VegNews Annual Thanksgiving Feast!

The Chef: Native Foods Café and Colleen

The Menu: One of our favorite meals of the year featured a Native Foods' Wellington (layers of roasted portobello mushrooms, orange-glazed yams, seitan, organic kale, caramelized onions, and stuffing, all wrapped in a decadent puff pastry), shallot-mushroom gravy, balsamic-roasted Brussels sprouts, homemade cranberry sauce, and Colleen's Holiday Salad with baby greens, dried cranberries, sliced apples, and caramelized pecans. And we haven't even touched dessert yet.

The Goods: The VegNews staff anticipates this day all year long—and for good reason! Have you checked out that menu above? Every year, the week of Thanksgiving, the VN team sits down to a sumptuous vegan Thanksgiving meal that we don't stop talking about until the next feast rolls around. Southern California-based Native Foods Café, once again, provided the incredible centerpiece to our meal: The Native Wellington. If you need a stellar main course for your holiday table, this is it. And they ship overnight anywhere in the country! Of course, a lovely feast such as this has to have a dessert finale, and we went with one of our favorites: VN columnist Beverly Lynn Bennett's Pumpkin Cake with Vanilla Buttercream, straight from our brand-new VegNews Holiday Cookbook. It's a cinch to make, and always a crowd-pleaser. Accompanying the multi-layer cake is some delicious chocolate-peppermint bark made by VN Publisher Joseph Connelly—we couldn't get enough! Check out more mouthwatering photos here, and Happy Tofurky Day to all.

Crispy Tofu and Birthday Cake

The Chef: Chas 

The Menu: A splendid spread complete with crispy breaded tofu and seasoned brown rice made up the bulk of this hearty, rainy day lunch. Chas balanced out the meal with a bounty of greens: steamed kale and a salad overflowing with cabbage, broccoli, shredded carrot, chickpeas, cherry tomatoes, and mixed greens topped with a delicious avocado, lemon, and tofu salad dressing, to be exact. 

The Goods: We're officially adding crispy, crunchy, perfectly breaded tofu and tangy, zesty avocado dressing to the ever-growing list of Chas' lunchtime specialties. We followed this tasty feast with a strawberries-and-cream cake—vegan, of course—to celebrate Lyndsay and Laura's recent birthdays. Colleen whipped up this decadent, rich delight from scratch, and expertly topped it with fresh strawberries covered in chocolate and sprinkled with sugar. Were we complaining about it? No. Were there leftovers? Are you new here? Happy Birthday, Lyndsay and Laura!

Rice, Beans, and Cake

The Chef: Kristen

The Menu: A delectable, colorful, South-of-the-Border plate filled with whole-wheat tortillas, perfectly fluffy rice, and a scrumptious scramble of black beans, tofu, red bell peppers, potatoes, tomatoes, and spices. An equally attractive salad balanced out the plate, and featured garbanzo beans, crispy tortilla strips, and chunks of avocado.

The Goods: We had a full team back in the office today, which was awfully convenient as we also got to celebrate Abby's birthday. Technically, she was born yesterday (a number of years ago), but we have a pretty fantastic policy that allows employees their birthdays free from work. So, today we had cake. Here's half of it.


We also have some exciting—and potentially depressing—news: VegNews Great Adventure to India is sold out! If you are going, we are super excited to see you in October! If you didn't snag a spot in time, don't despair. We just might be doing this kind of thing again in the future.

Amy's Comfort Food

The Chefs: Michelle and Tina from Amy's Kitchen

The Menu: Today we were kindly treated to two of Amy's brand-spankin'-new products. First up we devoured the incredible vegan mac 'n' cheese. Yes, this time it's totally vegan (the cheese is Daiya!) and gluten free. While sometimes "gluten free" really means "gummy and freakish," if our guest chefs hadn't clued us in to the missing gluten in this pasta, we would never have known. The same goes for the roasted vegetable pizza, which is another of Amy's products that's getting a gluten-free revamp. This one was already vegan, but the GF spin is new, and we liked it just as much as the original. And we had a salad. Woo hoo, salad. Not pictured (mostly because we ate it too quickly) was a GF version of Amy's chocolate cake. Yeah, that's gone.

The Goods: One of the best things about our office location is that we are within driving distance of Amy's, and this is the second time that Michelle and company have come down to make us lunch. Um, getting to try new products right away? Yes, please! Now if you'll excuse us, some of us have bowls to lick.

Quinoa and Cake

The Chef: Lyndsay

The Menu: A delicious and nutritious blend of quinoas, both red and regular, topped with Punjab Eggplant (thanks, Trader Joe's!) and tofu. A mixed-greens side salad with sliced red onions, avocado, and a light sprinkling of Daiya finished off the plates.

The Goods: As you may have already read on Press Pass, we had a little something special for dessert today, namely a yummy Almond Milk Chocolate Cake from local confectionery Violet Sweet Shoppe. Um, how can you not eat something this adorable?
We served slices of this behemoth à la mode with scoops of Coconut and Mocha Almond Fudge Purely Decadent with Coconut Milk. Sometimes, when it's Monday you need a little something sweet! To share the sugar, um, figuratively, we have a totally sweet deal! All this week, we'll be giving away Sarah Kramer's latest work, her 2010 Go Vegan! Calendar. Just leave us a comment with your favorite cake-and-ice-cream flavor combination, and we'll pick one winner each day. Go! Comment! Win!

Afghani Stew!

The Chef: Joseph

The Menu: Another lunch created from the pages of The Accidental Vegan. Joseph treated us to a trio of yummy dishes, starting with a Basmati Pilaf, which featured raisins, cinnamon, and almonds, and was utterly delicious. On the bottom left of the plate you see Afghani Stew, which was a mixture of eggplant, tomatoes, spinach, carrots, and spices. It, too, was incredibly good. Finally, the Red Beans and Greens with Coconut Milk made a scrumptious side dish, and Joseph finished it off with a dusting of cilantro.

The Goods: Today was one for the record books in terms of awesome guests! First of all, today marks Ms. Charlotte's first day as an editorial assistant here at VN, and we're thrilled to have her! We were also joined by Yvette of vegweb.com and Laura of vegansaurus.com! Since yesterday was Elizabeth's birthday, Ms. Colleen made a gorgeous cake, which we have since devoured. Trust us, coconut-flake-covered strawberry shortcake is a winner!

Southern-Inspired Casserole

The Chef: Aurelia

The Menu: Um, wow. Aurelia busted out an incredible three-course treat for lunch today, which we happily devoured. The main attraction was a casserole with black beans, corn, green chiles, chopped meatless ribs, and sautéed Swiss Chard, which she topped deliciously with baked polenta dotted with cheddar-style Teese and spices. If you are thinking, "oh my god!" right now, you have the appropriate thought going through your head. In addition, we had the most smoky and delectable sautéed kale on the planet, and a light, fresh salad with shaved red onions, carrots, cucumber, and avocado.

The Goods: This outrageously yummy meal made the perfect base for what was to follow: a belated birthday cake for Lyndsay, who took advantage of our take-your-birthday-off policy. Yes, we've eaten more cake in the last week than any office should ever be able to, and the 3pm sugar pangs are getting stronger by the day. Today's fabulous meal was also a bittersweet occasion, as it marked Aurelia's last turn in the VNHQ kitchen. Thanks for all the amazing lunches, Aurelia!

Birthday Bliss

The Chef: Vanida and MaggieMudd

The Menu: A beautiful birthday bash of Thai food and ice-cream cake! Yeah, today is basically the best lunch day ever, just in case you were wondering. From our favorite local Thai place, Vanida, we served up some deliciously garlicky eggplant and tofu, a spicy yellow curry with zucchini, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, and red bell pepper, and a lovely, light papaya salad with tomatoes and ground peanuts. Oh, and maybe there was a cake. Maybe it was an ice-cream cake that featured Toasted Coconut and Mint Chocolate Chip ice creams, set atop a brownie crust and covered in whipped-cream frosting. Oh, did we mention (or did we even really have to?) that this whole B-Day smorgasbord was vegan? Yeah, it was.

The Goods: We had not one but two birthdays in the office this week, those of Ms. Colleen and Ms. Stacy. If there was ever a time to order up a big, beautiful birthday cake, today was the day. A very happy birthday to both lovely ladies, one of whom you can see below with the sweet treat. Continuing the tradition of studly adornments, this year's cake featured one of our favorite vegans. Can you tell who it is?

Mmmm Moroccan

The Chefs: Melissa and Hannah Tai

The Menu: An absolutely stellar meal of Moroccan-inspired pasta. Chickpeas, sun-dried tomatoes, raisins, and a superbly spiced tomato sauce covered hearty strands of brown-rice spaghetti. An herb-mix salad with yummy avocado, dried cranberries, cubed Follow Your Heart mozzarella, and crumbled Mediterranean-style Sunergia Soy Feta made an excellent accompaniment. Oh, and maybe we had a little dessert, too.

The Goods: Yes, that phenomenally gorgeous cake that you see below came to us courtesy of—and couriered by—the lovely Hannah Tai, vegan wedding-cake baker extraordinaire. Her cardamom-spiced cake with chocolate ganache and layers of raspberry and rosewater buttercream matched perfectly with today's Moroccan theme, though both she and Melissa swear they didn't confer beforehand. Today also happens to be a day of firsts! First, Ms. Melissa debuted as chef, and her scrumptious meal blew us all away. Next, tonight will be the first ever SF Vegan Drinks! Woo hoo! We're extremely excited. Finally, today was the first time that we considered partnering with Hannah for some sort of super SF Vegan Drinks surprise, so make sure and keep an eye out for something thrilling in the months to come! Whew. Back to work!

Celebration Extravaganza

The Chef: Banhwich

The Menu: Vietnamese sandwiches! And spring rolls! And exclamation points! Okay, so maybe we are a little excited, but more on that later. Let's just say that these sandwiches were quite possibly the freshest ones we've ever had. The bread was delicious, the tofu was perfectly marinated, and even the cilantro haters (okay, make that hater—there's only one) in the office found the fresh green delectable. Oh, and those spring rolls? Yeah, all we can say is that perhaps we ate more of them than was advisable. Yum! Since we are pulling out all the stops today, we also had a sweet treat in the form of an incredibly rich chocolate cake with thick, amazing peanut butter frosting from Sugar Beat Sweets,which you see pictured below and modeled by VN's resident hand model, Aurelia.

The Goods: Um, okay. Are you sitting down? Item number one: tomorrow is our fabulous editorial director/hand model's birthday, which would have been reason enough to celebrate on its own. Item two: today is the one-year anniversary of Café VegNews! That's right, our very first blog is officially a year old. Oh, but what's that you say? You're looking for more reasons to celebrate? Well maybe our brand-new, freaking gorgeous, extra-exciting website has finally launched! We've got a completely redesigned VegNews.com for your perusal. You just might want to go ahead and make sure that you don't have any plans for later, since you'll be flaking on them! Oh, did we mention that there are daily giveaways on the new site? And maybe we also have a little something we like to call the Tree Free edition—aka a completely digital version of the magazine—the first issue of which is free so you can decide just how much you love it! If anyone needs us, we will all be dead from excitement for the next 24 hours. Eeeek!

VegNews Wedding Celebration 2008

The Chef: Aurelia

The Menu: We should really say "menus," as the dishes of today's lunch were inspired by two of the wedding menus from our 2008 wedding feature in the May+June issue, which hits newsstands today! Our culinary compilation was comprised of southern-inspired fried "chicken" with barbecue sauce from Amanda Moeckel and JC Callender's menu, and from the wedding of Sharon Troy and Tim Moore we enjoyed pasta primavera with sage oil and a salad of baby greens with candied pecans, pears, and Balsamic vinegar. Most of us here at VN are unwed, but if it meant we got to eat like this, we might consider matrimony!

The Goods: We had a slew of special guests who were able to come together and celebrate vegan weddings with us today at the VNHQ. The two couples whose menus we recreated live in the area and joined us for an extremely sunny afternoon. Here they are, in all their happily married glory:
Of course, no wedding-themed celebration would be complete without a cake, right? (Well, no wedding celebration that we'd want to go to, anyway.) Thanks to the generous nature of super-star vegan baker Hannah Tai, we had an amazingly beautiful chai- and almond-flavored wedding cake. There's no way to properly describe just how lovely this creation was, so instead here's a picture, complete with the benevolent baker:
Today may go down in history as the fanciest VegNews lunch of all time. Thanks so much to our beautiful guests for coming and congratulations again to all our couples!

Delicious Leftovers

The Chef: Aurelia

The Menu: Oh, wild rice-and-cranberry-stuffed mushrooms, what would life be without you? Well, it would certainly not have been the same lunch today without them, that's for sure. The appetizer theme didn't stop with the mushrooms, as you can see. Crostini topped with either white bean aioli or a red pepper hummus made a crunchy companion to the mushier mushrooms. To complete the meal Aurelia made a great spinach salad with corn, grated carrot, and chopped nuts. Simple and delicious, this meal gave us fullness of bellies and roominess of fridge.

The Goods: No, you didn't miss a post: the mushrooms and crostini were leftovers from our awesome year-end holiday-themed party, which took place last Friday night. It was catered by the very talented vegan chef Jesse Miner, whom you may remember from our March+April Vegan Weddings feature. Chef Miner made an impressive array of finger food, and was even kind enough to send the VN staff home with cookies, which, in case it wasn't already abundantly clear, is the way directly to our hearts.

Of course, a year-end party is a great reason to go a little crazy with dessert, and that's just what our amazing publisher Joseph and associate publisher Colleen did. The photo below, taken today, is an amalgamation of the three, utterly incredible cakes that they had shipped to us from Vegan Treats in Pennsylvania. Oh. God. The cakes were so good. They were as follows: peanut butter bomb cake, coconut, and chocolate brownie cheesecake. Now. The "bomb" part of "peanut butter bomb" means that on top of the cake there are huge gobs of amazing peanut butter frosting, all covered in chocolate. You can see part of this one sticking out from the bottom of the pile. The coconut cake of course has coconut frosting, and the cake itself is so freakin' sweet it makes us want to use the word moist. Here at the VNHQ, we hate using the word moist, but, heck, sometimes it really does describe the spongy, mouthy perfection of a layer of cake. Finally, the brownie cheesecake. Not a chocolate-flavored cheesecake as the name might imply, this is a full-on cheesecake covered in hunks of brownie and drizzled with chocolate, which you can glimpse hanging out at the top of the plate in the photo. Please excuse us for the rest of the day, we are in a hyperglycemic coma.