Tag: cute and delicious

Ten Questions

Posted by miss alix – 30 Jul ’10

Hello my dears! I’ve been thinking about you a lot. Brainstorming in fact, which in it’s own way has stopped me from actually writing.

I have some questions for you.

Here’s the story. I’ve had this blog for quite some time now. And I love it. I hope you like it too. When it started, it was an exercise entirely just for myself. Since then it’s grown into much more, something that I’m very proud of. It’s so terribly exciting for me that people actually read it. I’ve met and talked to so many awesome people from all over.

Ultimately I’m trying to keep making Cute & Delicious more awesome.

Here’s where you come in. I want to know what you think.

I just have a couple questions, and if you wouldn’t mind answering, I would be very grateful. You can let me know your thoughts in the comments or email me at veganbakesale at gmail dot com. 

Ok, here are the questions. If you don’t feel like answering them, but would like to give me feedback anyway I would love that too! And yeah I’m a dork so I made them multiple choice.

1.  Do you prefer reading about:

a.  vegan food

b. crafts

c. both

d. other stuff (like what?)

2. What would you like to see more of?

a. recipes

b. tutorials

c. finished projects/dishes

d. photos

e. lifestyle stuff

f. something else (what?)

3. Would you rather see:

a. shorter posts, more frequently

b. big long juicy posts, less often

4. Ok, what do you think about photos?

a. they’re the most important part

b. like a balance of photos and writing/recipes/tutorials

c. don’t really care about the photos, iphone pictures would be fine

5. How personal do you think cute & delicious is?

a. I feel like I know you from reading it

b. I feel like it’s pretty superficial

c. I don’t really think about it

d. I’m not even really sure who writes this blog

6. Do you think it should be more personal?

a. I want to know more everyday life stuff

b. please just keep it to the food and crafts

c. it’s fine how it is now

7. Ideally how many posts a week do you like to read from a blog?

a. once a week is good, i’m a busy person

b. a few times a week please

c. every day. i need entertainment

d. as many times as possible. i spend a lot of time on the computer

e. i don’t care as long as the posts are good

8. Do you follow me on twitter?

9. How do you read this blog?

a. in a reader/rss feed

b. i just visit from time to time

c. i click when you post something on twitter

d. i’ve never been here before!

e. i’ve come here from another blog

10. Is there anything else you would like to tell me? Do it!


Ok, for those of you who think this is uber boring, I apologize! There will be more posts coming this weekend, I promise.

Any one of you who were kind enough to help me out, I can’t tell you how thankful I am. I’m thankful that you’re just here anyway.

p.s. make sure you use a legit email address if you want something back

xo

Miss Alix

Coffee Cozy

Posted by miss alix – 28 Feb ’10

In case I hadn’t made it clear in some previous post, I love coffee. Mostly I love the rich flavor of a good espresso, but I won’t lie, I can’t go without my daily caffeine boost. I don’t often get coffee to go, but when the occasion arises, I come prepared with my own coffee cozy. It’s not quite as earth friendly as bringing your own mug, but its much more convenient as I can carry one in my purse all the time. Not to mention, they’re damn cute. I made these one night after seeing some adorable ones on various craft blogs and knew I had to have one. I used some scrap fabric and some felt to line them. They came together in just a few minutes.

Lucky for you…I’m including a tutorial on how to make one of your own AND giving away a cozy to one lucky reader. Better than an infomercial!

Before I get to the tutorial though, just wanted to let you all know I’m now on formspring. So if there’s something you’re curious about or just bored, feel free to ask me! Ok back to the cozies…

1. First print out the template I’ve included. Use the template to cut two pieces of fabric for your cozy, one out of felt, and the other out of a fabric of your choice.

2. Next take a piece of velcro and sew onto one side of the felt, being careful to leave space for seam allowances. I should probably tell you now that I rarely pin things, mainly because I am lazy, but you might want to baste or pin pieces in place.

3. Put your two fabric pieces together with the right sides facing. The velcro will be on the inside. Pin if necessary and trim any areas where the fabrics do not line up.

4. Sew along the two long edges and the short edge near the velcro, following a 3/8 inch seam allowance. Make sure to double back and secure any open ends.

5. Turn the cozy inside out, using a chopstick to poke out corners. Fold the unfinished edge inside and press the whole thing.

6. Sew around the outside edge of the whole cozy starting on the unfinished side about 1/8 inch away from the edge. You can use a matching thread or something contrasting, depending on what you prefer.

7. Last, sew the other half of the velcro on the outside so that it will meet the velcro on the inside. That’s it! Good work, I think you deserve some coffee.

If you like the cozy you see made in the tutorial, you can win it. All you have to do is comment and a winner will be chosen at random on March 7th. Good luck!

Update: and the cozy goes to…Christy! Congratulations!

Vegan Road Trip: Part 2

Posted by miss alix – 18 Jan ’10

Vegan sweets and treats

Though Los Angeles is extremely fortunate to have a number of great vegan restaurants, we are severely lacking in the area of vegan desserts. Though a few places have a few items available, and yeah I know Babycakes is open (but yes I like my gluten and sugar thank you very much), it’s just not the same as what you might find elsewhere. Luckily on our trip we were able to visit two completely vegan bakeries and sample some delicious treats.

Our first stop was Pattycake Bakery in Columbus, Ohio. This adorable storefront was filled with a plethora of home style desserts including cookies, whoopie pies, muffins, cupcakes and more. They have all the stuff you’re always craving. While Shawn and I oogled over the huge selection and tried to decide what to get, the place hustled and bustled with people buying tons of stuff. We ended up getting a whole box ourselves, trying to sample as much as possible, filling it with three different types of cookies, a whoopie pie, and a cupcake. Now I’m a cookie girl and these were some damn good cookies. The whoopie pie was also moist and delicious, wonderfully sweet with just the right amount of creme filling. I wish I had tried one in the other flavors they had to offer. I think if I lived within driving distance of this place I would be there everyday getting cookies. No joke. Everything was high quality without being over the top. Pattycake Bakery was completely delightful.

Also in Columbus, On the Fly, where we got the awesome vegan empanada and chili, had some desserts on display to choose from. Since we knew we were on our way to Pattycake, we didn’t have a chance to try anything, but I have to mention them anyway, because they were so gorgeous. The cupcakes were topped in chocolate ganache as well as vegan buttercream and just looked delightful. They also had jars full of cookies. Did I mention I love cookies? I do.

No trip East would be complete without a stop at the infamous Vegan Treats. While you can get their delicious desserts at almost every vegan and vegetarian restaurant from New York to Pennsylvania, it’s well worth it to make the trip to their storefront in Bethlehem, PA. Here you can get their personal sized french pastries, along with donuts and other specialties. I’m just going to come out and say, if you haven’t had Vegan Treats, you haven’t what is arguably  the best of the best when it comes to vegan bakeries. Having been in business for over ten years and catering to so many places on the east, they really know their stuff. Vegan Treats is so delicious and decadent and amazing I just can’t say enough good stuff about it.

While there, we loaded up on desserts, going for anything with a holiday theme, and some donuts. Are they not the cutest desserts ever? We also had to show our love and get some hoodies to take home once the desserts were gobbled up. The new designs they have are possibly as cute as all the desserts. Luckily, now you can get some of their tee-shirts online (go support vegan businesses!).

Unfortunately, since we traveled over the holidays, we were unable to go to a few sweet stops on the way, including Sticky Fingers Bakery in DC or Lula’s Sweet Apothecary in NY. We did get to make up somewhat for the lack of ice cream at Spiral Diner in Dallas, Texas. They had a small case filled with baked goods, including monster vegan peanut butter cups, but we were ultimately lured in to the sweet call of an ice cream sundae. Shawn picked out the Chocolate Mountain Mudslide, a brownie topped with their signature i-scream, chocolate sauce, nuts and whipped cream. I was going to order the Deathstar Sundae, another brownie topped with i-scream, espresso and whipped cream, but Shawn got the last brownie. Unbelievable! I stole a few bites of his as payback but nuts on ice cream freak me out. The i-scream and brownie were awesome though, and much more than you’d expect from a diner of any kind.

Are you overloaded on sweets yet? Don’t worry, we’re done here for now. Next, we’ll be on our way home!

Vegan Road Trip: Part 1

Posted by miss alix – 14 Jan ’10

Heading East

The Sunday before Christmas we packed up my little VW wagon and hit the road heading east. (Let me just tell you, you don’t realize how small your car is until you fit four people and a load of luggage and gifts in it.) Shawn and  I were off to visit his family for the holidays and decided to finally take the road trip I’d been dreaming of, well sort of. I never meant to take a road trip in winter but the weather treated us rather decently.

Our friends Jannatha and Kyle piled in with us heading for North Carolina. Lucky for us, they’re both vegetarian and put up with our crazed searches for vegan pizza and obscure restaurants along the way. The first place we decided to stop was Flagstaff, Arizona, high up in the mountains, covered in the first snow of the trip. Shawn had located a pizza place with vegan pizza. Unfortunately we arrived to find it closed. Lesson one, call ahead.

We drove around looking for an alternative and when our other option was found to be boarded up for the winter we just asked someone walking down the street. Lesson two, don’t be afraid of people, go ahead and ask. Being from Los Angeles, you forget people often will be glad to help you (just not so much in LA).

We ended up at Macy’s Vegetarian Coffeehouse. It was a cute place with a comfortable atmosphere. There were a number of items on the menu that were vegan or could be made that way, but I went for the basic veggie blt with tempeh bacon. This is something I usually wouldn’t order, because I am all too often let down by tempeh bacon, but this sandwich was truly satisfying. First of all, it was huge, and the bread was simultaneously soft and crunchy, with a really great flavor. All the fillings were fresh and crisp and the tempeh was the perfect nutty compliment to the greens and tomato.

So when you’re on the road, you often don’t eat at anyplace special at all. Sometimes you eat only the entire contents of bag full of car snacks. Sometimes, if you’re unlucky, you get altitude sickness and don’t eat anything but saltines. So let’s just skip right along ahead to Columbus Ohio! You weren’t hoping to hear about anything between there and Flagstaff, were you? Didn’t think so.

Shawn was super excited to take me to Benevolence Cafe in Columbus as he remembered it having been there forever. Surprise, surprise, it was closed (possibly for renovations, possibly forever, I’m not sure). Back to Lesson one, call ahead. This ended up being for the best as we instead found On the Fly Street Food. This small cafe is part of the upscale Dragonfly Neo-V. Both restaurants are all vegan. On the Fly is open during the day with an awesome selection of delicious street style foods and great beers.

We couldn’t resist the empanada, which was stuffed with a rich mushroom filling. The crust was just as buttery and flaky as you could wish for and the cheesy sauce on top was just the right amount. I also ordered the chili and cornbread which was equally, if not even more delicious. The chili achieved a magical balance of beans, sauce and “meat.” With a hearty taste that wasn’t too spicy, it was the perfect thing for a very cold Ohio day. Oh and the corn bread, it was delicious; moist and soft, just right for spooning into your chili. It had a lovely cakey consistency and wasn’t mealy at all. So good!

Though we failed at our earlier vegan pizza attempt, Columbus came to the rescue at Circus. This bar and performance venue, decorated with old-school circus paintings, has two vegan pizzas to choose from, the regular vegan and the vegan crow. Since you can order half pizzas, we went ahead and got both. One is a pretty standard cheeseless pizza piled high with tomatoes, mushrooms, peppers and seasonings. The other has a cashew cheese, corn and caramelized onions. Both were superb. The really great thing about these pizzas is that they have a super good crunchy crust that is just thick enough to hold the tons of toppings without being too thick and mushy. The veggie to crust ratio was about 1:1, which is pretty amazing if you ask me. See, pizza isn’t all bad for you.

Overall, Columbus was pretty awesome in the vegan department, it even has an all vegan bakery which I’ll get to in the next post about all the vegan desserts we devoured. Just had to tempt you a little…

Hodge-podge

Posted by miss alix – 17 Dec ’09

I have so much to tell you! I’ve been completely consumed with crafting for holiday presents. I’m attempting to wrap all my gifts in reusable gift bags this year. That means that even for the gifts I’m not making, there’s still a bit of work put in to each one. The worst part is, I can’t even show off the gifts I’ve made yet in case any of the recipients read this blog. Don’t worry though, I’ll have some recaps after the holidays with some reviews and such.

Besides the hours devoted to sewing and the like, I do have some exciting news. Cupcakes from Vegan Bake Sale are now available at Meet Market in Silverlake. I just delivered the first order of Cookies & Cream, Peanut Butter and Pumpkin Spice cupcakes. Go get some! It will probably be your last chance before the holidays.

This year is going to be my cats’ first Christmas living with us. They’re loving all the boxes they get to play with (and a few catnip treats). It’s like cardboard box heaven for them. We adopted Meeme and Mochi on January 3rd of this year and they make me happy every single day. Seriously. I love them so much. Part of the reason I want to bring this up is that LA animal services is offering 50% off adoption fees for the holidays. Not that the fees are even very high to begin with, but it’s just that much more incentive to open your home and heart to one of these animals in need. If you’re considering getting an animal this year, I urge you to turn to the public animal shelters as these are usually the animals at highest risk of being put down. Not to mention they make it extremely easy for you to adopt.

Oh there’s so much more to say, but it will have to wait a little while still. Till then…

Thanksgiving 2009

Posted by miss alix – 27 Nov ’09

I’m going to keep the chatting to a minimum and just show you a photo tour of our Thanksgiving this year. Enjoy!

It all started with a donut from Madeline Bistro.

The phillet no phish sandwich, Thanksgiving sandwich (which is pretty much all you could ever want from Thanksgiving), mashed potatoes and gravy.

Vanishing meal. Also consumed: biscuits & gravy, crepes filled with fruit. All amazing.

Visiting turkeys from Animal Acres. Luckily these guys will live long happy lives instead of being abused and murdered this Thanksgiving. Yeah, I said that.

Homemade pumpkin soy nog. My mom made this! I think that’s pretty awesome.

When making a pie, it is absolutely necessary to make a mess. It makes it taste better, I promise.

Best way to work up an appetite before Thanksgiving dinner. Okay so it was a rather leisurely ride to the beach. We were rewarded with a gorgeous sunset.

Brussels sprouts with capers. Oh how I love brussels sprouts.

Perfectly fluffy and wonderful mashed potatoes whipped up by Shawn. He also made fabulous gravy to go on top.

There’s that apple pie! All baked up with the infamous crumbly top. This is the last thing I stuffed in my face today.

Happy Thanksgiving! (p.s. Shawn does not like to smile in photos. He really is having a good time, don’t let the serious face fool you.)

Pumpkin Ravioli

Posted by miss alix – 24 Nov ’09

Recently all I want to eat in the world is pasta with some sort of nutritional yeast sauce. It’s just so tasty and the perfect thing after a long day. In order to spice things up a little and tie in some of that fall flavor, I tried my hand at making pumpkin ravioli. Did you hear about the pumpkin shortage? Word on the street is there might not be any pumpkin left after Thanksgiving this year. Stock up before it’s too late. While you’re at it, you should try some of these raviolis.

This ravioli is rich and filled with all the essence of fall. It is perfectly paired with one of my new favorite sauces, a buttery sage sauce. I was so hungry that I kind of skipped the part where I write down the recipe for these guys but I can at least give you a general idea. All measurements are approximate.

Pumpkin Ravioli Filling

1 can pureed pumkin

1/2 cup Earth Balance

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

1 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp Sage

1/2 tsp thyme

1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper

1/4 tsp salt

pinch of nutmeg

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

Melt the Earth Balance in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Add the pureed pumpkin and stir to combine. Add the seasonings to taste and cook for about 5 minutes.  Simple, right? Spoon into your prepared pasta dough (or whatever you’re using), form into raviolis and cook for 3 – 7 minutes.

The sauce, is very similar to the filling but with a completely different tangy flavor. It goes good with almost any pasta dish, but you probably want to avoid that since it’s pretty rich. It will be hard to resist though. Just so you know in advance. I never said this recipe was good for you.

Butter Sage Sauce

1/2 cup Earth Balance

1/2 tsp sage

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

juice of 1/2 lemon

ground pepper

Again melt the Earth Balance in a small sauce pan until it starts to bubble. Add the sage and nutritional yeast and let cook for about 3 more minutes, until it thickens slightly. Remove from heat and add lemon juice. Stir to combine fully and serve and devour!

Baked Pumpkin Fusilli

Posted by miss alix – 31 Oct ’09

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

If you haven’t noticed, Halloween is my favorite. I had to get one pumpkin recipe in for VeganMoFo, but of course, I waited for the last minute and didn’t have any ideas that wouldn’t take all day. I turned to my trusted cookbook collection and found the Baked Pumpkin Ziti recipe in Veganomicon. Of course I didn’t actually follow the recipe, but it’s nearly the same. It was a hearty dish for lunch on Halloween, with a bit of spiciness. I didn’t have a chance to make the seasoned breadcrumbs for the top, and instead substituted some seasoned flax meal. This is perhaps where my version was seriously lacking. I enjoyed the dish but it wasn’t terribly exciting. I find that often pumpkin can turn a generally tasty meal into something rather bland. Next time maybe I’ll add in some tomato or just more spices.

And that brings us to the end of VeganMoFo 2009. It’s been a blast and I’m a bit sad it’s going to be over. I’m also a little relieved. This month has definitely been a strain on my psyche, trying to blog every day while  filling every other free moment with projects and fun to celebrate fall and Halloween. I loved it, but I won’t pretend there weren’t times when the lack of sleep really did get to me. I’m so glad I found so many other really amazing blogs out there to read though and some great inspiration.

death by guillotine and the elephant man

Now I’m off to prepare for more Halloween festivities. I still haven’t finished my costume. And I’m already running late! Yikes. Hope everyone has a frightful and delicious holiday!

Viet Noodle Bar

Posted by miss alix – 30 Oct ’09

First, I have to apologize. I may have started losing my mind. This past week has been filled to the brim with obligations, fun and otherwise. Mostly fun. Halloween is tomorrow and I’ve been trying to pack as much fright filled excitement into this week as possible. Which means that I have neglected writing here. I’m a firm believer that one should not apologize for lack of writing on a blog because probably no one noticed but the writer themselves. So I’m really only apologizing for the photo above, because well, you can see it’s not so great.

But….

I’m going to make up for it by telling you about one of my favorite restaurants that you probably haven’t been to. It’s a lovely spot in Atwater Village called Viet Noodle Bar. Now let me tell you why this place is so awesome. It’s an omni restaurant but they have two vegan dishes clearly labeled on their menu. The tofu basil banh mi seen above and a jackfruit noodle bowl. Both are tasty and refreshing. The banh mi is a crunchy french roll filled with tofu, seasoned tomato sauce, basil, carrots and daikon. It has a hearty filling with a fresh, sweet crunch. I love this thing. I probably get it once a week for lunch. The noodle bowl is equally as delicious and even more filling. You really can’t go wrong with noodles and jackfruit.

The other great thing about this place is that it has a communal table and counter and is filled with shared books. I often go and read a couple chapters of a novel while I lunch. The atmosphere is relaxing and modern. A few notes though before you go…it’s cash only so make sure you bring something besides your credit card. Also, there are things on the menu listed as vegetarian and they are not vegan. I was told they have mayo or something bizarre in them. Just stick with the stuff that is marked as vegan and you’ll be set.

And on that note I’m going to leave you with a photo of Shawn’s pumpkin from last year because it’s so cute and we haven’t had a chance to carve pumpkins yet this year. Happy Halloween!

Halloween Cookies

Posted by miss alix – 25 Oct ’09

Due to popular demand, and because perhaps we are insane, we decided to have another Halloween movie marathon this weekend. To go with our new set of movies, we of course needed a new set of treats. This time I went with cookies, since I really am a cookie girl. I made the sugar cookies from The Joy of Vegan Baking. This is my go-to recipe for sugar cookies because it’s pretty straight forward and makes a good amount. They’re not blow you away good, but they’re good and the royal icing is amazing so they make for good party snacks and gifts. Not to mention they’re so much fun to decorate.

For a little variety I also tried out the recipe for the chocolate crinkles, since I imagined they’d have a festive look to them. They’re soft and fudgey on the inside, sort of like little brownie bites. I cooked them on the shorter side so they would be softer, but perhaps they would have been nice crunchy. While they were well liked, I wish they were more chocolaty.

We were lucky enough to have the lovely FoodEater make us the mac and cheese I’ve been dreaming about. It was so good. I have to admit that I am not a daiya fan but it worked really well in this dish. It was cheesy but did not have the sticky weirdness that daiya can have on pizza. My favorite part was the seasoned bread crumbs on top that gave it more texture and flavor than just standard mac. The whole dish was completely eaten in less than an hour.

We learned some very important lessons during this movie marathon: If you go looking for the cat, you will probably die. If you get cats thrown at you, you will definitely die. If you try to kill cats, you may get brutally beaten by the man at the hot dog stand and eaten by rats. Most importantly, Christmas is a very scary holiday.

My favorite ghost cake

Posted by miss alix – 22 Oct ’09

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/4651347]
I had posted this video previously but it wasn’t anywhere near Halloween so I thought it deserved to be brought back for another go around. The little ghosts are made from Dandies vegan marshmallows and frosting. I think it’s possibly the cutest cake I’ve ever made. Enjoy the video. Weee!

Pure Luck

Posted by miss alix – 20 Oct ’09

Me at Pure Luck photo by Studiodrome

Me at Pure Luck photo by Studiodrome

I don’t usually review local restaurants. There are enough awesome vegan blogs that cover the Los Angeles area that it’s really just not necessary to get my two cents in. I do have to say one thing though, I love Pure Luck. I just do. I love going there. I love their food. I love their beer. I can’t honestly think of one thing that I don’t like about the place. I know a lot of people have complaints about the inconsistency but I go there at least once a week, and though I’ve had a few off days, it’s fantastic 99% of the time. I can’t think of another restaurant that I could bear to eat at so often. I’m gonna go ahead and say that Pure Luck is officially my favorite restaurant in Los Angeles (today anyway).

My absolute favorite dish is Kristen’s Carnitas wrap. It’s filled with seasoned jackfruit carnitas, avocado, tomato, lettuce and vegan ceasar dressing. Ok it also comes with pickles and onions but I go without them. It’s so freaking good. Go order one now if you haven’t had it. Seriously. Pretty much everything is delicious though. I highly recommend the fried spring rolls as well, that you can see above.

Another great perk about this place is that Scoops is right across the street so you can get a tasty vegan ice cream afterward. Also, it’s in perfect biking range from where we live so we usually get a nice ride there and back. Yay!