All Photos © Christine Elise McCarthy 2019
To see images of my past posts & get links to the recipes – look on my Pinterest board – HERE.
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All my posts now have a VERY customizable PRINT & PDF option. Create a PDF & save the recipe to your computer or print it out. It offers a “remove images” option & you can delete any part of the post you do not need before printing. The button is below by the Twitter & Facebook links.
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Click the image to watch the video.
All Photos © Christine Elise McCarthy 2019
To see images of my past posts & get links to the recipes – look on my Pinterest board – HERE.
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All my posts now have a VERY customizable PRINT & PDF option. Create a PDF & save the recipe to your computer or print it out. It offers a “remove images” option & you can delete any part of the post you do not need before printing. The button is below by the Twitter & Facebook links.
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Click the image above to watch the video.
All Photos © Christine Elise McCarthy 2019
To see images of my past posts & get links to the recipes – look on my Pinterest board – HERE.
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All my posts now have a VERY customizable PRINT & PDF option. Create a PDF & save the recipe to your computer or print it out. It offers a “remove images” option & you can delete any part of the post you do not need before printing. The button is below by the Twitter & Facebook links.
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Click the video above to watch the video.
Once again, for the 4th time in ten years, my home is plunged into grief by the sudden loss of a family member. Yesterday, I lost one of the best friends I have ever had in my life – my sweetest, sweet boy, Levi Dexter Gordon. My Dexter. He came into my life a little under 13 years ago – to help me recover from the devastating loss of my pug, Dempsey. Dexter started & ended his life very frail. He was a very sick puppy but, together, we got him right & robust & as muscular as you would expect a Frenchie to be. He cuddled my then senior pit mix, the very cantankerous Girl Friday, from behind so she could not bite him & he was there to comfort me when we lost her. In his prime, he was an only dog, and he was a huge personality – uber-protective of me, playfully tearing the pants at the ankle of many of my guests, unapologetically trying to bite anyone who dared approach me if he was in my lap & terrorizing veterinarians. Together, we drove to Michigan in the winter of 2007/8. He was my companion & comfort during my brutal month there & then spent 3 cold, winter months in Boston with me. He crossed country with me in a car twice. When Sarah MacLaughlin ads guilted me into adopting another dog – I took in twin pugs, Ella & Grisbi. I was afraid he would be jealous & unaccepting but he adored them both immediately. He was there for me when 11-month-old Ella died of a bee sting. When I adopted TEENY Moxie – he was wise & gentle enough to let Grisbi cuddle her until she was resilient enough to handle his enormous energy & enthusiasm. He was there for me when Grisbi died suddenly at the age of three. He welcomed Memphis as family immediately and gave him long & loving ear & face baths. He was there for me when we lost Memphis, suddenly. He graciously welcomed competing Frenchie, Hayden, into our home & even seemed to grow younger in the presence of her youthful enthusiasm. As important as his generosity was to the dogs I adopted into the family without consulting him – the generosity of his soul in accepting & nurturing about 15 foster dogs I have taken in and adopted out over the years was of equal impact. I could never have been a part of Road Dogs & saving doggy lives – if Dexter had not been so totally on board.
Just over 5 years ago, Dexter was diagnosed with an untreatable pinched nerve in his back which left him increasingly lame and, eventually, incontinent. My home became a labyrinth of yoga mats & rugs for traction for him & my bed was a patchwork of waterproof blankets – so he could still sleep with us each night. He handled his failing health with dignity & courage & forgave me every time I got frustrated with what felt like a life of endlessly cleaning pee & poo. I am so incredibly ashamed of ever letting him experience my sometimes frustration with something so out of his control. I am sure he was far more frustrated than I. But – he was a king among dogs & I know he understood.
Dexter was the man in my life for the last 13 years. He was my friend, my confidant, and my protector. I feel anchorless in his absence. Truly. Despite his frailty, he was all heart & bravado until his last days.
Dexter – I love you even more than you loved me. I still see you everywhere and it will take a long time for me to forget the routines that were ours. I miss your love of fashion & your pride in wearing any outfit. I miss you barking in impatience if I left you downstairs & the steps were too much for you. I miss carrying you around and looking at your face as I did so – seeing the total trust there & the blind acceptance of whatever it was I was carrying you toward. I miss your wonky, wobbly run toward me whenever I knelt on the floor & called you to me. I miss the slow & deliberate placement of your stinky kisses on my face. I miss your snoring. I miss how it feels to see you looking back at me. I miss all that trust & faith & love – directed at me. I thought we had more time. I knew it would not be enough time – but I thought we had more – measured in years – if we were lucky.
That is not what happened. You decided it was time & all I can do is accept that. You went in your sleep, on a freshly cleaned bed in a new outfit from your grandmother, Gail. And you decided to go while I was not here. I am torn about that but this was your choice.
Know I loved you completely – from the moment I saw you. I went to the breeder (first & last breeder visit of my life) meaning to choose a cream boy Frenchie from a litter of 5 cream pups & one brindle. I went home with the brindle – the boy with the biggest ears I had ever seen & the giant tummy. I was nervous because I understood the responsibility you represented – but it is a responsibility I am forever grateful to have taken on.
I loved you then & I love you more now. You are one of the very best things that ever happened to me. I am honored to have been your friend. So are all the dogs here and elsewhere who had the great opportunity to know you. None of us here could possibly have loved you more than we do. You were our patriarch.
RIP, Dexter – my baby, my boy, my man. I will forever love you as much as you loved me – times infinity. xoxoxoxox
All Photos © Christine Elise McCarthy 2018
To see images of my past posts & get links to the recipes – look on my Pinterest board – HERE.
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All my posts now have a VERY customizable PRINT & PDF option. Create a PDF & save the recipe to your computer or print it out. It offers a “remove images” option & you can delete any part of the post you do not need before printing. The button is below by the Twitter & Facebook links.
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Click the image above to watch the video.
All Photos © Christine Elise McCarthy 2018
To see images of my past posts & get links to the recipes – look on my Pinterest board – HERE.
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Click the image above to watch the review.
All Photos © Christine Elise McCarthy 2018
To see images of my past posts & get links to the recipes – look on my Pinterest board – HERE.
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Click the image below to watch the video.
All Photos © Christine Elise McCarthy 2018
To see images of my past posts & get links to the recipes – look on my Pinterest board – HERE.
~
All my posts now have a VERY customizable PRINT & PDF option. Create a PDF & save the recipe to your computer or print it out. It offers a “remove images” option & you can delete any part of the post you do not need before printing. The button is below by the Twitter & Facebook links.
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Click the image above to watch as I unpack a bunch of Herbivorous Butcher items & review them. Also – meet BRUCE – my newest foster – rescued from the South Korean dog meat trade.
All Photos © Christine Elise McCarthy 2018
To see images of my past posts & get links to the recipes – look on my Pinterest board – HERE.
~
All my posts now have a VERY customizable PRINT & PDF option. Create a PDF & save the recipe to your computer or print it out. It offers a “remove images” option & you can delete any part of the post you do not need before printing. The button is below by the Twitter & Facebook links.
~
Click the image above to watch the review.
All Photos © Christine Elise McCarthy 2015
To see images of my past posts & get links to the recipes – look on my Pinterest board – HERE.
So – WordPress sent me a list of statistics for my blog and I found it very interesting. The most interesting thing was that my Easy Spicy Southern Chicken Spaghetti (seen above) is – by 500X – THE MOST POPULAR recipe on my blog. To date – it has gotten 312,149 views!!! The next most popular (I will list them all below) is my Spicy Vegan Chinese Eggplant (seen below) with a mere 55,874 views. It is curious that these two reign supreme because both posts involve stories of my house failing me. In the case of the chicken spaghetti, my stove would not heat beyond 200 degrees so I overcooked the fuck out of the dish. Also – because it has meat in it – it is one of the few recipes I have posted that I have never tasted. I made this in an effort to recreate the badass, Miles Miller’s, grandmother’s recipe. I was winging it, ruined it, photographed it very poorly & never tasted it – and it has gotten 300K+ views.
In the case of the eggplant – it was a plumbing failure involving raw sewage & plumbers & money woes. One reader even complained that I including talk of fecal matter in a food blog post – and that is a valid complaint. Still – it remains my number 2 most popular post.
Rounding out the the 5 all-time most popular are my Grown-up Fireball Whiskey Cupcakes (39,053 views), my Margarita Pizza Quesadilla on Homemade Spinach Tortillas (32,574 views), and my ZERO CALORIE ZERO CARB Vegetarian Shirataki Pho (13,138 views) – seen below, respectively.
Another interesting thing is that none of those top 5 were posted in 2015. I am not sure if that is because they have just been up there the longest or if they just struck a chord with folks. I guess time will tell.
I have posted over 700 posts and the blog has gotten 624,455 views by 481,055 visitors – over all. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre, it would take 26 days for everyone to see it. My most popular day was Nov. 8, 2015 with 5819 views – a day that chicken spaghetti got something like 3000 views.
In 2015, the 12 most popular recipes were:
and
The most amazing discovery was that raw egg heals the pain and scarring of terrible burns – almost INSTANTLY.
I probably cooked these most often:
Craziest fake “meat” option:
And I took a lot of photos of food!
And I made a LOT of pizza!
And there you have it. That is my 2015 in food. See you in 2016!!
All Photos © Christine Elise McCarthy 2015 (except some here I took from Vromage’s site)
To see images of my past posts & get links to the recipes – look on my Pinterest board – HERE.
OK – so – I am about 75% vegan – in that I eat vegan about that often or more. I have not had a hard time giving up meat or fish (except for sushi) but the one thing that I still occasionally indulge in is cheese. I have been experimenting extensively with vegan cheeses with mixed results. I reviewed these cheeses below HERE.
NOTE – THIS LISANATTI CHEESE (below) IS NOT VEGAN! IT CONTAINS CASEIN!
And these from Miyoko’s Kitchen.
You can read that blog post for my opinions of those cheeses but if you live in LA and you are vegan – have I got news for you!
Behold! VROMAGE!
(PS – Vromage SHIPS – so you can get it – even if you are not in LA – VROMAGE online store.)
I had long heard there was a vegan cheese store in West Hollywood but I always imagined it on Santa Monica Blvd in an area with heavy traffic & non-existent parking. While I wanted to try the cheeses – I loathed the idea of driving west of La Brea & circling West Hollywood for hours – looking for some non-resident parking.
Then, last Friday, I had a photo session for a 90210 interview. Here I am with the make-up artist, Noa Bolozky, and alone in a selfie in my bedroom afterward. Noa does the MOST beautiful make-up!!!! I will show some images from the session once the article runs.
Anyway – as I looked out the window from the photo studio – I spotted Vromage! It is in the strip mall – a block east of the mall at Sunset & Crescent Heights – the one with a Crunch. It is in that plaza on the left (NOT The Crunch mall) – and it nestled near the elbow of the mall.
So – as soon as I got out of that photo session – I headed directly to Vromage! Noa beat me there & left swinging $70 worth of vegan cheese & a wearing a huge grin. I braced myself for what promised to be a vegan adventure.
My mom & I were greeted by Youssef (seen below – in a photo I took from his site).
Isn’t he cute? He was so excited to let us try his cheeses – it quickly became overwhelming. In a good way! If you look at the second picture from the top – that was the selection he had available that day & we still must have tasted 7-8 cheeses. Once I had that many flavors going on – I lost my ability to keep them straight. I THINK – I left with a mozzarella, a truffle brie, a pepper jack and a Gorgonzola (Veganzolla below).
I added this video so you can see how outrageously creamy & spreadable Vromage’s cheeses are. The truffle brie (the top picture – first in this post) came the closest to matching both taste & texture (as this Gorgonzola was way creamier than real Gorgonzola – but I am not complaining!). The mozzarella – seen center, below – was mild & light & creamy & Youssef advised that, if I was making a pizza, to add this cheese at the very end & just flash-bake it. I did not make a pizza but I will soon & I will report back.
The pepper jack is the yellow cheese with the red on it – not sure what spice(s) that might be but the cheese is peppery & yummy!
Those are kiwi berries, by the way. They are about the size of large grapes & are just like tiny, hairless kiwis. I recommend trying them if you ever come across them.
Youssef also offers sandwiches etc. See below. My mom tried the caprese sandwich & raved!
Because my photos do not do Youssef’s whole situation & products any justice – here are some photos I nabbed from his site.
So – for my money – Vromage has produced the best vegan cheeses I have tried, to date, and by a wide margin. Most will not fool a real cheese eater (though the brie really might) but these guys are SO fucking creamy & bursting with flavor – I think they really hold their own. And if you are a long-time vegan – these cheeses will make you lose your shit. They truly are creamy & decadent & just BEG to be spread on a crusty baguette with some jam or veggies & basil. Treat yourself and run – don’t walk – to Vromage. And be sure to engage with Youssef – the owner. He is kind & accommodating & very proud of his product & will let you sample anything you want.
And remember! Vromage SHIPS – so you can get it – even if you are not in LA – VROMAGE online store. Whatcha waiting for? Get your ass some cruelty-free cheeses!
All Photos © Christine Elise McCarthy 2015
To see images of my past posts & get links to the recipes – look on my Pinterest board – HERE.
OK – let’s talk vegan cheese for a minute. I read somewhere that saying you don’t like vegan cheese is tantamount to saying you don’t like cheese – and, I think we can all admit, that is just crazy talk. I mean, I guess there are folks out there that really do not like ANY kind of cheese but who wants to know or hang out with THEM? They probably don’t like dogs, either, and are also likely prepared to vote for Trump. Fuck them.
Let’s talk about reasonably sane people. So – the point was, there are SO MANY kinds of vegan cheeses that sweeping & strident statements about not liking vegan cheese come off as either unattractively petulant or willfully ignorant. Nobody likes people like that, either. Still, I must say, I have said things that could be interpreted to mean, “I don’t like vegan cheese.” In fairness, I have not yet ventured out to Vromage – but I intend to next week when my mom is in town visiting.
I have, however, ponied up the $10+ per cheese at Miyoko’s Kitchen – sampling these four:
My opinion is that the hard cheeses are not “there” yet – in that they are unpleasantly sharp & really do not replace the things they are meant to with much success. They might fare better on a cracker or burger but naked – not so much. The two soft ones, however, the Garlic Herb & Double Cream Chive are pretty good – even naked. Additionally, they melted beautifully into cream sauces, like my 5-Ingredient Creamy Vegan Garlic Herb Pasta with Roasted Golden Beets & Chard, seen just above. So – if you are looking to make creamy pasta dishes – I recommend these guys with full-throated enthusiasm.
I have also tried one of the earliest vegan cheese contenders – one that met with general, vegan approval, that is – Daiya. Many a vegan has sworn by the awesomeness of this stuff. I must admit – my first efforts with it let me down but it is certainly possible that I had not managed my expectations properly & my disappointment was a result of expecting it to be a really cheesy product. It is not. I used to argue that it doesn’t melt but these shreds here did melt in a recent quesadilla that I made. I actually enjoyed that quesadilla, too, because I have learned to be a more generous audience for these early attempts at what is surely to evolve, eventually, into something as convincing as Beyond Meat’s faux chicken & beef-free crumbles are. This Daiya stuff is to mozzarella what veggie burgers are to real burgers – a decent substitute – not a product that will fool anyone into thinking they are getting the real thing. And it has a very distinct flavor – specific & not terribly cheesy – but not unpleasant either – once you adjust. But really – there is only one other vegan product (like Beyond Meat’s line) that, I think, CAN fool people is the Morning Star Sausage Patties – seen below. They are AMAZING & complete with seems like gristle & everything! They look & taste like the real thing. In fact, the first time I had one was at Duke’s, on Sunset in West Hollywood (now closed! ). I took one bite & blanched. These were REAL sausage patties! I complained to the waitress who assured me they were, in fact, veggie. I persisted – until she explained that their real sausage was served link-style. They had no real sausage patties. And it was then & there that I fell in love with these guys. (UPDATE 10-30-15 – these sausage patties are NOT vegan and they contain egg & dairy. See the full ingredients list in the comments below.)
The next vegan cheese I want to rag on are these guys. Kraft & Velveeta cheese slices are dreamy – even if they are likely to be more petroleum than dairy. So – I naturally thought that these guys above would be good. After all, the product they are there to replace is as chemically & fake as any food on the market. How hard could that be to reproduce? Apparently – very hard. These two flavors, as far as I am concerned, are downright yucky. Still – some got mixed in with real ones at a BBQ recently & the kids there were ripping the plastic off the real & vegan ones, indiscriminately, oblivious the word “vegan” I had written with a Sharpie on the impostor slices. They shoved them in their faces & happily munched – unaware that my dogs won’t even eat those things. But, to be fair, two of my dogs won’t eat the “real” cheese ones, either.
Onto Follow Your Heart brand mozzarella. Follow Your Heart, indeed. Follow it to some other brand of cheese – vegan or otherwise. I had high hopes for this stuff – primarily because it was very soft & smooshy in the package & that made me think it would be one of the rare vegan cheeses that really & truly melts near heat – like real cheese. I found it amid a plethora of vegan cheeses at the kinda awesome Lassen’s in Los Feliz. This is a health food HEAVEN with nearly every vegan option you can think of – even vegan bacon bits sold in bulk! GOOD ones, too. But this place is only frequented by those with pockets as deep as Madonna’s. Or those that want to go bankrupt faster than MC Hammer – or the reckless regular shoppers at Gelson’s. But Lassen’s is a great one-stop spot to find vegan staples like nutritional yeast, vital wheat gluten and a wide selection of vegan cheeses. So – go there for specialty & hard-to-find stuff & a huge selection of bulk items.
Anyway – this Follow Your Heart shit is slimy & mushy & flavorless and does NOT melt in an oven at 350 – on top of a tortilla pizza. I know. Because I tried. It softened a lot but the the pieces never melted enough to lose their shape – like real cheese does. More importantly, it tastes like nothing & the raw texture is just unforgivable. I am almost motivated to write a strongly worded letter. Almost.
Next in the hot seat – Lisanatti brand mozzarella. UPDATE – THIS IS NOT VEGAN – AS IT CONTAINS CASEIN. I almost opted not to try this brand of vegan mozzarella – primarily because the packaging is so ugly. It makes me think of that Cracker Barrel logo above. I possess an inexplicable & irrational loathing for that Cracker Barrel logo. It is Just. So. Ugly! Look at it! What the fuck? Were the powers that be too cheap to hire a real branding company to design their logo? “Cousin Betty took a course in graphic design at Bodunk City College & she works cheap. A pack of Pall Malls & a handle of Fireball and you’re golden.”
Apparently, Cousin Betty took that course in the fucking seventies because there is no other explanation for the color and…ugh. It just makes me nuts. I’d rather starve than eat there & support their bad taste in graphic design & poor marketing strategies. But – I digress.
Lisanatti Foods seem to have let either Lisa or Natti design the packaging – unless Cousin Betty is still moonlighting but – you know what? It is OK. It is OK because whomever they put in charge to make this cheese did a fucking great job! Still – there is a lot of info on that ugly label. Apparently, Oregon is the landmark of quality, which is news to me. This cheese is not only gluten-free but Kid Kritics approved. I am always mystified when things to do with kids are deliberately misspelled – but whatever. Apparently these kids approved of this vegan cheese but after I saw those kids eating that gawdawful Tofutti shit – my faith in kids as kritics is shaken.
The label declares, “Shreds, melts and tastes great!” And, I am happy to report, it really does taste great! Naked. Really good. It is soft like mozzarella & truly tastes good. I did not try to shred it but I did try to melt it – on the same tortilla pizza I tested the Follow Your Heart cheese. Neither cheese really melted. They both got very soft & had I used this Lisanatti cheese in something pressed – like a quesadilla – the melting quality might have been facilitated more. So – not a true melt but I am feeling forgiving here because they got the taste to be pleasant & that is more than half the battle. PS – this is the cheese I used on my meatloaf grilled cheese here and I even nuked it for a minute and a half – hoping to just radiate the fuck out of it so it lost its will to not melt but I failed. SOFT – but not ooey-gooey melted. You can see in the photo below – it has not even melted enough to obscure where one slice ends & another begins – after nuking AND pan frying. But it tastes good and I will buy it again!
Now – on to Field Roast Chao slices. These guys get the real cheese thing across best. I have tried all three flavors & find them each to be distinct & genuinely yummy. The creamy original is like a provolone or mild white cheddar. Tomato cayenne is a very nacho cheese kinda thing & the coconut herb with black pepper is just a mild white cheese. The texture is right on & the flavors are good. And the packaging is attractive! This is the bar, in my opinion, for vegan cheese that is widely available in supermarkets & not just in specialty shops. While this cheese also failed the melt test in a 350 degree oven – it passed the “melt in a pan” test with flying colors! This is the only cheese I have attempted that with because I was certain that the tomato cayenne cheese & some Rotel would make an amazing queso – and I was right! Behold – my 5-Minute 2-Ingredient Vegan Nacho Cheese Dip!
Maybe all of these cheeses would melt in a pan – if given the chance – and that might be the secret to getting it gooey for sandwiches & pizzas etc…melt it in a an & pour it on top. I will experiment & get back to you on that.
Oh – and Soledad Sanctuary used to make cruelty-free goat cheese but they recently turned vegan & are developing their own vegan cheeses! If you live in LA, they have a stand at the Hollywood farmer’s market & are happy to let you sample their efforts. Eventually, they will be selling the cheeses through their site, too.
So – now – let me present my Leftover Vegan Meatloaf Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Mississippi Come Back Sauce!
Mississippi Come Back Sauce is, basically, a homemade vegan & spicy Thousand Island – not unlike the Delta Dipping Sauce I presented in my Spicy Southern Fried Cauliflower and Delta Dipping Sauce with Smashed Baked Potatoes and White Gravy and Buffalo Mac & Cheese – seen above. This recipe makes quite a bit but it should keep in the fridge for a week so you can use it on other things – like a dip for tater tots, on burgers or tacos – even a salad dressing.
Mississippi Come Back Sauce
INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup vegan mayo
2 TBS ketchup
1 TBS Dijon
1-2 TBS sriracha
1 TBS vegan Worcestershire sauce
1 TBS fresh lemon juice
1 tsp dry mustard
1/4 cup onion – minced
2 garlic cloves – minced
S&P to taste
DIRECTIONS
Blend & chill.
Leftover Vegan Meatloaf Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Mississippi Come Back Sauce
Feeds as many as you like – depending on the amount of leftovers you have. Here are the ingredients I used:
Jewish rye bread
Vegan butter
Mississippi Come Back Sauce (recipe above)
Vegan cheese (I used Lisanatti mozzarella)
DIRECTIONS
Make like you would make any grilled cheese. Butter the bread on one side & place it in a frying pan on medium heat. Top with the other ingredients & put another slice of bread on top – buttered side up. Turn a few times – pressing the sandwich with the cover of a pan to help heat it through – until the bread is golden to your taste & the cheese is at least pretending to wilt.
Eat. 🙂
Delightful-Delicious-Delovely 