I = dirty blogging slacker

Especially given the fact I have been baking like a fiend. Last weekend for example, I participated in the VFF bake swap. I bake something for someone, who bakes something for someone else, essentially (though not always) everyone gets a package of baked deliciousness in the mail. This round, I was sending packages out to three people. I found cute little tins for them and bought pretty ribbon to tie the bags of goodies closed, and then I decided, what the hell. I'll mail baked stuff to my family, and give some to Joel's family. Eight cute little tins to fill with baked goods. I decided on snickerdoodles, which are kind of my default baking goody. In fact, this is the first time I've sent anything else. Included with the snickerdoodles were raspberry oat bars, peanut butter bars, Mexican wedding cookies, and blueberry brownies. The brownies were from Veganomicon, the snickerdoodles are from some recipe I found online a gazillion years ago, and everything else was from the Joy of Vegan Baking.

Later the same day, I made more "big bread" from the recipe I linked to before. I made a loaf and a cinnamon raisin loaf - both of which were okay - we made French toast with the cinnamon raisin this most recent weekend. I still don't love that recipe. Something about it is just kind of icky. I'm happy it turns out and all, but meh. Just not impressed with it.

Soupe au pistou

Joel's parents are coming over for dinner tonight. I'm making this soup recipe, and have put together a sun dried tomato and roasted garlic "pistou." I've also made a dish of hummus for us to nibble at while we wait for the soup to finish simmering.

I've baked a double batch of the green tea cupcakes. They look delicious. I haven't glazed them yet, or made the marzipan flowers yet (I was contemplating making marzipan shamrocks instead, but I'll probably stick with the pink flowers). I'll be bringing them to work.

I baked a banana cake yesterday with some very ripe bananas (as a note, this is why I don't keep fruit in the house, I forget it until it goes almost bad, and then I have to figure out what to do with it). Banana cake is my favorite dessert ever. It's light and flavorful, and covered with an absolutely amazing cream cheese frosting that I would eat by the bucketful if it were acceptable. I like it best when it's chilled, and you can freeze it.

Experimenting with mock meats and celebrating Pi Day

Wednesday night, there were drinks with the car boys. Before I went though, I needed something to eat. Earlier in the week, I had made baked seitan (from a recipe from one of the Vegan Freaks), that I slightly modified to be less salty (for some reason, I'm super sensitive to salt in seitan recipes). I took some seitan, spinach, Vegenaise, dijon mustard, avocado, and sourdough and grilled it. Holy crap, it was delicious. Delicious enough, in fact, that I made more sandwiches when we got home from drinks.

I ordered a bunch of mock meats from May Wah last weekend. They arrived on Wednesday. First on the menu, a "beef" stir-fry with some "beef chunks," green beans, orange bell peppers, mushrooms, and broccoli in a store bought General Tso's sauce. It was yummy. And the "meat" reheated well for lunch on Friday.

Friday was Pi Day (you know 3.14...), so I decided to bake an apple pie. I used the recipes from The Joy of Vegan Baking for the crust and the filling. It turned out pretty well. Though the crust wouldn't roll out very well, so I think it's a little too thick. There may be pictures, though I really ought to just quit saying that at some point. As a side note, I had no idea you had to let pies sit for 4 hours to cool before you could eat them. I started late last night, so I didn't get to eat the pie until right now. And now it's calling me. So hooray for Pi Day.

Look at my gigantic nipples!

Friday night, Lori and Ryan came over with Lori's kids. I made them veggie lasagna, salads, and some of the bread I made last weekend. I also made some of the cookies n' cream cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Holy crap, they were awesome. Super sweet though. I sent some home with them. All in all, the night was a success (even though I was out of powdered sugar and had to make a grocery store run). And who doesn't love getting hugs from Lori's sweet kids?

I have cupcake pictures and I'll post them at some point. Me = picture slacker.

Random foodie-ness.

Tonight for dinner, there was the last of the seitan (from Vegan with a Vengeance) I made last weekend, breaded and pan fried, mashed potatoes with scallions, seasoned steamed carrots, peas and onions, and a really awesome salad with organic sun-dried tomato vinaigrette. (I actually have pictures of this, but I need to figure out how to work this whole blog thing.)

For lunch, I had this crazy spinach and onion stuffed bread thing from Montreal that I found at the local happy food market last night. It was pretty awesome, though it had too much lemon juice for my liking in the filling.

Oh, and since I told Abbie that I'd mention them, last week, I made these really cool cupcakes. They were mocha cupcakes (the chocolate cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World with some instant coffee added) that I had filled with cherry filling. I sprinkled sugar on top, since buttercream seemed a bit extreme for such a strange cupcake anyway. They were a hit, and all devoured. I might have to do a little more cupcake experimenting.

Blogging?

So, I'm new to this blogging thing. I have a LiveJournal where I whine, and a MySpace where I keep up with my cousins and their breeding, and some friends from high school, but I don't have an actual blog. I don't even know what I'll really blog about, probably mostly baking, since that's something I enjoy. Maybe about my veganism, things I'm learning about, or other random stuff. Probably mostly baking though.

For starters: yesterday, I made the outrageously easy big bread from VegWeb. I don't love it, but for the first time in a long time, a yeasted baked thing actually rose like it was supposed to and successfully baked in my kitchen.

Today, I made these doughnuts, which were less like doughnuts and more like bread. Oh well. If I give them away, I won't have to eat them. I glazed them with a recipe from FoodNetwork, though I can't seem to find it now, and some of them got some maple cream, which is the coolest invention ever. Mostly, I'm psyched that they rose like they were supposed to, even if they're strange dinner rolls.

I'll have to start taking pictures of these things, I suppose. Every good blog involves pictures.