Too much time in the kitchen?

Thursday: make frosting
Friday: bake cupcakes and prep cin rolls
Saturday: bake rolls and frost everything, be at market at 9 am, get home to make dinner for party of 7- fresh spring rolls, 2 dipping sauces, pad Thai (2 batches), Thai cabbage salad
Sunday: sleep in, hang lights on the house

Cinnamon roll rejects (pumpkin spice and regular cin rolls)



Cupcake leftovers (candy cane cookies and cream, pumpkin spice, orange blossom cardamom)



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Testing

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- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Broken cameras

are no fun.. bought a new one last weekend- not the best camera on the earth- but it works fine for what we want. Yay for the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H20!!

Cutsy cashmere mushroom made of old sweaters gifted to my little son by my amazingly talented cousin Kate Greiner Murray owner of Nancy the hippest store in Seattle.

Yosemite- Vegan Food Review

Last weekend my little family of three went to Yosemite for the first time. It was of course- amazing! However! I was a hungry little vegan! I brough a few snacks- but assumed (I have been spoiled by the Central Coast vegan-friendly-ness!) that I could find something to eat other than french fries. There were hardly even French fries. The first night we ate at our hotel the Wawona Inn. Cute hotel (biggest complaint other than the food was the blazing hot rooms with no thermostat between the hours of 9 am and 9 pm and the freezing cold rooms at night- try it with a baby- you'll see- it's no fun!) we ate here because it was late when we got in and the babe needed to get to bed. I had smartly brought leftovers from the night before to eat, but my daring husband ordered a beet salad and bruschetta. Both were gross. They tasted purely like the ingredients. What I mean by that is the beet salad tasted like old beets and the brushetta tasted like canned food chopped up together. The bill for these two dishes was $25. Breakfast redeemed the hotel slightly with a free breakfast buffet with fried potatoes, oatmeal, cream of wheat, and fruit salad (plus the serves were incredibly nice and it was a baby friendly place). For lunch on our first full day we scouted out all of the possible restaurants in Yosemite Valley. My husband is coming here with the kids he teaches next month so we needed to see what was available and where things were. We reached the last resort- cheese-less pizza at Curry Village- I have to say though they hook a sister up when she asks for garlic on her personal pizza- I was breathing garlic fire for a couple days (mmmm...). We hiked, we walked, we visited museums, outdoor exhibits, did some driving, and looked at some art. It was a jam-packed day- and our little one did a great job (yay for puffed kamut in the car!). For dinner we headed over to the Yosemite Lodge and found a food court that actually had the word vegan on the menu (doesn't that make your heart shine?). It was penne pasta and marinara for $10 (it was about 1.5 cups of food). Totally not worth it- but hot and edible. The last morning we hit up the breakfast buffet again and jumped in the car for the ride home. Yosemite is awesome- our camera broke half way through our trip- but a few pictures below.

Hello Blog! and Kransekake

thank you: Norwegian Kransekake
photo ©Kari Diehl, licensed to About.com

Hi Blog!

Well it's been awhile. We had some major things happen in our lives. Back in January we had two deaths in two days in our family. Most significantly was the death of my grandpa. He was an amazing man and the best grandpa. At his wake we tried to honor his (and our) Norwegian roots with a Norse themed meal. It involved Kransekake. Kransekake is this amazing ring cake made of dense almond paste cakes all staked up and drizzled with a little frosting. Hardly anything at this service (including the Kransekake) was vegan- so don't even get your hopes up!! But! back in my early days of having my own kitchen and when I dated someone as enthusiastic about baking as I am (turns out enthusiasm for baking isn't enough to make a relationship last!) we attempted a vegan version of this. From what I remember it was really good just after we made it, and then the following day required a saw to break it apart. In my searching I have not come across any other vegan attempts at this. It may be because of the many egg yolks most recipes call for- or maybe because it's not a common dish. Anyways- at the wake I spent a little bit of time gazing at it. It's an old school dish- I can only imagine the magnificence of it as a dish at a holiday party back before 'Ace of Cakes' or whatever that reality show is about extreme cake bakers. The Kransekake on the table tied in so many aspects of who I am and things I enjoy- family, heritage, baking, sugar... I think I'm going to try again- I'll let you know how it goes!