VeganMoFo III: So, So Vegan Palate Challenge

So this really awesome person (me) had this idea that every MoFoer should do a palate challenge!  What's a palate challenge, you ask?  It's a blind taste test.  You have to guess the food given to you by taste and taste alone.  I always love watching chefs do it on reality television.  It's hilarious how wrong they can be.  Ladies and gentlemen, I laugh no more.  A palate challenge is hard!  But you too can get in on the fun.  In these 5 easy steps.

Step 1-Make a list of a bunch of ingredients you have in your house.  Separate them into 5 groups: fruits, veggies, herbs/spices, protein, and liquid.  Don't worry about being technical.  I don't care if you throw tomatoes in with your veggies.  Have a partner choose at least ten of the items to prepare for the taste test.

Step 2-Wake your husband from his afternoon nap so he's all Grumpyface McGee and ask if he'll hand you the food to taste so you don't know what you are eating beforehand.

Step 3-Blindfold yourself and walk around like friggin dork with your boobs hanging out.  Seriously, WTF?!

Step 4-Grab the food and try to guess what it is.  Make sure to use containers and try not to be sniffing them like they're a fine wine and you're a top-o-the-line d-bag.  We used mini foil cupcake liners for our test.  Nut cups would work or even condiment bowls.  For liquids, I advise using something solid.  Also, make sure your partner marks which ones you get correct/incorrect.

Step 5-Marvel at your awesomeness for partaking in the ultimate food nerd meme.  I expect everybody to get on this STAT!  Sorry, I've been dealing with CPR training all week and I like to think that I'm in an extended episode of Scrubs.

I ended up trying 20 things.  Out of the 20, I got 16 right!  Rock.  I mistook pear for nectarine and apple for pear.  And, apparently, radishes taste like spicy carrots.

Honestly, this thing is fool proof if the person helping you can't tell a walnut from an olive.  My husband couldn't even tell me what an almond was when he saw it (I KNOW!) so I chopped up everything I could think of and made him a freaking diagram of each group.  I was sure to have way more than needed because I knew what I was chopping.  It worked beautifully that way.

Here's a list of things to taste but the possibilities are truly endless: mushrooms, spinach, romaine, carrot, radish, kale, red chard,celery, nectarine, tomato, pear, dates, avocado, apple, raisins, mango, cucumber, nuts, nut butters, tempeh, seitan, tofu, beans, capers, dill relish, cilantro, parsley, chives, green onion, olives, mint, vinegars, oils, mustards, ketchup, agave, brown rice syrup, worcestershire, etc.  You can play around with preparation too(dried, canned, fresh).

So to simplify this.  For the vegan palate challenge, have a partner help you do a blind taste test on at least 10 items.  Post your score and mock those who think olive oil is tahini!  It will be greatness.  Also, when you take your blindfold off everything looks like this:

Oh, and I am totally drinking an apple mojito right now but I'm so freaking tired that I'm blogging about it tomorrow.  Later MoFos!

VeganMoFo III: Expect the Unexpected

Here we are yet again!  The third edition of MoFo is totally gonna rock your pants off your butts (I totally stole that line from Jimmy Fallon, but it's true).  First up, I had a wonderful time reading blogs this afternoon and you can see what I'm talking about on the official MoFo Blog.  As I said in my previous post, I am moving away from doing nonstop decadence this year and I'm super excited about it.

For my first post I wanted to do the vegan palate challenge, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.  This day has been beyond stressed, so I decided to start slow and give a few tips on how I kept my mofo experience last year stress free.

1. Expect the Unexpected-Let's face it: life happens.  If a recipe fails or you run out of time to make something new, blog about it.  Talk about how you added baking powder instead of soda.  We'll all share a laugh.  Tell a story about your favorite food experience or the first time you cooked for yourself.  This month isn't solely about recipes and food porn.  Some of the true gems are the stories.

2.Themes Aren't Everything-Sometimes it's easier to just wing it.  The only reason I have every single day planned out is because I'm really neurotic and obsessed with lists.  You can ask my mom...she'll tell you.  Besides, I'm sure you really have a theme and don't even realize it.

3.Take a Break-My mind went to mush towards the end of the month last year.  It's okay to not sit at your computer for 5 hours reading blogs.  Get up and walk around after an hour or so.  Too much vegan awesomeness has been known to harm.  True story.

4.Plan Ahead-Even if you have no plan, spending five minutes to think about tomorrow's post really makes things easier.  That way you can do totally awesome things like read blogs for 5 hours!

5.Don't Over Do It-Remember there is no award for the person who veganizes the most omni monstrosities.  Try to switch up the types of food that you make so that you won't feel all sickly at the end of the month.

6.Have Fun-Seriously.  Have fun!  Think of it as a bunch of friends blogging about food.  It shouldn't be work.  I mean it's work, but it's kinda awesome.

Okay.  I totally plan for a legitimate post tomorrow.  It will be like a double post!  Oh, and another new thing I'm doing this year is giving a quick rundown of what to expect for the week.  It will be on every Sunday post from now on.  But for now...

Coming up this week: the ultimate vegan palate challenge, apple mojitos, and a little Epicurious fun!

Is It Fall Yet?

Well, it's the end of September and we are still in the triple digits over here.  And to add to the super happy fun times, my air conditioner isn't working!  Great.  So, I can't cook anything if it doesn't take longer than two minutes.  I've been sorta busy as well.  I started taking classes and began writing again.  So that's been truly fun.  I needed to focus on something because being away from home with no friends was weighing on me.

In fantastical news, Vegan Month of Food (VeganMofo) begins on Thursday and I thought about what I'm gonna do.  Once again, I'm going to break my themes up by calendar week because it's easier that way.

Days 1-3 (Week 1): These will be freebies.  I honestly don't know what I'm going to do exactly.  The palate challenge will probably be one of these days and I still have to organize the other two.  Isa had this Epicurious game which seems pretty fun.  That will also probably be one of my days.

Week 2: Health Week.  I'm going to be doing photo mosaics of the food I ate that day and what exercises I did.  This is mostly to kick my butt into gear again.  Plus, I didn't have a health week last year, and my stomach did not like me by the end of the month.

Week 3: Budget Week.  I pride myself on my thriftiness, but I've never put it to the test.  I'm gonna try to make really delicious meals for super cheap.  We'll see how it goes.

Week 4: Holidays/Fall Meals.  I really wanted to do some seasonal stuff, so this will be the week.  I can't wait.  I think fall food is my favorite, followed closely by spring.

Week 5: Food Memories.  I can't wait for this week.  I love reliving those memories.  Plus, Halloween is such a great way to end this thing.

So these are my themes.  I also plan to do Movie Mondays (pairing movies and meals) and Food Network Fridays (veganizing FN meals) every week.  So I have to go get organized on this.  See you on Thursday!