This time around I used samosas and spring rolls from my local Asian market, with the addition of homemade veganized crab rangoons. These are very simple, just Twin Marquis brand wonton wrappers filled with vegan cream cheese, scallions, a dash of soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce (Annie’s brand is vegan), and a tiny bit of crumbled nori. You can customize these however you want (curry maybe?). I baked these in a mini muffin tin like a namby-pamby, but once I conquer my fear of deep frying I will never look back I am sure.

Most of my weekend was consumed by planning for my Halloween party. Fortunately, all that cooking yielded at least a week’s worth of MoFo posts. Let’s start with dessert! These Zombie Cupcakes are made from the well known and well loved basic chocolate vegan cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World. I love chocolate as much as I hate making frosting, so I covered these in a coconut milk based ganache (take a can of coconut milk, chill it so the cream rises to the top, scoop out 1/2 cup or so of the cream and melt it with a bag of vegan chocolate chips and 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract.) The zombie hands came from Bake It Pretty.

On September 14th at 6:30 PM Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Everything is Illuminated, will be at the  Harvard University Science Center to talk about his latest book, Eating Animals.

This event is free, sponsored by the Boston Vegetarian Society.

Event Page at the Boston Phoenix Website

Nachos!

However, the last time we were there (en route to see Louis C.K. at the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom, which was FANTASTIC) I got the modest sounding but magically delicious Tempeh Mash:

Tempeh Mash with homemade bread and mashed potato pancakes

I can’t even explain the how or why of this being so good. The tempeh is broken into tiny crunchy awesome bits (tempeh can be all over the place in terms of quality depending on how it’s prepared), and all the vegetables are perfectly cooked but still brilliantly colored (note the purple cabbage!) I could eat this every single day.

It seems to be a popular place to stop and get coffee for people in Northwood and you can overhear all kinds of amazing conversations about Alpaca farms and yurts and composting. They also have donuts:

Donuts!

And Love Potion:

Love Potion. Next time maybe?

Susty’s Cafe for Sustainable Sustenance

159 1st New Hampshire Turnpike

Northwood, NH 03261

603-942-5862

Susty’s on VegGuide.org

Susty’s on Google Maps

It is with great sadness that I must announce we are closing Patisserie Bleu Café for medical reasons.  My doctors have advised me that working is preventing my back injuries from healing, and could result in permanent chronic pain.  So, after much thought, consideration, and months of unsuccessful attempts to locate a buyer for the business, we are closing our doors for good as of July 24th.

Thank you for your patronage of our bakery over the past few years.   All of us at Patisserie Bleu have enjoyed getting to know you while being a part of your weddings, anniversaries, birthdays and other special occasions.  We will miss you all.

Deb Soby
Owner, Patisserie Bleu

I’m going to miss them! It looks like I’ll be baking my own cake this year (veganized crêpe cake, maybe?) But look how cute:

Vegan vanilla cake with "whipped cream" frosting and fresh strawberries, plastic gnomes added by yours truly.

Thank you Deb, I wish you a speedy recovery and good luck in your future endeavors!