What Flavor Cupcake Are You?

Didn't resist:

You Are a Lemon Cupcake

You are spirited and spunky. You embrace life and have a sunny outlook. You're drawn to all sorts of people. You can find something to like about almost anyone. You are like a cupcake because you're cute and happy. You can turn anyone's day around. You love to laugh and have a wickedly funny sense of humor. You enjoy teasing and joking around.

What Flavor Cupcake Are You?

Italian vegan stuff

I already wrote here about how good is receiving packages from friends and how better is when the packages come with vegan stuff (things that you can't find in the city you live).

Since we moved we are the ones that usually send those packages. In Brazil we used to receive a lot from my mother-in-law. And two days ago we got two packages from her! There is some vegan stuff that we can find just in some places (cities or countries).

Valsoia products are some of those. It's an Italian company and they have nothing related with veganism, but they have health in their values and have soy and rice products. Even not thinking about vegan people they have a lot of options to people like us and I really like their products. I love their ice cream (you know, I'm crazy about vegan ice cream and eat it even during the winter)! I don't know if you know, but Italy is one of the countries with more vegan ice cream options and brands...

But the best product they have is the "Crema". It's a vegan version of the famous Nutella. It's just... perfect. It's almost impossible to stop eating it after you open it!

And to anybody that might think that I'm here just making free advertising for the company, I can say that the second thing that was in those packages that I love most is the "crema pasticcera". It is a kind of cream for filling cakes and it's absolutely fantastic! Last time I ate it was in Italy, at Christmas holiday and I miss it a lot. The company "Paneangeli" has most of the products to desserts and a lot of them are vegan (you just need to add soy milk instead of regular milk to make them).

So, here is my tip of today: if you go to Italy, try to find some of these products. It's worth it!

Happiness

Two amazing things make my day today: My "tropical paprika" vegan cupcakes to Govinda's (they have just the paprika colour, flavour is vanilla with lemon):


And the letter we received saying that I have my residence visa in Ireland. We were kind of nervous these last days, but today everything is amazing and the sun is shining!



Ah, this week we had one more day of our "brazilian best combination" meal. Nothing new, but I always enjoy posting the pics:

Cheesy weekend

In Brazil we don't have vegan cheese to buy. The only way to eat it is making a kind of cheese with nuts (recipe in Portuguese here). Everybody says that it's really good, but I never tried (must do it someday). So I stayed many years without considering the possibility of eating vegan cheese (I prefer don't think about things I can not have instead of staying suffering because I don't have them).

But here is different. We can find a lot of vegan cheese options and I just love them all! And last weekend we had a couple of cheesy days. On Saturday we had a delicious pizza night! Matteo is getting better and better on cooking pizzas (do you remember our first pizza? We never forget it!) and I'm enjoying to eat them at home. So we had two amazing vegan cheesy pizzas with cream cheese (Tofutti) and tons of cheddar (Redwood).


On Sunday we came back from the all ages gig starving and chose the faster option: pasta. But we still had some cheese left and Matteo improvised what would be one of the best pastas ever: vegan cheesy penne. I didn't take pictures because it wouldn't be fair with that great recipe(it looks like a normal pasta with white sauce but it's so better!). All you need is pasta, salt, oil, soy cream, cream cheese, diced cheddar, parsley and stock cube. Boil the water, add some salt and the pasta (let cook until the way you prefer it - “al dente” or well cooked). In a separated pan put the oil, the soy cream, the stock cube and the parsley. Mix everything and add the cream cheese and the diced cheddar. Let cook until the cheddar is softened. Put the sauce on the pasta and that's it, done! Easy, fast and superb!

Two other related posts:
Pasta: Fast and delicious
Pizza: Everything ends in pizza!

When the sky goes blue

My day started with a special batch of what I called special "blue sky" vegan cupcakes.


I love the blue sky with a warm temperature (not hot, I don't miss the Brazilian hot weather at all).

Today I just want a blue sky to go out and walk close to the river. That's all I want.

If you care...

Hold fast

I had a busy and great weekend. I already wrote here about how important is hardcore in my life. Last weekend we had 3 shows in Ireland for the release of Famine first album. Famine is the best Irish hardcore band and we're proud to release their album with Hurry Up! Records.

For the release shows another band from the HUP family came to Ireland: Locked In, from Italy. It was so good to meet these guys and see them live! They're awesome people and we had a lot of fun together.


The shows were perfect. On Friday the played in Dublin, in a big venue to more than 200 people (this is a lot for a hardcore show). On Saturday we had a party-show at Lee's house and it was unbelievable! Bands playing in the kitchen and friends having fun together. And on Sunday we went to Galway to the last show (I love to be in a van!). We didn't have time to hang out in the city, but it looks like a very beautiful city and I'll come back with more time. One more great show and after we went to Salsa to have the best vegan burrito ever.


For the first show I baked some special vegan cupcakes and I'm proud to say that hardcore kids are, right now, my best customers. Everybody loves the cupcakes and I always sell everything and it's important to me seeing hardcore kids supporting veganism and helping me to spread the word.


Next Sunday it will happen another Famine show, an all ages one, and I'm really excited and already thinking about more special vegan cupcakes.


For now, just want to thank all hardcore kids from Dublin for everything ;o)

Veganize it!

My title today is a reference from one blog that I love to read: Veganize it...Don't criticize it! I really think we can “veganize” basically all recipes. Sometimes it's harder, sometimes it's easier, but it's possible.

It's so amazing when you see a recipe on the Internet or on TV and think about a vegan version for it! This week we decided to try a vegan version of a meal that the British call “bangers and mash”: savory sausages served over mashed potatoes.

Matteo's mother was here with us and we wanted to celebrate the Mother's Day with her (in Brazil and Italy this date is celebrated on the second Sunday of May). I can say that our vegan version was delicious (Matteo did most of the things, I just helped wiht the mashed potatoes).

And this is another easy and fast meal!



Recipe (serves 2/3 people):

Mashed potatoes:

6 small/medium potatoes
3 tablespoon soy milk
salt
vegetable margarine
pepper (optional)

In a 4- to 5-quart pan over high heat, bring 2 quarts water and 1 teaspoon salt to a boil. Add potatoes. Cover and return to a boil, then reduce heat to medium and simmer until potatoes mash easily, 10 to 15 minutes. Drain potatoes, mash them and separate. Add the margarine to another pan and the mashed potatoes. Mix them and start add the milk gradually. Add more margarine if necessary, until potatoes reach desired consistency. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Mushrooms rosé sauce:

100g sliced mushrooms
250g tomato sauce
2 tablespoon soy cream
1 vegetable stock cube
1 teaspoon vegetable oil

This is a super basic sauce. Put the oil on the pan and mushrooms. Let fry for 3 minutes. Add the tomato sauce and the stock cube. Mix for another 2 or 3 min. add the soy cream and mix a little bit more.

Vegan sausages:

5 vegan sausages (we used the Fry's)
1 tablespoon vegetable margarine
1 sliced onion

Put the margarine on a fry pan and let it melt for a while. Add the sliced onion and let fry for 2 or 3 minutes. Add the sausages and fry until is well cooked.

Could not resist

Just saw the Babycakes Viral Video at the blog The Lunchbox Bunch and loved it:

BabyCakes, the Book of Recipes: It's Here (Almost)! from BabyCakes NYC on Vimeo.