Halloween 2011 Part 1

So if you didn't notice, I missed the past two days. Part of me is annoyed with myself because I typically don't like not meeting goals. The other part of me knows how crazy the past week has been, more so than usual, and this same part of me knows how much time I spent in the kitchen over the weekend, too. So forgive me, but I have Halloween treats to make it up to you.

My cousin Johnathan and two of his friends threw a Halloween party last night, and it was crazy! They did an amazing job of transforming the garage into a legitimately cool party space, complete with black lights and fog machines, and Mike played the best dance music all night. I made some treats, but between being busy preparing everything and my camera's recent bitchassness, I didn't get a ton of photos. In fact, some things didn't get photographed at all. Womp, womp. In addition to the s'more-pumpkin cupcakes, I made taco dip, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies (with better results than the first go-round), black bean dip, and vanilla cupcakes.

Another Alice! And a Mad Hatter!

Halloween and Vegan MoFo posts wrap up tomorrow with a bewitched soup and pumpkin carving. How did you spend Halloween weekend?

Are You Ready for Some Football?

The fact that this post is a week late should be an indication as to how my week went...

The regular season kicked off last Sunday, and I couldn't have been more thrilled! I love lazy football Sundays, and any chance to yell and scream like a maniac in a social setting is fine by me. Like this:

After the Reed interception.

My friend Janelle had a bunch of co-workers over to her adorable new house to watch the game. The company was great, but nothing compared to how amazing it felt to demolish the Steelers. Suck it, Pittsburgh! A week later, it feels just as great. 

"I can make this face." - Nathaniel

I made a batch of the vanilla agave cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Raise your hand if you're surprised. It was my first batch of the agave cupcakes, though, and they were amazing! A nice change of pace from the normal vanilla cupcakes. Getting the shade of purple icing proved impossible, hence the grayish color. I need to investigate my options. Suggestions?

Happy Birthday, DJ!

You can thank Irene for your two posts in one day. I've watched more 30 Rock today than I have in the past week. I baked scones, made tacos, cleaned the kitchen. I've entertained my dog. I've napped. I caught up on Jersey Shore. I'm also on damage control, as my basement is flooding. 

Anyway. Last weekend, we had a party for our friend DJ's birthday. I made a batch of vanilla cupcakes with buttercream frosting. Nothing too fancy, but the icing came out perfectly. PERFECTLY. Party time, excellent.

Birthday Boy!

Soulmate!

Our friend's pit/bull dog mix puppy. I'm in love!

Party animal.

Happy Birthday, DJ!

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July!

Fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays. The food is always so yummy and the fireworks never cease to delight me. I had a great weekend's worth of celebrating. I spent Saturday cooking out with some of my favorite people, but was too busy grazing all day to take any pictures of the food, save for that cupcake up there (a vanilla cupcake with butter cream frosting from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World; the "true red" food dye? NOT SO TRUE RED).

On Sunday, my mom and I went to see the BSO and a fireworks show at Oregon Ridge. Combining the BSO and fireworks is a brilliant idea, the weather wasn't awful, and the company was great!

Ironically, I didn't do a whole lot of celebrating today, because I spent the day making up for a weekend of generally slacking off. Like a good doobie, I went to the gym, did my grocery shopping (note to self: go shopping mid-afternoon on a holiday whenever possible to minimize dealing with other people), and did homework ad nauseam.

C'est la vie.

Luckily, the weather was tolerable, so my puppy and I took a nice walk this evening!

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

It's happened.

My mom has crossed over into the dark, egg-and-dairy-less world of vegan baking. Muahahahahah!

Tonight she made these little babies. The cake recipe comes from food.com, but she opted to use a butter cream frosting. I can't speak to the making of the cupcakes, but I can tell you the end result was delicious. And we opted to leave some not frosted, just because they're also tasty without!

With my birthday coming up in just a little over a month, I'm going to request oodles of cupcakes so that she can maintain her vegan baking skills in preparation for The Big Day.

A Birthday Part II

My mom's birthday was yesterday, so naturally, my day was filled with lots of delicious food. For dinner, we went out to one of my favorite places - yes, that's right, one of my favorite places on her birthday, how nice is my mom? - Mr. Chan's, a Chinese restaurant in Reisterstown. Unfortunately, they don't maintain any sort of website, but I promise visiting it in person will worth it! It's kind of a drive from our house, too, but their friendly waitstaff, fresh food, and variety of vegan options make up for it.

 Each meal starts with a cabbage salad and ginger dressing and those fried noodle things (seriously, what are they called?) with duck sauce and hot mustard. The cabbage salad is amazing, and I'm generally not a fan of ginger.

I ordered the veggie wonton soup for an appetizer.

 

My favorite meal here is the warm protein salad served with brown rice. It's made of seitan, yuba, and healmey with mushrooms and toasted pine nuts. Be warned, if you don't ask for it to be made otherwise, your meal will be chock full of mushrooms. I'm not a fan of them, though, so I always order "just a little bit." They're pretty accommodating. The food is always fantastic and fresh, and the servings are so generous, I always have leftovers for lunch the next day. Those leftovers turned out to be the best part of my work day, too, but that's neither here nor there...

 

Then we came home and I made chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World for dessert. Yes, I just bought a half dozen cupcakes, but Mom prefers my cupcakes to those. Birthday Girl gets what Birthday Girl wants. 

And I can't find a link to the pb frosting, but here's the book's recipe for a basic buttercream frosting. What's a cupcake without frosting? Tip: Make sure everything is room temperature!!

Ain't nothin' a vegan cupcake can't cure.

Oh, cupcakes. How I love thee. Is there really anyone who doesn't like cupcakes?

I first heard about Emily's Desserts a few years ago, but at the time, the bakery was operating as an appointment/request-only joint. Since even I can't justify placing an order for a single cupcake, I hadn't felt particularly motivated to try them out. Until a few weeks ago, that is, when I learned that the bakery now has a kiosk in the Towson Town Center, which is where I happen to buy my contacts.

After an exceptionally obnoxious day at work, I was doubly pleased to receive a phone call that my contacts were available for pick up: I could now discard my sandpaper-esque contacts and finally give Emily's Desserts a try.

The kiosk was insanely cute, as should be all things cupcakes, and the woman working was super friendly and nice. There were at least 10 flavors to choose from, including several gluten-free options, so I settled on a mix half dozen. From top, around clockwise: chocolate with peanut butter frosting, cookies n cream, Valentine's... something (?), chocolate chip, chocolate with peanut butter frosting again, and chocolate and strawberry frosting.

I've already sampled two. I couldn't help myself. They both were so, so good. The cake is really moist and fluffy and flavorful - achieving all three of these qualities can be difficult for some people. I know it seems blasphemous to pair the word "bad" with the word "cupcake," but I've had some vegan cupcakes with the flavor/texture of what I imagine cardboard tastes like. The frosting was also light and fluffy, but not so overly sweet it sent my system into shock. I've also had frosting, of the vegan and non-vegan variety, that could send me, a non-diabetic, in a diabetic coma. It was also obvious these little babies were fresh (it was about 6PM when I bought them) and weren't yesterday's leftovers - dry, day-old-tasting cupcakes are the worst.

Emily's Desserts totally warrants the Charm City Vegan Seal of Approval. If you're in the Towson mall, or are in need of amazing vegan cupcakes, Emily's Desserts is the obvious choice.