...7.31...Friday Favorites...

...I know I've chatted with y'all before about this old green recipe box...

...it was a wedding gift from my sweet Mother-in-Law...who worked at the elementary school cafeteria...and she got all of her friends and relatives to put a recipe card into it...

...most of them are handwritten on index cards like this one...and...most of them have been veganized...and a lot of them have been posted here on the blog before too...

...a few were typed...look at that tiny font...remember typing class...and Royal manual typewriters...and Pica and Elite...this must have been Elite...haha...

...a few are written out on fancier recipe cards...

...this one gave me three different versions of the same Apple Stack Cake...

...this one for Pumpkin Cakes doesn't give me any directions...just ingredients...they may have overestimated my newlywed cooking capabilities...these are a type of pancake...

...and there are a few actual printed recipe cards in there as well...remember Tupperware parties...

...and at the back are some blank cards for me to write my own recipes on...

...and there are a few like this...where someone with access to a copier (which was still not all that common then) made photocopies of a recipe book and then pasted them onto a blank card...not sure about the copyright issues there...

...and that's why I got the recipe box out...I've made these vanilla wafers before and posted about it...

...vegan vanilla wafers are crazy difficult to find...

...these are really easy to make and always turn out perfectly...

...and of course I used them to make another favorite...Vegan Banana Pudding...I had gotten the only kind of vanilla pudding available at the grocery store...instant French Vanilla...the packet is vegan...I just mixed it with almond milk...I usually get the cook and serve kind...but for some reason they were out of it...

...banana pudding is one of my favorite desserts...how do you feel about it?...

VEGAN VANILLA WAFERS

¾ cup sugar
1 ½ (12 Tbls) vegan margarine, at room temperature
½ teaspoon salt
1/3 cup aqua faba
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/3 cups cake flour – I measure out a cup of all purpose flour…and then take out 2 Tbls of flour and replace it with 2 Tbls of corn starch…

1. Preheat the oven to 375° F. Cover 2 large baking sheets with parchment.
2. Blend the sugar, butter, and salt in a bowl until just mixed. Gradually add in the aqua faba and incorporate well; add the vanilla. Sift in the cake flour (blending on low speed, if you use a mixer), and mix well.
3. Half-fill a pastry bag fitted with a plain ½ inch tube. Pipe flattened rounds about 1 ½ inches in diameter 2 inches apart on one of the prepared baking sheets; there should be about 28 cookies.
4. Bake for about 12 to 15 minutes, or until the cookies have a narrow brown rim and have turned a pale ivory.
5. While the cookies are baking, pipe the remaining half of the batter onto the second baking sheet. Remove the first batch from the oven and carefully transfer to a rack and let cool.
6. Bake the second batch and cool. Store airtight.

~Have a lovely day!

...What I Ate in a Day...On my Birthday...

...y'all know that birthdays here usually spread themselves out over several days...

...in the week before my birthday...I received several cards...and the package from my sweet Sissie that I already posted/reviewed...and I got lots of phone calls on my birthday too...starting with my Baby Brother earliest in the morning...and then other friends called or texted later in the day...it's so nice catching up with everyone...

...on my actual birthday...I also got a couple of electronic cards...

...those are very sweet too...especially when I was chatting with my Mom and she said my Big Brother asked for a photo of us as children to attach to the card...so sweet...

...and a box of flowers arrived...from Our Airman...

...purple of course...in an adorable little square vase...

...and such a sweet little note on the card...

...so...on to the food...I usually freeze our homemade bread...and get it out a slice at a time...and this is how I defrost it...I put it in a baggie and then float it over some warm water...it only takes a couple of minutes to defrost...

...we had gotten an avocado on Saturday...that was just about perfectly ripe...if you ignore that one little brown spot...haha...

...if I'm toasting the bread like this...I usually don't even bother to defrost it...I just put it into the toaster frozen...

...and I do love avocado toast...so that was "first breakfast"...

...and..."Second Breakfast"...was an everything bagel and some of the homemade tofu/almond cream cheese...and tea...

...Lunch was a vegan B.L.T...using another one of those delicious homegrown tomatoes...

...and I had some potato salad, veg baked beans and a little bit of sauerkraut...I didn't finish my juice when I took my vitamins this morning so that was on the tray too...we watched the news as we ate our lunch...which has been pretty typical lately...

...for an afternoon snack...I finished off the cherries...

...and my only contribution to dinner was to make Nanny's Mexican Cornbread...

...the Man had made this delicious bean stew/chili...not sure what to call it really...he said he mostly followed this recipe from The Spruce Eats...subbing black beans for the kidney beans...

...it was delicious...and we had fresh corn on the cob with it...and the cornbread...of course...it was a perfect birthday dinner...

...and then he also made my birthday cake...chocolate cake with chocolate icing is my favorite...this one is the Adonis Cake...

...iced with the tofu icing from that same recipe...

...and topped with a candle...

...lit...

...and this was supposed to be a photo of me blowing out the candle...just missed it...

...the cake was perfectly delicious as well...

...and a perfect sweet ending to my full day of birthday eats...

...what did you eat yesterday?...

~Have a lovely day!

...7.29...W.I.P. Wednesday...

...the first black sock is finished...it's impossible to photograph this sock...I put it under bright light...but still you can't see any detail at all...not that there's a lot of detail there...it's just plain stockinette and ribbing...

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

~Have a lovely day!

...7.28...Tuesdays with Julia...

...we made a delicious sauce to go with some Vegan Veal Scallops we had left in the freezer...the Vegan Escalopes de Veau Chasseur...

...it's a really good sauce...we enjoyed it...

...and all of the particulars are over at The Vegan Version...

~Have a lovely day!

...7.27...Over the Weekend...

...so...so much (actually) happened over this weekend...so I'll just go in chronological order...haha...

...I got up super early Saturday...and headed to the grocery store...it's so strange going inside now...I wear a mask and gloves...and the aisles are all one way and you're not supposed to enter an aisle if anyone is on it already...and I've found that the earlier you go the less crowded it is...the first hour is reserved anyway for the elderly and immuno-compromised...and I'm getting closer to that first category...haha...

...it's still just so...so odd...the things that they have now that they didn't before...rice and toilet paper were both available...but dish soap was not...a lot the cleaning supplies were pretty scarce...so we're trying a new dish soap and a new laundry soap this week...and we're happy to have them and to be able to afford them...I know that's not the case for everyone...

...I got the greens started cooking right away...

...and then I wanted to get the groceries home and stowed away because I'm finally going to process that huge squash we were gifted...uhm...last November...you can see it here...it's been down in the basement...so it's perfectly amazing how long you can store these butternut squash...

...still absolutely fresh and firm when I cut into it...

...I cubed some up for roasting...

...and I roasted the seeds as well...I love them...here's a link to how I roast them...

...then I peeled...

... and cut up the rest of the squash...

...and got it ready for the microwave and the freezer...

...then my sweet friend Amy called and said she was in the area...and asked if she could drop by for a visit...and she brought this gorgeous daisy for my Birthday...Kitten loves it...(it's cat safe...I checked)...

...and I was ready for a break...so we went up to the forest for a little socially distanced hike...

...we had a great time...just chatting and walking...we only saw these ducks and a few fisher-people around the lake...

...when we got home...this bag was on the back porch...

...TWO delicious Cantaloupes this time...so they did bring one for me...haha...

...we shared half of one right away...

...after Amy left the Man brought out this package...

...it's from my sweet sissie...and arrived on time...unlike her Birthday present earlier this year...I got the traveling card back with our 2020 notes inside...and a sweet Kitten card too...

...it's full of vegan goodness...

...so...I tried the gummie sweets right away...they are SO GOOD!...really tangy...Our Airman would love them...they're like Starbursts...

...and then I tried one of the lollipops...this peach one is delicious...

...and then I made some tea...so that I could try the cookies...so crisp and good...better than oreos even...

...and then...to try out the crackers...I whipped up a quick vegan cream cheese...

...I used some silken tofu and some of that almond paste...

...it turned out perfectly...I can't wait to have it on an everything bagel...

...the crackers look just like Ritz...just a little bit smaller...

...I topped them with the cream cheese...and a little dollop of that spicy pepper relish from my friend in South Carolina...also delicious...

...then at Church on Sunday...we were gifted some more fresh garden produce...a bag of tomatoes and tommy-toes...that's what we used to call the little grape sized tomatoes when we were growing up...

...and another bag of tomatoes...

...and another bag of already shucked and silked corn...Silver Queen...and another cantaloupe...the A is marked on it so we'll know it's Ambrosia...as they planted different varieties...so...so nice...

...and now for the bad part of the weekend...

...Saturday night when we let Jack out for the last time before bed...he came in and promptly vomited...UGH!...so we cleaned up and got him a drink and put him on his bed...and thought no more of it...

...well Sunday morning...he wouldn't/couldn't get up...completely unable to walk...he was lethargic looking...and he wouldn't eat...

...so you know with a 15 year old dog...you start to think the worst...

...but we made an emergency trip to the vet...and after x-rays and blood work...it turns out that our sweet Jack has twisted one of the vertebrae in his back...

...and we...having thought the worst...actually thought that was a pretty good outcome...6 weeks of limited mobility and pain meds and he should be more like his old self...just no more jumping onto and off of furniture...and no cat-chasing...

...now we've just got to convince him that he's not a puppy anymore...

~Wishing you a lovely start to your week!