Amber and Matt’s Gloriously Gothic Wedding of Gorgeousness

Posted on January 27, 2013 by Hannah

Do you remember when I said I’d finished writing about my 2012 United States adventures? Well, it turns out that was a big fat lie and my nose has since grown several centimetres.

Image courtesy of Stephen Melvin

You see, I hadn’t yet written about the event that was the initial springboard for this overseas adventure of mine: my linguist soulsister Amber’s wedding to the wonderful Matt. When Amber first told me about her engagement and said she planned to invite me to the wedding, I don’t think she expected me to quit my job in Australia, apply for a two-year Canadian working visa, and then show up on her doorstep with my suitcase two days before the ceremony.

Be careful what you wish for, eh?

Amber has already extensively covered her gorgeous and unique wedding on her own blog (see here), so I’ll keep my gushing to a minimum and instead show you a little of the magic from my eyes. Here we go!

Image courtesy of Stephen Melvin

After a morning of hair appointments, juice drinking, make-up wizardry, and gasps of awe over the dress, Amber, Matt, and a collection of lucky friends spent the afternoon before the wedding taking official wedding photos.

I fully believe that every bride should receive a foot massage whilst drinking a delicious beverage before her wedding. Being a model is hard yakka, after all.

Image courtesy of Stephen Melvin

As the appointed marriage hour drew near, we ladyfolk accompanied Amber to the venue, soon vying for opportunities to get photos taken with our gorgeous bat-adorned queen.

Please ignore me in the above photo and instead cast your eyes upon:

1) One of the greatest photobombs of all time, courtesy of Emily behind me (love it!)
2) The fact that there is an honest-to-goodness ray of sunshine falling on Amber. She’s literally bathed in light (love it!)

Definitely check out Amber’s wedding ceremony post, because if I think too much about the written vows (which are a secret shared by we who attended), I’ll need to fix my mascara again. However, I will point out that Amber and Matt made and shared a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to symbolise their union. It was awesome.

Do you want to know what else was awesome? The food. Oh my heavens, the food. All gluten-free and vegan, the menu comprised not only the best wedding food I’ve ever had, but the best group event food I’ve ever had.

The buffet included such delights as fresh fruit cups and kebabs with vanilla-mint syrup, raw Caesar salad with avocado dressing and Brazil nut parmesan, spaghetti with pesto, white beans, and broccoli, Indian chickpea curry with roasted cauliflower, roasted baby potatoes, and much hummus. Because that’s how food bloggers roll. Woot!

And then, of course, there was the wedding cake. Cake and a veritable mountain of cupcakes, all gluten-free, all vegan, all delicious. While most guests had to choose between the chocolate cupcakes with raspberry jam filling and mocha buttercream frosting and the vanilla-chocolate chip cupcakes with peanut butter filling and cookie dough buttercream frosting, I got to eat many of each over the course of my visit.

The rest of the night passed in a whirlwind of music, carrying my heels (glitter is pain, dahlinks), new friends, laughter, snatching moments with the bride and groom, steadfastly trying not to be in the path of the kale bouquet during the bouquet toss, and feeling utterly elated for the happiness of my shining Amber and the brilliant Matt.

Thank you, Amber and Matt, for allowing me to celebrate with you. I am grateful in so many, many ways.

An Assortment of Amazing, Astonishing, and/or Awful American Snacks, Part Three

Posted on November 21, 2012 by Hannah

Sure, I’m in Canada now, but that’s no reason to stop giggling at (or yearning for more) wild and wacky American snacks, right? Right.

(You can catch up on Parts One and Two here.)

Way back when in Kansas City, Amber and I discovered a local baked vegan doughnut maker at the Bad Seed Farmers Market. I showed you EmmaBee’s coffee glazed almond vegan doughnut in this post, but thought you might also like to see the apple cider and chocolate almond doughnuts.

File these under Acceptable American Snacks.

However, at the other end of the spectrum…

Since when is sweet caramel seasoning appropriate for “vegetables and pasta dishes”? No, really, I want to know. Is it spaghetti bolognese to which I should be adding powdery white sweet caramel flavouring? Or is it more likely that a carbonara, or perhaps tagliatelle al nero di seppia, would benefit from this secret ingredient?

TELL ME AMERICA I NEED TO UNDERSTAND.

Nice try, America. Yes, you win points for calling me a lady, but I shan’t forget your caramel vegetable pasta insanity that easily.

Ha! Fooled you! Not only were these licorice watermelon seeds a snack from Japan, but I ate them in Australia. Sing with me now: One of these things is not like the others; one of these things just doesn’t belong!

The reason I snuck these Japanese licorice-flavoured watermelon seeds into today’s post about American snacks is, well, um… I wanted to. The seeds were simultaneously bizarre, insanely salty, hyper-sweet, nutty, woodsy, anise-y, and hard to chew with the shells on yet impossible to stop eating.

I think an onmyōji might have cast a spell on the packet.

I might have bought LaLoo’s Rumplemint goat’s milk ice cream less because it was lactose-friendly (which, of course, is a great thing for we lactards) than because the name of the company makes me think of this Disney song. And Disney songs are, in general, a good guiding force in anyone’s life. (We all have our metaphorical Kocoums, right, Lisa?)

Ridiculous ramblings aside, I was truly surprised by how much I enjoyed LaLoo’s ice cream, particularly as I usually get bored by ice cream around the third spoonful. The fresh mint (rather than fake peppermint, hurrah!) flavour of the ice cream base, combined with its fluffy yet rich texture and the generous scattering of dark (not compound) chocolate, made for a truly refreshing treat on a humid and sticky Washington, D.C. evening.

I love kombucha. I drank much kombucha in the U.S. Heck, I even made some myself.

However, I did not enjoy this High Country Wild Root kombucha. It tasted medicinal rather than magical to me, and I was forced to palate-cleanse with two more servings of LaLoo ice cream.

Natural Power-Fu! POWER-FU! It’s natural! And healthy and vegan and eggless and vegetarian and (not-)chicken and salad and all the fonts! POWER-FU!

That is all.

P.S. In case you were wondering, yes, my mind is currently on the frizzy side as a result of the stress of sublet-hunting and looming job-hunting. If only I had more power-fu.

Dinner Theatre and Cozy Nights in Kansas City, Missouri

Posted on October 29, 2012 by Hannah

Once upon a time in September, I stayed with Amber and her husband Matt in Kansas City for three weeks. Once upon a time right now, I wrote up a few final Kansas City memories.

(I apologise in advance for the scattered nature of my writing in this post. Lisa and I were out until 3am last night/this morning at a shadow cast screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show [hilarious!], and today I attended an International Festival of Authors event. Me = tired in my mindhead.)

1. New Theatre Restaurant

I was thrilled to be invited by Amber’s utterly lovely parents to attend their regular dinner theatre adventure (with Amber too, of course) at the New Theatre Restaurant. After being served a vibrant salad appetizer and partaking in an extravagant buffet spread with options as diverse as cauliflower cheddar gratin, baked polenta with marscapone cheese, steak, chicken cacciatore, buttered baby carrots, buttered green beans, black bean salsa, and breaded fish, we laughed and laughed our way through Social Security, a play headlined by I Dream of Jeannie herself, Barbara Eden.

To add extra smiles to the night, intermission saw the arrival of an apple cobbler and a chocolate cobbler, the latter of which was like a chocolate fondant with a molten middle, topped with crunchy toffee and almonds. (You all know how I feel about toffee and nuts.) Thank you, Cheryl and Ken, for allowing me to be your guest for the night. It meant so much to me.

2. The Mystery Train Dinner Theatre

What’s better than one dinner theatre adventure? Two dinner theatre adventures! To thank Amber and Matt for hosting me in their gorgeous abode, I bought us tickets to The Mystery Train for my final night in Kansas City.

The Mystery Train is an interactive murder mystery wherein, at the close of each scene, meals are served while the cast/suspects wander amongst the guests spreading gossip, answering questions (bribery helped) and, sometimes, trying to cover their tracks. It was rather fun and, as a bonus, our vegetarian meal was surprisingly delicious. Corn and wonton chips with black bean dip, spring green salad with hazelnut vinaigrette, penne pasta with a roasted vegetable tomato sauce, and a brownie tart to finish.

3. Assorted Snapshots of Deliciousness Unrelated to Any Dinner Theatre

Sweet rich creamy mango lassi at Korma Sutra. See also: red onion attempting to flee for its life from my plate.

More Ghenghis Khan self-created stir-fry shenanigans! Loved that place.

This photo was taken right before I spilled some of my deeply-roasted-lovely Parisi coffee directly onto my white shirt. It took me half an hour to notice I’d been walking around with coffee on my shirt. What can I say? I’m clearly the cool kid everyone wants to emulate.

4. Cozy Night the First, aka Raw Vegan Sushi and Kimchi Night

Do you know what is super fun? Making raw vegan sushi filled with jicama-parsnip-sunflower-seed rice in the company of Amber and Hillary (we also made normal vegetarian sushi and inari pockets).

Homemade kimchi is also awesome, particularly when eaten atop vibrant green things. Yay healthful snacks!

5. Cozy Night the Best, aka Hello There Brad Pitt

Freshly-popped popcorn with melted Earth Balance, chilli flakes, and nutritional yeast.

Soulsister.

Interview with the Vampire, for the first time.

Newly-bought sweet-smoky incense, curlicues of smoke spiraling up into the air.

Laughter, whispers, smiling, together.

Miss you, Amber.

Kansas City Sweets: Little Freshie and Christopher Elbow

Posted on October 18, 2012 by Hannah

If I ever get kidnapped, it will likely be because a gang of warlords put a sign like the one above next to a truck built for people trafficking, and I’ll simply have wandered straight up the ramp into the darkness asking “Do you have any Ring Pops? Or Trolli sour gummi worms? Wait, why are you chaining me up? Give me back my phone! Where’s my ridiculously overpriced artisan dark chocolate?”

In other words, I can’t resist a sign proclaiming “sweets”. It was just such a sign that lured Amber and me into Little Freshie one day (after we’d delighted in FÜD’s raw vegan wonders), a gorgeous little Kansas City café.

We had a pistachio au bon macaron which, while pleasantly sweet, did fall into the all-too-common trap of tasting more like vague almonds (you know, the kind that can never remember where they left their keys) than pistachios.

I also ordered a shrub, because how often do you get to drink a woody plant of relatively low height? Never, that’s when, because apparently a “shrub” is Little Freshie’s special soda mixed with house-infused vinegar. I opted for the blackberry lavender shrub, and found it to be an refreshing yet bizarre drink, as it was completely tart (not sweet! the sign lied!), fizzy, and gradationally pink.

All things should be gradationally pink, don’t you think?

Conveniently located just a few minutes down the road from Amber’s place resides Christopher Elbow’s chocolate store. As a chocolate blogger, it behooved me to visit, and dear golly am I glad I was so behooved.

Look ye upon Christopher Elbow’s Pecan Toffee, the simple name of which belies its mind-bogglingly-crackly-crispity-cleaving-buttery-heady-intense-sparkling-pecan-saltkissed-rich-dark-chocolate-butterscotch-more-now-please flavour.

If I could, I would happily live on nothing but this pecan toffee, raw cauliflower and zucchini mixed with vegan kimchi and nutritional yeast, Synergy Divine Grape kombucha, and a daily dose of sunshine forever. Or perhaps a month.

After that, I’d likely get bored and want to switch things up. I might replace the cauliflower and zucchini with roasted Brussels sprouts and pumpkin, and the Christopher Elbow Pecan Toffee with Christopher Elbow Fleur de Sel Turtles.

For non-Americans like me who, upon hearing the word “turtle”, think not of confectionary but the creature upon which Discworld rests, Christopher Elbow describes this treat as “perfectly roasted pecans and soft caramel encased in premium dark chocolate … [topped] off with Grey Sea Salt from France. Addictive!”

Here’s how I would describe it: aroma like fruity caramel and the scent of pralines being made in Savannah’s old-fashioned candy stores, chocolate dissolving into rich sweetness around silky firm caramel with notes of golden syrup, marshmallows, and demerara sugar, salt flakes dominant and assertive, heightening the flavour like Berthillon’s salted caramel ice cream, caramel luscious as it melts away like butterscotch fairy-floss.

But, you know, Christopher Elbow’s marketing blurb works too.

Kansas City Caffeine Crawl, Day Two

Posted on October 16, 2012 by Hannah

With Day One of the Kansas City Caffeine Crawl under our belts (and, surprisingly, a good night’s sleep tucked in there somewhere too), Amber and I set off for Day Two of our coffee adventures, this time with her husband and his friend in tow.

Another seven coffee stops? Bring it on.

Day Two started at About The Coffee, where we were shown how to roast and cool coffee beans using “standard household objects” like a popcorn popper and vacuum cleaner.

Now, look. Yes, a vacuum cleaner is pretty standard, and perhaps one day I will find myself pregnant and barefoot in the kitchen with a giftwrapped Dyson on the bench for my birthday. But a popcorn popper? I don’t know a single person in Australia who even owns a popcorn popper, let alone would call it a standard household item.

Oh, ‘muricah.

Obligatory “Hi Amber!” photo. Hi Amber!

Stop two was The Roasterie, which had recently installed an honest-to-goodness airplane above its production factory. Why? Don’t ask me. Boys and their toys and all that.

Wheeeee, lookee all the coffee! We tried three different beans (made into coffee, of course) at The Roasterie, and I became even more certain than I prefer earthy to tangy coffee. More importantly, however, I worked on perfecting my impression of how a coffee bean must feel when it realises it’s about to be roasted.

At The Filling Station, I discovered that my newfound ability to drink radioactively-pink shots doesn’t mean I can swallow coffee whiskey without wanting to gag. Lesson learned.

Coffee chocolate cupcakes were also on offer at The Filling Station, but they weren’t really my thing. I don’t love American-style frosting; it’s just too… much. Too sweet, too much.

What was not too much, but instead rather perfect, was Mud Pie Vegan Bakery and Coffeehouse. This was the greatest of all the stops oh yes indeedy yes yes. Not only did Mud Pie give us multiple lattes and chais made with soy, almond, cashew, and coconut milk…

…we were also treated to a plethora of sweet vegan deliciousness that made my heart shiver.

Ain’t no one a-gonna get between me and vegan peanut butter krispie slice, y’all!

That right there? That’s me, happy. So very, very happy (and a little crazed-lookin’).

I also tried the lemon bundt cake (not tangy enough for me, but I’ve come to expect Americans to over-sweeten everything), the vegan cheddar sausage scone, and the chocolate chip cookie. But nothing compared to the aforementioned peanut butter-y goodness.

At Quay Coffee we were taught how to make both nicely and badly brewed coffee in a Chemex, but I didn’t learn much as I was distracted by the barista who was clearly trying to flap his arms and fly away.

After this came a stop at Revocup Coffee Roasters where we tried several Ethiopian coffees. Sadly, my brain was confuzzled by this point and I didn’t take any photos. Our last cafe of the day was Lattéland Espresso & Tea, which served cups of espresso and little fig newtons. I, however, ended up wandering outside in a daze to sit in the sun like a lizard.

I only wish I’d smuggled out more Mud Pie Bakery goodies in my handbag to snack on like a lizard, too.

P.S. See Amber’s post on Day Two here.

Wayfaring Chocolate

adventures in chocolate, travel, cooking, and living

Tag Archives: Kansas City

Amber and Matt’s Gloriously Gothic Wedding of Gorgeousness

An Assortment of Amazing, Astonishing, and/or Awful American Snacks, Part Three

Dinner Theatre and Cozy Nights in Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City Sweets: Little Freshie and Christopher Elbow

Kansas City Caffeine Crawl, Day Two