Fairy Tale Eggplant: Not a Happy Ending

I'm not generally a fan of eggplant unless it's smothered in Daiya and tomato sauce, but when I stumbled upon this basket full of "fairytail" adorableness at my local farmstand, I simply couldn't resist the cuteness (no fairies were harmed in the making of these "tails").  Parmesan was out because I wanted to prepare them in a way that would showcase the diminutive size of the vegetable; so, I went with my lazy fallback of roasting.

I tripled the marinade for the Grilled Vegetable Napoleon in The Candle Cafe Cookbook (p. 9) and marinated 17 halved eggplants, 2 thickly sliced red onions, and 2 sweet Hungarian peppers cut into rings for one hour.

 
As my forbidden rice cooked, I baked all the veggies on a lightly oiled baking sheet at 350 degrees for fifteen minutes.  I flipped them, brushed with the marinade that was left over, and baked for another ten minutes.

I was a little disappointed that my eggplant didn't retain its beautiful color, not to mention the fact that it still tasted like boring old eggplant (sorry, not a big fan).  The peppers were a complete bust; I don't think they had any taste whatsoever: sweet or otherwise.  The star of the show was definitely the delicious onions.  I'd never prepared them this way, but would certainly do so in the future.

How could the adorable tails have come out so boring and generically eggplanty?  I was not going to be deterred; after an exhaustive search of the indexes of my favorite cookbooks proved fruitless, I turned to Google.  There I came upon Rachel Rappaport's delicious-looking fairy tale eggplant recipe and, with some personal guidance from her, decided to give it a try.  She suggested that I make a concerted effort not to overcook the tiny eggplant (easier said than done for this chronic over-cooker) and resist cooking them skin side down.

So I restocked at the farmstand, this time choosing cubanelle, sweet banana, and cherry peppers to go with the red onions.  I followed the instructions for the eggplant to a T, cooking everything else separately.  Clearly there is something inherently wrong with me because a couple of minutes in my 'plants had already gone from purple to brown.  Grrr.  I completed the dish, resisting the urge to toss the whole thing mid-prep, and served it upon jasmine rice.  The sauce was wonderful and so too were the onions and peppers; once again, the eggplant was the glaring disappointment.

I think I'll embrace my original disinterest in eggplant, unless it's smothered in Daiya and tomato sauce...preferably prepared by someone else.

Vegan Treats Continues to Rock

I've been an awestruck fan of Vegan Treats ever since the first slice of cake passed my lips, and I blog about them pretty often.  Sure, you can find Vegan Treats across the country (perhaps beyond?), but a visit to their "home store" is a must for all sweets-loving vegans.  It has occurred to me that for those of you who have never had the pleasure of visiting their retail shoppe in Bethlehem, PA, you might not understand exactly what makes this vegan Mecca so extraordinary.

Well, my friends; let me try to show you a typical visit's bounty:

Yep, that's a soft-serve machine in the left corner.

buns, donuts, cakes, brownies, crumb bars 

As if that isn't enough:

cookies

cupcakes

truffle munchkins*

Vegan Treats is a true pioneer of delicious, dessertous, vegan baking.  The tasty quotient is not only sky-high, but extremely consistent.  Even better, they don't rest on their laurels.  I have never visited the shop when there weren't at least five new things to try...allowing you to always enjoy longstanding favorites, as well as giving you the opportunity to find new ones regularly (so I go there alot, mind your own beeswax).

On this particular visit I enjoyed a chocolate, chocolate chip cheesecake cupcake, a chocolate hazelnut truffle munchkin* (there's half missing because, gasp, I shared), and an Entenmann's style chocolate-coated angel's food donut.

The take home booty
*Obviously Vegan Treats doesn't call these things truffle munchkins (not sure what they call them), but they seem like a cross between a rich, decadent truffle and a moist, gourmet donut hole.  I've had the white chocolate, coconut, vanilla version before and this was its distinct opposite: decadent in equal measure.  Imagine the most succulent, dark, chocolatey cake you can imagine: rolled in perfectly toasted hazelnut bits.

And who can resist a Vegan Treats cake that looks like it's been gift wrapped?  I certainly can't.  I honestly have no recollection of what this cake is called; but, having just eaten a truffle munchkin, I was even more gaga than usual over chocolate hazelnut and therefore had to bring home this giant, gorgeous, petit four masquerading as a cake.

Not as hazelnutty as it was chocolatey rich, it could give their Death by Chocolate a run for it's money (I still love you, DBC!).

Brace yourselves for this next one.  It was kind of mysterious looking and my inquiry yielded the following description: caramel cheesecake, a layer of caramel, marshmallow whipped cream (my FAVORITE), surrounded by swiss chocolate.  For some reason, I was under the impression that there was a kind of decorative, cardboard cone holding all of this deliciousness in: not so.  That is the chocolate!

I delicately cut into it to reveal pure scrumptiousness.

dripping caramel

Already crazy for VT's cheesecake, this one was the smoothest, velvetiest one I have ever had.  So shiny from the caramel, it almost looked like flan: minus the jiggly grossness (due to said jiggliness I have never eaten flan, so this is purely a visual comparison).  As you can see, the caramel could not be controlled.  Fret not, nary a drop went to waste.  And the chocolate?  Oh, the chocolate.  My favorite whipped cream paired with chocolate?  Let's just say that this was one of the best things I've ever had the pleasure of eating from VT. 

oozing caramel

In conclusion, Vegan Treats rocks.  Frankly, I think they should trademark the term "Vegan Treats" because it's a little disheartening when people refer to another dessert as a "vegan treat", only to find out that it's far from it.  I, for one, never label my own atrocious baking with the sacred phrase!  Not that other vegan baking can't be good (mine excluded), but since VT is so recognizable-- can't we agree on another non-specific term to use when referring generally to vegan goodies?  Okay, obviously "goody" is not going to work, but you know what I'm saying.  This way, there would be no disappointment when someone promises you a vegan "treat"... and it turns out to be a horrendous embarrassment to veganism crap.  Until then, much respect to the real Vegan Treats for making me a proud and satiated vegan.