Vegan MOFO: PDX to SFO via STS

Oh, fellow MOFO'rs, has it really been 12 days since my last missive? You know that feeling when you *should* be doing something (like posting regularly) and you're all set up to do so but then several days go by and it just feels like it's too late to make it up? Yeah, that happened!

No worries, let's dive back in again, yeah? Jeff and I took an anniversary trip (we've been married for 5 years now, woo!) to San Francisco this year. Because flights are notoriously late into SFO due to ATC flow (as in, the fog slows everything down and ATC has to fit in all those late flights throughout the day SOMEWHERE) we decided to fly through Santa Rosa after I got off of work and stop in at a brewery that's been on my list for ages: Lagunitas. The original plan would be to hit up Russian River that Sunday and then head to Lagunitas on Monday, but apparently Lagunitas is closed on Mondays! No worries, I can stop in at Russian River any ol' time.

Lagunitas was, in a word, adorable. The back patio was beautiful and one could have their dog there if one wished (the people next to us brought their rescue Greyhound, which was the best). It's in Petaluma's commercial area, which meant there wasn't a whole bunch to do around our hotel after stopping in at the brewery. Some photos from that magical visit:

This is kind of a terrible photo, but Santa Rosa Airport is actually the Charles Shulz Airport! The airport has these cute statues and is super tiny and my new favorite.

After getting into STS, we picked up our rental car and drove south to Petaluma, where Lagunitas was housed. As I said, Lagunitas is in the commercial area, so we found a cheap hotel nearby and walked there, planning our visit to Petaluma Proper to happen the next morning. Can I just repeat how much I love Lagunitas? They are veggie friendly with their sandwiches (most you can just leave the cheese off) and all but one of their beers is listed as vegan on Barnivore. Plus, pups!

 

 Petting the pup, as I do.

 

 The BEST sampler.

I had the Roasted Veggie Grill (minus cheese!) and we shared a super salty pretzel. Like, ridiculously salty. This is coming from a couple of salt fiends, even!

This is Jeff's face, all the time. hahahahaha!

Tomorrow I will share about our (short) time in Petaluma and a visit to Oakland for, you guessed it, more beer!

A Day in My Work Life. Or, How the Shamrock Run Brought 2 Vegans Together.

When I first started my training at the airline, I found out one of my new coworkers not only had the very same water bottle I did (a very Portland-specific Shamrock Run Camelbak bottle) but also a camera lens coffee cup! When talking about how similar our tastes ran, my trainer said, "oh, but she probably isn't vegan." To which I replied "OH MY GOD YES I AM!"

And that, my dears is how I found my first vegan coworker.

A couple of you have asked me to write about my daily work life. The angle I thought it best to attack would be that of food. See, my shifts are not normal shifts. While I have held several jobs at a time for the last ten years, my hours (for the most part) were between the 7am-6pm range. My body was set to specific meal times.

Now, since I managed to bid a morning schedule, my shifts start between 4am and 6am. To give myself time to get to the airport and ready for work (airlines are incredibly strict about on-time performance) I have to get up at 2am most days. Dudes, this is not an ideal meal time. I can barely keep my eyes open, let alone shove food in my mouth. However, my job is physical! I'm on my feet all day long, bringing planes in, pushing planes out, sorting baggage, greeting passengers, etc. I barely get time to sit down, which is quite the change from an office environment. Don't get me wrong, I love being active and physical, but it's definitely been a learning experience.

ANYWAYS, back to the food. Most mornings I can handle coffee and two pieces of toast with Smart Balance and nutritional yeast. I find that much like how I fuel myself for running, the less on a sleepy stomach the better.

Lunchtime is different. Usually, my lunch takes place around 8am. What is that even?! Time for pancakes? Tempeh bacon? I've been working at making food ahead of time so I don't have to buy lunch at the airport—which, considering it's the airport of the vegan mecca, is not so bad.

Just this week, I tossed couscous (it's almost instant!) with sauteed 'shrooms and tomatoes from my vacant neighboring apartment's tomato plant.

Delicious, yeah? I chowed down on that food so fast, it was ridiculous. Apparently planes = hunger.

Now, eating lunch at 8am brings up a conundrum. When is dinner time? After failed "snacking sessions" I've decided to enjoy the hobbit way of life and call lunch "second breakfast" and it solves all conundrums AND throws an extra meal in my day.

Unfortunately, by the time actual dinner rolls around, I'm either conked out on the couch or too tired to cook. My poor husband has been eating a lot of baked potatoes lately.

Here is a bonus, grainy, very early morning shot of that blue moon some weeks back:

Vegan Mofo 2013 - Buffalo Tofu & Absolute Boredom

Yesterday was Labor Day and like many of you, I had it off. I wish it were because my employer shut down for the day (hahaha, airlines don't shut down!) and gave everyone a break, but actually, I was on call and enough people wanted the holiday pay I wasn't needed. So I found myself staring at internet for hours, looking for inspiration for dinner. I found it hidden under some buffalo sauce at Don't Get Mad, Get Vegan's post here.

See, I have never had buffalo sauce. Growing up poor meant we ate a lot of substantial potato/rice/corn dishes, things that were cheap and decidedly not frivolous. The first time I had finger food covered in sauce I was at least 20 and totally not a fan of getting messy. My recent forays into vegan wings have included a knife and fork and sauces that do not include buffalo, that sauce of hot sauce and butter. I was intrigued, though.

So, I tackled the recipe. I used a buffalo sauce recipe I found elsewhere, but....I don't know where that tab went. I know it included too much oil and the perfect amount of Frank's Red Hot and spices. I made fries to go along because, duh.

The verdict? I thought this was delicious! The sauce was my right kind of spicy and the bleu cheeze dressing was just the right tang. My only change next time would be to cut down on the oil in the buffalo sauce recipe (which is still missing) to make it slightly less rich.

So, what does this have to do with boredom? First, if I don't have projects or other jobs to accomplish on my days off, I get so bored. In mindlessly scouring the internet for hours (quite literally hours, I was so pissed at myself for wasting so much time) I decided I needed to test out my flight benefits a wee bit sooner. So tomorrow, I'm hijacking my friend and lifelong travel buddy Sarah and we are headed to my Seattle for the day! It's just a 40 minute flight and we haven't had an adventure in so long. I plan on taking her to Mighty-O and to see the Fremont Troll and perhaps climb to the top of the Space Needle.

Until tomorrow!

Vegan Month of Food, Day 1.

Hello vegans and vegan lovers!

It's so great to be hitting Vegan Mofo time again. I feel so inspired by the community to cook and bake such wonderful and new things. This year, I don't really have a plan for posting, but that could change! Watch out, world!

So, as I mentioned before, I started a new job at an airline. This has proven to be the craziest summer I can ever remember, and I've some crazy ones! I'm planning on taking full advantage of my flight benefits this month and taking my husband to San Francisco for our fifth (!!!) wedding anniversary. Of course, I will be posting lots of photos of the delicious things we plan on hitting up.

For now, though, I thought I'd share a couple random photos I found in my phone. What is Vegan MoFo if not random sometimes?

First, Hood & Portland to Coast, one of the most awesome running/walking relays in the USA, took place last weekend. This is my second year participating and I just love it so much. A teammate baked me my own personal size vegan marionberry crumble!! I snacked on this thing after all my legs and it was the best.

Sometimes I forget to pack a lunch for work. Well, it's more that I have to get up at the ungodly hour of 2:30 or 3am and have no desire to cook the night before in this unseasonal heatwave Portland has been experiencing. By "heatwave" I mean "stupid hot thick humid times." When I forget lunch, there are some awesome options at PDX I can turn to, like Elephant's Deli, who recently had a vegan quinoa curry bowl. They also carry this vegan chocolate mousse that is TO DIE FOR.

My husband and I recently hit up Sen Yai, a new outpost of the Pok Pok empire right down the street from our house...next to Pok Pok. Jeff was not impressed by the food he ordered OR the service, but I loved my dish, which was called Suki Haeng and is available vegan. I don't know what was in that sauce, but holy crap it was good.

The other day, a friend and I hit up Fire on the Mountain for their "Mountainfest," which we assumed meant beer festival but actually just meant live music and pints outside. The thing about FOTM that makes them super awesome? They make vegan wings. VEGAN. WINGS. They are a delicious baked seitan concoction. So, I had them with raspberry habenero sauce and they were delicious. Also, beer. The wings are so much better than the beer.

Thanks for reading! Tune in tomorrow!

2013 Will Be My Year

Hello blog-land!

So many things have happened in the past couple months that I don't even know where to catch up. So, the basics:

• I recently (as in, December?) took on a bigger responsibility in Vegan Iron Chef, which is awesome and teaching me A LOT.
• I turned 30. I had a table full of free drinks and I went to bed before the party ended. 
• I graduated college! I have an English degree now and feel SO DARN SMART. 

and finally, the very best update:

• I got a new job! At an airline! 

 I love where I work now. I really do. It can be crazy, but being around animals every day has been SO good to my soul. On a whim, I applied for a ground service job at an airline where one of my closest friends works and managed to snag the job! I had to suffer through a full day interviewing process/intense federal background check which led to 2011 W-2 gathering mania. I was sweating bullets, but every single job I've had, I've gotten because of who I know and this one was no different. I officially start July 8th!

So, what does that mean? It means I will be out on the tarmac, marshaling planes in and pushing them back out and sorting luggage and avoiding lavatory duty. It means Jeff and I can travel for free (on standby) wherever this airline flies (internationally to Canada and Mexico). We are also able to take advantage of airline agreements with like 90 other airlines. I will be able to travel so much more, which has been a high priority for me for awhile. The hours will be nuts (low seniority = weekends, holidays and either super early or super late shifts) but honestly, it'll be worth it. Also, I haven't been able to work full time with my school schedule, so I will also be able to save even more for travelling!

Obviously, this doesn't use my degree one bit, but then again, neither does my current job! I've taken some time to polish some editorial and writing examples and am planning on joining the Copyeditor Freelance Association in the next couple weeks. Editing is something I've been trained to do in my spare time with the last couple of quarters and now, instead of paying ridiculous tuition to do it, I hope to actually make some money off of it!

So, stick with me friends. Add me to your new feed conglomerates (RIP Google Reader!) and keep an eye on this guy. We've got some travellin' to do.

VIda Vegan Con (2)!

First, I'd like to apologize for the radio silence for the last 7 months. I'm in my final month of my undergrad career (!!) and combined with work, Vegan Iron Chef, and running, I just find myself falling asleep at the end of the day (or, not so end of the day) instead of blogging. After this weekend, though, I will (most likely) be headed back to the ol' blogging grindstone!

Why now? You see, Vida Vegan Con is back in town this weekend! I will undoubtedly find myself energized and motivated all over again by the awesome attendees and range of topics the conference has to offer.

This is my second time at the conference (second time as an assistant, even) and I am so excited. I didn't recap it at all last time, but I fully plan on blogging about it this year! Please let me know if you'll be there!

Thanks for sticking with me!

Nøgne ø Brewery

I absolutely dropped the ball on recapping our most recent trip (and MoFo, for you vegans reading). School and work and life just caught up with me. In fact, I'm writing this in the tutoring room of the Athletic Center at PSU while I wait for sporty students to beg me for help on their writing.

To apologize, here is a little post on our visit to one of Norway's awesome breweries, Nøgne ø. To say the name, you have to make the "neuuk neuuk" sound the 3 Stooges are famous for.

Jeff and I first found beer by Nøgne ø at John's Marketplace in SW Portland. It was expensive and pretty damn good considering the tiny little bottle shipped from (almost) the Arctic Circle.

One day, while searching for cool Norway things instead of working on homework or something useful, I found Nøgne ø's website and realized that the brewery was right on the way on our drive from Kristiansand to Oslo. I also found out the brewery offered tours and tastings. How could we not visit?

So, I rearranged our rental car schedule (and saved us $150 in the process, somehow) and set up a time to tour the brewery. Good thing, too, since Norway has strict alcohol regulations (on par with those in Utah) and beer that wasn't Duff (FOR REALS) was not available outside of the liquor store (thereby making it incredibly expensive).

The sad selection at the supermarket.

First, I have to comment on how beautiful this brewery is. It overlooks a lake and is in an old power station in the middle of nowhere. I mean, Norway itself is stunning and breathtaking. This building is no different.

 

Our tour was a group tour, but we were the only people who weren't from Norway. The tour included 2 different sakes and 6-8(!!!) different types of beer. Because of our "refined beer palates" the guide introduced us to the brewery's more adventurous beers. Norwegians are accustomed to drinking beer akin to PBR, so the tour guide was excited to let us try the good stuff.

And, my friends, it was GOOD.

I couldn't tell you everything we tried, but I remembered some of the "special issue" types: Double Hop IPA, Single Hop Citra, Beyond the Pale, Dark Horizon (my favorite!!) and Jolly Pumpkin (not spiced whatsoever, just pure pumpkin flavor). The pours were excellent and we got sweet glasses out of it. The actual brewery had Rogue AND Bridgeport Brewing Co. flags hanging on the walls, making this trip extra special to us Portlanders.

 

 

 

 

If you ever find yourself in Norway and are a fan of beer, I would highly recommend taking a tour of this place. It's only about two hours from Oslo and most definitely worth the trip. I will say they don't sell the higher alcohol stuff in their gift shop due to the Norwegian alcohol rules, but since most of their business is importing, a good beer shop in your area (I've found it at John's Marketplace and Belmont Station in Portland) will carry the brand.