Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Vegan chocolate chocolate chip cookies


Vegan Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies
makes 2 dozen 
original non-vegan recipe available here
  • 1/2 c Earth Balance
  • 3/4 c sugar
  • 1 egg replacer (I use Ener-G)
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 c flour
  • 1/3 c cocoa powder
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • 1 c vegan white chocolate chips (semi-sweet will also work!)
  1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
  2. Cream together Earth Balance and sugar until light and fluffy.
  3. Prepare egg replacer according to package (For Ener-G it is 1 1/2 tsp powder with 2 tbs warm water) and add to creamed mixture along with vanilla.
  4. Sift together the try ingredients. You MUST sift cocoa powder! It's bad news otherwise, so don't be lazy! Add to wet ingredients and mix until thoroughly combined. Stir in chocolate chips.
  5. Scoop by heaping teapsoons onto an ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Allow to cool before removing from pan.
 These are really good. Like, really really good. We bought white chocolate chips from Food Fight over the weekend and I have been waiting to make them. It definitely did not disappoint. This recipe is a half batch of the original recipe, but you might want to double it to make the full 4 dozen. They're that yummy.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Cherry vanilla cupcakes


It has been a little bit since I've updated so to make up for it, here's a recipe for cherry vanilla frosting. I made these a few weeks ago with a vegan vanilla cake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, but they would taste delicious with my chocolate Wowie cake recipe. I got this recipe from my cousin and used Earth Balance to make it vegan. Earth Balance costs a pretty penny (about$5-$6 a pound), but the Blue Bonnet Light margarine is actually vegan and only costs about $0.75.

Cherry Vanilla Frosting
  • 1 stick butter, softened (or 1/2 stick Earth Balance and 1/4 c shortening to make it vegan, it will be too salty if you use all Earth Balance! Trust me on this one!)
  • 1 lb powdered sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/2 tsp almond extract
  • maraschino cherry juice
  • optional garnishes: toasted almond slivers, sprinkles, cherries (make sure to let them drain on a paper towel to remove the liquid or else you'll get soggy frosting pools on the cupcake)
  1.  Cream together softened butter (or Earth Balance shortening mix) and powdered sugar, adding sugar one cup at a time, until smooth.
  2. Add vanilla and almond flavorings until incorporated. 
  3. Add maraschino cherry juice by tablespoon until mixture is light and fluffy.
  4. Frost and enjoy!
 



Saturday, July 9, 2011

What I've been up to lately

I have done a little bit of crafting lately and I'm especially happy with my cat lady deluxe pouch. For the past week I've been really wanting to make quilted pouches with pieced designs like this and I finally sat down to do it last night. I originally wanted to do a heart, but kitties are way better. I also made some cupcake earrings that have taken me forever to list because I've been too busy wearing my own pair of them. Luckily I have another pair for sale here. 
 
I also have FREE SHIPPING for this weekend only (7/9-7/11) for the Sweet Deers and Retro Patchwork pouches. Free shipping WORLD WIDE! These pouches need a home.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Blue Heron herbary

This past weekend we went to Blue Heron herbary to pick out some lavender for the yard. We ended up with way more than just lavender. There's also some oregano, thyme, garlic and sage along with three different varieties of lavender. The herbary is adorable and has gardens where you can pick lavender, a little pond that when we were there someone was sitting at and painting, a bunch of chickens running around, and a BUNNY! It's located on Sauvie Island, a little bit north of Portland, where there are a bunch of small u-pick farms. The berry farms were hopping, but I was wearing a dress so I couldn't go picking. Maybe we'll do that next weekend.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Crazy for ric rac

Notice a theme? I've been using ric rac in all of my pouch projects lately. I made these two last night with the fabric I bought over the weekend. The elephants are a nice linen blend Japanese import, and the foxes are printed on organic cotton. A little pricey, but too adorable to pass up.
They are listed on my Etsy shop for $7 each right here.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

My weekend in pictures

 My weekends are Sunday/Monday and I always look forward to it every week. Since my boyfriend works nights, the weekend is really the only time we can go out without having to go to a late movie, pizza place, or a bar. This weekend we took full advantage of the nice weather in Portland and went to a farmer's market on Sunday and picked up delicious vegan truffles from Missionary Chocolates, as well as some apple cider, salsa, and a little pepper plant. There is a cute fabric shop right down the street from the market so we stopped in there and I picked up some fabric that I'm excited to use. On Monday we decided to have a little picnic in Peninsula Park where they have a large formal rose garden. We brought vegan BBQ from Homegrown Smoker and some coconut battered deep fried Oreos that were crazy good. The "pulled pork" is actually soy curls, and I don't know what they use to make their mac and "cheese", but my recipe is cashew based, so I'm guessing theirs is as well. I know it seems sacrilegious to make BBQ and mac and cheese vegan, but it's actually really yummy.
Now the weekend is over and it's back to doing schoolwork and housework until the next weekend is here.
For more pictures, check out my Flickr page.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Vegan French toast

Seriously! French toast without any eggs. And guess what? It tastes good! Soooo good.
Vegan French toast
adapted from Vegan with a Vengeance

- 1 cup non-dairy milk 
- 1/4 cup chickpea flour
- 2 tbs corn starch 
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 4-5 slices of French bread
1. Combine the milk, chickpea flour, corn starch, and vanilla and wisk until dissolved. Pour into shallow pan with slices of bread to allow it to soak for a few minutes.
2. Heat a large pan on medium and spray with cooking spray. Cook on each side for about minutes, until it looks nicely browned. 

If making a lot of French toast, you can heat the oven to 200 degrees and put the finished slices in there to keep warm. Serve with butter, powdered sugar, maple syrup and/or fresh berries. It's delicious!
 

Monday, June 6, 2011

Coming soon

I've been working hard to replenish the pouches in my shop and have a big shop update coming soon in the next few days. I already have my one pouch available here and will get the others listed soon. I tried to add appliques and rick rack to make them more interesting. I also have one coming that includes pink UNICORNS and GLITTER. You'll just have to stay tuned to see that one!

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Vegan molasses cookies


I had originally wanted to make hermits, but didn't have any egg replacers and the only eggless recipe I found was one that had coffee in it, which I hate. I did some googling and found this recipe. It says it's supposed to be a snickerdoodle recipe, but it tastes nothing like snickerdoodles and more like molasses (I used blackstrap, so that probably had something to do with it). They turned out pretty good, I just baked them and have already "quality checked" 3 cookies.

Molasses Vanilla Bean Snickerdoodle 
from vegweb.com

    Topping:
    1/3 cup sugar
    1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

    Cookies:
    1 2/3 cups +1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
    1 teaspoon baking soda
    1/4 teaspoon salt
    1 cup sugar or vanilla sugar
    1/2 cup canola oil
    1/4 cup molasses
    3 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon nondairy milk
    1/2 vanilla bean pod, seeds scraped or 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. On a large plate, preferably with high sides or a rim around the edges, mix the topping together (sugar and cinnamon) and set aside.

2. In a medium to large bowl, combine all the flour, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to get everything incorporated nicely. In a separate bowl, whisk together the sugar and oil until thoroughly mixed.

3. Stir in molasses, vanilla bean seeds or vanilla extract and nondairy milk. Mix these ingredients together, then slowly sift in the dry ingredients. Use your hands to get a dough to form. Avoid overworking the dough.

4. Take small portions of the dough and roll into walnut sized balls. You can make them bigger, if you so choose, but this size usually yields about 20 cookies. Gently press cookie between your palms and fingers to form little disks/patties.  Carefully pat cookie disks into cinnamon sugar topping mix.

5. Place on prepared cookie sheets, sugar side up and bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until the edges turn a faint golden brown. For a softer cookie with a chewy edge, bake for about 10 minutes. Allow a few minutes for cookies to cool before removing from sheet pan, then transfer to wire cooling rack and allow to completely cool.

Monday, May 23, 2011

Trip to the Oregon coast

On Saturday we took a trip from Portland to Cannon Beach and Astoria. It's about a two hour drive through beautiful forested mountains. We did a little Goonies tour, stopping at Cannon Beach first to see the monolith that the ship sailed out from behind of in the movie, and then took a 30 mile drive up the coast to Astoria to see the Goonies house. Right down the street from the house is a pier where there are a bunch of sea lions. I thought they were really cute, so I ended up with a bunch of pictures of them, but I think the closeup of the sleeping sea lion is my favorite. I could have watched them all day, but it's cold and windy on the pier and the area kind of smells like a petting zoo (although I wouldn't advise ever petting a sea lion).

100th post giveaway winner!





The winner for the 100th post giveaway is...
Rai! From Blargle Fargle. Thanks to everyone who entered!

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Meet my new sewing machine!

I'm spending my summer vacation in Portland,OR with my boyfrand and he bought me this vintage Sears Kenmore sewing machine yesterday so I can continue to do my crafting! I'm so in love with it. It comes in a cabinet, so when I'm done I can fold it upside down and put the lid on top and have a regular table. The top part folds to the left, and give me plenty of room to put my computer and other projects I'm working on. Right now I'm still trying to unpack and organize my craft supplies, but I'm hoping a little bit later I'll be able to start sewing some new pouches for the shop. The next few days we'll be exploring Portland and the surrounding areas and clearing up the back and front yards, so I should have some fun gardening and general posts next week!
Don't forget to enter my little giveaway, going on for a few more days!

Sunday, May 15, 2011

100th post giveaway!!

 

This is my 100th post! I figured it would be fitting to do a little giveaway. Anyone from any country can enter by commenting below (anonymous comments allowed for people who "like" me on Facebook, just remember to include your email!) and a random drawing will be done to determine the winner. My original facebook mysteriously disappeared, so if you had previously liked it, you will have to like this new one instead.The giveaway is for a pink mushroom sweater clip and a pair of glitter heart earrings and ends on 12am May 22nd. 

How to enter
-be a follower on either my blog or on Facebook
-leave a comment below! Make sure your email address is included so I can contact you

For additional entries (leave another comment)
- re-post about this giveaway on your blog/tumblr/facebook/twitter


Thanks for following my blog and good luck!

Friday, May 13, 2011

Sweater clips

Mushroom, deer, or Russian nesting dolls

My blog hosting site was out for at least two days so I haven't been able to post! I didn't realize how often I check on my blog or others until I couldn't access it. I  put the downtime to good use and went crazy making little sweater clips for my Etsy shop. I also have more supplies coming in (like cute woodland critter vintage cabochons) coming in for even MORE sweater clips. I have been trying to find good sweater clips for a while now, but I didn't want to spend a bunch of money for it. I've priced these at what I'd consider a very reasonable price. The pearl chained ones are my favorite. I handmade the 5" chain with real freshwater pearls and it adds an extra touch of class. My fingers are sore from working with all of that wire last night, but I think it was worth it.
Also, something has happened to my facebook page for this website. It has suddenly disappeared in the past week and I have no idea why. I'm going to try to remedy it through facebook, but it looks like I might have to start all over again :( I'm pretty bummed, since it took me a while to gather up all the people who "liked" it.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Etsy favorites

Just a few of my favorites on Etsy. You can find the links to all of these, plus a few other favorites right here. I've been scouring Etsy for good priced vintage dresses, but unfortunately most of them are too small for me. If anyone reading this is a size small, definitely check out the dress and the cardigan I have added to my favorites, they're just too good to pass up!

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Almost summer for me!

The ONLY picture I took last time in Portland.
I only have two more finals left and then I get to go to Portland! wee! Last time I was there we went to Multnomah Falls and got a giant apple fritter from Voodoo Donuts. This time we're planning on going to Bagby hot springs, get more donuts, and plant a garden!! I'm so excited to establish a nice garden instead of doing containers. I miss having dirt to dig around in! My container garden is doing pretty decent, but I'm still having trouble with my zinnias being all weird. It's not fully opened, but it just looks bizarre!
The tomatoes are doing pretty good, though. I'm going to go grocery shopping today so I can put that ripe tomato in the background to good use! Maybe a caprese salad? Or an avocado and tomato sandwich? Those are my favorite. Either way, summer is right around the corner and I can't wait! I still have the 15% off coupon code "summer11" running in my Etsy shop until the 17th!

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Wowie cake!

Wowie cake is a family favorite. The recipe dates back to the Depression, and is super easy to make and is vegan friendly! I haven't been grocery shopping in almost two weeks, so my kitchen cabinets and fridge are pretty bare but I've been jonsing for something sweet so I whipped this up with just a few kitchen staples.


Wowie cake
1 1/2 c flour
1 c sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 c cocoa 
1 tsp baking soda

1 tbs vinegar
1 c cold water
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 c oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine dry ingredients. Make sure you sift the cocoa! Normally I don't bother sifting, but after baking professionally and completely ruining a 10 pound batch of chocolate cookies because I didn't sift the cocoa, I will never make that mistake again! Add the wet ingredients and pour into an 8" square pan. 
Bake for 35 min.
Either insert a toothpick to see if it comes out clean, or poke the middle of the cake. If it's spongy and pops back up after you poked it, you're good to go!


p.s. The cake batter tastes pretty good, too, and because it contains no raw eggs, it's totally safe to lick your spoons.


If you try this recipe, please let me know! It can be used when you're low on supplies, but it's good enough that it could easily become your go-to chocolate cake recipe. You can frost it with buttercream, or do a simple chocolate glaze over top. Another family favorite is to make these into cupcakes, and drop a mixture of cream cheese, an egg, sugar, and chocolate chips into the center before baking and frost with a chocolate glaze. mmmm...

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

May the Fourth be with you.

Well, I am in the thick of finals week! Ironically, when I have the most school work to do, I have been the most productive with my sewing. It's my coping method for stress, just hop on the machine for a little bit and give my brain a rest. I finished up three new small (4"x6") zippered pouches today, which are now for sale in my Etsy store.
 
I think the cat lady pouch is one of my favorite. I'll have to make one for myself. It even has hot pink and white heart lining to go with it! It's so cute. Well, I guess I should probably get back to studying now...
The sale is still going on until May 17th! The coupon code is "summer11" for 15% your total purchase.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Summer sale!!


I'm trying to clear out some items in order to make room for a bunch more that I will be making over the summer so from now until May 17th I'll be running a sale at my Etsy shop! Use the coupon code "summer11" when checking out to get 15% off your total purchase.
EVEN MORE, check out these two other items I've marked down to clear out. You can still use the coupon code to get an additional 15% off the sale price!
Pink woodland zippered pouch- WAS $10.50, NOW $7
Owl necklace- WAS $9.50, NOW $6.50

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Putting the Pyrex to use

I wish I could supply a recipe for my blueberry muffins, but unfortunately I was lazy and bought a mix! I know, I'm just terrible.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

4/19

Well, the zinnia has started to bloom, and I'm a little disappointed it only has one layer of petals! You can see the little bits of fuchsia on the yellow petals that gives it the candy stripe name. Maybe more will come up later, or the next flower will be full size. The petals haven't opened up all of the way yet, so there might still be enough time for it to develop more. Either way, I'm still pretty proud of myself for growing this from seed.
I also made a polka dot bow for myself in red and white. The polka dots are actually little hearts! It's pretty cute. This is the same fabric I use to line my sock money and hedgehog zippered pouches. I keep meaning to make more of those zippered pouches, but for some reason I can't make myself sit down and focus long enough and end up making little hair bows like this instead. But I really like my bows, especially in the red and white. It's a little retro and a little Minnie Mouse but all sorts of cute. What do you think?

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Exciting things (to me, anyway)

Do you see that little guy up there? It's a bud! I planted candy stripe zinnia seeds a bit ago, and they've been growing and growing, and now one is about to flower! I' so excited about this. I thought it was exciting enough when the seeds germinated, but I honestly expected to kill all of them before they started to flower. I have five plants about 10" tall and it makes me so proud. My tomato plant has been pretty happy, too, and I have a bunch of tomatoes on it. Last year I had zero luck with tomatoes, so I'm hoping this year I will get a nice harvest off of my two plants. Thinking about all of the fresh produce makes me get excited for canning again. I won't have a big garden this summer so probably no more pickles, but hopefully I will get stuck with so many tomatoes that I can make pasta sauce to can, and I can take advantage of the cheap summer berry prices and make some more jams. Canning is a whole lot of fun. I love that there's always enough to go around so you can share with everybody.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

New products!

I have made two pairs of hair bows for sale on my etsy shop! I made these after being dissatisfied with the bow hair accessories I had bought at the store that would kind of look saggy whenever I clipped them into my hair. These bows are hand made by me, and are thick enough and have permanent glue so they stay straight when you clip them into your hair and don't sag off the hair clip and make your hair look sad and frumpy. I'm really quite pleased with them. Right now I only have the purple and blue polka dot ones, and the pink heart polka dot, but I have some other fabric lined up to make more if these get a good reception. I have them priced at $6.50 for a pair, which I think is just about what you'd pay at a large chain store for commercial made hair accessories. I think the first line of business once I make another sale will be to invest in a new stapler for my packaging.
My current one constantly jams and drives me insane. All of those discarded staples are from trying to staple up this ONE package! I go through this every time I package things up, I don't know why I haven't gone to get a new stapler yet!

Thursday, April 7, 2011

What I wore today (4/6/11)

I'm not even going to bother trying to list where I found my cardigan and dress because they're so old that I can't remember anymore. I normally try to keep my blog very upbeat and light, but today has been really rough for me, so I'm not able to write much. I just wanted to share this outfit, and this wicked awesome vintage Pyrex bowl my mummy bought me!
She's the best! I love vintage kitchen things, and Pyrex is definitely a favorite. She also found me a 4 quart yellow bowl with daisies, as well as a green 8x8 pan! I was previously using a cheap $1 plastic bowl for all of my mixing and I'm so excited to be able to get rid of it, because it was terrible. I'd like to post a recipe for Wowie cake (a really easy chocolate cake recipe that just happens to be vegan), and get back to sewing more things. I've kind of gotten off track this past week but I promise I'll be back!