Vegan Camping

What could be sweeter than a week of camping? Once our kids were safely off at camp, my husband and I decided that a camping trip was in order (and long overdue!). So we packed up our car with an obscene amount of food, 1 tent, 2 sleeping bags, 1 air mattress, 1 camp stove, a lantern and our dog Bruno and headed off for a week of adventure.

Our first stop was in Eugene for lunch at Cafe Yumm. My veggie burger was indeed yummy, served with their special yumm sauce. I wish we had more time to try some of the other veg restaurants in Eugene.
Then we were off to Crater Lake (with a few of quick stops at hot springs along the way).

Bruno loves posing for pictures.
Now onto the food. Like I said, we brought an obscene amount of food. Here's a shot of our stuffed food bin.

We brought all of the essentials: coffee, tea, whole grain bread, instant oatmeal, gnocchi, pasta, tomato sauce, nuts and dried fruit, tofu, veggie hot dogs, veggie chili, lentil soup, lots of fruit and veggies, hummus, nut butter, cherry jam, hazelnut milk, smoked Tofurkey slices, Vegenaise, mustard, Braggs... Basically, the essentials ; )

Here's Jay making his Firecracker Tofu. It was really good!


Here's another Jay dish. The picture doesn't do it justice. It was one of my favorite dinners -Gnocchi with a tomato basil mushroom sauce. I think he also put some veggie meatballs in there too. It was delish!


Two things we learned on this trip:

1. If you plan on enjoying wine with your dinner, don't buy your bottle openers at the dollar store.
2. Don't forget to pack mosquito repellent. No matter how much you might hate spraying yourself with poison, it sure beats a thousand mosquito bites.

Tapioca Pudding

Tapioca pudding anyone? I know that pudding is something you either love or hate. Personally, I love it. Pudding is comfort food at it's best.

When my husband and I were first dating, he would sweetly say "tapioca", and I would bound to the kitchen to whip him up a batch. I later learned that he wasn't even a pudding person, but having someone willingly whip up a batch at the drop of a hat, made him appreciate it's finer points (and mine too apparently).

This weekend my daughter had her wisdom teeth out, and could only eat soft food. The first thing she uttered after awaking from anesthesia was "tapioca". Of course you can't buy ready-made vegan tapioca in the market, so as soon as I got her settled in bed I started cooking.

Although my pics are a bit dark, the pudding was delicious. I adapted a recipe from Bryanna Clark Grogan and made my daughter very happy (or as happy as she could be given the circumstances). I guess you could call the pudding vegan penicillin.



Tapioca Pudding

3 cups plain or vanilla soymilk
3 tablespoons Bird’s Custard Powder
3 tablespoons Minute or instant tapioca
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a saucepan, whisk together the first 4 ingredients. Let mixture sit for 5-10 minutes to soften tapioca. Place saucepan over medium low heat and, whisking continuously, cook mixture until thickened. This will take about 10 minutes. Stir in vanilla.

Scoop pudding into a bowl. Let pudding cool and refrigerate pudding until firm.

*If you can't find Bird's Custard Powder, I believe that you can substitute an equal amount of cornstarch. Look for Bird's Custard Powder at grocery stores, specialty markets & Cost Plus World Market.

Recipe adapted from Bryanna Clark Grogan

And The Winner Is...

I want to thank everyone for participating in the giveaway. I thought it would be fun to give away two DVD's (instead of one), so the two winners are...

Tal
Fughawzi

Congratulations!!!

Tal and Fughawzi, you need to email me by 3:00 (Pacific time) on Monday (June 11th). I need your name and mailing address so I can send them out to you. Yeah!! Please send the email to blog@everydaydish.tv.

I'm thinking about doing another giveaway in July. Details to come...

Dark Chocolate Chip Cake And A Giveaway

Yes, this is one amazing chocolate cake. It’s just as fabulous with frosting as it is without. I think of this recipe as “a little black dress”. It works for fancy or casual occasions; it has widespread appeal and always makes people smile.

The recipe is included on the Everyday Dish DVD, so I can’t publish it here. What I can do though is a DVD giveaway, because everyone must have this recipe (along with the 15 other fabulous vegan recipes on the DVD). Now here’s the scoop:

You can enter the giveaway through the comments. One entry per person is eligible. Anonymous comments have to include a first or last name.

I will randomly select a winner by putting all of the names in a big mixing bowl, and will announce the winner here on the blog. Once the winner is announced, they will need to email me within 2 days, or I will have to randomly select another winner. I’m not sure when I will announce the winner, so check back often.