Cocktails and Dinosaurs: VeganMoFo 2014 Week #3

The posts that I had once hoped would be weekly that I now struggle to keep bi-annual.  Check out this list of crap I found on the internet.

• Are Meatless Mondays part of the liberal agenda?  Probably.  Also, if you have some time to kill search "liberal agenda" on the Fox News website.  I just learned a bunch about feminism and I am outraged.  (Note: Meatless Mondays are not "brainwashing" your kids.  You do not need to eat meat at every meal every day to be healthly.  Quite the opposite.  New Flash!  Vegetables are actually good for you.  Who's up for Vegan Vednesdays!!!!!)
  
• Well, this t-shirt exists and now I need it!!  (via veganpizzafuckyeah.tumblr.com)
  
• Speaking of veganpizzafuckyeah.tumblr.com, they have coupons for Beyond Meat.  Boosh!
  
• Even after NYC is voted the most vegan-friendly city in the nation with vegetable skyline and all, we are in danger of losing Angelica Kitchen, who has been serving vegetarian food in the East Village since 1976.  Stop what you're doing and go eat at Angelica's!!!
  
• Do you like plants?  How about Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy?  Would you like to text Groot?  Because you can.  (via CBR)  I wonder if he's on twitter.  #obviously
  
• Ways to make your tofu taste more like meat. #veganvednesdays (via The Daily Meal)

I'll just put this here:

(via Jezebel)


Cocktail of the Week:  Blushing Bride

Tara made this incredibly sweet cocktail for us the night before our good friends got married, that's why we have the wedding theme.

Congratulations Shaun & Leila!

Email that crap out of us @ monicatara[at]gmail.com.  Or just comment here!  We love you and we want feedback and cocktail ideas!

Cocktails and Dinosaurs: VeganMoFo 2014 Week #1

Semi-regular posts from a blog that some people might say teased a taco crawl post and then disappeared for almost a year.  More on that taco crawl later.

• VeganMoFo is back!!!  Check out the 2014 blogroll here.
  
• Do you know how to eat sushi?  This video is pretty interesting if you ignore all the fish stuff. (via kottke)
  
• Dunkin' Donuts is introducing almond milk and that's not all!  If you tweet or instagram with #almonDDmilk, you are entered to win $100 or $500 gift cards.  Read more here.  #almonDDmilk #wherearemyvegandonuts #veganmunchkinswouldbecooltoo (via The Daily Meal)
  
• Check out the SNACKPOCALYPSE trailer on Funny or Die, which proves the importance of a plant-based diet within the structure of a parody of a YA novel based movie.  (via Jezebel)
  
• 12 daily struggles only a vegan will understand.  This is a good list.  Although, number #8 has never happened to me.  I guess my friends aren't monsters.  Apparently #veganprobs is a thing.  #hashtagthat  #forreal #thisisnotgettingold
  
• In animal rights news, Unilever is pledging money to research ending the horrible practice of the egg production industry of grinding up little male chick because they don't produce eggs.  Although I'm glad that they are trying to end the inhumane disposal of fluffy little baby chicks, I'm troubled by the thought of people using this to feel better about eating eggs.  Even outside of the hatchery, there are plenty of problems with the egg industry.  Why don't they use their money to research egg substitutions?  (via The Daily Meal)

Cocktail of the Week:  This thing.  I'm not sure what it's called.  It's an evening worth of drinks in one glass.

What's in there?  It's a fruity frozen margarita, an extra shot of tequila, and an inverted bottle of Corona.  I can feel my mom shaking her head as I type this.


Email that crap out of us @ monicatara[at]gmail.com.  Or just comment here!  We love you and we want feedback and cocktail ideas!

Williamsburg Taco Crawl Kick Off

Today, we will be walking around Williamsburg eating tacos, drinking cocktails and enjoying this glorious almost fall weather.

Seitan Taco from Endless Summer Truck circa 2012

Follow us on Twitter for live photo updates @blog_scuse_me and stay tuned for more VeganMoFo taco reviews.

I Made Thug Kitchen's Smoky Bean and Spinach Burgers!

WHAT TIME IS IT KIDS?

Hot damn I loved Colecovision as a child.

 

 

This recipe, from the hilarious, health-conscious, delicious, and profane Thug Kitchen (First cookbook drops Fall 2014! Mark your calendars....) turned out some tasty burgers, my friends.

 

 

Let's relive and reflect, shall we?

 

 

The lineup of YUM-O ingredients.

 

I love recipes that give me an opportunity to use my appliances; they make me feel like a culinary veteran who got her money's worth. I unearthed the food processor, busted out the spinach/chopped onion/ liquid smoke/smoked paprika/etc., and commenced to hustlin'.

 

 

 

This doesn't look particularly appetizing right after pulsing, but it tasted fantastic. Plus, as Thug Kitchen points out, you can experiment with herbs and spices and taste to your heart's content before cooking since there won't be any pesky E. coli lurking about; unless a poltergeist drags a raw chicken across your counter and you're too irresponsible to lay down some disinfectant.

 

 

Baked to golden brown goodness. No pan-frying for these fiber-rich MFers. The recipe gauges that you'll need about 20 minutes on each side if you're baking full-sized patties instead of sliders - I needed 28 or so.

 

 

This friggin' roll left something to be desired so kindly ignore it. There's that smoky, sumptuous patty topped with melted Daiya cheddar, pickles, and katt-supp.  

 

Next time you're in the mood for a Boca burger, consider this instead!  Simple, filling, nutritious, and lasts through the week (recipe makes 16 sliders/8 patties - or you can double the recipe and cover yourself for lunch AND dinner - whuuuut?!).  By the way, these are perfect with sliced avocado.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 



Happy International Day of Kale!

It's September 3rd, 2013, the First Annual International Day of Kale.  Enjoy this video from JL Goes Vegan showing how to make massaged kale with avocado.  

Kale - fresh from the garden

With kale and yellow tomatoes straight from the garden, I made the spring kale salad with sweet mustard miso dressing from Blissful Bites which can also be found here.  The dressing is simple with lemon (juice and zest), miso, stoneground mustard, maple syrup, nutritional yeast, salt, pepper, and water.  The miso, mustard, syrup, and nut. yeast are all equal parts so it's an easy recipe to throw together on the fly.  With nutritional yeast and kale, you really can't go wrong.

Make everyday a kale day!

Horrors of YouTube: The Mangler

Sometimes YouTube provides when Netflix cannot. I found some slimy horror movies that aren't available on Netflix in either streaming or disc form, one of which is Tobe Hooper's 1995 pancake of shit The Mangler, starring scare icons Robert Englund and Ted Levine. It also stars Vanessa Pike, who plays a girl approaching her sixteenth birthday but looks forty.

 

She'll be fine.

The Mangler is based on the Stephen King short story of the same name, which appeared in his awesome 1978 Night Shift collection. This movie is not awesome. This movie is full of half-assed special effects; leaden dialogue that doesn't resemble any human conversation I've had or heard to date (if that sounds intriguing to you, save your energy; it's the result of horrible construction rather than weirdness); women who are useless at everything except dying, crying, and screaming; and embarrassing "old man" facial prosthetics.

Handguns work on possessed laundry machines made of solid iron. It's science. 

The plot unravels before our blank stares and leaves us with a bunch of unanswered questions and the urge to sever our internet connections.  Ted Levine is John Hunton, a surly detective who hates his job and is haunted by his reponsibility for the car wreck that killed his wife. Hunton investigates some nasty occurrences at the Blue Ribbon laundry, which involve the titular "character": a hulking, toothy folding machine that works fine on hospital bedsheets but not so well on shrill employee Mrs. Frawley, who makes the brilliant decision to stick her fingers into the mouth of the machine to retrieve an antacid tablet.  She ends up looking like the melted and blood-drenched Chucky doll from the end of Child's Play 2, and things roll downhill from there as Hunton and his occult-studying brother-in-law Mark beat up a murderous refigerator, ask a woman if she's a virgin with no explanation as to why this is relevant (the Mangler enjoys a good virgin sacrifice), and throw a crucifix and holy water at the demonic Mangler while yelling the Lord's Prayer.  The movie is as deadly as the Mangler in its desire to be taken seriously but is dull and insulting to the intelligence instead of uninentionally funny, which makes the whole mess a total waste. Robert Englund's Bill Gartley, the nasty laundry owner who serves as part of a conspiratorial deal with the Devil, doesn't even get any flinch-inducing wisecracks. Unless you want to feel what could have been a perfectly good hour and forty-six minutes mangled to death, avoid this movie.

Cocktails and Dinosaurs: News and Libations for the Weekend of May 17, 2013

Semi-regular posts made to remind you this blog still exists.  I'm serious.  We're still here.


(via EV Grieve via Bobby Williams)

• The entire new season of Arrested Development finally premieres on Netflix May 26th.  Want to know the moment it's added to Netflix?  Just text ANN to 619-EGG-VEAL.  I'm not kidding.
  
  In ANNticpation of the new season, the Bluth Banana Stand has been making the rounds to Big Britain, New York, and pretty soon LA.  Check out some pictures from the Nevernude meet up at the Big Yellow Joint yesterday in Times Square (Buzzfeed).
  
  Throwing a Arrested Development Season 4 viewing party?  Need food ideas?  There are literally dozens of websites talking about this.  Pinterest!  HuffPo.  Food Republic.  BluthFamilyReunion.
  
  Oh yeah!  Watch the Trailer for Season 4 while you're waiting!
• Speaking of great shows coming back, according to Entertainment Weekly, the IT Crowd is coming back for a 40-minute finale special!!!!!  AAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
  
  Between The IT Crowd, Arrested Development, and Veronica Mars all coming back, I'm in constant state of jubilation and tears (of joy, of course).
• Marshmallow, Marshmallow.
  
  
  New York cops, firefighters, &c refer to hipsters as marshmallows because they're soft and white.  Sure, there are other forms of hate speech we should be addressing, but it's a funny video.  I am now official obsessed with John Roberts (aka Linda Belcher from Bob's Burgers) YouTube channel.
• Here's a great article on why we should care more about slut-shaming.  Read it!! (Jezebel)
• The X-Men Made Me A Feminist.  Hell yeah!!!!
• Stay tuned to our tumblr page because we will be posting awesome vegan food and beverage photos all weekend!!!!!!!

Cocktail of the Week:  Aviation

The Aviation is made with gin, lemon juice, maraschino liqueur, and creme de violette served straight up with a cherry.  These are so delicious, I wish every bar made them.


Email that crap out of us @ monicatara[at]gmail.com.  Or just comment here!  We love you and we want feedback and cocktail ideas!