Ghost Post: Horizons in Philly - Again!

How weird. I was tooling around on my blog settings in order to procrastinate around the house, and I found this entry that was never published from 2011.

It's short and about Horizons in Philadelphia, which is no longer around. My understanding is that the owners have opened Vedge, which I have yet to try.

Oh well, here it is because why not?

How did I neglect to mention my visit to Horizons yesterday? When I went to see Rise Against, I stopped in at the restaurant for appetizers, dinner, and dessert.

The appetizers and entrees were awesome, but the dessert that was ordered by all four diners at my table was the Lavender Cheesecake. There was more in the title and description, but I just remember eating wonderful cheesecake.

Sadly I forgot my camera, so phone pictures are all you're going get here. [Except I can't find those right now! I guess I didn't uplaod them firt time 'round]. If you're ever in Philly, it's worth stopping in. The food is creative and delicious, and Horizons is just a nice place.

(Side note, in my head I always pronounce the word horizon, HO-rizon because in my high school Japanese class the mnemonic for the Katakana character ho was "the truck is on the HO-rizen.)

I also have the cookbooks from the restaurant New Vegan Cuisine, and Gourmet Meatless Cuisine and have never made anything from them that wasn't great.

Granted, I find that they lack some of the explanations that I enjoy (and sometimes need) in other cookbooks, and having a half-sheet pan is a must for the desserts.

I'll probably finally make my first sticky toffee pudding today from the book to celebrate the end of my semester.

9. Short Posts and Unrelated Pictures

Great first week of MoFo, fellow bloggers!

I've been doing a lot of short postings for Vegan MoFo so far and this is for a few reasons. Most of those reasons are unimportant, but the important one is that I haven't been cooking for very long.

I was a junk food vegan for years. I had cookbooks, but it was easier to subsist on convenience foods. Then I started not feeling so well. Though correlation is not causation, I began to suspect soy was the culprit. I am not anti-soy by any means, but I was eating processed soy products for every meal, every day.

So I decided I'd best stop and that's when I realized I was going to have to start cooking if I couldn't eat Chik Patties for every meal.


Here's another Philadelphia Museum of Art picture!

This was actually a year ago at the end of October, and I somehow found the PPK forums at that point. It was a huge inspiration and unfortunately cultivated in me a need to buy cookbooks like it was going out of style. I had never heard of Vegan MoFo, but became curious at the mentions on the boards. The PPK was also hosting a cookbook challenge. Though I came in at the end, it kick-started my weekly use of cookbooks to prepare balanced and exciting meals.

Since then, I've tried a host of new ingredients, new styles of cooking from around the world, and new cooking techniques. But I haven't done much in the way of creating original recipes. That's something I would like to do eventually. I know it's probably not all that scary, and I have developed a taste of what foods and flavors compliment each other. So I’ll try it out at some point. I still have a lot to learn about food and cooking, but experimenting is an important part of that process.


The owners of Ry Bread didn't want dogs to be thirsty on a hot day.

4. Philadelphia!

I visited Philadelphia over the summer, but I never got around to posting about it. Both of my sisters attended Temple University, so they were able to fill my in on the vegan scene. I love the place. It's way more bike-friendly than my nearby cities and the vegan options are plantiful.

Here are some of the highlights:

Govindas
Amazing vegan chicken cheese steak take out.


Mugshots
I had breakfast here before going to the art museum. I had the Vegan Reuben, which was pretty good. There were Vegan Treats desserts in the case, but I was short on time!


RyBread


This was the site for a post-museum lunch. They knew what's what and were able to point me to some vegan options:




Royal Tavern


My sister told me that if I wanted the best tofu club around, then this was the place to go. She was right. I ate every last bite despite feeling too full for words. Once dessert (more Vegan Treats) was packed up, it was a race to get to Sweet Freedom before it closed.

Sweet Freedom Bakery


The owners of RyBread actually suggested this place as another woman-owned, vegan-friendly business to check out. Not only is it vegan-friendly, it's all vegan and gluten-free! The desserts, along with the Royal Tavern haul, were the perfect way to celebrate the premiere of the new season of Futurama,



Unfortunately, a storm knocked out the hotel's cable, but Hulu provided some It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (so appropriate) and the cable came back just in time!




Sabrina's


Sabrina's was the site for the next day's breakfast. They make a mean tofu scramble - definitely one of the best restaurant renditions I've ever tasted.


And here are some shots of things I saw that I liked. I'm still getting used to remembering to take pictures of things and then when I do, they don't all come out, but I'm doing better!

Wales on a building!

This mural is on a building near a massive set of stairs/ramps that lead down to Schyukill River Trail (where I had my first total wipeout on my bike - very sad).

Rocky Statue


This is outside of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and is very cool.

A butterfly


I saw a lot at the Natural History museum. This is the only picture that isn't awful though.

So what did I miss that I need to do next time?