Saturday, May 29, 2010

Vegan Iron Chef

On Sunday, June 6 Try Vegan is hosting an event in Portland called Vegan Iron Chef. Yes, it's exactly what it sounds like. Tickets are all sold out, but there will be live-streaming!

The chefs:
Aaron Adams from Portobello Trattoria- yum! All new restaurant opening in a few weeks!
Quasu AsaaseYaa of Asaase Ital Palace- a food cart which I hear is delicious!
Wes Hannah of Blossoming Lotus- killer Sunday brunch menu and I hear the 4 "Cheese" Lasagna is amazing!


vegan chefs are dreamy...

If you watch the live streaming, look for me! I'm the judge (or chef...can't remember) liaison and will getting whatever they need so may end up on camera a little bit.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

More Teese, please!

This weekend I had a great birthday celebration vacation with some friends in preparation of my big 30th birthday on Wednesday. It's nuts that I've lived in Portland for over 5 years now, but what it's even more nuts is that I no longer will be in my 20s!! It's not that I don't like getting older, I'm totally fine with it. It's that I don't feel like I thought I would at this age. I still haven't had, what I would consider, a real adult relationship. I haven't had someone I called my "boyfriend" since I was 18. I have definitely matured a bit, but I would say I feel more like I'm 25. And I definitely look less than 25. Well, at least when you don't see the darkish circles under my eyes... :o)

But you're not here to read about my circles, or my feelings, right? Right! So back to food. After I received the 2 small (but still a lot) tubes of Teese a couple months ago, I received an email saying they (Chicago Soy Dairy) were sending me a tube of their new formulated Mozzarella style Teese. It's supposed to be less liquidy after it melts and to be more stretchy. I did notice my first tube of Mozzarella had been a bit liquidy after it was melted, so I looked forward to testing this new one out.

The time to test came when we decided on making pizzas for Saturday dinner. None of my friends that came to the weekend are vegan and I had deemed this an all vegan weekend because there's nothing better than being able to eat *anything* (which is why I love vegan potlucks so much!) and not have to ask if something's vegan, etc. Some friends made the pizza dough and pizza sauce and for toppings we had: fresh asparagus, sauteed onions, mushrooms, zucchini, Tofurkey Italian Sausages, shredded Mozza Teese, fresh tomatoes, kalamata olives (I didn't partake of the pizza with those awful things on it). Of course, there was optional hot sauces and nooch. Johnny made 5 pies total and did an assortment of pies. My favorite was asparagus, sausage, zucchini, onions and Teese. It was so good!!! I wouldn't consider the Teese stretchy exactly, but I enjoyed it on my pie, it held the ingredients on to the crust. One friend didn't even think about it til afterwards that the cheese wasn't the real stuff. Two of my friends thought it tasted good uncooked, though I disagree. I wouldn't waste eating it raw when I could eat on a pizza!

Unfortunately, I forgot to take close up shots of the pizza, but shoot on over to Jess Sconed and check hers out!

Johnny & Amanda- makers of pizza pie!

Thanks to Chicago Soy Dairy for the awesome samples!!!