My Birthday Sign: Cancers Like to Cook

So I've disappeared again. But it was because I was busy getting older. My birthday week just passed me by, so the month of July will be dedicated to amazing birthday related food posts.

What constitutes a birthday related food post? Well, I baked four different cakes during my birthday week, for starters, and received a juicer and a pasta roller as gifts. Additionally, my sister gave me three new cookbooks that I will be delving into, along with an apron so sexy that I'm tempted to wear nothing else when I am in the kitchen. Watch out, Jamie Oliver, the real naked chef is on your tail!

I had the fortune of sharing my birthday week with my sister's engagement party, for which I was asked to prepare my damn good chocolate cupcakes. Now, I know I've been bragging about them for weeks, but I'm a little tired of them. So I modified them (I'll tell you how soon) and added a few other treats to my lovely dessert spread.

 

So keep your eyes open throughout the month of July.  Promised posts include Upgraded Damn Good Chocolate Cupcakes, Dark Chocolate Cake with Espresso Buttercream, Cinnamon Spice Cake with Orange Glaze, and Lemon Crepe Cake, for starters.

 

I haven't forgotten about my first love. 

 

Food.

 

French Food for Vegans

First off, I must dispel a myth.

I have not died.  I have not fallen ill to the point of incapacitation.  And I have not seriously injured myself.

Truthfully, I haven't even been a lazy blogger.  I spent my one and only day off last week preparing so many delights for you to enjoy here at Vegan Food-Like that I ran out of time to type about them.  So this week, I owe you many pictures and stories about my adventures.

Let's start with the cooking adventure that was destined to flop.  Parisienne Gnocchi.

Donuts are the new Cup-fake ;)

Where I came from, donuts did not come from the oven.  They came from the Krispy Kreme store or the Dunkin' Donuts down the road.  The were little fried fat balls full of sugar and unidentifiable, chemical shelf stabilizers.

Now that I have a little donut pan and a vegan lifestyle, my donuts come from the oven.  And, man, can they be tastier than I ever imagined!

What made these donuts particularly delicious was preparing them with my husband.  The couple that cooks together. . .

Blue Pancakes for a Little Girl Blue

The last week here in the Philly suburbs have been a little on the grey side.  Rain has been our constant companion this past week and the forecast is hedging on rain all week.  Everyone around is cranky, tired, and wet. . .

Weeks like this call for comfort foods and pajamas.  And nothing makes me want to get out of bed on drizzling grey mornings like a big ol' stack o' pancakes.  So I brought out the griddle and started flapjacking away the other day.  And I came up with some pretty impressive results!

Fruit Sushi

I loved sushi.  It is one thing that I do miss eating. . . sure I can go and still enjoy my veggie rolls, but I was always a sucker for a good rainbow roll and some sashimi.  One of my last meals before the vegan revolution took over was at D.C. top rated sushi restaurant, Sushi Taro.  And it was memorable!

Enter Fruit Sushi.

Cornbread: Can't Beat the Classics

I'm in the middle of reading The Flavor Bible among a few other food-obsessed books.  In it is a great quote from Emily Luchetti, the pastry chef at Farallon (in SF) that explains the problem with the first cornbread recipe I tried the other day.  She says, "Too many chefs start adding things that in the end all taste muddled, because nothing can stand out on its own."

When I tried making the Quinoa Blue Cornbread in Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's Color Me Vegan, I added just about everything but the kitchen sink.  I couldn't find blue cornmeal at my local grocery store, so I substituted yellow cornmeal, which the recipe itself recommended.  It also suggested that you try buckwheat flour instead of all-purpose, adding corn, or adding blueberries.  I decided to try all of the above.  If one is good, all three would be great, right?

Veganish and Spaghetti-nos: If it Makes You Feel Gross, Stop Eating It!

I've been a lazy blogger. . . mostly because I've been an unbearably busy employee.  This past week, I worked myself into exhaustion, ate poorly (which didn't help my exhaustion), and got some bad news (again, exhausting).

So rather than being too exhausted to think about food-like, I've been looking forward a day off on Thursday when I can slave away in MY kitchen for MY belly and then share it with you!  And I've got plans to make a lovely dinner for my husband and at least one yummy treat to get me through the week.