I'm fancy like that

***

It has been quite a while.

Just a few hours ago, I reminisced about the old times and began looking at some of my oldest Blogger posts. It was such an odd feeling, going back to the good old days: Looking at my sophomore year of college, trying to make it as a vegan for the first time. Today, I am incredibly impressed with my old self. I made extremely healthy and fresh meals from scratch all the time, at first using just the communal dorm kitchen. (Luckily, I was on the first floor and so was the kitchen.)

It brings back other memories, too: My frustration with my bathroom mate, who would smoke in and/or leave her uncleaned fish bowl in our bathroom - both incredibly gross. (I even reported the smoking bit to the Resident Advisor and two different Hall Coordinators... And nothing was done about it.) But I digress. I haven't been posting, although my life has indeed been moving on.

I think food pictures will help catch you all up on my life quite well, no?

Let's begin, then:



This is one of my favorite pictures taken from the week of my college graduation. It was the best week of my four-year school career, seriously. I had quit my job and classes were over. I was just waiting for graduation to come around and spend that free time biking all over the city, meeting up with my favorite friends, and for the first time in my whole life, doing a little of the drinking+dancing thing (but I don't do the "drunk" thing, just to clarify)...trying to figure out boy(s) and havin' fun. It was a relaxing and triumphant week.



One of my super-bubbly nutrition friends was rumored to be an incredible chef. She proposed a vegan meal amongst a few friends and I at her place. This was one of the last weeks I spent in my college city. She made herb-rubbed tofu (first seared and then baked), quinoa, and roasted asparagus. The tofu was so much better than the tofu I make, and it was her first time preparing tofu - I couldn't believe it. The quinoa was the star of the show - it was comprised of roasted tomatoes, pistachios, raspberry vinegar, and other unknown things because I never got the "recipe" out of her. In truth, there was no recipe, because the quinoa creation was composed inside her brain and she just threw it together without measuring. Daaang she's a great cook. I also made some margaritas with her uncle's perfected recipe and in my humble opinion did him great justice; I had 1,000 or two chips and a pound of my friend's guac (the best recipe in the world, in fact, which I do have but must keep top-secret); we had a dance party involving hats in her living room, and that was that.



The lasagne above was actually a school project, for my Food Science lab. I spell it "lasagnE" because I'm fancy like that. And because Isa told me to. This little project took me NINE hours in the class kitchen. I had to make the lasagne three times, and each time it took me three hours from start to finish. The title of the final product was Whole Wheat Cashew-Tofu Lasagne with Basil and Spinach and consisted of layers of whole wheat lasagna noodles, seasoned spinach, cashew-tofu-basil ricotta, and homemade marinara sauce, heavy on the garlic. It was inspired by and modified from the Veganomicon lasagne recipe. Typing this is a self-reminder to replicate the ricotta just to spread on toasted bread and eat for lunch this summer. Sadly enough, the day I presented the product to others for review, I forgot to bring the pan I had been testing with and had to improvise with a lighter-colored pan that was slightly larger, which of course threw off my lasagne and led to undercooked noodles. Boo.

Here we have some lovely chocolate-covered hazelnuts I bought from the Vosges chocolate shop in Chicago. They were great:



While on this Chicago trip, I took a fun friend (hello girlie, if you are reading still!) to a blogger meet-up, to see none other than Gena from Choosing Raw. I also met Jenn from Eating Bender, Chicago Marathon Val, and Mara. We ate at the Chicago Diner and I got one of my two favorite menu items: the Radical Reuben, of course with sweet potato fries. And a Peanut Butter Cookie Dough shake. I wanted to get the Tamale Corncakes, and had them on my mind for months, actually, but the diner had to be out that day. Come on, people!! You shoulda been prepared for Ruby Red & Co.!



And here, I finally duplicated my salad that I enjoyed at One Lucky Duck in New York City:


Mary's Gone Krackers (Herb flavor) crumbled over a bed of kale dressed in olive oil, sea salt, and lemon; dulse; sliced avocado; and hemp seeds

A random yet delightful lunch one day, in the last months of school:


Toast with sunflower seed butter, ginger-roasted butternut squash, cinnamon-lime bulgur (I think), raw kale salad (+lemon, olive oil, sea salt, tomatoes, and dried cranberries), and grilled tofu (House Foods brand Tofu Cutlets)

Here be my favorite chocolate bar in the whole, entire world:


Francois Pralus's Cuba bar

Good ol' Francois is a French chocolate maker who sources his cacao beans from the highest quality cacao farms from different origins across the world. I have tried a handful of his origin bars, but the Cuba is by far my favorite, and it, of course, is incredibly hard to find in the United States. It is best to order online, but this method is even more expensive than finding it in a store. I went to a wine store to get my bars, but I bought all of them and now they are gone and now I moved away.

I am trying to justify spending $20 on 2nd-day shipping and $7 to $10 on a cold pack to buy some more of these $9 chocolate bars online. I think I would need to buy at least five bars for it to be worth it?

Anyway, Francois Pralus procures the beans and then roasts and processes them in Roanne. His website states, " 'I make everything myself,' explains Francois, 'instead of buying ready made ingredients from specialized manufacturers.'" This is what sets his chocolate apart from the mediocre stuff. He is a French bean-to-bar chocolate maker (not chocolatier, who gets ready-made chocolate from an outside source and then makes truffles and bon bons) and mostly makes single-origin dark chocolate bars. Each bar has tasting notes that are distinct to the region in which its respective cacao is grown. (U.S.-based bean-to-bar maker, Askinosie Chocolate, makes my second-fave chocolate in the whole world, its single-origin 77% Davao, Philippines bar.)

Although I have moved away, I was reunited with my dear friend Jess (she has a blog, too!). Of course, we had many food adventures together during this visit, one of which involved the brownie marked with a *** at the very top of this post. It was our favorite brownie from our favorite spot in my ex-college city, but this time they add homemade graham crackers and some other stuff to make a S'mores Brownie. Yes, it was vegan.


Jess and her hubby (Lucas) had a World Cup party at their housey, and Jess and I made "our" food while Lucas made food for the rest of the party animals. Our goodies:


Sandwiches on sprouted grain bread with mozzarella Daiya cheese and tempeh marinated in lime juice and Lucas-made chimichurri, raw massaged kale salad with fresh figs, and grilled corn caressed with Earth Balance

Later added to the plate were chunkies o' watermelon and grilled veggies. Mmmm... Thanks for having me over, Jess and Lucas!! And for putting up with me taking a nap during the soccer game.

I hope you enjoyed my life update. If anyone is cruising through or lives in Atlanta and wants to do a blogger meet-up of some sort, give me a holler in the comments! I have also been wanting to make a day-trip out to Athens, Georgia, so if any of you feel like steppin' your wonderful selves out of the darkness, I may use you as my excuse for my li'l day trip.

Peace 'n Love,
Ruby