How awesome is this?

Christmas gift from my super cool friend Margy. 5 types of preserves, pickles, and spiced nuts. So awesome!



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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

Are you there blogger? It's me iPhone.


- 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!

PETA's racy ad

'Veggie Love': PETA's Banned Super Bowl Ad

Vegan Care Package Exchange

A big Thank you!! to Lindsay at Cookingforaveganlover for organizing a great care package swap.  My swap partner was Eve from Addicted to Olives.  I came home from Christmas up north in t-town (tacoma, wa to those of you who are not hip to western washington) to find a giant package waiting for me.  My greatest regret is that I did not wait to take a picture- because I dove into it pretty quick.  There's nothing like spending Christmas around a whole bunch of non-vegans (and I will add not vegan friendly at ALL!, yep- my family) to make your heart soar with a whole sh*t load of vegan goodies at your house.  My personal favorite was the dark chocolate covered pretzels- Oh damn they were good.  It also included some great sauce/ dinner mixes, local popcorn and lots and lots of chocolate bars.  

Thank you Eve!!

This is a picture of some of the stuff I included in Eve's package:

I included an old favorite from Eugene- Rusty's handbuilt cookies.  If you find one of these and have not eaten one before- do it, you will thank me!  Also another cookie from Michelle's Naturally a new to me find (I love the lemon poppyseed cookies!).  I tried to keep all of Eve's goodies from west coast sources (It was going to be local, but I got so enticed with the Rusty!)

December- the month of the oven

I don't know how you spent your December, but by the lack of postings here I am assuming I was busy- I have just today really realized it is January and a whole year has just ended (a big one too- with a baby, wildfire, family, and life mixing together).  So we attended  4 Christmas parties, 4 Christmas celebrations, and had a wedding anniversary all within about 2 1/2 weeks.  I have found myself a little at a loss this week- trying to get back to what ever normal is with a 7 month old baby.  Needless to say as the only vegan at most of these events- I did a lot of baking and cooking.  It was really fun- I love the holidays, but I am enjoying not starting the oven at 6 am.

Minty Chocolate with Peppermint Buttercream and Gingerbread cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting (from the Vegan cupcake goddesses).

Marzipan Snowmen (one of my favorites this season!) on Chocolate cupcakes and buttercream frosting and snowy sprinkles.  I also made for this same holiday party chocolate cupcakes with coconut flavoring and buttercream rolled in sugary shredded coconut to look like little snow balls.

I had a bit of trouble with the marzipan.  I bought it premade in a tube.  Good flavor, easy to manipulate- but... I should have seen this coming- this stuff does not keep well.  I tried a couple of different ways to store it the day before the potluck I was taking my little snowmen to.  I ended up having to remake all of them just before I left (only took about 15 mins) and the old sweaty melting snowmen were composted.  It was so sad to see them in the compost bucket among ashes from the fire place and vegetable stems.  I like to think they are in a better place now.

An additional unforeseen problem with these guys was how they were responded to at the party I took them to.  I arrived a little late and after a windy dark drive down the mountain all of my cupcakes had slid together and all the snowmen had been making snow angels.  So once there I quickly corrected the little guys out in the car and made my entrance with my lovely cupcakes.  Party went nicely.  When I came back to the potluck table to reclaim my platter- there were lots of cupcakes left and very few snowmen.  As I turned around I saw someone actually just munching on the snowman they had pulled off a cupcakes still on the platter.  Now, this is something I expect from my friends- especially when they have been drinking sparks or something (which by the way- if I ever need to conjure up a gag reflex, sparks is what I will use as my inspiration).  I'm not super picky about manners- but taking decorations off cupcakes and leaving them all beaten up looking on a platter seems wrong to me- at least take the whole damn thing and throw the cupcakes away if you don't want it.  On top of that I left a plate of the still intact cupcakes for my host in their fridge and when discussing this with them 2 days later, I was informed that a guest had taken the cakes I had left for them! Oh! I guess it was a wild bunch.

Additional holiday parties included about 100 mini cupcakes for my husbands school (snowballs again and plain with cute little dancing snowmen decorations).  I also made a TON of cookies as christmas gifts for about 25 people.  I'll dedicate an entire post to my favorites as I catch up here. Oh! I think I am having sugar withdrawals!!! In fact I am not going to eat any sugar for a couple of weeks (good for the waistline and maybe I won't be so cracked out all the time).