February 28, 2008 | Mama Smith

vegan mania

The vegan fever has been unleashed in our kitchen. The past few days I have been churning out obscene amounts of food, all in the name of “practice”. I thought I’d need need an army of hungry vegans to help me get rid of all these creations, but my three men seem to be handling the job just fine.

Brighton and Levi enjoyed their nori-less tempeh rolls this evening, leaving only a few stray pieces of rice to sweep up. Cheap and easy. I think I’ve found a new favorite food.

Brighton and his pirate imitation. Scary, I know.

The other day we made falafel from Vegan with a Vengance. Served with warm pita, tahini dressing, black bean hummus, lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers…it was insanely good. The beginning stages…

I also pressed some tofu and made a recipe Emily sent me for Orange Ginger Tofu. Which unfortunately never made it to a meal. We picked it right out of the baking dish and ate it all within 24 hours. It was just that good. I never thought I would say that about tofu.

Marinating…

Then freshly baked, golden and crispy….

The dessert section is terribly dangerous. At least for a sugar fiend like myself. The Coconut Heaven cupcakes are already on round two after we consumed round one the day they were pulled from the over. But hey, we did share with friends. That counts, right?!

Tomorrow I’ll be trying out the Ginger Coconut Carrot Cake for our friends who’ll be joining us for dinner…which I may by accident eat by myself before anyone arrives. I’ll try to restrain myself.

Lastly, now that I’ve been welcomed into the world of sushi art, I just cannot get enough. With a shy smirk I asked Matthew this morning if he’d like sushi again for dinner tonight. Thankfully, he’s as much an addict as I am. This time we made tempeh rolls with sweet potato, avocado, radish, cucumber, and cream cheese. We almost didn’t even miss the salmon.

And to end things on a vegan-less, slightly more humorous note, a story of a bizarre encounter this morning….

After filling our cart to the brim at Whole Foods this morning, we rumbled out to the car with all our goods only to find the door of our 4-Runner ajar. Cautiously I peered around the passenger side to find a lady scribbling something on a piece of paper and chatting on her phone. Thinking she might of had an emergency and tried the closest open car to find a piece of paper or something I carefully ask, “Um, excuse me…can I help you?”

She shoots me a disdaining look and quips, “NO. Thank you” and promptly slams the door in my face and locks the door. Oookay. Now what. I knock on the window. She ignores me. Shooting me a few creeped out looks.

I am about to start banging again when I see lady #2 approach the drivers side door and start knocking on the window. Lady #1 obviously recognizes lady #2 as a friend, and motions towards me – the crazy lady trying to get in HER VEHICLE! Lady #2 is yelling to lady #1 that this is not her car. Lady #1 is too engrossed in previously mentioned phone conversation to comprehend this and simply reaches over to unlock lady #2’s door. The door is swung open and lady #2 yells “THIS. IS. NOT. MY. CAR. Get off the stupid phone!” Lady #1’s eyes pop out of her head. She looks at me. Looks back at her friend. Then looks in the back seat to see two crud-covered car seats. Mortified she jumps out of our tan 4-Runner and rushes over to lady #2’s tan 4-Runner parked two spots over. And they speed off. I’m assuming profound embarrassment exempts one from attempting any form of normal social behaviors, such as….say, an apology?

That is the last time I forget to lock our car.

Brighton was very concern during this entire event. Throughout the interchange I could hear him rattling on behind me, “What is that lady doing, Mama? That lady’s in our car! Get away lady! Get away!” Yes, he is very protective of his things and hasn’t quite learned the art of sharing. I guess that’s a good thing when it comes to strangers. My little watchdog.