Vegan Valentine's Day Dance

Type:	Causes - Fundraiser
Network:	Global

Start Time:	Friday, February 12, 2010 at 7:30pm
End Time:	Saturday, February 13, 2010 at 12:00am
Location:	Brower Center
Street:	2150 Allston Way
City/Town:	Berkeley, CA
	View Google Map

Description 

This is singles-friendly event!

Get ready for an evening of Valentine's Day Dancing and Drinks, Fun and Food!

Your $50 ticket Includes the following:

-délectable vegan hors d'oeuvres
-an open wine/beer bar
-a raffle ticket
-decadent desserts provided by Sugar Beat Sweets and Fat Bottom Bakery
-gift bag full of surprises from our sponsors.

Event sponsored by:

Fat Bottom Bakery
Frey Vineyard
Lagunitas
Red Truck Wines
Sugar Beat Sweets

Special thanks to our wonderful contributors:

Angel Foods
Cow Jones Industrials
Eat in the Raw
Edwards and Sons
Field Roast
Go Max Go
Karine Brighten Events
Lazy Dog Designs
Nature's Express
Nu Tru
Nutrilicious
Organicville
Sjaak's Organic Chocolates
The Sensual Vegan
tombihn.com
V-dog
Vegan Essentials
Vegan Soap Kitchen
VegNews
Vitasoy 

For more info please visit: http://www.veganhealth.org/vday

December

We are almost a week away from Christmas, but yet it feels like summer for us :)

I haven't been posting very much because I have been extremely busy with school! But now that I'm all done I will start posting more.

I've been making some delicious dinners this last week.  Veggy pot pie, homemade pizza, chili and cornbread! I bought myself a food processor with some christmas money I got from my dad, it's pretty exciting news!! I've been without a food processor since July because our broke when we shipped it here from Canada.

I am sooooooo excited to make myself some cashew-ricotta, spinach, mushroom lasagna!! mmmmmmmmmm.

As some of you may know, I have recently launched an event planning company! I specialize in green events of all types (weddings, non-profit events, corporate events), and most importantly I have decided to only do vegan events!

Check out my website for more info:
http://kbrightenevents.com/

Thanks!

K

Event planning business!

Hello loyal readers,

Things once again have been really hectic the last couple of months.

I have some very exciting news, I recently launched an event planning company called:

Karine Brighten Events

check out my website:
http://kbrightenevents.com

Thanks!

November 1st...

Wow I can hardly believe it's November 1st already....

Things have been insanely busy for me these past couple of weeks.  I went back home to Canada for a bit to visit my family, came back, had my very first Walk for Farm Animals event, and then started working on the content of my website (I am happy to announce that I am launching an event planning company in the next couple of weeks!!)

So needless to say my food blog has been put on the back burner for now.

Here are a few pics from my trip back home, it was my niece's first bday and I made her an all vegan cake and it was delicious!  I went out for dinner with some friends at a thai vegan restaurant, really enjoyed that. Went to a burger place for my bday (they have a yummy veggy burger and vegan gravy!!).  My mom had a custom-made vegan bday cake for me, it wasn't that delicious, but it looked nice! lol

Pecan Lentil tortiere purses

This recipe comes from Canadianliving.com and it is totally vegan! Tortiere is a very French Canadian thing typically made with ground beef, but you can also make it with pecans and lentils and it has the same texture.

Tempeh sausage puff pastry

This is the first time I tried the recipe and it was a huge success! It was also my first time cooking with puff pastry.  It was TASTY!!!

Linguine cherry tomato pasta

This recipe comes from Martha Stewart, and it is easily transformed into a vegan recipe :)

Again, this is another very simple dinner that can be made really quickly and taste delicious!

-linguine
-organic vegetable broth
-garlic
-canned tomatoes and fresh cherry tomatoes
-basil
-spices

Stuffed shells

I made my delicious and easy stuffed shells the other day!  My mom use to make a non-vegan version of this when I was younger, so this dish makes me remember those times :)

The recipe is so easy, you fry up some diced peppers and onions, then you put some ground round (fake beef), add a bit of pasta sauce, salt and pepper.  Then you stuff the shells and put some more pasta sauce on top and some vegan cheese.

I recommend Hotels Combined and their spread the word for charity program!

I recommend Hotels Combined and sent $20 to Farm Sanctuary!

You can shout and help too.

Cooking lessons in Berkeley (and surrounding areas)

Dear readers,

I have decided to start offering vegan cooking lessons in the Berkeley area!

Whether you are a new vegetarian or vegan, or just need help I'm here.

Lessons could either be given at my house or at yours.

Drop me a line if you are interested.

K

Walk for Farm Animals in San Francisco, Oct 24th 2009

Dear readers,

I am co-organizing a Walk for Farm Animals benefiting the Farm Sanctuary and I need all your help!

Please visit my fundraising page, and let me know if you are interested in being: a volunteer for the day of the event, a walker, or a sponsor.

Thank you for supporting this very important cause.

My favorite dinner + other food I've been making this week

Last night I decided to make my favorite dinner again, I just can't get enough of it!  Chickpea cutlets with mustard sauce, mashed potatoes, and roasted asparagus.  It is not that difficult to make, but it takes a long time to put it all together. I am totally making this meal next time I have
friends over for dinner, it is so tasty and looks fancy :)

Check out this cute Indian baby eggplants!  I roasted them in a dry pan and put them in a stir-fry.  I wasn't crazy about them, but my husband really liked it.  I can never seem to cook eggplant properly...but every time I eat it at an Indian restaurant I love it.

And this is my stir-fry with curried tofu, 

carrots, pattypan squash and green beans

I've been buying these fingerlings potoates from Costco lately and they are delicious! I threw in some parsnips and carrots

My husband got me a new cookbook for our anniversary, and I just HAD to try the beer battered tofu recipe! Super unhealthy, but yuuuuuumy.  It reminded me a lot of fish and chips.  I even made some vegan tarter sauce for the first time.  It was very eas to make.

Vegan tarter sauce = yummmmm















Tofu balls with dijon mustard sauce, green beens, and sweet potato fries

Mitsou and Nina LOVE to cuddle in bed with their daddy :)

One year wedding anniversary celebration at the Millennium

For those who don't know, I had my wedding reception at the Millennium Restaurant last summer and we were blown away by the food! (Check our my post on it - August 2008). So when it was time to make plans for our first wedding anniversary, it was obvious we were going back there to celebrate!

I made reservations 3 weeks in advance because they are always booked up on weekends. When we got to our table there was an envelop on the table with our names on it. We opened it up, and it was a gift certificate from my in-laws for a Taster's Choice Menu with wine pairings!! What an amazing gift, we were so thrilled. It was a bit too much food though.... lol

Here are some pictures

Little Gem Salad
(julienne carrots, toasted croutons, roasted garlic-ceaser vinaigrette)

Melon & Summer Greens salad
(shaved fennel & radish, candied cashews, mint, melon-cardamon-ginger vinaigrette)

I forget which kind of soup this was, but I can tell you it was great :)
flatbread with babaganoush, and something else (this wasn't on the menu)

Cornmeal Crusted Oyster Mushrooms
(sweet & spicy apple-pepper jam, shaved onion & radish salad)

Black Bean Torte
(whole wheat tortilla, caramelized plantain, smoky black bean puree, pumpkin-habenero papazul, cashew sour cream, watermelon salsa


Seared Potato-Scallion Cake
(yellow Indonesian curry, saute of neon eggplant, bok choy, mung bean sprouts & crispy tempeh, shaved green papaya & Asian aromatic salad, toasted peanut-chile sambal)

Pecan Crusted Tempeh
(peach-bourbon sauce, roasted red pepper & corn grits, collard greens with caramelized onion & fennel, dill & garlic pickled green beans)

French Fingerling Potato Roulade
(cremini mushroom duxelle filling, black pepper pastry crust, saffron scented gold tomato coulis, seared romano bean & sweet onion salad, truffled black pepper thyme oil)

Lobster Mushroom Risotto
(brick dough beggar's purse filled with savory creamed corn-pudding, vaquero bean, arugula & cherry tomato salad, vanilla-thyme oil)
chocolate mouse type cake, fresh figs and ice cream, plum crisp

We had a fantastic night, and we can't wait to go there again! If you live in the Bay Are and have not been to the Millennium, I highly recommend it. It is a great place for vegans AND non-vegans.

K

Things I've been making since I've been here

As I mentioned before, I have been making amazing simple meals with fresh organic produce!

Here are some pics (if you want any of the recipes just let me know)

Spinach dip:

Homemade gnocchi with pesto and peppers:

This is one of my FAV dinners!!! Chickpea cutlets, with mustard sauce, roasted asparagus, and mashed potatoes. yummmmmmmm:

These are called lemon cucumbers, my friend's dad grows them in his backyard. They are delicious:

This is my husban's idea of a dessert (ice cream, peanut butter cookies, and peanut butter puffs):

Now THIS is what I call a GOURMET burger (boca burger with sauteed mushrooms, onions, pickles, lettuce, tomato, fancy ground mustard, and roasted potatoes):

Delicious fingerlings potatoes from Costco:

Living the vegan life in Berkeley, California!

Hello my dear readers,

I can hardly believe it's the end of August, and last time I updated my blog was March!! That is very shameful of me lol.

I moved to Berkeley about a month ago, and let me tell you it is a vegan paradise! Being in the produce section of Berkeley Bowl (an amazing grocery store) is like being in a candy store. I have never seen some of this stuff, it truly is amazing. However, it does make shopping more difficult because there is so much to choose from. I was standing there for about 10 minutes trying to figure out which kinds of potatoes to buy! lol

Every dish I've been making tastes 100 times better than when I made it back home. Everything tastes for fresh and flavorful.

It has been a challenge cooking in a new kitchen, learning how to cook with my new stove,but it's working out pretty well! I have a gas stove for the first time, and food really does taste different. Sad news is that my food processor broke in transit, so I NEED to replace it. It will cost $100 to replace the parts, so it will have to wait a bit longer. I am slowly but surely replacing everything in my kitchen that I sold back home, it's been a big job! I do miss having a fully stocked kitchen :(

I will be off work for the next 3 months, so I promise to update my blog on a regular basis.

K

It's been a long time!

To my loyal readers,

Sorry I haven't been updating my blog :)

The truth is that I've been very lazy lol. My husband is still in Washington, and I haven't been cooking as much as I thought I would be.

I visited him in Washington a couple of weeks ago and it was great! We went to Sticky Fingers (a world famous vegan bakery in Washington, DC) and it was sooooooooo yummy! We had 6 different kinds of cupcakes. They were not cheap wow, they were selling them for $2.50 each, it was worth it, but expensive. And we had some sticky buns, DELICIOUS! We had them for breakfast on vday day :)

Here are some pics:



The highlight of the weekend was a visit to a farm sanctuary called Popular Springs. It was the first time visiting a sanctuary, and getting so close to farm animals! These animals were soo beautiful, friendly and CLEAN contrary to what a lot people think. My favorite were the pigs :) They were adorable, and they LOVED getting their bellies rubbed. Spending time there reminded me again why I'm vegan. It was really touching to be have an experience like that.

Tofu-spinach ricotta lasagna

Andy has been gone for a week now and I've been cooking all my favorite things! (My favorite things happen to be the things Andy likes the least)

A couple of nights ago I decided to embark on a lasagna adventure.  It was my first time making and it took me about 2 hours.  It wasn't complicated at all, just a lot of different steps and ingredients.

The recipe was from Veganomicon.  It was seriously the BEST lasagna I have EVER had.. 

I made the mariana sauce from scratch, and the highlight of this dish was the cashew tofu ricotta filling.  It was soo good that I was eating the filling on its own :) It was sooo rich and creamy, just like ricotta!!

It was such a satisfying and filling meal.

Andy took the camera with him to Washington, so I'm afraid I won't be able to post pictures for the next little while :(

It's been a while..

I haven't posted anything for a while because I've been lazy and busy at the same time. I ate a lot of great food over the holidays (I didn't have to do any cooking during the holidays, it was nice to have a break). Sorry I didn't really take any pictures!

But now I'm back in the swing of things. I hosted a vegan potluck at my house a few weeks ago and it was a huge success. Sorry didn't really take any pictures lol. I promise to take more pictures in the future. My husband is leaving in two weeks, and I will have A LOT of spare time on my hands :)

Here are few pictures of things I made in the last month or so.
Enjoy!

Chickpea cutlets with roasted vegetables:

Polenta pizza (it actually looks MUCH better than it tasted -we didn't spread the polenta enough and it didn't cook properly in the middle):

Adzuki and pear soup:

Curried udon noodle stir-fry:

Bulgar pilaf with apricots and chili:

I am having a going away party for Andy / potluck party this Saturday. Stay tuned!

K