Copy and Pastry

Month in Review.

2011-07-23T22:32:00.000-07:00

Photos of July:

Harry Potter week!

view of the canal from a weekend run:

Sunday morning drive to Jamba juice:

impromptu ferry ride to Bainbridge:

500 sips of Strawberry C:

Wolmp, I'm 25 and 10 days old.

In some ways, I feel really lucky. I LOVE my life: my house, my 6,000 hobbies, and my awesome boyfriend that bought a house in Queens for us to live in. But honestly, when I was younger and I imagined my mid-twenties, I mostly thought about my future career, which I have not figured out yet. I have a job and a handful of marketable skills, and I think that I will probably get it together, but it would be a lie to say that it hasn't been on my mind for the past year.

My birthday was really fun. I had a delicious meal at Annapurna and dessert at Molly Moon's courtesy of Zach. It was exciting to have a birthday so close to the Harry Potter premiere!!

My friend Khajha gave me a wand that her husband made, along with a pouch that she sewed for it. It was such a sweet gift to find on my desk that morning. She and I went to an advanced screening together on Thursday evening at Cinarama. It was the best time EVER!! I cried and laughed and omg, Neville is so hot. It was really cool to see the Battle of Hogwarts realized outside of mind's eye - I couldn't get over it. I saw it again the next day with my friend Aleksandra (I brought my wand to both showings, natch).

If you're interested in how I spent the month preparing for the final movie, please visit my Harry pinterest board.

Other presents include the best-fitting pair of pants ever, new viola strings, and a book about canning. Canning my own tomato sauce is definitely on my to-do list.

In 5 weeks Zach and I will be packing up our Seattle lifestyle in moving back east. I'm so excited!

week in review

2011-06-10T17:29:00.000-07:00

So. Much. Filing.

I usually exercise twice a week, but I've been wanting to make that number higher. The weather has been cooperating so I went out 4 times this week. On Saturday, I made a smoothie afterwards with a carrot, spinach, pom juice, blueberries, and an apple. It was terrible but I chugged it because I am a champion.

Srsly, it looks like sludge

If only these weren't 4 bucks a pop....who am I kidding I buy them constantly and then marvel at my tiny bank account.

Solid-food wise, I fried up a zucchini and added that and some spinach to a boxed vegan mac and cheese I found at PCC. I don't remember the brand. It was good, but I can make my own that's just as good/better if I weren't so lazy. It was just like nutritional yeast and onion powder in the sauce, and it costs like 6 dollars. Again, no wonder I have no money left over at the end of the week.

I definitely ate the whole box in one sitting. Hmm I bet that cancels out my new more intense jogging regime. Oh wells.

I also made some cupcakes. This one is a lil' chocolate guy, but I also made some that are vanilla. Both had lemon buttercream which is awesome and I could have eaten a bowl of it.

Here's the recipe in case you have never made buttercream!

Lemon Buttercream:
1 lemon
lots of confectioner's sugar
1/4 cup Earth Balance
3 tbsp almond milk

cream the butter and 2 cups sugar. Add milk. Mix, adding more milk if needed. Squeeze out all the lemon juice. Add more sugar and mix until you reach your desired consistency. Fold in zest from the lemon.

Zach is out of town, so I will be on my own this weekend. I have prepared for this by purchasing lots of vegan junk food (frozen spring rolls, frozen indian food, various Gardein products) and getting the Vampire Diaries from Netflix. I'm also taking the ferry to Bainbridge Island tomorrow!

Portland

2011-06-03T21:56:00.000-07:00

Last week we had a three day weekend because of Memorial Day.

Score, Summer!

This week I have a three-day weekend because I didn't go to work today.

Score, allergie-related illness! (no)

Total bummer, but at least I can reminisce about Portland.

it was sunny.....

and then rainy. Typical PNW.

This cute book was on sale at Powell's and I picked it up. I'm getting better at knitting, but a book of simple projects is definitely the way to go. I also got this book which I'm really excited about reading, once I finish this and this.

I loved the color of this yarn, and I got it at a cute yarn shop/cafe. Portland FTW!

This lil' guy was hanging out at a Bubble Tea place. I got blueberry coconut milk tea and I hated it. Never again you guys. I think I prefer regular old non-milky bubble tea.

What are your weekend plans? I'm taking a break from spending money, so I am going to do fun at-home stuff, like bake a cake, knit, read, run a few miles, and watch the White Countess.

Value Village

2011-05-29T20:44:00.000-07:00

Zach and I went to Portland yesterday and it was sooooo fun! You know that joke on 30 rock about how Cleveland is the greatest place on Earth? That's how I feel about Portland. Anyway, that's my next post. Today I want to show the stuff I picked up at Value Village.

I ended up getting there pretty early (around noon), when it's still semi-empty. I'm usually part of the after-brunch crowd and have to wait in line forever.

Originally I had wanted to find an XL men's button down to turn into a longer tunic, but the only one with a fabric I liked had paint stains all over it. Luckily, they had a women's long button down that I loved and fit perfectly, no tailoring necessary. Hurray! Here's a pick of me in the dressing room. I'm growing out my hair and right now it's in the Justin Beiber phase, so, sorry.

I also scored this awesome Le Tigre polo shirt for $5. I have always wanted one!

So, I think I am going to go back for this sweater. It's hand knit (I guess the original recipient didn't like it as much as I did). I didn't buy it because it's May and buying a sweater when my rent is due in 3 days seems silly, but tomorrow everything is 50% off. Also, there are some running shorts that I forwent that will be super cheap tomorrow as well.

Yeah....I think it will be cute with black cigarette pants. I love how I look eyeless in this photo.

This is what I wore this morning. I clearly just rolled out of bed and put on a super-stylish 5k t-shirt and my favorite hoodie that I bought 11 years ago and has a broken zipper.

I also bought a Jane Green novel (not ashamed) and a pretty jar with a wide mouth. Perfect for ice cream basically.

Desserts for the Single Lady

2011-05-27T21:32:00.000-07:00

It would not be hyperbolic to say that out of 9.085 days I have been alive I have eaten a candy bar on at least 7.345 of them.

(That first number is real. <3 the internet.)

I love chocolate. When I was a kid, my dad would often pile us in the car after dinner to get Reese's Cups. Now every time I finish a meal I have an intense craving for sweets.

Thanks Dad.

I was having one of my Cathy moments when Zach and I got home from dinner last night. I was about to start eating Nesquik out of the container with a spoon when I remembered I had half a bag of chocolate chips somewhere.

I rummaged for about two minutes and came up with a random assortment of dippables (it's a word, red dotted line be damned!).

The best part was licking the stirring spoon, obvs.

After dunking 11 cashews, 17 raspberries, and 3 dubious-at-this-point strawberries, I melted a big spoonful of peanut butter* in with the chocolate and made about 3 servings of puppy food.

Ugh, I loathe that name. Im going to call them Choco PB Sugar Squares™ from now on.

Mmmmm.....Choco PB Sugar Squares™ + Netflix + previously-eaten veggie burger = the best Friday ever.

*full disclosure, I was not about to use my $45 organic peanut butter for this shit. I used the scrapings bottom of a jar of crummy Peter Pan that I bought in 2009.

Pictures from my weekend

2011-05-22T20:54:00.000-07:00

my new shirt for the last movie!

typical PNW weather by the Edmonds terminal ferry

Mighty-O vegan apple fritter

playing around with the color filters on Vignette

a rare sunny day in the nabe

my favorite water glass and super-cool wallpaper

I accomplished a lot this weekend which was a welcome change of pace from my worknight routine of doing nothing. Besides reading a novel, knitting, drawing, cleaning and running, I made delicious chocolate-dipped shortbread (vegan of course) and now Zach and I are finishing up watching the last season of Mad Men. Shit is really hitting the fan!

Work this week will be very hectic as we get ready for next season (read: lots of filing) but I am looking forward to looming warm weather and adventures this summer with Zach.

One final note, I am completely obsessed with this album. I told Zach I want new viola strings for my birthday so I can rock out this hard!

Vegan MoFo Happy Lunch Surprise

2010-11-13T17:13:00.000-08:00

I skipped Thursday and Friday MoFo, so it looks like I will be bloggin' this weekend! Suits me fine I guess.

So....today Zach and I were planning on going to Portland and riding bikes. We ended up not getting on the road until 12:30, and it was rainy and gross. After driving south for about 40 minutes, we called it in and just went to Olympia since we were hungry and it was the closest city around.

Olympia is kind of weird...it's really small and quiet and has a Roanokey sort of hipster scene. I don't know what people do there all day, but whatever it's not like Seattle is the epicenter of activity either. It was rainy and freezing so we literally just went in the first restaurant we saw, which was called King Solomen's Reef. We didn't check the menu or anything, I figured at worst that I would just eat a hundred french fries for lunch.

But, hurray! They had tons of vegan options- tempeh hash, sesame tofu sandwich, vegan chili french fries. I got a chicken-fried-tofu burger served w/ fries and vegan ranch and it was awesome. Its craycray how stoked I get when I find a restaurant where Zach and I can both enjoy a meal (for those not in the know, Zach "doesn't like vegan food," whatever that means.)

Moving on, it was really good and I scarfed it down and slept the whole way home.

Later tonight I'm having Amy's squash soup and a grilled fake cheese for dinner, then I have to take a nap because we are seeing my friend's band tonight and I want to have a lot of energy stored up before getting wasted and probably walking home from Ballard at 3am.

Vegan Mofo, my lunch was a total win today

2010-11-10T17:17:00.000-08:00

I never measure anything unless I'm baking, and so I always end up with left overs of random ingredients - like 6 florets of broccoli and half a container of small cooked pasta shells. Last night I poured half a can of tomato puree (I am a tomato sauce purist, I hate jarred sauce and other over-spiced concoctions) over the shells with a couple sprinklings of garlic powder and half a handful of daiya.

It was totally a last minute thing, but it ended up being INSANELY AWESOME. Like a deconstructed lasagna or whatever. I sprinkled some drops of water over the broc and nuked it for 2 minutes covered by a paper towel and it came out melty and bright green and totally delicious! 'Scuse the cell phone pics, but I had to share - it's a great example of delicious and convenient vegan food.

Tonight is half-price burgers at Blue Moon Burgers in Fremont. Z and I go every Wednesday since its a half-mile from our house and get our french fry on. Sometimes if I'm feeling extra unhealthy I'll run and grab some candy for dessert at the PCC across the street. Zach always gets a milkshake, so it brings some balance to the world.

Happy MoFoing everyone!

Epic Vegan Mofo Survey

2010-11-09T23:10:00.000-08:00

Today I ate a green smoothie, toast with pumpkin butter, ramen noodles with spinach, broccoli, and teriyaki sauce, some cookies, an apple, and vegan mac and cheese. Nothing interesting to post about so I'm doing the survey from PPK!

You have $20 to spend on fresh groceries and produce for the whole week (with a fairly well stocked pantry of dry goods, legumes, grains, and spices). what do you buy?
spinach, soy milk, broccoli, frozen berries, juice, tomatoes, onions, garlic, apples.

What's your favorite way to make tofu?
Marinate it in something salty and cook it up with veggies - I like fast meals!

Vegan guilty pleasure? anything chocolate

If you could make anyone vegan, who would it be?
Anthony Bourdain

If you could only read one other vegan blog, what would it be? uh...vegnews I guess?

Were you always interested in cooking, or did veganism change the way you saw and interacted with food? both

Excluding analogues, what new things have you tried that you probably wouldn't have as an omni?
braggs, nutritional yeast. I love both of them so I'm glad I tried them.

What is the one vegan staple that everyone seems to love, but you can't get behind? I love everything, but I don't eat a lot of kale like everyone else. I like to cook with it sometimes but I dont put it in smoothies or anything

What was your first "wow, I'm such a stereotypical vegan" moment?
I don't know! I go on a lot of diatribes.

First recipe you veganized?
buttercream frosting! it was pretty easy, I just used earth balance haha

What would you like to veganize, but haven't yet?
snickers bars

First vegan cookbook?
"How It All Vegan"

What question about being vegan do you HATE answering?
Anthing thats about how hypocritcal my beliefs are, like why do I still wear suede boots I've had for 3 years, etc

If you could tell the world one thing about vegans, what would it be?
We're basically right about everything? Or that we are humble, normal people. Hmm.

Funniest vegetable?
Beet. NO ONE LIKES YOU BEETS, JUST GO AWAY. Well, no one except Doug Funny

Is there something you wish you could veganize, but can't/couldn't? Delivery pizza. I can veganize it easily, but I can't get anyone else to do it and bring it to my house for a small fee.

Are your pets vegan? if so, what do you feed them? tell us about having vegan furbabies! I have a betta fish, and she is not vegan - she eats dried bloodworms!

What’s one “vegan myth” you’d like to squash?

Vegan Mofo - kickin' off week 2!

2010-11-08T20:15:00.001-08:00

I considered making a pizza for dinner, but I forgot to thaw the dough in the fridge, so into the cast iron pan went my last V'con black bean burger. I am poor this week as previously mentioned, but I did splurge on pickles and daiya this weekend, making my dinner 150% awesome.

I had a wardrobe malfunction and a pretty busy day at work, but today was still lovely. Home exactly 40 minutes after I walked out of the building, Z opened the door and gave me a kiss. I peeled off my tights and popped some popcorn. I'm sooo happy the next 3 hours will be spend in my snuggie enjoying the quiet.

Friday Mofo

2010-11-05T20:06:00.000-07:00

I made it through the first week! I mean, yeah, I fudged a little and posted twice today, but I'm still pretty much on track!

Since it's the beginning of the month (aka rent-paying time) I'm going to have to make a little money stretch until my next paycheck, so I reckon that the next week won't have a lot of interesting dishes or anything, but hopefully I can scare up some cool baked goods this weekend and maybe even participate in the iron chef challenge! I mean, potatoes are cheap, right?

Oh yeah, dinner tonight - Zach met me at work a few minutes before the end of the day to visit with my coworkers, and then we went to Chipotle. Then we took the bus to the top of the Queen Anne hill and got some Starbucks for the cold, rainy walk home. Z got an eggnog latte and I got a soy hot chocolate! So yummy.

Anyhoo, that's enough text so here are 2 rando pictures I took earlier this week!

I went vegan like, the same week Daiya was introduced and thank god for that! It's like I never had to go without a grilled cheese. Yum! Don't mind the random doorknob pieces...

Here is a really smarmy picture of me getting ready to nom on this popcorn. Zach and I eat stovetop popcorn almost every night, a tradition I carried on from college when I lived with my friend Carolina who is totally addicted to popcorn.

MoFo Day 4

2010-11-05T09:59:00.000-07:00

Last night I came home and threw together the leftover cooked penne from Sunday and some noochy sauce from this recipe (omg sooooooo good) and scarfed it down before I could snap a picture - but it's not very photogenic anyway, as you can see from the link.

So I thought it would be fun to do a tour of my kitchen. Zach and I moved into a house this summer and it's so nice to have room to move around!

When we moved into to our house, the refrigerator was covered in rust! I finally got around to sanding it down and repainting it a few weeks ago.

I put some little glass knick knacks on the window sill - this is an Eifel Tower bottle that I got at a yard sale. I think it had wine or oil originally.

Me and our backyard. All the grass was brown and dead when we moved in, Zach tilled out the weeds and reseeded, and now we have a beautiful green lawn!

One day this will be a proper breakfast nook, right now it just houses some planting stuff and our twice-used dishwasher.

One of my favorite IKEA purchases - cheerful dishtowels!

DAY 3! STILL GOING STRONG!

2010-11-03T13:59:00.000-07:00

Today after work I am going to rush home from the gym and watch the True Blood DVD waiting for me, so I'm getting my daily post out of the way a little earlier. Here are my answers to the vegan mofo survey as well as a picture of the pumpkin butter I whipped up this weekend! Like every other MoFoer, I've got jars and jars of pumpkin puree in my fridge right now.

To make the pumpkin butter, I stirred together a few tbsp of apple juice, half a cup of white sugar, half a cup of brown sugar, a sprinkling of nutmeg, a tbsp of cloves, and a cup of pumpkin over medium heat and let it sit for about 20 minutes (stirring every few minutes). It tastes like pumpkin pie and I'm really enjoying it on my morning toast! It made about half a pint.

1. Favorite non-dairy milk?
Silk Light Soy Milk - plain. 70 delicious calories!

2. What are the top 3 dishes/recipes you are planning to cook?
I don't have anything spectacular planned right now, but I now I will be doing a lot of baking bc it's one of my favorite hobbies. I'm planning on letting cool ingredients at the grocery store and in my produce box inspire me.

3. Topping of choice for popcorn?
Sea salt. By the handfuls.

4. Most disastrous recipe/meal failure?
Way back when, I was making a soup that called for fresh grated coconut. I actually tried to grate the hard shell of the coconut! I only got a tablespoon shredded before I gave up, but I actually did add it to the soup and ended up having to spoon it out later! I then googled "how to get fresh grated coconut" and, duh, you have to crack it open first.

5. Favorite pickled item?
Pickles. I love them!

6. How do you organize your recipes?
Like a crazy person. I have a blog where I copy/paste any cool recipes from the internet and organize with tags, but I also email them to myself sometimes. If they are from a magazine, I cut them out and stick them in an old notebook I keep in the kitchen.

7. Compost, trash, or garbage disposal?

Compost, trash, and recycle. Yay Seattle!

8. If you were stranded on an island and could only bring 3 foods…what would they be (don’t worry about how you’ll cook them)?

Um, diet coke, Dave's killer bread, and Earth Balance. Is that bad?

9. Fondest food memory from your childhood?
My grandmother's banana pudding

10. Favorite vegan ice cream?
So Delicious Chocolate Peanut Butter!

11. Most loved kitchen appliance?
I love my tea kettle. I LOVE it. I get happy looking at it.

12. Spice/herb you would die without?
Curry powder? Or maybe just salt and pepper - those are pretty essential.

13. Cookbook you have owned for the longest time?
I started buying cookbooks after college, so none of them are that old. I have a baking cookbook I got two Christmases ago, I guess it was one of my first ones.

14. Favorite flavor of jam/jelly?
Blackberry, although when it comes to jam I'm like Joey from Friends. I really don't discriminate.

15. Favorite vegan recipe to serve to an omni friend?
Vegan sloppy joes.

16. Seitan, tofu, or tempeh?
Tofu

17. Favorite meal to cook (or time of day to cook)?
Dinner for sure, lunch and breakfast are a pain since I'm always rushing off to work

18. What is sitting on top of your refrigerator?
A bottle of EVOO, a bottle of Veg Oil, a bottle of red wine, some coupons for Domino's (for Zach), the microwave, 2 blue oven mitts.

19. Name 3 items in your freezer without looking.

frozen (obvs) strawberries, egg replacer, ice.

20. What’s on your grocery list?
Soy milk, bananas, popcorn, cocoa powder.

21. Favorite grocery store?
PCC in Fremont

22. Name a recipe you’d love to veganize, but haven’t yet.
Snicker bars. And by veganize I mean google "snicker bars vegan"

23. Food blog you read the most (besides Isa’s because I know you check it everyday). Or maybe the top 3?

I read a lot, although I have removed most of the omni blogs by now because they no longer interest me, I still love Bakerella and Smitten Kitchen. Also, Vegan Crunk, Vegan Dad, and Bake and Destroy.

24. Favorite vegan candy/chocolate?
Jokerz bars. It kind of sucks they are like $3 apeice

25. Most extravagant food item purchased lately?
Fancy olive oil and chocolate chips - totally worth it.

I had a salad at lunch, I swear!

2010-11-02T21:28:00.000-07:00

One of my anxieties about Mofo centers around my very few weekday recipes. I love finding new recipes and experimenting on my days off, but during the week I turn to something fast.

Every once in a while I will head out to whole foods on my lunch break and purchase pizza dough to thaw on my desk over the afternoon. That way when I get home I can throw some daiya (or in this case VeganRella*) on the bitch and call it a day. Sometimes I get fancy with artichoke hearts but tonight I just had spinach on hand.

I ate most of it, which is good since I already have my lunch leftovers squared away for the week! I make pizza a lot - it's perfect for enjoying a quiet evening watching Dexter on Netflix. For dessert, I recommend all the Annie's Organic Bunny fruit snacks unclaimed by trick-or-treaters!

*take my advice, stick with daiya.

First Mofo Post

2010-11-01T20:35:00.000-07:00

This weekend I thought I would kick off Vegan MoFo with a semi-time-consuming recipe that used up some of my abundant pumpkin puree. I ended up halving the pumpkin baked ziti recipe in Veganomicon, but I still ended up with several servings.

It looks like I will be eating it for lunch everyday this week, but I can't complain because it fucking rocks. It's autumnal and creamy and crispy and the homemade bread crumbs really add pizazz. (Pizazz? Sorry I haven't blogged in a while). I subbed tofu ricotta bc I didn't have any cashews on hand.

Don't be like me - eat it with a green salad.

Vegan Mofo

2010-10-29T12:40:00.000-07:00

Hey dudes and dudettes!

This year, I will be participating in Vegan Mofo. Mofo is short for Month of Food! This is a huge blogging event that takes place all over the vegansphere! So get ready for a whole lot of vegan food on my blog, and definitely check out the Vegan Mofo HQ for lots of vegan meal ideas!