Monday, July 15, 2013

Earth Balance vegan Aged White Cheddar Popcorn

Delicious vegan popcorn is here! Earth Balance has created Vegan Aged White-Cheddar popcorn for your consumption. The flavor is spot on, the popcorn is delicious, and we can't get enough! So find a natural foods store near you and sneak this into your favorite summer movie! 

Crossroads Restaurant- Our 5 Year Anniversary Dinner

5 years after our beautiful wedding, we celebrated our wedding day at LA's newest vegan restaurant, Crossroads. Crossroad's is owned by elite vegan chef, Tal Ronnen. Never heard of Tal? Pick up a copy of his cookbook,  " The Conscious Cook," to discover his genius and you'll understand why we went to Crossroads for our Anniversary. 

Crossroads brings vegan food into the fine dining realm (finally). There are so many fantastic vegan spots but many of them offer fantastic food with, lets say, a "charming ambiance." As soon as you enter you are politely greeted by a great staff and seated (we made reservations and I suggest you do the same). Every seat was filled with a variety of LA folk. We dressed up for the occasion but many others didn't. The restaurant is perfectly decorated and has a sense of class while being very comfortable. 

Let's get to the food! We picked out a glass of Cabernet (which was perfect, not to mention they offer champagne from Domaine Carneros- another great selection) and started choosing our courses for the nights celebration. We started off with the Flat Bread which was topped with root vegetables and crispy shallots. 

The flat bread was brilliant. Although, I am sure I'd eat anything with crispy shallots! 

Next, we had the Kite Hill Cheese Plate. 
This plate was good but probably our weakest choice. The cheese had a very tofu-like texture and was paired with a delicious sweet bread and zig zags of delicious jam. 

If you've ever picked up Tal's book then you've probably made a soup. The soups in the Conscious Cook are magnificent. So we had to try soup and we went for a pea soup that had a Greek style almond yogurt. 

Next, we had two just divine dishes- a Risotto Stuffed Banana Pepper and Tortelloni stuffed with almond ricotta and topped with a spinach cream. These two dishes blew us away. 

The final dish of the night was the Scalloppini with Marsala glazed mushrooms. 
If you're familiar with Tal Ronnen, you know he had a hand in the development of Gardein. With this dish, he uses it to perfection. A rich, savory sauce covers the Gardein "chicken." Neither of us are fans of Gardein products. They aren't bad by any means, we just tend to stay away from the fake meats. We took a risk ordering this but it paid off!

Finally, dessert! We chose a cannoli and a vanilla bean panne with strawberry rhubarb on top. 
Dessert was, as the rest of dinner, spectacular. The cannoli was crunchy and airy, while the panne just tickled every taste bud. 

Crossroads is exactly what you want when you go out to dinner and dress up a little. Great atmosphere, amazing staff, and just brilliant food. Since my absolute favorite vegan restaurant, Madeleine Bistro, is on a hiatus, Crossroads fills that niche. Bravo Tal!