Naima Lowe is an incredible artist and educator

Naima Lowe is an exceptional artist! Check her out: http://www.naimalowe.net/

Her work is thought provoking in the best way. She makes me want to push deeper and be a better artist. 

Horror Marathon 2010! Complete list of movies

Here's the complete list of the movies the hubs and I watched this year as part of our "31 Days of Halloween" horror marathon. We do this every year, but this year was especially awesome because it was the first time we had streaming Netflix and an XBox 360.

The worst movie was probably iMurders. Ugh. Shudder. It's just...so boring and incomprehensible. A close runner up would be Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter--it was completely terrible. Not, "Oh wow, that's so bad it's good" terrible...Just. Plain. Terrible.

Our favorite evening was the night we watched The Fourth Kind and Paranormal Activity back to back. It was dark in the house, except for a few candles, and it was windy and rainy out. We had never seen either movie and we scared the shit out of ourselves. I can't get the creepy owlies out of my head!!

Other highlights included Dario Argento's three mothers trilogy (Suspiria, Inferno, and Mother of Tears); Takashi Miike's Audition and "Imprint"; and House of the Devil. House of the Devil was a nice surprise. It had the look of an older, say 1980's film, but it was made in 2009.

There's so many we missed, we wish the month was longer!

So, without further ado, here's the list:

100 Feet
Amityville 2: The Possession
An American Werewolf in London
Audition
Beware! The Blob
Bitten
Black Sheep
Borderland
Bram Stoker's Dracula
Candyman
Carrie
Child's Play
Constantine
Dead and Breakfast
Dead Heist
Dolls
Edges of Darkness
Eight Legged Freaks
Evil Dead
Feed
Frankenstein (1932)
Fright Night
Ginger Snaps
Grace
House of the Devil
iMurders
Inferno
Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter
Let the Right One In
Life Blood
Masters of Horror: Cigarette Burns (John Carpenter)
Masters of Horror: Deer Woman (John Landis)
Masters of Horror: Dreams in the Witch House (Stuart Gordon)
Masters of Horror: Imprint (Takashi Miike)
Masters of Horror: Pelts (Dario Argento)
Masters of Horror: Pro-Life (John Carpenter)
Masters of Horror: The Screwfly Solution (Joe Dante)
Masters of Horror: The V Word (Dickerson)
Mother of Tears
Nightmare on Elm Street
Paranormal Activity
Pumpkinhead
Re-Animator
Red (SyFy Original Movie)
Séance
South Park Halloween Specials
Succubus: Hell Bent
Suspiria
Teeth
The Amityville Horror (1979)
The Breed
The Burrowers
The Church
The Crazies (2009)
The Crow: City of Angels
The Exorcist (1973)
The Exorcist 2: The Heretic
The Fourth Kind
The Omen (1976)
Trick R Treat
Vampyr (1932)
Walking Dead (Television Premiere)
White Zombie
Wolfen
Zombieland

Portobello Vegan Trattoria--best vegan restaurant ever!

I had heard nothing but good things about Portobello Vegan Trattoria in Portland, Oregon, and I couldn't wait to try it. Vegan Italian food? And most of it is made from scratch with local, all natural ingredients? Sounds like heaven to me! My husband and I spent some time in Portland in June but we happened to be there while the restaurant was in the process of moving to a new location, so it wasn't open. :( We decided to take another overnight trip to PDX, and one of the main reasons we wanted to do so was to go to eat at Portobello.

Oh my GAWD it was worth the trip. Here's my story/review:

On Twitter, I had received advice that I should get to the restaurant as early as possible to make sure I could get a table. We arrived a few minutes after they opened at 5:30. The parking lot was teensy, and there were no spots. We circled around the block, and by the time we got back there was an open spot. (Score!)

There was a little line, but we got a table right away. It's a pretty small place, there's not that many tables. After being seated, we looked at the menu and everything sounded jaw-droppingly delicious. As two vegans who are used to ordering plain fries and salads at restaurants half the time, it was astounding all of the amazing vegan dishes they had to offer.

We finally settled on the White Truffle Mushroom Pâté with Accoutrements as our appetizer. It was incredibly savory. A flavor explosion! The pickles that were served with it were great, and the bread was super fresh, crusty on the outside, soft on the inside, just like a baguette should be.

We ordered drinks as well, but it took them quite a while to get them to us--probably 15 or 20 minutes. We paused eating like, "um, where's our drinks?" They finally came, though, and our server was really apologetic. They were worth the wait, they've got a really skilled mixologist there. I had a "Limeaide" and it was tart and summery. I could've drank about seven of them, it was one of those drinks that didn't taste strong at all, but sort of is. The dangerous/fun kind! :)

For the main course I ordered Pan Crisped Potato Gnocchi with Sauteed Summer Squashes, Hot Peppers, and Tomato Basil Sauce.

The potatoes inside of the pasta were seasoned perfectly. So was the sauce. I wanted to lick my plate! The hot peppers added a bit of a spicy kick, but it wasn't overpowering, it was just right. They were cooked to perfection, as well, they weren't slimy and overcooked, or too firm. Right in the middle. I got the full serving (they offer half servings) and it was quite a bit of food. Not like the big dishes served at Italian places back east, but it was definitely larger than I expected it to be.

The hubs and I split the gnocchi, and we also split the pizza he got. I had heard really good things about their pizza, so we had to try it. He got the "Heirloom Pie" It had marinara, heirloom squash and tomatoes, basil, and cashew cream on it.

I can't BELIEVE how good it was. It was like, the pizza to end all pizzas. I'm not sure if they cook it in a brick oven, but it kind of tasted like it. The crust was amazing, I've never had tasted a pizza crust that's simultaneously crispy and chewy like that. It wasn't gross or oily at all, and there was just the right amount of their cashew cream on it. The squash was sliced super thin, and it flattened against the crust when it was cooked. So. Fucking. Good. We saved some of it because I wanted to leave room for dessert.

I had heard they have Tiramisu, which is one of the things I've really missed since turning vegan. It used to be one of my favorite desserts, but I hadn't had it in years. We had a terrible time deciding what to get off the dessert menu. Check it out...

I was like, "Tiramisu, baby!" and promised my husband I'd split it with him. He had a hard time deciding what to get. The waitress let me know that the Warm Peach Tart was sold out, but they had baked Warm Blueberry Tarts that morning and that they looked delicious. We decided to get that. It came with a little scoop of Luna and Larry's Coconut Bliss on top, that quickly got melty since the tart was waaaaarm. Mmmmmm. The crust was super flaky and buttery. How did they do that!?!! There was crumbly crumbles on top, too. My goodness.

The tiramisu was great, but different than traditional tiramisu, or at least what I remember as tiramisu. The creamy "cheese" part felt silky and sensual on my tongue! The cake part was rather fluffy, and the swirl of chocolate sauce on it was a nice touch. I'd definitely order it again. (and again, and again...) We ordered some dark, strong french press coffee with them, and it complemented both desserts perfectly. They gave free refills as well, which was nice.

We left feeling super satisfied. This is the best vegan restaurant ever! I can't wait to go back to Portland again--this is just one of the amazing restaurants there. Stay tuned for more blogs about tasty PDX adventures.

PEANUT BUTTER JELLY TIME

When I was in Top Foods selecting beer snobby beers to purchase, Stone's Smoked Porter caught my eye. Mainly, because it was on sale. I also love me a good Porter.

I was especially excited when I saw that the brewing company was nerdy enough to list food pairings on the back of the bottle, a brand of snobbery usually only reserved for wine. They said that the porter is, "Amazing with fine chocolates, cheesecake and other rich desserts. And pretty damn good with a PB&J sandwich.*"

The asterisk on the bottom led to this wording, a detailed description of what they meant when they said "PB&J sandwich":

Sourdough bread, chunky-style all natural peanut butter and blackberry preserves? It's motherfucking on.

I purchased the beer, and headed home to have my epic PEANUT BUTTER JELLY TIME event.

This recipe is so complicated, I think only a pictoral will do.

Ingredients:

 Assembly:

Serving Suggestion:

Fin! (With a baseball bat.)

P.S. The beer was a bit hoppier than most porters, which is typical for Stone. They're famous for their IPA. I dislike the bitter tase of most IPAs I've had. That said, the pairing was still mighty tasty, and the beer did have a delightful smoky flavor. Also, Crofter's Superfruit Spread is the best jelly I've had in my entire life, and I've had some badass jelly. Definitely a fun experiment. :)

Awesome day

Just got home from Seattle. I had a great fucking day!!

I got to interview Bitch at an awesome little coffee shop, Fremont Coffee. Fremont is so cute. There was some kind of weird pubcrawling event going on, so at two in the afternoon there was all sorts of drunk twentysomethings running around hootin' and hollerin'. It was crazy, but comical.

Bitch is completely awesome. And so is her album, Blasted. I highly recommend it--she plays the violin and it sounds like an electric guitar! It kicks ass. The interview will be up on Verbicide in the next couple of weeks, so make sure to check it out. We shot some great photos at Gas Works Park that'll be posted with the story. And she's on tour, so check out her website and head over to check out one of her gigs!









Here's the video for her first single off the album, "Kitchen"




After that, me and the mister tooled around Seattle a bit picking up some choice vegan omnoms. We stopped by Mighty O Donuts, which was just about to close...so the few remaining donuts they had in stock were half off!! Kick ass. We got a couple little "naked" donuts (plain), a chocolate cake donut, and a "cocoloco" which is a chocolate cake donut tossed in cinnamon and sugar. Can't wait to eat them later with a cup of cold soymilk!

Then, we had a delicious dinner at the Moonlight Cafe. Oh my god, it was so good! They have an entire vegan menu. It was difficult to decide what to get. We had these little "shredded tofu" spring rolls for an appetizer:

They were pretty good! Very different than any spring roll I've had. I don't really eat too much Vietnamese food, so perhaps it's common. It tasted really good with the sauce that it came with, but without the sauce, it wasn't as tasty. I liked the fresh mint that was in it. :)

For our entree, we had General Tso's "chicken" and Tofu and Black Mushrooms in a coconut sauce. Rice doesn't come with the meal, but it's only 95 cents per person to get a big old portion of rice, and we were able to select brown rice! Yum.

The General Tso's "chicken" looked kind of like Italian sausage and peppers, but with broccoli thrown in:

It was really good. The "meat" was crispy on the outside, and less firm on the inside. The sauce was savory, and the veggies were cooked perfectly.

The coconutty dish was fabulous. The sauce tasted great over the rice. The mushrooms were good, though I kind of wished there was more in there. Tons of yummy tofu. We had a lot of leftovers!

After this tasty meal, on the drive home, we saw almost ten separate rainbows between Seattle and Olympia! Also, the clouds were enormous and fluffy. The sky basically looked like a painting. I couldn't take any pictures...well...because I was driving, and I didn't want to die on the road. I assure you the sparkling, dewy world was beautiful.

Yay for good days!

Easter Brunch

We got Vegan Brunch by Isa Chandra Moskowitz for Christmas, and I've been lazing around, not using it, which is a shame. So, since we aren't particularly big on Easter, we decided to make it special by trying out a couple of recipes. Omnomnomnom.



The book is awesome. SO awesome, in fact, it was extremely hard to decide what recipe to try out first. Go. Buy. It.

We nailed out a plan to have a lavish two course meal. For starters, we cooked up Tempeh Sausage Pastry Puffs, and served them with a delicious bannanaberrycocount smoothie.

The combination of the sweet smoothie and savory puffs was delicious! I used So Delicous Coconut Milk Kefir in the smoothie for the first time, and it turned out great.








BananaBerryCoconut Smoothie
1 cup of frozen mixed berries (my mixed bag came with strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries in it)
3 large ice cubes
About half of the container of So Delicious Cocnut Milk Kefir
1 large banana 

Just whir it all up in a blender and pour it into glasses!

I'm not going to discuss exactly what Isa Chandra's recipe was for the Tempeh Puffs is here, because I think you should go buy her book (seriously, I'm not being a suck up, it's great and she should make money off of it) but I can say that instead of marinating the tempeh for an hour like it says to, I marinated it overnight. I omitted the fennel, because I don't like fennel. Despite the omittance, the tempeh had a great flavor due to the thyme, garlic and red pepper. I added a little bit of sage, too. I think next time I make it I'll use less olive oil. I followed the directions, and it came out a bit oily for my taste.

The next course was Banana Rabanada (Brazilian French Toast) and mimosas. I have not had anything this french-toasty since turning vegan, and let me tell you--these things were mouth watering. So craveable and delicious!

Again, I'm not going to fully disclose the recipe, but I'll share my experience. I used one of the "La Panette" baguettes from Top Foods. I sliced it into pieces and set them out on a wire rack the night before, so they would get nice and stale. I used a really, really ripe banana, the kind we normally make banana bread with, it was very sugary and ripe...at the point where the peel is quite brown, but the inside's still ok. Making the banana custard mixture that you soak the bread in (what makes it french bready) was stupid easy. I just mixed it all up, soaked the bread in there while we ate the first course, and then heated them up on the skillet afterwards! We served it up with some sliced strawberries, a dusting of cocoa powder and cinnamon, and a Jackson Pollack-y swirl of real maple syrup. Delish!

I had some inexpensive Spanish champagne that we used for the mimosas, and it was quite good.

Vegan White Russian

So, last night I watched The Big Lebowski again - I fucking love that movie! It's been a while since I saw it, and I knew that it just wouldn't be the same unless I had a white russian in hand. Since I'm all vegan and stuff now, I didn't know if this was possible.

I did some hunting around on the web, and I came across a couple of folks who said that they've used soy creamer to successfully make a vegan white russian. I had a coupon for So Delicious Coconut Milk Creamer so I headed over to the Co-op and picked some up. It's not exactly soy creamer, but I thought that the coconut stuff would make it even tastier! (BTW, I was right! The light coconut flavor it added was DIVINE).

I heard folks saying that Kahlua isn't actually vegan, so I picked up some Caffe Lolita, which I've had before and thought tasted just fine. I'm not sure if that's also not-vegan, but at least it's cheaper. I have no idea where to find out what coffee liquor is vegan and what isn't. I also have no idea how to find out what the proper recipe is for a white russian - there seems to be no consistency in the amounts of vodka, coffee liquor and cream people use! So, I winged it, and it turned out pretty damn delicious.



Vegan White Russian

1 shot of coffee liquor
1 shot of vodka
splash of So Delicious Coconut Milk Creamer
splash of light vanilla soymilk (to get that half & half effect!)



om nom nom!!