Rain, rain...

PRETTY PLEASE STAY!

I love rain. It's weird, some days I would rather have a tretcherous downpour than a nice, sunny day. Well, I'd say 75% of the time. I don't know why! It just gets in the way of running and biking, I guess. I love rain.

Anywayzz....

Yesterday was Bourby's (my cat) birthday!! He is now 7 in cat years, which means he's 44 in human years! AAH!! We gave him some cat treats, temptations, on a plate with a candle in the middle. We sang happy birthday, he got scared of the candle, ran away, then walked around the kitchen and ate some of his treats. You know cats...

I painted my nails green with a little sparkly dotAte a large bowl of cereal

Corn puffs, puffins, yellow delicious apple, blackberries, blueberry optimum cereal, a few raw oats, flax, cinnamon, almond milk. YUM!


Love these things. Edible air? Well...

This morning, I headed off to whole foods. On my bike? NO! Flat tire! That hasn't happened in forever. So I walked. I got ingredients to make macadamia blondies with caramel maple topping from vegan with a vengeance. They are for a wedding shower tomorrow, they requested that I make a dessert. YAY! I signed up.

Also, I was looking for a cracker recipe, and instead found a granola recipe in a random cookbook on our shelf. I made it! Who it's for, thats a surprise! But I bought ingredients for that too. When I got home I started on Mr. Granola, and made the blondies in the midst of that. I say when you bake, really take advantage of the opportunity.

Blondie batter!Not really.

Caramel maple macadamia topping.

Out of the oven

Overflowing caramel topping!
MM.

The recipe is here:

Blondies

2 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

6 oz firm silken tofu

1/4 cup non dairy milk

1/3 cup canola oil

2 cups sugar

2 tbsp vanilla extract

1 1/4 cup raw macadamias, partially chopped and partially ground (If you pulse them in a food processor for about 30 pulses, this is achieved.)

Topping

1/4 cup earth balance butter

2 tbsp brown sugar or turbinado sugar

1/4 cup maple syrup

1 cup raw macadamias, coarsely chopped

Dough:

In a large bowl, sift the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.

In a blender, whiz the tofu with the nondairy milk until smooth. Add the oil, sugar, and vanilla, blend again. Pour the tofu mixture into the flour mixture and use a firm wooden spoon to combine the dough. Fold in the macadamias. The batter will be thick and have a cookie dough consistency. Spread in the baking pan and bake for 25 minutes, meanwhile prepare the topping.

Topping:

In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the margarine, sugar, and maple syrup, heat until the sugar dissolves. Increase t he heat and bring to a boil for 1 minute. Stir in the nuts, remove from heat.

Remove the blondies from the oven when they are ready, and pour the topping over them, return to the oven and bake for 10 minutes more.

Let cool completely before cutting, the topping should be like a hardened caramel (mine wasnt! Just ooey gooey goodness) consistency. I cut mine into very small cubes, because I'm serving them at a party. But 16 squares is ideal.

The granola! Yummy!

This recipe came from Great Good Food by Julee Rosso. Okay...just a big red cookbook I flipped-eed through. I changed it a tiny bit, by the wayy..

Vanilla Granola

2 cups rolled oats

1/3 cup apple juice

2 tbsp melted earth balance

2 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp cinnamon

1 cup unsweetened flake coconut

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1 cup slivered almonds

3/4 cup raisins

Preheat the oven to 300'F. In a large bowl, mix the first 5 ingredients together, toss well. Spread the granola on a greased baking pan and bake for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in the coconut, vanilla, and nuts and bake for another 15 minutes, until lightly browned. Stir in the raisins, and pop back in the oven for 5-10 minutes. Let cool completely, so you can let it clump up a bit. Yum!

Even Paula Deen could be vegan, as long as there is you, Earth balance.

NIGHT!!