Monday, February 29, 2016

...a Vegan Heart Cake...

...I meant to show y'all how we made the little two layer vegan heart cake for Valentine's Day...

...but then I sorta forgot about it...and it languished in my 'drafts' for a couple of weeks...

...sorry about that...

...but since today is Leap Day...also known as Bachelor's Day...it's a heart day of another sort...a heart cake post will not be too out of place...
...it's just a Duncan Hines red velvet cake mix...with my favorite vegan egg replacer (flax seed goo)...I have my great aunt's wonderful Red Velvet cake recipe...and I have made a vegan version of it...but this one was just a mix...I'm sorry to say...
...now...this is what I intended to do...and I still think it would be a good idea if I were going to take the cake to some function or other...but I wanted the cake to fit under my cover...and although I baked the cake for the method above...I realized that it would be rather large...ahem...
...so I just made a paper heart shaped template...
...and cut that shape out of both cakes...
...and did a crumb coat...on the first layer...
...and added the second layer....
...and did a crumb coat on that layer as well...it's really important for a 'cut-out' cake like this one to do a crumb coat...as the cut edges have a LOT of crumbs...
...then I put the second layer of vegan cream cheese frosting on the entire cake...and in the end...it turned out perfectly...I wish I had another one for today's lover's day...

...that reminds me of Sadie Hawkins Day too...when I was in school we used to have a Sadie Hawkins Day dance on February 29th...and girls were supposed to ask boys to dance...it's funny that the real day is in November...maybe they were just combining it with the Bachelor's Day tradition...funny...

...do they still do that?...I wonder...

~Have a lovely Leap Day!

Saturday, February 27, 2016

...Easy and Frugal Vacuum Sealing...

...we usually have a few taco shells leftover after a taco dinner...

...and it's been my experience that they get kinda rancid kinda quickly...and since it's the air that's making them so...I try to get all the air away from them that I can...
...I don't have a vacuum sealer...but I achieve the same effect with a straw and a regular zip top freezer bag...

...I just seal the top of the bag right up close to the straw...and suck all the air out with my lungs...
...it just takes a couple of seconds...and the bag gets pulled in very close to the object inside...
...not sure you can see it too well in the photos...but there's no air between the layers of plastic...
...maybe you can see it a little bit better here...upside down...the bag conforms to the shape of the object inside it...

...I leave the shells in their (relatively) crush proof container...because I don't want them crushed by the vacuum...and because I put them into the freezer where I don't want them to get smashed by other heavy rigid frozen things...

...so now we have shells for another day...

~Have a lovely weekend!

Friday, February 26, 2016

...What I Ate Yesterday...

Breakfast: Everything Bagel with Go Veggie Cream Cheese and Yorkshire Gold Tea...
Lunch: Zucchini Soup, Vegan Cornbread and salad...and tea (I'm sure even though it's not in the picture)...
Afternoon Tea: Cherry Tarte Rustique and Earl Grey Tea...with vegan cream and sugar...of course...
Dinner: Vegan Tacos, Corn, and Salad
...quite simply made with some vegan chili from the freezer left over from the Fastnacht Supper

...What did you eat yesterday?

~Have a lovely day!

Thursday, February 25, 2016

...tarte rustique...

...I've made Tarte Rustique...a couple of times...it's easy and fun...
...and I had some cherries left over from Julia's Clafouti... but not really enough for a big deep pie...
...so...I made a pie crust...and rolled it out in between my giant freezer bag pie crust helper...simple and not flour-y...my quick and easy pie crust recipe is there too...
...nice and thin...and super flakey...
...just cherries...and sugar...
...I just centered the pie crust on a sheet of parchment on a baking sheet...and poured the cherries in the center...
...and then folded the edges up...
...nice and neat...
...and baked until golden...

...Have you ever made a tarte rustique...or do you prefer your pie in a plate...

~Have a lovely day!

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

...W.I.P. Wednesday...a Lap-ghan...

...since I had finished my previous Prayer Shawl Ministry project...the sparkly triangle shawl...I spent the hour winding some 70s coloured yarns into balls...

...you remember the 70s don't you...Harvest Gold, Avocado Green, Poppy Red, and Burnt Orange...really...who could forget them...
...and the ladies were talking about the need for a few lap sized afghans for some of our nursing home residents who spend most of their day sitting...and would like something warm to drape over their legs...
...so I cast on for a Mixed Stripe Baby Throw...

...I'm going to do a couple of things different...besides the colours...

...the pattern calls for the stripes to continue into the seed stitch border...but I'm just not that fond of that look...so I'm going to continue my olive coloured...'scuse me...Avocado Green border up the sides...and just have the stripes in the center...

...and of course I'm going to make it long enough to generously cover an adult's lower half...

~Have a lovely day!

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

...Tuesdays with Julia...

...we made a delicious...alarmingly realistic Vegan Caneton aux Pêches - [Roast Duck with Peaches]...and all of the particulars are over at The Vegan Version...

...Have you ever had vegan duck?...

~Have a lovely day!

Monday, February 22, 2016

...Scout Stars...

...one of our parishioners is a performing arts major and for his senior project, he is filming his own version of the early life and calling of Agent 007...James Bond...

...played by our own Scout...

...and he's filming it all on an old super 8 film camera...and splicing it together...

...I can't wait to see the end result...if it gets posted to youtube...I'll be sure to share...

~Wishing you all a lovely start to your week!

Saturday, February 20, 2016

...Vegan Oatmeal Creamer...

...'member how I said I had a bunch of draft posts that kept links to recipes...

...this is one of those posts...I saw this recipe over at Running on Real Food...and stored it here to give it a try...
...I love things that just have a few simple ingredients...
...just blend up some oats...water...and a pinch of salt...then strain it through a fine mesh strainer...
...add some vanilla...Deryn used Maple Syrup in her recipe...but I used Piloncillo...because I just love it's caramel-ly taste in coffee...
...decant to a pretty cream pitcher...if you want...
...and pour some in your coffee...
...it makes pretty swirls when you stir it in...
...and I'd have to declare it 'pretty good'...it won't be replacing my Cashew Creamer...which I LOVE-LOVE-LOVE...but it's got a nice flavor and creaminess too...

Vegan Oatmeal Coffee Creamer

Ingredients

½ cup rolled oats
1¼ cup water
2 tbsp piloncillo (or Maple Syrup)
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
a pinch of salt (optional)

Blend oats, salt and water...then stir in vanilla and sweetener.

~Wishing you a lovely weekend...

Friday, February 19, 2016

...a winter evening and a new Coke...

...after our ice storm earlier this week...things are warming up and we've been having some lovely sunsets...
...Have you tried the new stevia sweetened Coca-Cola...

...that reminds me...do y'all remember the New Coke fiasco back in the '80s...
...now Coke is never my beverage of choice...but Scout and I saw these at the grocery store and he wanted to give them a try...

...he pronounced them 'pretty good'...and they're kinda spendy at $4.99 for this small 6 pack...

...and that's my Daddy's old, old 'church key' on the counter...not used very much because hardly anything comes in bottles that need a 'church key' any more...

~Have a lovely day!

Thursday, February 18, 2016

...What I Ate Yesterday...

Breakfast: Grits (with Earth Balance), Tangerine, Coffee with Cashew Creamer
Lunch: refried beans, rice, salsa

...and then dinner was a Lenten Supper at Church last night...and since I knew the menu was going to be vegetable soup and grilled cheese sandwiches...
...I made myself a grilled cheese sandwich using homemade French Bread and Daiya cheese before we left...
...and the parishioners who volunteered to do the meal very sweetly saved me out some soup before they put the meat in the big pot...so I had my own little crockpot of vegan soup...so, so nice...I love it when other people are so thoughtful...

...oh...and I took a slice of leftover vegan cornbread for my soup too...but they had saltine crackers on all the tables too...

Dinner: Vegetable Soup, Vegan Grilled Cheese Sandwich, Vegan Cornbread

...what did you eat yesterday?

~Have a lovely day!

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

...W.I.P. Wednesday...the Sparkly Shawl F.O.

...a simple shell stitch border...
...and the Prayer Shawl ministry meets this week...so finished just in time...

I think it turned out really pretty...and hopefully will be comforting to its recipient...

...time to choose another project out of the closet...

~Have a lovely day!

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

...some winter weather...and Tuesday with Julia...

...First of all...that may be like 'for one thing'...except I actually do have another thing...
...we've had some icy weather...
...generally I've found sleet and freezing rain to be much more dangerous and inconvenient than snow...which is soft and fluffy and gives your tires and boots some purchase...
...whereas sleet and freezing rain are really just ice...and freezing rain is just a sheet of ice...making even walking the dog in the grass pretty treacherous...
...and it's much more likely than snow to make the power go out as is coats the trees and makes them fall and it coats the power lines too...

...anywhoo...that's all pretty much behind us now...and the weather promises to be quite pleasant by the weekend...
...and second of all...or for another thing...we made a yummy dessert...
...Julia just calls this version...the master recipe...Clafouti...and there are several versions...

...I've already done the Vegan Clafouti aux Mûres...the Blackberry Flan...

...this master recipe has cherries for the fruit...and all of the particulars are at The Vegan Version...

~Have a lovely day!