Saturday, January 30, 2016

...This year's Amaryllis...

...this year's Amaryllis is doing so much better than last year's...I think that little second bulb offshoot he had going kept him from ever blooming...

...I left him with my neighbor in West Virginia when we moved...so hopefully he bloomed for her this year...
...but this year's Amaryllis is s sturdy little fellow...and he's almost too tall to stay on the kitchen counter anymore...and he'll definitely bloom as I can already see his little buds forming...

...How's your luck with Amaryllises (pl.??)?

~Have a lovely weekend!

Friday, January 29, 2016

...a story of a mug...

...mugs and cups are very intriguing to me...

...what makes one person prefer one mug over another...it's so individual...the shape of the mug...the weight...the way it feels when you cup your hands around a warm mug of tea (or coffee...or teecino...or chai...whatever the drink is doesn't really matter - it's the mug that matters)...

...some people prefer dainty little cups...and others hefty hand thrown pottery ones...

...you've seen the mug that I got on my honeymoon...and although it's tapered shape is not my favorite...it's sentimental value makes it one of my favorites anyway...so there's that element too...

...so...on to the story of this new (old) mug...
...my Mom had a set of these mugs...way back when I was a teenager...given to her by my baby brother...

...only one of hers still survives...

...and she has offered to let me 'take' it many a time...but I have always refused...because that is the mug that I drink my tea in...when I'm at 'home'...
...so...my boys found one in an antique shop here...and wrapped it up and put it in my stocking at Christmas...
...and now I have a a new favorite mug at my home too...

...so...tell me about your favorite mug...

~Have a lovely day!

Thursday, January 28, 2016

...What I Ate Yesterday...

...in this weeks installment of W.I.A.Y. I had a bunch of yummy vegan food...

Breakfast
Cafe au lait, French Bread Toast, Strawberry Jam, Apple

Lunch
Packaged Vegan Keilbasa...Cooked on the grill
served with Sauerkraut, Vegan Mashed Potatoes, and Peas
and a favorite cold tea...

Dinner
Poisson Bercy - recipe here, Broccoli Florets, Salad

~Have a lovely day!

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

...Vegan Cinnamon Roll Breakfast Cake...

...since snow days give us so much extra time in the mornings...I wanted to make something a little bit special for breakfast...
...the cake batter is just my regular old stand-by...sometimes called 'Depression Cake'...or 'Vinegar Cake'...both of which are sort of pejorative names...
...then I just mixed up some Earth Balance, cinnamon, sugar and brown sugar...
...to make a sort of paste...
...then I randomly put little dollops of cinnamon sugar around the top of the cake batter...
...and used a skewer to swirl the cinnamon paste into the cake batter...
...be careful not to swirl too much...or it will just mix in and you'll have a nice buttery spice cake...
...while the cake is baking...mix up some icing to drizzle over it...
...not too exact...but about 1/2 cup of powdered sugar...a teaspoon of vanilla...and just add the soymilk a little at a time until it's the right 'drizzling' consistency...
...you'll just 'know' when it is right...
...when your delicious smelling cinnamon cake tests done...take it out of the oven...
...and drizzle your icing over the top...
...it was so delicious...I'll have to make it again when we don't have a snow day...

Cinnamon Roll Breakfast Cake

1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup oil
1 cup cold water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Mix all of the above ingredients then add:
2 teaspoons vinegar - stir in quickly

Cinnamon Swirl

2 Tbs Earth Balance
2 tsp Vegan sugar
2 tsp brown sugar
2 tsp Cinnamon

Makes one 9" cake - Bake at 350° until cake tests done.

~Have a lovely day!

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

...snow days...

...we've just been enjoying (REALLY enjoying) a few quiet days here...it's so nice...and there's not even any traffic on the road to interfere...it's warming up now so it won't last much longer...
...and we've been making sure the little birds don't go hungry during the snow...and Jack just sits on top of the sofa and watches them out the window...the male cardinal comes too...but he's skittish and I can't seem to get a photo of him...

...and in other news...Julia's Frozen Spinach post is up over at The Vegan Version...

~Stay warm and have a lovely day!

Monday, January 25, 2016

...Snow + Ice + (Vegan) Cream = Snice Cream...

...we put a nice big bowl out in the back of the truck (because we know Callie never gets in the back of the truck) to catch some clean snow...
...we did have some snow...but we basically had 4 inches of sleet...
...but of course the Vitamix can quite easily turn that into smooth creamy goodness...
...we always ate it in a bowl like ice cream when I was little...but Scout wanted his with a straw...more like a milkshake...
...Have you ever made snow cream?...
...or snice cream as the case may be?...

~Have a lovely day!

Saturday, January 23, 2016

...a snowy drive...

...we piled into the truck with 4 wheel drive for a little jaunt in the snow...

...we used to do this together in North Dakota...often on Sunday afternoon after Church...

...one time we even skidded off the dirt road into a field and had to be snatched out with a tractor by a farmer who lived nearby...quite the adventure...

...here there are no such worries...
...the snow covered road...we live far enough out of the city that this road will probably not be scraped before it just melts on its own...
...crossing a frozen creek...
...these fields make me all nostalgic for North Dakota...of course they're not as vast as the ND ones...
...but there's something comforting and hopeful about fields covered with snow...and the promise of spring...

Stay warm and have a lovely day!

Friday, January 22, 2016

...a snowy day...

...this was the scene that greeted us this morning...
...we'd had ample warning as it's been the top story on the news here for a week...and there was no school today...
...the Man checked out the generator...whenever they're calling for ice and freezing rain we're pretty likely to loose power...we got out the camp stove and lanterns...and we have a stack of firewood in the entry...so we're prepared...like the good scouts that we are...
...oh...and I put out bowls to catch some clean fresh snow for snow cream too...
...will winter storm Jonas affect you at all?

~Have a lovely day!

Thursday, January 21, 2016

....What I Ate Yesterday...

...this is another one of those alongs...

...but I'm not really going 'along'...because it's supposed to be 'What I Ate Wednesday'...or WIAW...

...but I pretty much try to do the W.I.P. (Work In Progress) Wednesday along...and I'd be posting on Thursday anyway...because I wouldn't do an evening post after dinner...

...so...this may be a regular blog feature...people often ask me...'Just what do vegans eat anyway?'...to which I usually reply...'Food'...in the nicest way possible...of course...

...I usually have quite pleasant conversations with people who are interested/curious about vegan food options...and I find that most people aren't really thinking very much about what they're eating at all...

...so...without further ado...

What I Ate Yesterday...which happened to be Wednesday...
...I had made a big batch of Homemade Soy Yogurt...
...and I just added a dollop of the Man's Mom's Strawberry Jam and some flax seed...

Breakfast - Homemade Soy Yogurt with Strawberry Jam and Flax Seed
Lunch - Split Pea Soup...same recipe...but without the barley...
...we always need something fairly quick and easy on Wednesday night...
Dinner - cappelini with marinara and Julia's sautéed mushrooms - salad and bread

What did you eat yesterday?

~Have a lovely day!

Wednesday, January 20, 2016

...W.I.P. Wednesday...Darn-it...

...so...I got out my darning egg...because we had some hole-y socks...
...and our sweet Jack-Jack must have thought it looked like a ball...
...because he immediately went and got his...
...and brought it for me to play...so I threw his ball around for a few minutes...
...but then he was content to just play with himself...
...I've often wondered if he plays by himself when we're not here...
...I kinda think not...as he seems to enjoy the audience too much for that...

...anywhoo...onto the work at hand...

...a quick search of the ole blog tells me that I made these socks in March and April of 2007...WOW!...really...

...I generally try to save a bit of yarn from every precious pair of handknit socks...because you know this is going to happen sooner or later...and it's just nice to be able to use the exact same yarn...I have a little Rubbermaid bin...the kind that we pack for Operation Christmas Child...with just tiny little balls of sock yarn from all of the socks I've knit...

...but for some reason...I couldn't find the exact yarn...maybe I used it all up...as I made Scout a pair of socks just like these from the same yarn...mine had k2-p2 ribbing and his had k1-p1 ribbing...in February of the same year...

...so acutally I made his first...blogs are just wonderful for things like that...

...I digress...but I was wondering where his socks like these are...as they most certainly wouldn't fit his size 11 feet now...maybe we put them away with some things he wanted to keep...
...I generally do a type of duplicate stitch darning...I guess it's really a sort of Swiss Darning...but when the stitches are actually still there...just almost worn through...it's easiest to just do a duplicate stitch over them...
...going back and forth horizontally produces the best sort of patch...
...and there you have it...a nice flat patch...and hopefully I'll get a few more years of wear out of these socks...
~Have a lovely day!