There are less than two days remaining on my New York hiatus, and I can’t seem to fit in enough time for bagels. The agony! I’ve fallen a bit behind as we near the last stretch of VeganMoFo. It’s funny, my sister and I worked on what could be a Dinner with…Jen and a new cocktail recipe; I’ve simply been running around too much to assemble and put some thought into my updates. If you’re curious as to what I’ve been up to, I have posted over at Vida Vegan HQ for Food! Day! Friday!, and with a (hopefully) repaired camera in town and a shiny hand-me-down Iphone after the heart failure of my droid camera (what fun), so, I’ll hypothetically have more coming up.

Earlier this week, Jenny and I cooked tacos with a Mexican-spiced tvp filling and the super impressive nacho butternut sauce from Artisan Vegan Cheese (subbing soaked sunflower seeds for cashews, as usual). This contains no oil and blew my non-vegan artisanal cheese loving sister and her boyfriend away. Seriously. My sister is not vegetarian, but she loves the Trader Joe’s soyrizo and I wanted to show her she could make something reminiscent, from scratch, at home. Plus, it was really fun walking into her neighborhood tortilla factory for fresh corn tortillas.

Nacho Butternut Sauce, Artisan Vegan Cheese

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Spicy tvp chorizo

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Red wine, garlic & cumin spiced black beans

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Cooking at Jen’s…no cockroaches pictured

The following night, I introduced her to whiskey sours, with a tropical twist, and lots of big sister life advice followed. Next time I make these, tamarind will be involved.

Passionfruit Whiskey Sours

Passionfruit Whiskey Sours 

serves 3

• 6 ounces whiskey
• 2 ounces fresh lemon juice
• 2 ounces fresh orange juice (which would have been even better if I had noticed the limes on the counter)
• 2 ounces passionfruit juice
• 1.5 ounce agave or simple syrup
• Optional: sub 1/2 ounce tamarind concentrate for 1 ounce of the orange juice

Shake well with ice, and pour over additional ice. Garnish with cherries or shaved lemon peel.

Dunwell Doughnuts, a convenient walk away

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Uncle Monkey

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Self-explanatory

For now, we await the superstorm and prepare to simmer the seitan…