PICNIC!!

Kathryn sauteing the spinach!

Today was a day-long preparation of food with a capstone picnic to celebrate food and friends. Amazingly, the meal was entirely veggie/vegan and mostly gluten-free!! This is going to be a post that is more than just about food. It will be about the people and the events.

A couple of friends and I gathered to start cooking for the picnic around eleven. The two lovely ladies with whom I cooked are both pescatarians and one just recently went dairy-free! Yay, right?! She feels light like a feather and I'm soo proud. Anyway, we started out cooking a vegan spinach white bean dip. It is by far one of my favorite hummus-esque dips. The recipe can be found here. It's so simple. Just some sauteed spinach and garlic, then thrown in a blender with some white beans, oil, salt, pepper and lemon juice. It is so tasty with some toasted bread, pita, chips, anything!

Looking in the bulk section for pine nuts...super excited!! 

We were going to make a pesto for the sauce on a pizza. Unfortunately, we ran out of spinach for the pesto and we did not have any pine nuts. So, we made a field trip to our local co-op, the Merc. We got some organic, local spinach. It was extremely beautiful. We also picked up some soy cheese. But what we were really looking for were the pine nut. I looked all over the bulk section. For some reason I just expected them to be in bulk; however, I forgot they are extremely expensive. So, after looking around all over the place, we found them wrapped individually on some shelf in about quarter-cup packages. Perfect amount actually. So, we had our field trip and it was back to the apartment to make the pesto! When we got back we started to add all of the ingredients into the blender. I normally use a food processor, but Kathryn did not have one. Well, come to find out, the blinder is not the best way to go about making pesto. In an attempt to get the pesto to process, Kathryn stuck a bamboo spoon in the blender to push down the ingredients. Not the best idea. Before you know it, we had bamboo splinter pesto. But it was alright!! :) We were able to go back to my apartment and use a food processor and use the 5 lb bag of FREE pine nuts that I had in my freezer. The pesto turned out perfectly.

So, back at my apartment we assembled the rest of the dishes. We made the pesto and assembled the pizza and it turned out delicious! It had soy cheese, pesto, tomatoes, artichoke hearts and mushrooms. It was delicious (picture left). I also made some chinese tofu croquettes with homemade sweet and sour sauce (picture right). It was really good. I was surprised. A friend of mine at the picnic compared it to a baked pakora. And I could definitely see that. It was loaded with carrots, scallions, mushrooms and green bell peppers. The sweet and sour sauce had pineapple juice, agave, apple cider vinegar, garlic and cornstarch. I wanted a dessert and to use my new caradmom that a friend gave me. So I made some vegan, gluten-free almond cardamom cookies. They were really good! I was a tad shocked. 

So, we went to picnic with food in-tow. It was a beautiful park and everyone brought delicious food and drinks. In total, I had the bean dip, pizza, croquettes, spinach-strawberry salad, and cookie with a some sangria. The sangria was beautiful and was provided by Sarah. It was equally as tasty. She has a knack for wine drinks. After a delicious meal and great conversation, we went to a landmark fountain on our university campus and had a blast. 

To be honest, today was an awesome day. It was full of food and friends. I could never ask for anything more. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I was able to express myself in so many different avenues. I love all of my friends! And you're all great veggie cooks too! I have probably never said this, but I really appreciate all of your valiant attempts to make all your meals vegan even if you aren't. It really means a lot, I never even had to ask. And everyone knows I don't expect vegan food but you guys still do it out of the kindness of your hearts! I will always remember and cherish these times.

This vegan loves you all! This was the story of a day in a foodie vegan's life. These were the meals the satisfied la lengua de un vegan.