Once in a young lifetime one should be allowed to have as much sweetness as one can possibly want and hold. -Judith Olney

a scone. essentially, a sweet biscuit. never had a non-vegan one.

never tried my hand at making them...until today!

muahahahah!

i think that they turned out exceptionally well.

i used the "Classic Currant Scone" recipe from the Joy of Vegan Baking by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, which is the best for everything that is vegan baking. <3

1 egg(egg replacer euivalent)
2T water
2.5 C flour
1/3 C sugar
4 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
3/4 C non-dairy butter, cold
1C currants or raisins
1/2 C non-dairy milk
2-3 T non-dairy milk for brushing the tops
cinnamon/sugar for sprinkling on top.

good. having warm cinnamon-sugar biscuits w/a cup of coffee is next to perfection on a brisk Spring morning....or probably any other kind of morning.

mmmmm, sweet biscuits.

"Education consists mainly of what we have unlearned." -Mark Twain

i'm a fan of muffins or cupcakes versus breads or cakes. this is b/c of a few things-ease of storage, which includes being able to store for freshness(sometimes in a refrigerator-even though "i hate cold bread!") or away from cats who love to eat bread and steal frosting...which we have multiple of and the simplicity that is eating a cupcake, which can involve nothing more than your hands while a slice of cake very often involves things like plates and forks...who needs those things?

anyway, i've been dreaming about making raisin bread muffins for awhile but always forget. this morning when Jake was making his breakfast oatmeal before work, it smelled raisin-y and oat-y so it was on my mind all morning.

i couldn't find anywhere that "raisin bread muffins" were mentioned so i just found an adequate-sounding vegan raisin bread recipe and just figured i'd bake it a shorter time and make sure it was a wet enough mixture, which it was.

2 C flour
1/2 t nutmeg
1/2 salt
2 t cinnamon
1 1/2 t baking powder
1t baking soda
1 C (sour) soymilk(+1T vinegar)
1/2 C maple syrup
1/2 C raisins
1/2 C pecans

bake at 350 for about 20-30 minutes



i think they turned out pretty well. i wouldn't add the pecans again as they weren't necessary and i guess i don't appreciate that much "work" in my muffin. also, perhaps a little more spice, like more cinnamon? or clove? idk. i suppose a small amount of flax could be added if you want it to be that kind of day. as far as the sweetener being maple syrup, i like the way it works in this(as opposed to usually just using sugar that tastes like...sugar.) . it gives it a breakfast-y type flavor.

In the spring I have counted one hundred and thirty-six different kinds of weather inside of four and twenty hours. -Mark Twain

i guess one could say that i've been pretty dormant, like the weather, since i haven't updated this in months and months.

days ago we made (pineapple) chutney. were inspired by the samosas i made that i used the Moosewood cookbook recipe, for. the recipe for the samosa dough is SO GOOD. i've tried it before w/out the yogurt and the last few times i've made them w/the Silk plain(unsweetened) soy yogurt and it is so much better that way, go figure that using what the recipe actually calls for is a lot better than not...
we kind of just made up the chutney recipe...
samosas:

Filling

• 2 large potatoes, cooked and mashed
• 1 cup finely minced onion
• 2 medium garlic cloves, crushed
• 1/2 teaspoon grated fresh gingerroot
• 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds (I use dry mustard)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/2 cup diced carrot, cooked till just tender
• 1/2 cup cooked green peas
• cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 lemon, juice of
• 2-3 tablespoons butter

Pastry

• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons melted butter
• 1/3 cup yogurt
• water

there's still a few feet of snow...argh.

i'm finding conflicting information about the appropriate time of year to prune fruit trees. we have 3 fruit trees that didn't die and are more than a year old at this point. so, i think that the beginning of April is when it should happen...?

this year we plan to purchase a tiller b/c we did not borrow one last year and the results of trying to hand-till our land is frustrating and tiring. plus, time consuming.

also, we have so many seeds leftover from last year and we've tried to keep them stored pretty well, so i hope they work out even though it's highly predicted that "old seeds" don't work as well. if not, we'll just pick up some starts of the basics at a local garden store...

we'll also get to put to the test my ability to not kill dahlia bulbs over a winter...i hope i stored them okay b/c they really are gorgeous.

we have ONE catnip plant that is alive and well, despite getting knocked out of a window and chomped on no less than a dozen times. preventative measures have now been taken...this may or my not involve Jake bringing it w/him to work for his office...everyone has an office plant,right? and it's usually catnip,yes?

sage, dill and cilantro are the extent of my winter herb gardening...better than nothing?

there.

"It is good to be alone in a garden at dawn or dark so that all its shy presences may haunt you and possess you in a reverie of suspended thought"

-James Douglas

time seems like it's bizarre, lately. like, i can't wrap my mind around the fact that it's ALREADY the end of November. everyone is just as crazy, if not more crazy, than i. this leads to spidzer Thanksgiving plans.

for dinner at my mom's we don't need to bring anything, but want to. so...sauteed brussels sprouts w/lemon and pistachios,it is.
plus, i want to make a vegan pecan pie, but do not, despite hours(yes, hours) of searching, have a recipe. they're all too slightly different and i don't know which direction to go w/it.

i'll let you know, maybe.

also, we're having Thanksgiving at mom's on Daniel's birthday, so i might make him some sort of cake, i just don't know. i mean, i like cake and i guess that decides it. i like cake.

i haven't been reading enough lately and i can feel it in my brain. it's like it's short circuiting or something.

"luckily" winter's on the way. so, lots of time for reading.

planted a couple herbs in small pots for the winter. brought in the oregano and thyme that aunt Janice brought us and our rosemary plant. newly sprouted are a bunch of cilantro and a few dill, plus a bunch of catnip that i'm trying to use cat-mind control to try and save so that they can grow at all before they get attacked/eaten. oh yeah, and a bunch of sage that, if you ask me, is one of the best-looking herbs out there.

i will now medicate my brain w/coffee and recipe-searching.

“What fun is it being cool if you can't wear a sombrero” -Calvin and Hobbes

Salsa verde.
We grew tomatillos.
(I hate that this computer doesn't know Spanish-therefore it squiggly underlines verde and tomatillos b/c it thinks that i misspelled them)
Didn't have any of the peppers the recipe called for, so i used 2 of the small super-hot ones that my step-dad gave us from his garden, and it burninated my mouth, but was otherwise good.

20 tomatillos
2 hot peppers
2 cloves garlic
appx. 4 T lime juice
salt
cilantro
1/2 onion

besides my mouth being on fire, it turned out fairly well.
have a bunch of tomatillos left, i think i'll give it a day or two and try again, minus the burning!

“I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion" -Henry David Thoreau

had a BUNCH of pumpkin puree left from when i made the ravioli. wasn't really ready to make more ravioli, so i made some pumpkin, cranberry, walnut muffins.

every recipe that i could find called for either brown sugar or molasses, which there was neither of, in our house,so i searched and searched and finally found one that called for neither. but it didn't seem altogether right,so i altered it,very slightly.

2 C flour (1 C w wheat, 1C white)
1/2 C sugar
1 T baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t nutmeg
15 oz. pumpkin puree(yes, our measuring cups have ounce measurements and i forgot to look at what that equated to...)
1/2 C cranberry (i would recommend cutting each cranberry in half)
1/2 C walnuts(smashed)

they are pleasantly not too sweet,but fruity and pumpkin-y. had one then w/soup and it was perfection. just had one w/coffee and it was just as good.

"We dare not trust our wit for making our house pleasant to our friend, so we buy ice cream." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

i made pumpkin ravioli,again. after looking back to last year's MND-posts, i realized about half-way through making this year's that i did not actually post too much about it and that i'd written all of the dough and filling-making stats in my "recipe book" (very commonly called a cookbook...FYI.)

so, i guess i will post last years' recipe:
dough: 2.5 C flour
appx. 1 C water
2t olive oil
salt

filling:
brown sugar
(vegan)butter
nutmeg
pepper
sage
vinegar
oh, and pureed pumpkin.

this year's recipe:

dough:same

filling:
pureed pumpkin
water
garlic powder
S&P
cinnamon
nutmeg
ginger
vegetable oil

and a critique of both:
the critique of last year's will have to be from memory,which, if you know me,is not terribly reliable. let's see, it was really, really good. there.
this year's was clearly a lot different. i don't think that this year's filling was as "smooth" as last year's. it seemed...chunkier? which isn't to say that it wasn't good. i just baked some pumpkin inards and Cuisinart-ed it. it definitely wasn't as sweet of a filling. the sweet filling offset the savory-ness of the sauce, if i remember right. this time we made a garlic-oil-sage sauce for it. i was satisfied.

*shrug*

still have a bunch of pumpkin left. will make more filling using a sweeter take on the recipe. i froze about a dozen and will make a nice,tidy comparison at a later date.

hmmm. i wonder how whole wheat flour would taste for the dough? i'll stick to perfecting the filling first...

oh, i also baked the apple pie-pocket-things that i froze this last summer and besides one leaking all over the tray, they were perfect and eaten w/ice cream...you know, b/c it's almost winter. and nothing says 'good-times' like ice cream when it's frigid outside...