Things I Love Thursday: Vegan Mofo Edition 3

Three weeks of Vegan Mofo already? Kind of, at the very least it’s the third Thursday of the month and my third time trying to do a round up of all my favourite posts from the week. A bit of a complication with veganmofo this month (cue my excuses) is that we are in the USA for ExpoEast this weekend, & spent yesterday in Washington, DC walking around to every museum we could find (beware: there are a lot of museums in DC).

Lately, I feel extra terrible at blogging when I’m not at home. And I`ve only recently figured out the reason. It’s the keyboard. I really love my desk top keyboard. It’s a relatively heavy, clicky, Razer mechanical keyboard made for gaming, so for me, every keystroke is really satisfying. It feels good to type. And I’m not alone in this love for mechanical keyboards, there is even a whole subreddit dedicated to it, and this life hacker article is a great intro to why someone might prefer such a keyboard.

The more I’m away from home, the more I realize just how much I miss my green keyboard monster. Soon though, soon we will be reunited, and that’s good. Because I have a lot more travel posts to write, and a whole bunch of work to do.

I also just want to say – I love Washington DC. I love the Smithsonian Institution museums and galleries. I love them even more, because I can go to any or all of them for free, which means I can be gentle on myself and not feel like I have to consume the entire museum or gallery in one visit. I can savor the history and art gently. I can sleep and still enjoy. Of course, that said… we still quite literally walked for 15 hours yesterday. So I can be gentle on myself… but that doesn’t mean I am.

Anyway, we followed up the day of 15 hours of walking, with about 8 hours of walking around ExpoEast today. And I don’t care what people say about wearing vibrams outside of the gym, they made my feet feel so much better today. So I love those too darn it.

On with the Vegan MoFo goodness.

First of all – Samosa Soup from Yup it`s Vegan.

What brilliant magic is this? Get out of my dreams, and into my kitchen samosa soup. I have a bag of potatoes waiting for me at home, waiting to be part of this soup. I’m imagining pairing this with some onion paratha.

Pickled Jalapenos from Vegan Food Nerd.
I love spice. I love jalapenos. I’m culturally obligated (and delighted) to eat anything pickled. Obviously, this recipe and process is right up my alley.

Also, on the jalapeno front there is this Jalapeno Ginger Mango Green smoothie from Super Strength Health

Banoffee Pie from Veg Hot Pot.

I don’t know who first got me thinking about banoffee pie, but when I saw this it just jumped out at me, and maybe I can convince someone to make it for me… even if that someone is yours truly.

It’s fall, and pumpkins have appeared in grocery stores and farmers markets around Toronto. Driving down to DC we saw roadside stands filled with pie pumpkins and carving pumpkins. I also have both of those waiting for me at home, perhaps they will be turned into a tasty Pumpkin Peanut Curry from My Darling Vegan.

My pal Good Good Things, posted a Cold Brew coffee how to recently, and I agree with her process 100%, including the use of a mason jar (which also makes it super easy to filter later.)

Vegan Sweet and Simple posted a few pictures from Poland, and talked about Warsaw’s growing vegan movement, which was exciting enough (my parent’s seemed pleasantly surprised by the vegan options on their most recent visit to Poland), but then there also is this great recipe for Polish Sweet Rolls. I can’t remember if I’ve ever eaten them before, but I think they must be “słodkie drożdżówki” and I must have (dear ma: pamiętasz?)

And finally, for now, this butternut pumpkin layer soup from Stairway to Vegan tugs on so many sentimental heartstrings, let me tell you why… Early on in our courtship my sweet JC cooked me up a lovely multicourse meal and one of those courses was a very beautiful roasted butternut squash soup with a cashew cream drizzled on top. Recipe inspired nostalgia. Yum. I love the clear bowl presentation of these too.

There is so much amazing stuff going on for Vegan Mofo and I can’t even come close to reading it all… please feel free to share more favourites!