Adventures in Pad Thai

Who knew that something so annoying and completely metal would push me to finally teach myself to make vegan pad thai. Most of the Asian food markets in Chicago are way north all the way in uptown...which is a huge pain in the ass. After doing some sleuthing, I discovered JoongBoo Market (AKA Chicago Food Corporation) on Kimball, conveniently somewhat near my apartment. I am proud to say that I've officially found my Asian market. Has anyone else always had their go-to Asian market wherever they have lived? Well I have. And it's taken me a year to find one in Chicago...but it was worth the wait.

Here is a shot of all the amazing stuff I got at JoongBoo: concentrated cooking tamarind, roasted peanuts, firm tofu, silken tofu, rice noodles, green onion, cilantro, bean sprouts, red cabbage, sweet chili sauce, and anko & taro mochi.

Eat shit, vegan metal chef. I'm better than you.

I mainly used this recipe as a base, but changed a whole lot of things. I didn't put in carrot, broccoli, or shallots and added fried tofu. I also doubled the tamarind sauce, added about 1/3 c. more soy sauce and agave nectar. I found that it was really bland without the additions.

Making pad thai is easy!! Now I'm going to save boku bucks instead of ordering it all the time from Penny's.

Birthdays!!

April 24th was my birthday, and I received two of the most wonderful cakes in the world! The first is from my mom:

This is a vegan lemon cake with a lemon curd filling and a lemon buttercream. This was the first vegan dish/dessert that my mom has ever made me...and I was so appreciative...but it was so terrible! It's ok. The whole family was laughing and I would have never wanted any other cake. The cake was extremely dense, the lemon curd didn't set, and the buttercream separated and was really runny. We kept dunking the dense cake in soupy lemon curd and I got a tummy ache from laughing and consuming so much sugar. I have the best mom in the whole world.

The second cake was made by Stephanie Schreuich - a strawberry cake with strawberry buttercream and chocolate ganache...in the shape of a cupcake!! It was so so so fucking good. I had 3 pieces, ate a ton of candy from my pinata, had a ton of tofu dogs, and shot off a bunch of fireworks. It was the best birthday ever, but I've had a tummy ache for the last week from all the sugar and the laughing.

Passover!

The Great Northern hosted an anarchist seder tonight, which meant everyone brought an item of food or kosher wine to share, and we picked out parts from the haggadah to read and discuss at random. We also collectively recited the exodus and searched for the afikomen, as well as decided that gluten free matzo is far superior to the regular kind.

I decided to make a sweet vegan kugel with raisins, granny smith apples, and a cinnamon & ginger custard. This isn't a very attractive picture, but I always remember to take pictures of the food only after I've eaten part of it.

Then we talked about Star Wars...

and who our Harry Potter boyfriends would be....

and drank lots of kosher wine.

The Mixing Bowl Happenin's

What the hell have I been up to? I'll give you a quick summary - working my butt off too much, lovin' kids, going to too many art shows with crazy paper maiche, seeing weezer cover bands, baking my brains away with cupcakes, and watching old school green day and sum 41. Oh my god...I love the 90's...you know what I love even more? 90's boys. you know what I wish the most? that I was in that sum 41 video. I wanna skate that half pipe and be that girl who shaves her whole head except for her bangs.

Enough wishful thinking, let's get down to baking business. The Mixing Bowl Bakery's main project has been creating latin infused desserts. Here's the line up:

traditional flan

shot glass of traditional flan

tres leche mini cupcake with coconut whipped cream and slivers of mango

spicy brownies

mango lemon bars with a guava glaze

You may see some of these at El Nuevo Mexicano's restaurant benefit night for Mercy For Animals...stay tuned.

Up next - stay tuned for some new cupcake creations that I'll be creating for Bon Bon in Wicker Park.

Plus, a logo for Mixing Bowl Bakery is in the works and should make its debut soon. Visit next time to hear the story behind the name, what the hell i'm doing, and maybe some new updates and baked goods.

In other news, CHECK OUT THIS COMIC ABOUT ME - Girrl!!! -

"Girrrl!!! is a comic that we have been scheming about for months now. It is all about the adventures of your typical vegan activist radio DJ Jenny and her trusty sidekick, Aaron at a small, Midwestern liberal arts college. Together they protest evil corporations, face chicken pirate mascots, have the occasional identity crisis, and sometimes even go to class, all while giving their loyal listeners a fabulous radio show every week. There will be a colorful cast of characters including a badass Japanese exchange student and a grungy teenager who goes by “Gravy” in addition to our heroes Jenny and Aaron."

If you don't know me, no sweat. Just read the first issue and you'll get a perfectly good idea of who I am. Plus, my friends Laura and Caitlin made it...I'm not THAT vain enough to make a comic about myself.

Happy Anniversary

It's the one year anniversary of A Cupcake Chronicle. I didn't have time to blog today, so this picture of a cat wearing a hat will have to suffice...actually...I'm going to write, goddammit, even though i'm tired because this blog is THE BEST.

A Cupcake Chronicle started with a notebook.

Now it contains silly posts on cupcakes filled with obscene vulgar language from yours truly. I've thought about toning it down a little bit because, you know...my mom reads it and all and I'm trying to start a little baking business...but who the hell cares! It's been great to have a creative outlet, especially with writing since I was only used to writing papers in college and angst-y journal entries in high school.

Stay tuned for more cupcakes and other exciting happenings. I've been going on some baking adventures and I'll document them soon. Thanks, readers, for a wonderful fabulous blog year!

<3<3<3

Vacay!

I flew down to Atlanta to visit Adrienne & Nate for a few days to get out of grey Chicago and enjoy the sunny south with some sunny friends. So, I got up at 4:00 am, ran to the bus, got on the el, got on the plane, sat next to a lady reading a book written by Russell Simmons on how to get rich, and hopped into a car with beautiful Adrienne blaring Best Coast.

I WAS STARVING.

But Adrienne is awesome and she took me straight to the ORIGINAL Soul Veg on the south side of Atlanta. I went BALLISTIC.

LOOK AT THAT. QUICHE. CORNBREAD. MAC. YAMS.

After Soul Veg, hugging cats was on the agenda.

Baby Rar

And Baby Perl.

Livin' in their baby world.

Singin' all their baby songs.

About noooooooobody.

And nooooooothing.

We also went to a gallery opening where Adrienne's friend, Aubrey, had his amazing embroidery work exhibited.

I finally finished my super secret sewing project! A "Welcome" garland for Nate & Adrienne's new home! There are two panels for the cats - Baby Perl (the timid cat) & Baby Rar (the mean cat), a Ru Paul "W", a mushroom "E", a hand "L", a cupcake "C", a donut "O", a bling monster "M", and a button "E". It took a lot of love, time, work, and felt to complete this project. Please click on the picture to see the enlarged picture and all the detail I included! I'll make you one for $$$...seriously.

Adrienne and I went to The Center for Puppetry Arts. We saw a puppet show called, "The Body Detective" and made skull puppets with the children. I got to see puppets that were in the Labyrinth and saw a display on the show Dinosaurs (that show was legendary!). Ah! That place was so amazing and if you're ever in Atlanta, you have to go!

I HAD to go get some vegan sweets while I was in Atlanta, so Adrienne & Nate took me to Southern Sweets. Their strawberry shortcake cake and chocolate raspberry mousse cake were out of this world.

I love my friends.

Happy Vegan Birthday to Me!

Today was my vegan birthday. I'm four, ladies and gentlemen, four vegan years old. I found this picture that was recently taken at my friend's valentine's day party, and I feel like it's very representative of my vegan birthday. First of all, i'm wearing a big bow that says "I'm 4" in puffy paint, also, i'm holding a cat wearing a fucking bow tie. Yep, that pretty much sums up my journey thus far as a vegan.

Brenda and I celebrated my vegan birthday by making some vegan shrimp cocktail...well...not really...but I guess I just don't know what to call it. We mixed tomato, onion, cilantro, lime, valentina hot sauce, kethcup, tvp chicken, and avocado and placed it all on top of a tostada. It was really good...I ate 4...which is a lot, but I had to because I'm 4 vegan years old.

I also made myself cupcakes to share with my friends...it also gave me an excuse for people to sing me happy birthday and to blow out a candle and make a wish. If having an extra birthday wish isn't enough of an incentive to become vegan...I don't know what is. I made a chocolate cupcake with coconut whipped cream and shredded coconut topped with a chocolate almond cluster. It was pretty damn good.

But in all seriousness, it has been an awesome 4 years. I've learned a lot, volunteered a lot, figured out my niche of activism, met a ton of amazing people & animals, and have eaten/cooked a crazy amount of amazing food. If anything, I've become more aware of my surroundings - discovering the impact that my food choices have on myself, those around me, the animals, the earth, and other social justice issues. I've been enlightened by so many animals - particularly those I've nursed at shelters, visited at farm sanctuaries, and my own domestic animals - and I can't wait to meet more inspiring animals that provide me with a humbling perspective.

Enough sentimental yip yap, i'm gonna go eat a cupcake.