Hello friends!  Let me wish you an early Happy New Year, because when the ball drops, I will be full of wine, bread, vegetarian lasagna, and cheesecake made by my best friend and I hopefully won’t be anywhere near a computer. Go visit my best friend’s blog, The Tasty Nest and see what she is up to. She is an excellent artist, a wonderful cook, and the best friend a girl could have.

I might not have posted as much as I wanted to but let’s do a review of what I did get up to in 2011:

I was able to give some shout outs to some local businesses that I love:
Just Call Me Cupcake
Fashion Exchange
Liquids and Solids at the Handlebar

I mastered a few dishes that I wanted to master:
Spinach Artichoke Dip
Curried coconut tofu
Vegan cream of mushroom soup

This year also saw us growing our first garden, which included the harvesting of the garlic scapes.

2011 wasn’t my favorite year in my almost 35 years on this planet. I wish I would have blogged more, but sometimes having fun and living life gets in the way of blogging. Also, sometimes depression and lack of inspiration gets in the way of blogging, too. Remember though, even if I am not blogging frequently, I try to update the Pugnacious Vegetarian Facebook page and I encourage you to like my page if you are on Facebook. I love the instant interaction the Facebook page produces.

Now here’s where you come in, dear readers. I know this is a vegetarian cooking blog, but I want to include other things such as my thrift shop finds, craft projects, party planning, decorating ideas, outfit posts, and various other bits and bobs which make me a Pugnacious Vegetarian. I know I have brought this idea up before, but I would really like to at least post once a week in 2012 and I think if I expand my topics, I will be able to try to live up to that goal.

Anyway, you feedback as well as topic suggestions are welcome.

Have a happy New Year, friends and as always, keep cooking. See you in 2012!

Merry Christmas, my friends! I am late, but really, what did you expect?

When I was a kid, my family would always have snacks and open gifts on Christmas Eve. Some of my favorite childhood memories originate in these Christmas Eve celebrations. Because Christmas Eve fell on a Saturday this year, I decided to have a little get together of my own.

I was so excited to plan the menu and everyone liked all of the food too. Here’s what was served

-Squash and roasted parsnip soup with crusty bread

-Two savory pies, tomato and onion and leek and mushroom, both using my mom’s pie crust recipe

-Homemade baked mac and cheese

-Kale salad with walnuts, cranberries, and Gorgonzola

-Cranberry, orange, and walnut relish

-Local goat cheese rolled in chopped cranberries and pecans and served with crackers and figs

-Two homemade pizzas

-Wassail with brandy

-Eggnog with brandy

-Apple Cider

-Buche De Noel

Here a photo of the Buche De Noel, made by a local baker, The Skinny Baker at TnT Bakeshop:

I also bought the fixings for hot cocoa to be served with or without Frangelico, but no one wanted any, so I didn’t make it.  My friends Kari and Aubrey brought some homemade goodies over as well.

Here’s what it all looked like on the table, minus the wasail and the soup which were in crock pots in the kitchen and the pizzas, which were in the oven at the time this photo was taken.

Another angle:

Here’s some gratuitous decoration photos:

Pretty psychedelic Christmas tree, no?  You can also see my newest decoration purchase, glittery icicles.  Those will stay up all winter long, along with the white lights and glittery stars.  I mean heck, winter lasts a long time in upstate New York!  Might as well be glittery all winter.

My tiny Christmas tree and a big bowl of fruit.  Oranges and nuts (in a bowl left of this photo) always remind me of Christmases as a kid.  This little tree was my only tree for a long time until my mom gave us the white tree.

My sister bought me these battery powered star lights.  I need to get more rechargeable batteries so I can use these more often, as I plan to keep these up all winter as well.

Here’s our stairway, complete with white fairy lights, glittery silver stars, and a stocking for everyone in the house, including the seven cats:

Now, here’s one of my favorite decorations:

Although it’s kind of hard to see from this photo, this is my bathroom.  I first decorated our bathroom like this for the Christmas in July party we had over the summer.  See, my bathroom are painted a very, very shocking blue.  When you add a string of blue lights and some homemade paper snowflakes strung on fishing line, you get the illusion of snow falling.  Trust me, it’s a lot cooler in person. I plan on keeping this up all winter.  We had someone walk into our house ones and say our house reminded them of an ice castle and I was so struck by that comparison.  I love it!  It’s  true, considering the blue, blue bathroom, the icy blue walls of the living room, and the icy blue furniture.  The perpetually lit white fairy lights and now the addit9on of the new glittery icicles, really add to the ice castle illusion.

Call me crazy, but I love to decorate the bathroom.  The decorating turns out pretty cool for Halloween too.

There you have it, Christmas at our house.  I hope you enjoyed the tour.  Have a safe and happy holiday season, dear readers.  I will be back tomorrow with a 2011 round up and a question about the blog’s direction for 2012.

Have a great day friends and keep cooking!

For six years now, I have done a photo project that I have lovingly named The October Project.  Since today is rainy and cold, I decided to make soup and use that soup as the first photo for this year’s project.  When I tasted it, I decided that I had to put this soup on the blog for World Vegetarian Day. As I shared on this blog’s Facebook page, I know a lot of my readers aren’t vegetarians or vegans, but perhaps today you could make your day meatless, in honor of World Vegetarian Day? If you have already eaten meat, then how about reserving a day this week to be meatless? Who knows, you just might end up making the switch to the veggie side!

This soup is very easy and tasty. I only took a taste, because it’s cooking away in the crock pot at the moment, but trust me, it’s tasty!

World Vegetarian Day Vegetable Soup

4 cups of vegetable broth
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 red onion chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 small head of red cabbage, sliced into ribbons
1 small green pepper, seeded and chopped
4-5 white potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 can of cannellini beans
1 small can of tomato paste

First, saute the onions and garlic in olive oil, until they are cooked down. When the onions and garlic are cooked, add them and all of the other ingredients to your crock pot and cook on low until the potatoes and carrots are fork tender. If you want to cook this on the stove top, just add all of the ingredients to your soup pot and cook on low for 30 minutes or so, until potatoes and carrots are fork tender.

I think I am going to make some drop biscuits to go along with this soup. I can’t wait to try it.

Have a great day everyone and keep cooking!

My friend Melissa told me about this fantastic restaurant she went to in Lake Placid, Liquids and Solids at the Handlebar. She told me it would be right up my alley, and friends, it was.

Melissa, her husband, and myself all piled into the car to make the trip to Lake Placid. When I first laid eyes on this place I knew I was going to love it. I mean, just look how inviting the place is from the outside.

When you walk in the door, you are greeted with eclectic decor  and a lot of mustaches, including a large one you can pose with, if you would like.  I took it as a good sign that the music coming over the speakers was Devotchka, a favorite of mine.

There is also an ever changing board that details what local products are used. This totally impressed me, because I try to eat local whenever I can and I always appreciate when a restaurant cares enough to do the same. I recognized a few vendors and I will be looking into some of the other sources to use in my home kitchen.

See, I had already done my recon on the menu before we went to the restaurant, so I knew what I was going to eat, but the drink menu proved to be a bit more challenging. I mean, with so many unique cocktails and delicious beers, I had a hard time picking what I wanted to drink. I also knew, I needed to drive later on in the evening, so I needed to be responsible with my choices.

(Note:  Some of the photos are dark, but I didn’t want to be intrusive to my fellow diners by using my flash.)

I was intrigued by the Cilantro Daiquiri and I was almost seduced by the Salad and Gin, but ask any of my friends, I don’t like gin. In the end, I settled on the Balsamic Fizz and I was lucky enough to take a taste of the Smoked Ale and the Creme Brulee Stout.

Clockwise from the top: Smoked Ale,Creme Brulee Stout, Balsamic Fizz

Here’s another shot of my Balsamic Fizz. Yes that is pepper sprinkled on top. Yum!:

When it came time to order, I loved that the menus were clipboards!  I also really liked that the water was poured from reused glass milk bottles.  I am not a big fan of plastic.

Apparently, they offer a different poutine every day and on this day they had a butternut squash poutine.  I am salivating a little as I write this, remembering how delicious it was.  I didn’t finish mine (the serving is generous), so I brought the rest home which made an amazing late night snack.

As for the rest of my meal, I knew that I was going to get some of selections off the sides menu, but I was debating on getting the parsnip soup, which was topped with apple and delicata  squash bruschetta and pickled ginger.  Melissa got that and let me take a bite.  I LOVE PARSNIPS! and I plan on getting this the next time I go.

Off the sides menu, I chose the   I wish I would have ordered the maple baked beans off the small menu, because I think it might be different.  Oh well, there is always next time.

(Clockwise from top:  maple baked beans, fried Brussels sprouts, and spicy pickles.)

I do need to point out though, that the Brussels sprouts are not vegetarian.  I asked the server before hand and was told they were.  Unfortunately, I found out anchovies are a part of the recipe after I inhaled my portion.  I am not angry, just sad that I won’t be able to eat these delicious fried Brussels sprouts again.  They were my favorite thing I ordered/tasted.  However, if you aren’t vegetarian or vegan, I recommend ordering the sprouts, maybe even two portions.  Yes, they are that good.  The next time I go, I am going to ask if I can get them without the anchovies in the mix.  Who knows!  It doesn’t hurt to ask.

We were asked if we wanted dessert, but honestly, I was too full to eat any.  Had I picked one, I would have had a hard time picking one, because they all sounded great.

I highly recommend you make Liquids and Solids at the Handlebar a dining destination.  It’s not that far from Plattsburgh and it is well worth it when you get there.  I already plan on coming back with my husband in November, when we celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary.

Liquids and Solids at the Handlebar is amazing. You have to go there if you love good food and drinks and you like to be surprised by new and exciting flavor combinations, not to mention, it’s not that hard on the wallet either.

Have a great day friends and keep cooking!

I have been craving cream of mushroom soup for the past week or so. I don’t really like the canned kind, because I try to eliminate dairy when I can and I don’t like the consistency of the canned version.

I bought some mushrooms at the grocery store on Saturday, with the full intent to make some sort of cream of mushroom soup, but I didn’t know how I would make it creamy. I had some plain almond milk that I could mix in, but would it really give it the desired creaminess?

Last night it hit me. To make the cream of mushroom soup creamy, I should add unsweetened coconut milk! Unsweetened coconut milk is a pantry staple for me (It should be for you, too! It’s yummy and versatile!).

Don’t be fooled by the photo! There are plenty of mushrooms in this soup although in the photo it appears they are hiding.

Vegan Cream of Mushroom Soup

1 small red onion, diced
1 tablespoon vegan margarine (or butter if you don’t want to make this vegan)
A splash of olive oil
4 cups of chopped mushrooms
1 tablespoon of minced garlic or six cloves of garlic
3 cups vegetable broth
1 can unsweetened coconut milk
2 tablespoons of flour
Salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot, add the onions, garlic, and mushrooms in the margarine and add the splash of olive oil. Cover and cook on low until the onions are translucent and the mushrooms are a nutty brown. (Mushroom notes: I sliced some, diced some, and chopped some to give a the soup some different textures. I also used button, oyster, crimini, and shiitake mushrooms. Locals, Hannafords has a mixed package of mushrooms containing all of these mushrooms, except the button mushrooms, which I purchased separately.)

When the onions, garlic, and mushrooms have cooked down, add the vegetable broth, cover, and cook on low for about 35-40 minutes.

After the 35-40 minutes have passed, stir in the can of unsweetened coconut milk and the flour and add salt and pepper to taste. I used a whisk to make sure the flour wasn’t lumpy. I also was light on the salt and heavy on the fresh ground pepper. Simmer for an additional 10-15 minutes uncovered. Keep an eye on this, stirring from time to time because you don’t want this to scorch.

Because I like things spicy, I also added some crushed red peppers to my serving.

I hope you enjoy this soup. I love it and I think it will be something I make often. It’s so good!

Have a great night everyone and keep cooking!