Copy Cat

I do this all the time.

I go to a restaurant, order a meal, and upon first bite, exclaim: "We could MAKE this!"

I get so excited letting the flavors roll in my mouth, trying to sort out the spices. I examine contents, imagine the method, and make mental notes for later.

A couple recreations include Pearl Street Grill's "Queen City" sandwich: "Portabella mushrooms, caramelized onions, roaster red peppers, provolone, and garlic mayo grilled between wheat berry bread"

My version: Marinated, roasted portabella mushroom cap with sauteed onions and sweet peppers in between toasted wheat berry bread.

That one took a while to make with the mushroom cap and all, but it was worth it.

Another favorite I love to re-create is Merge's "Smothered sweet potato fries" with "spiced lentils, spinach and daiya cheese"

Their fries are crispy on the outside, yet soft on the inside. The lentils are curry spiced and the vegan cheese lends the perfect salty touch.

My version: Spiced, baked sweet potato wedges with curried lentils and wilted spinach. Homemade vegan cashew cheese to top.

Cashew cheese?!?!? Why, yes, it is.

And it's delicious.

And it's super easy.

And it's healthier for you then dairy cheese.

This cashew cheese is creamy and chewy at the same time. It has just the right amount of salt and "cheesy" flavor. I always use it atop my version of Merge's smothered sweet potato fries, but it's also an awesome dip for pretzels, a great spread for crackers and crostini, and (while I haven't tried it yet) I bet it would make a killer grilled cheese.

Cashew Cheese

You'll need:

2 cups cashews

1/4 cup water

2 T nutritional yeast

2 t lemon juice

1 t garlic powder

Dash of sea salt

Dash of pepper

To make:

1. Soak cashews for 2 hours

2. Drain cashews and throw in food processor with all other ingredients.

3. Combine until smooth, scraping the sides occasionally.

4. Store in air tight container, in fridge, for up to 5 days.



New Growth: Buffalo Style Part 2

Which of these things is not like the other? Mold. Rats. Homeless people. $20 salmon dinner.

One year ago, the first three items were easily synonymous with Buffalo's historic Lafayette hotel; it was rotting and crumbling in streets. Jon and I would walk past the structure every day on our lunch break and wonder what it used to look like when it was in full operation.

The hotel was built with the intention of being ready in time for the Pan American exposition in 1901, however, it was not completed until 1904. Nonetheless, it bustled with visitors and gained huge recognition.

The Lafayette hotel boasted hot and cold water in all bathrooms, a phone in every room, and in it's heyday, was considered to be one of the finest hotels in the country. There were bars made from oak, a crystal chandelier in the ballroom, and skylights - in the early 20th century, this was a huge deal. The Lafayette hotel oozed luxury and swank.

When Buffalo's industry began to decline and people stopped coming to the city, the Lafayette slowly stopped making money and the owners of the hotel (who did not live in Buffalo) kind of 'tucked the building under the rug' and left it to the elements.

There it sat for years, taking abuse from the weather and vagrants. The brick was left to crumble and the windows were shattered and broken. It wasn't until Rocco Termini (a well-known developer in Buffalo) purchased the hotel and set on a $35 million "rehabilitation project" to restore the building to it's former glory.

Jon and I have watched the local contractors transform the exterior of the hotel over the past year and marveled at their speedy, yet intricate work. We could only imagine the kind of magic they were working inside.

Well, Friday we were strolling past the hotel on lunch when I noticed there were people inside the restaurant portion of the first floor...and they were not contractors...they were regular people...and they were sitting...eating lunch! I was curious, so I dragged Jon across the street and poked my head in the open door. A waiter stood in the entrance and invited us inside.

"I was just curious." I told the waiter.

"Come on in! We're having a soft opening for lunch...it's free." He said to me and Jon. We had just bought lunch from a nearby place and our lunch time was nearly up.

"We have to go back to work." I said with disappointment still straining to sneak a peek at the interior.

"Well, we're having a free dinner tomorrow night." He offered in consolation. I looked at Jon wide-eyed with hope and he agreed it sounded like a cool idea. We made reservations.

Dinner was in the Pan American dining room, and we had complete free range of their menu. Over and over, we marvled this was actually happening: A completely free dinner, whatever we wanted, how much ever we wanted, no strings attached.

We were excited to say the least.

We started with the scallop cakes. They were tasty, but had a tad too much bredding for my liking. The spicy sauce drizzled on top was great, though, and really pulled together the flavors.

For the main course, we both ended up getting the same dish: Alaskan salmon with wild rice pilaf and asparagus.

The portions were delightfully monstorus. The salmon had a smokey BBQ-type sauce on top and it was cooked to prefection - flavorful and juicy without being over-saturated in butter and oil (like salmon dishes so often are).

I wanted to finish my portion, but I knew there was dessert ahead and I should save some room. Boy, was I glad that I did . . .

I got the peanut butter pie (first dessert) and Jon got the Snickerbocker pie (seccond dessert). We devoured both in minutes. . .making sure no chocolate drizzle was left behind.

Afterwards, we settled our bellies by snooping around the hotel exploring the rest of the building.

Obviously, they're still putting the finishing touches on the rest of the building, but it's shaping up nicely.

We even went snooping in the flower shop and the owner gave me a tye-dye rose! I always wanted one, too!

It was a great night, not just because it was all free, but because Jon and I got to experience this historic structure and indulge in our wonder of the city's past.

If you're in the area, I definitely recommend looking up a little history and visiting the newly restored Lafayette Hotel.

Capable.

Well, I did it.

13.1 miles.

My first half marathon is complete, I am still alive, and it feels awesome.

Here's a recap of the events:

With the race beginning at 7 a.m. Sunday morning, I was aiming to get to bed around 10:30 - 11 p.m. Saturday to ensure at least 7 solid hours of sleep (since I planned on waking up at 5 a.m.)

That did not happen.

My nerves were working and bed time didn't end up happening until about 1 a.m. Probably not the best idea to only get 4 hours of sleep before your first half marathon, but, oh well, that's the way it happened.

I woke up at 5 a.m., made a cup of coffee, ate a banana, checked the weather forecast, and worked on waking up.

There was a chance of rain for the time I'd be running, but it was supposed to roughly 70 degrees.

I decided to go with the purple seamless tank. I figured it was going to be a little warmer and I was going to get pretty hot and sweaty...seemed like a good choice.

Jon drove me downtown and dropped me off near the start. There were so many people...and I thought the Turkey Trot was a big deal - psshh.

 I found a spot near the 2:10 half marathon pacer and waited in the crowd to hear the start gun. All around me people talked and joked about the amount of miles they were about to run...some nervous, some enthusiastic. I tried to stay calm and focused.

Shoes tied? Check.
iPod play list queued up? Check.

Last bathroom break taken care of? Check...besides, there was no turning back now and the lines for the horrific port-o-potties were way to long.

When the gun sounded, I was off.
The route this year was a little different than years before. It took us along the waterfront and into the old industrial section of the city that I talked about in my last post. I actually ran on some of the same path that I had biked on a couple weeks ago!

For the first 7 miles, I didn't even think about running, I just listened to my music, kept pace with the pacer, and enjoyed the scenery. It was cool and partly couldy; the rain was holding up - perfect weather.

It wasn't until around the 10 mile mark that I began to feel a little uncomfortable. Up to that day, the most I had ever run was 9.5 miles (my sickness earlier in the month prevented me from completely finishing my training.) I decided to break from the pacer, begin to speed walk when I needed a break, and start stopping at the water stations for a few seconds to recooperate. It also didn't help that little hills were popping up around the 11-12 mile markers.

Every time I saw a hill approaching, I'd keep my head forward, fall back into my music and push. I just had to be sure I never got to to the point where I felt dizzy or sick. There is no point in doing something if it's going to make you feel bad pain.

It really started getting rough around mile 12. I wanted to stop so many times and walk but every time I thought about doing it, I told myself, "You can do this. keep going."

Once I saw the finish line in the distance, I found a good song in my play list and booked it. I sprinted to the finish. I figured at that point, I better go balls out.

My first half marathon finish time was 2:08:25 with an average 9:48 mile.
Not too shabby.That was right where I'd hoped I'd be.

My family and Jon were there to meet me at the finish and congratulate me. They were so proud; I was so proud...it one of my proudest moments. Months of preparation and dedication for this one moment and I did what I set out to do.

Jon took me to get a fresh vegan breakfast burrito at our co-op (which I devoured) and then he drove us home...at which point I crashed and slept for 4 hours.

Haha.

Between only getting 4 hours of sleep and then running 13.1 miles, my body needed to shut down and charge up for a bit.

Later that night, Jon took me to a new restaurant/bar that opened up in the harbor downtown called Liberty Hound.

It was a smaller place with a sort of colonial/old port feel.

Their glasses had pin-up girls on them, which i LOVED. Pin-up girls are one of my favorite things.

After a couple drinks, we took a quick look at war ships in the harbor and then headed on over to Pearl Street Grill and brewery for some celebratory food.

It was quite the day.

I'm still kind of reeling from the whole thing. The half marathon just proved to me that I was indeed capable of things I never thought I could do. Just 7 months ago, if you told me I'd be running 13.1 miles and completeing it in my goal time, I would have laughed out loud. This experience makes me want to push harder and be better than I was just 3 days ago.

Jon and my family were such a core element to my involvement in this, too. They rooted for me the whole way, always interested in my progress and giving me encouragement the whole way through. Without them behind me, I woudn't have the courage to do any of this.

We are all capable of amazing things, we just have to believe we are and then...make it happen.

New Growth...Buffalo Style

This past weekend in Buffalo, NY set some record temperatures
The stats for May 20th (according to weather underground) are:Temp. (°F) high avg low
 May 20th    89    74    59

The high on Sunday was 89 degrees, so we broke the existing record and set a new one!
People were out and about. I saw countless kayaks strapped atop car roofs, people were riding their bikes like there was no tomorrow, and I even saw some pools being opened for the season (before Memorial day!)
Jon and I decided to get outside and play, too. We went to Buffalo's Outer Harbor and took our bikes.

This part of town used to be extremely busy and productive in its true hay day (roughly the late 1800s - early 1900s.) The Outer Harbor was a series of slips where boats and ships would dock to unload their goods, to then be loaded onto rail cars that waited near the shore. The trains would then take these goods all across the country.

There were factories and mills set up all along the water to take in the raw materials as soon as they came off the boats.

                                     Source: http://wnyheritagepress.org/index.htm

The Canadian Pool Elevator (pictured above) was a factory that took in grains from ships, sorted and transported it by rail to all parts of the country.
According to wnyheritagepress.org, the Canadian Pool Elevator "was constructed by a co-operative of Canadian farmers whose goal was the achieve fair prices for their grain." This factory did very well - "in May 1926 it set a record by unloading 372,000 bushels in eleven hours while simultaneously loading 164,000 bushels into rail cars (the 4 tracks seen above)."

Here's the same building as I saw it on May 20, 2012:

This building has long been out of commission, but the history behind it is amazing. It basically became obsolete once the St. Lawrence Seaway was opened for commercial transport. Products could be taken to their direct locations instead of having to be brought to Buffalo . . . and that was the beginning of our demise. Soon after companies stopped shipping to Buffalo, factories and mills struggled, people lost their jobs, and times got tough.

Nowadays, however, the city has been working to restore and preserve these historic treasures and the areas where they were placed.

They're making bike paths, nature preserves, they're cleaning up the beaches and making it a clean, safe place to take your family or a date for a nice walk by the water side.

I can see the Outer Harbor becoming really popular once word gets out. It's just minutes away from the heart of the city.

There is even a little restaurant on the water - Dug's Dive.

It was a pretty modest place with a few creepy nautical decorations...

I got their house-made veggie burger, Jon got the Fresh Haddock sandwich, and we both got a side-order of their sweet potato fries. The portions were plentiful and we went home stuffed (sorry, no pictures, we were famished and completely forgot.)

I'm looking forward to spending more time down here this summer...if you're in the area, I recommend you check it out, too!

Good Day, Bad Cake.

My little sister graduated yesterday from The University at Buffalo with a double major in English and Environmental Sciences.

Her graduation was on Mother's Day, just like mine was 4 years ago...from the same place, with the same major! (Well...just English...she went the extra mile and tacked on Environmental Science.)

The ceremony was about 2.5 hours long. There were a lot of kids to get through; and this was only the College of Arts and Sciences!

Their speaker was New York Senator Charles Schumer. He gave a nice, short, sweet speech that I actually think was very similar to the one he gave at my graduation 4 years ago. He talked about growing up, taking risks, reaching higher, and "going for it."

Kay and Me

Our family

Kay and her boyfriend

The graduate!

So, I mentioned in a past post that I bought a Wilton cake decoration kit. I wanted to make a cake to celebrate Kayla's graduation, and I thought this was the perfect opportunity to break it out and give it a go.

I made two 8'' round cakes the night before. I took the recipe from the same book that I used to make my chocolate cake with coffee butter cream frosting, however, the recipe called for all-purpose flour...all I had was Bob's Red Mill stone-ground whole wheat flour.

While I cooked with that flour a few times before, it was mostly for pancakes and biscuit-type cookies - not cake. But, it was all I had and I needed to make the cakes the night before to ensure they had proper time to cool before frosting. So, I used the stone-ground whole wheat flour.

I will never, ever do that again.

I first knew something was wrong when it came out of the oven. The cakes smelled slightly...play dough-y. Yeah...not good. Nonetheless, I let them cool and planned on using them for the cake.

I woke up Sunday morning at 6:30 a.m. to prepare the frosting and the piping tubes. This was my first time playing with frosting tips and bags, so I wanted to be sure I had some wiggle room before I had to start getting ready to head out for the graduation.

I stacked up the two cakes with a layer of frosting in the middle and went to town on the decorating.

I only used two tips (a star tip and a #3) to keep it simple for my first try. I was pretty happy with how it turned out, given it was my very first time. After decorating, I packed up the cake and headed off to watch the ceremony.

When it finally came time to eat the cake, Kayla cut into it and as soon as we removed the first slice, it smelled like fresh...play dough.

We put slices on the plates, took our first bites, and it tasted like fresh...play dough.

Well, shoot.
That didn't work out as well as I hoped it would.

The only good thing about the whole darn cake was the frosting. The stone-ground whole wheat flour was DEFINITELY not made for cakes.

I will never be making that mistake again.

 

Kayla was a champ, though. She pretended to like it.

It's okay, we're getting together next weekend for dinner and I promised I would redeem myself with a TASTY treat.

So, no recipe, but I thought you'd get a kick out of my little story. Hey, you can't win them all.

Have you ever had a baking/cooking disaster and had no choice but to serve it? Did it turn out horrible, or is it something you laugh about today?