This Fukien Week

This has been a fukien shitty week...

the perfect occasion for some Fukien Cooking Wine!

Oh, pardon me, I mean Fuking Cooking Wine. 

Ok, then.

Before giving that party a kick-start, consider these appetizers:

This charming frozen duck, for example.

Surprise! She's Vegetarian Imitation...so, she's meat? lol

Not your style? Then make your own appetizers.

You can never go wrong at the Asian market.

 Want to make some Bao?

 First, find a good recipe! Neo liked this one!

Don't forget the hoisin. You always need hoisin.

And the dried mushrooms! 

I just spin them in a food processor to make...

Magic Mushroom Powder. Make powder and then put it in stuff.

 I made the bao filling from Mary's recipe for Superbowl breakfast, but my back wouldn't hold up to make the bao dough from scratch. 

I had even bought Bao flour! lol Anyway, I used frozen buns from the Asian market:

Oyster Mushroom and Tofu BBQ Bao-co! 

Get it? Bao + taco = Bao-co. 

We had these for breakfast on Superbowl Sunday.

Lastly, don't overlook the produce. My Asian market usually has really good prices on produce like cilantro. Give a bunch or two of washed cilantro (with or without stems, your call) a spin with some olive oil and salt and call it a day. You can make a whole, elaborate pesto if you really want to, but I like it plain like this, just olive oil and salt added, as just a sandwich spread or on the side of Israeli fare as a "cilantro salad.."

A Day (aka Cilantro Salad Spread)

Cover it in a little olive oil and store in the fridge. Lasts a while, but I bet you'll eat it all first.

This was our game day food. I used the Cilantro Salad Spread (above), hubby made my Zu Zu Ghanoush, and then we made the Kafta Kabobs from Joni's Fusion Food book (which I was a tester for!) to make:

an Israeli Superbowl super-platter of tastiest proportions!

Kafta Kabobs with Cilantro Salad and cucumbers, Side of pickles, olives, Zuzu Ghanoush and Sriracha. 

 Poo log-a-rama:

I don't suggest you serve these at a Superbowl party (or any party, lol). Obvious reasons. They are for private consumption only! lololol.

Maybe, though, they were the secret key to the Eagles unbelievable victory!

My son and Neo celebrating the big win.

No idea what I'm going to make this weekend...Kinda want these cupcakes...we'll see how I'm feeling. 

Valentine's Day is in the middle of the week this year so I don't know if I should celebrate it this weekend or next weekend...hmmm....thinking this weekend. 

 I mostly do Valentine's Day *early* check out all my past Valentine's Day posts, lol.

Have to finalize some ideas for the weekend and get shopping. 

See ya'll lata!

Get in my bowl!

I'm already in my bowl, mom. I likes to mess it up, real good. Mmmmmm. Yep.

Don't mess up your bowl. 

Oatmeal Cookies (from VCIYCJ):

These once hailed from a bowl.

Gardein Meatless Balzzz with LoveYoMomma Marinara*:

*bowl required.

And from a bowl also came-eth a Pull Apart Bread from Joni's FFITVK stuffed with VF's Parsley Pesto Ricotta:

*bowl optional.

*bowl required

A bowl filled with ballz.

Bowl, uh, Whole Foods Haul**: 

So many options for your bowl!

Requisite Cat Bomb.

Put Melt in Yo Bowl:

This stuff is awesome!! Find a store that carries it here. I gotta find the Melt Buttery Sticks to bake with because I really don't like EB. Looks like I'm going to ShopRite.

Question: 

What do you call cheese that's not yours...yet is in your bowl?

You guessed it: NOT-CHO CHEESE. 

(It's a vegan queso. There are tons of recipes out there for it, this was mine.). It helped the Eagles win last weekend! lol

It's not a party without dogs...no offense to cats.

Bunny Dogs*** were damn good if you ask me. I ran out of yellow mustard so no cool mustard squiggles. Sorry.

Hellman's Vegan Mayo (!?!) fo yo bowl (o yo dogs):

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it at Wegmans. Can't wait to try it. And a re-up on mustard.

You might be ready to graduate to an even bigger bowl now.

I've got recipes for the Bunny Dogs, the Not-Cho Cheese, and the LoveYoMomma Marinara. LMK which one you guys wanna see first. 

If you fill your bowl all the way up, what do you get? 

You guessed it: A SUPERBOWL.

GO EAGLES!!!

**Haul totally rhymes with bowl. Right?

***Bunny Dogs are cat-free. 

Lessons in Love: V-day feast, Temp Tatts, Contest Win, Two Pies and a Tester

I love temp tatts, and I suggest you get 'em on for this post!  

Emory's Flaming Panther

 Daddy's Cobra

Mommy's BBQ Dragon

I love blueberries.  And lemon.

 Homemade Blueberry Lemon Compote

 Over Hoecakes!

Next...I really loved this recipe!

 DIY Bisquick from Betty Goes Vegan.  So useful! So fun to make!

I needed it to make the amazing...

Cheezeburger Pie (this is SO good).  I love savory pies!

A delicious, cheezy, doughy bite.

Onto another tester from Joni's upcoming book, 

The Sesame Sriracha Sauce:

I am in love with Joni's new book!  And, now I'm more into spicy stuff than ever (and that's saying a lot since I always loved spicy stuff).

Sesame Sriracha Sauce over Korean Fresh Noodles with Organic Baby Kale, "Heathy Food" Vegan Shrimp (:-) and Black Sesame Seeds.  SO GOOD.

I had never, ever seen baby kale before, but Wegmans had it last week in the pre-washed salad greens-in-boxes section.  It's DELICIOUS and super convenient.  I hope they will carry it on a regular basis.  I LOVE BABY KALE.  

A more traditional, Asian presentation.

And this year, I made a special Valentine's Day Dinner.  I used two recipes from The Inspired Vegan:

Beet Tapenade Crostini and (from scratch) Jerk Tempeh and Peppers over Coconut Lime Rice. 

Molded Beet Tapenade Crostini.

Unmolded! Served with a surprise olive oil (see below!). 

Jerk Tempeh:

This was a wonderful Jerk sauce, even though it had, like 1,000 ingredients!

For dessert, I was out of my Whoopie Pies, but, my friend had made a batch of her own (a GF version of the recipe in BGV!).  She had extras leftover and was nice enough to 

re-purpose some of them over to me :-)  

These were SO delicious.  She promises to give me her GF recipe for them, guys!

I love whoopies!

And, I got a big box on my porch earlier this week...

What could it be?

 Ah ha! My prize from winning The Urban Vegan's Colavita contest!  

I got both the Private Selection and the Argentinian Fruity Olive Oils. SCORE!

I love winning :-)

And here's an early birthday present to myself (to fill all those future whoopie pies I still want to make!):

I was a little tired of the pastry bag thing (they always have some kind of issue), so I thought I might try this gadget.  Got good reviews on amazon, so, we'll see...

My birthday is coming up (I love my birthday!!) and I'll have more exciting stuff to show you and recipes to share.  If you can't wait, here's my birthday post from last year! Gonna be hard to top that...

Anyhoo, have a great rest of your weekend, everyone.  

(I love Mondays off for President's Day :-)

XOXO