Good things on Wednesday.

This week at work has been evil and busy. More evil than busy. Chocolate was needed after dinner so Eric and I went to the co-op for the goods. They were giving away free daffodils too! Apparently someone bought 200 daffodils for their birthday today and they gave them to the co-op to hand out. Kind of sweet and odd all in one. I took one though. I’m going to take it to work to brighten up my little inky corner of the print shop.

But for this evening it can stay on my makeshift altar with John Taylor.

Some cute mail arrived for me today too. These little things really do brighten my day! Friends in Ithaca, NY sent this drawing and a pressed penny. Cute! I kind of want to frame this one. I hope you had a great Wednesday as well!

(((Happy 800th blog post!)))

Christmas is coming!

Merry Christmas Eve!  Eric and I worked a half day at work today and then we came home to finish a few things for Christmas.  I had plans to make something for Eric and I was super happy with how it turned out!  I found a chocolate mold in the shape of a record.  I thought the text on the record was super cute as well!  I used white chocolate for the text, dark chocolate for the record AND it’s filled with peppermint filling.  I also couldn’t wait to give it to him, so I ended up giving it to him after the chocolate had hardened.

I do.

We hung the Christmas cards on the mantel this year.

We also had a few handmade cards this year! I also like the cards with photos of our friend’s kids on them.

We have a leg lamp. It moved out here from Pennsylvania with us. We put it in the window tonight to take photos and to show it off a little bit. You can’t say no to electric sex!

I also put my camera on a tripod and set the timer so we could take a goofy photo of us with the leg lamp. I had the tripod in the front yard. I had to push the timer button and run to the house…up the front stairs…and through the living room to pose with Eric. We had to do this about five times until we got a few shots that actually worked. See Juniper creepin’ up on her kitty tower?

Before coming in the house for the night to wait for Santa I snapped a photo of Miss Kitten and Eric. We have a dirty front window. I love the look of shock on Juniper’s face. Merry Christmas Eve! Sleep tight and listen for those sleigh bells!

Peanut Butter French Silk Pie.

Last weekend I made this…

You might remember something similar to this that I made for Thanksgiving.  The original French Silk Pie recipe was great, but how can you make something even better?  Add peanut butter!!

Eric requested a graham cracker crust so I just used a store bought crust.  I used the same filling as the last pie, but before I added the chocolate I divided the batter in half.  For the chocolate half of the pie I used 4 oz. of melted chocolate instead of 8.  I blended a half cup of peanut butter in the other half of the batter.  Pour both the peanut butter in the crust and then the chocolate on top!  I baked this for about 20 minutes longer than I did last time.  It was just a little bit runny in the middle, but after it was in the fridge overnight it was perfect.

The peanut butter version of the silk pie is fantastic!  Eric approves of it too.

Thanksgiving Prep!

Today I picked up the last few things at the grocery store that I needed for our Thanksgiving feast!

Miss Purrito approves!

What do you think I’m making?

This year I’m making a stuffed tofu roast!  If you click on that link you’ll find the entire recipe and procedure.

Tofu galore!

I blended the tofu in my mixer for about 10 minutes until it was super creamy.

Spin it!

Now mix in the spices listed in the recipe.

Thyme, sage, salt and pepper.

Now line a colander with cheese cloth.

un-cheesy cloth.

Pour the tofu mixture in the colander.

Pat the tofu down.

And wrap it up!

Put a plate under your colander to catch the water that will drain from the tofu.

Put a plate on top of the colander and put something heavy on the plate to help press water out of the tofu.  I used a heavy jar with homemade asian barbeque sauce.

Now left the tofu set over night!

The water started to drain from the tofu as soon as I put some weight on it.

See it draining?

Next up was a French Silk Chocolate Pie!

Again…click on the link for the recipe!

My pie crust is kind of horrible, no?  Oh my!  This is the first time I’ve made a pie and it’s super apparent!

Get ready for tomorrow! The tofu roast with be roasted and the pie will be filled and it all will be consumed!!

Happy Birthday Dear Eric!

Today is Eric’s Birthday! I made him a goofy card.

I gave this to Eric this morning. It was a hint for a Birthday gift. Bruce Springsteen is playing in Portland, OR in the fall and I bought tickets for us to see him play! Eric is a huge Bruce fan!

I also made a Mega-cake for the Birthday boy. Chocolate cake, peanut butter icing and chocolate ganache on top!

Pipe it!

Three layers!

Eric wanted to pick up this record on Record Store Day a few months ago. The fellows in front of us snagged all of them! He was kind of bummed about it, but I surprised him and bought him a sealed copy online! Yay records! Yay Birthday! Yay Eric!

The mid-week bake!

Tonight I was in the mood to bake. I tried two new recipes! First I made raw, vegan, soy-free and gluten-free lime cakes. And right after that I made a chocolate chip loaf with chocolate glaze. The raw lime cakes were more for me and the chocolate chip loaf was more for Eric. He didn’t try the lime cakes, but I did try the loaf!

The recipe for the chocolate chip loaf called for sour cream. I didn’t want to use sour cream so I replaced the 1/4 cup sour cream with 1/4 cup vanilla almond yogurt and 1/4 teaspoon baking soda! It worked out just fine!

Crust for the raw lime cakes.

And the filling for the lime cakes!

Chocolate chip cake and chocolate glaze.

Lime cakes!

Working with baked goods around a curious kitten is rather difficult. Juniper had a very hard time keeping her paws off the table!

Cake with glaze!

I’ve been mopey off and on the past few weeks. It’s super hard for me to meet people out here and I do miss my friends who all live in different states. Sometimes I feel like I’m just about to hit it off with someone and then the powers that be say “uh uh…oh hell no!”

I was watching the show “Rev.” tonight. The show is about a Church of England priest in London. It’s a fun show that you should check out! Tonight Adam, the priest, was dealing with his lack of friends. Adam said something that basically sums up the way I’ve been feeling….”Where’s my piece of bread? Who’s going to offer me a whole meal bloomer with the lightest sprinkling of sunflower seeds on top?”

Vegan s’mores!

S’more makin’ supplies!

 

Graham cracker.

 

Add your chocolate. Set the oven to broil, and put the chocolate under the broiler until it starts to melt. Keep a close eye on it!

 

Put your vegan marshmallows on top and put the tray back under the broiler.

 

Melt and brown those cute little marshmallows!

 

Nice and brown! Next time I’m going to leave these in the oven a bit longer. When I would roast marshmallows over a campfire I would catch mine on fire so the outside of the marshmallow was burnt and black. So good!

 

And there’s your s’more!

 

Eat that s’more!

 

These were fantastic and melty! I hope this summer when Eric and I are traveling we actually have time to make a campfire and make some campfire s’mores!

Noodles for the weekend!

On the way home from work I stopped at my favorite Asian store in Everett. The little old lady who works there always has new and fun items. I found some cashews and awesome chocolate! The chocolate was even Fair Trade.

 

I also bought some noodles at the Asian store. I was craving these! They’re fairly low-fat and no MSG. Juniper was curious as usual.

 

I bought some seitan (wheat gluten) to cook with the noodles. This was actually rather delicious!

 

Tomorrow Eric and I will be going to the Solstice Fair in Seattle.  What are your plans for the weekend?

Not so sunny Seattle on a Friday.

It was a stereotypical rainy day in Seattle. We went to visit the Space Needle though. Even if it is raining it's still fun to see! I took a few more test photos with my Polaroid camera.

 

There are still a few kinks to work out, but here are my shots from today!

 

After visiting with the Space Needle we went to Bamboo Gardens for some vegan Chinese foods! Those are crispy pot stickers. Delightful!

 

I ate some spicy Udon noodles in Szechwan sauce.

 

Eric tried the thin lo mein noodles. Both were fantastic. Bamboo Garden can do no wrong.

 

I found this at a record store tonight. I had the urge to purchase this since I'm a Pennsylvania...but alas I'm stingy.

 

I did pick up this Andrew Bird 7" though. The B side is a Handsome Family cover. I love the Handsome Family so that's the only reason I bought this. It really doesn't compare to the original...but good try Bird.

 

I've seen the Handsome Family play twice at the Tractor in Seattle. They are two lovely folks! I have a few print from Rennie, the gal in the band, as well.

 

I bought some chocolate tonight! Eric like the chocolate with the crispies in it. He bought me dinner tonight so I bought him chocolate. I wanted to try the Nirvana bar on the right. OMG awesome! If you let it melt in your mouth you can really taste the hard caramel pieces and the little specks of sea salt. It was a fabulous purchase!

Ch-ch-ch-chia pudding!

I was craving chia pudding today after reading a post about chia pudding from Luminous Vegans!  I decided to try two different recipes for chocolate chia pudding.  I tried the overnight chocolate chia pudding and chocolate chia pudding from Vegan Yack Attack.  They are almost the same recipe except one recipe calls for coconut and a different sweetener.

Chia seeds and cocoa powder!

 

I added coconut, cinnamon, and unsweetened plain almond milk.

 

I put the chia pudding in jars and waited for them to do their thing for a few hours.

 

The chia pudding is done and it is fantastic!!