baking awesome vegan sugar cookies

i posted last weekend about my standard go-to baking - cupcakes. however, i've been making cupcakes less and less in the past few years, because i seem to have more and more vegans in my life. obviously standard cake mixes don't work for vegans, since they're full of dairy and eggs.



a couple of years ago i ran across this recipe for vegan sugar cookies. i have to tell you guys, there are THE MOST AMAZING SUGAR COOKIES EVER. i LOVE sugar cookies. i am constantly whining about the lack of ready made sugar cookies to purchase. i learned how to make them in grade 5 or 6, and i've loved them ever since. these sugar cookies? they leave all other sugar cookies in the dust. i've made regular sugar cookies since, once, and hopefully i'll never have to do it again. these are incredible, and once you try them, you'll be hooked.


(the first time i tried this recipe)


vegan baking is not nearly as scary as you think. i promise!

there are some awesome products out there for vegan baking, and tons of incredible recipes available online and in the growing number of vegan cookbooks. if you have access to a grocery store with even the most basics of an "organic" or "healthy" section, you'll be able to bake vegan. i live in a suburb with a really minimal selection available to me, but it's come leaps and bounds in the past 5 years.


the ingredients that you might be unfamiliar with in this recipe are the vegan margarine, the egg replacer, vegan cream cheese, and the soy milk.

soy milk is the easiest, you can find it at pretty much every grocery store. the recipe calls for vanilla soy milk, but i always buy regular, because that's what i use for cereal. (soy milk tends to only come in 2litre cartons, but it is actually freezable. i'm not sure i'd drink it after it was frozen, because the texture might change, but it's perfect for smoothies) i only buy organic soy, because the way soy is grown can be quite nasty, depending on what country it's grown in. it may or may not make a difference, but it makes me feel better!

for vegan margarine, i highly recommend Earth Balance brand. AWESOME. it comes in tubs and in "buttery baking sticks". the baking sticks are best for baking, but in a pinch, i've used tub margarine and measured it using the water displacement method (remember that from home ec?), and it's been fine.

the vegan cream cheese i've always used is tofutti brand, Better Than Cream Cheese. i got hooked on this stuff years ago when it became blatantly obvious that as much as i pretended it wasn't true, i totally couldn't handle dairy, but i was still hooked on cream cheese. it comes in tons of flavours (including salmon, which amuses me), but you'll want the plain for this, obviously. you'll have to go to the health food store for the fancier flavours, but almost every big chain grocery store around here carries the plain.

and the last ingredient is the egg replacer. i've tried two brands, and honestly, i can't tell the difference. the most common one is Ener-G, and the other one might be only in Canada, it's by Pane Riso. this stuff is MAGIC! you buy a box and it's equivalent to 100 eggs. that makes it hella cheap, and it lasts way longer than real eggs. i'm usually only cooking for myself, and i really don't go through eggs fast enough to bother keeping them in my fridge, so i actually use egg replacer for most non-vegan baking that i do as well.



these cookies are a fabulous intro to vegan baking because these products make it a breeze, and they're pretty much guaranteed to be amazing. honestly, if i can bake it, you can bake it!

(when i was a teenager, i got banned from using the oven. my parents got fed up with me wasting supplies, i was THAT bad)



a few things i've learned about baking vegan -

- there are different kinds of vegans. some vegans are super-duper strict about what they eat, while others will make exceptions for something that doesn't have direct animal products like meat, dairy, eggs, etc, and some (who sometimes mistakenly refer to themselves as freegans) won't buy or cook with animal products, but if the food is offered, they'll take it. generally speaking, the super strict vegans will let you know in advance, or will be fine with skipping your offering. if you're cooking for an event where specific vegans that you know will be attending, or vegan food has been requested, it's worth sending a quick note to verify their perspective before going out of your way to accommodate them.

- an example of the previous point is sugar. technically, not all sugar is vegan. some white sugar is bleached using animal bone char, and while it's supposedly only be about 30% of the sugar on the market, you don't know which is which unless you buy sugar that is explicitly labeled vegan, usually organic. however, i don't know anyone who actually cares about this. i used to go out of my way to use organic sugar, but it doesn't always fit my budget, and once i realized that no one cared, i stopped driving across town to buy it.

- speaking of secretly not vegan ingredients... quite a few things can be either animal, plant or synthetic based, and you won't always know which is which unless you contact the company. one instance of that it glycerin, which is in practically everything. however, you will be happy to know, since we're talking about baking, that the glycerin in Wilton brand products, such as their awesome gel food colouring, is plant based. plus, it turns out that only the pickiest of vegans care about the teensy amount of glycerin in their cookies anyway. i figured that out after i contacted Wilton, but i guess it's good to know?

- you can't just turn a recipe vegan by removing the eggs. sometimes you can, but other times you most definitely cannot, and you'll have a huge baking fail on your hands. if you're new to vegan baking, stick to recipes that are specifically designed to be vegan. there's plenty of time to get creative once you've got the basics down.

- vegans will eat things that you won't. obviously, if it's disgusting, no one will eat it, vegans included! but sometimes you'll think that what you made didn't turn out, and the vegans will love it anyway. first of all, they'll love that you made an effort, but in addition to that, they're not used to the same things us non-vegans are used to. it's kind of like eating all healthy - your palate gets accustomed to different flavours and textures. most folks who have been vegan for awhile won't be expecting your cake to have a super light and airy texture, because a lot of vegan baking is denser. if you hadn't had dairy ice cream for 15 years, you probably wouldn't even realize that there is a difference between it and soy ice cream, right?

for instance, i made these cupcakes for a party. when you compared the two cupcakes in the photos, the vegan one looks kind of sad. it's smaller, the icing isn't fluffy... like i said in that blog post, i didn't think the vegan ones were awful, but they weren't particularly good either, at least to me. however! the vegans at the party loved them! someone who'd been vegan for a million years even asked me to give them the recipe!




and a few things that i've learned about baking sugar cookies, vegan or not -

- every recipe i've ever used has made way more cookies than it says it will. for this one, i usually separate the dough into two. i cut cookies out of half of it, then roll the rest into a log and freeze it. much easier than freezing extra cookies!

- if you're finding that your cookies are spreading into each other as they bake, your kitchen is probably too warm. i found this trick on a foodie blog last year, and it works like a charm - pop the baking sheet full of cut out cookies into the freezer for 10-15 minutes, then put them directly into the oven from the freezer. it made a HUGE difference in the spreading, and if you're using those cutters with indented details, they'll be a lot clearer.

- keeping your cookies a consistent thickness is key to having them all cook consistently. and rolling cookies too thin will take away the chewiness, leaving them too crispy. a lot of rolling pins, especially the handled ones, will row the dough thinner at the edges, without you even realizing it. you can buy fancy rolling pins and accessories to prevent this, but i use two strips of thin wood, about 1/4" thick, and run my rolling pin along them. i've also seen suggestions of wooden dowels (wouldn't they roll around?) or the metal hanging file folder rods (but they're hollow, wouldn't they flatten when you use pressure to roll out chilled dough?). honestly, i think i spent $1 buying the wood in the balsa section at michaels, and it was totally worth it.

- using lots of flour on your countertop will keep your cookies from sticking, but it can also make them taste, well, floury. parchment paper is an awesome surface to roll on, with no sticking!

- also while rolling, only remove a bit of dough from the fridge at once, let the rest keep on chillin until you're ready for it. it totally cuts down on sticking.




and that's pretty much all i know about sugar cookies. sadly, i don't have a bunch of pictures of cookie themed crafts to show you, like i did for the cupcake post. unexciting, i know!



don't fret, this isn't turning into a cooking blog. this is post 2 of 3, and the third post will be about an INCREDIBLE vegan and gluten-free cupcake recipe. and then i'll stop talking about food! if you'd like to check out the first post, about baking fabulous cupcakes from s mix, it's here.

baking awesome cupcakes from a box

you guys might have realized from the lack of gorgeous photos and recipe posts that i'm not huge into cooking. i've never really been into it - i'm not a foodie, and i'd much rather spend the time it takes to cook something fancy to sew something fancy instead! this has changed a bit, as i've gotten older, i find a lot of pleasure in feeding the people i care about, and i'm branching out, bit by bit.


however, i do still tend to be a bit of a one-hit-wonder! i find something that i'm good at making, and i make it for every event. for years now, my thing has been cupcakes. long before they got so cool, i was making cupcakes. people raved about them, so i brought them everywhere. i always knew that they'd turn out, they were perfect for potlucks because they're individual servings, and you can make them fun with coloured icing and sprinkles and candy toppings.



the part that i always thought was funny was that they were just cake mix cupcakes! i was picky about what i used - good quality mixes, either vanilla or lemon, and a specific no-name brand of vanilla icing that is a bit less sugary sweet than most (western family, if you're local), but still. they're cupcakes from a mix! anyone can make them!


except that apparently not everyone can. i've had some really really bad cake mix cupcakes.... and i've realized a few things about why other people's cupcakes don't turn out. they're little things, but maybe they'll help you?



the first thing is, don't mix the hell out of the batter. mix it just enough to combine the ingredients. this came out of laziness on my part - i never felt like mixing for as long as the box called for! but overmixing can make a big difference in the toughness of your batter. i'm sure there's a scientific explanation in regards to how much air is incorporated into it when you over mix, but i don't know. i just know that lazy mixing has served me well!

and the other important thing is to ice them right away. if you don't have time before bedtime to let them cool and ice them, put the tray in the fridge for a little while. it'll cool them, and firm them up a little bit, so the edges won't break off into your icing. the icing keeps the cupcakes from drying out overnight, so they'll be super moist the next day. (also, the icing spreads better if it's a yeensy bit warm, so i carefully remove all the foil from the little cup and nuke it for a few seconds. it's easier to mix in the food colouring consistently too))

if you really really don't have time, cover the cupcakes with a tea towel overnight. but really, icing them the night before you need them is always better, because it gives the icing a chance to harden up a bit as well.


and that's pretty much it! easy-peasy cupcakes.



i realize that this isn't the most visually appealing post, so how about some pictures of past cupcake inspired craftiness?


made in february 2009


made in december 2009


made in december 2008


told ya i liked cupcakes!

what do you do when you don't feel like sewing?

sorry for the radio silence folks.

i kinda lost my mojo for a few weeks after christmas. i still feel like i'm recovering from the entire month of december, but at least i've started sewing again. my sewing machine was unplugged for over a week!

i had to switch machines to hem a pair of pants for my little brother - i know, i said i wouldn't hem his pants anymore, but he suckered me in! he'd actually been acting like a real human being, and he gave me a sob story about how he was flying back the day before he started work, and wouldn't have time, blah, blah, blah. so i hemmed them, and since my brother machine does an awesome blind hem stitch, i switched out machines. after i'd put the brother away, my janome just sat there, not even plugged in, until i finally got motivated this past week. i was determined to finish my Habitat quilt before the FVMQG meeting, so that got me going a bit.



one thing i have been doing, since i haven't been sewing, has been baking. yay, baking!

while i was in manitoba i wanted to make sugar cookies, but i couldn't get my hands on the ingredients for my usual amazing recipe (whether you're vegan or not, they're AWESOME!). i searched and found a few recipes, and decided to go with this one, which i found on this blog, though i used margarine, not butter, and didn't have any cream of tartar. they still turned out great! i followed the suggestion to put the cut out cookies in the freezer for 15 minutes before popping them in the oven, and i think it made a big difference in the spreading.



they disappeared within 3 days, i think! isn't my platter neat? i think i paid $0.25 for it. totally a good score.


after christmas i decided to make another batch, again using margarine, but this time i didn't have vanilla, but did have cream of tartar! (i usually steal my sister's vanilla, but i made the dough late at night.) since i was at home, i had a lot more selection of cookie cutters, and i had fun using a bunch of them.

i made some simpler shapes, as well as some gnomes (which totally don't look like gnomes unless you do a fancy job of icing them!). i found this key cutter in my stash that i'd forgotten about, so i made a bunch of keys, and coordinating hearts. (aw. key to my heart. isn't that sappy?) i was so excited when i found the silver jimmies... but they're chocolate! i didn't realize that when i used them, and chocolate's kind of eh on sugar cookies. but it was okay, they were still yummy.



and then i made a tray full of strawberries, and had fun icing them. pretty, huh?



i also made a bunch of teensy-weensy cupcake shaped cookies, which i used to decorate cake cupcakes for a friend's birthday.



i didn't intend to match the icing with the tupperware, but they look pretty good together, don't they?




i'm craving sugar cookies now! why don't they sell sugar cookies at the grocery store like they do chocolate chip and oreos? there's obviously a gap in cookie manufacturing here.

A Dapper Skeleton and a Fabulous Soup

i finished my Iron Craft project by the deadline this week, but i haven't managed to blog about it yet.

the theme this past week was Imaginary Friends, and participants were asked to make a friend for themself or for someone else.

this was perfect timing, because i went to a retreat on saturday, and Berene's skeleton stuffie fabric had arrived, so she brought mine for me (i'd seen it on flickr and HAD to have it!). i actually thought i'd get mine done that day, which shows you how dillusional i am about time management! however, Krista did manage to get hers done, so if you follow her blog, you'll have already seen hers.

anyway, i finished my Outfoxed Quilt at the retreat, and saved my skeleton for this week. it came together very easily, even for me, and i'm incapable of making stuffies!

if you're not familiar with Berene's work, you might not understand why it was so easy. one of the most wonderful things about the VMQG has been the people that i've met through it. Berene is one of those people. she's perfectly lovely. she's trained as a graphic designer (the same as Cynthia, who's also incredibly talented! coincidence?), and she's used those skills to develop a line of fabulous stuffie patterns and kits. the patterns are printed directly on the fabric, and her instructions are very clear, which makes the stuffies oh so easy to make.

she designed the skeleton plushie for a contest on spoonflower, and checking out the other entries in the contest really made me appreciate Berene's skill at this. did you or a relative ever make anything out of a panel of fabric when you were a kid? i remember making a few things, and they were always crap. they never included enough seam allowance, or if it was a stuffie, it was completely boring and 2 dimensional, with lots of puckered seams, or they didn't line up properly, or the fabric was cheap, or you could see the white edges. there was always some reason why they sucked! so, the difference between Berene's designs and the boring panels that you buy are that, first, hers are hella cute! but second, and equally important, is the way that Berene tests the designs before she produces them. she puts so much effort into them, from ensuring that the patterns fit together well to testing different kinds of polyfil to include in her kits. they're printed via spoonflower, which allows you to chose from several fabric options, and all of the options are great quality.

for instance, her skeleton comes in two sizes, the miniature 12" skeleton and the larger 27" skeleton. for my miniature skeleton, the quilting weight cotton is perfect. it's not too bulky for the narrow limbs, but the quality is really nice. for the larger skeleton, the upholstery weight twill or the linen-cotton canvas would be a sturdier choice.

but anyway. enough gushing about Berene, you want to see what i'm talking about!
(but you should definitely check out her etsy!)







i'll post more about the hat another day - but it's cute, isn't it?



and as for why my Iron Craft project was late?

i'm sick. and whiney. and really doped up on cold meds. for most of the week, i couldn't even keep track of what day it was, much less motivate myself to blog.

i don't have kids, and no longer work in an office environment with people who pride themselves on never taking a sick day (no matter how contagious they are), so i don't actually get sick very often. but it seems like when i do get sick, i get SICK. it might just be the fibro - when otherwise healthy people get sick and are achey, that sucks, but when folks with chronic health conditions get sick, that achey-ness is on top of what they already live with, and is often a last straw sort of thing. whatever it is, flu shot or not, i'm super miserable when i'm sick. as a side note, when did the definition of flu change? when i was a kid, the flu meant you were puking, but now, with flu shots and H1N1 drama, it seems to mean something else. speaking of H1N1, this post is perfect. i love that tweet. anyway, i'm sleeping in 4 hour increments, i drift to sleep listening to the odd sounds my breathing makes, and as soon as the cold meds wear off, i wake up coughing my head off. i think my neighbours hate me, i'm sure they can all hear me coughing constantly. my cat definitely hates me. all i really want to do is spoon with someone in my super comfy bed, and have that same imaginary person make me tea and soup. being sick is one of the few times when i really begrudge being single!


however, one thing that i'm reaalllyyy appreciating, is that last month i tried out a recipe for Smoky Refried Bean Soup that was SO GOOD, and i froze some of the leftovers. i found the recipe on this site, and loved the fact that it was for the slowcooker. i'll save my adoring love of it for another time, but suffice to say, i own three of the same slowcooker! anyway, the soup. ohmygod. it's a bit spicy, but not too much. enough that i can taste it, even with my cold, which is why i'm so thankful for it!



i couldn't find roasted corn - the only non-fresh corn options we have here are creamed or niblets, and creamed freaks me out, so it isn't really an option anyway, and my chili powder wasn't chipotle, but otherwise i followed the recipe. oh, and my stewed tomatoes weren't plain, they had some spices already added. i made two batches, and the first batch was awesome. the second batch was for a party, and i tried to make it go a bit further and the spices were a bit weaker. i definitely should have doubled them for it. the soup is vegan and gluten free, so it's pretty much perfect for potlucks. if no one's vegan, you can add some grated cheese on top, which is also super yummy. basically, it's the awesomest soup ever, at least this week!

summer picnic recipes!

you might have realized, by the lack of cooking posts on this blog, that i don't cook a whole lot. i'm not anti-cooking, i'd just rather be sewing!

but this past weekend was one of my best friend's birthday, and i decided that the surprise picnic was the perfect time to make a few recipes that i'd come across lately.

the first one was Krista of poppyprintcreates.com's Summer's Best Salad. i had this salad back in february when Krista organized a retreat for the VMQG and i remember liking it, except for the cilantro (not a fan!). Krista posted the recipe recently, and since the friend who i was making this for likes quinoa, it was the perfect excuse to make it.



it looks good, but i kinda screwed it up! first, i skipped the cilantro, obviously, and i didn't use as many scallions as called for, because i didn't buy enough. those are no big deal, but i also realized after the fact that i hadn't measured the quinoa, i just used a full box, and i don't think i used enough. it was really really strong. i thought the lime was too strong, but several other people thought it was too sweet. (i found this tutorial for juicing a lime, and you get A LOT of juice with it!) if i'd had more quinoa, i think i would have made another box to spread the flavours out further, and it would've been great.


i also made a pasta salad, and googled for recipes for ideas of what to add. i found this recipe, and kind of followed it. i didn't add cucumber, because i didn't think it would hold up very well for leftovers, i didn't add tomatoes because i think fresh tomatoes are disgusting, i didn't add onions, because i forgot to buy one, and i used WAY less dressing than the recipe called for. but otherwise i followed it! and it was really good!



i wanted to make a cucumber salad as well, but ran out of time, which was fine, because we had soooo much food!


dessertwise, i made my peanut butter butterscotch marshmallow squares, because they're the birthday boy's favoutite, and super easy to make. instead of making squares, i poured the mixture into a buttered cupcake tin, to create cupcake-like shapes. once it had set, i popped them into cupcake liners, and you can see in the pictures that we put candles in them. i also tried putting a layer of melted chocolate over the top, to be like "icing", and that sort of failed! i ended up having to move them before the chocolate had fully set, so they looked sort of gross, even though they tasted fabulous!


mmmm, yummy!

in addition those, i also made the most amazing things EVER! the fabulous batgirl, AKA Lori, made these cheesecake stuffed strawberries and posted them on craftster.org. i didn't even know that you could buy cheesecake mix! they're so easy, and so incredibly yummy!




it was a really awesome picnic, and i was pretty proud of myself for trying something new!

Days 3, 4 and 5, update! (lace wings, rice krispies and balsa wood)

i've been working at the 30 Days Of Creativity challenge, but most of the stuff i've made had to dry overnight, needed a last finishing touch, etc, so i'm a bit behind in actually posting.


on Friday, day 3, i made super cool free standing lace wings. aren't they awesome? the pattern is from Urban Threads. i made them pink, to match a skirt, which i didn't actually finish in time.... but they matched my tights just as well!

they're stitched onto washaway stabilizer, and after they stitch out, i rinse them in warm water to disolve the stabilizer. i usually lay fsl out on a towel or wash cloth to absorb the moisture.



each wing takes over an hour to stitch out, and for the first one, i only used one layer of stabilizer, and it wasn't enough, and the stitching got a bit stretched. however, i was not willing to start all over again! after the wings dried, i used the same embroidery thread to hand tack the background and the border together.



i got my sister to pin them on my shirt in position, and then i basted them down by hand. fun! i want to make them in every colour of the rainbow!


(blurry, i know, but shouldn't magic be blurry anyways?)


on saturday, day 4, i made vegan, gluten free rice crispie cake. yum! i can't remember where i saw it, but i read about vegan rice crispie cake a few months ago and got it in my head to make it for a party. i have a lot of friends and aquaintances who are vegan or veggie, so i'm used to that, but gluten free was more intimidating for me (thought it ended up being no problem at all). i didn't actually go to that party (i got my days mixed up and missed it!), but saturday night was a housewarming for many of the same people, so it was a good excuse to use the supplies i bought. i used Nature's Path Brown Rice Crispies, Dandie's Vegan Marshmallows (they totally taste the same!!), Earth Balance vegan buttery spread (that shit is so awesome for baking), and a teensy bit of vanilla, homemade with vanilla beans and vodka. all organic, except for the vodka and vanilla!



i made a couple of little flags to label them. simple but effective.



and today, day 5, i finished a birthday card that i've been working on for the past few days. i've posted before about the fabulous sewing lounge and fabric store that my friends Lili and Henry opened last year. this weekend was Spool of Thread's 1st Birthday! yayy!!!

so i made them a card, and took it in today to deliver it, and picked up fabric for a guild project. and i ate a few mini cupcakes, they were awesome!



the card is a piece of balsa wood painted with jacquarde neopaque paint (i love jacquarde paints, their lumiere line in particular is gorgeous). i sketched out the birthday cake on some scrap paper, and then transferred the outlines to wonder under. i ironed each piece onto a fabric scrap, cut out the shapes, peeled off the backing, and ironed them onto the balsa wood. i added some machine stitching for details and defining, and typed Happy Birthday with my typewriter before stitching down the little piece of vintage graph paper.




and that's my days 3, 4 and 5! i haven't decided what to make tomorrow.... do i work on a larger project, or make something small that i can finish and post pictures of? we'll have to see.

updates, links, and gratuitous kitty photos....

whew, where has this month gone?!


i haven't managed to do any Iron Craft challenges recently, and i need to get cracking on my package for the International Kitchen Goodies Swap. i have several art pieces that i need to work on, and i've been intrigued by a dresden plate quilt along and this bottled rainbows ticker tape quilt along - i don't have time/energy to start them right now, but i want to so badly!

i've kind of been hibernating, recovering from a nasty cold, and trying to minimize fibro flares. playing around with a bit of machine embroidery, working on two aprons for the "Putting On The Ritz" apron challenge at the Sewing and Craft Show that i posted about awhile ago, making some scarves. i finished up a few baby quilts, we had a quilt guild meeting, where we announced the super exciting kona challenge!!!, and we had a guild sew-in day, where i started on a new baby quilt with linens - so many babies recently!

sofie's been helping me with the baby quilt -








and i made cupcakes for a friend's birthday - less exciting vegan ones that were okay - not bad, but not exactly GOOD either, and yummy fancy non-vegan ones that reminded me of my little pony, with the pink icing and pastely stars.






but mostly i've been working on my two aprons, both of which required actual handsewing (i know, i embroider and cross stitch, etc, but i still hate handsewing!). tomorrow i'll go drop them off, and then friday and saturday i'll enjoy the show itself - complete with a meeting some of the Fraser Valley Modern Quilt Guild members!

random weekend update...

whew! this weekend honestly felt like the busiest weekend of the summer. there were 6 different things i need to be at/wanted to be at today - i made it to 2, and that was a lot for me. i picked up my pieces from the art show, then went to a fat panic meet up, and was drained of energy by the time we left the coffee shop. it's way hotter here than it normally is, and humid with it, and we're so not used to it. the humid part is what sucks - i painted furniture last week and it took days to dry because of it. (i need to do another coat, and i'm dreading it!)


i made cupcakes, but they didn't like the heat either....

they were for the 3rd event/meetup that i was going to go to, and they didn't survive sitting in the car during the 2nd event of the day. since i didn't end up having the energy to go to the 3rd thing anyway, it wasn't a huge loss. but they're definitely sad little cupcakes!

instead of going to the 3rd event, i gave a friend a ride, and had a little chat that was super awesome and just what i needed, and then i came home and crashed soooo hard, i don't think i even moved the whole time i was sleeping!


i'm just feeling very very drained and fragile these days. achier than usual, and kinda dizzy, and easily agitated.


but there are happy things going on too!


like the beautiful glads i picked up the other day

some amazing connections that i made this weekend that made me really happy

my cat has finally gotten over her fear of the large fan i bought (it's hot, and i need it, but i felt so guilty that she wouldn't leave the bedroom when it was on!)

i made yummy peanut butter marshmallow squares that kinda melted, but were saved by the refrigerator!

i've still plugging away at writing for a perzine, i might actually manage to get it finished before the PDX zine symposium... we'll see!


and i FINALLY finished two baby quilts that i've been working on, and i'm so so enamoured with how the machine quilting looks and feels with the fabrics and batting that i can't stop admiring them!







and i still haven't posted about the last exciting thing that i mentioned earlier, or about the second piece that i had in the art show!

yummy yummy salad!

the giveaway ends in oh, about 20 minutes! i've been surprised by the lack of entries today, they totally trickled off. i guess because it's not the 8th in australia anymore!

i was really proud of myself this time, i managed to check out EVERY blog listed (at the time, about 10 more were added that i missed). like the SewMamaSew giveaway, i only commented on giveaways where i would actually use the prize - there were a lot more this time! i think the biggest difference was that a lot more people were giving away supplies, so it doesn't matter that i don't have kids!

regardless, i saw A LOT of amazing blogs! it took a long time to get through them all, and now i've added even MORE blogs to my sadly neglected blog feed, but i couldn't resist!

i've got lots of things to post about, the newest member of our family, my sad sad sewing machine, etsy and other online purchases, thrifting goodies, etc, but i thought i'd post these pics real quick.

the other day i saw this recipe posted on Jus Shar design's blog, and thought mmmmmmm! i totally start craving salads in the summer. i suck at cooking, but i can handle salads, most of the time!

i'm not a big fan of coleslaw dressing, i prefer feta over blue cheese, and i was way too lazy to cook bacon just for a salad (i love bacon, but i hate cleaning the pan!), so i changed it up a bit.

i used broccoli, cauliflower, dried cranberries, feta cheese, roasted pumpkin seeds and celery, because i'm obsessed with celery and think it belongs in everything!

after i started chopping up the broccoli and cauliflower i realized i'd gone a leetle bit overboard, so i divied it up into two bowls and did different dressings on each.


this one just has a basic balsamic vinaigrette, but it's super yummy!


and this one has blueberry and pomegranate vinaigrette, so it's much sweeter, but still yummy!

EDIT: i just realized that the bowls look really small in the pictures... they're not! they're big corelle mixing bowls! i sent my sister home with a bunch last night, and i've been eating it all day, and i've still got a bunch left!

i love salads with a good mix of flavours, which is why pretty much every salad i ever make has feta cheese and/or roasted seeds in it. i love the little salty bits! (i wonder, there must be a way to marinate tofu to make it interesting enough to replace the feta, right? then it would be vegan, and i could take it to potlucks!!)


i boiled up some beets too, while i was chopping, so i'm going to make a beet salad in the next few days as well. mmm, salads!

ooh, i forgot!

i wanted to show these off!


my younger brother's (i have to stop calling him my "little brother", since he's taller than me!) girlfriend brought us these for christmas. we're all so impressed!



the ones with pink icing and shavings are maraschino cherries, the ones with green icing or powder are green tea, the ones with white icing are macadamia nuts, and the grey looking balls are oreo!

she drew little cats on some of them because we love our cats so much. ;)

apparently making chocolates for the holidays is really common in korea (where jay's from), and the boxes like these are commonly available there, so she stocks up every time she goes back to visit.

they look so awesome that we're all scared to be the first one to eat them!

i baked!

i made cookies! and they turned out! i still have lots of stuff that i'm behind on updating with (needlework, pewter, the ruffler foot, dyed trees, etc!), but i'm super excited about these!


i should say that i'm not much of a cook. i regularly refer to recipes as "patterns", i can never remember how much of the shortening stick is half a cup, and i'm incredibly impatient while things are cooking. i have a few "specialties", and that's it.

but i really wanted to make sugar cookies, and since the games day i went to today was mostly vegans and vegetarians, i decided to try making vegan sugar cookies. i found this recipe through google, and it worked fabulously!



the recipe says it will make 36 cookies, so i made a double batch. i separated the dough into two logs for refrigerating, and only ended up using one log. one log made over 60 cookies! i definitely rolled them a bit thin, so that was part of it, but still! and the icing says it will coat 24 cookies, but i made one batch and coated about 35 cookies before i decided i was bored with it, and left the rest un-iced. there was definitely enough icing left for more though. the overall recipe is awesome, but will probably make more than you expect.


i love how the icing looks! it coats the cookie perfectly. the sprinkles are vegan too.

the cookies ended up about 80% organic (total guesstimate there, by the way!). i used earth balance buttery sticks, organic sugar by wholesome sweeteners, ener-G egg replacements, choices bulk organic flour, non-organic baking powder, non-organic vanilla, and tofutti cream cheese for the cookies. for the icing, i used icing sugar by wholesome sweeteners (their sugar is all vegan, fyi), so good original instead of the silk vanilla, because i hate the vanilla soy, so i never have it, non-organic corn syrup, non-organic almond extract, and organic/vegan sprinkelz sprinkles on top. basically, i used non-organic for things that i only needed a little bit of, i didn't want to buy all new vanilla and almond extracts or baking powder, and i refused to pay $10 for 4 teaspoons of corn syrup. i had to supplement the flour with non-organic as well, because i ran out!

i thought the corn syrup flavour was a bit strong in the icing, probably because i didn't use light (couldn't find it, except in the $10 organic kind), and because i used the plain soy milk. however, i didn't hear anyone else complain, and one person actually complimented the almond flavour, which i thought was totally overpowered by the corn syrup!

they were pretty much a hit, and by the time i left the games day, they were all gone. my dad ate about 6 of them before i told him that they were vegan, at which point he was all grossed out.... but by the time i got home, he was wanting to know where the un-iced leftovers were! they were quite pricey, but i live in the suburbs, and organic foods (real organic foods, not the "slap-a-label-on-it-and-call-it-organic" foods) are in limited supply and expensive. if i'd had time to go into vancouver, they would have been a lot less.