Where the candles at? Roasted vegetable lasagna with cashew bechamel and tofu ricotta

A Story about Rice Noodles

This wasn’t my first attempt at a gluten-free lasagna, but is my last using rice noodles. Now, I’ve always been avoidant of no boil noodles, but there was no choice here. I didn’t notice it printed on the box until I was home from the store. I had a gluten-free pal visiting and of course I’m going to accommodate. Normally, I have no issues with gluten free rice spirals in my mac & cheese, so I was feeling optimistic. I used plenty of roasted red pepper marinara and a triple batch of Lagusta’s deliciously tangy, cashew based bechamel to, for lack of a more amusing word, flood the noodles, and even covered the entire lasagna with foil throughout its time in the oven. 24 hours later, my point is this: if I’m going gluten-free on another baked pasta dish, I’m using eggplant and zucchini noodles, because the real horror was to come.

Here I was, sending my friends home with lunch leftovers  and looking forward to my lasagna at work, and it lost any sense of purpose. It lost any hint of the delicately layered construction I had worked so hard on. The rice pasta congealed with the balsamic roasted eggplant, tomatoes, zucchini and bell peppers into one large, semi-mushy block. There were no glorious lasagna leftovers to await. I forgot them at home as it was, reheated them for dinner, and was faced with mutant activity. I suppose if I wanted to, I could have used a knife to spread this new concoction onto a slice of bread, but that’s not my style.

Coincidentally, now that I think about it, I actually did have a great aunt who was both Italian, and a hermit, in her later decades, and she would have been just as dramatically appalled as I was. Call me sensitive and into textures, but it was birthday week. Long story short: Skip the DeBoles rice noodz and make that damn bechamel.

The spread: Roasted Vegetable Lasagna, Sweetpea cupcakes, blueberry chocolate chip crumb pie, ciabatta, bacon roasted chickpeas from Hearty Vegan Meals for Monster Appetites and Arbequina olives

Various crudites, salt & pepper kettle chips, watermelon mimosa & ranch

The creamy ranch recipe (which was a dressing thickened with soaked cashews and served as a dip), from the Spiral Diner, is available in the Sunny Days in Texas zine. All proceeds of this vegan cookzine are being donated to the Sunny Days animal sanctuary in La Coste, TX, who recently experienced a traumatic drought and always appreciate help! It’s heartfelt and contains recipes from folks that I like SO MUCH from the internets, many of whom I saw at the con, had met in the past, or will one day reach across The PPK and high five.  I’ve made two other dishes so far: the popcorn tofu (had to cut back the recipe for FORTY just a tad) and roasted red pepper aioli.

Smurfy has more on the zine here.

Bar-wise, birthday-wise, I do have myself a nice little liquor collection, and it was ready to go for White Russians, Watermelon Margaritas, and whatever else was fancied.

My little bar

Can you think of a more indulgently appropriate birthday cocktail than a coconut creamer White Russian? Nada.

The following watermelon margarita, inspired by Lauren Fitzgerald’s (of Millennium and Portobello) “market-driven” mixology demo at the Montavilla Farmers Market this past weekend, is totally in the running for 2011′s birthday cocktail:

Watermelon Margarita test run: fresh yellow watermelon juice, fresh lime juice, clementine liquor (subbed for Harlequin), silver tequila and a sea salt & cayenne rim

Learning how to make cocktails at the Montavilla market with the lovely Lauren Fitzgerald and her assistant.

Speaking of markets, I hit up three over the Labor Day weekend. This mini haul is from the Hollywood market, with a couple of bonus additions and the Sunny Day Farms zine for inspiration. Come to me, heirloom tomatoes!

My weekend also included a long-awaited date with the Flavor Vegan over cocktails and dinner at Sweet Hereafter.

I’ve caught myself joking more than once about how Soy Curls are so three, if not four, years ago, and I take it back.

The Buffalo Sub at Sweet Hereafter changes everything. It features hot soy curls, lettuce, tomato, tangy ranch dressing and creamy miso chive cheese in a crusty baguettewich (yeah, I said that) and blows every other tasty option I’ve tried at this bar away. Plus, you know, Chelsea is adorable, and we got to catch up on life and that con thing.

What happens on your neighborhood lounge's back patio stays on your neighborhood lounge's back patio?

I have a sneaking suspicion that Jeff and Maeve, the dear friends and culinary artists behind what’s coming below, knew this cake would be censored in order to ease up on decorating costs.

Inside the box lies my custom-designed, 28th birthday cake, emblazoned with a hilarious and offensive in-joke, and the most thrilling trio of maple, pretzel & peanut butter that has ever existed (to me, anyway). I doubt it could ever happen again, unless Evan was involved.

It was amazing, and I was joking earlier about the decor, because I thought it was all fantastic! I hadn’t seen a cake this exciting since my sophomore year of college and the Alec Baldwin-penis cake from Sweet-N-Nasty bakery. A positive, maturing night to remember, nearly a decade before.

The big semi-reveal:

Maple. Pretzel. Peanut Butter. Any guesses?

Friends. Portland. Vegetable Gifts. Vegan Cake. Love ‘em.

p.s. Naturally, I went to Portobello for dinner on my birthday and swooned over pan-fried gnocchi with summer squash. It’s a Portland vegan tradition.