Portland Rocks

I'm back! We wanted to check out Portland for all it's delicious vegan food and cooler? weather. While we certainly found lots of great vegan food and fun people, we did not find greater Portland cool on this venture. It was almost 95 degrees, which is certainly cooler than the temperatures here in the greater Phoenix area, but still!

We got to meet up with some PPK friends that I have known from the internet for a while. It sure was fun to finally get to meet them in person. It makes me want to figure how we can live there at least part time! I won't give reviews of the places we ate as Jess, author of the fabulous blog Stumptown Vegans, is the expert in this area. I will however share with you the great eats we had on our visit.

We both had a great time and you can see the rest of the pictures on the PPK. I'm looking forward to many more visits in the future.

This is a delicious Charlie Brown Bar from Sweetpea Bakery

Behold the Almost Chicken Salad Sandwich and Tater Salad from Sweetpea

Los Gorditos II came highly recommended and this is one reason why.
Soyrizo Enchiladas!


Our new friend Julie Hasson made this heavenly Mint Chocolate Truffle Pie
She also made a banana cream pie that was off the hook.

Jess made these crazy good s'mores brownies

Testing for American Vegan Kitchen - Salads

So yesterday Tami was finally able to give the OK to blog about testing for her upcoming book "American Vegan Kitchen". This cookbook will truly dispell the myth that food must be laiden with animal products to be American comfort food.

She puts up test recipes at such a fast pace that I can't even keep up! This is a great thing. It gives a tester lots of choices, not to mention great variety in the kitchen. Variety is the spice of life...no. Testing has been going on for quite some time, but I was just invited recently. I'm so thrilled to be in on this. Tami is a creative marvel. I can't list much about the recipes, but I can show you pictures with faux titles (kind of like faux meat) for your viewing pleasure. This is yet another one you need to get your hands on when it comes out in 2010. There is nothing wrong with being a cookbook addict. I highly recommend it.

For your first peek, there will be some great salads. I'll keep posting more from different categories each post, so stay tuned.

Testing - Viva Vegan - Peruvian testers

I haven't posted for such a long time. I've been busy getting married. The wedding and plans took up quite a bit of time and energy, but so worth the effort. We had a great wedding weekend with lots of friends and family in town. As you can imagine, there wasn't a whole lot of cooking going on.

Now we head into our busy season at work. But this will not stop me from cooking. I'm just slacking a bit on posting.

I was invited to test for two more upcoming books; Viva Vegan by Terry Hope Romero and the other to be announced later (it is a stealth project). I can't wait to be able to let the cat out of the bag on that one.

We've had a lot of fun travelling the latin globe in our kitchen. Let's have a peak. (I can't post the recipes of course. Make sure you get a copy of Viva Vegan when it comes out!)

First stop was Peru. So far Peruvian food has proven to be high on the list of favorites. I know little about Peruvian cuisine, so I can't give much background (yet). I can tell you the bold flavors make my tastebuds very happy indeed.

P.S. I do plan on getting back to the restaurant reviews as time permits.

Peruvian Antichucos (Skewers)

Peruvian Red Chili Corn Salad

Seitan Saltado