just in time for winter... picnic food?

This is not the most timely of entries, I know. But I left my camera in New York when I went there over Thanksgiving (man, do I have some awesome month-old pictures of food to share with you that, alas, I can't), so I've been rooting around my old pictures for an "okay, I made this months ago but never posted about it UNTIL NOW" moment.

When I think picnics, I think "what will still taste good cold?" because I generally have to drag everything around for a while before I get to a picnicable time/spot. So back in June, when picnics were possible, I made an Asian-themed picnic!
Starting from the top, going clockwise: Green Tea Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World (I accidentally halved the amount of oil, so they sunk, making a nice little bowl for the frosting), Asian Marinated Tofu from Vegan with a Vengeance, my own Cold Sesame Noodle Salad, made with rice and buckwheat noodles (gluten-free!), and last but not least...

Snow Pea Oranges!
These things are cute, healthy finger food. If you ever need adorable hors d'oeuvres, you know what to do. Oh, and this isn't really an ingredient, but you'll also need 20 toothpicks.

20 fresh snow peas*
20 mandarin orange sections
2 Tbsp orange juice
1 tsp soy sauce
2 tsp toasted sesame oil
1 tsp rice vinegar
1 1-inch section of ginger, peeled and minced

Bring pot of water to a boil, then dump in the snow peas. Take them out after 1-2 minutes; they should be sorta floppy, but not discolored. Wrap each citrus section in a snow pea and stick a toothpick through it to hold it together. Put in a shallow dish or bowl.

Whisk together the other ingredients in a small bowl; pour over the snow peas and allow to marinate for at least an hour. Store in the fridge until ready to serve!

*- Note: If using frozen snow peas, you don't have to blanch them to make them flexible. Just run them under warm water until they aren't frozen anymore.

Also, jd over at Veggie Terrain tagged me to do this image meme. I think I was supposed to do 10 "this is so me/this is so NOT me" things, but finding that many images was exhausting, so I gave up after 7.

This is so me:
This is so NOT me:


This is so me:
This is so NOT me:


This is so me:
This is so NOT me:


This is so me:
This is so NOT me:


This is so me:
This is so NOT me:


This is so me:
This is so NOT me:


This is so me:This is so NOT me:


Thanks for the tag, jd! I think most other bloggers have tagged each other by now, but if you're a vegan blogger who reads this and hasn't been tagged... You're it!