Bonus Post! Taco Tuesday

Unfortunately, April is not participating in the Great Taco Cleanse of 2013, like so many of her fellow bloggers. However, she's doing her best to participate on the edges of this great movement, like celebrating Taco Tuesdays as best as she can while in Kansas.

Today for dinner, she made a delicious soft taco with Daiya pepperjack cheese and Upton's Naturals seitan bacon. April has tried tempeh bacon before, and thinks it tastes ok, but it's really not even close to actual bacon. Now, Upton's seitan bacon? Nirvana. Simple, unadulterated, crunchy, smoky, deliciousness. Just pan-fry each strip in a bit of coconut oil for about a minute on each side. (You'll perhaps notice that Hedgie and Buttercup aren't in either of these pictures. They stole a piece of seitan bacon and ran off with their prize!)






Back in Austin, Sweet Ritual is participating in the Taco Cleanse by making vegan Choco Tacos.

Post by Sweet Ritual.

April was super sad when she heard about it; she won't be back in Austin until mid-October. However, in an extreme demonstration of true love, her fiance, Tim, texted her a photo of what would be waiting for her in the freezer once she got home -



Yay! Now, to make the most of her remaining time in Kansas - perhaps Hedgie and Buttercup can tell her some entertaining stories? (Nope; looks like they're still nomming on the bacon!)

RESTAURANT REVIEW - Mamma's Pizza, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (and Hedgehogs On The Beach)

After visiting Niagra Falls (and narrowly avoiding an international incident involving Buttercup and a barrel), April and the Hedgehogs proceeded to April's cousin's house in Toronto. After successfuly navigating the World of Metric Measurements, they made it to their destination safely. April's cousin and her husband were eager to show the travelers around the gorgeous neighborhood where they live part-time (the rest of the time, they're Austinites as well!)

A stroll down Queen's Street had April ooh-ing and aah-ing over the architecture, neat shops, and plentiful vegan food options. (April wanted to try this place while she was there, but didn't get the chance.) A dinner decision was made when the group was greeted with this tempting sign -



Mamma's Pizza
2118 Queen Street East (Beaches) Toronto, Ontario, Canada (Many other locations)
Facebook page



The group decided to get a large pizza, half of which would be Vegan Olive Press (Olive Oil, Roasted Potatoes, Roasted Red Peppers, Eggplant, Broccoli, Garlic and Oregano). Mamma's also offers two other fancy vegan pizzas that feature Daiya cheese.

While waiting for the pizza to be ready, Hedgie and Buttercup indulged in some window shopping -



When the pizza was ready, the group strolled back to April's cousin's house. It's so nice to be able to walk everywhere! The pizza was really delicious (though April is a sucker for potatos on pizza, so it was an easy sell), and a good value for the money.



After dinner, everyone decided to go for a walk on the nearby beach.





For the rest of the week, April meant to get more sight-seeing, but ended up spending most of the time indoors hand-embroidering and hand-sewing the banner for her solo music act, which had to be completed before she got to GenCon.



Luckily, the banner was finished in time, and the last day in Toronto was dedicated to sight-seeing and eating.

Mac Daddy - Veganomicon

A while back, Tim and I decided we wanted mac & cheese. Searching through our various cookbooks, we came up with "Mac Daddy" from the Veganomicon.



This is some seriously tasty food. We used pieces of lasagna noodles instead of macaroni, used the vegan Ricotta that we'd just picked up in place of the handmade ricotta (another reason for picking this recipe!), and topped the whole thing with Panko breadcrumbs, but otherwise, we just went with the original.



So. Freaking. Good.

Man, now I want mac & cheese again...

Dr. Cow & Sheese Meltability Test

After yesterday's vegan cheese comparison post, I decided today that I'd see if they would melt. I'd tried to melt Sheese several years back, and it didn't work, but I decided to do it again now. You know, for SCIENCE.



Here's some Blue Sheese (over a Tofurkey sausage) that's been microwaved for 45 seconds. As you can see, it hasn't actually melted, but the thinner edges got quite soft.



Later, I tried some Blue Sheese and some Dr. Cow Cashew & Kale together, and microwaved them for a full minute. They made quite the interesting popping sounds, and when I took the plate out of the microwave, both cheeses were sizzling (the white stuff on the Dr. Cow was actual liquid-y sizzle-y stuff). However, they seem to have melted even less than the previous batch, and the tortilla also got kinda stiff and crunchy.

So, the verdict is still "no". Perhaps I'll try some in the oven on a tostada tomorrow, but I'm not promising anything.

Dr. Cow / Sheese Comparison

Last week, I splurged a bit and bought some yummy stuff from Rabbit Food Grocery. I went to their pop-up shop at Capital City Bakery last Friday to pick it all up (and scored one of the last three cupcakes from the bakery trailer!)



Among my hoard were two flavors of Sheese (Blue and Smoked Cheddar) and Dr. Cow Aged Cashew & Kale cheese (for some reason, this flavor is not listed on Dr. Cow's website).



I took all three cheeses over to a friend's house, where my boyfriend and I were meeting four of our friends to hang out. All of our friends are omnivores, so I was interested to get their opinions.




The Dr. Cow cheese was not generally liked. One friend thought that it was slightly sour and might go well with apples (something sweet). One other friend actually liked it better than the Blue Sheese, but not as much as the Smoked Cheddar Sheese. Overall, everyone seemed to like the Smoked Cheddar Sheese the best, saying that it was really good and that it tasted "the closest to what it was meant to be".

Personally, I liked the Blue Sheese best (but I've always been fond of blue cheese). I agree with everyone else that the Dr. Cow was a bit grainier than the Sheese. I liked it ok, but not as much as the Sheese. The price of the Sheese ($6.99 for 8 oz.) was also much better than the price of the Dr. Cow ($10.50 for 3.3 oz.). The only problem is that I hear that Sheese will no longer be imported into the USA starting soon (which is why I splurged on two wheels of it).

Tomorrow, I will try melting the Sheese to see what it will do (it didn't melt the last time I tried, but that was a few years ago.)