Vegan Bridal Shower Brunch and Hawaiian Quinoa Salad

I had the pleasure of coming out of catering retirement and catering a lovely bridal shower this weekend. The hostess (and a very dear friend) agreed to keep the fact that it was all vegan a secret from most of the guests until after everyone had a chance to try the goods. It was a great success. There were many happy tummies and requests for recipes. It was fun to serve food to such a nice bunch of people, who were very open minded about the vegan menu. The lovely bride seemed to enjoy the food too, which is the most important thing!! So for those of you who asked for the Hawaiian Quinoa Salad recipe, I am posting it here for you.

Hawaiian Quinoa Salad

Makes 8-10 Servings

1/2 medium white or yellow onion, diced small
2 cloves minced garlic
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
1 cup red inca quinoa (if you can't find red use regular)
1 1/4 cup quinoa
3 cups vegetable broth
1 cup light coconut milk

1 1/2 cup large red bell pepper, diced approx 1/4 inch
1 1/2 cup fresh pineapple, diced approx 1/4 inc (can sub canned but fresh is much better)
1 cup toasted macadamia nuts, coarsely choppped
6 green onions, sliced thinly

Dressing ingredients

1 1/2 Tablespoons white mellow miso
1 1/2 Tablespoons low sodium tamari or soy sauce
3 Tablespoons pineapple juice
1 1/2 teaspoons mirin
1 1/2 teaspoons seasoned rice or sushi vinegar
1 1/2 Tablespoons toasted sesame oil

In medium size saucepan saute onion and garlic in sesame oil until onions are softened (about 5 minutes). Add quinoa and saute until just toated. Add vegetable broth and coconut milk. Bring to a gentle boil and reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and cook until all liquid is absorbed and quinoa is cooked through (about 25 minutes). Make sure all liquid is absorbed or the salad will have quite a bit of liquid at the bottom. Let quinoa cool completely. While it is cooling dice the red pepper and pineapple. Chop the macadamia nuts. Slice the green onions. They look very pretty if you slice them at an angle. Fold these into the cooled quinoa until evenly distributed.

Stir together all of the dressing ingredients in a small bowl. Pour dressing slowly into the salad Let chill in the refrigerator at least 3 hours, preferably overnight.

Just a little FYI: The Coffee Chip Muffins, Toasted Coconut Mango Muffins, East Coast Blueberry Coffee Cake and both the Broccoli and Cauliflower Quiches were from the Vegan Brunch cookbook. The Mushroom and Leek tart was a recipe from the Voluptuous Vegan cookbook.

It's coming Vegan MOFO 2010

Last year I joined a kick ass group of vegan foodies for Vegan Month of Food. It is a fun activitiy designed to encourage vegan foodies to update their blogs regularly. Of course it is supposed to be all food related which makes my heart sing. It was quite a challenge to try and blog every day. I did pretty well last year, even when I was on vacation in Montana. I am aspiring to blog every day during October...much to Fred's dismay :) He thought it was totally out of control last year; especially when I insisted on finding a computer at the hotel where we were staying in Montana so I could blog. I think he is getting used to the idea that I am totally out of control sometimes.

This year I have been thinking about a theme for MOFO. It dawned on me today that it would be fun to veganize favorite recipes of my friends and family. So in the next couple of days I am going to send out an e-mail to many of you to see if you have a favorite family recipe that I can attempt to veganize. I'm hoping time constraints don't get the best of me because I think this would be a blast. Who knows, if the veganizing goes well, maybe I will put the recipes in a little cook zine or add them to my growing file of "maybe I'll write a cookbook someday" recipes.

So please check back often in October. If you want to submit a non-vegan family fav. Shoot me an e-mail with the recipe attached as a word file. Let the converting continue!!!

More Testing - Ripe from Around Here

I just started testing for Jae Steele's upcoming book Ripe from Around Here. I'm not sure what the anticipated publish date is, but I will keep you posted. This book will focus on local ingredients and a fresh, healthy approach to cooking. Here are some goodies from my first week of testing.

Savory Stuffed Mushroom Caps

Broccoli Salad

Tomato Chard Bake

Apple Flax Pudding

Morning Glory Muffins

Testing Complete - American Vegan Kitchen

It is with mixed feelings that testing for this yummy book is complete. This was such a fun testing experience I am sad it is over. But I am super excited that the book will be out soon. It can be pre-ordered through Amazon, but if you can wait, please order if from vegan.com once it is released. There are some classics and delicious twists on American classics. If you feel you'd miss some of your favorite foods by eating compassionately, this book will change your mind. Here are some more teaser pictures from the upcoming book.

Chickn and Dumplings

Fried Zuccini

San Fran Wrap/One of my personal favs from testing

Burgers!

Pizza and Lasagne

Vegan Diner Testing

Once again I get the distinct pleasure to test for yet another tasty and incredible cook book. This time it is the fabulous Julie Hasson's Vegan Diner. This book is going to be chock full of dishes we all know and love. It will remind you of those fantastic little diner's where the food is even more tasty at 1am! Above you can see the Quinoa Burger done up southwestern style.

Below is a creamy delicious smoky grilled cheeze with tomatoes.

I never thought I would be able to enjoy a Banana Cream Pie without the milk. But here it is! This creamy sweet delicousness is even better than I imagined.

Red Onion Rings - pretty self explanatory. These are crispy and oh so good.

This decadent beauty is a Dark Chocolate Cherry Cake. Be careful, looking at it may make you gain 5 lbs. This is an easy way to get your chocolate fix. The cherries add a moist deliciousness to the cake. MMMMM.

My advice to all of you is to save your pennies. The books that have been introduced to you here on the blog are all going to be really great additions to you collection. This one is no exception. This week I'm going to be testing for Jae Steele's new book - Recipes from Around Here. Hopefully I will have the time to blog about my adventures with her recipes this week.

Bon Apetit!

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.