Primary Consumer

Happy Valentines Day, Peeps!

primaryconsumer — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 04:42:04 +0000

Okay, not really. In my opinion, these days Valentines Day is just a consumerist holiday fueled by Hallmark and Corporate America, and seriously, if you have a special someone, you really should celebrate your love everyday of the year, not just for one day each February. Perhaps it helps to lighten up the dead of winter, but I can think of other things to do if you’re feeling the winter blues. So really what I want to wish you all is Happy Everyday!

Now that I got that off my chest, I’m going to admit that I made a special meal yesterday, but that’s just ’cause I could.

Starter: Crisp Vegetable Spring Rolls – red cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, scallions, ume plum vinegar, tamari, and mirin…

With dipping sauce: tahini, miso, tamari, mirin, and ume plum vinegar…

Entree: Korean Barbeque Tempeh, Soba Noodle Salad with Citrus and Kimchee, and Sesame Collard Greens….

The Entree recipe is from The Artful Vegan. I find the recipes in this book and The Millenium Cookbook (same authors) extremely hit or miss; the Barbeque Tempeh was amazing, but the Soba Noodle Salad wasn’t very good.

Last, but certainly not least, for dessert was Smlove Pie from Veganomicon…..

Oh man, was this amazing. Graham cracker crust, chocolate mousse-ish filling, cashew butter caramel, maple pecans, and finally chocolate ganache to top it off. What more could you ask for?

Sliced…….

Happy Everyday, Peeps!

Rawsome.

primaryconsumer — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 17:57:49 +0000

Let me start this post by saying that I’m a little scared of raw vegans. I know there are some amazing raw vegan chefs out there, and I admire them for their craft and I do like eating raw every so often, but it just seems so, restrictive? Quite a few raw vegans shop at the health food store I work at and they are all extremely uptight and repressed. I know I shouldn’t generalize, but all the ones I have met or heard stories about are always holier-than-thou and rather unhealthy. That being said, I always say do whatever makes you happy, as long as you’re not hurting anyone or anything.

*Please note that I could also be scarred by a few horrible experiences with raw vegan cookies that made me almost puke in my mouth a little on multiple occasions.

Anyway, my sister is the assistant manager at the health food store I work at, and having her esteemed position, gets to bring samples home from different food reps that come in hawking their many different products. Enter some raw food samples:

Yes, I will take free food anytime, anyday, and I was uber excited when she brought them home. She actually wrapped the lot of them up for Christmas for me (and then told me I was expected to share it all with her!!!) So far we’ve had some carrot crackers that were yummy and there was also some delicious fudge in there (a couple of different flavors but I only got a picture of one of them):

I’ll let you know how the other stuff is when we eat it.

Edit: The other stuff is really gross. I hate to turn my nose up at it, but seriously, ugh.

Also, I may have ruffled a few feathers with this post, but I still stand by my (admittedly un-scientific) position about the unhealthy-ness of raw veganism. I’m not entirely against raw foodism, but I certainly feel there should be a balance between raw and cooked food, and all too often raw foodism is just a front for eating disorders and obsessive behavior.

If You’ve Got It, Flaunt It?

primaryconsumer — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 17:26:54 +0000

Ah, Christmas time. The consumerist time of year when most people you know are stressed out by shopping and/or baking and/or over-indulging.
Actually, my mom has a friend who isn’t stressed out around Christmas, since all her shopping is done by the end of July. She also lives in fantasy land, but I won’t get into it…

I’m not big into celebrating Christmas, but it is a time when my family is all together (well, except for past X-mas’ ruined by my mom being called to go visit dying people – Oh, the stories I could tell), so I make people gifts instead of buying them.

By the way, does anyone have ideas for gifts I could make? I haven’t started making anything yet. (My sub-conscious way of sticking it to the holidaze???)

Even though I’m not big into celebrating, I love all things cookie/cupcake/cake decorating, and I had crystallized mint and lavender hanging out in the kitchen, so I decided to flaunt ‘em. Check these little gems out:

Gingerbread Cupcakes with Lemon Frosting from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World.

P.S. Happy Kwanzaa.

Mole Skillet Pie, Coconut Custard Pie

primaryconsumer — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 03:21:46 +0000

What a wonderful meal:

That’s tropical fruit salad and banana coulis you see on the plate with the coconut custard pie….

Welcome Friends!

primaryconsumer — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 21:51:50 +0000

Hi one and all and welcome to my new blog! While some of you may remember me from my old blog, I welcome all new and old friends alike. I realized the other day just how long it had been since I last blogged. It’s been 11 months and 9 days! A long time, huh? I’d like to think my writing style has been refined a bit, and I felt it was time to move from blogspot to wordpress, due to the problems I always seemed to have over at blogspot. Go check out the about me section! I’ll be back soon, but before I go, I give you the positively delicious (although sickeningly sweet) Caramel-Apple-Spice Cupcakes with Penuche Frosting from Isa and Terry’s new book Veganomicon……