Eats cake for breakfast.

I think I am ready

2009-01-10T03:47:00.000-08:00

Honestly, I hadn't thought so much time had passed since I last posted. I haven't done a lot of baking. Really, the chocolate chip cookie incident scarred me. I shudder to think. Anywhoodles, I thought I would post the Christmas goodies that went forth to work this year.

Pretty cookies, all in a row. These are the sparkly ginger cookies from VWAV. I also made chocolate chip cookies from The Joy of Vegan baking and made peanut butter cookies using a Martha Stewart recipe, I can't remember which though. I also made two kinds of fudge: fudge-fudge, from a recipe I forgot to write down where it was from, and Kittee's peanut butter fudge (which was AWESOME). It's not that I was slacking by not writing down my sources, it's just been a while since I made this stuff. Also, trauma tends to wipe out other memories. Don't make me mention the puking incident again.

I love how cookies on a cooling rack look. Yes, I am weird.

I do vaguely recall there being something like 5 dozen peanut butter cookies and 4 dozen ginger cookies. I believe there were only 2 dozen chocolate chip. Here is the majority of them wrapped up for delivery.

Individual buckets for friends.

Cute!

I didn't get any shots of the buckets and trays with fudge in them, or of the fudge period. Maybe I was slacking in that case.

Ooey, gooey chocolate cookie. They were sooooo good. I would overdose on them again. Totally.

My assistants. My very lazy assistants. Trust me, they won't move for anything, so I'm constantly stepping over them. There are two more, but I think they were napping in the other room.

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

2008-12-13T05:28:00.000-08:00

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...?

2008-11-19T16:05:00.000-08:00

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.

2008-11-09T16:00:00.000-08:00

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?!

2008-11-01T06:05:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-31T15:53:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-19T04:24:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-10-12T05:00:00.001-07:00

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...

2008-09-19T17:40:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-08-19T04:51:00.001-07:00

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...

2008-07-26T05:19:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-13T09:28:00.001-07:00

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

2008-07-06T11:11:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-29T14:20:00.000-07:00

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.

Mailing happiness

2008-06-23T15:14:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, I went hiking. And bowling. And carbo-loading. Okay, it was just lunch, not an attempt to bulk up. After giving my feet blisters, pretending to be a really bad bowler (fine, I really am that bad) and eating my weight in spaghetti with marinara, all I wanted to do was come home and bake. While standing on my blistered feet even more in a hot kitchen. Did I mention I went hiking in flip flops? It makes no sense. I had a baking purpose and I was going to let nothing stop me. A friend of mine was having a bad couple of weeks, and I thought some swets would help make everything better. Mission accomplished. Cookies never hurt a situation. First up:

A half batch of Gigantoid Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies from VWAV. Recipe followed as is, because I was just too tired and hot to be creative, not to mention it was getting late and I had to go to work the next morning. Excuses, excuses.

Drool.

In an effort to make something healthy, I decided on muffins. Only, I had but one fruit in the house: peaches. I don't even know why I bought peaches, I'm not a big fan of them. But they were there, so I had to make do. I used this recipe, making a half batch. I used fresh peaches, of course, and a flax egg for my substitute. They came out nice and moist, with a nice spice.

I am calling them peach love muffins because they were made with love and wrapped with love, obviously.

I was told that my friend's 1 and a half year old son was kissing my muffins. I think that means they were yummy.

Gratuitous nature shot:

I made a blueberry coffee cake earlier. I may get around to putting it up soon. Maybe.

Bonnaroo Baking

2008-06-12T15:11:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I didn't make anything last week. I must have had a brain malfunction. I think it was because we had a birthday party at work and if there's cake in the building, no one will eat anything else. So I don't think I bothered for that reason. I made up for it this week. It's the week of Bonnaroo. If you haven't heard of Bonnaroo, then boo for you. I live in the small town of Manchester, Tennesse, home of 10,000 innocent people and which blows up to 100,000 for the short four-day festival. Needless to say, it's a little...cramped. The traffic is a mess, and there's no sleeping because music can be heard for miles. Actually all I get where I live it a lot of bass, but it is enough to keep me awake. I appreciate good music, though, so I don't mind too much. With Bonnaroo comes a lot of interesting people, and their interesting modes of transportation. Hippies on old school buses, and people blessed with leg muscles of steel who ride their bikes hundreds of miles to get here. Every year, the city, county and state police converge on City Hall to eat. The city police cookout for all the law enforcement guys working the event, long hours in the hot sun. They come by and hang out under a tent, eat and relax, then go back to busting pot heads and streakers. I took it upon myself to join others in donating goodies for the event. Example:

Chocolate chip cookie bars, Vegan With A Vengence choco chip cookies, baked as bars.

Brownies from Don't Eat Off The Sidewalk! (again).

Chocolate Cupcakes from VCTOTW, and Fluffy Buttercream Frosting.

Vanilla Cupcakes from VCTOTW, with Fluffy Buttercream Frosting also.

Ready for the road.

Baking with a vengence

2008-06-01T11:37:00.000-07:00

I have a dream. It involves peanut butter, as all dreams should. There's chocolate, banana and marshmallow too. It's called a fluffernutter, and if I could eat one everyday, I would. Friday I was brainstorming cookies with my friend Maggie (there, are you happy? You have partial credit now!) . I was expounding my love of peanut butter in a manner that didn't make me look lik a freak, and came off looking like an obsessed psycho. I probably shouldn't have mentioned that I would bathe in it if I could. Anywho, all of the sudden, I shouted "fluffernutter cookie!" and I knew it should be done. So I did it. I wanted to make a peanut butter banana cookie, but didn't know if I should go for crunchy, if possible with the banana, or cakey. I knew I wanted to make it a sandwich cookie though. So, I pulled out La Dolce Vegan, knowing there was a decent small batch peanut butter cookie in the book, and made that one. It was popular among my Christmas cookie tray. I used pureed banana and soymilk as the egg replacer, and also as a sub. for the oil. I wanted as much banana flavor as possible. What I got was a cakey cookie that could have used more peanut butter, but was good nonetheless. Pic:

This was only the first step of the journey to cookie perfection. Here's the recipe, with all my changes in parenthesis:

Wolffie's Peanut Butter Cookies (La Dolce Vegan by Sarah Kramer)

1 1/4 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

egg replacer to equal 1 egg (1/4 cup pureed banana)

1/4 water (I used soymilk, which I added with the banana in the blender)

1/2 cup peanut butter (I used half crunchy and half smooth)
1/4 cup oil (1/4 cup pureed banana)

3/4 cup sugar (I used 1/2 cup demerara and 1/4 cup organic sugar)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

This is all me now:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking soda and salt. Add pureed banana, peanut butter, sugar and vanilla, and stir until well combined. The dough is wet, so you can't roll it with your hands. Spoon it into mounds on your cookie sheet. They don't spread too much, so make sure they are the size you want. Bake for approximately 8 minutes, until edges are starting to brown. Let them cool for a couple of minutes on the sheet, then transfer to cooling rack to cool further. I got 18 cookies.

Next time I might bake them at a lower temp. Since the cookies came out nice a cakey, I decided to make them into fluffernutter whoopie pies. I have been eyeballing the whoopie pies in My Sweet Vegan for awhile, but I have never gotten around to making them. I decided to use the recipe for the creme filling in that book for these pies. It's just powdered sugar, shortening, vanilla and soymilk whipped together until light and fluffy, your basic frosting type deal. My hand mixer went kaput in the middle of making the creme, so I ended up beating it by hand for several minutes, and it turned out fine. Though, my arm is a little sore. I'll be feeling that one in the morning. Maybe I should go back to the gym...

I chilled the creme for a bit in the fridge, and decided to melt some semi-sweet chocolate chips to put in the middle of the sandwiches. My initial thoughts were to dip the sandwiches in chocolate, which I may still do at some point. I also pondered drizzling them with the chocolate. I will try both in the future, but for now the chocolate and creme filling worked out great.

I pulled the creme out of the fridge and made some magic. Proof:

Can you deny such blatant photographic proof? They truly are magic.

Group huddle!

Leftovers

2008-05-31T04:50:00.000-07:00

As in, pictures. I made goodies last weekend, I swear I did. I just had a momentary lapse of smarts, and forgot to take pictures of what I made. So in an effort to post something, I give you more cake pictures. Because I truly can never let go of my birthday. I would celebrate it everyday of the year if I could. Just keep the cake and gifts coming.

All lit up and waiting for a wish. Which, incidentally, my wish did come true, but I just wish I hadn't wasted a wish on such a jackass of a dude. Johnny. Anyways, the cake was pretty though.

Rainbow-y on the inside too! The picture does not do it justice.

The pictures I did not take, were of another cookies and creme pound cake, which turned out perfectly this time and I do not have photo proof of its perfection, and the brownies from Don't Eat Off the Sidewalk! The most definitely live up to their name. They really stuck to the pan, even though I greased and dusted first. I was "forced" to eat two brownie casualties. They were so good that I had an omni declare his love for me. Make them now.

A look inside my head...

2008-05-18T10:25:00.000-07:00

Huh. It really is all puffy white clouds and rainbows in there.

Tomorrow is my birthday. The big 2-6. I had to make my own cake. Sad, eh? Now, a friend at work did make vegan cupcakes for our office party, and I appreciate that, but there's always room for more cake. Am I right? Here we have the vanilla cupcakes and fluffy vegan buttercream from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I have made it a million times and it never disappoints. The recipe made one mini 2 layer cake and two cupcakes. I halved the frosting and ended up with plenty leftover. And that took care of lunch. Ha! It was really more of a post-lunch snack. Anywho, I have more photos:

Now, presents! Well, the first one. Part two doesn't come until Friday.

The Wilton giant cupcake cake pan! I was going to make my cake in this, but I was afraid of a cake overdose before I even saw my actual birthday.

Hee.

And pretty spices, just because:

Flower Porn

2008-05-15T15:29:00.001-07:00

This concludes the flower porn post. I swear there will be food next time.

Yeah, I got nothin'

2008-05-04T15:17:00.000-07:00

So. It's a lazy Sunday. Like every Sunday, I try to squeeze the maximum amount of quality couch time in before I have to go back to work the next day. Today it is just not happening. I have been restless all week. I haven't even been able to concentrate on what I want to bake. The horror! Normally, I wile away the hours at work thinking about sweets and what I want to make on the weekend. Today, Sunday, came and I hadn't a clue what to do. So I just pulled these out of a hat basically. The results? Not bad. Not bad at all.

I decided to give Dreena Burton's books another try, as I have not had the greatest experiences with them, and make the Chocolate Chunk Spice Cookies from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan. They definitely have a good spice to them. Cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and allspice. Instead of ordinary chocolate chunks, I chopped up a Chocolove Dark Chocolate and Crystalized Ginger bar for a little extra spice. I also subbed agave nectar for maple syrup. Tasty.

I got a perfect dozen of these beauties. Soft and chewy.

Chunky.

This next cookie I was a little skeptical about. I got the recipe from here. I was psyched because I had a tub of Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese that has been sitting in the fridge for a while, unopened. I don't eat it often, but they were on sale a few months ago, so I bought a couple. I only eat it on bagels. Or crackers. The recipe seemed lacking, so I added baking powder. It just seemed unusual to not have any in it. With that in mind, these bad boys spread like crazy. Fine by me. They're still purdy. I got 15 bundles of joy.

They're flat and chewy. And they made my stomach sing with happiness. Hum with pleasure. Grumble with satisfaction. Okay, they are just plain good.

Nuts!

2008-04-27T10:10:00.000-07:00

A month ago, I wrote 'pistachios' on my grocery list, which hangs on my fridge. I had a specific recipe that I wanted to try, and I needed pistachios for it. Now, weeks went by, and I finally bought a bag Thursday night (on sale - $2 bucks!). For the life of me I couldn't remember why I wanted them, but I knew I needed them. I thought, thought and over-thought some more about what I was going to use the pistachios for (by the way, pistachios is a super fun word). It's still nagging at me, but in the meantime I decided on another recipe: Nutcase Cookies from My Sweet Vegan. Have I mentioned how much I love this book? I cut the recipe in half and followed as is, only subbing pecans for cashews. I got 18 cookies. They were definitely the most colorful dough I have played with in a while:

Here they are on the sheet waiting.

These cookies are strictly 'party on the outside, business on the inside,' as they aren't overly sweet, but will definitely satisfy a nutty craving. By the way, mine look nothing like the picture in the book. You can see the speckles from the Sucanat. Good crunchy cookie.

Pistachios...

I think my peanut butter addiction has become fairly obvious. If it hasn't, then I'm not trying hard enough. Observe:

This is only a small sample. I really wanted to showcase my love for Peanut Butter & Co. peanut butters. LOVE! (Holy cow! I just noticed they have maple flavored peanut butter. Yowza!) I bought a load of it in these small jars on sale a couple of months ago. I zeroed in on the spicy flavor, The Heat is On. Yes, it's also a song by Glenn Frey, and I have had it stuck in my head all morning. You know, the song from Beverly Hills Cop? Yeah...

I've been wanting to do something special with it, as I can't see myself eating it as I would other peanut butters. I tend to use them in sweets, rather than savories. Inspired by mexican chocolate cookies, I made Spicy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies. The recipe is based on the Peanut Butter Cookie recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking. I tweaked it by using The Heat is On, instead of smooth or crunchy PB, and adding about 1/8 teaspoon of cayenne pepper and the absolutely essential chocolate chips. This was for a half batch. I also nixed the egg replacer since I would have only been dealing with enough for half an egg, and used soy creamer instead of s'milk. I was skeptical of the dough because it was wetter than I was used to peanut butter cookie dough being, but it was fine. The cookies spread nicely. I got 15 large cookies. They are actually good! The heat doesn't really kick in until they start to melt in your mouth, then they hit you like they are pushing you out of bed in the middle of the night; you hit the floor, wake up and wonder what the hell happened. And no harm is done. Or something like that.

Very deceiving cookies. They look like average, ordinary chocolate chip cookies. I forgot to criss-cross the tops. Oh, well. My coworkers are in for a surprise tomorrow. Mwhahahahahahahaha!

Kittens, kittens everywhere

2008-04-24T17:18:00.000-07:00

After being a (highly estimated) week overdue, my stray Voodoo had her kittens. I guess she's not really a stray anymore, since she lives indoors with us now. After two hours, we had six kittens: four gray, two black and one set of twins. I didn't get into bed until after midnight, so I ran on nothing but caffeine today. It was worth it though.

I'm not sure who's more proud, Voodoo or me. Sorry about the bad lighting and lousy flash.

Winter: Give it up, already.

2008-04-13T11:19:00.000-07:00

A combination of weather and lack of sleep is bringing me down today. It's a summery 48 degrees outside (huh?). Friday, it was nearly 80 degrees. DOES.NOT.COMPUTE. My mind is having a hard time wrapping itself around this weather concept. It's spring. In the south. This should not even be an issue. The lack of sleep comes from a very pregnant kitty cat, with the belief that if she can't sleep, no one can. Observe:

Check out that stomach. She's a tiny cat, so it is really prominent on her.

I only had enough energy to make one very small batch of cookies this morning. I had plans for two, plus some muffins, but it was becoming obvious that if I continued in the kitchen I was bound to burn myself or cut an appendage off. A tackled a cookie that I had read rave reviews on, and have been meaning to try for a while now - but kept putting off: Chewy Chocolate Raspberry Cookies from Veganomicon. The only change I made was to add raspberry oil instead of almond extract, for a little extra sweet kick. The dough was crumbly, as expected, but mine wouldn't hold up when I tried to roll it into balls, so I added the tiniest amount of soymilk. That did the trick. I did a half batch (as I mentioned), and got about 14. Two were tiny. I baked the first sheet for 10 minutes, but they were a little too brown on the botton, so I took the last one out a minute or two early, and they were perfect. They were chewy, and they had a good raspberry flavor, but, alas, not my favorite cookie. I bet they would make a kick-ass sandwich cookie. I am predicting a future endeavor...

Crackly...mmmm...

I am off to take a nap.

Chocolate, Chocolate Everywhere

2008-04-06T16:01:00.000-07:00

Last week, the local fruits and veggies stand opened for the season on the town square. It's a small, family-operated stand very conveniently located a short walking distance from my office. A co-worker and I walk down there a few times a week, and last week was the first this year. I was eagerly anticipating their juicy apples and big green zucchini. I got some of their juicy Granny Smith's, but their zucchini were far from big. I guess they jumped the gun when it came to picking them, because they were very...miniature. The price was right, though, and they gave me a lot for it, so all was well. I toyed with different zucchini bread recipes, and even some zucchini cookies. I wanted something different. I wanted...brownies. Zucchini brownies. I found a recipe here that was very highly rated. I only made a half recipe, baked at about 30 minutes. They are very chocolate-y, and very moist. They are a more cake-like brownie, but I won't hold that against them. I didn't frost them either, they were rich enough without it.

Undercover lovers, Zucchini and I. He's nowhere to be seen (or tasted). You only feel his very moist presence. Dirty.

Sticking with a chocolate-y theme, I made chocolate ice cream. I prepped it all last night, blending everything and sticking it in the fridge to chill. I used the recipe from Veganomicon, as it has never let me down. After chilling overnight, it was a perfect pudding. I was tempted to stop right there and have fudgey pudding for breakfast, but I stayed focused, and continued on with the ice cream makin'. I cranked it for about 20 minutes in my machine, then put it in the freezer to firm up further. That's where it currently waits.

Smooth.

My last endeavor for the morning was to fulfill a request: to make more Oatmeal Raisin (Chocolate Chip) Cookies like last week.

Once again, pure perfection. Officially "The Best Damn Oatmeal Raisin Cookies EVER."

Tart and sweet - Just like me

2008-03-30T09:32:00.000-07:00

On a note unrelated to what I actually baked today, I think I finally perfected my hummus. I like mine bare bones and spicy, and with garlic you will be tasting for days. Really, I am still burping garlic today. My ingredients: one can of chickpeas, one tablespoon tahini, 1/4 teaspoon red pepper, 1/4 teaspoon cumin, 1/4 teaspoon salt, approximately 1/2 to 1 tablespoon of dried garlic flakes (I just shook the container, I didn't measure it) and water added for desired thickness. Perfection.

Now on to today's endeavors...

Thursday night I happened upon the most beautiful, bright, ruby red rhubarb I have ever seen. So beautiful, yet so expensive. I only bought two stalks, but that was plenty. Since I am the only person I know that likes the tang of rhubarb, I made only a half batch of muffins, and froze the rest of the rhubarb. I went to the only rhubarb muffin recipe I will ever need, from ExtraVeganZa - Rhubarb Pecan(less) Muffins (I'm not big on nuts). Previously seen here. They were made with all whole wheat pastry flour and agave nectar instead of maple syrup. The book says to bake for 30 minutes, but mine were done in about 23 minutes. Hmm.

It kind of looks like it is floating, eh?

The picture is working my tastebuds into a frenzy. Moist and tart. The way they should be.

To distract myself from their beauty, I made Oatmeal Raisin Cookies from The Joy of Vegan Baking. I have tried a lot of oatmeal cookies. A LOT. I have searched for the perfect oatmeal cookie, and I think I found it. Chewy and sweet and delusionally healthy (they have bran in them!). I got a perfect half batch out of it, 21 cookies. I added chocolate chips along with the raisins, and used sucanat for brown sugar. I think it was really the ratio of brown sugar to granulated sugar that made these.

Death Row: Where Cookies Prepare to Meet Their Maker('s stomach).

I have many more pics, but for some reason my camera was not in focus and they all came out blurry. Sure, the camera pretended like it was focusing, but it didn't.

Not all the cookies. Somebody (not me, I swear) snuck up behind me while I was wearing headphones and made off with cookies. They are so good, people are ashamed of how many they will eat. I must share this one:

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies from The Joy of Vegan Baking by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau

(this is for a half batch, approx. 21 cookies)

1 Tablespoon ground flaxseed, equiv. to one egg
3 Tablespoons water
1/2 cup non-hydrogenated, non-dairy butter, softened (Earth Balance works best for me)
3/4 cup firmly packed light or dark brown sugar
1/8 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup oat bran (I used wheat bran instead)
1/4 + 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 + 1/8 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 1/2 cups rolled oats (not quick cooking)
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup non-dairy chocolate chips (my addition)

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Lightly oil 3 cookies sheets or line with parchment paper.

In a blender or food processor, whip together the flaxseed and water until thick and creamy. The consistency will be somewhat gelatinous. By hand or using an electric hand mixer, cream together the butter, sugars, vanilla and flaxseed mixture until well blended.

In a separate bowl, thoroughly combine the flour, oat bran, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add to the butter mixture and mix until well blended and smooth. Stir in the rolled oats and raisins (and chocolate chips if using) until thoroughly combined.

Use a tablespoon to scoop up some dough and, with lightly greased hands, lightly press the cookies to form 1/2 inch thick rounds. Bake until the cookies are golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes (it took only 10 minutes for me). Remove from the oven and allow the cookies to firm up for a few minutes while still on the cookie sheet. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool.

Eat, eat, eat!

More cookies. Did you expect anything else?

2008-03-21T05:50:00.000-07:00

I like when baking has a purpose. Sure, baking for the sake of a sugar fix is great, but having a reason to make something is even better - and what better reason than a holiday?

Do you know, there was not one shamrock-shaped cookie cutter within a 20 mile radius of me? Believe me, I looked. And looked. I left no stone, uh, store, unturned. I fumed. I pouted. In the end, I just got all Martha Stewart on the cookies.

I cut out a shamrock stencil and make sprinkle designs on the sugar cookies. I cut the cookies out with a flower shaped cutter. You do what you have to do.

I used the same sugar cookie I always do, off the PPK, and got 15 good sized cookies. As always, very popular at work.

While hopped up on jelly beans, I decided that they would be great in something (other than my stomach). Some of my best ideas are induced by sugar. Anywho, lately I have been feeling neglectful of my VWaV, so I wanted to make something I haven't yet. I used the Macadamia Nut Blondies recipe, and instead of nuts used SweeTart Jelly Beans and left off the caramel topping. It was an interesting experiment that turned out really good! I was expecting failure. I don't know why, because candy makes everything better. Here's the good:

In the pan, nothing special, but out of the pan...

Look at the colors! Preeeeeeeetty.

Artsy. The blondies were chewy and delicious. The jelly beans melted, so when you bit into the blondie, you got little bursts of sugary goo. It was much better than that description makes it sound. Surprisingly well received at work.

And to bring it all together, I made banana nut muffins. Not just any muffins...

Bunny-shaped muffins! Ha! I got the pan at Goodwill last month. Who would give up such a thing?

Straight outta the oven, not so bunny-like.

You can kind of tell it's a bunny, right? The recipe I used is my favorite go-to banana bread, the Lower Fat Banana Bread from V-con, with walnuts added. I was out of applesauce (okay, it was old and moldy - I don't use it much) so I used extra banana in its place. Moist and banana-y.

Gratuitous kitty shot:

Walk with me won't you?

2008-03-15T06:37:00.000-07:00

It's a beautiful day outside, why sit at the computer? Let's go for a walk at the park!

What a nice view.

Should we roll down the rocky hillside or take the steps? Steps? Wussy.

Oh, look. They painted the bridge. Not bad.

I could have sworn there used to be more trees here. When did they tear them down? Yes, it has been while since I have been to the park.

I like how the river sparkles in the sun.

This bridge could really use a colorful paint job.

Oh. I spoke too soon.

They will shamelessly promote popular university sports anywhere they can. Oh, and spread positive messages about loving your neighbor.

It would appear a pack of Cub Scouts got a hold of this bridge. They sure do like to paint bridges around here.

A waterfall. Ha.

Cloudy water closeup.

Pond scum!

Oh, jeez. We have to walk back up these? I better have buns of steel when this is over. Let's go back to my place and make cookies. No that's not a euphemism, I really mean that I want to make cookies.

Peanut Butter Bombs from My Sweet Vegan.

Two of my bombs 'sploded. There were no casualties.

Blurry, but delicious inside shot. I defused that bomb with two bites.

More cookies, more snow

2008-03-08T06:03:00.000-08:00

Here in Tennessee, we have the wackiest weather. I'm sure everyone says that about where they live though. We're currently under a winter storm warning. In March. Yeah.

My miniature daffodils just bloomed Thursday.

In food related matters, last week I made my first recipe from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan, Walnut Carob Cranberry Clusters. That is a mouthful of words for such a small cookie. I wanted to try these because they are sweetened with agave nectar only. I didn't make any changes other than using half carob chips and half semi-sweet chips. I was taking them to work and I didn't want to throw carob all up in their faces. I wanted to sneak it in there. It must have worked because I heard no complaints and they were gone within hours. They were sweet and crunchy, but I am just not a fan of crunchy cookies. Southerners like their shit crunchy, so I could have char-broiled the cookies and they would still be licking their lips.

These cookies were working it. Definitely the most photogenic cookies I have ever met.

Look at those chunks! Those cookies got back! Okay, now I have that Sir Mix-A-Lot song in my head.

That's the last one. Promise.

I've got the fever!

2008-03-02T06:35:00.000-08:00

Spring Fever! I smell it in the air, feel it in my sinuses...it's there. It has caused me to bake in a "theme".

Last week I set about making a box o' happiness for a friend, just because I haven't mailed her anything in a while and she and her family are my biggest (baked good) fans. The real stand-out for me were these:

Citrus. Citrus fruits just scream "spring" to me.

They are Orange Chocolate Chocolate Chunk Cookies, a variation on the Chocolate Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies in Veganomicon. I halved the recipe, getting a perfect 18, and used orange extract in place of the almond. I also chopped up a Chocolove Dark Chocolate with Orange Peel bar in place of chocolate chips. The orange flavor remained subtle and not over powering. They were so fudgey. Basically they tasted like orange flavored Tootsie Rolls, from what I remember anyways.

Up close, and wonderful:

The next recipe was necessitated by an omen. I happened to have, precisely, the exact amount of Oreos to make the Cookies and Cream Pound Cake from My Sweet Vegan. Fourteen Oreos. That was a sign. They also happened to be the yellow creme "spring" Oreos, so there is little flecks of yellow in the cake.

It's the only picture I took, and it is blurry and does it no justice. I forgot to take another after I removed it from the pan. I was nervous about sending it. I tasted the batter, which was awesome, but I didn't get to test the finished product. There was no need for worry. Two days later when my friend received it, it was nice and moist and perfect. Okay, she said it was orgasmic, and that she had already devoured half of it before she even called me. There was moaning involved. Anywho, the only change I made was to use Toffutti Better Than Sour Cream in place of soy yogurt because I never have soy yogurt in my house. There was a broad range for the baking time, anywhere from 40-50 minutes. Mine took about 45 minutes.

Lastly, I turned to My Sweet Vegan again to make Coffee Break Shortbread. I don't drink coffee, but I love coffee-flavored things. Now I know why I don't need to develop a coffee habit: one of these cookies gave me a buzz. A serious buzz. I am a caffeine addict. I drink energy drinks everyday and they do nothing for me. And then one little cookie lights me up. That being said, these are good.

Ducks, bunnies and turtles! So "spring-ish"! I guess I got about 15. Towards the end of rolling and cutting I got tired of it and just rolled the rest of the dough into balls and flattened them. I also used Swiss Chocolate Hazelnut Coffee. If you look closer, one of the bunnies had an accident...

and he lost his head. Poor bunny.

Look! A fully intact bunny! Happy ending!

Here's some pictures of what snow looks like at 4 am.

Dear Mr. Winter, can you let up a little bit? This is Tennessee. Last time I checked this was the south. The flowers and the trees say that it is Spring, maybe you should get together with them and talk this through. Thanks! Love, Lauren

A view...

2008-02-24T06:40:00.000-08:00

Amateur skywriter? Or just a busy day at Nashville International?

New Cookbook Overload

2008-02-23T06:43:00.000-08:00

In the past few weeks I have bought three new cookbooks. I never got around to mentioning it, or even making anything from them, until now. Which books you ask?

I think I'm in love.

I ordered My Sweet Vegan from Barnes & Noble's website, and stumbled across the other two in store. Which was a weird experience for me, because these just aren't the kind of books you find around here. To say I am happy is an understatement. I grabbed the books and held them tightly to my chest, even though the chances of someone trying to steal them from me were non-existent. There were two other people in my vicinity, and neither looked like they even knew what 'vegan' meant, or how to turn on their oven.

Last weekend I made Peanut-Plus Cookies from My Sweet Vegan and Chocolate Chip Cookies from The Joy of Vegan Baking. I just wanted something standard as these were going to work with me, and my co-worker's are leery of "weird" foods - so basically anything I bring.

The Peanut-Plus Cookies were AMAZING. Crunchy, peanut buttery and soft - all in one cookie. Okay, I was a little put off by the ingredients, but that didn't stop me. They involve ground lentils (dried of course), mashed potato flakes and cornstarch. Yesterday I was stopped by a woman at work that wanted to know all about these cookies. She was thoroughly impressed by the taste and texure, and intrigued by the ingredients so I copied the recipe for her.

My picture differs from the book. In the book you can see flecks of red from the lentils. I must have ground mine finer. Anyways, they turned out wonderful. I halved the recipe and followed it as is. I got 13 cookies.

I love trying different chocolate chip cookies, even though all the recipes are basically the same. The ones from The Joy of Vegan Baking were really no different, just written to be gigantic. I didn't want huge cookies though. I halved the recipe, used a flax egg instead of Ener-G and chopped up an Organic Dark Chocolate Chocolove Bar instead of chips. I dropped them by tablespoons onto the sheet and baked them just until they started to get lightly brown on the edges. I love slightly undercooked cookies. They spread like mad, and came out huge anyways. I have no problem with that.

I got about 18 cookies. They were chewy and gooey while still warm, and stayed soft even the next two days. They lasted until about lunchtime on Tuesday. I was told that I am spoiling my coworker's and that they don't deserve it. They probably don't, but somebody has to eat them - I can't do it all by myself and still fit in my pants.

This weekend I am going to tackle the Cookies and Cream Pound Cake from My Sweet Vegan and some cookies, though I haven't decided which. I have a box of goodies to make up this weekend for a friend. I hope to find something in Eat,Drink & Be Vegan.

Um...

2008-02-12T05:47:00.000-08:00

I guess I have a lot to catch up on. Might as well jump right in...

First up, a few weeks ago we had a welcoming party at work for a new department head coming in from another state, and we wanted her to feel welcome. Every shindig we have consists of nothing more than a potluck. I made the Enchilada Casserole from Fat free Vegan, and the Lemon Coconut Bundt Cake from V-Con. Unfortunately I do not have a picture of the casserole, which was very pretty with the blue corn tortillas I used, but it was very well accepted and I even had some recipe requests. The bundt cake was superb. It was devored by the next day. I was worried because there was some other bundt cake competition (a banana bundt cake brought by someone who was supposed to bring a pie), but my bundt triumphed. Despite being loaded with coconut and lemon, both flavors were very light and not all in your face. I did have a bit of a problem getting it out of the pan. The top on one side stuck to the pan and I had to "repair" it. I put all the pieces I could back in place, drizzled it with a powdered sugar glaze and stuck flaked coconut to the top. It covered it well.

From this angle you can't see my boo-boo, but I would have done the same thing even if it didn't have a blemish. Bundt cakes are so plain, and I don't do plain.

Now this, is all up in your face. As it should be.

Moving on to finished knitting projects...

I have finished two scarves recently, both in the same feather and fan pattern, but with two different yarns. Both have a different look about them. I like how changing yarns and needle sizes can alter the way one design looks. The first one:

Yes, it is sideways. It's actually draped over a door and I wanted to get as much of it in the shot as possible. Here's an up close and detailed photo:

The next scarf is the same pattern:

The detail is a little more noticeable and tighter. Up close:

Here's the snood I mentioned before. A snood being a tube scarf that you wear over your head. Duh.

Another sideways shot. Pink Floyd lyrics in the background.

Now on to this past Sunday. I wanted to make something themed for Valentine's Day for my co-workers, so I made heart shaped cookies. I made both sugar cookies and chocolate cookies. The sugar cookies are from here, and the chocolate roll-out cookies from here. The chocolate ones tasted like Cocoa Puffs. I haven't had Cocoa Puffs in years, but it is amazing the flavors that the brain remembers. Anyways, I followed both completely, I didn't alter the recipses like I do with everything else. I wasn't in the mood to deviate. Both turned out soft, and stayed soft, the next day. I decorated them both with icing, which I colored pink for the sugar cookies and reddish for the chocolate (and I added raspberry extract). Here's what I was working with:

Da tools.

Da dough, chillin'. I made a full batch of sugar, and a half batch of chocolate.

Da cookies, coolin'. I didn't get a shot of the chocolate ones cooling, though. Pretty, huh?

And just because I like close-ups.

Here's the finished products:

I just went all Jackson Pollack on the second and third batches. I got over 40 cookies, total. About 30 of those made it to work, and by the end of the day yesterday, 10 had survived. I don't expect there to be any left after today. I would say my best received cookies overall.

Love-shaped food

2008-01-14T15:38:00.000-08:00

Or maybe food shaped with love? Either way, I've got it coming out my ears. I have within the last week aquired 4 heart shaped pans - 3 cake pans (2 silicone) and 1 silicone muffin pan. This was all by accident, as I wasn't necessarily in the market for heart shaped cookware. First off, two silicone cake pans and the silicone muffin pan from Target. When they have silicone pans of any kind for only $2.50, you would be an idiot to not jump on them. I don't know how I managed to contain my glee.Irresistable. As was the muffin pan:

Then on Saturday, I stumbled upon a metal Wilton heart shaped cake pan at Goodwill:

And my first task was to make some of the Lower Fat Banana Bread from V-con, in muffin form. They were made with and shaped with love.

I nixed the applesauce and just used extra banana and I added walnuts. Bottom shot:

No weekend is complete without cookies. I finally made something from The Everyday Vegan - Oatmeal Raisin Cookies - simple, but by request. I used whole wheat flour instead of grinding up oats (lazy!) and they turned out alright. There was something different about them. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but no one else noticed. They were nice and chewy.

Cue The Victory Music!

2008-01-06T15:37:00.000-08:00

Today, I made the V-Con Lemon Bars (recipe on the PPK, too). On the outside, I am quietly excited that they turned out so well. On the inside, I am jumping up and down with the Rocky theme music playing. I just don't even know what to say. Actually, I don't know if I have ever had a lemon bar before. Now, I have a belly full of lemony jelly. I was worried they wouldn't work. For one thing, I have never used agar flakes before, and another thing, I didn't have any arrowroot so I used cornstarch instead. Here's how it started:

The crust. No problems there. Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention I halved the recipe. I didn't want a whole pan of failure on my hands, and now I regret it since they turned out AMAZING.

After cooking the goo. Sweet, sweet lemony goo.

Precisely three hours after chilling in the fridge, and sprinkled with sugar. They set very well. Actually, I checked them after an hour and they had already set quite a bit. I waited to be on the safe side. It was hard, trust me.

Perfection on a plate. Sigh.

In between all the goo-chilling, I made cookies. Surprise. Friday I bought a package of Cool Mint Oreos and wanted to put them to good use. I went with this recipe from Have Cake, Will Travel (originally from Cookie Madness). I went as is with the recipe, only adding about a 1/8 teaspoon of wintermint oil to the mix. Overall they have a nice minty flavor, and the green Oreo filling adds color. I got 15 total.

Zucchini & Pumpkin

2008-01-05T05:51:00.000-08:00

On New Year's Day I got dressed to go to the store. I was bored since I was off from work and I had some Christmas cash in my hot little hands begging to be spent. After pulling jeans and boots on, and even going so far as to put my coat on, I realized I didn't feel like going anywhere and that it was too cold outside anyways. Thirty degrees for the high is pretty unusual here in the south, and at those temps I just want to hibernate. Anyways, to warm up I danced around the kitchen making muffins and cookies. I have been on a mission to make an un-cakey pumpkin cookie and I had a recipe I believed to be the winner of that title. I have had this little book sitting on a rack in the kitchen and I have never given it a thought until this past fall, when pumpkins were so rampant. It's called The Pumpkin Cookbook. The cookies on the cover are the ones I speak of. They are a roll out and cut cookie. I halved the recipe and got 9 cookies. My cutters must have been bigger than the ones they used, since it says the entire recipe yields 50 cookies. Here they are in all their naked glory:

I used some cutesy cutters I found at the Dollar Tree. They have a nice pale orange color to them, and only a subtle pumpkin taste. In the future I will add more pumpkin and spices. Overall they aren't too sweet, so I added a glaze to them instead of the frosting called for. They are a nice, crisp pumpkin cookie.

Up close and shiny:

I should mention that while the dough for the cookies was chilling, I made zucchini muffins. I used the same recipe as the previous Zucchini Spice Bread from here, only I left the gumdrops out this time and added the currants and walnuts as directed. These were for work, and they are a bunch of squares.

I absolutely HATE using muffin liners. I only use them when I take muffins or cupcakes to work. Sigh. These turned out very well, and moist, again.

One of my co-workers told me never to bring the pumpkin cookies again, as she could not keep her hands off them. I take that as the highest compliment.

Post-Christmas Cookin' and a New Gadget

2007-12-29T06:06:00.000-08:00

All alone the day after Christmas, with nothing to do and off from work, I decided to make a favorite of mine: tofu omelets from Cozy Inside. One variation of the recipe can be found here. I had some slightly expired tofu in the fridge that I did not want to waste. It was only, like, a week old. I was seriously lacking in vegetables that I could combine into some kind of theme. I did have three different kinds of peppers, though. When I woke up that morning I did not think to myself, 'Gee my colon could use another hole in it. I think I'll burn one into it.' No, this was not my intention. I do have a high threshold for pain and all things hot, so I threw caution to the wind. I chopped up some onions, green peppers, banana peppers and jalepeno peppers and sauteed them.

See?

I had no plain soymilk. Hell, I had no soymilk, period. Instead, I used vanilla oat milk. Thankfully, I could tell no difference in the end product. I blended up the oat milk and tofu in my Magic Bullet and poured it in a big bowl.

This is the blended tofu/oat milk with the soy flour (I never have chickpea flour) and nooch mixed in. Very creamy. After I added the onion and pepper in, I felt bad about not having more of a veggie variety, so I dumped in some salsa. The hot stuff. I also added some red pepper flakes to the mix. It's like I was just asking for it. Maybe I was. Here's the batter in the pan:

I never make them very big. Mostly because I can't flip very well. Also because I like to put them on sandwiches. Mostly the first one.

All flipped over. Obviously not the same one as pictured above it. Regrettably, the first two were not cooperative, and ended up more like a tofu scramble: still good, just not in omelet form. When I make them small I can usually get about 8 out of a batch. Then they end up as my lunch for the next several days. Can't complain.

The book. A most awesome book and a good deal too. I took the cheap route and downloaded and printed it myself, hole-punched it and rigged up a binder for it. I also made pumpkin biscuits (using the Cooking Light recipe for Sweet Potato Biscuits, halving it and using Smart Balance margarine and spelt flour)and "sausage" (the Gimme Lean stuff), but they were more "functional" - meaning they were yummy, but not pretty enough to take a picture of.

Finally, a very exciting find. My mom stumbled across this at Goodwill, and thought of me.

It's an ice cream maker! It makes one half-pint! Which to me is a perfect serving. Well, I would eat a whole pint, but if I only had half a pint at a time around I wouldn't be tempted! How adorable is it?

I am torn between making banana or pumpkin "ice cream" first.

Whoo!

2007-12-26T06:57:00.000-08:00

Christmas was awesome. I got everything I wanted. Especially some great cookbooks.

I couldn't possibly be more excited about these books. I just don't know where to begin. Something will be made before the day is out. Mark my words.

There was no baking this weekend, as I would have been stuck in the house with the deliciousness since I have a five day weekend from work. Lazy + cookies = my pants don't fit anymore.

I did finish the "snood" I was working on. It's a scarf/hood hybrid and it is quite cozy. I just haven't taken a pic yet. I'll get around to it. I started work on a fluffy white hat with ear flaps too. 'Tis the season to knit.

Must go. I hear the kitchen calling...

Feeling Christmas

2007-12-16T13:37:00.000-08:00

Nothing says Christmas to me more than gingerbread and peppermint. I am in no mood to spend hours making and decorating gingerbread men this year, so to satisfy the gingerbread monster deep within me, I made Gingerbread Biscotti from the recipe over at the Fat Free Vegan Kitchen blog. I've never eaten biscotti. I've never made biscotti. So this was quite an experience for me. I used all unbleached AP flour and ended up having to add about 3 tablespoons of water at the end to make the dough stick together. Here's my logs after round 1 of baking:

Obviously my shaping technique leaves something to be desired. Okay, I suck. The finished product:

I got 16 happy little biscotti, not counting the end pieces. I guess I cut 'em too big. Oh, well. The taste? Subtle and spicy. They are crunchy at first, then become chewy and finally melt in your mouth. Why have I shunned biscotti for so long? I have no reason to dislike the crunchy cookie any longer. Bonus:

Crispy...

On to the next order of bizness: peppermint. The other day one of my co-worker's gave me a mug full of peppermints as a gift. Sadly the only gift from a co-worker that I could actually eat, despite them knowing of my dietary habits. Knowing I should do something special with peppermints this year, I hoarded them until inspiration hit. Inspiration hit me on friday afternoon when I checked the A Vegan Ice Cream Paradise blog. I knew I had to make the Chocolate Candy Cane Ice Cream. Sadly I had no arrowroot, nor have I been able to find any around here. I turned to V-con for help. I used the vanilla ice cream recipe in it, opting for the addition of melted chocolate, and then I obliterated my peppermints (in a baggie with a mallet). So this morning I blended up everything but the peppermints, and stuck it in the fridge to chill. After about 7 hours it had firmed up nicely. It actually looked like mousse. I was tempted to stop here and just eat it all then. I forced myself to push on, knowing it would be even better as a frosty dessert. I poured it into my ice cream maker, which has been sitting under my kitchen counter unused for the past TWO YEARS. Crazy! I put the bowl in the freezer last night as directed. In the ice cream maker:

The peppermints waiting to be added:

I poured them in after about 10 minutes, and continued to crank every two minutes until it had been 20 minutes total. My impatientness got the best of me. I started eating straight out of the freezer bowl. It is very creamy, chocolatey and pepperminty. I spooned the rest of it into a freezer safe tupperware bowl and put it in the freezer to harden more, and to eat later of course. I am currently riding the ice cream sugar high. Weeeeeeeeeeee!

Look! It's ice cream!

Last week I mailed out my last two Christmas packages. After a marathon knitting spree (about 4 hours worth) I cranked out a scarf to fill the small, empty space I had in one of the boxes. It turned out to be a big hit with her, and I'm glad.

It's a very sparkly, fuzzy yarn. It only took one ball, about 50 grams, for the scarf and fringe. For another friend, I knit an ankle bracelet using blue beads with a few charms mixed in. There's a pegasus, a knight on a horse and a dragon. It was supposed to be a bracelet, but came out a wee bit big. Perfect for an anklet though.

I'm tired just thinking about all that. I think I need more ice cream.

Christmas Baking Wrap-up

2007-12-09T15:27:00.000-08:00

The cookies were a hit, to say the least. Monday morning I marched my goods into work with me, and Tuesday morning I was presented with empty containers and lots of thank yous. Tuesday afternoon I got a phone call from a friend who received her box in the mail. She was overwhelmed by all the goodies. She said she would have to ration them out to her husband or they would end up as his dinner. The damage is as follows:

Many thanks to the post office who keeps coming through with their promise of a "next day delivery."

Before I added the fudge. This bucket went to the maintenance guys at work. A bucket full of cookies and fudge does not last long with 30 dudes around.

Cookies for a department upstairs from me. They are always so good to me. Lesson learned: when you're good to me, I give you food.

I didn't get a pic of the leftovers I took for my office. Obviously I don't like them nearly as much, as I didn't even bother to wrap them up pretty. I threw them in a tupperware container.

This afternoon, I made Zucchini Spice Gumdrop Bread. After reading about adding gumdrops to Zucchini Bread here, I just had to do it. I searched for the perfect bread recipe, and decided on the Zucchini Spice Bread in The Enchanted Broccoli Forest by Mollie Katzen. I picked this book up used last summer, and I have yet to use it until today. I followed the recipe as is, only subbing safflower oil instead of melted butter, using two flax "eggs," half ww pastry flour/ap flour and a cup of gumdrops instead of nuts and raisins. It was a very low sugar bread, perfect for the gumdrops as they add a good bit of sweetness. I used Dots because they are my favorites. I overdose on them every year at Halloween. They are the only thing in the candy dish I am interested in, and they disappear fast. I quartered each one and sprinkled about 2 tablespoons of sugar over them in a bowl and rolled them around in it, until they were somewhat coated. I was short about a quarter cup of shredded zucchini, but they turned out great. They are moist and spicy.

When cut open, it looks very similar to a fruit cake.

Talk about creative thinking. The woman that thought this up is a genius.

Bake-A-Palooza: Day 2

2007-12-02T11:04:00.000-08:00

After building my baking stamina up yesterday, I was able to bake with no pain today. I also had no distractions, therefore no ruined goods. First up, I whipped out La Dolce Vegan to make Wolffie's Peanut Butter Cookies. No subs, only I got more cookies than the recipe stated. No surprise, my cookies are either too big or two small.

They're taking up the bottom and half of the second tier. They are crispy and peanut buttery, though I have never been a big fan of crispy, so these are in no danger of being eaten by me before leaving the house tomorrow. I busted out my personal favs, the chocolate chip cookies from here, and used a Ritter Sport Dark Chocolate bar instead of chips. I put it in a lunch baggie and beat the crap out of it. It felt kind of good.

I love how the beat up candy bar makes the cookie look like it imploded. Ha. I realized as I was finishing up this batch that I was running out of EB sticks. I frantically searched for an oil based recipe. I wanted to make oatmeal raisin cookies, and the recipe I wanted to try called for 2 1/2 sticks. No way. I turned to Veganomicon, because I feel it could never steer me wrong. Inside were the Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. Only, they called for brown rice syrup. It is impossible to find brown rice syrup within 50 miles of here. I happened to have EXACTLY 1/3 cup of agave nectar in the cupboard. The bottle was literally sputtering out the last drops. Sigh. Anyways, the cookies are dreamy. They are chewy and have an AWESOME flavor.

There's the raw cookie guts taunting me.

Up close, and loaded with raisins. I also ended up with about 37 cookies, rather than the 30 stated. Once, again, my boo-boo. Any boo-boo that results in more cookies is an alright mistake by me.

Finally, I made Peanut Butter Chocolate Fudge from Peanut Butter Planet by Robin Robertson. I absolutely love this book. Everything in it uses peanut butter or peanuts. Truly amazing. I've made the Fantasy Brownies before, and they rocked my tiny little world.

Fudge: It's What's For Dinner. I wish. Here it is hardening in the fridge. I licked the wooden spoon until I was in danger of getting splinters in my tongue. It was THAT good. I was willing to risk a splinter.

I am tired. I need a nap.

Bake-A-Palooza: Day 1

2007-12-01T16:28:00.000-08:00

Five straight hours of baking. Five hours of sugar and 80's music. This was the beginning of the Christmas baking season. Today I managed to knock out three varieties of cookies and some brownies. I had two pans of brownies, but sadly, the second pan didn't turn out well. I scalded the chocolate, therefore giving them that burnt taste. In my (careless) defense, I was on the phone at the time (multi-tasking!). I started out with a full batch of these pecan sables that I have made previously. I did add some chopped pecans in addition to the ground pecans. Made a big difference flavor-wise. The end result all wrapped up and ready to go in the mail (the picture was an afterthought):

I had my cookie agenda planned out last weekend, but on an impulse last ngiht I decided to try the Rumnog Cookies from V-con. Only I had no rum. So they are more like Rum(less)nog Cookies. I briefly toyed with the names, "Noggies" and "Nookies." Both sound kind of dirty. The cookies are pretty though, and have a nice spice to them. Instead of plain ole s'milk, I used Silk Nog, and also used it in place of the rum.

Preeeeeety. Now, this is the point in which the phone rang, and I was distracted during the entire time I made the Ginger Sparkle Cookies from VWaV and the brownies. Only the brownies suffered. I made the Ginger Sparkle Cookies earlier this year for my co-worker's and they sucked them down. I expect more of the same this time.

Here's another pic of my multi-tiered cooling racks; a must-have when you have no counter space.

I had already started wrapping the cookies up in clear plastic wrap when I remembered that we had colored wrap from the previous year. I know blue and pink aren't Christmas-y, but it will have to do. The "Noggies" waiting to be packed away.

The gang altogether. Ignore my trash can. Please.

Brownies fresh outta the oven, pre-cut. These were the only survivors. They weren't so pretty when I packed them up in foil though. These are the the same as the brownies I posted before. Once I find something I like, I tend to get in a rut. A yummy rut.

Slightly underbaked. Maybe by a few minutes. It just makes them fudgier.

I had planned on making two more types of cookies today, but I went out this afternoon and didn't feel like making anymore today. Tomorrow there will be more. Oh, there will be. There can't be a Day 1, without a Day 2.

I knew I shouldn't have left the house this morning.

2007-11-26T10:35:00.001-08:00

After my self-imposed weekend exile, I emerged this morning to go to work. I have been slammed every which way, by customers and co-worker's alike. I also spilled my lunch down the front of my body. Oh, yeah, it was oatmeal. Nice hot, gloopy oatmeal. I washed it all off and now I look like I am fresh from a wet t-shirt contest, and I smell like a dog that just rolled in wet hay. Hotttt. I got right back up on the oatmeal horse and made some more. I would have starved otherwise. But, really. I wish I had called in sick.

Thanksgiving...

2007-11-23T10:35:00.000-08:00

this year, as usual, was very non-traditional. We indulged in a large pot of vegetable soup with cornbread muffins. Oh, yeah, there was pumpkin pie; that was the only normal part of the meal. After a non-successful try at the cornbread recipe in V-con (I'm sure it was all my fault!), I pulled out La Dolce Vegan and made Wolffie's "Buttermilk" Cornbread into muffins. I halved the recipe and came out with 7 golden beauties. Some of the best cornbread I have had in a while. I accidentally halved everything but the sugar. Still good.

Unfortunately, I do not have a pic of the soup. It consisted of kidney beans, carrots, potatoes, peas, green beans, onions, corn and tomatoes. It was perfect for the weather we are experiencing. Yesterday we went from the mid-70's to the 40's. It was snowing this morning.

My baby was the pie. I made Bryanna Clark Grogan's tofu-less pumpkin pie this year. Last year I made a tofu based one. Guess which one tasted the best...yeah, NOT the tofu one. Last year was my first experience with a tofu-based pie. I definitely picked up on the soybean aftertaste. This year was a taste success. The pie was creamy and not too spicy. I used 3 Tbsp of cornstarch and I did cut back a bit on the spices after reading other's opinions. It firmed up nicely after sitting all night.

Yes, I was too lazy to make my own crust. It was very late, and I was very tired. Sue me.

Freshly cut. Radiating yumminess. Pure, vegan yumminess. Eat that, omnis. I think I am going to make another one of these for the December birthday party at work.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Redux

2007-11-20T16:40:00.000-08:00

Saturday I was left to my devices - all alone in the house with a cookie craving. I tried to ignore it. I tried to fight it. I tried to talk myself out of it with the reason that I didn't have any chocolate chips. None of those tactics worked. Turns out I'm an easily swayed wimp. I pulled out a candy bar from my stash and chopped it up for a half batch of these. I made no changes other than the chocolatey chunks, as they were perfect already. See what I mean?

Though, this batch did come out somewhat fuller, thicker. Whatevs, they were good.

Purdy.....

Their beauty is blinding. Okay, so it's the oven light.

Lower-Fat Banana Bread

2007-11-11T10:49:00.000-08:00

Today's V-con project: Lower-Fat Banana Bread. Very spicy and very moist. I took liberties with it, of course. I used part demerrara sugar and half spelt flour, and I also added walnuts (that defeats the purpose of low fat bread, I know) and currants. I also sprinkled demerrara and granola on top, just to be pretty. The end result looks something like this:

And a top shot because I love how bread cracks on top:

And another just because:

Lastly, I have read and re-read my Veganomicon, every time finding something else that I am dying to make. This is my habit with every cookbook I buy now:

Look real close. See all the little pink pieces of paper at the top? I don't have the heart to defile a cookbook buy folding the corners down, so I stick post-it's on the pages with recipes I want to make.

Chocolate Jackpot

2007-11-09T12:23:00.000-08:00

Today, I hit the chocolate lottery. Walking down the holiday candy aisle at the drug store I stumbled across an old favorite of mine: Chocolate Stars. I let out a sigh and lamented that "those definitely aren't vegan." Laying next to the so-not-vegan milk chocolate stars was something new to me: Dark Chocolate Stars.

Like most commercial dark chocolate candies I assumed that it would also include some form of dairy, but just for kicks I picked the bag up to check out the ingredients:

I don't know if you can read that, but they are totally vegan! Also, surprisingly, very minimal in ingredients. I haven't ripped them open to try yet, so I hope they don't let me down.

At Big Lots I found these:

They are by Valor and Barton's. Nothing special, I know, but I tend to buy boring chocolates, plain with not a lot going on.

Brownies

2007-11-04T10:42:00.000-08:00

Brownies. Unassuming, no frills. The perfect balance between fudge and chocolate cake. It is hard to find a good non-cakey vegan brownie. You know, the brownie that dreams are made of. I have been on a brownie kick lately, and have been dying to try to perfect the vegan brownie. I think I may have came close. In my mind, I hit the nail on the head, but I will have to wait for all the opinions to come in. While still warm, they were chocolatey, and slightly cake-like. After they have completely cooled, they are a hunk of fudgey heaven.

There they are in the pan, after the initial massacre straight out of the oven. It was beautiful.

Here they are close-up, in all their fudgey glory. The recipe was based on the sour cream cookies I made a couple of months ago. I used an Endangered Species chocolate bar and threw in some walnuts, and of course used Tofutti Better than Sour Cream. They're dreamy.

Jelly Donut Cuppers

2007-10-31T15:45:00.000-07:00

This morning, my office had a breakfast potluck. We really welcome any excuse to throw a party, and Halloween served as that excuse. There was non-vegan food as far as the eye could see. I live in the south, where there is meat in everything and the more butter the better. I have one friend/co-worker who is sympathetic to my opinions and food choices. In fact, she welcomes new foods and is quite vegetarian friendly. She shares a love of vegan Gimme Lean "sausage" with me, and made biscuits (with rice milk) and "sausage" for me, and even made the waffles with Bisquick and rice milk so I could have some. She's awesome. The omnis had no idea what they were eating, and they weren't complaining. Amidst the sausage/egg casserole, blueberry muffins, cinnamon bites, bagels and pumpkin bread were the jelly donut Cupcakes/Muffins that I brought. Obviously they are from the current greatest vegan cookbook out there, Veganomicon. Instead of making them in a regular cupcake tin, I used mini fluted silicone baking cups, to give them a donut look:

I was true to the recipe, and I got 12 beautiful little "donuts." Yeah, I know that there are only 11, but one broke apart as I was removing the silicone. So I had to eat it. That's the rule. The only problem I had was that the grape jelly didn't sink down as it should. That was probably an error on my part. They came out quite bubbly, but no less purdy. See?

They were very much like donuts. Not too sweet and crumbly like cupcakes. Leaving them out all night definitely helped firm them up.

Jeez, can't a donut get some privacy?!

I feel like such a perv.

Okay, so I like these cuppers. Can you blame me? They are perfect in their imperfectness.

"Finger" Cookies...Part Deux

2007-10-29T15:51:00.000-07:00

In true, and more timely, Halloween fashion I made bloody finger cookies again this weekend. The only difference being that they are a slightly more festive green color.

After about 14 fingers I got impatient, so I took the rest of the dough and made a giant hand; a "Herman Munster" hand. Man, do I love The Munsters.

My name is Lauren...and I am a choco-holic.

2007-10-24T16:43:00.000-07:00

So it seems lately that I have begun collecting chocolate bars. I have heard about so many fabulous brands that I cannot find around here, so when I see one I have to buy it...in triplicate. No, it's not that bad. Yet. Yesterday I called in sick to work. I mean "sick." I did a little Christmas shopping with my free time. I drove 30 miles to the closet city to this mudpuddle and went to Target. Oh, the chocolate. Oh, the variety. First off:

Chocolove. I haven't tried it yet, as I am afraid I will combust with delight. There were so many more flavors to chose from, but this one called to me. My love of ginger in all forms brought me to the decision to buy this one. I will not be disappointed. I promise.

I am pretty sure that Ritter Sport bars are my new favs. I had two, but one didn't make it home. It barely made it to the car. It was the Marzipan bar, and everything that dreams are made of. I loved how smooth that the dark chocolate was, as I have always had a hard time adapting to dark chocolates. I would normally eat dark chocolate in moderation because too much makes me ill, but the Marzipan bar was gone in a flash - very much like a dream. Sigh. Above is the extra dark bar that I have yet to devour.

The Endangered Species bar. I have had my fair share of these, but had to grab some of these since they were on sale. This is the smooth organic dark chocolate, but my heart lies with the Dark Chocolate with Deep Forest Mint.

I also got some new cooling racks. My old ones weren't getting the job done since they don't hold much. So now I have these:

The Wilton website has a much better photo. They're stackable, obvs. Also non-stick.

Another shot, for good measure.

Coooooooookies

2007-10-22T16:56:00.001-07:00

Cookie orgy! These are some amazing chocolate chip cookies. Seriously. Thin and chewy. See recipe here. Ch-ch-check it out.

These cookies are not shy. See that up close and personal pornolicious shot? Mmmm, melty...

On a non-baking, yet still food related note, I snapped this pic at a local grocery store the other day:

Truth in advertising? I don't know if anyone else even noticed. Certainly not the person stocking the candy.

My First 'Veganomicon' Conquest!

2007-10-20T09:09:00.000-07:00

It was only natural that the first thing I went for when receiving Veganomicon was the breads/muffins. Above is the Orange Cranberry Bread in muffin-top form. I halved the recipe and followed it to the letter other than using applesauce for the oil. They rose very nicely and are just the right texture. They aren't too sweet either, so they are perfect for breakfast. I have plenty of cranberries left, so my next target is the Pumpkin Cranberry Scones. I have always been a faithful Barnes & Noble shopper, so I got my book a little earlier than my Amazon peeps. There will be plenty to come from this book. I have been carrying it around like it holds the secret to life. There are post-it notes stuck everywhere. Tomorrow I will have lots more to share. I have a feeling I will be spending a lot of time in the kitchen tomorrow.

No Muffins...?

2007-10-17T06:09:00.000-07:00

Yes, there are no muffins. Not this week anyways. There will be cake and many kinds of cookies in the future. Trust me. I have a birthday cake to make and two different shindigs at work to make for, not to mention I was asked by a friend to make some pecan sandies for her - because who needs Keebler's? I love the holidays.

Orange Coconut Muffins

2007-10-08T16:43:00.000-07:00

These tropical goodies are courtesy of Bryanna Clark Grogan's recipe riiiiiiiight here. I only made one tiny substitution: I didn't have any wheat bran (I was lucky to have wheat germ), so I threw in some oatmeal - why not? Oh, wait. I forgot. I also used apple juice instead of orange juice because I couldn't get enough juice out of my orange. So sue me. They were mighty tasty nonetheless. I halved the recipe and made them in my nifty silicone baking cups. That last tidbit has nothing to do with anything, I just like to talk about my silicone cups (...huh?). I'm tired and I feel silly tonight, so I should probably stop for now. I leave you with an inside shot:

Mmmmmm, muffin-y.

Food Porn Extraveganza!

2007-09-30T10:24:00.000-07:00

In a marathon baking session this morning, I managed to make two different kind of cookies and two kinds of muffin tops. Yesterday at Goodwill I found a muffin top pan for only a couple of bucks - it was love at first sight.

First up, a Blackberry Rhubarb Cornflour Muffin Top. Very loosely based on the Strawberry Jalepeno Muffin recipe from ExtraVeganZa. These are tart. I love tart. Not to mention fluffy and moist. I used applesauce instead of oil, and unbleached naturally white flour along with the corn flour.

Next, I made the very best Pumpkin Muffins from VWaV. They really are the best. Once again I used applesauce and a combo of whole wheat and naturally white flour. I halved both muffin recipes to get 6 a piece, as my muffin top pan only has six "tops."

Here we have the Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies from VWaV. I added walnuts, raisins and used applesauce. I halved the recipe and got about 13 cookies. I always make my cookies too big. Not that I am complaining.

Saving the best for last, obviously. Bloody Finger Cookies. I saw the recipe here last year, but didn't get around to making them until now. They are tons of fun to make, and look super fab.

Up close

Butt shot

One more for good measure, and because I am so proud. These bad boys are getting mailed to a friend tomorrow. They will go perfect with the little devil hat I made for her son.

The Fruits of My Labor

2007-09-23T16:40:00.001-07:00

I got some serious knitting done this week. Three projects in all. That's a lot considering I normally take months to finish one thing because I am easily side-tracked. Plus, I usually have two or three projects going at the same time. Behold -My maracas (dirty!) are modeling this baby-sized devil hat. I made this for a friend's son to match the adult-sized version I knit for her a couple of months ago.

The lava lamp is wearing the black kitty hat I made just for me. Grrrr.

Wrist/arm warmers. The pic does no justice. These are actually bright lime green. Here's a close up of the thumb "split":
These aren't as long as I would like, so I am making a black and white striped pair to go all the way up my arms. I am going to need these this winter; it gets cold where I work.

What I have accomplished on my vacation:

2007-09-20T15:12:00.000-07:00

1). I started my Christmas shopping (So early?! I know!)

2). Finished knitted arm warmers that have been sitting on my desk for over a month (Lime green!)

3). Fixed (possibly, cross fingers) wireless router problem after a week's worth of back and forth communication with the e-mail support peeps.

4). Vacuum and clean out car (Maybe wash it tomorrow)

5). Get nose pierced (See blurry pic; oh, man are they gonna love me at work...)

6). Finally organized all of the recipes I have printed off the interwebs into binders, neatly divided into sections.

7). Called friends/wrote letters; basically kept in touch, re-affirmed that I am still alive and kicking.

8). Applied for a new job. Sigh.

9). Realized that I am way to boring and domestic.

10). Turned off computer, went in search of a life.

Kitchen Gadgetry

2007-09-18T07:40:00.000-07:00

I am on vacation all this week. It isn't a traditional vacation where I have my butt planted on a beach some place exotic, it's more like a vacation where I sleep in and knit. Yesterday I took a day-trip to a town 80 or so miles from home to antique and shop at a really great outlet mall. In this outlet mall is a kitchen store called Kitchen Collection. Here I found:

The Ulitmate 3 in 1 Caddy! It's a Wilton cake, muffin/cupcake and mini muffin/cupcake carrier for clumsy folk like me. I thought it would be expensive like all of Wilton's products, but it was only $20 bucks.

Here's the first layer, I guess; the cake platform

The muffin/cupcake tray

The mini-muffin/cupcake tray; one tray, two sides.

The whole shebang, locked into place and ready to go.

Mini silicone bunny pans. I am beside myself with glee!

Spoon straws! Perfect for shakes and smoothies!

Silicone measuring cups.

Sushi mold! For the totally inept! Hey, that's me! I am terrible at weilding a rolling mat. I always get my sushi too fat, and stuff falls out the sides. Now all I have to do is stuff rice and veggies and faux-meats into the mold and voila! Roll it up in some nori and chop, chop, chop!

This concludes yesterday's journey. Thank you *takes bow*

Frooty Muffins

2007-09-16T09:50:00.001-07:00

I seriously have no idea what to call these since I deviated a bit from the original recipe. I started with a recipe for Cantaloupe Muffins from VegWeb. I am not a huge fan of cantaloupe so I wanted to add soemthing else to make it more tropical I guess. I threw in a small banana and added some Strawberry Banana Vitasoy to the fruit and pureed it all together. I used half spelt flour and half unbleached white flour, and 1/2 cup demerrara sugar and 1/4 cup sucanat. As always, I sprinkled the tops with demerrara before popping them in the oven. I was wary of the time it was supposed to take to bake them, so I watched them closely. They were ready to come out at about 15-17 minutes.

Mine got a wee bit brown around the bottoms, but that's okay. They are very sweet and not in a bad or overpowering way. Neither of the fruits is dominant in taste, giving them a very pleasant fruit punch kind of flavoror maybe like Froot Loops, with an underlying brown sugary taste. This was just a half recipe, so I got about 7 standard sized muffins. I can't say enough about how yumtastic these were.

An exciting find...

2007-09-16T06:07:00.001-07:00

Okay, for some it may not be that exciting, but considering I leave in a very small southern town with not another vegan for miles, let alone anyone that knows what a vegan is, it was for me. My first thought was, 'Ha! A ccokie that I don't have to make!' The cookies themselves are very soft, and have a subtle banana flavor and a few nuts scattered about. Really, nothing special. I consider this progress. The next slightly larger town over from us has two health food stores: one ran by two old ladies, and the other a recent opening that carries so much more. I found these at the two old ladies' store. It is the first thing I found in there specifically labeled as 'Vegan'. I bought three, plus a soy natural fudge brownie that is also vegan, but I didn't get a picture of that before it was eaten. I would probably only buy these again if I was in serious cookie withdrawl and could not get to a kitchen to make my own. Not that they were bad, just bland.

Double Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

2007-09-09T15:42:00.001-07:00

Definitely not the best pic, but sadly the best I could do in my kitchen. Today's venture turned out pretty good. I fused two recipes together; one for Carrot Spice Muffins and another for Chocolate Wave Zucchini Bread. For the most part I followed the first recipe, just subbing zucchini for the carrot, then added unsweetened cocoa powder and chocolate per the second recipe. The only other change I made to the first one was to use soy milk instead of soy yogurt, since I didn't have any soy yogurt or soy sour cream (which I usually sub for yogurt). They turned out fluffy, and the chocolate was subtle. What really made them pop was the juicy raisins and melty chocolate chips intermingling together. I really dig the spicyness. Oh, and they are kind of good for you.

Apple Zucchini Muffins and Bonus Cookies

2007-09-03T10:45:00.000-07:00

I love apples. I mean, love. I would take apples intravenously if possible. There is nothing better than a crisp, tart Granny Smith. I get a little weak in the knees for a Pink Lady. I recently got "Don't Eat Off the Sidewalk," a 'Zine created by a PPK alum. After flipping through it, I decided that I must make the Apple Zucchini Muffins before all else. Firstly, because I am an obsessive when it comes to muffins. Secondly, because I had never thought to combine the two. Why had it never occured to me?! I tweaked it a bit to my liking. I used half all purpose unbleached white flour and half whole wheat spelt flour. I put applesauce in place of oil, for an extra special apple-y treat, I cut back the sugar and added raisins. They are super amazing.

I made cookies too, and since there is no way on earth all this good stuff is staying in my house for me to eat it all, I am taking them to work tomorrow. I don't even think that my co-workers realize that they are eating vegan. They have no complaints though. I made Sour Cream Chocolate Chippy Chunky Cookies. I got the original recipe from here. I added the chunks myself. I had half a bar of Lindt 70% Cacoa Dark Chocolate bar laying around and a partial bag of Ghiradelli Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips. So I threw them both in. I used Toffutti Better Than Sour Cream, Earth Balance margarine and Ener-G for the egg. Well, half an egg in this case, though I probably would have been alright without it. I halfed the recipe, but only got 11 cookies. I made them too big, I guess, but who cares. They taste like you are chewing on a chocolate cloud of dreams and sugar...they kind of look like clouds too...

Don't judge me.

2007-08-28T12:37:00.000-07:00

Last night my dinner consisted of an apple and a package of Red Vines...totally healthy, right?

Double Chocolate Cherry Jumbo Muffins

2007-08-26T06:12:00.001-07:00

Double Chocolate Cherry Jumbo Muffins
Originally uploaded by Crunchy Vegan

I am taking a break from the baking this week. In place of fresh goods, I am posting the Double Chocolate Cherry Muffins that I made several weeks ago. I modified the receipe from VWAV. Not by much, I just used some applesauce and added cherries. I got six jumbo muffins. They were very moist and had a nice tartness to them. My two friends in the background are just one pair of many salt and pepper shakers that inhabit my kitchen. Somehow they snuck into the pic. They look like the grandfather from "Grounded for Life." I love that show.

Coconut Oatmeal Raisin Cookie

2007-08-21T10:58:00.001-07:00

Coconut Oatmeal Raisin Cookie
Originally uploaded by Crunchy Vegan

Sundays are my baking days. I take the whole morning to make a few things to get me through the week. The receip came from here. It originally called for some sort of nuts, but I replaced them with coconut. I also used unbleached, naturally white ap flour, demerarra sugar and half Earth Balance margarine and applesauce. I used two Ener-G "eggs". I was skeptical as to whether or not they would hold together, but they turned out fine; nice and crisp on the outside, and chewy on the inside. I ended up with sixteen large cookies. I mailed ten to a friend (along with a devil-horned hat I knitted for her), and kept the rest. I am under obligation to make more this weekend for my mom. She only got two. And she was...upset.

Rhubarb Pecan Muffins

2007-08-21T10:49:00.001-07:00

Rhubarb Muffin Aerial View
Originally uploaded by Crunchy Vegan

Okay, ashamedly, this was my first encounter with rhubarb. I have never in my 25 years of life tasted rhubarb, or even thought about rhubarb, until recently. When I happened upon some on Saturday, I decided that I must make muffins. I made the Rhubarb Pecan Muffins from ExtraVeganZa. I must say I was impressed. They were perfectly tart. I used whole wheat pastry flour and agave nectar instead of maple syrup (I didn't have any!). I got twelve muffins, though ten were normal sized, two were on the smallish side.

Formality.

2007-08-19T06:13:00.000-07:00

I know the first post is purely a formality. So let's get down to business. I am on a mission: to bake myself into a sugar coma. Making muffins has become an obsession for me. They are sugary devils disguised in crumbly, breakfasty goodness. With fruit. Or veggies. As long as you have one of those two things they can still pass as healthy. That being said, I am off to make some muffins!!