it's my birthday and i'll blog if i want to

ok, so let's be clear here. my birthday, for me, is not about the presents, the "loot" or the giftcards. my birthday is about hosting some sort of event where i can cook a lot of (probably too much) food, get all stressed out the day before, have everything be fine, all the food get eaten, and then get drunk.

yesterday's memorial day/b-day bbq/potluck/kegger proved to be rather foodielicious as i made the following:

+chorizo sausages from vegan brunch (by way of julie hasson)
+black bean burgers from veganomicon
+seitan with backyard bbq sauce from veganomicon
+jello shots with vegan jello available at whole foods for $1.29 a box. who knew?!
+vegan coffee ice cream served a la mode atop the best damn vegan brownies ever, all from a vegan ice cream paradise, a newly discovered vegan ice cream recipe blog
--i'm going to be honest, because we're not perfect here at vegan royale, and say that my vegan ice cream attempts were not so successful. i believe some steps were, ahem, mis-executed, and we got more of a coffee ice cream slushy than actually ice cream. i'm going to give it another go while the ice cream maker is in our possession. (props to elisha for letting us borrow this awesome appliance!)

in addition, potluckers brought: ryan's famous potato salad with pickled onions and cucumber, more black bean burgers and brownies (i'm ok with repeats!), corn, TONS of grillables - dogs, burgers, etc. (the gracious hosts, i.e. my housemates and i even let some of our friends grill bbq chicken, because we're not fascist vegans. however, the grill was thoroughly scraped clean before more vegan goodness went back on), SEVEN LAYER DIP (can i name all seven? refried beans, tofu sour cream, guacamole, corn, fresh salsa, cilantro - hint, it's not actually seven layers, the maker tells me), fresh guacamole, more beer and watermelon!

some shots of the table and its wondrous offerings:

hammy's 7 layer dip


seitan skewers

ry's potato salad

karina's guac

the table!

i think i would call it "a successful barbeque". the keg was finished, the food was demolished (i didn't even get a bbq seitan skewer! luckily though, i snagged a snausage and a black bean burger before those went). only one person got trapped in the downstairs bathroom with the broken doorknob, the house wasn't trashed, everyone left by midnight and the housies and i had a mini dance party and then watched super troopers. NOT TOO SHABBY!

plus, ok, i did get some sweet presents:

cutie pie kitchen timer
vegan cupcakes and a vegan cake from my coworkers!:

a-dang-dorable green bean button and a shirt with patch:

a future dinner date with/from my sis (should we go here, here or here?)
border's giftcards! who doesn't love buying books?
a batch of banana-chocolate chip cupcakes with peanut butter icing:


can't wait to do it all again next year!

love,
lauren

pom-pom

a week or two ago, i cranked out a dozen "pomegranate ginger cupcakes" from hannah kiminsky's epic dessert cookbook, my sweet vegan. i usually leave the cupcakery to sis lauren (she, in fact, introduced me to the global vegan cupcake movement), but something about this flavor combo was too winter perfect to pass up.

pomegranates have always seemed so special to me, the mysterious ruby fruit of queens and wood nymphs. when i was in college, my friend kate would occasionally have a ripe pomegranate bobbing about her leather satchel, and generously shared their glowing seeds with me during mae west movie marathons and study breaks. kate is the kind of girl who treats rare, decadent things with both ceremony and indifference - the kind of girl who will slug a treasured 20 year old bordeaux right from the bottle, or wear a flawless, sequined vintage dress to a smoky dive bar. she taught me the importance of being self-centered - no! not like being selfish, but recognizing that you are truly only a Self, a person in the world acting on your own behalf. a person for whom, at the end of the day, there is only waiting what you have left for yourself to enjoy or abhor.

who knows what gestures and words we hurled at one another with juice-stained hands (believe me people, this was indeed before the pomegranate was yet another slutty produce commodity), what impressions we smeared with deep purple fingertips, what pristine white walls were ruined by our thoughtless touches.

...pardon the digression - where were we? oh yes, the cupcakes. these were fairly straightforward, but there was a special finishing touch that i especially enjoyed: pouring a pom-pom syrupy juice concoction right on top of the raw batter before the oven treatment. this technique ended up creating sexy juice ribbons throughout the cakes and a nice little wow-factor for those who peeled off the waxy paper wrapper before consumption.

two small variations to the recipe: the original called for pure pomegranate juice, which i replaced with a (significantly cheaper) pomegranate-açaí blend. it also called for chopped candied ginger to be folded into the batter, but i couldn't find the good, sugar coated kind anywhere. sometimes the co-op has some bagged up in bulk fridge alongside the shredded coconut or carob chips, but not that day. so instead i chopped up some of a green & black's dark chocolate bar that had candied ginger in it. the richness of the chocolate actually complemented the spiciness of the ginger and the tartness of the pomegranate quite nicely.

the whole shebang was topped off with some zippy ginger frosting (though the recipe she included produced far too much frosting for the dozen cupcakes, at least for my taste...i like a thin, smooth layer of confection, not big piped-on wads), and a few pomegranate seeds sprinkled on top for bedazzled garnish feel. also, you simply can't go wrong with gold foil cupcake liners - it's like a pair of these for your dessert!

and okay, this isn't the best photo (but i took it with ryan's iphone! techmologee!) but gives a clue as to their subtle beauty:

also, what is that at the top of the photo? funnily enough, it's an upsidedown caricature sketch of the aforementioned kate (posing with another lady i love, halimah) that a crust punk drew for $5 at a summer rager back in '06.

anyway, i declare these sophisticated babies a success!

love,
emily