​This recipe is inspired by one of my favorite podcasts, Pod Save America. When a podcast has a sponsor, the hosts usually have to read ad copy provided by the sponsoring company. Usually, you just read the ad copy, and move on. The the hosts of this show, however, tend to make fun of the ad copy that these companies sometimes come up with. Perplexing, I know. I mean, the sponsors are clients, and one doesn't make fun of one's client, right? Not in the Crooked Media universe...they burn away on what the sponsors' advertising teams write for them.

But I suppose, as former speech writers for President Obama, if anyone can properly burn someone's writing, it's them. As a listener, it makes me actually look forward to the ads, which I assume the hosts are fully aware of. I do wonder how they explain that to the sponsors. I guess I could have asked one of the hosts when I randomly met him (Jon Lovett) at an LA vegan eatery last week. Here's what it looked like when that happened...

It wasn't that random, actually...it was at a place a block away from the venue where we just saw him perform his live podcast Lovett or Leave It. One of the podcast sponsors is a meal kit delivery service who boasts a "hoppy cheddar sauce" as one of the recipes you can make. The hosts have been having lots of fun with that phrase for months.  So, once I was done fanboy-ing, I had the thought to veganize the "hoppy cheddar sauce" he enjoys making fun of so much. So here's that.

Makes about 2 cups.

​1/2 cup peeled and steamed sweet potatoes (you may know them as “yams” but technically they’re sweet potatoes)
1/2 cup chickpeas
3/4 cup aquafaba (liquid from one can of chickpeas)
2 tablespoons refined coconut oil
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon light miso (yellow or white)
1 tablespoon tapioca starch/flour
2 teaspoons lemon juice 
2 teaspoons tomato paste
1/4 teaspoon onion powder 
1/4 teaspoon granulated garlic
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup of your favorite IPA

In a blender, place all ingredients except for the beer. Blend on high until smooth.

In a small saucepan, add the beer and the puree from the blender, and stir to combine. Heat over medium heat, stirring continually, until it begins to bubble and thicken, 3 to 4 minutes. Season with salt to taste. End of recipe.

In this video, I used the vegan chicken recipe that you can find in my upcoming microbook from 99publishing.com. Pre order Sexy's Best, Vol. 5: The Vegan Fried Chicken of Your Dreams right now!

4 servings (enough to cover about 6 cups of things-scheduled-to-be-buffaloed)

1/2 cup aquafaba (liquid from a can of chickpeas)
1/2 teaspoon arrowroot flour/starch/powder (or cornstarch)
1/2 cup hot sauce (Franks Red Hot, obviously)
1 tablespoon vegan butter

In a small bowl, add aquafaba and arrowroot. Whisk until arrowroot is dissolved.

In a small pan over medium-low heat, melt butter, then add aquafaba and hot sauce.

Cook, stirring continuously, until thickened, 1 to 2 minutes. Maximum thickness is achieved when sauce reaches a light simmer.

Remove from heat, and, in a medium mixing bowl, toss with buffaloed food items of choice.

OK, not really the best idea for the title of the first post of 2018 here in America, but it's what came to mind. Yep, I kind of nuked the old site. Every recipe. Every post. Everything. Gone. I figure if there is a recipe that people really loved, they'll contact me and say, "Hey, where's that _____ recipe?" This has already started to happen, so I'm not too worried about junking all the old stuff. The beloved recipes will rise to the top, and I'll just re-post updated versions when people ask. As techniques improve, as my style evolves, and as vegan food is innovated, a lot of recipes simply become outdated. I'll be using this space to upgrade old recipes, and develop new ones for this exciting era of vegan cooking.

To be totally honest, I dislike "blogging" greatly. That doesn't mean I don't like blogs or bloggers - quite the contrary actually. They are some of the chief innovators of the vegan food movement, and are of great inspiration to me. It's just not for me though, and I only want to do the things that I really like doing. I like developing and writing recipes, and I like making videos. So that's what you'll be getting here. Simple and straightforward. A video, and a recipe. In fact, I plan on this introduction post being be the most non-recipe text I'll be writing. Although, now that I've said that, a hundred things popped into my head that I might like to write about, so I suppose I'll just spout off when the spirit moves me. But don't hold me to that.

I imagine deleting everything that I've posted for the last bunch of years, is totally against any "best practice", SEO guidelines that are common knowledge to most people in the blogging world, but I kind of don't care. If my content is good enough, people will find it, and stay tuned. And if only I end up liking it, well, then, I'm doing something I like, so I'm still happy.

The things that will be staying the same in Sexy Vegan land are my social media presence (instagram, twitter, etc.), weekly Facebook Live show (Sexy Vegan Live), as well as my 99publishing.com endeavor, and all the exclusive bonus content for my Patreon members. What will be new is that I'm reviving my YouTube channel. New videos are coming your way, and I'll be posting all of the recipe content and videos right here.

So, that's all very exciting and terrifying. Kind of appropriate for the current times in which we live. Alright, let's cook!

**While I put the finishing touches on (a.k.a. begin) my first new recipe/video post, you can check out my Patreon page where I've been posting recipes and videos for the last few months, while I transitioned thesexyvegan.com to this. If you become a patron, you'll have access to tons of bonus video content, but if you don't, there's still plenty of public content to consume.**