Saturday, February 29, 2020

...Dinner and a Movie...

...the Man made a delicious marinara sauce...and we got some veggie meatballs out of the freezer...
...and had a big salad with vegan ranch dressing...
...it was a yummy traditional dinner...

...and the movie was not really a movie...but this YouTube video 300 Days Alone...
...it was pretty fascinating...

...what have you been watching lately?...

~Have a lovely weekend!...

Friday, February 28, 2020

...Friday Favorites...

...I was clearing some photos off my phone and thought I'd post this one here...sometimes my family likes to see the things I've drawn...and I so appreciate all their support and encouragement over the years...Nanny and Daddy always had good things to say about my childish sketches...children can be so easily discouraged when their drawings don't meet their expectations...and then they will just stop drawing...and it's a skill just like any other and requires practice...

...and I don't normally draw in coloured pencil like this...just HB sketches are my fave...so this was pushing my envelope just a bit...

...anywhoo...
...this is a sketch that I drew for my sweet blogging friend Elizabeth...she blogs over at Bits of Sunshine...and we've been friends for a long time...since I lived in North Dakota and she lived in Minnesota...I love that the internet keeps us close...

~Have a lovely day!

Thursday, February 27, 2020

...2.26...What I Ate in a Day...as a Vegan...

...after lemon water, tea and vitamins...I started a pot of homemade applesauce...
...just apples...cooked over low heat...and mashed...
...it makes perfect...one ingredient applesauce...
... then I made a pan of 2 ingredient probiotic biscuits...
...and had that with some applesauce and another mug of tea mid-morning...
...and for lunch...I ate the last of the two zip lock bags of fruit and veg Mom sent back with me from the Baby Shower...so I had a big plate of veg with some homemade vegan Ranch dressing...and I drank lime water with that...
...and some leftover vegan baked beans which I eat on lettuce leaves...weird I know but it's really good...and a big bowl of the last of the fruit...
...afternoon snack...crackers and cream cheese...and more veggies...and fruit and tea and olives...I eat the olives smashed into the cream cheese on the crackers...you can actually make this into a pretty Christmas-y dip...but I had it de-constructed here...
...for dinner we had bought these two jars of pickles specifically for a sandwich that the Man wanted to try...this one from Iowa Girl Eats...we couldn't find the Chicago-style Giardiniera specified in the recipe...so went with what we could get locally...
...so I chopped up the pickles with some vegan beef bits...and added a packet of Italian dressing mix...just the store brand as I couldn't find the Zesty kind of that either...and baked that in the oven until everything was hot and hydrated...
...got some homemade vegan mozzarella cheese out of the freezer and sliced it up...
...and assembled the sandwich on a toasted baguette...and had that with some french fries...and tea...it was really good and reminded me of the Vegan Mississippi Roast we did a while back...

...and then we went to the Church for the Ash Wednesday service...and I didn't eat anything else in the evening...

...what did you eat yesterday?

~Have a lovely day!

Wednesday, February 26, 2020

...2.26...W.I.P. Wednesday...

...as promised...all the baby things for my niece's baby shower...
...I had seen a cute blanket...somewhere...with Zzzz on the corner...and thought it was so cute...so I made a quick pattern of those letters...
...and got out this super soft grey yarn...
...and just cast on 100 stitches and started knitting...I knit the letters in a soft cream...that I think was leftover from my niece's wedding shawl...
...and in just about no time...or a couple of movies of time...the sweet little blanket was finished...it's a perfect size for tucking around a stroller or car seat...
...and then I took a pink/purple/white variegated cotton yarn from my stash and made a Super Simple One Hour Baby Hat...
...then I cast on for another pair of Lucy Sinkler's Mary Jane Booties...
...in black this time...
...and I tucked a pair of little white socks inside and stuffed them with tissue...they turned out so cute...
...and because the parents-to-be had requested a book instead of a card...I got this cute board book...First 100 Animals...

...in other news...last night was the Shrove Tuesday Fastnacht Supper at the Church...I've posted about the local tradition here before...
...so I made a few vegan fastnachts...but I baked mine this year instead of frying them in oil...
...and sprinkled some of them with powdered sugar...
...and I made me some chili...
...and packed it in a jar before we went over...
...and they were also serving mexican cornbread with the chili...so I just got one of my muffins out of the freezer and added some mild jalapenos and vegan cheese and called it mexican cornbread...haha...
...we had a lot of fun...

...what's in your workbasket?...

~Have a lovely day!

Tuesday, February 25, 2020

...2.25...Tuesdays with Julia...

...we made a vegan duck with turnips...
...it was really good...and all of the particulars are over at The Vegan Version...

~Have a lovely day!

Monday, February 24, 2020

...2.24...Over the Weekend...

...we woke up to almost no snow...
...so I packed up my gifties...
...and headed up into the mountains...
...first I went by Mom's...so here's the obligatory porch photo of Mill's Knob...it's so gorgeous here...and then Mom and I had hot tea and p.b. & j. sammies for a quick snack...
...before we headed over to my sweet niece's baby shower...
...all the yummy vegan food...(and I brought home two ziplock bags of it too)...YAY!...
...the pretty pink decorations...
...my vegan snack plate...
...the games we played...
...the pretty pink table decorations and favors...
...and then it was time for some pressies...
...and a sneak preview of what I've been working on for the last few weeks...
...I'll do a full W.I.P. post on these little baby things soon...
...the parents-to-be had requested books instead of cards...so here they are reading what I wrote on the book...
...this is me with my sweet Mom and sweet grand-niece...she's the sister to the grand-nephew you've seen here before...
...and here is the drawing she did for me to take home...I'm the tall one and the other one is her nana...and all the other things are hearts...

...and then Mom gave me her recipe for her famous Rum Cake and a cup of rum to bring home with me...

VEGANIZED BACARDI RUM CAKE

1 CUP CHOPPED PECANS
1 18 1/2 OZ YELLOW CAKE MIX - just make sure it's vegan...
1 3 3/4 OZ INSTANT VANILLA PUDDING MIX
4 EGG replacer eggs...I used EnerG egg replacer...but next time I'm going to use something else...flax seed goo or aqua faba or applesauce...or a combination of one or more of those...I'll let you know...and you'll see why in just a sec...
1/2 CUP COLD WATER
1/2 CUP WESSON OIL
1/2 CUP BACARDI RUM

GLAZE

1/4 LB VEGAN BUTTER... I used Earth Balance...
1/4 CUP WATER
1 CUP GRANULATED SUGAR...I used a non-bone-char-processed sugar...
1/2 CUP BACARDI RUM

Preheat oven to 325 F. Grease and flour 10 in tube pan or 12 cup Bundt pan...I used my pretty fluted pan...and I don't think I'll do that again either...haha...
Sprinkle nuts over bottom of pan...the recipe says to do this...but I called Mom and we decided not to do this with my fancy pan...but I added them to the mix... Mix all cake ingredients together and pour into pan.
Bake 50 min to 1 hour. Cool. Invert on serving plate and prick top...I took Mom's advice again and drizzled half of the glaze on the top of the cake before inverting it... Drizzle and smooth glaze evenly over top and sides.
Allow cake to absorb glaze.

For glaze, melt vegan butter in saucepan. Stir in water and sugar, boil 5 minutes stirring constantly and remove from heat.
Stir in rum.

DO NOT BOIL RUM IN GLAZE.

I always drizzle about half the glaze on before I invert so bottom is soaked as well.

Usually bakes in 50 minutes or less.
...so I gathered the ingredients...and followed the recipe...the jar with the Duke's lid is full of rum from Mom's...
...while the cake was baking I was talking to Mom on the phone and I made the glaze...
...the cake baked up perfectly...and I poked some holes in the top...
...and poured half the glaze over while it was still warm...
...but I think maybe I should have used a different egg replacer or let the cake cool completely before I turned it out...because it stuck a little to the pan...and it cracked a little bit too...
...it still tasted absolutely delicious though...

~Wishing you a lovely start to your week!