RECIPE - Faux Mocha / RESTAURANT REVIEW, Part Deux - Mud Pie Vegan Bakery, Kansas City, MO / Green Acres Market

After getting unpacked and situated in her temporary living quarters, the hedgehogs told April that she was required to drive into the big city and get some chocolate.



She decided that the best place to do that was Mud Pie Vegan Bakery.

Mud Pie Vegan Bakery
1615 W 39th St, Kansas City, MO 64111
Facebook page







Since April didn't get anything chocolate on her last visit to Mud Pie, this time would be different.



April got a Cashew Milk Mocha, Lemon Blueberry Bread, an Eggy Breakfast Burrito (made by KCMO restaurant Fud), and, to satisfy the chocolate craving/requirement, a s'mores cupcake. The was the second time she had got some food from Fud without actually going there (they always seem to be closed when she wants to go out). The burrito was gooey and delicious, the lemon blueberry bread was the perfect level of sweetness with a great flavor, and the s'mores cupcake was the perfect way to get that chocolate fix. The mocha was a great compliment to it all, and April was once again impressed by the milk options - soy milk is standard and *free*, and various other milks are available for a bit extra (like cashew, rice, coconut, almond, and hemp!)

While enjoying the yummy food, Buttercup's sharp eye discovered that the bookshelves on the wall were actually a door. Hedgie said that all doors should also be bookshelves.



On the way back to Leavenworth, April decided to stop in north KCMO and check out Green Acres Market, as she needed to pick up a few groceries (i.e., Hedgehog Bribes).

Green Acres Market
4175 N Mulberry Dr, Kansas City, MO 64116 (Also has locations in Wichita, KS and Jenks, OK)
Facebook page

Green Acres is located in a collection of shops, at the end of a row next door to Sugar Mama's Bakery (but not the one in Austin!) It's a decent-sized store; not too small, and not so big that you get lost. April picked up some organic produce - a couple of pluots (a combination between a plum and an apricot), some lemons, some broccoli, and some sweet potatoes, and also got a couple more heat & eat Indian packet meals and some cocoa powder from the bulk section. Since hearing about The Great Vegan Yogurt Shortage, she was pleased to find a brand new offering -


Quick review - the plain was the only flavor they had. It's not sweet, and the texture is good; not too thick or thin.

She also found a couple of things that looked very tempting, but that she didn't buy (yet!)


This company sells three types of coffee drinks and two varieties of plain almond milk in very cool bottles.


BBQ jackfruit and jackfruit tamales! April will definitely be getting some of this before leaving Kansas.

When she got back home, April decided to try her hand and making an instant iced mocha drink mix for the hot days out at the Kansas City Renaissance Festival. While at Green Acres, she had picked up a canister of Cafix, a barley/chicory drink which seemed very similar to Teeccino, except that it was labeled 'instant' (no brewing required!). The Cafix can said to mix with "very hot water", but Hedgie told April to go ahead and try making a small cup with cold. You know; for science.



April went with a 1/1/3/3 ratio - 1 spoon of Cafix, 1 spoon of cocoa powder, 3 spoons of coconut sugar, and 3 spoons of soy milk powder. She then added cold water and stirred well. It didn't all mix up immediately, but it did mix fairly well within 30-45 seconds. The hedgehogs tossed in a few ice cubes. It was good! April tripled the amounts for her giant wooden faire mug, and put the resulting mix in a small container to take with her to faire.

More faux-mocha info - this mixture tastes good hot, too! Also, the Better Than Milk company makes a rice milk powder, but don't use that for a cold faux-mocha; the rice milk powder doesn't blend well in cold water at all (though it's ok in hot, and mixes beautifully in a blender.)

In Which Everything Goes Awry (RESTAURANT REVIEW - Crazy Cajun, Port Aransas, TX)

Something that April didn't mention in the last few blog posts was that, upon returning to Austin, she had a gall bladder attack every other day. The 3rd one was extra painful, and didn't stop after a couple of hours like all the rest did. After several hours of pain, she decided that a trip to the emergency room was in order. A couple of days later, the gall bladder was history, and April was discharged from the hospital. The doctor said that it would be a bad idea to try and fly back to Kansas and play at the faire, so April reluctantly agreed to take another week off. Her fiance had already planned a trip to the Texas coast with his friends, so April went along with them. If one is going to recuperate, the beach is a nice place to do so!



The downside of recuperation was that it hurt to laugh, breathing deeply was impossible, and occasional abdominal discomfort made things not so great. The upside was that, with no more pesky gall bladder, April could eat pretty much whatever she wanted. Her fiance, Tim, and all of their friends had rented Tim's family's condo in Port Aransas, so a full kitchen as well as community grills were at their disposal.

Tim started out the long weekend by making a ton of chalupas (one of April's favorites!) with Daiya cheese, refried beans, avocado, and Wheatsville's popcorn tofu.



The next day, a couple of their friends took turns grilling all sorts of things. April and Tim (the two vegans in the group) got grilled corn on the cob, veggie skewers, and grilled pineapple and strawberry skewers (delicious!)



For desert, there was Purely Decadent Chocolate Obsession and So Delicious Cookies 'n' Cream.



On the last day, everyone wanted to go eat at The Crazy Cajun, a place they had enjoyed on the last trip to the coast.

Crazy Cajun
303 E Beach Ave, Port Aransas, TX 78373


The hedgehogs have their own special spot in the car.

April was a bit worried about trying to eat at a seafood restaurant, but Tim assured her that there was something they could eat. Upon arriving, the hedgehogs explored the waiting room -



After a bit of a wait (accompanied by what may have been the Crazy Cajun himself - a guy with a fiddle and a harmonica), the group was seated.


For reference, thecrazycajun.com doesn't actually work.

The actual Crazy Cajun entree is a large bucket of corn, potatoes, and dead sea animals that gets dumped on the paper-covered table, while diners are given wooden mallets to crack open shells. April and Tim sat at one end of the table and did their best to ignore the carnage. The veggie option (which isn't on the menu) consists of a smaller bowl of just corn and potatoes. Make sure to tell the waiter that you don't want them cooked in butter.



The Crazy Cajun uses a spice mix that's actually quite spicy but very, very tasty. Tim bought a big bottle of it to take home.


The Blues Brothers in the window of The Crazy Cajun.

While April has almost no sense of smell, she has heard that The Crazy Cajun has a fairly strong fish smell (perhaps a rotten fish smell), so people with sensitive noses might want to find someplace else to go.

The Hedgehogs Take Pennsic (Slippery Rock, PA)

After the 24 hour drive from Austin to Pennsylvania, April and the hedgehogs finally made it to Pennsic. Pennsic lasts for two weeks - the first week is called "Peace Week", and the second week is called "War Week", since that's when most of the battles are fought. Hedgie and Buttercup are a bit worried about getting anywhere near large armies in heavy plate mail carrying swords (rightly so!), so they have nothing to report on the actual fighting.

They did, however, provide cheering and moral support while April set up her tent.



It's not an authentic canvas pavilion, but it'll do for now. Just big enough for a musician and her hedgehogs.

The next morning, April donned her handmade linen cotehardie (dress) and handmade linen veil, grabbed her instruments (bowed psaltery, bodhran, flute, and pennywhistle) and hedgehogs, and headed out to play music for the masses.



Hedgie and Buttercup would like to credit their extreme cuteness and congeniality as the reason that April made the front page of the Pennsic Independent -



After several hours of playing, Hedgie took Buttercup on a tour of his favorite places. (He's been to Pennsic twice before, but this was Buttercup's first time.) He showed her House Hedgehog (the Latin on the tent translates to "The Hedgehog Can Not Be Buggered At All") -



as well as the TARDIS (which leads into another encampment) -



Pennsic is run by the Coopers (who own the land). The Coopers run the convience store onsite, as well as Penn Market, which moved from the food court to the big barn this year. April was thrilled to notice that Penn Market had a whole section devoted to organic foods -



Each year, Pennsic has a theme. Since this was Pennsic 42, the theme made itself readily apparent -


This sign happily provided by Vogon industries.


The official site medalion. If you can't quite make it out, that's a bowl of flowers that says "Don't Panic".

One of April's favorite places to play and hang out at Pennsic underwent ownership and a name change this year. Kafe Merhaba (formerly Your Inner Vagabond) provides coffee, tea, other drinks, and light snacks in a big shaded tent with tons of straw-stuffed cushions. It's very easy to forget that you're in a tent in a field when you're lounging on cushions and sipping an iced coffee.


Did I mention it was Pennsic 42?


Hedgie and Buttercup meet the Merhaba camel. "We found a camel! Can we keep him?"

This year, the food choices were much fewer than last year. (Here's the menu.) There were some vegan options, but they were a bit out of April's budget - $4 for a small bowl of mixed olives or a small bowl of mixed fruit and nuts. April's favorites this year were the drinks (which they gave her for free after she'd played a set - bonus!) April started out trying a Yemeni espresso with ginger and orange blossom water. It was sweet, perfectly spiced, and delicious!


The hedgehogs beg for coffee. "See? It's just our size!"

April's other favorite drink was an iced chai. When she first got there, they told her they had no non-dairy milk, so she had several chais with no milk at all. On the last day, they proudly told her that they had almond milk, so she was treated to the most amazing drink ever (at least, that was what it seemed like after a long day playing music in the heat!)



One of the other awesome things about Penn Market was that they sold freshly baked bread of all sorts. Each day, there would be day-old bread for half price. On the last day, they offered buy one, get one free on all the remaining bread, so April bought a bread bed for Hedgie and Buttercup.


The hedgehogs get comfy. The dipping oil was given to April free from one of the ladies who worked at Penn Market.

April took down her tent and packed everything up (with the cheering and moral support of the hedgehogs), and prepared to embark on her first trip to Canada!

Cookie Cups

Last week, my boyfriend Tim and I went to Wheatsville for a grocery run. I saw the tubs of Celeste's Best vegan cookie dough, and mentioned that the one time I'd bought it before, the dough ended up being really thin, and the cookies spread so much that my final result was more or less one giant cookie sheet cookie. Tim mentioned that perhaps they should be made in a cupcake tin instead. That's when the mad inventiveness started.

I had the bright idea to put peanut butter chocolate cups on top of each cookie cup. Tim didn't think that was a very good idea, so I just bought one package to top some for me. I then mentioned that my new Biscoff spread would be good in or on the cookie cups. Tim still hasn't figured out what Biscoff spread is good for, and doesn't like the taste, so again, just on two for me.

I filled each cupcake well about 3/4 full (except the last one, which was only about 1/2 full, but it got one of the peanut butter chocolate cups.) I put the peanut butter cups on two of the cookie cups and topped another two with a light layer of Biscoff Spread.



I baked them for about 11-12 minutes, and when I took them out of the oven, they'd puffed up like muffins. They were also extremely soft, so I put them in the freezer for 10 minutes.



After freezing, the cookie cups had sunk back down in the middle and formed actual cups. I'm thinking these would be a really good receptacle for the coconut whipped cream I posted about before, or possibly some vegan pudding. I can't wait to experiment!

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.)

Vegan Donuts at Whole Foods - Overland Park, KS

Whole Foods Market
6621 West 119th Street, Overland Park, KS
(913) 663-2951
Hours: 7:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. seven days a week

Mark and I are lucky in that there are two Whole Foods located within close driving distance of his sister's house. This is the one we usually visit, though we've been to the other as well. This one did not start out life as a Whole Foods, and is organized rather oddly, so you may have to browse a bit more than you'd planned (or spend time asking the employees where things are).

A very tasty addition to this particular Whole Foods is the tray of vegan Mighty-O Donuts in the bakery case.


The vegan French Toast Donut is a dense, slightly moist cake donut with a sweet glaze topped with powdered sugar. It's not overly sweet, but is a very satisfying donut with a nod towards French toast.


The Chocolate Glazed Donut is what you might expect - a basic cake donut with a sweet chocolate glaze.


The Raspberry Chocolate Donut is similar to the Chocolate Glazed, but with a nice raspberry flavor throughout.


This location does not carry Sweet & Sara vegan marshmallows, but the last time we checked, the other location (7401 West 91st Street) did (they were in the bakery section with the refrigerated cakes).