MYjourney

New Apartment Foods

2008-05-28T20:38:00.002-04:00

I said I'd be back soon! Backing up, this was Chris and my first dinner in the new place. It was the first day we got the keys. We didn't even have any furniture in here but we brought a pot over and made a Knorr Lipton pasta side that we added broccoli to.

Last night I made Pieless Apples A'la Mode (I think that was the title) from Fresh From the Vegetarian Slow Cooker (I think that's the title, haha.) We had it with vanilla ice cream.
And tonight for dinner we had burgers with summer squash and zucchini and some potato wedges.

Lately

2008-05-22T20:55:00.003-04:00

Hey guys! It's been an awfully long time. Hmm.. I wonder if I can quickly recap.

School is out for summer, Chris and I moved into our new apartment a week ago (pictures to come) and it is awesome! We've been doing a lot of cooking and the food is fabulous.. we just sit down to eat it and I don't photograph anymore. I should.. good things are coming out of this kitchen!

I'm still working at Circuit City and it's great. I love selling cameras. A few things are irritating about being a salesman.. people think I make commission and I don't. So right off the bat they think I'm trying to sell them something when really I'd rather share all the information about cameras that I have. Ah well, it's great.

Soon I'm going to start getting back to all you other bloggers out there, and hopefully posting again soon!

A Good Dinner

2008-04-04T09:00:00.002-04:00

Hey all, things are going pretty well lately. School is getting even more CRAZY as the end comes near! But the way my classes are structured I've been having finals all semester, hah. Anyway, on to the food.

I bought Morningstar Farms Parmesan Ranch chik patties a while ago because I had a coupon. Me and Chris had them with ranch sauce for dipping, Knorr Lipton pasta sides alfredo, and peas and corn with onions. It was a really good dinner!

Muffins!

2008-03-23T20:53:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I made these blueberry muffins to take to church today. They were perfect! I filled the cups up pretty high so they would have good tops like bakery muffins. Success!

Then we went on a walk and Chris just HAD to pose like this for the picture. Kohl's ad?

Well that's all for now! Back to school tomorrow.

Burger Night!

2008-03-19T22:58:00.003-04:00

Tonight was burger night! Boca burgers with the works, roasted potatoes, and broccoli!

Brother Ben came over for dinner, as is the weekly ritual, he liked it! And then he let me take a picture of him with my new camera... thinking.

Spring Break

2008-03-16T11:02:00.003-04:00

Well.. today marks the end of spring break. Wait.. spring break? What is that!! I've been working at Circuit City and observing/teaching at a school for my field experience. My break looked like this..

Friday - work
Saturday - work
Sunday - work
Monday - field, work
Tuesday - work, dinner with the family!
Wednesday - field, work
Thursday - BOUGHT A NEW CAMERA! PUT A DEPOSIT DOWN ON AN APARTMENT WITH CHRIS!
Friday - work
Saturday - taught a sax lesson, work
Today - audition for next semester's ensembles, work
Then back to school!

Ugh. But as you can see.. Thursday was the most exciting day! No work, and I bought an extremely expensive camera. And me and Chris settled on an apartment! Woohoo.

In food news.. I made these cookies to take to work yesterday. Green for St. Patrick's day. Haven't gotten the hang of this camera yet but here's a picture, heh.

Then today I made roasted red pepper hummus using the basic hummus recipe from Veganomicon! Good stuff.

Tofu Stir Fry

2008-03-07T14:32:00.003-05:00

So my little bro Ben is still coming over for dinner. On Wednesday this week it was just me and him, because Chris was too nervous to eat before his vocal jazz concert haha. We had tofu stir fry with rice.

Oh yeah, and here's a link to the recipe for the spinach zucchini soup from the other day.

Spinach Zucchini Soup

2008-03-04T21:55:00.001-05:00

Last night Chris and I made this for dinner. Spinach and zucchini soup!

I'm not on my own computer right now, so I'll put a link to the recipe later.. I have it saved. It's got zucchini, fresh spinach, potatoes, onions, and cilantro. And I got to use my immersion blender! We had it with rolls-in-a-can, heh.

Delicious Cookies!

2008-03-02T21:21:00.003-05:00

I made these the other day.. courtesy of Paula Deen, haha. They really are great, and I never found cookies that difficult to veganize if you wanted to.

I took them to work at my new job (Circuit City) and they were gone in less than an hour! Heck yeah.

Split Pea Soup

2008-02-25T19:39:00.004-05:00

I give you.. tonight's dinner!

It went like this.. saute 1/2 cup of each (chopped) onion, celery, and carrots in 1 tbsp of oil with a few spices of your choice. I used cumin, garlic powder, ginger and thyme. Then pour in 4 cups of water, 4 cups of veggie stock, and 1 pound of dried split peas. Bring to a boil, then turn it down and let it simmer for at least an hour.

I served it with rice, it was good!

Stuff Recently

2008-02-21T16:00:00.002-05:00

A few weeks ago I made these s'mores brownies for a brownie contest at school.. I didn't win. They were good though! They had a graham cracker bottom crust, which Chris said was a little too crunchy but that can be fixed. I baked that first for like 5 minutes, then poured the brownie mix on top and baked that until it was ALMOST done, then I pulled it out and covered it with marshmallows and put it back in. After it cooled I drizzled chocolate over it.

Over Christmas break Chris' Granny helped me knit this stocking. I know how to knit, but I never followed a pattern before, or used circular needles. So this was interesting. I don't know when/if I'll make another one.

A few weeks ago we had this for dinner, it's Asian marinated tofu from VCON. Chris got me a grill pan for Christmas, so I used that to get these sweet marks. We had it with roasted potatoes and veggies. This was Ben's plate, he's still coming over for dinner once a week :)

Not much else is new. Just the homework.

Here I Am!

2008-02-15T15:30:00.003-05:00

Hey guys!! I can't believe it's been almost two whole months. I've been so busy!

Let me try to back up.. Christmas was great. I opened presents with my family on the 25th and then went to Chris' house and spent a few days there. I got lots of neat cooking/baking stuff and some cookbooks, heh. I got all the colors of Sharpie.. scrap booking stuff, a wireless headset, an external hard drive, and some other things. Chris' Granny helped me knit my own stocking for next Christmas heh, I'll have to post a picture of it later.

School has been really busy. I'm in Methods this semester.. which is really crazy. We have a loooottt of homework. I'm doing stuff like making lesson plans and such. All in preparation for student teaching I guess.

In other more interesting and blog-related news.. I've reverted back to ovo-lacto vegetarian, but I hope you all will keep reading, and I'll keep posting my foods. I know I don't have to explain myself to you guys, but I just think it's a little easier for everyone. My Mom was happy, Chris was happy, and I'm fine with it. But a lot of things I make/eat are accidentally vegan anyways, so I don't think much will change. I'll post more later.. I just wanted to make an update!

Huge Dough and Dinners

2007-12-19T20:21:00.001-05:00

Well last week I went to two Christmas parties. Before the second one, we made pizza at Christine's apartment. She had some dough rising in the oven and.. it rose too much. BLAM!
I didn't get any of the finished pizza pictures because it was devoured, but we made some tomato pies with garlic, and some pizzas with mushrooms, broccoli and tomatoes. And cheese for everybody but me.

Last night I made tofu on the George Foreman again. Fantastico! With green beens and corn/tomatoes. I liked this dinner.Tonight I'm at Christine's apartment. We had crispy cubed tofu (which I brought with me, heh) green beans and sweet potatoes. We did the sweet potatoes in the microwave on high for 6 minutes, I've never done it before. At first I didn't poke enough holes and they jumped around a little.. but then I poked some more and they came out tasting delicious!

Two Dinners

2007-12-06T21:42:00.001-05:00

Last night's dinner! Rotini and peas with alfredo sauce. I love peas. Here's where the recipe came from, but I didn't use as much milk because I wanted a thicker sauce. I liked it, and I'm pretty sure Chris, Michelle, and Pat did too.

Tonight's dinner.. I gave shepherd's pie a shot. The bottom was TVP, tomatoes, carrots, bell pepper, spinach, mushrooms, and onions. There was too much potato and not enough veggies, but it tasted good at least. Chris didn't say anything either way. That probably means it was just OK.

Short & Sweet.. Well, Savory

2007-12-05T15:01:00.001-05:00

I don't post very often because I figure I should at least have a couple of pictures per entry. But I figure.. it's probably easier people are more likely to actually read a shorter entry!

Well I'm taking a break right now from writing several papers that are due tomorrow. *Gag* They're going well though. I had my voice jury this morning, A- ohhh yeahh. Chris has his jury in an hour and I guess since he's a vocal performance major it's more like a recital so I'm going to watch, mwaha. Well, he watched my jury sort of.. he was my accompanist. That probably made me sing worse.. I coulda got an A! Curses.

In any case, this is tofu that I marinated in soy sauce, OJ, water, and ketchup with parsley, rosemary, and thyme.. too bad, no sage. I cooked it on Michelle's George Foreman! Woo. So cool. With rice and veggies. It was Tuesday so brother Ben came over like always. He went back for seconds.

Oh hey, Happy Hanukkah!

Dinner, Dessert, Houses

2007-12-03T08:41:00.000-05:00

Sometime last week I made this potato chowder from Laura's blog. I used spinach instead of kale and this was great! Me, Chris, Michelle and Pat had it and everybody loved it. The boys needed crackers on top.. I think that's weird.. shrug.
Then I made the chocolate peanut butter silk pie from Squirrel's Vegan Kitchen. Last time I made it with graham cracker crust, this time I used Oreo.. SO much better! This was delicious. I wanted to take it to work but Chris, Pat, and Michelle told me I wasn't allowed.
Last night we made graham cracker houses! Here's Michelle working hard.
Mine had a chimney. And logs, and a pile of presents. And a car in the driveway!
Here's the town from above. Clockwise from left is mine, Chris', Michelle's, Pat's. Yes, Chris has an ice skating rink.
And then he ate the town.

Fun Times at Home

2007-11-25T14:01:00.000-05:00

Ohh I liked being home for Thanksgiving break. The last day when all of us were home was Friday, it was great. Me and Mom are early birds, so we got up around 8 and hung out for a little bit. At 9:30 Ben came home with a 40" Polaroid LCD TV.. apparently he'd been at Circuit City for 5 hours. He got it on sale for $700.. I didn't know he had $700. Then he went to sleep.

At 10 Christine came out with me and Mom to do a little shopping, we drove on a strategically planned route (seriously) that involved only right hand turns. We zoomed past hundreds of people waiting and waiting in traffic because they didn't plan ahead!

We came home and then took the boys out with us to pick a Christmas tree! It's a little early but it was the last time we'll all be home together until Christmas. Then I FINALLY made cinnamon rolls that I'd been promising to Nick. They came out great! I'm not good with yeast but Mom helped me proof it this time.

Even though it was the day after Thanksgiving, Mom made a big dinner because we were all home. She made a big roast, broccoli, carrots, twice-baked potatoes (with soy milk and margarine!) and I made vegan mac and cheese! I actually just followed the recipe on the back of a box of macaroni noodles, but I used a block of FYH cheddar. It worked out magnificently, other than that I didn't change a thing!

It was thiiiis good! Eventually that little bit got eaten too.

After dinner we put up all the Christmas decorations. Here's the fireplace. Stockings for Mom and David (step dad,) then there's Nick, Christine, Tania and Ben. We hang them in age order! Up top is a picture of one of our dogs, Bailey, Christine drew it.. she's an art major.Then we decorated the Christmas tree.. there's Ben, Christine, and Nick throwing ting ting at it. What a great way to decorate.

Yesterday I went in to work, and then met up with Chris and Christine to see ROCKAPELLA! It was excellent!

And tomorrow it is back to school...

Fantastic Foods!

2007-11-23T08:36:00.002-05:00

Once again.. I haven't posted in a while. But I've been making good things, honest! The other night for dinner we had crispy tofu cubes. I don't know what to call it, but I just heated them up in a pan on the stove, with no oil or anything. And mashed potatoes and broccoli.
For Thanksgiving I made Isa's Chocolate Smlove pie. The consensus? Wayyyy wayy too rich! Nobody could finish their piece.. even though I had my aunt cut them EXTRA tiny. But that doesn't mean it wasn't delicious! It was! I think everybody liked it. I'll have to figure out how to make it next time so you can actually have a piece.
Mmm here it is. And I had some apple pie too, and vanilla Soy Delicious.
Here's me and my siblings. Left to right! Nick(twin #1, 21) Ben(18) Me(20) Christine(twin #2, 21) Yayyy!
Oh yeah, and I thought some of you guys might like this. My step dad is making chain mail! By hand. It's taking a long time. He's going to make a full shirt.

Busy busy!

2007-11-12T22:10:00.000-05:00

Ohh I haven't posted in a while.. been so busy. I'm missing out on the whole Vegan MoFo! I'm such a loser. All I have to show you is this delicious cinnamon roll from the this recipe. Like I said... delicious. I tinted my icing orange for an autumnal feeling. :-D

And tonight for dinner I made.. curried split pea soup from the PPK recipe. It was really good, full of spices. Lots and lots of spices. I made rice to go with it and topped it with grated carrot.

I thought it was pretty darn filling! Apparently Chris didn't feel the same way because afterwards he had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and some Pringles. Ah well, he said the soup was good. :-)
And that's all I have time for now! Must get ready for school tomorrow.

Food and Food!

2007-11-02T21:21:00.000-04:00

Hey guys. I feel like I've been doing a lot of cooking and baking (and eating) these past few days. On Tuesday I made the Scrumptious Banana-~~Nut~~ Muffins from The Garden of Vegan. I don't have any nuts. These were really good! Michelle liked it with Tofutti cream cheese.
For lunch on Tuesday I made this wrap with sauteed vegetables. I had made a sauce for it with Nayonaisse, ketchup and cayenne pepper, and that was good. This is me eating it on a bench in Swope (the music building.) I took it with my cell phone..
Last night for dinner we made tacos! I used Lightlife Smart Ground for me and Chris' tacos, Michelle and Pat had chicken tacos. In mine is the Smart Ground there on the left, lettuce, tomatoes, and towards the right is Rice-a-Roni Spanish rice!
Tonight for dinner me and Michelle had barbecue chicken-style seitan that I had frozen since last month. We used her George Foreman! I've never used it before.. it was pretty neat. We also had steamed asparagus and roasted potatoes.
And we JUST finished making these cookies.. they're not entirely vegan (those are real M&M's) but the base is vegan. We actually veganized a chocolate chip cookie from her book Getting Started. They were really good! I'll give you the recipe.

Chocolate-chip cookies!

Preheat oven to 350.
Cream together 1/4 cup margarine and 1 cup packed brown sugar.
Add one "egg" (I used flax meal/water,) 2 tbsp agave, 1 tsp vanilla
Stir in 1 1/2 cups flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt

Stir in 1 cup chocolate chips and bake for 12-15 minutes. This recipe is really good!

Recipe, Pumpkin, Dinner

2007-10-30T19:58:00.000-04:00

Well I just realized I never posted the recipe for that tempeh stirfry, well here it is:

1 8-oz package of tempeh cut into strips
1 medium onion cut into thin wedges
3 medium carrots cut into sticks
8 oz green beans cut in half
1 medium red bell pepper cut into strips

Sauce:
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup vanilla soygurt
3 tbsp teriyaki marinade
1 tbsp agave

Mix the sauce ingredients together, and once you are done sauteing the tempeh and veggies, pour it on top and let it all heat up together. It's easy and good!

Onward.. this week I opened a large can of pumpkin and made these muffins! From VWaV, the best pumpkin muffins. I really just wanted to use my Halloween liners.

Then I made a pumpkin pie with a recipe from here. I used a pre-made graham cracker crust. The pie is great! But I think next time I will make the crust myself. Pat (Michelle's boyfriend) said it's good but needs more spices, Chris said so too. I don't really like pumpkin things, so I couldn't judge it. But they seemed to like it just fine.

Tonight Michelle and I made dinner. We made sweet and sour tofu/chicken with fried rice and steamed broccoli. I got the recipe for the sauce from here, it was sooo good. Here are my tofu cubes, cooking up. I BARELY sprayed the pan, I didn't want to use oil because I was afraid it would get soaked up and that would be gross. It turned out really light and crispy, I liked cooking it this way.

Brother Ben came over again for dinner, I think he's going to come every Tuesday! I was SO happy.. Michelle made chicken for her and Pat, but Ben picked the tofu over the chicken, woo! Chris has class until 8:45 so I packed him a little tupperware of rice, some broccoli and chicken for later.

Yum.

I just made banana muffins in a last ditch effort to use those liners before I pack up my Halloween kitchen things.. they're cooling now but I'll save those for the next post.

Renaissance Faire, Foods

2007-10-23T21:12:00.001-04:00

Sunday was our one-year anniversary.. Chris took me to the Renaissance Faire - woohoo! It was a surprise so I didn't have time to get a fun outfit.. but I think I looked OK. Heck yes I got my face painted

We got a wax mold of our hands.. mine's red and his is blue. We're Superman!

The stocks!

We took a tour through that dungeon in the background to look at medieval torture devices.. terrible stuff!

Yesterday afternoon I made a peach pie. I made the filling from fresh peaches that my Mom picked over the summer and I had just frozen it since then. So I thawed it out and - voila! Pie!
Tonight for dinner my little bro come over so Michelle and I made this meal from a recipe her aunt had. (Her aunt is a vegetarian.) It's a tempeh stir-fry in a teryaki-peanut sauce, I'll put up the recipe in a little bit. It was great!
Now I must go - LA Ink is on tonight!

Family and a Present!

2007-10-18T16:27:00.001-04:00

Well I had a busy "fall break!" On Saturday I went to work like usual, then my sister and I came back here to West Chester to watch Ben perform with the marching band at the football game. After the game the three of us drove down to DC to visit my Grandma. We got there pretty late so we just went to bed, and Sunday we got up and went to Asylum for the vegan brunch! It was pretty cool, the atmosphere was.. interesting. It was pretty much a twenty-something crowd with lots of tattoos and dark clothing.. so the three of us there with our Grandma seemed a little out of place. But the food was so cool!

The other side of the menu had a regular brunch, but my family played along and all ordered vegan things! Here's what I got, the vegan breakfast wrap. It has tofu scramble, cheese black beans and home fries wrapped up inside. Yum.
Grandma got the huevos rancheros, she said it was really spicy, but good! We all cleaned our plates haha.

Christine got the chili cheese tofu scramble.. she thought the texture of the tofu was a little off, but it tasted good. I think she was just expecting eggs.

Ben got the breakfast sandwich. It has soysage and tofu scramble on it. He said it was good but he thinks that the faux meats are always over compensated. Like before he said smart dogs were TOO hot doggy.. if that makes any sense. Like the attempt at getting the true flavor was overpowering.

After that we went to the Renwick gallery to check out the quilt exhibit.. we're big quilters. :-D I got inspired.. I want to start something!
And we had to leave that night because Christine didn't have fall break and had to get back to school on Monday. Here's the whole gang! Grandma, Ben, Christine and me. We're just missing our other brother, Nick.. he's Christine's twin. But he couldn't make it. Yar.

When I got back I had a surprise! Bazu sent me this vegan chocolate bar.. she must know about my coffee addiction... I feel so badly though! This was a thankyou for donating when she did the Walk for Farm Animals.. but I'm a college kid.. I only gave a measley ten dollars! Bazu it probably cost you that much to send this.. you shouldn't have!All in all it's been a grand week!

Blog Action Day

2007-10-15T22:18:00.000-04:00

Well.. busy as I am, I had to get on here for blog action day! I'm not sure what to write about the environment, so I'll just post a few links. I found a page that I liked today about water conservation. 16 ways to conserve water and save money. And try taking the "How Green Are You?" quiz! Also, while I was in DC yesterday (I'll post about that later) I saw a green store called Hoopla, that hadn't opened yet (October 19th it will.)

Wednesday Dinner

2007-10-10T20:09:00.000-04:00

Firstly, Monday, October 15th is blog action day! Blogger's everywhere will unite to bring one important topic to everybody's mind. This year it is:: the environment! So head over to the website and check it out.

Secondly.. tonight for dinner we had pan-fried tofu that I had marinated overnight, roasted veggies, and couscous. This meal was omni boyfriend and roommate approved! Pat (Michelle's boyfriend) couldn't make it for dinner tonight but I bet even he would have liked it.. and he's a real meat man.

This weekend I'm going with my sister and my little bro to visit our Grandma. She lives right outside of DC, so on Sunday morning we're going to have brunch at Asylum! I'm pretty excited, Chris and I didn't get a chance to go there on our vacation over the summer. You guys should check out their brunch menu and give me suggestions! Huevos rancheros?

Lots of Stuff!

2007-10-08T21:08:00.001-04:00

Whew.. I just spent a lot of time uploading these pictures. So on Friday I tried to make a loaf of bread! But it didn't rise in the oven :-( I don't know why. It tastes OK though! I swear.

Then on Saturday night I went home for dinner with the family. I took my chicken-style seitan and my step dad grilled it right along next to the real chicken.

We had potatoes and corn on the cob too!

On Sunday Michelle and I went to the IKEA in South Philly. We got bubble tea on South Street. I'm not sure about the vegan integrity of bubble tea.. but it was a fun experience. Mine was pineapple flavored.

Here's how we've been fixing up the place lately!
IKEA clock in the kitchen! IKEA end table and lamp in the living room (I lost the lamp shade somewhere between the store and my apartment...) IKEA sand and pebbles with fake autumn-colored flowers!

And my favorite.. the IKEA hangy bar with hooks and that little bowl! And this set of mirrors.. we're going to rearrange it I think.

Here's a little seasonal decorating I did. Two little straw people and some cobwebs! (We clean here, I swear!)

Tonight for dinner I made Boca Chik'n parmesan at Chris' request! I made enough for Michelle and Pat too, it was delicious!

OK I'm wiped out.

Dinners, Shindig

2007-10-05T07:15:00.001-04:00

So on Wednesday I made some chicken-style seitan from this recipe. I didn't take a picture after it baked in the marinade, but this is before. I'm going to use it in something later this week.

For dinner on Wednesday I made baked tempeh that I had poached and then marinated. There are also garlic mashed potatoes and roasted vegetables. Chris didn't like the tempeh so much. Oh yeah and I tried to make a gravy out of the lefotver marinade. It worked out pretty well!
Then I made tiramisu for my friend's birthday. No, it's not vegan. She loves tiramisu.. I wanted it to be right! I think it turned out pretty good looking! I've never made tiramisu before, but everybody seemed to like it OK.The party was good :-D

Bake Sale Extravaganza!

2007-10-01T21:33:00.001-04:00

The bake sale was a success! I forget to get an entire picture (sorry Mom) but altogether I made 7 things: cinnamon rolls, blueberry muffins (modified from VWaV's apple streusel,) Chris' favorite banana bread, monster cookies, chocolate chip cookies, ginger cookies (VWaV,) and snickerdoodles (VWaV.)

Here are the cinnamon rolls! Unbaked, baked, and finally.. frosted!

Here's those chocolate chip cookies again!

These are gigantic peanut butter/chocolate chip/oatmeal cookies that I created myself. I measured out 1/3 cup for each cookie and sold them for $1 each!

My mom donated cheesecake brownies, they were a HUGE hit and actually sold out in the first hour! She also made these awesome caramel pecan brownies, and peanut butter cookies. Another saxophone made regular brownies. We were sold out of everything by 2pm, except for some ginger cookies. Ah well, you can't win 'em all.

Chris helped me set up at 8:30 AM and helped me man the table for a few hours. I got up extra early and bought munchkins (donut holes) from Dunkin' Donuts and half a dozen bagels for the other saxes that helped at the table. So they wouldn't eat the merchandise. Haha. We made $115 for the studio and I think we can do it again and it will be even better if I can get some more people to donate baked goods, not just me hehe. Hopefully we'll get some new ensemble music in time for Saxfest!!

What We've Been Eating

2007-09-26T21:20:00.001-04:00

I packed this for lunch the other day. It's pretty simple... cucumber slices and Tofutti cream cheese on toasted 12-grain bread.. with a little pepper. But it was realllly good! This was taken in the sunrise when I made it.. heh.

I don't know what's up with the technicolors in this one.. the flash went off when I didn't want it to. But this is what we had for dinner tonight. It was me, Michelle, Pat, Chris and my little bro Ben (who goes to WCU now, woo!) Bryanna Clark Grogan's "breasts of tofu." I hadn't planned to cook for so many.. so I only had a pound of tofu! So I tried to make up for it in side dishes. We had garlic smashed potatoes, peas and corn, and roasted veggies. I think it turned out pretty well!

And lastly.. I just made these chocolate chip cookies for the bake sale. I'm about to throw them in the freezer until Monday. Ouhp.. Pat just ate two.

Pasta, Snails, Bake Sale

2007-09-20T19:33:00.000-04:00

This afternoon I saw this recipe that Lindy Loo altered from Vegetarian Times. It looked real good, so I had to make it tonight! We had a "family dinner," it was me, Chris, Michelle, and her boyfriend Pat.

The consensus was that it was good, but didn't have a lot of flavor. It needed some spice, but I'm not sure what.. any suggestions? Michelle and Pat added garlic powder to theirs. I liked using vegan cream cheese as a base for the sauce, it was good and thick.

Then, for dessert I guess you could say, I had some leftover dough from the crust of my pie, so I made these "snails." It's just rolled out dough spread with a little Earth Balance and cinnamon-sugar. Then I rolled it up and cut them! Like mini cinnamon rolls.

And finally.. I was elected treasurer of the sax studio and.. we don't have any money! So it's my job to get us some. I'm starting with a bake sale in a few weeks. Here's the sign I made to hang up around Swope (the music building.)

Dinners, Pie & a Meme

2007-09-17T14:09:00.000-04:00

First.. a lazy dinner. Nobody's around.. I'm just hanging out with myself on a Sunday.. I should have whipped up something elaborate because I had all the time in the world. Instead I made oriental flavored Top Ramen. I threw in tomatoes, broccoli, squash and tofu. And you know what? It was delicious.

I also made Squirrel's Peanut Butter Chocolate Silk pie. This.. is.. delicious. And ridiculously easy.. honest. Make it!

An inside look at the deliciousness!

And tonight I made the Moroccan Chickpea Patties from Vive le Vegan! I didn't have any fennel so I put in some zucchini.. not the best substitution I know but.. whatever. They were good but a little bit mushy, I can probably fix that next time. Chris said they were good but can be improved so yeah. Next time. We had them with roasted potatoes and steamed broccoli.
Vicki tagged me for this Meme. Hmm.. let's get to know me.

T is for Ten Things I Hate About You. My favorite movie of all time. I can quote along with the whole thing. There's not much else I can say... see it. Now.
A is for Alto...alto saxophone! I've played the sax since I was in 4th grade and.. I stuck with it and.. now it's my main instrument for my music education major at college.. and I'm treasurer of the sax studio! (Remind me to tell you more about that later.)
N is for Neat. Anybody that knows me.. I am ridiculously organized. I love to file things, label things, categorize, straighten, organize, clean. It's pretty damn close to OCD. Whatever!
I is for Indian! I am part Ho-chunk Indian on my Dad's side, from Winnebago, Nebraska. Yeah.. I go to pow wows and stuff. Yeah.. I can make it rain.
A is for Apple Pie! The first pie I ever made ENTIRELY by myself! Crust and all. Check the entry before this. It was glorious.

That's the best I can do! These things get around so fast that I don't know who to tag. :-/

Apple Pie?!

2007-09-16T15:42:00.001-04:00

Yes, it's true! I made a pie! All by myself.. nobody else is even here in the apartment. Hey Grammy and Poppa.. check out my sweet apple slices.. yeah, I used that mandoline!

Here is the pretty pie, pre-baking. Chris' parents gave me all the awesome pie stuff, I used the the pie topper to make the top crust all pretty!

Here it is, I just took it out. So it isn't the prettiest pie ever.. but.. whatever. I set off the fire alarms in my apartment and had to take them both off the wall.. In conclusion.. it was a fun experience.
I made this pie for Chris' roommate Casey because I promised him an apple pie one time.. even though at that point I had never made a pie before.

I'm good on my word.

He's going to be so happy :-D

Alfredo and a Recipe

2007-09-12T20:44:00.001-04:00

Tonight's dinner was.. linguine alfredo! With broccoli, tomatoes, and spinach. Oh and some mushrooms. I got the recipe for the cashew alfredo sauce from Tofu Mom, I thought it was a little watery so I put in a pinch of flour and it really thickened up! Chris said this was a pretty good one.. I'm trying to get him to tell me what I should make again and what I shouldn't, haha.

Oh and here's that veganized banana bread recipe.. it is excellent!

Preheat oven to 300º and lightly spray a loaf pan.

Mix about 2 Tbsp of sugar with some cinnamon and coat the edges of the pan. Save the leftover cinnamon sugar mixture for later.

1 cup sugar
1/4 cup margarine
1 egg replacement (I use 1 Tbsp flax meal and 3 Tbsp warm water)
1/2 Tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
5 1/2 oz. vegan sour cream
2 bananas (the riper the better!)
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
a pinch of salt

Cream together the sugar and margarine. Add the egg replacement, cinnamon, vanilla, sour cream, bananas and mix. Add the flour, baking soda and salt. Stir in some nuts if you want, and sprinkle the rest of your cinnamon/sugar on top - it makes a crust! Bake for 55 minutes!

Sorry about the 5.5 oz. of sour cream.. Originally this recipe makes three loaves at a time so.. I had to take 1/3 of 16 oz... I rounded.

All for now!

Cookies, Cool Stuff

2007-09-10T14:26:00.000-04:00

Hey, all! Things are good, school is going well. Homework, homework, homework. But I'm still in the kitchen! Last week I made these chocolate chip cookies, the recipe is here. But I had one of those little individual cups of applesauce, so instead of 2 tablespoons I used the whole thing and cut out a little margarine. They turned out fabulously and I snagged this picture really quick when there were only two left!

I made them with my mini ice cream scoop so they're all the same size.. but my friends were a little miffed that they're so teeny. They're like, "bite size cookies!?" Well I think they're perfect! All the more reason to have several at a time! Haha.

I went home yesterday and took the little bro with me. We visited our parents and they took us to Target, yay! Mom bought me these food storage canisters! You BET I used my brand new digital labeler to mark them! Looks like I'm running low on flour. Good thing I'm going to the grocery store today.

So like I said, everything is going well here. I love having an apartment, I get to make dinner almost every night, or sometimes Chris will make it. Last week Michelle (my roommate.. you'll probably be hearing about her more often now,) made dinner: she made fried rice. It was pretty nice, she kept the scrambled eggs and chicken separate so I took my share of rice and added steamed veggies to it, then her and her boyfriend, and Chris had the chicken and egg-y fried rice. Yay, it all works out!

Tonight I'm making the jerk tofu again, it's been marinating in the fridge. This time it won't be as spicy, I left the jalapeno pepper out. Chris has a weak stomach! Well I'm off to see what's due tomorrow. Adios!

Birthdays, School, Food

2007-09-04T16:32:00.000-04:00

Augh, it's been a while. School is so busy, already! Here's a look at my schedule:

So yeah.. that's why I haven't been posting much! But backing up a little, my birthday was a little over a week ago. Here's what I got from my family!A blender, a hand blender, a food processor and a mandoline.. sweet! I got an apron too, and my sister made me a purse. And also I got a DYMO labeler, it's awesome. I'll show you guys sometime.

Chris' parents got me alllll this! It's everything I need to make a pie. So you guys will be seeing one of those sometime soon!

And Chris' birthday was this past Sunday (he's 21, yayyy.) I gave him this..

And also I pre-ordered season 3 of Lost for him. And I made him dinner.. Chick'n parm with Boca patties and vegan cheese. It was awesome! He said it's way up there on the good list of things I've made, and he said I can make that anytime. Heh.

So yesterday I made him his favorite banana bread.. but I VEGANIZED it! I will definitely share the recipe soon, because it was fantastic.

And I made this for dinner last night.. just a sort of Mexican-style pasta. With corn, kidney beans, spinach, onions, tomatoes, peppers.. and like.. cumin and chili powder. Not bad!

VACATION!

2007-08-24T20:01:00.000-04:00

So on Friday we went to Harrisburg, and helped Chris' sister and her boyfriend move into their new apartment. They've got a really nice place.We left on Sunday and headed for Baltimore!

My favorite fish at the aquarium was the perching fish. It really perched on the coral!After Baltimore we went to DC and stayed with my Grandma. Monday was the Holocaust museum, the Renwick gallery and lots of walking. We took a break on a bench and saw it as a good photo op..On Tuesday we stopped at Sticky Fingers bakery! Chris got a blueberry muffin.My Grandma got some sort of almond muffin..And I got a sausage and egg sandwich and a mocha latte. Mmmm..We went to the Hirschorn museum.. at Bazu's suggestion. It was probably even my favorite place.
And we had lunch at a little place called the Wellness Cafe. Chris and I split the "Totally Vegan" burrito.
And we got ABC cookies for dessert!
That day we also went to the National Museum of the American Indian and learned about my people! Haha. Oh and also the Air and Space museum. That night we met my aunt and uncle for dinner at Yuan Fu, a vegetarian restaurant in Rockville, MD. We got three appetizers. This is a taro root ball, and in the background is fried mushrooms.
And these were uhm.. curry dumplings. They tasted really curry-y.This was seaweed salad. Not too bad. Chewy..
My aunt and uncle shared the fish filet.I got the kung pao beef!
Chris got sesame chicken.
Grandma got chicken steak portabello.
And my cousin got something called jade rolls.

On Wednesday Chris and I came back to West Chester, went grocery shopping, and then made some cookies! From my recipe here. We filled them with vanilla Soy Delicious and had ice cream cookie sandwiches for dessert. He made me spaghetti for dinner :)

Tomorrow I will be 2-0! Chris is working all day, but my family is coming out to West Chester to hang for a little bit and have dinner.

Oh yes, and did I tell you all that my little bro Ben just moved into the dorms here at WCU last weekend?? He'll be a freshman music ed major here on trombone, but he's hoping to switch to music composition. I'm excited :-D

"Meat" and Potatoes

2007-08-17T10:17:00.000-04:00

Well I work 9-5 every weekday, and Chris usually works nights. So lately when he happens to work 9-5 too he'll come over for dinner afterwards. And I usually just do a veggie stirfry or something. But the other day he told me vegetables don't fill him up! Well.. YAR! So last night I made a manly "meat" and potatoes meal! (Sorry about the crappy picture.)

It's the same chik'n type thing I made a little while ago, with roasted potatoes and a cucumber/tomato/onion side salad. I think he liked it OK :-)

Ooh and my next exciting news!! Chris is taking me on vacation for my birthday, yayyyy. Tonight we are leaving for Harrisburg to see his parents and help his sister move into her new apartment. I'll give her that quilt I made.. which I'll have to remember to photograph and show you guys. Then on Sunday we're going to spend the day in Baltimore, and then it is off to Washington DC for three days to see some museums (and of course check out the veg eats!) I'm totally going to Sticky Fingers hehe. So I should have a good post after that trip I hope.

Yayyy I turn 20 on August 25th. Ugh.. two days before SCHOOL starts again. Junior year, here I come. Well.. I'm at work so I better get to it. See you guys later!

My First Pie!

2007-08-15T11:25:00.000-04:00

Woo I made my first pie! For my little brother's 18th birthday. It's just raspberries and blackberries. Here it is pre-baking:

And afterwards! It was good too :-D

Oh, and this is the apple "cheese" danish streudel-y thing I made for The Urban Vegan's dessert contest a while ago. I just made it again last night per request. It's all they ever want at work anymore. Here's the recipe.

Well.. back to work!

Tofu, Cake, Apartment!

2007-08-11T15:42:00.000-04:00

On Thursday night, Chris came over and helped me make dinner. I had some tofu marinating overnight to make the jerk tofu from the PPK. We cooked it up and then just added broccoli, spinach and zucchini to the same pan. It was pretty awesome! I declare it was the best tofu dish I've made thus far! We both did think it was a bit too spicy though!

This morning I woke up at 5:30 for unknown reasons, so I made this for my sister's apartment-warming party tonight.. I know, she's been living there all summer, but they still hadn't had a party. And they just finished painting all the walls. I got this recipe from Susan.
I didn't use a cast iron skillet (I don't have one..) but I just used a 9-inch cake pan and it worked out fine! Woo.

Oh yeah! And I did this last night. Well see.. Chris and I just got done plastering over and sanding all the holes in my kitchen (yeah.. my landlord didn't do a thing..) so I didn't want to put a shelf in. I velcro'd my spices to the wall! I love it. I can just grab them.
Speaking of which.. I just bought a bunch of these spices the other night.. $35 worth! I almost cried.

Oh and today (since I was up so early) I also went and bought paint, and painted over the holes we covered. Almost can't tell! Heh.
Oh and ALSO I finished the quilt I've been working on for Chris' sister as a housewarming gift! We're helping to move her into her new apartment a week from today. It's not perfect.. it's my first quilt without the help of my Grandma haha, so.. yeah. I hope she likes it!

Updates

2007-08-07T20:47:00.000-04:00

It's been a while.. I've been super busy! I'm finally living in my apartment in West Chester full time, and commuting to my job in Philly. I moved out of my sister's apartment last week.. I figured I should get settled in here before school starts. But backing up a bit, a while ago I received a care package from Pensarepink on the PPK. Here's what I got:

After that I finally made a curry that looks like other curries I've seen! I was happy.

Now on to vacation. Christine and I flew to Nebraska to visit my Grandma on the Winnebago reservation and go to pow-wow. Here's me and the reservation's herd of buffalo!

Dad is out in NE.
Then we got dressed for pow-wow and I ran with the buffalos.. well OK.. they're really far off in the distance, but still.
Finally got to pow-wow!
Two little indians.
And again!

Oh yeah, then on the way home our flight got canceled, rescheduled, canceled again, and the airline put us up in a hotel in Omaha!

And that was the end to a crazy trip. I hope to be cooking/baking tons in my apartment now.. so I should be posting again soon! :-D

Have No Fear!

2007-07-31T09:57:00.000-04:00

Hey guys! I just wanted to let you know I'm still here. I've been suuuper busy lately. I just got back yesterday from Nebraska, I went for pow-wow (yessss I'm Native American) and to visit family, so maybe I will show you guys some pictures from that soon.
Yes I'm still cookin and baking, don't worry! I'll get back on here as soon as I can!

Dinner and Dessert!

2007-07-16T20:09:00.001-04:00

I made a lasagna using zucchini instead of pasta noodles. It would have helped to have a mandoline for this kind of thing. I mixed TVP with some pasta sauce as one of the layers, and some Tofutti cream cheese with soy milk and nutritional yeast for a cheesy layer, there's spinach, summer squash and vegan mozzarella and parmesan cheese. It turned out pretty well!

Then I made these cookies.. roughly based on the gigantoid peanut butter oatmeal recipe from VWaV. I traded out some oil for applesauce and a mini banana.. but I didn't measure anything. There some oil.. some applesauce, peanut butter, soymilk, banana.. and then all the regular stuff. They actually turned out good! Oh yeah I added chocolate chips.

Christine has some cookies in the oven right now. They're accidentally vegan.. she saw them on the food channel, something Giada made. Chocolate cookies with chocolate chips and pine nuts. If they're good maybe I'll put them up later hehe.

Garden Veggies and Juice

2007-07-15T20:31:00.000-04:00

A big zucchini from Mom's garden. Anyody got any good zucchini recipes?

I used it in soup tonight!

Oh! I went home yesterday to do some laundry.. and while I was there I swiped the juicer that wasn't getting any use. This has carrots, a beet and half an apple.

Thennnn I used some of a cucumber from Mom's garden, Tofutti cream cheese and some tomato slices on a mini bagel for lunch tomorrow!

Now I'm watching Little Miss Sunshine.. not bad so far, but it's only been 10 minutes.

Oh man, there's no baking in this post...

Blogiversary!

2007-07-12T19:27:00.000-04:00

This week marks my 1-year veganniversary and blogiversary! Yep, I've been blogging it since the very beginning.. I feel like I've come a long way! Lots of reading and learning, and I think I've been making better food.

On to foods.. this isn't much for the big event, but the other day I made this hummus tortilla pizza.

And these are Garrick's chocolate chip cookies from the PPK forums. I like this recipe a lot.

Hmm, I gotta do some work, so that's all for now.

Apartment Warming Party!

2007-07-08T16:33:00.000-04:00

So yesterday.. was the most hectic day ever. I enlisted the help of Christine and my friends Courtney and Ben to get set up for the party. We spent most of the day in the kitchen, but Courtney and I spent some time in my room because she was on goody bag duty, and I really wanted to get the curtains finished for the living room and kitchen.

Here's a shot of the living room just before the party.. with curtains!

And a look into my kitchen.. with its new curtains as well!

As for the food, I guess I'll start with dessert.
An assortment from VCTOW. First we have Tiramisu.

Cookies and Cream!

And Pistachio Rosewater!

We also had a fruit tray!
The dip is equal parts Tofutti cream cheese and Ricemellow Creme.

Hummus and veggies.

My sushi, third times a charm! It was real good.
Avocado, cucumber and carrots.. as always. I'm boring.

Pigz in a blanket! Smart Dogs, quartered and wrapped up in crescent rolls.

And bruschetta! There was also pita chips and spinach artichoke dip but those pictures didn't come out so fancy.

Oh and then.. a shot of me and Chris as he was leaving.
Haha you can see the tupperware of cupcakes he's leaving with.

It was a grand party! The goody bags had assorted vegan candy and small toys I bought at Five Below. Yayy for my apartment.

S'mores Cupcakes

2007-07-05T21:15:00.000-04:00

Tonight I tried the s'mores cupcakes from VCTOW.. I sort of messed up the frosting. I tried to halve it.. but halfway through I forgot what I was doing and added the full amount of soymilk. So I wasn't able to pipe it, but Christine and I just spooned it onto the cupcakes.. and then topped them with chocolate shavings and graham cracker crumbs.

These were actually a request from my boss' son.. I'm taking them in to work tomorrow. I had one.. they are quite reminiscent of s'mores!

Muffins and Tacos!

2007-07-03T19:08:00.000-04:00

Mom bought us some blueberries last weekend when we were home, so I made muffins. I used the recipe for the apple-pie crumb-cake muffins from VWaV only I switched out the apple for blueberries. I halved it and made 12 mini-muffins. They turned out great!

Oh and this morning I made smoothies for us. Here is mine perched at my work station..yes, I work on the floor of my boss' kid's bedroom.. it was blueberries, banana, soy yogurt and soymilk.. oh and some ice.

And tonight we just had these taco salad bowls for dinner. We used some of Christine's pottery to shape the tortilla bowls in the oven, and here's all the toppings.

I had mine with a Boca burger..

And Christine had hers with a Boca chik'n patty. Fantastic!

Oh yeah, here's the dress I'm planning to wear to my apartment warming party. What do you think? OK with the black shoes?

"Chicken" Cutlets!

2007-06-29T21:06:00.001-04:00

We're home for the weekend! Tonight Christine and I made dinner. I got this burger recipe here, but made them more like chicken cutlets. Here they are just out of the oven.
Then I used this recipe for fried "chicken." I was a little bummed to fry them.. but here they are! They look the same, but it was really different!

And an inside shot!

This was the whole meal. We also made roasted asparagus and mashed potatoes, and there's some garlic bread there in the middle. Good dinner!

Oh yeah, and while I was making them I dropped the oats... all over the place.

Tomorrow I'm going to buy a car! I'm taking out a loan and getting aaaa.. 1999 Honda Civic.. it's beautiful! Wooo!

*EDIT* HERE IT IS!!!

Sushi, Kitty, Dinner

2007-06-28T17:53:00.000-04:00

The other night I made sushi, because I want to make it next week for my apartment warming party, and I had only made it once before. I needed to brush up on my skill. It turned out better than the first time, but still just mediocre. I think it was better by default because last time I made it in a dorm room.

It has cucumber, carrots and avocado. I took it to work.
Oh yeah, this is Emilia. She wanted to help out.
Then last night I made stuffed peppers. There's tofu, brown rice, peppers, tomatoes, kidney beans and onions. Not bad at all!

Two Dinners and Muffins

2007-06-25T20:40:00.001-04:00

On Friday I went to a restaurant in Wilmington, Delaware called Deep Blue. It's sort of a fancy place, so me and my friend Ben felt really out of our element, haha. And it was expensive too, so I just got a little spinach salad. It had like, cucumber, apple, grapes and walnuts. It was good though. We were mainly there to see our saxophone professor performing in a jazz combo.

Then on Sunday I made the Apple Pie Crumb Cake Muffins from VWaV for the boy and his apartment-mates. I halved the recipe and made 12 mini muffins, I brought three back here for me, Christine and Julia. I have yet to eat mine but the boys said theirs are already gone.. must have been good!

Today I made this salad for dinner. It has couscous, tomatoes, broccoli, squash, bell pepper, walnuts, raisins and alfalfa sprouts. Yummy :-D

A Few Days of Food

2007-06-21T22:24:00.001-04:00

Monday night I made sweet potato fries for the first time! I think I cut them too thin and cooked them too long.. but I seasoned them with chili powder and cinnamon like I saw on Laura's blog.. and they weren't terribly bad! I'll definitely try again. We had Boca burgers too.

Wednesday night we ate at Arpeggio, an Italian place with good vegan options. I had the falafel salad, it was good!
And I just made these for work tomorrow. Cinnamon rolls! I got the recipe here.

Sorry for the short entry, but we're watching a movie called "Melinda and Melinda" now.

Cupcakes and Tofu

2007-06-17T20:32:00.001-04:00

Today was a good Sunday! Christine bought some oops paint at Home Depot to paint a wall in her kitchen red. It's looking pretty cool. I made some cupcakes while she painted. Chocolate with pink tinted buttercream frosting (leftover from the pistachio rose cupcakes) with red sugar, walnuts, banana chips, a drizzle of melted chocolate, and a cherry on top!

Sunday sundae cupcakes!The batch ended up making 12 mini and 9 regular cupcakes!

For dinner we made fusilli pasta with tofu "meat" balls in pasta sauce. I made the tofu balls myself, but they fell apart in the sauce :-( I actually made them a while ago and froze them.. so I don't remember what they're made of! Tofu.. uhmm bread crumbs, wheat germ I think, oregano and basil.. some stuff! In any case.. it made a good chunky sauce!

Crepes for a Party!

2007-06-14T10:08:00.000-04:00

Well.. they were really crepes for a potluck, but my friend wouldn't let me call it that. She said old people have potlucks. It wasn't a vegan potluck, so there was spinach dip in a bread bowl that I couldn't have, but it looked so cool. I liked the bread bowl idea. There was spaghetti, hummus, and really good potatoes. Christine took a salad..

And I took a build-your-own crepe station!

These were the first crepes I ever made and they turned out good. I threw the first one away though, hehe. Here's my crepe! I put everything on it.

It was great! Oh yeah, and then I made scones for work! I used the basic scone recipe from VWaV, and added fresh strawberries and blueberries. Yay :-)

One more thing! I just realized this: the same date that I'm having my apartment-warming party (which I have yet to use the kitchen.. since I'm living in Philly with Christine to work) is my one year veganniversary! July 7th - double party!

EDIT: I just got done with these! They're for work tomorrow. Pistachio Rosewater cupcakes from VCTOW. I can't take credit for the frosting job though. I'm just a mere music major, Christine's an art major.. so I enlisted her to do the swirls. Aren't they beautiful?

Filled Cupcakes

2007-06-12T00:24:00.001-04:00

Baking for work again.. Golden Vanilla Cupcakes (VCTOW) with a chocolate mousse filling (silken tofu, melted chocolate chips, soymilk, vanilla) and some more of the mousse on top, with some powdered sugar.

I'm a little bummed, I only wanted them to be FILLED with the mousse, but I had so much leftover.. and I didn't know what I was going to put on top anyway. So I just spread more mousse around.. shrug. And then the powdered sugar sort of soaked into it.

It was a valiant effort. I am just having no luck with cupcakes these days. At least I got some baking cups.

Family Vacation (Pt. 1)

2007-06-09T00:05:00.000-04:00

My family is on vacation for the first time in 7 years! We've been in Virginia Beach since Wednesday afternoon. Last night we went to a neat restaurant in nearby Norfolk called Amalfi Ristorante. It's an Italian place with a ton of vegan/vegetarian items on the menu. I got the Roasted Vegetable Risotto with Vegan Sausage. There were red peppers, artichokes and mushrooms in there. Very neat.

Christine (the vegetarian sister) had Penne alla Vodka that she said was excellent. And then I had to get the vegan raspberry cheesecake of course! It was pretty neat, I'd like to try making a cheesecake myself sometime. (I got it to go, as you can see.. I'm sure it looked much prettier before the car ride.)

Tonight for dinner we went to Waterman's Beachwood Grill right here on the main strip. Christine and I split the Morrocan Hummus Platter, it was excellent. Their pita bread was awesome.

We also found a very cool health food store and cafe called The Heritage. They had an awesome bulk foods aisle. All the mixes that might be questionable (and that we would normally have to read the ingredients for) had labels that said vegan if they were. It was awesome, and I got one called Maple Nut Deluxe. Below is a picture of the labeling, cool huh? Christine and I also got the Peanut Butter Blast smoothie in the cafe, it was natural pb, banana, soymilk, honey and vegan chocolate (I got mine with no honey.) Very awesome!

Oh yes, and one more thing. We found a grocery store a little further away called The Fresh Market that was great. About half the store was fresh fruits and vegetables. They had a really large dried fruit and nuts section too. I got some food from the bulk aisle.. a Wasabi Rice Mix, and Oriental Rice Mix and a mix called Mexicali Fire. A very cool place. I also got a Luna tea. I'll show you guys later.

Well here's me and the little brother during some night beach frisbee.

And here.. Christine and myself. I don't have any good pictures of me and Nick yet. He's Christine's twin. Haha and don't worry, it ends there, there's only four of us kids!

Now I'm off to bed.. tomorrow we are heading to Annapolis, MD, and Sunday we're going to my cousin's high school graduation party. More later!

German Chocolate Cupcakes!

2007-06-04T21:20:00.001-04:00

Well.. I was pretty determined to make cupcakes tonight!

I wanted to make chocolate cupcakes.. but alas, no cocoa powder. Well I decreased the oil in the recipe (from VCTOtW) and added some melted chocolate chips. It's all good.. then I realize.. no baking cups! Whatever. I just greased up the pan. They baked and came out fine.. but now they're all sticky.. because they don't have baking cups. I put them on the nice serving platter to take to work and they're all sticking to it!!

Ah well.. I figure I will just find some forks and plates and tell everyone to eat them that way. Oh yeah and then I made coconut topping. So here you have.. German Chocolate cupcakes.

Tiramisu Cupcakes!

2007-05-31T21:20:00.001-04:00

Tonight me and Christine made the Tiramisu cupcakes from VCTOtW! We're taking them to work tomorrow. I didn't have any chocolate-covered coffee beans so.. a chunk of chocolate goes on top.. I don't think there will be any complaints.

I've had this book since it first came out.. but these are my first fancy cupcakes. I'm excited!

Cookies and Busy

2007-05-30T12:23:00.000-04:00

Well, I've been busy lately.. working Monday-Friday 9-5.. blegh. I'm staying with my sister (we work together) in her apartment right outside of Philly. We just got home this past weekend, so I did some baking! I left some at home, sent some (hope they last in the mail) to my friend for his birthday, and gave some to the boy for him and his apartment-mates.

I (finally) made the Sparkled Ginger cookies from VWaV!

And Squirrel's chocolate cookies with peanut butter again. Chris actually requested them.. they're a hit!

Oh yeah, and I don't have any pictures, but last weekend I surprised Chris by showing up at West Chester with a picnic. Since I'm staying in Philly this summer we don't see eachother much. I took ham and cheese for him, and I had a peanut butter and ricemellow creme sandwich, at Ridley Creek State Park. It was nice!

In other news.. even though I won't stay there much, I'm moving into my apartment either tomorrow or Friday, woo! Pictures to come!

Camping Trip!

2007-05-20T18:40:00.000-04:00

Last week I went on a camping trip with my brother and sister! We stayed in a cabin at World's End State Park. The second night we made Smart Dogs over the fire. Hehe.

Here's me and my brother on a hike.

For lunch one day I made a sandwich with some soy cheese and some Lightlife bologna.

And on the hike I had a tempeh salad sandwich.

Oh yeah and we made s'mores too! I used Ricemellow Creme, it worked out better the second time and actually melted but I didn't get a picture of that.

I'm Home!

2007-05-13T09:24:00.000-04:00

Finally home! This morning Christine (sister) and I made french toast for Mother's Day! Most of it was in the "regular" egg/milk mixture, but I made a vanilla Rice Dream/flour mixture to dip mine in.

I had it with some Smart Balance Light, cinnamon/sugared walnuts and almonds, maple syrup and some fresh berries! Mom was happy. Wooo. Hopefully, I will be making more things shortly!

I'm Still Here!

2007-04-19T16:31:00.000-04:00

Gah, this is terrible. People weren't washing their dishes after they used the dorm kitchen.. so they've stopped letting people use it! Good thing the school year is almost over. I'm moving back home on May 11th.. so I may not be doing a lot of cooking/baking until then. :(

Then on June 1st I move into MY APARTMENT!! Ahhhh. I will be in the kitchen all the time! Haha. I need to get all my own cooking/baking equipment... Well that's all for now. Sorry I have no food to post. *cry*

Home Again.. Cookies!

2007-04-08T11:01:00.000-04:00

Home again this weekend.. I made some cookies today! Double Chocolate Almond Explosion Cookies from Vive le Vegan! I subbed brown rice syrup in for the maple syrup (because I'm trying to get rid of mine.. I have it and don't use it a lot..) and then I thought maybe it would be too thick so I put in soy milk for half of the oil. Oh and also.. I just mixed in 1/3 cup of chocolate chips and 1/3 cup of sliced almonds instead of mixing half in and half on top. I think they turned out good! My Mom said they were great!

This picture is kind of funny, I smeared a chocolate chip on the top cookie. Whoops.

Huge Cookies!

2007-04-02T21:34:00.000-04:00

I'm home for a few days.. first thing I did.. BAKE! Massive chocolate chip / peanut butter / oat cookies! They're awesome! I'll let you all in on this..

1 cup AP flour

1 cup oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup chocolate chips
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup peanut butter
2 tablespoons oil
2 tsp vanilla

Combine the red in a large bowl. In a small bowl, whisk the blue until mixed, then add to the red! You can stir if you want but I just mixed it up with my hands.. Then shape them into cookies (they won't flatten out while baking) and bake at 400º for about 11 minutes!

They'll be squishy when they come out but trust me they'll harden up!

Chocolate & Peanut Butter..

2007-04-01T22:27:00.000-04:00

A match made in heaven! I first saw this in a post on The PPK forums. The recipe is from Squirrel's Vegan Kitchen. Huuuuge hit with the family, the boy and his apartment-mates! I even had a few myself.. they're really awesome! I suggest these to everyone.

I think my chocolate dough was a liiiitle too moist. And I skipped out on chocolate chips in the peanut butter filling. Oh well.. they're great!

I Don't Know

2007-03-30T09:00:00.000-04:00

On Wednesday my Dad was killed in a car accident.

Pow Wow, Summer '06

I'll probably still be baking and cooking and blogging to keep my mind off things. I went over to a friends' apartment last night and made some really awesome cookies, but they were so good they are already gone and I didn't take a picture.

BUT.. since they were so good I'm definitely making them again and you will all see their gloriousness.

I don't know.

Chocolates and Good News!

2007-03-27T15:03:00.000-04:00

Well, Vegancore is a crazy bum and started posting candy reviews.. so of course I'm going to go out and try every darn kind!! I looked after work the other night and it turns out Wegmans has a lot of the Ritter Sport bars in the German aisle of the ethnic foods section. I found vegan Dark Chocolate and Dark Chocolate with Marzipan.

As you can see.. the one with marzipan didn't last until I decided to take a picture.. in other words it was really good.. I want to try making my own marzipan.

I did have the brains to pause mid-chow and get the dark chocolate.. which was also gooood.

Now I bet you're all waiting for the good news.. well.. last week me and my good friend Michelle signed the lease on an APARTMENT!!! I'm getting OUT OF THE DORMS! We're moving in June 1st and it runs until May 25, 2008. It's craaaazy. I'm going to have a kitchen, and NO mandatory meal plan.. I'm so excited. My own food. Wooot! OK I'm done..

Well the weather is wonderful, I hope everybody is having as nice a week as I am!

Meal Plan

2007-03-20T20:48:00.000-04:00

I thought I would show you what I eat here at school. Since I live in a dorm, I'm required to get a meal plan. I have the 175 meal block, so I get 175 meals each semester. Each meal is worth $4.00.. so that's why some of these things have prices on them.

I bought all this today, plus two bananas and an apple.

Carrots, celery and broccoli cup.. it always comes with ranch dressing, blegh! Squash, and cauliflower.

Lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers.

St. Patrick's Day!

2007-03-19T04:38:00.000-04:00

I made these sugar cookies from The PPK forums. When I went to flatten them out, they cracked at the edges a bit so I stopped. They just ended up being small, round and fat. But they taste really good!! I will try these again.
Me and the boy :-D

Breakfast and College Tempeh

2007-03-17T07:28:00.000-04:00

Well I'm heading back to school later on today (I think.. depending on the snow.) So yesterday I decided to cook some food to take back with me.

I had a package of tempeh so with half of it I made the tempeh sausage crumbles from VWaV. I tried a little piece, it was great! I haven't liked tempeh so much in the past, I think because it has a weird flavor, but you boil this first.. I think that helps!

Then I made a tempeh "chicken" salad. It has steamed cubes of tempeh (I found that idea online somewhere,) carrots, raisins, pecans and Nayonaise.

I also made Freedom's raw berry mousse, but that picture turned out ugly by itself, so I'll show you this morning's breakfast! Hot wheat cereal, topped with the mousse, pecans and some raspberries. :-D

Car+Snow=Bad

2007-03-16T13:51:00.000-04:00

This morning I observed at Conrad Weiser high school until they got an early dismissal at 10:40 because of the snow. Then on the way home.. disaster struck!

I went around a turn, did a 180, then slid off the road and over a railroad tie.

The tie got lodged under my car, and my parents had to come with a jack so we could get the car up high enough to pull the tie out. That's me on the left, and my step dad on the right. And some random truck driving by.

Well we managed to get it out, and my step dad drove it home. All is well!

Apricot.. Thingies

2007-03-15T13:57:00.000-04:00

I started out to make the date-nut diamonds from (where else?) VWaV.. but I wanted to replace the dates with apricots because Mom had a lot in the cupboard. Now.. they taste fine! But the crust is just totally crumbly. I couldn't really cut them into diamonds.. in the end I was just tearing them into chunks, and a lot of the crust was left in the pan. I will try again sometime. The apricot part was definitely a success though!

Coconut Pancakes!

2007-03-14T22:42:00.000-04:00

Continuing the streak.. I made the coconut pancakes from VWaV this morning for the freezer. They only changes I made were using sweetened coconut instead of unsweetened (it's all Mom had in the house) and using one tablespoon of brown rice syrup instead of two of maple syrup (no particular reason for that.. I just want to use up my brown rice syrup..)Pancakes are definitely my favorite freezer food! I pack them in twos, so I can just take them out and microwave them for a quick breakfast. MmMmmm.

Tons of Food!

2007-03-13T20:27:00.000-04:00

This morning I woke up at 6am (I have no idea why) so I thought I would make some muffins! Lemon poppyseed from VWaV.. I haven't had one yet but my mom did, she said they're good, but dense. They didn't rise much.. that might be because I used 1 cup of AP flour and 3/4 cup of whole wheat flour instead of all AP. Shrug.. they smell good!

Then I mixed up the dough for the Fig Not-ins and put it in the fridge to chill while I observed at Conrad Weiser middle school. That was fun. When I got home I went to roll out the dough but it was super crumbly! I added water little by little and managed to get a few strips out, but eventually I gave up and just saved the fig mixture. Maybe I'll put it on a sandwich. I did get about 30 cookies though.

Last night my parents went out for dinner.. and I'm a little bummed that they eat out so much, so I offered to make dinner tonight! My mom had this mixture of rice, corn, black and kidney beans in the fridge so I made a Mexican-themed fried tofu to go with it.. it's dredged in a mixture of crushed tortilla chips, flour, cumin and chili powder. And I just roasted some green veggies on the side.

And I JUST got done making the gigantoid peanut butter cookies.. I'm on a VWaV streak today! These I did try.. I swear I'm not biased.. they are AWESOME! Everybody make these.
And last but not least.. I FINALLY made the banana split pudding brownies (VWaV..) that everyone has already made. I've always thought they were too ugly.. and they are! I didn't grease my baking dish well enough so some of them fell apart coming out.. but I made them to freeze anyway so I just molded them back together and wrapped them up.. they're very fudgy.. nobody will know!
Oh yeah.. the verdict from my family on these was.. wayyyy too chocolatey. The brownie part has both cocoa powder and melted chocolate.. I'll agree that's a bit chocolatey even for me!

My First Tofu Scramble

2007-03-10T18:55:00.000-05:00

This morning I cooked breakfast for the fam! My first tofu scramble ever.. I got the basic gist of it from VWaV. It's got onions, green peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes, broccoli, carrots and squash. It's on top of some bread that I made a few weeks ago.. and I cut up some apples and pineapple too. Good deal!

Weirdcakes and Veggies!

2007-03-09T21:54:00.000-05:00

Home for spring break! Oh.. to finally have a kitchen right at my disposal! The first thing I did (OK.. second, because first I started my laundry) was bake cupcakes! But something went wrong!! I tried to make the root beer float cupcakes from Bittersweet's blog... but hers turned out brown, like the color of chocolate. Mine look like vanilla cupcakes! EH?

Whatever! They taste like cupcakes!

Then for dinner I found every vegetable in the house for a quick stirfry.

Sutao Cafe and My Dorm!

2007-03-03T22:23:00.000-05:00

Tonight.. I had nothing to do.. FOR ONCE. So I enjoyed my evening alone.

First I treated myself to Sutao Cafe, a little asian vegan restaurant over in Frazer. I got General Tso's tofu, with steamed broccoli and brown rice. It was good! Scared me a little, it was really chicken-like. I sort of wish it wasn't fried also.. but still good, and lots of leftovers (as always, with asian food!)

Then I went to Target for a while and just looked around. Then I came back here and finally got around to taking some pictures of my food drawer and fridge in my dorm room for you guys! Here's the drawer:

Something to ignore: the little can of "Just Whites" powdered egg whites.. me and Chris used it for the royal icing on our graham cracker houses.. which we did not eat haha. I guess I don't have a use for it anymore!

And.. my fridge!

To ignore: my stash of diet sodas on the middle shelf.. shhh.. you saw nothing.

Oatmeal Cookie (Crumbles)

2007-02-26T23:00:00.000-05:00

Well I made some oatmeal-chocolate chip cookies.. they didn't hold together well. I think I will try this same recipe though.. because once I realized they were falling apart, they held together better if I squeezed them well. So I think this would make really good oatmeal bars.. in like an 8x8, they taste delicious!

Oatmeal Things

1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup confectioner's sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 flax egg
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups oats
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350º. Mix the red, then add the blue. Stir in the oats and chocolate chips. Either squeeze into cookie shapes (they don't flatten out so flatten them yourself) or try oatmeal bars! As cookies, I baked them for 11 minutes!

Or possibly add some flour to get them to stick together?

Additionally: I am using confectioner's sugar lately because I am out of granulated.. and hoping it works out.. so far so good!

Well, It's Not Food But..

2007-02-15T13:12:00.000-05:00

Lol Chris knows the way to my heart.. I got socks for Valentine's Day! I think he outcrafted me with this one.. he knows I don't like flowers so he made a bouquet out of the socks! Around a bottle of sparkling grape juice, which we then shared.

Update: I have some coupons for Morningstar Farms products so I think I'm gonna go use them soon.. anybody have any particular product suggestions? I've never gotten their stuff before.. and I know some of it isn't vegan either.

Brownie Hearts!

2007-02-13T14:22:00.000-05:00

Today I made some heart-shaped brownies! I frosted these four for the boy and his apartment-mates. The rest I think I will just hand out plain to my friends and some professors. That is.. IF we have class tomorrow! Today is a snow day!

Brownies (I modified this recipe)

2 cups flour
1 cup confectioner's sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup soymilk
1 cup oil
1 tsp vanilla

Mix the dry. Add the wet ingredients and mix well! I baked them at 350º for about 17 minutes.. but it was in the little heart-shaped cups, so times may vary!

Update: Here's something unusual, I actually had one of these! (I don't know why.. but I usually bake for other people, not myself.) Not to toot my own horn, but they are fantastic! More on the cakey side of brownies, actually very cake-like but I would still call them brownies. I love this recipe now.

I Love My Mommy

2007-02-12T22:50:00.000-05:00

Guess what came in the mail yesterday? Valentine's Day candy! My mommy (and step dad) sent it! They came from Rose City Chocolates, I got the Vegan Valentine's Day Selection of 24! I can't believe I actually managed to take the picture before I started eating them :-)

They are delicious. My favorites are the log shaped ones with white on top. They're coconut something.. coconut and chocolate is a winner. Yes.

BEST Banana Bread!

2007-02-09T14:32:00.000-05:00

I'm sorry.. this recipe isn't vegan.. but there's a reason for that. And somebody NEEDS to veganize this!

The reason I made this is because it's my boyfriend's favorite banana bread (seriously.. he loves it.. a lot) so I emailed his mom and got the recipe for it. I made it for him for Valentines Day (shhh!) When his mom made it over Christmas break he made me taste it.. I just had a little bit, it really is AWESOME. If anybody out there makes a vegan version of this.. let me know how it turns out! I will do it eventually, but I wanted to give him the real thing.

Sour Cream Banana Bread

1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

3/4 cup margarine
3 cups sugar
3 eggs
6 very ripe bananas, mashed
1 (16 oz) container sour cream
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
3 tsp baking soda
4 1/2 cups AP flour

Preheat oven to 300º.. Grease the four 7"x3" loaf pans (I used three regular sized.. I think it was like 9"x5") and dust with the cinnamon/sugar mixture.

Cream the margarine and sugar.. add the eggs, bananas, sour cream and vanilla. Mix in everything else. Divide into pans, not more than 3/4 of the way! Bake until a toothpick comes out clean, a little more than an hour.

I'd be interested to see how this goes with vegan sour cream and maybe flax eggs or something. If you won't.. I will!

Banana Bars

2007-02-02T13:54:00.000-05:00

I don't know if you guys remember my friend Kristin from across the hall, but she brought me some more bananas the other day. I had plans for banana bread but unfortunately the dorm kitchen has no loaf pan.. so I used an 8x8.
Additionally, I was using my mini-blender to mix all the liquid ingredients and it died.. forever. I'm bummed.

Banana Chocolate-Chip Bars

1 cup AP flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp flax meal
1/2 cup chocolate chips
3 Tbsp oil
1/2 Tbsp blackstrap molasses
3 small bananas
1/2 cup "milk"
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350º. Mix the red. Separately, mix the blue. Add the liquids to the dry ingredients and stir to combine.
I didn't have a timer so I kept an eye on it.. but I'm guessing it was somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes in an 8x8. Sorry to be so vague.

Hot Pockets?

2007-01-24T18:10:00.000-05:00

My own creation!

I used the dry ingredients from the "Yeast-Free Pizza Crust" in LDV, and added half an avocado (all mashed up) and about 1/4 cup of soymilk.. to make a dough kind of thing.

The filling is the "mozzarella" and "pepperonis" leftover from the pizza the other night, along with some fresh spinach. Obviously I need more filling next time.

I wrapped these up and froze them for meals later.. my semester is so crazy I'm gone from 7:30-4 most days.. luckily the music building has a microwave.. mmm hot pockets for lunch!

Sushi!

2007-01-23T16:20:00.000-05:00

Oooh my first time making sushi! It has cucumber, carrots and avocado. I also tried the type with rice on the outside but they looked quite ugly.. so no pictures for you!

Pizza

2007-01-22T22:36:00.000-05:00

Well, I FINALLY got to a kitchen for the first time since coming back to school this semester. At the boy's apartment :-) we made pizza! Pillsbury dough-in-a-can and store bought pizza sauce (both vegan as far as I could tell.) His half (on the right) with grated cheese and pepperonis, my half with Follow Your Heart Vegan Mozzarella and Yves pepperonis. As you can see, the "cheese" didn't melt too well, I'm a little bummed. But it tasted fine.. just looked ugly.

Scones?

2007-01-09T19:10:00.000-05:00

Well, I wanted to use the bread machine again.. so I pulled out that book and found a recipe for.. "Yorkshire Teacakes." I thought they looked like bagels without holes.. whatever, I decided to make them. Mom said they're like scones. She tried one, so did both of my brothers and everybody says they have much more flavor than the other things I bake.. hmm..

Well I fiddled around with the recipe, so here's what I did!

1 1/4 cups chai flavored soy milk
2 cups AP flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup raisins
3 tbsp unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dry active yeast

Into the bread machine for some kneading and rising, then into balls for more rising, then in the oven for 15 minutes at 400º. Yummy!

Not a fantastic shot.. oh yeah.. and the little brother in the background.

Behind the Apron

2007-01-08T22:33:00.000-05:00

Well Fiber at 28 Cooks suggested this Behind the Apron thing, so.. here goes!

It's me! I took this picture last week with my brand new digital camera and after a new haircut! Uhm.. I went vegan in July of '06. Mostly because I became interested in eating healthy and taking care of myself, but I find that I'm becoming much more compassionate towards animals the more I read.

I like to run and am getting into biking (like the bicycle, not the motorcycle) I play the saxophone and am a music education major at West Chester University in PA. I live in a dorm so cooking at school sucks. Uhm.. I have 2 brothers and a sister, a mom and a step-dad and we're all awesome.. obviously. Oh yeah, I'm 19 by the way. I like to knit and do crafty things. That's all I can think of right now.. maybe I'll add more later. Oh yeah.. I like to read. And take self portraits.

Freezer Foods!

2007-01-06T15:57:00.000-05:00

My sister is leaving on Monday for a semester abroad in Italy.. so what better bonding to do in our last few days together than.. BAKING! Tons of food for the brand new chest freezer we bought our parents for Christmas!

Last night we made bread.. like a LOAF of it! In the bread machine.. I've never done that before. It was nothing special, a mix of whole wheat and white flours, water and yeast. I think there was also an insignificant amount of salt and sugar. We both had toast for breakfast today :-)

We also made cinnamon rolls, I got the recipe from Bunnyfoot. For some reason ours didn't really brown very well.. but they do taste good!

Next up.. english muffins! The recipe came from the same book as the bread, I think it's called.. Bread Machine. These are awesome! In the future, however, I think I will use a bigger cookie cutter.. it said 3 inches, but I feel like if we put these in the toaster we won't be able to get them back out!

And last but not least.. two kinds of pancakes! Apple-Oat from VLV, and Chocolate-Chocolate Chip from VWaV.. my little brother tried the latter and said "they taste like pancakes.." I suppose that's good!
I'm exhausted!

Everything Soup

2007-01-03T18:56:00.000-05:00

Well, nobody's home.. dinner with myself tonight. First I was going to just saute some vegetables.. so I wilted some fresh spinach and then added carrots, broccoli, mushrooms, yellow/orange bell peppers, green beans and some tempeh. That was all heated up and I thought I should make it a soup instead so I added 1/2 a cup of Imagine No-Chicken Broth.

I never did that before.. it was good. I should make soup more often.

Coincidence

2007-01-02T22:03:00.000-05:00

Hey.. this is sort of strange. So I live in Reading PA.. I had this friend D Dieterly in high school, we were in band together and all that. The other day I was looking through my new cookbooks, and the back of Sinfully Vegan says something like.. "the author Lois Dieterly lives in Reading, PA with her family.." and I turn to my little brother (also a bando and friend of D) and jokingly say "look.. the author of this book is Lois Dieterly.. I bet that's D's mom!" And we shared a good laugh and that was that.
Then the little bro came home from school today and said, "hey.. Lois Dieterly really IS D's Mom!"

So.. small world?

Chips and Sammich

2006-12-26T20:34:00.000-05:00

Last night I used the banana chip recipe from Garden of Vegan.. this is how they turned out. They're hard on the outside but still a little chewy.. I have to figure out how to make them crunchier.. more chip-like, if you will. But I like them!
And tonight I made dinner for my family! These were supposed to be tempeh reubens, but I only had some wheat bread and mozzarella soy cheese (as opposed to uh.. rye/pumpernickel and swiss cheese) so they're not exact, but pretty close. I based it off the recipe from VWaV.
My family just thought they were so-so, but my (newly vegetarian) sister loved it! I think she now likes tempeh the best.. she hasn't really developed a taste for seitan or tofu yet.. or maybe I just haven't prepared them right..

Presents!

2006-12-25T16:01:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas! Three sweet new things:

I hope everybody else got neat stuff!

Party Foods!

2006-12-23T09:58:00.000-05:00

Last night me and my sister threw a martini party!
Here's the Christmas shot.. apple and pomegranate martinis!

We made the Brooklyn vs. Boston Cream Pie Cakes from VCTOtW.
Except the cream sort of absorbed into the cupcakes..
Nobody even knew it was there :-( We'll have to use more next time.

And also the Cookies 'N Cream Cupcakes..
Except I used the golden vanilla cupcake batter instead of chocolate.
They turned out really good, everybody liked these more.

We also made some pita chips, and the spinach artichoke dip
I found on Vegan-licious' blog.
It was excellent! The first thing to go.

Cookie Time!

2006-12-17T23:33:00.000-05:00

Well, today was Christmas cookie day! Here's the spread:

Candy canes
Chocolate crinkles
Chocolate-peppermint pinwheels (courtesy of Alton Brown)
Finnish ribbon
*Gingerbread men (from LDV)
*Oatmeal-raisin (from LDV)
Peanut butter kisses
*Pecan sandies (adapted from Martha Stewart)

* = vegan

The happy bakers.. sister and me!

I really like the gingerbread men from La Dolce Vegan! I've made them before.. they're pretty awesome. The oatmeal-raisin cookies, on the other hand, were sort of a disappointment. I guess I was in bake mode and just did what the recipe said.. not realizing they have no spices! So I just mixed some cinnamon and nutmeg with a little sugar and sprinkled it on before putting them in the oven, and they actually turned out well!

I don't think it would have been hard to veganize the other cookies, but my family didn't see why we should.. these are for gift plates.. and I didn't really plan on eating them so.. it doesn't matter. But it was a fun day!

Oh yeah.. in other news.. my sister decided to go veg(etarian!) And my older brother (her twin, coincidentally) is also considering it! :-P

Graham Cracker Houses!

2006-12-11T10:22:00.000-05:00

Well, they aren't completely vegan, but it was a funnnn Sunday activity nonetheless!

My first house..

Chris' first house..

Takin' a break.. house building is hard work!

See?

The whole village!

Peach Bars

2006-12-04T16:23:00.000-05:00

I just made these.. there's a crust on the bottom (flour, sugar, margarine) and then some peaches that my Mom canned.. I found them in the back of my food drawer! Hehe. I just added a little cornstarch and sugar and put it on the stove 'til it thickened up. The topping stuff is a little more flour and sugar with a little oil. In conclusion.. they are delicious!

Peach Bars

Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies!

2006-12-03T19:39:00.000-05:00

From VWaV! I have no more extras for my baked goods (nuts, dried fruits, chocolate chips, oats, peanut butter!) I only had the basics.. plus some strawberry preserves so I made these!

Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies

I don't usually eat my baked goods (I don't know if you noticed.. but I bake so much that if I ate everything I made.. I'd be huge!) But I did try these.. they're excellent! I made them yesterday.. and then another batch today! But I ran out of soymilk so I used water for these ones. They turned out a little chewier.. I like the soymilk ones better.

Cupcakes!

2006-11-30T21:14:00.000-05:00

Jeez it's been a few days.. with band over I haven't been doing nearly as much baking. But tonight I went down to the kitchen and made the Golden Vanilla Cupcakes from VCTOtW, with the Cinnamon Icing. I haven't tried one but they look preeetttty good! Although.. when I was making the icing of course I had to lick some off my fingers.. it tasted pretty darn margarine-y.. I wonder what I can do about that.

Golden Vanilla Cupcakes with Cinnamon Icing

Not much is up lately besides that.. I can't wait for the semester to be over....

Thanksgiving!

2006-11-23T19:49:00.000-05:00

Can't.. move.. beached.. whale... I made the stuffed Tofu Roast from La Dolce Vegan, it was pretty awesome! I really want to make something like it again. A lot of my family members tried it and I think they were surprised at how it "wasn't actually that bad!"

Here it is.. pre-oven..
Post-oven!
Post-slicing! Mmmm...
I also made the Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy from Vegan With a Vengeance, also awesome! And I love the fact that I have some chickpeas left over to make hummus hehe. Even though I never want to see food ever again. Here's the plate! Corn, mashed potatoes and tofu roast with gravy, sweet potatoes and cranberry relish.
The little bro, me and my sister. Just missing the older bro (he's in Spain for a semester.. it just isn't the same!)

Banquet!

2006-11-18T08:24:00.000-05:00

Well, no food to post..

Last night was the marching band banquet! Here's me and Chris :-)

Me and my lurve... I know what you're thinking.. this isn't what it looks like!

My bests :-)