Meat is For Pussies - the book

I already posted here the first promo videos of John Joseph's new book, Meat is For Pussies, and the release will be on April 15th. Here's the new video:

John Joseph "Meat Is For Pussies" - dropping on April 15th, 2010 from Polygraph Productions on Vimeo.

Well, I'm a huge fan of him and I got in touch with him a couple of months ago and got an interview about the book for my paper zine, Ouspoken. I've been writing and editing this zine in Brazil since 1998 and now it will have its first edition also in English and I couldn't be more excited! I need to find some free time to finish the last details and print it, but it's almost done :)

PS. I am not an organized person, it was hard for me to admit it, but it's true. So, I missed the celebration of the 1st year anniversary of this blog (that was in fact in August of 2009). But I decided to celebrate now, 8 months later and I'm preparing my first give away!

Comfort food + work + sun + friends

Today is St. Patrick's Day. I'm not Irish, I don't work for an Irish company, so it's a regular day for me (and also for Matteo that works for an US company). Last year we went to town to see the parade because it was our first year in Dublin. It was hard to see because of the amount of people but it was OK. I don't think I would be so much into this kind of celebrations anywhere, I wasn't even in Brazil. But there are people that love it and there are people that hate it. And there are tons of people that just use the day to drink. Not my thing at all too. So, I'm at home, working and excited because I'll see one of my best friends tomorrow. She's coming with her boyfriend to spend 4 days and it will be amazing to have her around.

I'm still not cooking much because of the journalist free lance job I'm doing, but me and Matteo are having some good meals. Most of them involving comfort food. It's so good to have things that make you think about good memories, mainly when you are so far from home. Last week I did the vegan omelet with spinach. I remember that when I was young this was the only way my mother found to make me and my brother (and even herself) eat spinach. I wish she could see this! It was so good. And we are cooking many meals with the white rice + beans. And it's cool to see how they became a comfort food also to Matteo. It is his favourite Brazilian combo. I baked the first vegan chocolate birthday cake yesterday for an order and I have some cupcakes order for April already. Hope I will find the time to make everything.



I'm pretty excited about the spring too! Can't wait for the flowers, the picnics and the running in the park.

It's so good to have flowers in the house and to see the sun outside

My (vegan) Mushroom Wellington

How perfect is to arrive at home after 3 hours of class and see this?

I'm being busy the last days and I'll be like that for at least the next 2 months. And I think that this sucks is very good! I just wanted to have more time to write here, but I can't complain. So I won't promise to write as much as I can, but I will do my best to keep posting.

Since I had the first Mushroom Wellington at Juice, I've being thinking about how they cook it. Of course I didn't get the recipe and I still like to go there to eat it, but some weeks ago I tried my own version of the dish and it was really good.

Recipe (to make 2)

Ingredients:
1 rectangular puff pastry
250g chopped mushroom
200g chopped tofu
1 vegetable stock cube (optional)
1 chopped onion
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 (or 3) tablespoon shoyo
herbs

Pre-heat the oven (220ºC). Put the oil in a pan and heat it for a minute. Add the chopped onion (and garlic if you want) and let if fry until it turns gold. Add the chopped mushrooms and tofu and let them fry for 2 or 3 minutes. Add the shoyo and the stock cube and the herbs fry everything for another 3 or 4 minutes. The most important thing here is to make sure that the tofu is soaking the shoyo and the herbs. Cut the puffy pastry in the middle, making two small rectangles. Put the two slices in a nonstick tray. Add half of the mushroom and tofu mix in the middle of one puffy pastry slice and make the same with the other half. Close them and use the fork to make sure the that the edges are really well closed. Put the tray in the oven for 20/25 minutes.


I served my vegan Mushroom Wellington with white rice, black beans and tomatoes and let a little bit of the mix to decorate the plates.

Vegan vanilla with peanut butter cupcakes
that I baked for an order last week

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Receita do VEGAN MUSHROOM WELLINGTON em PORTUGUÊS:

Originalmente, o Beef Wellington é um prato à base de carne muito popular no Reino Unido. Aqui em Dublin, o restaurante vegetariano Juice faz uma versão vegana do prato, usando cogumelos e tofu. Resolvi fazer a minha versão dele e aqui está a receita, que faz dois:

Ingredientes:

1 massa folheada retangular (aqui é fácil achar a massa vegana pronta para comprar)
250g de cogumelos fatiados
200g de tofu cortado em quadradinhos
1 cubo de caldo de legumes (opcional)
1 cebola fatiada (ou, caso prefira, bem picadinha)
1 colher de sopa de azeite
2 (ou 3) colheres de sopa de shoyo
Tempero a gosto (eu uso sempre salsa e pimenta)

Aqueça o forno (220ºC). Coloque em uma frigideira o azeite e deixe esquentar por 1 minuto. Acrescente a cebola (e também alho, se você desejar) e deixe fritar até que ela fique dourada. Adicione os cogumelos e o tofu e deixe fritar por 2 ou 3 minutos. Adicione o shoyo e o caldo de legumes e deixe fritar, mexendo de vez em quando, por outros 3 ou 4 minutos. O mais importante aqui é fazer com que o tofu pegue o tempero, principalmente do shoyo. Parta a massa folheada no meio, em duas partes. Coloque-as em uma forma (ou tabuleiro) não aderente. Adicione metade do recheio em cada uma delas e feche a massa. Use um garfo para fechar bem as bordas. Leve ao forno por 20/25 minutos. Eu servi o meu Wellington com uma combinação bem brasileira de arroz, feijão e salada de tomate!

The vegan cupcakes are back!

If it is your first visit to my blog, you don't know that I started baking vegan cupcakes in Dublin last year. Since then I have been receiving some orders and I love to do this. But after we moved to the house, we couldn't figure out how the oven works until two weeks ago. And I wasn't baking. But now I can get back on taking the orders :D

If you want to see some of the Sweet cupcakes and cakes, just click here. Everything there is vegan.

All about ... Cornucopia

It's a beautiful and sunny morning in the first day of March and I really love this weather: cold and sunny. Most of the people that live in Europe love the summer and are always waiting for some hot days. But I come from a hot (really hot) city and I don't miss those melting days at all. I love the spring and I'm sure I will have another great one here in Dublin.

Last Saturday I went to town alone because Matteo was playing. I'm not used to making things alone but it was pretty good. I bought some stuff and decided to have lunch at Cornucopia. I really can't explain exactly why we haven't been there yet after more than 1 year living in Dublin... But it always time to start doing things that we never did before!

Cornucopia is a vegetarian restaurant located in the heart of Dublin city center. And it's always full. Now I can understand the reason: the food is great, the staff is kind and the place is nice. I didn't know about the options I had, so I asked a lot of food and dessert. I was excited because they have a lot of vegan options and I knew I should try their vegan cheese cake (my dear French friend Aurelia had told me about that when we were together in London and she couldn't believe that we had never gone there!). I had a noodle spaghetti with vegetables, couscous and bean salad. And a big slice of a blueberry cheese cake. All with an organic cola. Yes, I spent a lot too, but it was worth it.


It is really good to know all the options we have to eat around and I just added Cornucopia to my small vegan list.