Serials and Scenarios ~ Kitchen Table, Omaha Nebraska Restaurant Review ~

 I've eaten at Omaha's Kitchen Table a handful of times since it opened over a year ago. I have not been disappointed, ever. Twice I've gone to Vegan Omaha meet-ups where the entire restaurant was filled with vegans and the food was amazing... a Mexican themed food night and an Italian food night both with delectable courses with interesting and tasty twists on the classics. 

Twice, I've gone as just a random diner who wanted something delicious for dinner. (:  ) ) The latest visit was this week where I noshed on a three bean roasted red pepper burger with a side of local, fresh asparagus. In a word. Yum. The burger was delicious and the texture was perfect. 

I love the atmosphere of the restaurant, very trendy yet comfortably rustic. The kitchen is open providing the perfect smells and sounds that make the diner feel at home away from home. All guests should be able to find something perfect on the menu as they cater to all sorts of eaters who love local and fresh. 

Everything I've tasted has been very much about the taste and clearly the kitchen team loves food and preparing it for others. Plan on dropping about $15+ a person. Though they do have a happy hour that looks like it could be a bargain.  

Go to the website to see the professional and decent pictures of the joint, details about times, and to drool over the locally sourced gourmet offerings they provide. 

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Til the Cows Come Home

I'm sure you've heard that phrase before. Well. I got to experience it. 

Near the organic farm where we do a gig here and there is an organic cow set-up. Being a little sad about the fact that these "little" guys are raised for meat, I hesitated when I was invited to go on a walk through the cow pasture. 

I've seen some horrible scenes of cows up to their knees in mud in Texas feedlots, but this in not the case here. They have acres and acres of green grass, alfalfa and tasty weeds. There were about a dozen nursing babies hanging with moms scattered throughout. 

Our walk was a long one and the cows gave us lots of room.  But then came a desire for change from Pasture A to Pasture B, or coming home time. 

We had the opportunity to wait and watch until they all made the transition. We chose to, anyway. Had we kept to our agenda they would've scattered and gotten stressed. No one wants to see a stressed cow, right? So we just watched the very organized move. 

There are guard cows.  Seriously. Four mature females stood watch while we entered the pasture. And when it was time to move from one large section to another they started the process, guided the others and waited until the last cow was where it was supposed to be. Then and only then did we get the green light to pass.  

Another interesting fact: cows have nurseries. We didn't see one, but an adult or two watches several calves while the other mothers get breaks. 

A pretty cool experience that makes me glad I don't eat em, that's for sure. And glad that there are places that treat their animals with kindness during their lives. 

Scraps and Snippets ~ Vegan Muddy Buddies/Puppy Chow Cereal Treats

 Sometimes I forget how easy it is to veganize some things. Puppy Chow aka chocolate peanut butter sugar dusted pillows of deliciousness were an easy go to recipe back in the day. Nostalgia reared it's head last week when I was working on some vegan chex mix savory mixes. I still had cereal, and a little voice requested puppy chow (so she's 27 and it was clearly a grown female voice, but that's beside the point). 

Here's what I did. And the result? Ahhh. sugar dusted chocolate peanut butter pillows of deliciousness! 

4 Cups of cereal of choice, like Chex. I used half rice/half corn. 

1/4 Cup peanut butter (I used natural chunky, just peanuts and salt)

1/2 Cup vegan chocolate chips

1 TBSP oil (I used coconut oil but Earth Balance margarine or equivalent should work)

2/3 Cup vegan powdered sugar. (You can make your own if you have the patience and a high speed blender...)

Melt peanut butter, chocolate chips and oil. Mix well. Dump in cereal and stir until coated. 

In a large zipper bag dump the powdered sugar. Then dump the cereal mixture over the sugar and close bag and begin shaking until all the cereal is coated. Serve. Enjoy the nostalgia. 

Scraps and Snippets ~ Vegan Lemon Pasta Carbonara

You've seen the one pan pasta dish, right? The one all over Pinterest? Where you dump all the ingredients for a pasta meal into a pan and cook away? I've been experimenting. This was pretty tasty. I'm going to try adding olives and more lemon juice (replacing equal amounts of water) next time.  

Lemon Pasta Carbonara

8 oz pasta (I used rice spaghetti and broke it in half)

1/2-3/4 cups onion (diced)

1 pepper diced (I used half of a green and half of an orange pepper)

6 slices of vegan bacon (I used Upton's strips)

1 Cup vegetable broth

2 Cups water

1/2 Cup lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste) 

2 teaspoons of lemon/garlic pepper blend (or 1 tsp of dried or fried garlic, 1/2 tsp of pepper, 1/2 tsp of lemon peel)

2 tsp oil (I used garlic infused grape seed oil)

Chop bacon into small pieces, toss in frying pan. Add onion and peppers and fry until bacon is cooked and veggies are browning and translucent. Add the additional ingredients. Bring to a boil, turn down the heat, stir frequently until pasta is cooked and the liquid has turned into a sauce. About 9 minutes. Serve. 

Scribbles and Scrambles...You Tube Cat Fun...

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Links - Vegan, History, Animal Fun...

http://honkifyourevegan.com/2014/05/13/lets-get-vegan-on-the-tonight-show/

http://writerofftheleash.blogspot.com/2014/05/tidbit-historical-trivia.html


http://www.boredpanda.com/funny-animals-doing-yoga/?utm_source=Bored+Panda+Newsletter&utm_campaign=1927f33634-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_BP&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_097d5e6177-1927f33634-83557905

http://www.boredpanda.org/food-flower-art-lim-zhi-wei/

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Ronald's Donuts ~ Las Vegas ~ Review

Doughnuts aren't vegan. Nope, those Krispy Kreme "Hot Now" little suckers just aren't. Two years ago, my daughter & and I went to Seattle and enjoyed Mighty O's and Portland treated us to Voodoo. Since then, nada. Until last week in Vegas. 

One of our traveling companions had checked with Isa and John for the must go places in Vegas. They both said Wynn and Ronald's Donuts. 

Wynn was on our list. We ate there last year and the setting and decor is terrific, and vegan food, amazing. And that was true for this visit, too.

But I digress, we're talking doughnuts, here. So, armed with a google search of Ronald's and a taxi we loaded up and headed out for vegan doughnuts. 

And when the taxi pulled up to a strip mall at the edge of China town, we were a little "hmmm." 

We walked into a 70's dinerish doughnut shop with the classic full glass case of donuts, lots of formica and paneling. A smiling man greeted us. And two gentlemen chatted and noshed doughnuts in one of the booths. We all wondered...the question bubbles were hovering over our heads...hmmm, is this the shop? Did we spell it wrong? 

Lindsey walked toward the counter. "Uhhh, which ones are vegan?" 

Mr. Donut smiled wider. "This rack, this rack and some down here." 

"So all of these are vegan, right here?" Lindsey asked. He smiled and nodded. 

We ordered. Three of us are vegan, two others are not. We each ordered several. (Won't say how many and we did share... even with a lovely British man who was walking down the street with us while we carried our bounty.) Suffice it to say that we ordered on Thursday, used the glass casserole dishes in the condo for freshness sake, and finished them on Sunday. 

Like children in a candy store, we debated, dreamed and ordered. Hopefully we didn't leave behind drool marks. 

Juggling cups of cold, creamy almond milk and our doughnut smorgasbord  we sat down at one of the formica booths. There was a moment of awed silence as each pulled a doughnut out of the boxes and sunk our teeth into them. Oh mercy. Every. One. Of. Them.  Amazing. Sweet, tender, puffy sugar bombs of airy magic. The non-vegans were just as much in love. And I'm pretty sure the regulars who came and went weren't there because the doughnuts aren't made with animal products. 

Nope, they seemed oblivious to the contents, just looking for their sugar fix. We may or may not have ruined our lunches and might have crashed into sugar comas later that day. But. Seriously. If you are vegan, or love delicious doughnuts and find yourself in Vegas. Ronald's Donuts. Nuff said.