This thing is getting creepy. I’m having thoughts of it crawling into my nose and suffocating me. Evil mushrooms. And yet I continue to spritz and watch it grow…Fascinating.
Day 1 – Like a loaf of moldy bread in a box, with a window.
Day 6 – What, is that a mushroom or an evil “Fun Guy” waiting to attack?
Filed under Gardening
I have a love-hate relationship with donuts and probably not for the reasons you think. It has nothing to do with health or eating fried foods. First the love part, growing up my mom made the BEST yeast breads ever. We lived in a very rural part of Minnesota and with only one car and two little kids at home she couldn’t just pop over to the market, so she made everything. I grew up with homemade bread, potato chips, and, you guessed it, donuts. We spelled it doughnuts in the olden days, then society got lazy and it became much quicker to leave out those extra three letters. But I digress, our part of these donut making forays was to shake the donuts, hot from the fryer, in sugar in a brown paper bag. I remember the shiny grease spots appearing on the bag as my sister and I took turns shaking. Yes we actually took turns.
Now the hate part…When I was a teenager I got a job at a donut shop (without the “ugh”, that come later). The married boss was a creepy little man who made rudely suggestive remarks to me every time his wife wasn’t in the shop. I guess because I had a baby and wasn’t married that made me fair game and would surely I should appreciate his advances. One afternoon he cornered me in the kitchen and made a more physical advance. Needless to say I turned in my apron and quit on the spot…UGH (see, I told you those extra three letters can come in handy)!
So there I was this Saturday with an empty donut pan and some free time, so chocolate donuts were made and devoured.
Devils Food Baked Donuts (with Sprinkles)
Glaze
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray your donut pan with cooking spray.
Sift together flour, cocoa powder, and baking powder into a bowl. Stir in sugar and salt.
In a 1 cup measure combine creamer and cider vinegar. Let it set a bit to curdle. Mix in the egg replacer (if you’re using a powdered replacer there’s no need to reconstitute just put the powder and water into the cream vinegar mixture and stir). Then mix in the melted margarine.
Dump the liquids into the dry ingredients and mix only until dry ingredients are incorporated. Don’t overmix. Spoon the donut batter into the pan, mine filled 8 donut wells.
Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven, cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then turn them out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.
For the glaze melt chocolate chips and coconut oil over hot water, use your cute vintage double boiler if you have one, dip the cooled donuts into the melted chocolate and then into rainbow sprinkles if that’s how you roll.
Enjoy!
Glaze being made in cute vintage double boiler 
Filed under Vegan Baking
Look what I got for Christmas…a real fungi.
There’s more to it than just opening the box and spritzing with water like it says on the package but I can wait 24 hours while it soaks. Can’t wait to make this soup once they start growing.
Filed under Gardening
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 2,800 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 47 trips to carry that many people.
Filed under Uncategorized
There are a lot of posts about New Year’s resolutions floating around the blogosphere which makes sense since it’s that time of year that resolutions are being made. I don’t usually make resolutions, well any that I put in writing anyway. Who wants to have that kind of pressure hanging over their head all year like a moisture laden rain cloud? Not me, my friend. I would rather have my resolutions in my head all secret and tucked away, so if I don’t keep them only I know. Well thinking about that seems kind of silly too. Really resolutions should just be good intentions and even though the road is paved with good intentions (I actually think it’s the road to hell), so what. So here we are a conundrum of sorts..do I put them in writing or leave well enough alone. And here’s something else to ponder, do I put them here or just jot them down on a napkin or one of the many notebooks that are stashed throughout my home? Okay here goes, my intentions for 2012:
Now was that so bad? So now I just have to follow-up in 364 days and see how I did. Some of these things need a little refining but I think this is a good start. Here we go 2012!
Filed under Blogging
I recently opened my mailbox and found this Taste of Home magazine waiting for me. Oddly enough this was not a magazine I had subscribed to but according to the mailing label I’ll be getting this until February of 2014. The idea that someone had gifted this to me crossed my mind briefly until I noticed it was addressed to Special K, except it had my last name and address. Mystery deepens, right? Not really. Back in October I was held captive at my door by a young kid selling magazines to “keep him off the streets” and “earn points for a trip to Italy”. You’ve heard the story. Well against my better judgement I ordered a book for Special K thinking it would make a nice Christmas gift. My check was cashed almost immediately but the book never arrived. Instead I get this magazine that I didn’t order. A little online research of this company, MTS Circulation, uncovered dozens of stories similar to mine. So lesson learned…don’t buy anything from friendly kids selling door to door. I figured I could put the magazine to good use and try to veganize some of the recipes which it’s loaded with. So all is not wasted. This still doesn’t explain the subscription to Ebony that I’ve been receiving for the past year, and that one’s even addressed to me. Hmmmmm!
Filed under Vegan Cooking
It all started at the top of a volcano at 5:00 in the morning. It actually started more at sea level in a Haiku parking lot at 3:00 am with 30 or more eager (read crazy) bike riders. After a short bus ride ascending to 10000 feet we witnessed a magnificent sunrise. It was frickin’ freezin’ up there, Mister Bigglesworth. Peeling my All Star clad feet from the rock I had perched on we climbed back on our bus and made our way down to 6500 feet, slapped on our full face helmets and took off down the hill ( and I use the term “hill” loosely). I rode the breaks pretty hard for awhile but between the quiet of the countryside and the spectacular scenery I forgot I was agreed of downhill speed and totally flew the 27 miles to Haiku. What a rush! And to top it off the iced tea I picked up at McD’s was the best I’ve ever had, it tasted like Juicy Fruit gum. Awesome day!
Filed under Travel
I may have garlic leaking from my pores tomorrow as I swelter under the Maui sun but it was so worth it. The special at The Flatbread Company tonight was the Veggie pizza, with artichoke hearts,tomatoes, a garlic olive oil base and big whole chunks of roasted garlic, oh yes!
Filed under Dining Out
Another take along mix that made a delicious breakfast, snack, before dinner tide me over…The dry ingredients were mixed up and brought from home in a ziplock. Traveling with your own yummy baked goods is the way to go and Julie Hasson’s muffins made the trip exceptionally well! I hate that I can’t keep up with all the mo-fo’ing with only my phone to work with. Maybe some new technology is in my future. Until then I’ll try to keep up.
Filed under Uncategorized
Here are a few highlights from our first week in Maui. Our agenda when we visit the islands is to do nothing so when I say highlights it may not be anyone else’s idea of a good time, but sucking down a blue lagoon by the pool ranks right up there on my list. So here we go…
1. Laying by the pool until you can’t take the heat anymore then jumping in the water. I swear you can hear your skin sizzle as it cools off.
2. Reading, love that I can bring half a dozen books along and it takes up no more room than one thanks to Kindle.
3. Morning runs along the boardwalk
4. Waking to a tree full of noisy birds. Have to get that one on video to share.
5. Greek scrambles to start the day eaten on the Lanai overlooking the garden
6. Grounds cats so I can get my Kitty fix. These are feral cats but very friendly.
7. Sunset cruises with a vegan dinner option and proceeds going to save the whales.
8. Paia- love that place…especially the 7 veggie stew at Cafe Mambo
9. Drives with no destination you find some cool little spots to stop and hike. Although hiking in flip flops is not recommended
10. Spending time with my favorite fella’
Filed under Travel
