Sunday, November 05, 2006

Chickpea Patties and Cupcakes

This morning I met a friend for breakfast at Garden Grille Cafe in RI. I had a tofu scramble with portabellas, spinach, and sun-dried tomato. After that I had to go pick up bird seed for Tommy. When I went to get the bird seed, I found that one of my favorite sporting good stores is going out of business. I stopped in hoping to find snowboard boots, but they didn't have my size. Though, I lucked out and found a great winter jacket for almost 70% off. When I got home, I did some yard work. A few trees had branches out close to the house, so I sawed off the offending limbs.

Tonight I made the Moroccan Chickpea patties from Vive le Vegan. Thanks to Leslie for the idea. I thought I had bad experiences with fennel in the past, but this fennel tasted nothing like I remembered. It wasn't bad, even raw. Verdict on the patties... I liked them, but they were a bit difficult to keep together in the pan. Honestly, the mix was just fine on its own without breading or cooking into patties. I'd use it as a dip or make sandwiches with it in the future.

Last weekend, I made the chocolate stout cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. The were ok, but not great. This was probably my fault as I made them without out cupcake papers and potentially cooked them too long. This weekend I made chocolate cupcakes and filled/frosted them with the peanut butter cream frosting. These were spectacular. The frosting and the cakes are perfect and perhaps taste even better than any cupcake I've had in the past (vegan or not). Yay Isa! The first photo of the cupcake came out a little funky, but I am posting both pictures.


15 comments:

KleoPatra said...

Jody, lookin' GOOD with those cupcakes! And nice pickup of the 70 percent off jacket. Way to go! Does Tommy like the new seed? Same as the old seed, probably, right!?

Mary Worrell said...

Yum! I have a question - did you use nonhydrogenated shortening? I can't, for the life of me, seem to find it around here and I'm in a fairly progressive (food-wise) area! What kind did you use?

Jen said...

Mmmm! Those cupcakes both look gorgeous! Love the chocolate + peanut butter combination :)

Jody from VegChic said...

Hey Mary,

I just used Earth Balance shortening sticks. I'm guessing you can get those anywhere as I can even find them at the regular grocery stores here.

WholeFoods and WildOats definitely carry it. Here I can get it at Stop & Shop and sometimes Shaw's too.

Hope that helps.

Nikk said...

I've been meaning to check that place out in Pawtucket. It seems an odd place to stick a veg restaurant, but I'm sure it's welcome!

Way to go on the coat. I was having the most difficult time myself, but my problem is that my arms and torso are long so I have to keep buying sizes up or man jackets. I was actually able to find not one but two this weekend for a laughable amount of money! I got both and I spent a grand total of 60 bucks! I don't think I've ever gotten brand new coats so cheaply before in my life.

The cupcakes look way yummy. I want to get VCTOW, but I'm having a hard enough fitting in my clothes as it is.

theONLYtania said...

Hey the cupcakes look great! That's the same why I put the frosting on mine hehe. I wanted to make them look all fancy like in the book but I couldn't quite figure out what to do :-P

Valerie said...

I just got Vegan Cupcakes and was planning on making chocolate cupcakes filled and frosted with the peanut butter cream frosting for my first ever vegan cupcake baking experience. I'm glad to hear that they were delicious and can't wait until I get a chance to bake them!

Emmy said...

The tofu scramble you had at the restaurant sounds fabulous. And WTG on finding a winter jacket for 70% off. :) Your cupcake pictures look great.

Jen said...

Aww... I just got totally homesick for NH when I read your comment about Shaw's supermarket!

jess (of Get Sconed!) said...

Oh my gosh, the chocolate cupcakes looks perfect!

Also, this is another example of how much I love seeing recipes passed around blogs! I need to break open Dreena's books again..

Hannah said...

oooo! cupcakes!
Amber

010101 said...

You must live near me since you know about Garden Grille. Are you going to R.I. Vegan Awareness's Thanksgiving ordeal?

Jody from VegChic said...

Hope, I tried to get to your blog...but I just get an error.

I'm on the fence about the RI vegan awareness thing. Drop me an email, maybe I'll meet you there.

Nice to see some new folks around her on the blog too. I've been lurking at everyone else's blog. Sorry for my lack of posts, I've been traveling and the one day I did cook...I didn't bother taking pics.

Vicki's Vegan Vice said...

chocolate + peanutbutter = the best combo in the world! the cupcakes look yummee. :o)

Anonymous said...

absolutely beautifull cupcakes!