Archive for June, 2009

You’re Invited

06.18.09 // Comments:21

cupcakes and raspberries

My blog is turning one in August, and I’m having a party.

Will you come?

Over the last year, you’ve sent me awfully nice e-mails, telling me something about why you like this site or giving me the recipe for a similar dish or asking for clarification on something. I really like the notes about how your cookies looked when they came out of the oven, all puffed and golden, and especially the ones about how something you read here got you to think about things—even ones having nothing to do with food—in a new way.

So I was thinking, for the one-year anniversary of Food Loves Writing, why not have a real-life party? There will be cake and there will be cookies, August 8, at a park in the Chicago suburbs:

gilbert park

Maybe all who comes will be me, the two friends who’ve already promised to appear, and no one else. If so, we’ll eat a lot, and that will be lovely. But if any of the rest of you come, too, well, I hope you know how much I’ll love to meet you.

coconut cupcakes

Maybe we could have a cookie-decorating contest? Or a frost-your-own-cupcakes table? In that case, we should really have these: coconut cupcakes, as seen at Everybody Likes Sandwiches. They’re good (and, bonus: vegan! which seems to be the theme this week).

These are the exact opposite of my droopy gray coconut cake—the one I botched by grabbing coconut flavoring instead of extract? They’re moist and sweet, with flecks of coconut throughout. They’d have been wonderful with coconut frosting, too, but, well, did you know you can over-beat whipping cream? Let’s just say lesson learned, and, um, these aren’t half bad with spoonfuls of raspberries on the side.

vegan coconut cupcakes

Anyway, back to the party.

I really don’t have much nailed down but the location and time: August 8, between 7 and 8:30 PM, at a gorgeous pavilion walking distance from downtown Downers Grove.

I’ve made a Facebook invite for the event (you have to log in to see it), and, if you’re able, I hope you’ll R.S.V.P. there. I’d love to see you, hear your story and share a glass of lemonade.
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Comments:21 Click here to comment! Categories: before the 2009 diet change

Give Me a Big Scoop

06.16.09 // Comments:19

chocolate ice cream VEGAN STYLE

Here is the ugly truth: When I eat too much ice cream, I get sick.

But I love ice cream.

vanilla ice cream VEGAN STYLE

Saturday night, at around 10:30 PM, I couldn’t say no to a big, frothy milkshake at Stella’s Diner, orange and vanilla like a Creamsicle. For what it’s worth, it was delicious. And I don’t know if it was the milkshake itself, or the combining of said milkshake with scrambled eggs, two-and-a-half pancakes (not all three because, please, I show some restraint) and a few fries, but I got so sick later, people. Sick enough that all I ate for breakfast the next day was a mushy banana and sick enough that I might not want another milkshake for a very long time.

chocolate ice cream from above

Maybe this sort of thing happens to you, too? I like to think I have an iron stomach, but I don’t, and it’d be nice to know I’m not alone. If I’m really honest with you, I’ll also mention, technically, I have Crohn’s Disease, which is a digestive disorder that requires, among other things, regular medication, annual doctor visits and, this is the worst part, watching what you eat. It’s no big deal, most of the time. Just when I do things like, you know, eat milkshakes late at night, chased by breakfast foods. Also, when I have too much chocolate, too many cookies, very spicy foods and, I swear, the smallest cup of regular coffee. But that’s probably true of most everyone. Right?

vanilla ice cream from above

What I need, you could say, is a way to enjoy foods I love (i.e., ice cream) without fear of churning-stomach consequences. In other words, I need Wheeler’s.

chocolate and vanilla

Have you heard of Wheeler’s? I’d guess if you’re from Boston, you have. That’s where the storefront is, drawing people for healthy ice cream flavors that include everything from coffee to oreo to blueberry to coconut. Made with soy, almond, coconut or rice milks, these creations have 1/3 fewer calories than regular ice cream and are just as creamy, icy and refreshing.

inside of Vegan Scoop

Also, since we we’ve been talking about vegetarianism around here, it seems appropriate to mention that these recipes are 100% vegan, using various milks, arrowroot powder (available in the spices aisle at the grocery store, at least at Whole Foods) and sometimes crazy things like cocoa butter instead of dairy or egg products.

And now, with the arrival of their new cookbook, The Vegan Scoop, we who are not from Boston can try the ice cream, too.
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Comments:19 Click here to comment! Categories: before the 2009 diet change

we will have salad

06.15.09 // Comments:13

summer salad

What you who are not from the Midwest might not know is that Chicago gives us many seasons, in the same week—in the same day—anytime it wants to. Saturday, for example, I spent the gloomy morning at the library, watching dark skies send rain onto waving maple trees and brick houses, but by early evening, the sun was bright and high, the air warm, charcoal breezes around us while we walked to dinner. Later still, the breezes turned cold again, when I pulled on my thickest coat to step onto the street and get in my car.

This has happened before, like when the air turned near-balmy in February or when we had our first snow before Halloween; it will happen again.

So when you visit, please bring a coat and t-shirts, sunscreen and an umbrella. We make no guarantees. All you can really be sure of is that we’ll be here, smiling, ready for whatever comes next, with bare trees turned to thick green clusters along the highway, spindly bushes turned to pink and red blossoms in yards, the threat of rain in the eastern horizon.

salad on the table

When you come in June, we will have salad—light and refreshing, cool and crunchy. Where winter (or early June sometimes, ahem) is hearty beef stew, summer is salad, even if it’s raining or the air turns cold and there are puddles to our doorway. This isn’t California—you can’t eat our produce year-round—but this is summer after all, and, some say, it’s smarter to eat for the weather you want than the weather you have.

making salad

Sometimes, in fact, when you eat like summer, summer comes. After I made this salad, a combination of greens and fruit and a homemade vinaigrette, we flipped and flopped from hot to cool, but by Sunday afternoon, when I met Jacqui for lunch at one my favorite places, it just so happened that the weather was absolutely perfect, and, even with temps predicted to drop below 50 in the evenings, I’ve heard most of this week will be hot and dry, sunshine everywhere. It’s summer, people. This is salad weather.

bowl of summer salad
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