Christmas Came Early...And Apparently Santa Thought I Was Good!

Oh, what a day...the day after Thanksgiving is always a tough one. All those yummy left overs...nowhere to go but into the tummy! So I'm afraid that means there isn't much new to talk about unless you want to hear about how yummy they were all over again. But, I won't put you through that...I'm too nice that way.

On another note, I'm visiting my parents' house today. This will be the only time I will be in before the Christmas season and Christmas has come early. My parents went ahead and gave me my present and I am so excited! Apparently Santa was listening in on a prior conversation I had with my mom when I was lamenting about wanting a Oster CKSTBRTW20 2 lb Expressbake Bread Maker as he and his trusty elfin friends delivered one here early just for us! I cannot wait to get it back to Texas and start making bread...I just don't know which recipe to try first. After looking around and many many recipes I stumbled upon a simple Italian bread recipe at FatFreeRecipes.com. Nice, simple, tasty. Yep, think that's what I'll try first...can't wait! Oh, and did I mention that I'll be styling while baking? My niece gave me a present today as well-she made me the prettiest apron in her sewing circle class...I am quite excited as I have kind of developed a thing for aprons here lately.

Hope everyone is having a safe and happy extended weekend. I'm off to dream of bread. Happy MoFo to all and to all a good night!

Get In The Kitchen And Bake Me A Pie!

Welllllll, the past few days have not been good ones as I have been sniffling and blowing my nose repeatedly and nursing a headache and swollen foot. The sniffles, nose issues, and headache are from a serious bout of allergies I'm sure and the foot issue is from an ill-fated attempt at walking Saturday. Yes, I am talented like that.

Since I haven't felt well, we have had very easy to make, quick dinners; ie: Amy's Soups. Oh, how I love Amy's...we have had quite a bit of chili, dal, and the no-chicken chicken noodle. Yum. But soup does not satisfy the sweet tooth...oh no. For that I had to scavenge the cupboard. In doing so I found a can of pumpkin pie mix that I had accidentally bought instead of plain pumpkin one day. Oops. Upon seeing it I thought, 'Hmmm, I sure would like some pie.' So, I decided to make a pumpkin pie. This had to be the easiest pie I have ever made...

As luck would have it I actually had a pre-made wheat crust in the freezer that I had picked up one day from Wheatsville Co-op, my favorite store...I preheated the oven to 450 degrees as called for on the can. I mixed the pie mix with 3/4 cup of soy milk and the equivalent of 2 eggs (using EnergG Egg Replacer). The recipe on the can called for evaporated milk but I decided to sub out soy milk. I should have looked up the equivalent to evap milk, but I was feeling quite crappy and decided to go full force with the soy milk. Maybe not the best decision but it could have been worse...

After mixing the ingredients, I poured the mix into the pie shell and placed into the pre-heated oven for 15 minutes. I then turned down the heat to 350 for an additional 40 minutes. Once the time was up the pie was taken out of oven and allowed to cool...a very agonizing wait I might add. The pie did look good, I must say...and I also noticed the cat was eying it, too. Fortunately Fleische decided he wasn't in the mood for pie. Whew!

After the appropriate amount of time had elapsed I dug in. Tasty, but not quite 'pumpkin pie spicy' enough. I like my pie a little more spicy but this was close. In terms of texture it wasn't quite firm...more the consistency of pudding. So, it was like a pumpkin pie pudding pie. Yum.

Final result: not bad.

In  other news, I had to take my husband's car to get an oil change today at Groovy Lube and while I was sitting outside waiting drinking some iced tea, the following fell on my head.

I looked up and saw several birds. As I watched I noticed they were breaking open these seeds or hulls and as they finished, they dropped the left over parts, one of which fell on my head. I am just glad that was all they dropped on my head...

And for the last picture of the night, here is my little girl, Shimano. She has been sticking close by while I've been sick. Last night in bed she crawled up in between T and I and fell asleep. She makes a good heated pillow :-)

Happy MoFo!

The Great Pumpkin Attacked My Chocolate Chip Cookies...Oh, My!

I have been doing a lot of baking lately and it's mostly been focused around cupcakes. The other day I decided to shake it up a bit and bust out some cookies. But, not just any cookies, my pretties, but the most kickass pumpkin chocolate chip cookies I have ever had! Ok, ok...they are the only pumpkin chocolate chip cookies I have ever had, but I can assure you I WILL be having them again! (And soon!)

These soft little pillows of pumpkin goodness had just the right amount of sweet and savory. Never did I imagine I would like pumpkin in my chocolate chip cookies, as I am pretty much a CCC purist, but the balance was perfect. No, I did not come up with the magic formula myself, but my new hero, Kris Holechek, author of The 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes: Amazing Cookies, Cakes, Muffins, Pies, Brownies and Breads , did. And boy, did she ever!

If you have not checked out this particular cookbook, I highly recommend it. Her recipes are not extremely complicated nor do they call for eccentric vegan ingredients, but they combine things you already have in your cupboard to create what appear to be some tasty morsels that I cannot wait to get my baking mitts on. Tomorrow may have to be a day to test out another one of her recipes...I have some left-over pumpkin that needs to be used sitting in my fridge and that is just not good...

Happy MoFo, all!

Cupcakes Have Taken Over...Again!!!

Yes, Tuesday was not only Election Day, but more importantly it was my husband's birthday. The big 42...woo hoo!!! Surprisingly, his dinner requests were modest as he wanted Tofurky Kielbasa and Sauerkraut. We also had a side salad with Cashew Tamari dressing that was quite yummy...

For desert Tom requested cupcakes. Actually, his cupcake request began several days ago and as the days passed, the type of cupcake changed from one to another. Yesterday's request was for a lemon cupcake and that request held through to today...and fortunately, Ms. Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Ms. Terry Hope Romero had the solution to my problem-how do I make lemon cupcakes???

If you have not already done so, I urge you to pick up your copy of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World: 75 Dairy-Free Recipes for Cupcakes that Rule. This book truly rules. I have tried several recipes from it and none have disappointed, especially the Lemon Vanilla Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream Icing (I hope I got the names right...I'm kinda in a sugar coma at the moment.) I was worried that Tom might not like them but he had already eaten a cupcake even before I had gotten the icing on them. It's been about 3 hours since I made them and he's had several...but to be nice I won't give a specific number. (If I listed his number eaten I would only have to list the number I've eaten to be fair and well...I just don't want to go there :-)

So, I am going to go drink a ton of water then go to bed, 'cause that's how I roll. Like I said, if you haven't gotten this book for your cookbook selection yet, click on the pic and ORDER IT NOW!!! You won't be disappointed. Oh, by the way, in case I haven't mentioned it, today is also my 15 month veganniversary. Yay!!!

Happy baking!
Danielle

Cupcakes Take Over My Kitchen...

I have a sweet tooth. If you know me you know how much of an understatement that is...throughout my years I have always been on a quest for that satisfying bite, that one that beat out all others in the perfect combination of yum and satisfaction. Once I became vegan; however, it became much more difficult to just go out and buy something that would satisfy that craving once it hit. So what's a girl to do???

Start baking, that's what! I have become a label reader, as anyone who has made a major transition in their diet knows exactly what I'm talking about. I have tried to eliminate processed foods from my diet. I no longer buy snack cakes or cookies in a package. (Sometimes I will buy a bakery treat as long as I am able to assure that it is vegan.) This does NOT mean that I have given up yummy treats...I have them. I just make them myself. Amazing how much different something fresh baked tastes, without the preservatives and other crap that is added. I control the ingredients...I like that.

Yesterday I was craving strawberry cake in a bad way. So after looking through many many cookbooks and at many recipes online, I decided to make Strawberry Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing...all VEGAN of course! I did a little combining of recipes and came up with a great end product. My husband's response, after his first bite, was, "These are good!" If you knew my husband you would know that these words are not delivered easily...especially as he is an omnivore! Oh, to win the respect of an omnivore...that's what I live for in the kitchen! (Not to mention the fact he has always been the chef in this family and has that annoying ability to throw stuff together in a pan and have it taste great...) But I digress...

I settled on the Golden Vanilla Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. The only change I made was adding fresh cut strawberries to the batter prior to baking. I wondered as to whether or not it altered the consistency of the batter too much but end result: I like them. For the icing, I used this recipe. As I said earlier...they were GREAT!

Here is a pic of the finished product. I'm not very good with the icing application...as you can see...but fortunately that doesn't alter the taste! Now, if you'll pardon me, I need to go eat a cupcake. Nom nom nom!

Hello!

Hello, my friends, both old and new! I am excited to be entering my first post on my new website. This is something I have wanted to begin for quite a while. As I kept thinking about when and what to write about, I found that I kept procrastinating. However, at a recent lunch with my husband, Thomas, I had a fortune cookie that basically said now is the time. So, here we are...



I have several goals for this site, and I am sure that they will continue to change over time. My main goal is to inform, inform everyone reading, about making healthy choices be they in regards to your food, your exercise, your health care--anything is fair game! I'll even inform about restaurants we frequent here in Austin, TX, as well as different recipes I've tried from some of my favorite vegan chefs and fellow vegan bloggers. Be forewarned...sometimes my culinary dishes equal culinary disasters! (I'm a novice chef at best!)

So, if you have an idea on a topic, do not hesitate to contact me and I'll get right on it! Thanks, everyone! Here we go...

Cheers,
Danielle