Vegan Oktoberfest review!

This past weekend, Saturday to be exact, I partook in my first Vegan Oktoberfest and it was fun.

The even spanned two days, and was located in downtown LA, so I was able to take the train. While on my way, I sean into a friend's boyfriend. She was already there working the event (helping set up) so we traveled together and go there with time to spare. 

I waited in line and was chatting it up with a bodybuilder and his sites who were also vegans. A LOT of vegan body builders come to these events as their "cheat days". They liked my outfit, which I made :)

Black Bean Burger recipe…kinda.

Hello one and all.

I'm blogging again, this time with tons of content and a furor to do at least one vegan related post a week, if not more.

This post I'd like to mention a few things before we get to the food.

I have a Facebook page now.

You can find it here.

There is a manifesto stuck to the top of the page which pretty much explains all that I want to do with this blog/FB page.

I'm about vegan foods on the cheap. As wholesome and 'natural' as I can get them. I'm not militant about organic, though I'm not against it either. I'm just for good affordable low processed foods. So not too many box foods, I guess.

Speaking of which, I'd had a craving for black bean burgers for a while now, so after I soaked a pound of black beans overnight, cooked them, and had them at the ready in the fridge for two days, I finally got up and decided to make my patty mix and it was worth it.

After I took the beans out of the fridge, I got my ingredients together.

The base for the burgers is pretty much anything you wish it to be. Nearly any veggies will work but make sure they don't hold a lot of water. You want the end result to be tacky, but firm.

I used the entire pound of cooked beans mixed with carrots, three cloves of garlic, onion, and my go to tried and true, the Better than Bullion veggie bullion. I use this magical seasoning in nearly everything. It's so flavorful and delicious (and cheap). They make many vegan varieties, but the all vegetable version has the best dynamic flavor.

I also add a cup of uncooked oats.

Blend it good.

Here is the mix, with some unprocessed beans and nutritional yeast (about a cup). I then mix it all together.

This wet base I generally half and freeze. I do this because it makes a lot of burgers and if I were with other people I'd make the batch larger, but I save it for a later date.

Next I add the filler which is gluten free baking mix. You can use wheat flour as well, but I try to keep the wheat down, especially when I eat this on a grain bun. I add about 2 cups (perhaps a little less) of the flour to make the mix stiff.

I like it stiff enough to hold a spoon in.

Mission accomplished.

Then I start the burger magic. I toast the burger bun first, then I sautéed some spinach. Next I chopped the cap off the cap of a mushroom and grilled up that baby, then I cooked the patty.

After the patty is nice and toasty, I add it to my fixings and presto, I have a great vegan burger I just devoured.

It was so good. I added some Just Mayo and some cocoanut bacon, but next time I may leave a lot of that out. I'm a ketchup and mustard gal.

The mushroom was super juicy and could have been the burger alone, but I craved a black bean patty. I love these. They are quick, easy and only get better after the batch has marinated for a day or so.

Great, now I'm hungry.

I'll talk to you all later.

It's been too long: Persimmon and pear cobbler.

Hi everyone!
I'm sorry it's been over a year since I've written on this blog. This past year has been utter shit and I dropped out of a lot of things.

My favorite vegan Lager for $12.99!!

I have a lot of cooking experiments I've been doing and plan on listing them, at least one weekly, as I progress back into regular food blogging.

I also have a lot of food reviews and snacks I want to list and tell you all about. So stay tuned for those, prices will always be included.

As for what I've been doing recently, I've taken up a love of persimmons.
I think they are just delicious. Not too sweet, but rich enough to be satisfying. I like to wait until they are over ripe then I can cut them and scoop them with a spoon. Yumm.

There is a farmer's market a block from e and on Sunday's I go there for produce.
I was getting a CSA for a while but had to stop it because of finances. I want to start it back up so let's hope that will happen sooner than later.

The persimmons at the market are super cheap compared to the $2 each at the grocery.
I buy them and just wait, sometimes over two months, for them to get good and over ripe. I'm patient.

These persimmons were almost too ripe, but they scooped out nice.

The ingredients for this cobbler were sparse: some persimmons, some cinnamon, a Korean pear. Let's talk about those. I'm not a big fruit person, and I thought the crunch of a firmer pear would be a nice texture enhancement. turns out I'm not a big fan of them compared to other pears. They are mostly water, almost flavorless, and too expensive (3 for $5) to justify getting again. But I used them, but this was a good experiment.

I made my 1 cup flour, 1/2 cut earth balance, and 1/4 cup water pie crust for the base of the cobbler. Added sugar, candied ginger pieces, some corn starch and flour for thickener and poured the mixture into a braking pan. I cooked it for about 50 minutes and it firmed up nicely. The taste was nice, but needs adjustment. I want to add more cinnamon and powdered ginger next time. I also plan on puréed the ingredients and making it more like a pumpkin pie texture. I think that would translate well.

Look it that texture. It would total benefit being puréed. 

In any account, I am so going to make this again when I get more persimmons. Which I hope will be soon :) Okay, that's it for now. I promise I am going to post at  lead once a week. I've missed it.

Until next time!!!