A Walk in the Park (and many other things)

Goodies
















Just before leaving Philly for SoFla, as mentioned in my previous post, I received the goodies I had ordered from vegan baker, SweetFritsy, known in PPK world as "littlewhore." I ordered 20 mini chocolate chip cookies, maple candied walnuts, and coconut almond truffles. All were delicious! Everything came packaged in lovely boxes with cute little stickers. With such cheap prices and free shipping, I don't know how SweetFritsy is making any money! Her cupcakes and other goodies are probably as tasty as they are beautiful.

My trip to SoFla was nice, but short. I got to see a few friends (one of who said she was going to start following this blog, ahem!) just before flying out on Sunday evening. It was nice to spend a little time with my family too. Here are three cute pictures of Montana (notice the Rice Dream), Oliver, and Lilly:

Good Eats
It appears that I have been cooking a lot since our return on Sunday night. Here are some recent photos.

A nice salad with baked tofu and a miso/tahini dressing.



"Meatballs" made from GimmeLean
ground vegetable protein. With a side of kale, accompanied by....

A creamy Artichoke/ Spinach dip that I threw together:

1/2 cup unsweetened soy milk
1 cup chopped artichoke hearts
3 tbsp nutritional yeast
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp defrosted and drained spinach
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp nutritional yeast on top
drizzle of EVOO on top

Baked at 350 degrees for 10-15 min.



I also made some lingonberry bread from a mix that DocDufresne and I picked up from Ikea. It came out great.










Sugary Treats
After making brownies for a coworker that walked Andy one afternoon while we were gone, I got the craving for something sweet. I made almond-y chocolate icing to top veganized sugar cookies that I cut into the shape of doves. I also made two types of cookies from Veganomicon for Mother's Day: Pistachio Rosewater and Chocolate Raspberry. I sprinkled the pistachio cookies with naturally dyed pink turbinado suger. I love how the green/pink color combination turned out!

A Bacio-ed Dinner
The other night DocDufresne and I planned on going to Bacio Italian Restaurante in Mt. Airy for dinner, but the little restaurant was packed when we got there and the host told us it would be better if we came back another time. He was very nice and even gave us a hand-written coupon for a two-for-one dinner for the next time we came by. I'm happy to see a small, locally owned restaurant thriving, especially one that will create a ton of vegan dishes for you. It's a neat place, with the kitchen in the middle of the dining area. You can see them making your veggie packed raviolis, or baking your eggplant (un)parmesan right there. We saw this sign in front of a neighbors driveway:

Welcome to Philadelphia!

Anyway, DocDufresne and I decided to head to Dahlak in Germantown instead. Read more about this restaurant in my next entry.

Wissahickon Restoration
Lastly (I know, this has been a very long post!), DocDufresne and I joined a workshop that the Wissahickon Restoration Volunteers (WRV) hosted with Mount Airy Learning Tree (MALT). The class was titled "Restoring the Wissahickon: An Educational Hike and Demonstration" and was very well done. I took lots of pictures, but will post only two here:


A creepy crawly.

A lovely beech tree.