Birthday Bounty

I'm just about the luckiest Birthday Girl around...

The Man-Cub made a vegan Birthday Cake - using my old Yellow Cake recipe(http://affectioknit.blogspot.com/2007/05/caramel-cake-mans-mom-used-to-work-for.html) and decorated it with 'boughten' letters - that's a word that you hear up here a lot...

The icing is from http://www.vegan-food.net/recipe/363/Chocolate-Frosting/and the Man-Cub said it looks just like the "glossy" icing that Dinah frosts the cakes with in the Bobsey Twins books he reads...


The night before - the table was loaded with presents...
...what could possibly be in all those BIG bags...


After breakfast - I couldn't wait any longer - we lit the candles (a lot of them)...


...sang the song and opened the presents...

There's a SoyQuick soymilk maker and 20 lbs of Laura soybeans - a bike kickstand and back rack - a Mandarin shirt, bathrobe and tea from my sweet sister who went to Beijing this year - it's all good and I love it...

The pretty red top - will be perfect for Reformation Sunday...

The pretty blue robe - matches the Man-Cub's...

A closeup of the tea ball - it smells heavenly...

And it opens up just like a real flower...

...beautiful...

...Then it was time for tea and cake...

YUM! A wonderful Birthday!!!

Hair today...Gone tomorrow

I just realized that I never posted about my haircut. I had it cut the first week of June - before we went down south - and donated my 9th 12 inch ponytail to Locks of Love http://www.locksoflove.org/...
I really like the short bob - but I sort of miss being able to pull it back as the wind blows it into my face... I wish I had taken a before and after shot like Karen did, but I wasn't prepared...

Raspberries - YUM

Raspberries have to be one of my favorite things - but they're like cherries - I only like them real - any fake cherry or raspberry flavor and you can keep it...


We went raspberry picking YAY! A friend of ours has a huge raspberry patch and said we could come and pick as many as we wanted - so not wanting to be too greedy - I only picked enough for 12 pints...

and that's not counting all the ones I gorged myself with while picking...

Fresh Broccoli

We picked the second round of broccoli from our garden - not as large as the first trees we got...

These are destined for a nice Broccoli Salad:

1/2 cup veganaise
1/2 cup turbinado sugar
1 T raspberry soy yogurt
1 T vinegar

Mix well and pour over the broccoli - then add sunflower seeds and dried cranberries - we also like it just with raisins if we don't have any cranberries - easy peasy...

BTW - My sister pointed out that Planters Sunflower seeds have gelatin (who knows why) - I buy the ones in the produce section and they don't have gelatin - but I often put them on my salad when we eat out and I wonder...

Baseball Socks

Baseball Season has ended - The Man-Cub's team came in second in the playoffs - YAY! - and I finished my Baseball socks at the next to the last game - also YAY! I love them - they fit well and are so pretty...

Prayer Shawl WIP

I'm right now to the end of the pink prayer shawl I've been working on - I got the pattern from Major Knitter's blog -http://majorknitter.typepad.com/photos/patterns/march_2007_052.html - but I only did one row of garter in between sections of stockinette stitch and I added some openwork - a rose - then a cross - then the word Peace (I think you can read it)- then the cross and the rose facing the other way.

I charted the pattern for the word PEACE on graphpaper and knit it in - then when I held it up to look at it - lo and behold - it was a mirror image of the word - I still don't know how that happened - (I should have taken a picture of the wrong one - but at the time I didn't think it was so funny) - so I frogged and re-knit it correctly...

WEBELOS

A sort of contraction/acronym for "We'll be Loyal Scouts" - so it can never be singular - I often say that the Man-Cub is a Webelo now - but that leaves off the 'S' - too funny.

Anyway - we had our 'bridge crossing' ceremony at the park - they start out on one side of the bridge and then miraculously as they cross over they are transformed into the next level - their parents put their new neckerchief on them and the Committee Chair gives them their new handbook...

...and the Man-Cub is officially a Webelos Scout now - my - they do grow up fast...

Monarch Hunting

The Man-Cub and his friend went out into the field to hunt catepillars - they live on the milkweed and we've raised them before and watched them turn into lovely Monarch Butterflies - which we promptly release - of course...

Hiking

It has been so hot here - so, we went in search of some trees and found them - there's a National Game Preserve not too far from here called Sully's Hill. We love it there - there are actual hills and actual trees...


and a viewing tower for these cute little guys... The Man-Cub loves them -

they were barking at us and one (the sentinel) kept barking and barking - just a steady little chirp every second or two - then all of a sudden all of the guys behind him raised up on their hind legs in unison and let out one chirp also in unison and went on about their business - I was fascinated by this and wished that I had gotten it on video - apparently they decided we were no threat...

...and we saw some bison - the ones at Sully's Hill are genetically pure - never mated with cattle...

This is where we started the hike about this time last year - you see it completely under water - so we went around...

a different way around...

...but even though we went a different way - we ran into a flooded path again and we didn't want to go back so we took off our shoes and waded across - it wasn't too deep - but it was deeper than I thought...


More evidence of the flooding...

it does create some bald eagle habitat 'though...


The Man-Cub was fascinated by these giant dandelions...

...it's about 3 inches across...

and some pretty wild berries - we didn't eat any - not sure what they are...


some pretty wildflowers too...


On the way home there were hoards of dragonflies - they must have just hatched out - I was driving so I couldn't get a good picture of the swarm.

Jerky

I had an extra packet of tofu that I wanted to use up before it expired - so I found this recipe for tofu jerky at http://www.vegparadise.com/asknettie23.html the only substitution I made was

1/2 C. (237 ml) Bragg Liquid Aminos or soy sauce - I changed this to 1/4 cup soy sauce and 1/4 cup vegan worchestershire sauce


I let it soak in the marinade for about 8 hours...

...my trusty old dehydrator...

I left it in the dehydrator about 6 hours...

It's a little 'hot' (too peppery) for me - but I'll definately make this again - now it goes in the knapsack for a little hiking....

Bread

I love my bread maker. I've had it about 10 or 11 years now and it has always made wonderful bread. It's an old West Bend Automatic purchased back in the day when bread machines were sort of expensive - I see them now for less than $50 - that always amazes me...

Anyway, this is a veganized version of an old-fashioned bread recipe - it always turns out nicely and makes wonderful sandwiches - of course there's nothing better than hot buttered (I mean smart balanced) bread - except maybe hot bread with strawberry jam...

...and the best part is that crusty bit at the end with the hole in it...

Vegan Old Fashioned White Bread

6 ounces soy milk - 90-100 degrees F
2 cups bread flour
1 T sugar
1 t salt
1 T margarine
1 1/2 t active dry yeast or 1 t bread machine yeast

Add ingredients in order given and set machine for desired bread color.

Waffles

On Saturday mornings we often make waffles...

1 cup Bread flour
1 T flax seed meal
1/4 cup oil
1 cup soy milk - 1 T vinegar
1 T Turbinado Sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Mix the dry ingredients - mix the wet ingredients and then mix together quickly - don't stir it too much - pour onto a hot waffle iron and bake until the iron stops steaming.

This recipe makes just enough for 3 people.

I mix the soymilk, vinegar, and oil together in a cup...

Pour onto preheated waffle iron - this one is really old - Mom and Daddy gave it to me for Christmas the year after I was married...

Bake just until the steam stops coming out of the sides and they'll be perfectly browned...

Served here with some of the fresh cherries we've been enjoying and the wonderful Maple Syrup my sister gave me in the pretty Maple Leaf bottle...

It is on a tray - but not destined for breakfast in bed - it's breakfast in front of the TV watching cartoons with the Man-Cub...

Crystal

The Man-Cub is having a lot of fun with the crystal making set he got for his birthday!

It's so sweet to see him don his goggles and follow the proper "scientific procedure" outlined in his instruction manual - documenting time weight temp, etc...

Man-Cub at bat

Playoffs start next week - tonight's the last regular game - his team stands to do pretty well in the playoffs - with only 3 losses this season...