Vegan Ben & Jerry's Waffle Ice Cream Sundaes for VM Day!

Got a little sidetracked with the Philly rehash; we're now back to our regularly scheduled programming, starting with Mother's Day!

Making Mother's Day brunch is kind of my thing, so I began preparing months in advance- truly. The first step was to acquire a waffle iron. I'm not really into kitchen gadgets, so I didn't want to spend much money. I bought this little Oster Belgian waffle maker and it's pretty much the pits; don't be fooled by the fact that it's an Amazon best seller. Unfortunately, I'm a dummy who waited too long to take it out of the box and actually try it, so once I finally did it was too late to return. All this is to say, don't buy that one! You can make do with it, but it's FAR from ideal.

But, don't worry about us; we were fine. I monkeyed around with it long enough to figure out how to get a relatively decent waffle (NOT Belgian as advertised) with as minimal mess as possible. I used this recipe for waffles and then crisped them up in the oven for a few minutes before assembling and serving.

And, by "assembling and serving", I mean WITH ICE CREAM. Yeah, that's right: Mother's Day waffle ice cream sundaes.

Freshly made waffles with ice cream, whipped cream, chocolate chips, and this really amazing syrup.

Lately I've been eating a lot of Nada Moo, but on this day we partook in the three new, vegan, Ben & Jerry flavors.

 
Shown here, sans waffles. Caramel almond brittle up top, coconut 7-layer bar to the right, and cherry garcia at the bottom. All three flavors are a vast improvement of the original four vegan flavors they released last winter; I especially loved the brittle & the 7-layer. In case you're wondering, I do know that Ben & Jerry's (and parent company Unilever) are problematic- not the least of which because some flavors contain palm oil and the chocolate is not Food Empowerment Project approved; feel free to let me have it in the comments. Please note, though, that I don't necessarily have a problem with non-vegan companies making vegan items; instead, I think it's a sign of progress. But, I digress.

 You-know-who got her own 89-size waffle sundae; see her chowing down here.

 

As you might imagine, this meal held us over for quite some time. We spent the day chatting, watching movies, and being amazed by a sudden hailstorm.

Well, we were amazed. Petri Hawkins Bird not so much.

Also, VM brought a present for 89. Not sure how that works since 89 already has 2 personal holidays, but there you go.

Of course that didn't stop her from trying to gnaw her way into VM's gifts because she's a humongous glom.

Eventually we got hungry again and had Ethiopian food for dinner.

Aaaaand, luckily there was plenty of brunch leftovers so that we were able to repeat the sundaes a few days later as if Mother's Day never ended!

Urban Vegan Kitchen- Quick Review

It wasn't until I was in an Uber headed for Urban Vegan Kitchen that I realized it was located in the former Blossom on Carmine space. I thought it surprisingly fortuitous for one vegan restaurant to replace another until I arrived and my friend told me she thought they were still affiliated. I glanced around and the similar decor seemed to support that theory. A quick Google search brought up results from places like Seamless and Open Table that referred to UVK as, "formerly known as Blossom on Carmine," and,  "a.k.a. Blossom on Carmine-" seemingly suggesting definitively that she was correct. This article confirmed the association.

Unlike, say, Peacefood Cafe's severely limited brunch, the UVK brunch menu lists an impressive amount of offerings. As it happened, my friend and I both chose the same: breakfast sandwich: crispy tofu rounds, avocado, kala namak, shiitake bacon, hollandaise aioli, arugula, red onion, multi-grain english muffin served with garlic sauteed kale, homefries, ketchup. A note about the homefries: you can order them separately and they are described as seasoned potatoes with chives. I was very excited; potatoes can sometimes be the star of the show and I'm okay with that.

The dishes and mugs that UVK uses are beautiful pottery pieces that really lend themselves to the presentation, but I found the components of the meal to be considerably less stellar. The homefries for which I'd had such high hopes were under-salted and seemed "seasoned" with only pepper- nary a chive to be found. As my friend pointed out, the sauteed kale looked like the decorative or ornamental variety you see planted around strip malls in the fall. It was wilted and chewy and I began to wonder if it was meant to be edible. Another Google search does not recommend:

"...there is ornamental kale, and there is culinary kale. Both are members of the brassica family, but they're not quite the same...Ornamental kale is still edible, but you probably wouldn't enjoy it much, as the plant is fairly tough and chewy."

The sandwich, although in desperate need of hot sauce, was good- albeit oily. Curiously, it consisted of three, thin, fried, stacked, rounds of tofu along with the aforementioned accoutrements, but even the English muffin was soaked with oil- presumably from the grill? Again, the overall taste was relatively yummy, but rather underwhelming. Coincidentally, this has also been the issue in the past with Blossom on Carmine. Tastewise: way better than Blossom du Jour's messy egg, cheese, and bacon muffin...nowhere near as good as Terri's simple but delicious bacon, egg, and cheese muffin with hollandaise.

All this to say that I think UVK is simply a new concept for Blossom and it's not necessarily one I'd care to revisit. Coming in at $16 for the plate (one of the less expensive menu items), this turned into a $25+ brunch with OJ, tax, and tip. I guess brunch isn't one of the meals I tend to splurge on (ahem, dessert), but just speaking in terms of good food for the price, this falls skewed towards not-really-for-me as opposed to would-go-again. I guess I should just be happy they didn't charge a brunch surcharge.

How I Ruined Mother's Day with the Flu

When you're lucky enough to be a healthy person, you sometimes refer to having a really bad cold as "the worst." The same might also be said for other relatively minor ailments that pop up along the way: sore throat, headache, etc. But nothing is quite THE WORST as getting the stomach flu. Unless, of course, you get the stomach flu on Mother's Day.

I had all of the best intentions. Her gifts were bought and wrapped well in advance, Netflix sent me Suffragette, and I was prepared to make thick cut, strawberry shortcake French toast. 

I woke up feeling a little under the weather, but I figured it would pass. I put 89 in her annual Mother's Day dress and we went to pick up some flowers. When we returned, I filled up our M&M bowl with dark chocolate raspberry Little Secrets (more on them soon) because VM loves raspberry with chocolate.

While our guests were en route, 89 waited impatiently as I began to prepare brunch.

The breakfast turned out divine. Or so I'm told. I served the plates and immediately crawled into bed- still holding out hope that the feeling would pass.

When they were done eating and cleaning up (a fine Mother's Day tradition), VM came upstairs to see how I was- just in time for the moment of stomach flu confirmation. It was not my finest moment.

So, that's where the photos stopped. Dinner was cancelled, as was dessert. I spent three days in bed trying to avoid Instagram because there are way too many food photos when you're not feeling well; all I wanted to see were goats! And this nerd.

 

 Days later, when I was ready to eat, VM delivered some homemade soup from her freezer.

This is an important distinction in my family. While VM makes extraordinary matzoh ball soup, the matzoh balls never pass her lips; she always has a bowl with no balls. That day, it was I who needed a bowl with no balls.

Although it was only a few days, they were rough ones. Instead of celebrating, poor VM was busy momming on Mom's Day...and beyond. 89 put in some long hours as well. My dad had to mow my lawn!

All of this is to say, "Thanks, VM; sorry I ruined Mother's Day. Do-over, please."

Also, beware of germs.

Father's Day: From Pancakes to Ice Cream

If there's one thing my dad and I can agree on, it's pancakes.

 

He ordered chocolate-chip pancakes for Father's Day brunch, so to shake things up a bit I decided to make a double recipe of the puffy pillow pancakes from Isa Does It (p. 253) instead of my favorite pancakes from Vegan with a Vengeance.

They were really yummy and certainly fluffier than my usual, but no where near "just under an inch thick" as suggested in the recipe and corresponding picture.

To make things a bit more exciting, I made a raspberry sauce that was adapted from the blueberry sauce recipe in VWAV (p. 39).

 Quality control:

 

My sauce receptacle was a bit too small for the half batch I'd made, so VM- lover of all things raspberry, got the windfall of what was left in the saucepan once the creamer was filled to capacity.

I'm not a huge raspberry fan, but the sauce was really good; I did wind up adding a little to my river of maple syrup.

OD got a plate-sized pancake with a chocolate-chip initial.

And, the leftovers.

For dinner, VM made pasta (capers for me only).

 

I made garlic bread.

 

And a salad for good measure.

 

 89 chowed down on some Romaine as well.

And, even though we really shouldn't have, we had dessert.  Coconut Bliss ice cream: salted caramel & chocolate and chocolate walnut brownie.

Is anyone else driven crazy by the fact that Coconut Bliss doesn't do a very good job of describing the flavors on their pint containers?  "chocolate hazelnut fudge" doesn't begin to explain the magic contained therein.  So, my revised descriptions are as follows- salted caramel & chocolate: creamy caramel ice cream swirled with salted caramel ribbons and melt-in-your-mouth chocolate shavings.  Chocolate walnut brownie: rich, dark chocolate ice cream boasting large, chopped walnuts and decadent brownie bites.

  

P.S. There may or may not have been some Sweet Ritual salted caramel sauce involved as well (more on that soon!).

Finally, here's 89 swiping a present for her...that somehow got mixed up in my dad's Father's Day gift.   Funny how that happened!

Hope everyone enjoyed their day as much as we did.

Mother's Day Win

On the Friday before Mother's Day weekend was about to begin, I received a phone call from my dad, "Prickly pear ice cream: yes or no?  Tell me quick; we're on line."  Where else?  Vegan Treats.

 

I countered, "Tell mom to try it," but then I heard her respond from the background with an unequivocal, "No."  The difference between she and I is that although neither of us was familiar with prickly pear, I knew what another master purveyor of ice cream has taught me: that such things are just a $4 gamble.  So, I confidently responded, "twist...with sprinkles."  An hour+ later, this showed up at my door and it was divine.  Fresh and summery: a subtle and pleasant berry mixed with Tahitian vanilla bean with rainbow sprinkles; I now not only know what prickly pear is, but I like it.

But that wasn't all they got.  For "breakfast" on the following day, I was invited over for donuts galore.  Banana cream pie, cannoli cream-filled fasnacht, raspberry jelly, Boston Creme, and glazed chocolate with sprinkles.

Also, a linzer-tart!!!  So soft and authentic I almost ate the whole thing myself and it was the size of my head.

And then it was Mother's Day.  Here's 89 checking out VM's gift.

Even thought the balloon lit up (that's the red dot at the top which you can't tell is blinking), she was unimpressed.

Not having anticipated the previous days' sweets, I'd already planned to make samoa fronch toast, inspired by this recipe from Vegan Richa- subbing French toast because VM prefers it to pancakes.  Behold the breakfast samoa: PPK Fronch toast, home-toasted coconut, chocolate chips, and salted caramel sauce from Sweet Ritual (more on that later) via Rabbit Food Grocery.

Oh yeah, and whipped cream.

Up close and personal.

And, of course, the stalker.

After brunch I went to my parents' house for the day and, after dinner, VM pulled out even more Vegan Treats.  For starters, there was this amazing flower pot cake.

Amongst its (non-edible) contemporaries:

Inside was a chocolate layer cake with oreo cream to compliment the cookie crumb "dirt" on top. 

Then, a berry marscapone tart with strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries.

I don't really like fruity desserts, but I was a big fan of marscapone cheesecake before I was vegan, so I had to try it.  Not only was it dreamily creamy and light, but who can be mad at such perfect berries (and is this what produce is like in Pennsylvania?)?

Eventually I rolled myself home to lay like a sloth with this gal...

who, for the record, really liked the prickly pear ice cream as well.

Hoping everyone else enjoyed their Mom's day.

I'm glad mine did!