eye even when it was only available for pre-order was Vegan Diner by Julie Hasson. Julie is a busy woman! She and her husband run a vegan food cart in Portland (Native Bowl is totally on my to-do list), writes some kick butt cookbooks, family life, judging Vegan Iron Chef comps, and more! You can check out Julie's blog at http://www.juliehasson.com and check out Facebook for the Vegan Diner page.

When I first got the book in my hot little hands was literally giddy! I love the cover even, bright and clean with classic diner style. I flipped through and read each recipe name and the little blurb and felt like I could hear Julie's voice. I love when that comes through in a cookbook, making you feel like the author actually loves these recipes and wants to share them with you. The book starts out with a great intro to the ingredients you will find in the book that you may not be completely familiar with and a list of equipment as well. All the ingredients were pretty standard fare and I think the only ones I don't have in my pantry were soy curls and malt powder which I am now on the hunt for. Always a good start when you don't feel like you have to seek out a bunch of different products to use the book.

The day starts with breakfast and so does Julie. There is something for everyone in the section from granola to apple spice coffee cake to two different scrambles and even donuts! In my house breakfast is usually a sweeter one like waffles or pancakes so I decided to delve into the Crispy Banana-Cinnamon Waffles! I was intrigued by the secret ingredient of these waffles, crispy rice cereal, and the flavors of banana and cinnamon are a favourite around here. First off I loved that Julie went with a mix of whole wheat and all purpose flour and there is no sugar in them either! Now these are waffles I can feed my family and not feel any guilt about. And you know what's great...they taste awesome and are so quick to make too! I swear I had them together before the waffle maker had preheated, now that's quick! They taste like warm, crisp banana bread, the cinnamon was just right and even without anything on top they were perfectly sweet and tasty. The maple syrup we drizzled on top just heightened all the flavours and made them feel extra special. The recipe says it makes a larger batch and it does, I got 12 pieces out of one batch which is awesome because we had extras leftover that I put in the freezer for a few quick breakfasts down the road.



Mac taste testing the batter for the waffles

Crispy Banana-Cinnamon Waffles

Next up is a chapter dedicated to breads! Mmm bread! It had English muffins and burger buns, garlic dill bread and biscuits. I read through and was amazed at how quickly the burger buns went together so I just had to try them. How can 5-6 ingredients and like 40 minutes prep/rise and 15 minutes of baking produce a burger bun?! It just seems like that should be more complicated but it's really not! These buns are not like the ones I get at the store...they're better! They are soft and tasty and amazing! I won't be buying those buns with all those words I can't pronounce anymore for sure. These are so quick and easy I could easily make them the day that we are planning to have veggie burgers. My son helped me shape the buns and was quite impressed with himself as well. He opted for no sesame seeds and couldn't even wait til they cooled to try it. He had half of one with butter while it was still warm and really enjoyed it. He was enjoying it so much I had to try! Then at lunch time later on that day he asked for the other half of his bun with almond butter and jam. He's really diggin' these buns!

Soups, Salads and Sides was up next and I dove right into those All-American Beer Battered Onion Rings! I love onion rings and now only eat them when I make them. They are definitely a treat now but that's okay...they're supposed to be! Haha! Unfortunately I didn't catch a picture of these but that just shows you how good they were! I wasn't thinking about cameras or pictures, I was thinking about eating up some onion rings. The batter is lightly spiced which adds a nice flavour to the coating, nothing worse than a bland onion ring. The instructions are to deep fry them in a deep pot but I opted for using my deep fryer since I'm a little bit of a chicken when it comes to deep frying. I like that the fryer tells me the temperature of oil as well. I served these up and everyone dug in and loved them! They taste just like what you would get at any diner, they weren't overly greasy (hey they are fried after all!) and they were really easy to put together. A+ in my books!

For the Main Course, I decided to let my husband pick. He flipped through and he went with Philly Seitan Sliders. I have to agree...they look awesome in the picture so it wasn't a hard sell for me. Ours were less slider more sub bun sized since I wanted to make these for a weekday supper and it needed to be quick and that's what we had on hand but they were so delicious, I don't think it mattered what kind of bun it was on. It has thinly sliced seitan sauteed with onions and peppers all stacked onto a bun then drizzled with a cheesy sauce! I highly recommend the optional cheese sauce with the addition of umi plum vinegar. Without it, it was good, with it, it was perfection. Ryan really enjoyed these as they were something he always ordered pre-vegan when we were out somewhere. It's nice to be able to whip up a great vegan version of them anytime. They are so quick if you make the seitan ahead of time and the cheese sauce only takes minutes and a good blender to make.



Look at that cheesy sauce!? So good!

Now for the sweetest part, DESSERT!! Julie didn't just give you a few to pick from, she gave you 24 desserts! Come on now, that's awesome! I have a major sweet tooth so I'm happy when a cookbook doesn't skimp on the best part. I decided that I couldn't make just one dessert for this review...I had to make two! I picked one that I thought Ryan and my mom would enjoy and one that I though Mac would enjoy so everyone could have something sweet. I went with the Ooey Gooey Brownies for the chocolate lovers (aka Ryan and my Mom) and Oatmeal Raisin Cookies for the non-chocoholics (that's me and Mac). First I made the oatmeal raisin cookies and will admit I had a bit of trouble with them. I baked them and they spread like crazy so the next batch I halved the dough and didn't flatten them and then they worked perfectly. They taste great and are easy to put together for sure! Mac really loved them and happily shared one of the gigantic ones that spread with me. I even dipped mine in a glass of soy milk which I don't usually do but this cookie seemed like it would be even better if you did.

The Ooey Gooey Brownies went much easier. They are so quick to put together I think it took longer for my oven to preheat! They baked perfectly in 20 minutes and the icing was so easy yet so tasty. Got to love when it works out like that, tasty doesn't always mean complicated. I served them up to my in-laws as well as Ryan and my mom and everyone really loved them. They kept saying how fudgey and chocolate-y they were and they all had at least two so that's a ringing endorsement! I will definitely be making these again and again since they are one of Ryan's new favourites.

After all the yummy things we have tried from this book so far I can definitely highly recommend it to anyone who loves diner classics and pretty much anyone who loves food. Everything we tried so far has been delicious, quick and easy to make. I will keep cooking my way through all the recipes since it was honestly very hard to narrow it down to these few for this review. It would have been a very long (alright longer) post if I had made all the recipes that initially jumped off the page at me screaming "Make Me!"

Now go show Julie some love and pick up a copy of Vegan Diner, if you haven't already! Or maybe you will win one sometime soon...maybe from this very blog! (Check back tomorrow!)