I baked

And made peanut granola. Nomz.

Surprise surprise!

MY camera went through one of these:

Yes. My camera went through the washing machine. 'Nuf said.

It is sitting in a bag of rice right now (supposedly this works?) and I have to keep it there for a week. Only 4 more days...that'll be interesting to open on christmas.
Anyways.

I've been busy busy busy baking, I have made:

Lots of peppermint bark(is white chocolate vegan? I think NOT.)
homemade peppermint-walnut chocolate
granola (vegan)
orange cookies (vegan...not literaly orange but with orange zest and liquere)
sunflower seed cookies (vegan)
sun-butter (veagn...sunflower seeds in a food processor with local honey and a tiny bit of canola)
peanut brittle (so far from vegan its sad)
more non vegan candy...

And maybe I'll just have to make it all again when I can take pictures, just for the sake of the blog :)

I have a curse. A camera curse. They hate me. Urgh. I apologize-the best time of year to blog (in my opinion) and my camera went through a vigorous washing machine cycle. Poor baby.

I guess I can just post boring wordy posts, but who likes that. Maybe I can get my hands on my dad's camera or moms. But with my luck I doubt they'd let me use it :)

Merry Kwanzicha? Merry Christmas, happy late hannukah, and happy kwanza. Or holidays. To sum it up.

My friends, honeycrisp and maple.

Hello readers!! How has fall been for everyone? I've been enjoying tons of honeycrisp apples with cinnamon and walnuts...


It's dark in my room...the pictures aren't PERFECT.
I baked up a batch of these delicious pumpkin oatmeal cookies!! So perfect. I gave them out to friends at school. The recipe is from Vegan with a Vengeance, and I always add a tablespoon or 2 of nut butter, for flavor. I used Mighty Maple this time! I'd never tried it, and it's super yum. It has the texture of Jif peanut butter, but the taste is OUT OF THIS WORLD.

I also tried this, which has been talked about on tons of other blogs. Little did I know it was made right here in Michigan!! I liked it, but it was a bit grainy. The taste was great though-so many different kinds of seeds and nuts. I'll have to try their other flavors.

I would show you a picture, but uh...yeah.

I always take these pictures early in the morning or at night, so theres no natural night! Ugh!! That's why they are blurry/ugly/dark. I'll try to improve.

Schools been good this week, but I'm so glad tomorrows Friday!! I don't know if I'll have much cooking planned for the weekend, but maybe for the sake of the blog I'll do something fun! We have our first grades mailed home tomorrow...I'm pretty confident with the way they'll turn out. But who knows, right?

Fall is such a great season in my opinion...I love the cool weather where you can wear a sweatshirt with flip flops and still be OK. Halloween is always really fun, and I still have to make a Thanksgiving plan! That'll be fun. So far in advance though... I never think that far because things always seem to come up. Winter is fun, but its just so dark, and before you know it it's pitch black at 7:00.

I have a little homework to finish up, and I hope to post for the weekend. I'm doing a 5k on sunday, so there has to be some post regarding that! See ya :D

So I found this little grey cord...

and it's called my camera cord!

Sparkled Ginger cookies from Vegan with a Vengeance. So very yum.

Kabocha...hmm well okay.

Cookies for Daphne's birthday! These were taken late so the lighting SUCKS. Chocolate chip :D

Roasted apple, onion and sweet potato soup from Fresh and fast vegan pleasures. Very distinct and well bonded flavors. Great for the fall!

Pumpkin oatmeal cookies from Vegan with a Vengeance. I say no more.

I'm sure you can guess what these are...

Hmm. Well I've been pretty darn busy lately, involved in a musical, art, guitar, writing, singing, sports, biking, and homework. Oh, theres also cooking :D

Things have been going very well, surprisingly, the homework load isn't INSANE. I do find time to cook in the evening, although I do the more elaborate things on the weekend. I'm really enjoying biking home, its relaxing and basically all downhill so it's an easy ride.

I missed blogging a ton!!! My mom found the camera cord (thanks mommy!) at her office, and I was very releived and excited to see that I'd be able to be connected to the blogosphere once again. Thank you guys so much for reading....I'll try to definetly post a lot! I got a new photo editing system on my computer, Adobe lightroom photoshop, so expect some strange playing around of photos to come. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a dishwasher to unload.

Olivia :)

Away to camp...again!!

Yes, I'm leaving tomorrow to go to a choir camp for 1 week up north. Our schedule is waking up at 6, doing calesthetics, breakfast, 4 hour rehearsal, lunch, then break. Oh then more rehersals :D

What have I gotten myself into.

Anyways, why not I talk about food to ease the pain of that regimine?

Some snacks I'm bringing to camp-homemade instant oatmeal, peanut butter cookie lara bar, crispy rice treats, (this version with almond butter and raisins! Yum!)

New obsession: tamari roasted sunflower seeds. Courtsey of The Kind Diet.

For lunch today, I enjoyed a mini ezekiel tortilla with smashed black beans, 1 clove garlic, gomashio, soy sauce, and a little sprinkle of sunflower seeds. Plus arugula and 1 leaf of basil.
A little salad with arugula, carrots, cherry tomato, lime juice, and a tiny dollop of tahini dressing.

mmm....

I *think* I can bring my phone to camp, (not sure if I will...) but I'll be off blogging for a week. See you guys after then...thanks for reading :D

The baking chronicles

Helloo everyone! I really am posting a lot lately...well I bake a lot! Oh you know that. I took the blondies to the wedding shower, and there were definetly plenty of other desserts. The spread was lovely, as well as the shower.

They're house was so photogenic...so pretty!

And so is my niece! Christina is so goregous.
Today my lifelong friend Hannah came over for lunch. We went to whole foods, and got ingredients to make...

FALAFEL!!

We didn't deep fry it, but we pan fried it on both sides and it was quite yummy. Also some tahini dressing and hummus, mixed veggies, and pita. Great meal around 2:30!

The colorful spread...sorry blurry picture!Tahini dressingHannah-filling her plateFRESH!

My plate
A new addition to the condiment palate-GOMASHIO! Gomashio is a salty topping made up of 18 parts sesame seeds, 1 part salt. I think mine was more like 10 parts sesame because I didn't get enough, but it's a great way to add flavor to a dish without too much salt. Its surprisingly salty for being so low in salt. Just toast sesame seeds, grind in a mortar and pestal with the sea salt. Pretty easy and makes a great topping to vegetables, rice, or anything else you like.

Of course we got the baking bug...
Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (adapted from The Kind Diet)

1 cup quick-cooking rolled oats
3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/3 cup maple sugar (org. evaporated cane juice for me-maple sugar is too $$$!!)
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. fine sea salt
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup safflower oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. molasses
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F'.

Combine the oats, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the syrup, oil, vanilla extract, and molasses. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and stir to combine. Fold in the chocolate chips. Using your hands, roll tablespoon-size scoops of dough into balls. Place the balls onto the prepared baking sheet and press down slightly on the balls to flatten the tops. Bake for 8 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Transfer cookies to a baking rack to cool completely.

I also did a few with raisins and peanut butter...these cookies were great! The amazing thing about vegan batter is that you can eat the batter and not feel bad about the eggs. LIKE.

They turned out really big and I made a few smaller ones too. Definetley reccomend these!

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!!