I don't think I ever want to eat another cookie again.

Well, that's not true, I guess. I just need some time to recover. See, this past weekend I engaged in my yearly Christmas baking. It wasn't the large amount of cookies that I made that put me off, it was the subsequent sickness from a cookie overdose. Sunday afternoon, I spent five hours with my head in the toilet puking up something that tasted like recycled chocolate. Which is exactly what it was. I couldn't eat for a few days after that, and I certainly didn't want to look at anything resembling a cookie. I still kind of don't, so I am not going to post cookie pics yet. Instead, behold the pretty baby blanket I made for a friend's nephew:

Pretty, eh? It was originally supposed to be a full sized afghan for my boyfriend. Then we broke up. A friend asked if I would make it for her nephew's new baby, and I said sure. She even paid me. Of course, then my boyfriend and I got back together. Oh well.

Baking on a Tuesday...?

Yes, indeed. Tuesday night was full of baking. Three hours of baking, plus another hour and a half this morning. I was tired after all that, but it was for a good purpose - a party. We're always having some kind of party at work. ALWAYS. Today was a breakfast for all our different departments, and there's a lot of us, so we had to make sure there was enough food. I did my part. First, I made a double batch of cinnamon rolls. The same ones I made a couple of weeks ago, only double (duh). I did everything but bake them last night, and stuck them in the fridge to chill out until this morning so I could bake them fresh. They got huge in the fridge. Once again, I used flax as my egg replacer. Everything else was the same (x's two!).

Pretty in the pan.

Gooey

Up close and gooey

While the dough for those was rising so I could roll them out, I made Pumpkin Streusal Cake from Veganomicon. I made no changes to this one, it was awesome as is.

This cake was moist and perfect.

After the cake, I gave up for the night. I woke up bright and early (4 am) and made scones. Specifically, Chocolate Chip Scones from The Joy of Vegan Baking. I had a tiny problem with these. I kept adding flour and no matter how much I added, I couldn't get them not sticky so I could shape them. So I just scooped them up and dropped them on the cookie sheet. They came out fine. Fluffy and sweet and chocolatey.

Sprinkled with demerara.

There's the spread. Vegan sausage, pancakes with apples on top, pumpkin streusal cake, cinnamon roll and fruit. There was a scone, but I ate it before the photo. Like a true southern dweller, I washed it all down with a Diet Sundrop. Breakfast of Champions.

Well, now. I am just entirely too proud of myself.

Today, for the very first time, I baked with yeast. I know, the FIRST TIME, right? I was scared of yeast, this is true. But no more. I have conquered my fear! With cinnamon rolls! See, I have been wanting to make cinnamon rolls for a very long time now. I finally decided that I wanted to make some for a work party, in which we have a carry-in breakfast for the whole building. The party isn't until next week, so I decided to practice this morning. I found a great looking recipe on VegWeb and used it. I used flax eggs, and for the filling, I used half demerara and half sucanat. I had extra filling, but that might have just been me. It was a proud moment for me when my yeast got foamy. I killed the yeast on my first attempt, but nailed it on the second. I nearly cried when they came out of the oven.

Then, I put a simple glaze on them:

The only complaint I had was that there wasn't enough glaze. That is a problem easily solved. Otherwise, amazing.

Cake? How could I forget the cake?!

I appear to be a little behind, as I keep finding pictures of things I forgot I made. And I just made them last weekend, how terrible is my memory? Last Saturday, Oct. 25th, was my mom's birthday. She requested a lemon cake with lemon frosting. I told her I could do that. And I did.

There it is in all its heart-shaped glory. I used the Vegan with a Vengeance Lemon Gem Cupcake recipe, only baking it as a cake for around 30 minutes. It was perfect. I wanted the frosting a little more sturdy, so I used shortening instead of margarine.

Mmmm, frosting...

And, for Halloween, I made cookies for work. Bat-shaped cookies. Bat-shaped chocolate cookies. Bat-shaped chocolate cookies with icing. Bat-shaped chocolate cookies with icing and sprinkles. You get the point I'm trying to make, right?

Already packed up to go, because I forgot to take pictures (sigh, again).

I used Kittee's recipe for Chocolate Roll-Out Cookies. They were amazing, as always, and taste like brownies. Or Cocoa Puffs.

And, finally, to bring me up to date, I have actual brownies, not brownie-flavored cookies. Yesterday I was off work and decided to make brownies for a groovy guy who is sick and loves brownies. I used this recipe from Don't Eat Off the Sidewalk! I never have close access to soy yogurt and I was out of soy sour cream, so I blended half a block of extra firm silken tofu with the two tablespoons of soy milk and used that in place of soy yogurt. I also used a Green & Blacks dark chocolate bar instead of chocolate chips. They came out perfectly. I shoveled two in my mouth, hid two away for later and wrapped the other five up for my man-friend.

So shiny and crackly.

Pumpkin x 2

I love fall. I love the scent in the cool air. I love the falling leaves. I love the foods of fall. Specifically, pumpkin. Now, I have recently found that some people do not like pumpkin (sinners!), and I do not understand that concept. Does not compute. At this time of year, I live on pumpkin pie. I have an IV of pureed pumpkin hooked up to my arm as we speak (type, whatever). I kid, of course, but I do really, really love pumpkin. Last week we had our monthly office birthday party, and we decided to have a potluck and cake. I always bring a dessert, because if I don't, there won't be any celebrating for me, the lone vegan. I don't care if there is nothing else for me to eat, just so long as I have the sweets in my mouth. Incidentally, there was plenty of veggie-friendly food, as a good friend of mine made vegetarian chili and there were plenty of vegetables and fruits to eat as well. I ate like a king. And I had dessert too, because I made it. I bought a jumbo can of pumpkin and did not want any to go to waste. So I made a pumpkin pie and pumpkin pie brownies. Both were a hit.


Not the best photo. I experienced a wee bit of panic when I realized about 15 minutes before party time that I had not taken pictures of my food. So I hauled ass into the break room to conduct an impromptu photo shoot.

By golly, these are some of the bestest brownies ever. Very fudgy and pumpkiny. A pumpkin-hater deemed these brownies, "just okay." Everyone else was too busy chewing and moaning with pleasure to give their opinion. See our ugly-ass wallpaper in the background? The whole kitchen is like a fruit bowl exploded.

Oh, and I stayed perfectly faithful to both recipes. Why modify a good thing?

Bread & a Bike

Last Sunday night, I got a bug up my ass to make something. Anything. Earlier in the day, I had unsuccessfully made mini-blonde bites. I mean they exploded in the oven. Now, the bits that had overspilled onto the sheet actually didn't taste bad. They just weren't visually appealing and they were disgustingly greasy. I used a recipe I got off the interwebs, but I won't point any fingers. That's what lead to the brilliant idea I had to make bread at 8 o'clock at night. Which may not be late to some people, but I have to be up at 4 am for work. So it's a wee bit late for me. I pretty much had none of the ingredients for anything I wanted to make. I had very little margarine, so cookies were out of the question. I wanted to make pumpkin muffins, but had no pumpkin. I was going to make this Banana Coffee Cake, but I didn't have any agave nectar, or soy yogurt for that matter. What I did have was a ton of over ripe bananas, so I made bread. The Lower Fat Banana Bread from V-Con, because I loves it so much. I used an extra banana in place of the applesauce and a little of the oil, threw in walnuts, shredded coconut and carob chips. It was amazing.

Yesterday, I hit the (non-food) jackpot. I got a new bike! I sold my mountain bike a few weeks ago so I could get a cruiser. An old retro cruiser. I didn't really want to shell out a couple hundred bucks for one, though. I happened upon an ad in our local paper for one that was restored, and only $30. It's in great shape. It just needed air in the tires and oil on the chain. There's just a tiny bit of rust, but that doesn't bother me. It had been restored several years ago, and had been sitting in a storage shed for two years. I spent the afternoon shining the chrome.

Not the greatest lighting. The sun wouldn't cooperate with me.

You better believe I am putting a basket and a horn on it.

Thebestfreakin'peanutbuttercookieseverIamsoserious!

I think that run-on title says it all: I made the best peanut butter cookies EVER last weekend. I was in need of an amazing PB cookie recipe to impress my man-friend who requested this particular kind of cookie, so I quite literally Googled the 'best peanut butter cookie recipe ever' and I found this one from Baking Delights. She wasn't kidding when she said it was the best ever. And she certainly didn't break her promise. I baked them for 8-9 minutes because I wanted them soft and chewy, and let them cool just a couple of minutes on the sheet. I used flax eggs as a replacement and demerara sugar. I got 30 good sized cookies out of a full batch. They are full of PB flavor, as they should be considering I killed an entire jar of Skippy for them. Absolutely perfect, they are. Oh, here's a picture or two:

Two words: MAKE THEM! One more: NOW!

I must have stepped into a black hole, or something...

because WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE!! It's been a month and a half since I posted. Not that I was missed, but I like to think that I was. Where have I been? Right here. Yes, Ive been baking, but I haven't been that diligent about taking pictures. What you will see will be a mish-mash of things that I won't necessarily remember what they are or where the recipe came from. My apologies.

Okay, these beauties I remember well. There are the Chunky Monkey Brownies by Beverly Lynn Bennet. I borrowed the recipe from here, but it was also in Veg News. I made them into mini brownie bites to make them more portable. Also, I didn't have any banana chips, but I wanted the banana flavor, so I mashed up a banana in place of the safflower oil. And I used cornstarch instead of arrowroot. These were amazingly chocolately. Cakey brownies, but gooooood.

I must have been in the midst of a "mini food phase" because here we have mini banana bread bites, which are, of course, the Lower Fat Banana Bread from Veganomicon. Definitely my favorite banana bread recipe.

Not food, but pretty. The sun rising over the parking lot behind where I work.

Peach Crisp. Yeah, I don't remember where the recipe came from, but it wasn't all that great anyways. The topping wasn't sweet enough.

Chocolate chip cookies? Maybe? Quite possibly from The Joy of Vegan Baking, if that is indeed what they are. I'm sure they were delicious.

Bad-ass, skull ice cube trays. They're silicone too. I'm going to make candy in them.

Butterscotch Chip Cookies! The Toll house recipe, veganized. I don't recall my chosen form of egg replacement. Once word hit the PPK that Food Lion store brand butterscotch chips were vegan, I hauled ass a mile and a half down the street to Food Lion and had a breakdown in the baking aisle. By breakdown, I mean, that I was nearly in tears as I jumped up and down with glee, shaking a bag of the chips. I scared two women standing behind me.

Not food, again. This is a baby blanket I just finished knitting for a woman I work with.

Detail. I didn't go to the baby shower Friday afternoon, but I heard my blanket went over very well. Apparently my co-workers went into a 10 minute long "Lauren Lovefest" about how awesome and talented I am. If I had been there, I would have died from third-degree blush burns, because I would have been red from head to toe. It's nice to know I'm loved.

Now, lots of other things have been made over the past month and a half. Tons 'o cookies. One thing in particular that I have made, but didn't take a picture of, was this bundt cake. I had a giant bag of pears that my boss gave me, so I used them instead of apples. This went over very well. I did end up using a 1/2 cup of brown rice syrup and 1/4 cup agave nectar because I ran out of agave. Then I ran out of brown rice syrup. Thankfully, I had enough for the cake. Also I used whole wheat spelt flour and unbleached all purpose flour. It was so flavorful and had a nice crumb to it. I also used a powdered sugar glaze over the top. I did that to mask the small amount of damage done to the cake by one of my cats. One of my kittens likes to get on the kitchen counter. She's the only one that will. I walked out of the room for one minute, LITERALLY, and came back to find a cat on the counter and a small hunk missing from the cake. She works fast. Anyways, I shaved the area down a bit and glazed the hell out of it. No one was the wiser.

The end. For now. I promise I will not abandon the blog again.

Why is there cat hair in my mixing bowl?

Oh. Nevermind. Mystery solved. On to other matters...(yes, I washed the bowl before using it).

I've been very lax in my food porn, as I have made tons of things lately, but never pulled out the ole camera to prove it. This past weekend I made Mom's Best Chocolate Chip Cookies from Vegan Planet and Oatmeal Raisin Cookies from The Joy of Vegan Baking. Did I take pictures? Nooooo. I made them to take on a visit to some friends in Nashville, who I was staying the night with. The oatmeal raisin cookies killed, as usual, and the chocolate chip cookies had a surprisingly different, yet awesome flavor. I wouldn't have made them if not for the fact that I was out of margarine, and needed an oil based cookie recipe. I'm glad I did though. They came out flat and chewy, and the recipe called for maple syrup, but I used brown rice syrup instead. Here's what I made the weekend prior to last that I managed to get pics of:

Cranberry Sesame Cookies, courtesy of Celine at Have Cake, Will Travel. These cookies definitely needed to sit overnight to develop their flavor. I tried one still warm, and was like, 'meh.' I took them to work the next day and they flew out of the container and into people's mouths. I tried another, and was like, 'now, that's a cookie.' Amazingly sweet and nutty, and healthy tasting in a good way.

I also had a bundle of bananas that were beyond rotten - just the way I like 'em. So I pulled out my trusty Veganomicon and made the Lower-Fat Banana Bread. Perfect, as always, and with walnuts inside and granola sprinkled on top to make it pretty.

As I mentioned, I was visiting friends this weekend. During a trip to an evil chain pet store which shall remain nameless (she needed rat chow...), I was peer-pressured into adding two new members into my family:

Meet Thelma and Louise. Two little lives saved. Oh, and they are perfectly safe from all my cats.

Cookies for Your Pleasure...

Warning: These cookies are awesome. Awesome was an actual adjective used to describe them. Awesome was used with feeling. There may even have been a fist pump to go with that awesome. One man who works in my building came downstairs twice to tell me how good they were. I cannot say for myself how awesome they were, because I never actually got to try one. I'll just trust the judgement of those who did eat one. Now that you have been sufficiently prepared:

Look a little closer now...

I got the recipe from here, though it was originally the recent winner of the Pillsbury Bake-Off. I made these as the adapted recipe stated, only instead of honey, I used agave nectar. Because, you know, honey isn't vegan. Duh. Anyways. When asked what I made them with, I said, "magic." Right on.

Spooning Kittens

It is so hard to believe that they will be 12 weeks old this Wednesday. This is just two of the six. Rarely do you find more than one passed out at a time. The other four were causing mass destruction in the kitchen. They love to help me cook or bake, and by "help," I mean that they lay in the kitchen floor so I am constantly jumping over them like little, furry hurdles.

Last Tuesday, I set out to make my very first crisp for a work party the next day. I never really thought about making a crisp before, they just seem so simple. I like a challenge when I make a dessert. Sadly, I hadn't the time for a challenge. I used this recipe for Plum Berry Crisp. I made it as is, without any additions. I used demerara sugar in the fruit and the topping. I love how bubbly and juicy it came out of the oven. It kind of looked like The Blob. After it cooled, I added a glaze to it, because as my mom stated, a glaze makes everything better. At the party the next day, I got many compliments for the crisp. It was sweet and tart and juicy. And glaze really does make everything better. It's not the prettiest dessert, but damn was it good with vanilla soy ice cream. I don't believe I have ever gotten as many compliments on a dessert as I did with this one. One woman I work with had two of her sisters and her brother stop by to taste it, and to get a copy of the recipe. She told me it was the best thing I have brought yet.

Mmmm, bubbly.

This morning I made another coffee cake, same recipe as the last one from VWaV, only with black and blueberries. Once again, using half agave nectar and half brown rice syrup instead of maple syrup. All glazed up and ready to go to work in the morning:

Makin' a mess

Ah. I love long, holiday weekends. Anytime away from work is good for me. Friday night I was to meet up with a friend and her husband and son. I never go anywhere empty-handed, so I made brownies and experimental muffins. The experimental muffins were the brainchild of my friend, Maggie. She gets complete credit for them (or else she might hurt me). It's a loaded muffin: bananas, strawberries, walnuts and chocolate chips. I believe she named them "Chocoberrynananut Muffins." I'm not for sure on that, though, so I will just call them "Loaded Muffins." The base recipe is from The Joy of Vegan Baking. It's the chocolate chip banana muffins. I reduced the sugar to half a cup, put in a half cup of chocolate chips, a half cup chopped strawberries and one cup chopped walnuts. I also used soy milk instead of water. There was a lot of batter for just 12 muffins, so I filled the cups completely full and they came out with big, domed tops. They were beautiful.

Juicy top-shot:

My kitchen lighting is terrible, my apologies. While I pulled these off with no trouble, I had no such luck with my brownies. I used my usual go to brownie from DEOTS, and doubled it for a 9"x13" pan. I melted one and a half cups of chocolate chips and half a cup of Earth Balance margarine, and proceeded to out it in the fridge to cool down. I made a half-ass attempt to clear some space for the bowl, put it on a shelf only for it to promptly fall right off and spill into the kitchen floor. I think I have mentioned I have 6 kittens in the house, yes? I have spilled chocolate and six kittens headed straight for it. I was tossing cats left and right just trying to get them out of the way long enough to clean up the mess, all the while putting sailors and pirates across the world to shame with the colorful variety of swear words spitting forth from my mouth. It was not pretty. It didn't help that my phone was ringing every two minutes either. I was out of chocolate chips at this point, so I chopped up a Ritter Sport Extra Fine Dark Chocolate bar and two Lindt 70% Cocoa bars, and tried one more time. I ever so carefully placed the chocolate in the fridge and continued on without any more trouble. They better have been some damn good brownies.

Such innocent looking brownies. Who would know they gave me hell?

Booooberries

I never read recipes all the way through. I just pull one out that I want to make, and as I am gathering everything I will need out of the cupboards to make it, that's when I realize I am missing an ingredient. I whipped out Vegan with a Vengence this morning in search of a good blueberry recipe. Obviously it wasn't blueberries that I was missing or else I wouldn't have wanted a blueberry-specific recipe. I decided to make the Blueberry Coffee Cake and take it to work in the morning. It would be great for breakfast. While doing the ingredient rundown I stopped with an exclaimation of "oh, man!" at the need for maple syrup. I never keep that stuff around. I didn't want to sub regular sugar, I'm trying to be healthy here, so I reached for the agave nectar. I had about 1/2 cup worth. Hmm. A dig further into the nether regions of my upper kitchen cabinets revealed a never opened jar of brown rice syrup. Score! I used that to make up the full cup of liquid sweetener. The only other sub. I made was to use half whole wheat pastry flour and half all purpose. The end result is to be determined. The batter was the awesomest, if that says anything for it. We'll find out tomorrow if it is omni-approved.