Mom's Birthday Booties

I knitted up some quick little footsie warmers (green of course) for Mom's birthday. I'll try and do another pair soon (I need some new slippers as well) and write up the pattern - it shouldn't be too difficult.



I think I can safely post these pictures now as Mom is on the road - on her way up here - and I don't think she'll be browsing.

Scouting is ON

We had our Scout Night and it went very well. We signed on 16 new scouts - 3 new Webelos in my den - so that makes 9 - yikes - but I'm happy about the new guys - the more the merrier I always say...

I set up a table with scouting goodies...

The parents met with our Committee Chair...

The boys made paper airplanes for a race...

and had some practice runs...

We also played a drop the coin in the bucket game - the boys stood on a step stool and held a quarter on the end of a ruler and tried to drop it into a coffee can - if they got it in they got to keep the quarter.

And a game like musical chairs - called "submarine dive" - we had plastic fishes - one less than the number of boys - spaced out on the floor - the boys walk around the fishes until they hear the words "submarine dive-dive-dive" and then they "dive" and try and bring up a fish.

Large fun was had by all.

Monkey Socks

I finished the first Monkey sock - you can read all about it and the yarn substitution here - http://vegansockkal.blogspot.com/

Almost Free Wallpaper - not the computer kind

I finally got around to putting up the border in the Man-Cub's 'baseball' room. I printed the border last year and made the wallpaper paste (recipe here - http://www.buyorganic.com.au/blog/index.php/2006/11/eco-friendly-wallpaper-paste) I had to get the clove oil from the pharmacy.

I just found some images of baseballs on the internet and enlarged them and printed them on 8 1/2 x 14 paper - then cut them out. It would be easy to do this with any images you want - just make sure they aren't copyrighted.

I put the pieces in a cake pan and brushed the paste on the back.
We have textured walls - so I 'smushed' the paper onto the bumps with a washcloth.

Make sure it's level.
I was just doing the one wall so when I got to the corner I did a dry fit and cut off the extra.
The finished border.

I also made a baseball pillowcase and valance for the window.

Last Days of Summer

They came and took all the bales away - the Man-Cub sat on his swing and watched them load them up - he came in and asked if they were taking them all away and I said 'of course' - he said 'Awww - I wanted to climb them some more'...

The Man-Cub and his friend climbing on the hay bales -

It was 33 degrees last night...

Amethyst

The Man-Cub 'mined' this amethyst back in June when we were visiting family 'down south'. Included in the price of the bucket was 'one cut stone' - so he had to choose which stone he wanted cut - and he chose a nice big amethyst. They told us that it would be about 3 months before we received the stone - quite a disappointment to our little miner - but the day finally arrived.
This package came for the Man-Cub -


he was thrilled...


A closeup - it's amazingly difficult to photograph - you really can't get a good idea of how beautiful this stone is - I told the Man-Cub that when he gets older (a lot older - we often tell him that NO ONE gets married before they're 30) and wants to get married - we can have it set in a ring for an engagement ring - guess what - I got the typical 9 year old response - EWWW! - no - I'm keeping it...

The Big Read

Our community is participating in "The Big Read". It's a National Endowment of the Arts program where the entire community reads the same book and comes together to discuss it. http://www.neabigread.org/

We're reading Fahrenheit 451 - Of course I read this way back when I was in Jr. High - I even saw the old movie. But it'll be fun to read it again. Some of the activities are a bonfire - no books involved - a dramatic reading - a viewing of the old movie - and gatherings to discuss the book - I'll be attending the one on Tuesday afternoons.

So get out there and see which book your community is 'doing'...

Chocolate Chunks

If you don't need the cute little kiss shape of the chocolate chips http://affectioknit.blogspot.com/2007/03/youre-not-going-to-believe-this-i-made.html- a much quicker and less messy version is to make them into 'chunks'.

Just mix your square of vegan baker's chocolate with 3 T of a light tasting oil and 1/2 cup of powdered sugar and pour out onto plastic wrap - I have just lightly oiled a large plate and used that successfully too...

Then after it cools I use the pizza cutter to slice it into relatively same size chunks...

Vegan Reubens

My version of a Reuben - this was sooooo good...

First gather your ingredients - this is clockwise from top - Mamaw's homemade saurkraut (substitute store-bought as necessary) - vegan thousand island dressing - a little of Bryanna's veganaise mixed with a little ketchup and chopped sweet pickles - Swiss Cheeze from the Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook - tomatoes fresh from the garden (again substitute store-bought as necessary) - and fresh homemade rye bread...

Lightly coat one side of each slice of bread with vegan margarine and assemble your sandwich...

brown lightly in a cast iron pan...

Enjoy...

French Dressing

I remember a really long time ago - someone brought a salad to a church supper - dressed with a wonderful rich French dressing - so of course I asked about it and all I can remember is that she said she made it with Tomato Soup.

So being the adventurous person that I am - and thinking that I can make anything - I opened a can ...NOT of tomato soup but of the organic tomatos that our grocery carries...

and got started.

I strained most of the juice off the tomatos and drank that - it was very salty - I wish they had a "no salt" version of the organic tomatos...

Here's what I did - it's delicious and as far as I can tell - it's fat free too...

French Dressing

1 can organic diced tomatos - drained and blended

Add:
1/2 cup turbinado sugar
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1/8 teaspoon black pepper

Whisk together...

Homemade Laundry Soap

In my ongoing effort to consume less and produce less garbage - I've made my own Laundry Soap...

I know it's not much to look at - but it was really easy to do - it only took about 15 minutes and I have enough stuff to make at least 5 more batches.
I got the recipe here http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/laundrysoap.htm and for once they actually had all the ingredients at my local grocery store...

Now no more big plastic jugs to recycle - not getting them in the first place is so much better than recycling them...

Too much of a good thing

...there can never be...

I think I'll try drying these tomatos as we can't possibly eat them all. We didn't have too many cucumbers this year - and we still have relish (chow-chow) and pickles from last year so I probably won't be canning these either. We're going to dig our potatoes and beets this weekend - but I'm not expecting a super crop...

100th post

Alaina http://idratherbknitting.blogspot.com/ just made her 100th post. Mine was way in the past and I didn't celebrate - but what a fun idea...

She wants to know 3 things...
1. What is your all time favorite knitting book?
2. What finished project are you the most proud of... and... of course, why?
(Pictures worth extra entry)
3. Whose blog do you read daily and why?

1) I don't have a huge collection of knitting books and rely on the web quite a bit - I do have the Treasury and like it - I use it all the time for stitch patterns - I also like an old book "Great Knitting in Vogue" - it came out in the late 80s and they reknit a bunch of old patterns from the 30s-70s - it includes the old photograph so it's fun to see the updates and it has a lot of kid knits.


2) I get terribly attached to anything I've ever knit - but I'm probably most proud of my first socks - simply because I'd been knitting over 30 years when I first tried - who knows why and of course I'm addicted to socks now.


3) My "Favorites" are divided into three folders 1. "knitting sites" - Alaina's blog is there - along with little purl of the orient - needles on fire - Mrs. Pilkington knits - crazy aunt purl and several others - 2. "Vegan Knitters" - - almost all of the Vegan Knitters ring are in there - and 3. "Vegan Sites" which has my favorite vegan cooking blogs - I read a lot of blogs every day.

Still remodeling

Lest you think this has become just a food blog - I am still knitting on my Monkey Socks - but I'll post updates to the Vegan Sock KAL - I am cooking quite a bit 'tho...

We did paint the guest bathroom a bright white (I just love plain white walls) and I'm still 'mudding' the drywall from the new furnace installation - I'll probably finish that up in the next week or so and post a picture of it.

In our nice white bathroom we had a very dark cabinet that seemed out of place - so I'm spray painting it white.



a few more coats to go - walnut stain is pretty hard to cover up...

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

The Man said the other day that he was tired of the chocolate chip cookies (they're the Man-Cub's and my favorites) and could I please make him some good old fashioned Oatmeal-Raisin cookies. So whaddya think I did?

Vegan Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Sift together:

1 Cup + 2 T all purpose flour
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt

Blend until creamy:
1/3 cup vegan margarine - I used Smart Balance Light with Flax oil - as that's the only thing I can get with any regularity up here...
3/4 cup turbinado sugar
1/4 cup of flax seed goo
1/2 t vanilla

Then stir in your sifted dry ingredients until well blended - then add 1 1/2 cup raw oats (not the quick kind) and 1/2 cup of raisins.

Bake in a 350° oven for about 8 minutes - I bake mine on parchment paper for a nice brown bottom and no burning...

Hi - I'm Teresa and I'm a Kitchen Gadget Junkie

You probably already know that I am a 'kitchen gadget junkie'. I have just about every little doo-dad that does any specific little thing in the kitchen - I have actually gotten a lot better (I mean a LOT better) about not aquiring any more - the Man says that's only because I already have everything - Oh well - this is one gadget that I use every day and it saves money and reduces trash.

Just fill it up with oil and you won't need any of those spray cans...

I got this one at a Pampered Chef party a couple of years ago - but I've seen others including a stainless steel one at Williams Sonoma. Go get one...

Noodle-O's

Remember the 'chicken' soup base I brought back from vacation...

The Man-Cub wanted some chicken noodle soup to take to school in his thermos - this was really yummy!

The directions are for three Tablespoons of the soup mix and 1 quart of water - I halved that and used 1 1/2 Tablespoons and 2 cups of water - but we found that a little too salty and added some more water - so it's probably closer to 3 cups of water...

Harvest Moon

This is not 'technically' a Harvest Moon (The full moon that occurs nearest the autumnal equinox) - that will probably be the one at the end of September. But it is harvest time here and this one was very pretty and orange as it rose in the east - it's amazing how fast that happens - just in the time it takes to go and get the camera - you miss the perfect shot of the moon on the horizon...

More With Less

One of our parishoners (a very thoughtful one) gave me an old Mennonite cookbook called the More-With-Less Cookbook by Doris Janzen Longacre. It's still available:
http://www.amazon.com/More-Less-Cookbook-Janzen-Longacre/dp/083619103X
I've been reading through it - it's by no means vegan or even vegetarian - although a lot of recipes are vegetarian or easily veganized. The main premise of the book is to reduce your own grocery spending by just 10% so that you can use that 10% to reduce hunger in the world. It's an admirable goal and fits in with my desire to buy locally and just consume less...

Really AWESOME Vegan Soymilk Ice Cream!!!

I don't know what to say - I'm at a loss for words (I know that's hard to believe) - this is just about the MOST DELICIOUS thing I've ever made...

I took Mom's (or maybe Nanny's) old churn Ice Cream recipe and veganized it - SUCCESSFULLY!

This is soooo good:

First I made a batch of soymilk - I needed 9 cups of cream/milk so I made one 6 cup batch the regular way (this is milk) and then I took 3 cups out - washed everything and added 3 cups of water to the soymilk already in the maker and then processed a new batch of soaked beans (this is cream).

Mom's/Nanny's Old Fashioned Vanilla Ice Cream:

To make 1 gallon of ice cream:

5 cups soymilk - I just used the extra thick soymilk
2 1/4 cups sugar
1/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup flax seed goo - just boil 1/4 cup of flax seeds in 1 cup of water and strain through sheeting - you'll get a clear slimy goo - I used this in place of the 4 eggs in the original recipe.

4 more cups of soymilk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Combine Sugar, flour and salt in saucepan. Gradually stir in soymilk. Cook over medium heat approximately 15 minutes or until thickened - stirring constantly.

Add the flax seed goo and stir well - I used a wire whisk.

Refrigerate for 2 hours and then combine with remaining soymilk and vanilla.

Pour this into your freezer.

We got this hot pink freezer on sale at 'Stuff Mart' - you know how they sale all the "summertime" stuff for like 1/10th its regular price the week before school starts.

I'm setting it up in the laundry - because it's very loud.

The motor stops when the ice cream reaches the correct consistency and the booklet tells you to "harden" your ice cream at this point by either adding more salt to your ice and covering with newspaper or by putting it in plastic containers in the freezer - I did the latter as I'm not going to be eating it all at once...

this is the creamy goodness at the end of churning...

this is the finished product - after "hardening" in the freezer - I have four of these quart containers - YIPEE!

topped with chocolate syrup and black walnuts and a little soy whip that I picked up during my last trip to civilization...
You've got to try this...