vacay, it's ok

not much to report from the rest of beer week besides sipping on a few cans of this new beautiful canned beer, working my ass off, and trying to find a few hours here and there to take care of business and relax. what can i say? my beer week plans always seem to get away from me. i'm resolved to not care about it, though. there's always next year.

plus, i'm in full on, full swing (pre)vacation mode! ryan and i leave tomorrow for a week in san francisco and santa rosa. we'll put in some seriously necessary face time with brother steve, and BFF john s. i decided to celebrate my last day at work until next friday by spending my precious lunch hour watching a few innings of the phillies game and drinking a nice, crispy wheat beer at a local watering hole.

boulder sweaty betty - so good!

new shades

i hereby resolve to take tons of photos of all the food and drink awaiting me in northern california. expect a mega post upon my return!

love,
emily

motto: friendship

lauren, halimah and i recently got back from a westerly sojourn to visit our dearest friend mary in houston,tx where she is studying architecture at rice university. besides little overnight trips here and there, this was my first real experience with a ladies only vacation. and let me tell you - it was amazing! we bonded deeply over serious confessions, embarrassing stories, nonsense jokes and sex talk. we stayed up late, whispered once the lights were out, slept in daily, traded accessories, shooed off male suitors in bars, and drove around listening to oldies.

but, perhaps most importantly, we ate and drank our asses off. from the high brow to the low brow, we left no culinary stone unturned. during a week when most americans are cursing themselves for their holiday indulgences, and swearing to do better this time around, our appetites took houston by storm. we scarfed trashy tex mex at chuy's, gorgeous waffles at baby barnaby's, light-as-a-feather gourmet pizzas at dolce vita, and simply perfect avocado tacos from the truck adjacent to possibly the best dive bar that side of the mississippi, the west alabama ice house.

my favorite meals, though, were the ones we prepared for ourselves in mary's tiny, charming kitchen. except for sunday brunch, we made breakfast each morning, small, balanced little meals, much like the ones i make at home before work. toast, coffee, yogurt, fruit.

there were a few lovely home cooked dinners, as well, usually preceded by a hasty trip to the nearby h-e-b for ingredients and beer. buying a 12-pack of cheap craft beer in a grocery store is such a succinct pleasure for a pennsylvanian. back at home base, we'd share the prep work with jangly tunes from the college radio station as our soundtrack. the fragrance from the simmering pot filled the small apartment, and a voice from the couch would pipe up, "what smells so good?" while i whipped up the salad dressing, mary would spread out her prized vintage place mats, and uncork the wine. finally, we would all sit down together, a tender ritual that recalled the glory days when we all lived under one roof in west philadelphia.

my favorite dinner was on saturday night. at that point, we'd been in houston for a few days and had all fallen into an easy groove with one another. there were still a few days standing between us and our departure, and if i stretched my imagination a bit, i could pretend that we'd never have to say goodbye. earlier that day, we drove out to galveston to rest our eyes on the gulf of mexico and explore the meager town. standing with my bare toes in the sand in early january, the wind whipping through the beleaguered palm trees, felt cinematic and intense.

as we returned to houston, restless from the sluggish highway traffic, we pulled off for late afternoon milkshakes from a charming diner. an hour later, overloaded on sugar and a bit regretful for it, we were all craving something inoffensive and clean for our pummeled palates. mary, who somehow always knows what's right for every occasion, suggested a fennel-studded tomato soup recipe from a homemade life, the beautiful memoir and cookbook from one of our favorite bloggers, molly wizenberg. lauren gifted me this book for christmas and i'd devoured nearly all of it on the plane ride from philly to houston just days before, so it seemed extra fitting. single handedly and with the grace of a true cook, mary put together the most splendid meal i've had in ages.

alongside the tomato fennel soup was a salad of lightly dressed bitter greens with apples and shaved aged provolone, a hunk of 3-seeded bread, and roasted cauliflower with a pungent, citrusy sauce. it was flawless. after the plates were cleared and the dishes done, we played rounds and rounds of our favorite card game, which became increasingly rowdy with each beer we drank. at some hazier point in the night, we popped a bottle of prossecco, and toasted to our love, which is especially appropriate in texas, where the state motto is "friendship."

Tomato Soup with 2 Fennels

from "A Homemade Life," by Molly Wizenberg

~serves 4-6 (generous helpings)~

~takes about 40 minutes~

ingredients:

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 yellow onion, thinly sliced

2 medium fennel bulbs, trimmed and thinly sliced (save some of the fronds for garnish)

4-5 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1 teaspoon fresh thyme or 1/2 tsp dried thyme

2 28 ounce cans whole or chopped tomatoes

water

3/4 teaspoon salt

sugar, to taste

pepper and vinegar, to taste

- in a dutch oven or soup pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. add the chopped onions and fennel, and sautee for 5 minutes.

- add the garlic, thyme and fennel seeds. cook, stirring occasionally, for another 5-8 minutes.

- if using whole canned tomatoes, crush them in a food processor, with your hands, or however else you'd like. if using pre-crushed, no need to crush further. in any case, add the tomatoes and their juices to the pot and stir everything together.

- fill one of the now empty tomato cans with water and add to the mixture.

- turn the heat down, and let the soup gently simmer, uncovered, for 40-45 minutes.

- when the fennel is very tender, and the tomatoes have reduced to make the soup taste full-bodied, it's done! add salt and pepper to taste. if the soup is too acidic for you, a pinch of sugar will mellow it out. if you want a little more bite, add a small splash of red wine vinegar.

- ladle into soup bowls, and top with a pinch of fennel fronds, and a dollop of yogurt or sour cream (optional, of course!).

- serve, very hot, preferably to a table of your best friends.

love,

emily

saint francis' land of the oaks

big bikes for big trips! ryan and i are in california right now, visiting our BFFs john & mary, who currently live in the mostest adorable apartment in oakland.

we arrived late on thursday night after a 10+ hour day of traveling (don't even want to discuss the food eaten along the way, including a hilariously awful lunch in the detroit airport at a hockey themed bar called slapshotz). mary picked us up in their trusty old volvo, and spirited us to their house, where john was waiting with a hearty seitan stew and much needed beers. we enjoyed each others' company for a few hours and then finally got horizontal and passed out.

on friday, we woke around 10, and went out to coffee at a great little place on telegraph called mama buzz. mary was at work, so it was just john, ry, and me. so some strong-ass coffee and bagels with hummus enjoyed in an outdoor courtyard got things started off right. i forgot how much outdoor eating and drinking space there is in california, but when i'm here, i really appreciate it. also, the bay area weather, though reportedly colder than usual, has been sunny, clear and damn near perfect (especially compared with the dreary, chilly philadelphia we left on thursday morning).

we cruised down telegraph toward the BART station, feelin fine.

trained into san francisco, and kicked it around the mission. what better is there to do in SF on a gorgeous friday afternoon? 22 oz bottles of craft beer purchased in a creaky deli, on our way to dolores park. i rocked a boonts, ry got a lagunitas IPA, and john got a racer 5. commence the afternoon tipsies.

don't you love dolores park? i really do, and i come here every time i'm in san francisco. dogs, hippes, super cute dudes and ladies, everyone's drinking and probably smoking, too. paradise.

after the creeping afternoon shadows chased us out by cold, we wandered back into the neighborhood and briefly popped into a thrift store (i bought a fantastic gary numan & the tubeway army record). then, we stumbled across this alley full of beautiful murals:

our bagels long forgotten, we stopped for burritos at taqueria cancun, and spent the next few hours visiting a series of great bars, happily killing time, waiting for mary to finish with her 6 o'clock soccer game. first to zeitgeist, then to the elbo room, then to shotwells where we finally met up with mary and bert.

we were trying to get into a new, much lauded artisinal pizza place called flour + water, but it was taking forever. it seemed like the restaurant's priority was seating yuppies on spendy dates, and not our motley 5-top, so we decided to skip it. while we were waiting for another 1/2 hour to get seated at weird fish, we went to a raging dive bar - the uptown - to jam PBRs, all the day's booze finally sinking in...

back at weird fish, packed in at a cozy table, we ordered much needed plates of wonderfully fried vegan eats: seitan "fish" and chips, a pitcher of anchor steam...

we sat there for awhile, chatting non-stop with our beloved friends, loving every second of this california trip. trying not to succumb to the ever-present thoughts of "why don't we live here?" and just enjoying the present moment, so far far away from home...

more soon!!

love,

emily

we're moving

our entire kitchen is packed into boxes. our tools, appliances, silverware, glassware, seriously EVERYthing, is wrapped in newspaper, stuffed into boxes, and labeled with sharpies. for the past few days, we've been eating cold sandwiches and drinking beer like there's no tomorrow.

oh, but there is a tomorrow. tomorrow is south philly, and the new house, and, most importantly, the new VR kitchen (stainless fridge, a breakfast bar and - omg - a dishwasher?!) and all that follows from there.

autumn is always a good time for change. and a seriously great time for food (oh! to turn the oven back on!). and so we shall proceed: with renewed energy, inspiration and resourcefulness, but from the other side of town. see ya in a few.

xo,
emily, lauren & ryan

VR does the vacay

in my opinion, the best field trip of the summer (at least in our fair mid-atlantic region), is the trip to the beach. usually because of work and finances, we are limited to fun - but brief - day trips to the jersey shore. but last week, with a little pre-planning and a wondrous dose of family generosity, we got to stay in a beach front condo at rehoboth beach for 3 days and 2 nights! the vacation party was comprised of sissy lauren, ryan, our friend john e., and myself. so awesome.

oddly, there's not so much to say about food (meal times were sort of replaced with drink times: bloody marys or beer-mosas with lunch, vodka sodas in the afternoon, copious beers throughout the day) and we mostly grazed, and had one so-so meal at the dogfish head brewpub. but we had so much fun, holy crap! enough outta me, i'll just let the photos do the talking:

ok, i can't help it -- just one note about food --> the fridge!! clockwise from the top: marinated vegetables, champagne of beer, our "fancy beers" backed up by a 12-pack of flying dog, raw "egg salad" on top of microgreens, trader joe's hummus & salsa, and some tofurkey in the drawer.

the view from our balcony!

on monday night, we went to the boardwalk

lauren won an awesome banana-dude by beating me at whack-a-mole!

we did the photo booth thing



we won a ton of tickets at the arcade and cashed them in for glow sticks and candy

ryan shredded at guitar hero

then ry & john went on this funny, octopus-esque ride

on tuesday, we took a tour of the dogfish head brewery in milton, de

dude, look at all those kegs! the brewery was huge

we had dinner at the dogfish head brew pub later that night

back from the boardwalk, and on the tipsy side, we decided to go for a late night beach walk

there were righteous vibes alongside the post-midnight ocean



the beach rules and we were sad to leave it

perhaps more photos to come...

love,
emily

birthday dinner round II - blue sage veg grille

what do you get the foodie who has everything? ok, while she doesn't have the fully stocked kitchen of her dreams, sissy lauren has been gifted numerous cooking items. in fact, she's just been gifted many things from me in general over our 24 year-long course as sisters. so for her recent birthday i found myself at a bit of a loss. an extra special dinner out is always fun, i figured, but where? we've been to horizons enough times to give it a rest, mi lah has recently been super disappointing, and sadly, that kind of covers it for fully vegetarian restaurants in the city. maybe upstairs at govinda's but...eh, i dunno that just never seems appealing to me. so i literally googled "vegetarian restaurants philly," and amongst all the crap that came up from the search, i saw one name i'd never heard of, blue sage vegetarian grille.

i looked over the menu and excitedly sent the link to lauren. she agreed that we should try it out, and we finally got our schedules to click (it is a few weeks past her actual birthday), and made the reservation for this past wednesday. now, blue sage is not in philadelphia proper; it's actually about a 1/2 hour drive, up 95N and then down street road, in a town called southampton. if you weren't specifically looking for it, you could easily miss the restaurant, tucked away in a little shopping center, very suburban. bottle of white wine in hand - it's a BYOB - we ran into the joint (we were a bit later than our rez...driving down those main drags always takes longer than you think), and the place was packed! a good sign on a weeknight. the restaurant is pretty small, and it took us little while to get seated, and our impatience was heightened by our growling bellies.

finally at our seats, we took stock of the interior. overall, pretty non-descript and boring, as you can see from the photo on their website. many of the tables were really close together, but we had a more generously sized personal bubble up against the front wall. not spacious enough to shield the comments of the nerdy, tact-less older couple next to us, who kept quietly commenting, as if we couldn't hear them from 3 feet away, on how we were photographing our food. forget the BYOB, just MYOB. geez.

more importantly, the wine was poured, and we made our menu selections with our cute, non-invasive waitress. the menu was about 1/2 vegetarian and 1/2 vegan, with some interesting options. some of the descriptions were a bit overdone, nearing paragraph length at times, and "simple" is not what i'd call this food. in that cliche gourmond way, everything had tons of ingredients. one interesting thing that we noted was the absence of tofu, or any other "meat substitutes." just tons and tons of vegetable dishes, which is awesome. anyway, soon the food started coming and i stopped analyzing and just started eating. first, a little bonus starter: walnut honey pumpernickel bread with pumpkin seed butter and cranberry jam, a cool twist on pb&j.


the pumpkin seed butter was so wondrously flavorful, definitely something we want to experiment with making at home. next up were two relatively standard, but delicious appetizers. in the end, i think these were the strongest dishes of the whole evening:

green curry summer BBQ rolls: not-fried rice paper roll encases baby spinach, thai barbeque glazed vegetables, smoked red onion, fresh ginger & basil. served with soy syrup, dipping oils, side of jicama slaw

these were unlike any spring rolls i've ever had. the veggies inside were absolutely soaked in BBQ sauce, but not in a bad way. i can't really remember how the green curry factored in, maybe it was just mixed in with the soy glaze drizzled on the plate. either way, these were really satisfying, savory little snacks.

red pepper hummus sampler: smoked red pepper hummus with chive infused olive oil, falafel topped with tomato almond romesco & pistachio topped baba ghanoush. served with toasted rosemary focaccia slivers.

it's hard to go wrong with a middle eastern sampler, and this was no exception. i love, love pistachios, so the baba ghanoush really rocked my face off. the falafel balls were just okay (not green inside, which i've learned is the telltale sign of really fresh falafel), but the almond romesco was rich and spicy. the hummus was average, but the focaccia, stuffed into a cup with huge sprigs of fresh rosemary, was top notch.

as you may have noticed, the portions at blue sage are way generous. suffice to say, we were getting full-ish, but were still psyched for the entrees. i gotta say though...the entrees did not truly meet our expectations. my hypothesis is that there was just too much going on on the plate. exhibit A:

cubano supper: flaky plantain pastries stuffed with sunflower seed-smoked red pepper pesto surround tower of yellow tomatoes & avocado corn salsa. served with chipotle jicama slaw & mango-papaya relish.

this was certainly the stronger of the two entrees. the plantain pastries were hearty and not too greasy. all the stuff piled up in the middle (my attention span is barely long enough to get me through the end of the dish description), was fresh and tasty, and though i despise papaya, the fruity relish was quite a nice palate cooler. now, when i hear "cubano" i think of those awesome ham, cheese and pickle sandwiches, so i have no idea if this dish reflects authentic cuban food. my guess would have to be not really. but still, it was a decent eat.

next up:

east-west bento box: avocado cucumber salad with thai peanut dressing, steamed dumplings with red lentil filling in pea broth, and red coconut curry with exotic mushrooms, edamame, and corn.

i had really high hopes for this dish and was rather disappointed. i harbor deep affection for steamed dumplings, and these were so bad, we didn't even bring the leftovers home. the pureed lentil filling had an unappealing texture, just mushy mush in your mouth. ugh. also, the pea "broth" was more of a puree, in a wholly baby food kind of way. not good. the red curry was spiced with a heavy hand, and the coconut flavor was faint, at best. the mushrooms were left in huge caps, not sliced, and hard to eat in any graceful manner with that tiny ceramic spoon. the salad was actually great, but an easy score. i dunno, it's also possible that we were so full by that point that eating was becoming a bit of a chore. we took the bento box leftovers home (sans diaper dumplings), and it's sat untouched in the fridge for the past 3 days. i just don't think we can get excited about it, which is sad, and very unlike us.

so we passed on dessert, paid the check, and headed home, driving past the endless shopping centers and fast food joints. the bill came in somewhere around where horizons might if you kept the booze to a minimum, but the quality of the food simply did not compare. it was fun to adventure outside of the city (dudes, the 'burbs are weeeeeird), and it's awesome that there can be a successful fully vegetarian restaurant operating in a decidedly non-urban locale. but honestly, next time i might opt to save the gas $$, call in a double order of spring rolls to vientiane, spread a blanket under a tree in the park, and pound a bottle of birthday wine with sis lauren.

love,
emily

brave vegans in the wild west - part 1

alright, folks, this one's gonna be a doozy. this is the re-cap - in food! - of the trip that lauren and i recently took to visit our dad. he lives in colorado, on the western slope in a town called montrose. we didn't spend much time in montrose this trip, though, cuz our whole reason for going was to take a road trip to moab, utah to traipse through the trippy landscapes of arches national park and the canyonlands. we did lots of hiking, quite a lot, in fact, for these city gals.
we started each morning with oatmeal, fruit and yogurt, and...

wait. i'm getting way ahead of myself. where we really need to start, is in the denver airport.

we flew out of philadelphia at 9:30 on a monday morning. we woke up too late to pack snacks, so before boarding we bought a gross green salad and half a dry bagel to share for breakfast. the philadelphia airport, or at least the terminal we were flying out of, is not kind to the vegans. i vaguely remember an au bon pain somewhere in the airport, with its promise of hummus and bagels, but it was too far away from us to visit. suffice to say, by the time we landed in denver for our layover, we were hunggggry. the denver airport is way smaller than philadelphia's, so we spent some time perusing our options. yes, you heard correctly: we had options! glorious options!! hummus platter at the greek cafe? vegetarian burrito at the tex-mex joint? big old salad at the fake bistro? what we decided on was none of these.

we spotted a bright little place in the corner, mysteriously called "itza wrap, itza bowl." their menu was simple but enticing, a selection of rice and noodle bowls and salad-y wraps. there were actually lots of vegan and vegetarian things to choose from. we shared the thai peanut noodle bowl with tofu, and the colorado sunshine wrap, which had some avocado and sprouts on it. both were surprisingly great:

nothing spectacular was going on, but it was fresh and good. that's far more than i usually ask from airport food.


i just googled itza wrap, itza bowl, and i think it only exists in the denver airport! weird. also, i just glanced at the yelp reviews of this place, which were mostly super negative. don't listen to the haters.

once we landed in grand junction, a town about an hour away from our dad's, he took us out for a beer at the rockslide brewery in the cute little downtown. the rockslide had nary a vegan option (except for good old french fries, of course) but our palates did lay elsewhere, and we ordered only a pre-dinner beer...or 6. i (lauren), after much deliberating, ordered the amber ale, while emma opted for the sampler, 6 little gibraltar glasses of their finest brews. it was a really nice tasting session and cute, to boot.


after our drinks, we headed over to a tiny, cozy japanese restaurant. ever the lovers of japanese food, we delightfully (and dutifully) ordered veggie tempura to start. emily had veggie sushi and i had a tofu stir fry with peanut sauce and we all 3 split a side of edamame. it doesn't get more japanese restaurant than this, and it doesn't matter. i revel in repetition.

for the next three days we stayed in a quaint condo in moab, utah, complete with a kitchen! partnered with the city market down the street, we had ourselves breakfast, lunch and dinner, homemade style. this translated to: oatmeal, fruit/yogurt/nut mix, and/or smoothies for breakfasts (don't forget the coffee!); hummus and sprout sammiches for lunch (plus some larabars and fig newman's, and lest we not forget the GORP!, on the trail) and burritos or pasta and veggies sauce for dinner. believe it or not the teensy town of moab even had a thai joint, which we promptly headed to for dinner on our last night. much like the japanese restaurant, you can't really go wrong at a thai place with steamed dumplings, vegetable curry or tofu with a spicy sauce.

on our last day in moab, we stopped at the hippie-tastic love muffin cafe.








everyone loves to hate on a hippie, but they do some decent, relaxed veg-friendly food at the love muffin, and i'll take that any day, as long as no one's playing with devil sticks out front (come on, surely you remember devil sticks?). vegan mocha chocolate chip muffin and a cup of coffee will do you no harm. and a curry tofu sandwich on homemade ciabatta with a dash of hot sauce is sure to wake you up!



after a few head-reeling days in moab, we headed back to montrose, co and that, friends, is where we'll leave you tonight.


check back soon for part 2 (and maybe 3!!?) of our adventure.

love,
em + lauren