It happens every year. SO MANY TOMATOES! This is not a complaint, just a fun fact. And so for the forseeable future, besides canning and freezing tomatoes at a rapid pace, I will also be sticking them into everything. Enter here a tomato cracker. But who wants just a tomato cracker? I( bet some would love just a tomato cracker) But a tomato basil cracker, well that is something people will want. And yes, I have a buttload of basil at he moment too.. I cook with what I got!

Tomato basil crackers. First off, I needed to make a road snack for the mr and cut up chunks of raw tomatoes would not have gone down well with him, so I figured what better way to use up some tomatoes then a cracker situation because why the hell not.  I was a little hesitant to use fresh tomatoes and not cook them or roast the in anyway before using them in the crackers, but I glad I didn’t. The tomato flavor really shines through, pairs beautifully with the basil, and you get to skip having to deal with cooking down the tomatoes, which makes them all the more easy to make.

So I made the crackers and gave a baggie to the mr to eat, which he did right then and there (with some sweet ass baba ganoush because yes) then packed a big bag for the road trip. Not only was the mr chowing down, but my sisters were gobbling them up too, even the one who is gluten free.  That is good cracker validation. 

If you have never made your own crackers and you are a cracker person, now is the time to start doing it. I don’t eat crackers personally, but the mr and every one around me really seem to be cracker people so a while back I started to make them at home, and once you make a homemade cracker, the store bought ones will just not be acceptable anymore. But they really are super easy so you really should be making them at home anyway.. No pressure though.

The stuff. Flour, olive oil, tomatoes, fresh basil, and sea salt. 

Chunks of fresh tomato go into blender and get blended up all nice and smooth. Add in basil and oil and pulse until basil turns to little specks.

Pour the blended mixture into the flour.

Mix with a spoon until you can’t mix anymore then dump onto the counter.

Keeping the counter nice and floured, knead dough for a minute until it all comes together into nice ball.

Working with half of the dough at a time, roll out one of the pieces  about 1/4-1/8 inch thick.  (really flour counter and rolling pin) 

And cut into crackers.. Shapes are up to you, but inch to 2 inch squares are easies to cut. 

Place crackers onto backing sheet. Before oven time and after oven time.  They shrink and puff up a little bit in the oven. That is what a cracker is suppose to do. (but if you don’t like that you can prevent it by piercing the crackers with a fork before they go into the oven) 

And that’s it. Simple, and delicious. 

Crackers are looking all pretty like I am about to have party or something. I even made baba ganoush to serve with them. Lucky mr, he got to have this cracker party all to himself. Ha (He did not eat all of these crackers at once, that would be crazy) 

-C

makes between 100 -125 crackers 

• 3 cups flour
• 2 large tomatoes  ( equal to 1 1/4 cup of tomato puree )
• 1/3 cup fresh basil leaves 
• 4 tablespoons olive oil 
• About 2 tablespoons sea salt 

Remove core from tomatoes and place into food processor or blender. Blend until smooth and measure out 1 1/4 cups of the puree. Any left overs rs can be used as food later on. Dump measured puree back into blender and add in the basil and oil and pulse until the basil is in little pieces but not completely blended in.  Add flour to a big bowl then pour in tomato mixture and mix until a dough forms. Dump out onto counter and knead for a minute or two until dough is uniform in texture. 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

On a floured surface, divide dough in half as to make rolling it easier, and roll dough into a rectangle that is 1/4- 1/8 inch thick. It is important to make sure the rolling pin and counter are well floured to avoid the dough from sticking. Once rolled out, sprinkle with sea salt and lightly roll the dough once more to kind of press the salt in then cut with either pizza cutter or a cracker cutter, or a knife, into 1 1/2 inch squares. The edges are going to be wonky shaped and you can either except them as they are or re roll and recut. (Note. IF you want your crackers to late flat and not puff up while baking, stab the crackers with a fork before they go into oven to create air vents. But honestly, most people really like the puffed up cracker)  Place cut crackers onto a baking sheet and stick into oven. Bake for 15 minutes, checking after 10, until the crackers are golden brown.  Don’t forget to roll and bake off the other half of the dough!

Once crackers look good, remove from oven and place onto cooling rack. They will get crisper as they cool. 

Eat as many as you want. Store extra crackers in a airtight container or bag. 

I found another bag of frozen rhubarb in the chest freezer which is never a bad thing, but my rhubarb patch outside is growing strong and I will have all the fresh rhubarb I could possible eat within the next few weeks. So found rhubarb just means I need to eat it right fast before the fresh stuff comes in. (I haven%u2019t had a problem with that. it%u2019s almost gone already). Plus the other day while I was digging up and transplanting raspberry bushes to the back yard, my neighbor came over and gave me a gallon of frozen raspberries, harvested from said bushes that I was currently planting in my yard. Score for me! Free bushes and berries%u2026I have such nice neighbors.

So the logical thing to do with my new found and giving bounty was of course to hurry up and bake something. Cobbler. Why cobbler? Well, why not? I figured the mr would really like it and eat it and I also didn%u2019t want to make anything to fussy because I was just to dang busy spending all of my extra time outside doing outside things. And cobbler, it%u2019s not fussy because it is basically biscuits and jam baked up all together. Not a lot to think about and comes out looking all homey and sweet and smelling all nice and cozy. Doesn%u2019t that sound nice? And not a pain in the ass?

And best part. A made cobbler works as dessert or breakfasts or just a snack. Just asked the mr. He ate it for all the reasons. With a dollop of yogurt or cream of course because he is fancy like that.

And yeah the fruit I used was frozen, but fresh works just the same here too.

Now, lets get to that cobbler.

The stuff. Raspberries (frozen), rhubarb (frozen), sugar, flour, salt, baking power, cinnamon ,almond milk, apple cider vinegar, cornstarch, and oil.

Raspberries, rhubarb, sugar, cinnamon, cornstarch. Its all there in the bowl. Just needs to be mixed. So mix it.

Dump fruit mixture into well greased 8 inch pan and pop it into a hot oven to get a head start on baking.

While the fruits in the oven, make the biscuit dough. Mix the dry together then mix in the wet until just incorporated and a sticky dough forms.

Pulled from the oven, the fruit is starting to cook down and whoa, it just smells so good!

Drop on the biscuits dough on top of the fruit (careful of the hot pan). Evenly if possible, but don%u2019t work to hard to make it look perfect. Imperfection makes it look perfect, you know?

Once biscuits are on, lightly brush the tops with a little milk and sprinkle with more sugar then pop it back into the oven for another 25-30 minutes or until the biscuits are baked.

Pulled from the oven with a bubbly filling and a golden brown biscuity top. Things are looking good here.

And now it%u2019s time.

Dig on in my friend. Sever with something creamy like whipped coconut cream or some type of yogurt or ice cream situation of your choice. And again, this can be your breakfast.

Happy spring people!

-C

make a a 8 inch round which serves 5-6

For the Filling

• 2 cups raspberries (fresh or frozen)

• 2 cups rhubarb chopped into 1/2 inch to inch long pieces (fresh or frozen)

• 1 1/2 tablespoons corn starch

• 3/4 -1 cup sugar (lesser amount if you like a little more tartness. I used lesser amount)

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

For the dough

• 1 cups all purpose flour

• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 3 tablespoons sugar

• 3 tablespoons neutral flavored oil

• 1/2 cup plant based milk

• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 350.

In a large bowl mix together the rhubarb and raspberries with the corn starch, sugar, and cinnamon. Grease a 8 inch round pan the is at least 2 inches deep (can use a slightly large pan or a square) and dump in fruit mixture. Place into oven to bake for about 15 minutes or the fruit starts to break down.

While fruit is baking, mix up biscuit dough. Flour, salt, 2 tablespoons sugar, and baking powder go in a large bowl and mixed until combined. Add in the oil, the milk, and the vinegar. Mix until just incorporated and a dough has formed.

Remove the fruit cooking from the oven. Turn heat up to 375.

Carefully drop spoonfuls of biscuit batter on top of fruit. Brush the top of the biscuits with a little milk and sprinkle with remaining tablespoon sugar. Place the pan back into the oven and bake for another 25-30 minutes or until the biscuits are all nice and golden brown on top.

Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes before serving. Serve warm with a scoop or dollop of soothing creamy (coconut cream, yogurt, ice cream%u2026..whatever floats your boat.)

Left overs can be stored in pan, just cover it with something and place in fridge. Can be eaten cold to or reheated in microwave or oven.

I am sadly at my last few bags of frozen garden foods from last season. As of now I have a bag of tomatoes, a couple bags of shredded zucchini, and a bag of rhubarb. Well, had a bag of rhubarb. I think I have eaten almost all of it already. My rhubarb patch better get up and producing stalks soon. And as for the rest of the veggies that I will require. Guess I am going to be surviving mostly on roots from farm share (we are getting a lot more greens though!!!!) and probably doing a bit more grocery shopping then I care too. A few more months. I can do it.

Anyway, enough about my freezer and lack of fresh produce problems.

Here in Vermont maple season is well on it%u2019s way making it a perfect time for anything maple. And rhubarb. Yeah I am using my frozen rhubarb from last year, but any time now (after the snow melts) there will be plenty of stalks for the taking. There will be so much maple and so much fresh rhubarb which are the perfect taste combination. Exciting times! And when added to oatmeal, things just get more gooder. (I know gooder is not a word but I think it should be) Oatmeal, especially baked, is the stuff where all gooder things start.

Have you had baked oatmeal yet? It truly is fantastic. Not at all gummy and gloopy like stove topped cooked oatmeal (but I like it like that too). It still has a good bite to it while still being soft and creamy and boy oh boy is it just the bees knees. With the addition of some crunchy almond friends, well even better. Trust me. If you are a oatmeal eater, you must try it baked. Best part is that it can be eaten as breakfast but also I have been serving it to the mr for dessert with a healthy drizzle of more maple. It%u2019s that good friends. From breakfast to dessert. Everyone is happy.

To the baked oatmeal.

The stuff. Old fashion oats, cinnamon, salt, baking powder, rhubarb (fresh or frozen), REAL maple syrup, some plant milk, a few flax eggs, a bit of tahini, and some almonds.

To start. Oats, cinnamon. salt, baking powder and almonds get a quick toss together in a big bowl.

If you rhubarb is not already chopped up into inch long pieces, do that. I already did before freezing it so yea me. Once its chopped, layer almost all of it (reserve a few small needful to toss on top) into a lightly greased 9×9 inch baking dish then cover evenly with the oat mixture.

In now empty bowl mix together the milk, the flax eggs, the tahini, and the maple until evenly incorporated.

Pour the wet mixture all over the oats and let it absorb.

Once the liquid is all absorbed , top with any left over almonds and the left over rhubarb. For good looks.

Pop into a hot oven to bake.

Golden brown with crispy edges. Rhubarb and maple baked oatmeal for all your maple, oaty and rhubarbie needs.

Fresh from the oven scooped warm into bowls. Top with extra maple if thats what you should want do.

Enjoy and happy maple season!

-C

Make a 9×9 pan of oatmeal

• 2 1/2 cups old fashion oats (make sure gluten free if need be)

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 2 teaspoon cinnamon

• 1/3 cup maple syrup plus more for serving

• 1 tablespoon tahini or any other nut butter

• 2 flax eggs (2 tablespoons ground flax seed with 6 tablespoons warm water)

• 2 1/2 cups fresh or frozen rhubarb chopped into inch long pieces

• 1 1/2 cup plant milk (water works but it won%u2019t be as creamy)

• 1/2 cup chopped almonds (optional)

Preheat oven to 375

Lightly grease a 9×9 inch baking pan (I used metal because it makes for crisper edges but glass works too) and dump 2 cups of the rhubarb in and evenly distribute on the bottom. In a large bowl mis the oats, the baking powder, salt, and cinnamon together. Mix in chopped nuts if you are using. Evenly cover rhubarb with oat mixture. In now empty bowl mix together the milk, flax eggs, maple syrup, and tahini until evenly incorporated. Pour mixture over oats. Let the mixture sit for a few minutes until the oats have abosbed all the liquid. Toss the rest of the diced rhubarb and a few more chop nuts to the top and pop into the oven to bake.

Bake for 30-40 minutes (shorter time for a wetter oatmeal, longer for a denser crispier oatmeal)

Once baked to your likeness, remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes just so it is not super hot. Scoop into bowls and serve warm with extra maple and milk or whatever you might want to serve with it.

Left overs last great in fridge for 3-4 days or individual portions can be frozen for a month or two. Just pop into microwave for a couple minutes to warm up.

Who doesn’t like a good bun, right? %u00a0And just because this is where my mind wonders, peachy sweet buns. Doesn’t that sound like a pick up line or something you say to your significant other. Like, “Oh hey peachy sweet buns, you are looking good. Woo hoo”…….. Anyway, this is not about anyones peachy sweet buns, it it about actually sweet buns so u-hum, yeah.%u00a0

I am not trying to float my own boat here, but I am really really good at making buns, and you know what, I bet that you are too. They may seem a little intimidating, but really, it’s quite easy. I think what throws some people off is the yeasted dough and having to knead and waiting for the dough to rise,%u00a0but don’t let that stop you from sweet sweet buns. They are no harder to make then a boxed cake (maybe a little harder) and the results are by far more amazing and delightful (we don’t use the word delightful enough around here) then any old box or pre-made thing will ever be. Ever. Freshly made buns are what is right in this world.

If you are awesome and decide to make buns like any good person with a baking itch or a need for some sweet bun goodness does, make them peachy because its peach season and how can a peach bun not be that much more amazing? %u00a0Just think. Soft sweet dough, jammy cinnamon peaches, covered in a sweet lemony glaze……

Go on now, go and get yourself some peachy sweet buns.

The stuff. Flour and salt in the bowl, melted earth balance, brown sugar, yeast, warm soy milk, cane sugar, cinnamon, powdered sugar, a couple of lemons, and af course, peaches.

Warm (not hot) soy milk, yeast, cane sugar, an melted (but again, not hot) earth balance go into a big bowl and get whisked around. Then add in the flour and salt ans mix around until you just can’t.

Time to knead. Dump the dough ad all the little bits onto a flour surface. Gather it all together and knead away, for about 5-8 minutes, or until the dough looks like….

This. Nice and soft and glossy. %u00a0Lightly grease the bowl ans stick the dough back into it, covered with a towel, and set for about 1 hour to rise and double in size.%u00a0

As soon as the dough is set ti rise, start on your peach filling. Chop up enough peaches that you have about 2 1/2 cups of chunks.

Brown sugar and peach chunks go into a pot and stuck on a medium heat until they start to bubble then set to a low simmer for about 20 minutes or until the peaches all break apart and reduce by half.

Add in the cinnamon and stir.. Peachy goodness. Now quick and stick that shit in the fridge or freezer to cool down.

BOOM. Dough did what it’s job and doubled. Time o make the buns.%u00a0

Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and roll our into a rectangle of sorts that is about 1/2 an inch thick%u00a0

Cover the surface with all the peachy jammy goodness, and sprinkle on the remaining finely chopped peaches.

And roll, as tightly as you can, without squeezing all the filling out. I roll towards me, but roll away from you if it is easier. %u00a0It might get a little sloppy… it’s ok, just lick your fingers and keep going.%u00a0

Rolled and cut into 12 pieces.

Place the rolls carefully onto a grease and parchment lined baking 9×13 baking dish. In my picture I used a baking pan, which was not what I wanted to do, but I wasn’t thinking properly and so that’s what I did. Something with sides is preferable, but the baking pan did the job so really, your call.%u00a0

When you place the buns in the dish, place them toughen a bit, it helps then bake up high instead of out. %u00a0And any remaining go on jam that spilled out can get scraped right on top of the buns,%u00a0if you didn’t already eat it.

Now into the preheated oven these %u00a0babies go.

Look at those beauts. And they smell. A-MAZ-ING!!%u00a0

Right away get that glaze made. Powdered sugar, lemon zest, ans lemon juice. Super easy, just add the zest and juice to sugar and mix until smooth and glaze.%u00a0

Pour glaze over warm buns. Make sure to hit them all or someone is going to be pissed they didn’t get enough glaze…..%u00a0

Then it’s really just up to you whether you wait for coffee or tea or not, but really, just eat right away. There should be very little time between newly glazed buns and a bun in your face.

Enjoy the peaches!

-C

Makes 12 Buns

• For the Dough%u00a0
  • 3 1/2 cups all purposes flour
  • 1/4 %u00a0cup cane sugar
  • 1 cup warm soy milk
  • 2 teaspoon or 1 packet yeast
  • 4 tablespoons melted vegan butter%u00a0
  • 1 teaspoon salt
• For the Filling%u00a0
  • 3-4 good sized ripe peaches (about 3 cups chopped peaches)
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon cinnamon
  • Juice of half a lemon
• For the Glaze
  • 1 lemons
  • 1 1/2 cup powered sugar

In a large bowl mix together the yeast,%u00a0warm (not hot) soy milk,%u00a0sugar, and melted but cooled butter. Now add in %u00a0the salt and the flour. Mix until it’s too hard to mix then dump it all onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 7-10 minutes until the dough is %u00a0soft, elastic-y,%u00a0and smooth. Place dough back into a clean lightly greased bowl and drape with a damp towel. Let dough rise for about 1 to 1.5 hours or until it has doubled in size.

While the dough is rising, chop the peaches up until you have about 3 cups.%u00a0Place 2 1/2 cups of the %u00a0peaches into a medium sized pot with the brown sugar and lemon juice and stick on medium heat. Set the rest aside. Cook for about 20 minutes, stirring and mashing with a wooden spoon every few minutes,%u00a0until mixture has become thick and reduced by about 1/2. Remove from heat, stir in cinnamon,%u00a0%u00a0and place in fridge to cool.%u00a0

Once thee dough has doubled, dump onto a flour surface and roll our into a retacnge that is about 1/2 inch thick %u00a0Grab your peach mixture and spread the mixture evenly over the dough. Evenly distribute %u00a0the remaining chopped peaches over jam. %u00a0And then it’s the to roll.

Start from the long side and start to roll toward the other end, keeping it as tight as possible without squeezing out all the filling. %u00a0Once rolled, slice into 12 even sized buns.

Place on a lightly greased and parchment lined 9×13 inch baking sheet or pan and let rest and rest for another20 minutes or so. OR if you want to wait to bake them off,%u00a0cover them with plastic and set into the fridge for up to 24 hours. When you are ready to bake, remove from fridge and let the buns set on counter to come to room temperature before baking.%u00a0

Preheat oven to 350.

Place rolls into oven. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until all the buns have gotten a nice golden brown on top, and if you want to take the internal temp, that the temp has reached 190.%u00a0

Once the buns are done %u00a0baking, mix together the zest and juice of the lemon and powdered sugar. If the glaze seems to thick, add more juice or water, to think, add more sugar. Pour glaze all over warm (but not hot) buns.

And now all you need to do is serve up those buns right away, nice and warned.

Any left overs should be stored in the fridge for 3-4 days but should definitely be warmed up in the microwave for a minute or two before serving. They also freeze well too.%u00a0

We need fresh, we need green, we need color.

We need salad. %u00a0

The other night I made Megan’s birthday dinner which consisted of pizza and salad. The pizza was pizza and everyone loved it and ate it, but what surprised me was how everyone was really into the salad. A big ass bowl or fresh greens with onions and I think carrots and cabbage and some cranberries I pulled form the freezer and candies almonds. Simple and not fussy, and everyone was just so happy to eat it. I felt like a salad genus and now I am full on into making fun awesome spring salads. (I have to keep reminding myself that yes, it is indeed spring.%u00a0So what we got snow yesterday, it will melt, right????%u00a0)%u00a0

So I bring to you a a bowl of fresh crispy spring greens with crunch and bite and creaminess and flavor. A salad that will bring you joy and satisfaction and maybe even anticipation for your next salad adventure.%u00a0Not to mention a salad that looks so dang pretty.%u00a0

Get into the green. You will be as happy as a rabbit in a garden.%u00a0

The stuff. Greens, red onion, an avocado, almonds, blueberries, and a lemon. Also need some maple syrup, olive oil, red wine vinegar, and salt and pepper.%u00a0

A couple teaspoons of maple %u00a0go in with the almonds. Really toss make sure they are all coated.

Place the almonds into a hot skillet cook for about 5-7 minutes or until the maple has become sticky and the almonds no longer raw.%u00a0

When they are done,%u00a0dump them onto a piece of parchment to cool. Don worry if they clung a little, you can break them apart once they are hard.%u00a0

Easy ass dressing. Blueberries. juice from the lemon, olive oil, vinegar, a tiny splash of maple, and a good pinch or pepper.%u00a0

Blended then done. Taste and season with salt if needed.%u00a0

Avocado gets cut into small chunks and the onion get s thinly sliced.

It’s all ready, so now make a salad

Makes 2-3 %u00a0salads%u00a0

• 1/4 pound greens ( I used spring mix but mesclun mix or spinach is good too)%u00a0
• 1/2 %u00a0red onion
• 1 avocado

For the Almonds%u00a0

• 1/3 cup raw halved or slivered almonds
• 2 teaspoons maple syrup%u00a0

For the Blueberry lemon Vinaigrette%u00a0

• 1/3 cup blueberries (I used %u00a0frozen)
• 1 lemon
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 2 Tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon maple syrup
• pinch or salt
• pinch or pepper

To make the %u00a0candied almonds, preheat a skillet to on medium heat on top of the stove.%u00a0Place almonds into a small bowl and drizzle with maple syrup. Stir to coat. When the pan is hot, dump the maple covered almond into it and spread them out. Cook for a 3 minutes, then give a stir and cook for a 3 or so more minutes or until the maple has evaporated and the almonds are starting to brown. Dump the almonds directly onto a piece of parchment paper to cool and hardened. Do worry if they stick together a bit, you can break them apart after.%u00a0

To make the vinaigrette,%u00a0place the berries into a jar (if using stick blender) or blender with the juice of the lemon, olive oil, vinegar, maple, and a pinch of pepper Blend until smooth. Taste then add a very small pinch of salt or more to taste.%u00a0

For salad. Thinly slice the onion and dice the avocado. Place greens into bowl(s) and toss with onions and avocado. Top with %u00a0candied almonds and drizzle all over with the vinaigrette. Grab a fork and eat.

Any left over dressing will last in fridge for about a week and left over almonds will be good for.a few weeks in a airtight container.%u00a0%u00a0%u00a0

I am on full fledged baking mode. I bought the Costco sized bag of flour, stocked up on spices and chocolate chips, and am counting down the days to when all the littles come over for the cookie decorating party. But I am also trying to pace myself because I don’t need to have cookies, cake, and candies all over the house quite yet. The season is young and the time for stuffing your face with all the candies and cookies awaits. Until then, (next week sounds about right) sensible baking like bread and scones (yes, scones are sensible)

The other morning I woke up and was very determined that I must make scones. I don’t really know why scones, maybe it was the news of Prince Harrys engagement %u00a0(the dream of being princess is now dead)%u00a0%u00a0but it was a fierce determination..%u00a0 And they had to be cranberry because well, I have a tone of cranberries in the fridge. And I know I could have made them just cranberriy, but why not add a little chocolate. Still sensible in my book.%u00a0 So scones I did make. And after he shared one with Barb,%u00a0the mr has been eating them for breakfast which is just another reason why they are sensible…they are breakfast food.%u00a0

The stuff. Flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt (all in the bowl). Sugar, coconut oil, cinnamon, soy milk and vinegar. And of course fresh cranberries and chocolate chips.

The sugar and cinnamon go into the bowl with the rest of the dry…whisk it all together. Oh, and preheat the oven.

Mix a tablespoon of vinegar into the milk so it starts to sour.

Coconut oil gets cut in to the mixture.. You want a course crumb, kind of like pea sized chunks of oil mix around in there.

And now rough chop the cranberries which is a little difficutl because they all want to roll away, but you can do it.%u00a0

I rough chopped the chocolate chips as well because why not.

Mix the cranberries and chocolate into the mixture until evenly incorporated.

Gently mix until the dough just comes together. Dump our onto a well floured surface.%u00a0

Pat the dough into a circle and flatten out until it’s about an inch and a half thick. Cut the circle into 8-10 equal pieces.%u00a0

Place the scones on a baking sheet and brush with a little milk. Pop them into the preheated oven%u00a0

Pop them out when they are all nice and golden brown.%u00a0

Place them on a cooling rack.

And watch them disappear or like a sensible person, eat one everyday for breakfast.%u00a0

Have a great weekend.

-C

makes 8-10 scones

• 2 %u00a01/4 cups flour%u00a0
• 1/3 cup %u00a0sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon%u00a0
• 1 %u00a0teaspoon baking powder%u00a0
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 1 hefty cup fresh cranberries
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 3/4 cup plant milk plus about a tablespoon more for brushing on top
• 1 tablespoons apple cider vinegar%u00a0

Preheat oven to 375.%u00a0

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and sugar. Add the vinegar to the milk and set aside. With a pastry cutter or 2 knives, cut the coconut oil into the dry mixture until it becomes a course crumb.%u00a0

Rough chop the cranberries and the chocolate chips (optional on the chocolate chips) and toss both into the bowl. Give it a quick mix to coat it all then dump in the milk. Mix until the dough comes together (DON”T OVER MIX) then dump the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Gather the dough into a ball and flatten out into a disk that is about and inch and a half thick. Cut into 8-10 equal sized wedged and place not a baking sheet. Brush the tops with a little milk and pop into the preheated oven.

Bake for 25 minutes or until the tops are all nice and golden brown. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

Then eat them .

I have been so excited all week to make this star bread.%u00a0About a week ago, while perusing %u00a0King Arthur Flour recipes, I saw this %u00a0amazing star shaped cinnamon bun situation and just knew that I had to make it. I checked the recipe, made a a bunch of tweaks (made it vegan and a little simpler) and set a date with the oven. I figured that Friday was the day because well, this bread is basically a really pretty cinnamon bun and cinnamon buns are great for the weekend and plus the temperature in the world dropped to like super freaking freazing cold and what better way to stay warm then to crank the oven.%u00a0

And make it I did. And honestly. this was one of the most satisfying bread bakes that I have had in a while. It is just so dang pretty and smells so good and was honestly way easier to make then it looks (seriously, really simple). I don’t know if I am ever going to be ale to make cinnamon buns the regular way again. I mean look at this. %u00a0And best to let you know that it feeds a crowd, which is fantastic if you are going to be having any big family/friend gatherings in the next month or two. (or if you are just awesome and want to eat the whole thing to your face). Think about it, if you make this for the people (or yourself) %u00a0how cool and awesome and fancy you are going to seem. It’s really a win win win all around here so I don’t see a reason to not make it. Trust me, and thank me later.%u00a0

The stuff of stars. Flour. salt. yeast and soy milk. A little oil, sugar, mashed sweet potato, earth balance %u00a0and cinnamon.%u00a0

To start, a %u00a0couple of tablespoons sugar and the yeast go into the warm soy milk to kick start that yeast and get mixed together.

Salt, oil, and mashed sweet potato go into the big bowl with the flour.

Then the yeast mixture gets pouted in too. Get ready to mix. And mix.

And after mixing, some kneading. %u00a0A well floured surface with a extra flour on the side is needed here. You are going to want to knead the dough for about 5 minutes, adding a little flour whenever the dough gets to sticky.%u00a0

Once the dough is nice and smooth looking, cover it in oil and stick it into a bowl and cover it %u00a0and let %u00a0rise for about an hour.%u00a0

Make your cinnamon sugar mixture while waiting .%u00a0

Dough doubled in size and dumped onto the well flour counter.%u00a0

Take a dough cutter or knife and divided the dough %u00a0into four equal pieces and roll each piece into ball.

While keeping your surface well floured, roll a dough ball into circle (or as close to a circle as you can get it) about 12 inched wide%u00a0

Place rolled dough onto parchment paper and cover the surface with %u00a0earth balance. Then sprinkle a third of the cinnamon sugar mixture all over that.

Grab another ball of dough and roll it out the same size as the first and place on top the first dough. Repeat the earth balance and sugar mixture and then cover that with another rolled out dough. Earth balance and sugar mixture one more time, then the last dough.

All stacked up.Take the rolling pin and give the whole stacked thing a gentle little roll, just to make sure all layers are stuck together.

The fun part. Grab a small circle cutter or lid (I used small jar lid) and place directly in the middle. Take your dough cutter and score your cuts. Score into quarters then each corner into six pieces. You end up with twenty-four pieces.%u00a0There needs to be a even amount of pieces in order for the design to work so you could do %u00a022-16 pieces. I wouldn’t %u00a0go less.

To get the twist, grab a piece in each hand, give a little tug and twist the pieces towards each other 3 times. Take the ends and kind of tuck and pinch them together. %u00a0Repeat until all the pieces care twisted.%u00a0

%u00a0This is probably the most pretty cinnamon thing I have ever seen.%u00a0

Slide the star on the parchment onto a baking sheet and cover to rise and rest for about half hour or so and get the oven preheated.

After the second rise and right before you stick it into he oven, brush the top with a little plant milk.

And into the hot oven it goes.%u00a0

Aaaaa. So freaking pretty!%u00a0

After a few minutes, if you decided you want a little glaze action, go for it. I made up a super simple one, just a splash of vanilla in powder sugar with a splash of milk.%u00a0

Drizzled and ready for action.%u00a0

makes 12-13 servings%u00a0

For the dough%u00a0

• 2 3/4%u00a0 cups all purpose flour plus more for kneading.
• 1/4 cup mashed sweet potato *
• 1 1/4 cup warm soy (or any plant) milk plus 1 tablespoon to brush on pre bake
• 1/4 cup neutral oil plus 1 tablespoon to coat dough
• 1 packet or 2 teaspoon yeast
• 2 tablespoons sugar%u00a0
• 1 teaspoon salt

for filling

• 7 tablespoons %u00a0sugar
• 2 tablespoon cinnamon
• 3 tablespoons room temperature earth balance

For icing (optional)

• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 2-3 teaspoons plant milk

*I just mashed up a 1/4 cup of a roated sweet potato that I had in the fridge. If you don’t have a roasted potato laying around, you can steam of roast a sweet potato and mash it up for this.%u00a0

Measure milk into a large jar or bowl. Mix in 2 tablespoons sugar and the yeast. Set aside to activate.%u00a0In a large bowl mix together the flour and salt. Add in the sweet potato,%u00a0oil, and the soy yeast mixture. Mix together with a wooden spoon or dough spoon until you can’t. If the dough seems really wet, add in another 1/4 cup of flour. %u00a0Once mixed as well was you can get it, dump the dough onto well floured surface. Start kneading the dough, adding a little flour as you go if needed. Knead for about 5 minutes or until the dough is a nice soft but not to sticky uniform ball. Cover dough with a little oil and place into large clean bowl. Cover with a towel and let dough rise in a warm place for about an hour or until it doubles in size.

Mix the cinnamon and sugar together while waiting.

Once dough has risen, dump it onto a well floured surface and divide into 4 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a ball then grab the first ball and roll out into a large circle about 12 inches wide. Don’t worry hear if the circle is not perfect, its going to be fine. Place first circle onto piece of parchment paper and cover the surface with 1 tablespoon of earth balance. Sprinkle with a third of the cinnamon sugar mixture. Grab another dough ball and roll out to the same size as the first and place onto of the cinnamon sugared dough. Repeat the earth balance cinnamon sugar and top with another rolled out dough. Once more with the remaining earth balance and cinnamon sugar and top with the last rolled out dough. Take rolling pin and give the whole stacked thing a little roll to make sure it’s all stuck together well.

For the design part. Grab a small circle shaped thing about 2 inches wide (I used a jar lid) and place directly in the center of the dough. Take a dough cutter or sharpe knife and lightly score into quarters then each quarter into 6 pieces You could also cut less pieces, but the main thing you need is to have an even number of pieces for the design to work.%u00a0Once your lines are good, cut the lines by pushing down into the dough and not slicing back and forth. %u00a0Grab a piece in each hand and gently %u00a0twist the pieces towards each other 3 times then pinch the ends together. Repeat until all the pieces are twisted together. Slide the star onto a large baking sheet, cover, and let rest and rise for another 1/2 hour.%u00a0

Preheat oven to 400

When the star is risen again and right before it’s going into the oven, brush the top with a little plant milk. Pop it into the oven and bake for about 20- 25 minutes, or until the top is a nice deep gold brown.

Remove from oven and let cool a little bit. If you want a little icing, mix together the vanilla, powdered sugar, and plant milk. Wait until the star is less the hot and drizzle all over.

And now it’s time to get at it. Eat what you want and store the rest in an air tight container.%u00a0

As a reward to ourselves for finishing the floor laying week (what a freaking week, I will share some pictures soon) I stayed home for a little while yesterday morning and made some donuts for the mr ( I got to bake and do a little knitting and he got donuts.) Initially I was gonna make a cake, had it on my agenda for a cake at some point this week, but last minutes I felt the need to use my unused donut pan. I think it was a good call. Donuts don’t require as much pumpkin puree.%u00a0 I roasted a pumpkin a few days ago for the purpose of baking a cake with it but have slowly eaten most of it (on accident) so that there was just enough left to make the donuts. I have no willpower when it comes to roasted squash, I can’t stop eating it.

Anyway,%u00a0 I had me a mighty fine morning of trashing the kitchen, using my pretty mixing bowls, basking in the glory of the residual heat coming from the oven, and making the house smell all nice and fall spicy. And now there are donuts in the house with lots of sprinkles and only the mr to eat them. He really really likes them, like a lot. (me “don’t eat all those f*ing donuts dude, save some for later!”)

Another reason donuts were a good call, they are easy to share. Maybe I should go drop off a few to a friend. Any takers?

The donut stuff. Flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt are in that bowl. Then we have pumpkin puree(homemade or canned) soy milk(or any milk), brown sugar, cinnamon, oil, and apple cider vinegar

All the wet stuff gets mixed together and the dry stuff plus the cinnamon gets whisked together too.

Wet into dry and mixed until combined.

Scoop batter into well greased donut pan and don’t do what I did and overfill (I always forget not to overfill). My fist batch came out a little bit bigger the expected with holes. No biggie.

Once pan is filled,%u00a0 pan goes into preheated oven. Bake until golden perfection (about 15-18 minutes or until a tester comes out clean)

Slightly overflown donuts cooked to all the goodness and popped out of the pan to cool on a cooling rack.

Glaze stuff. Powdered sugar, cocoa powder, a pinch of salt, a splash of vanilla, and a bit of soy milk….Mix it all together and that’s that.

Completely cooled donuts (very important to be completely cooled) go heads down into the bowl of glaze.

All glazed and looking good but I think somethings missing…..

Pumpkin, chocolate, sprinkles. BOOM!!!

Happy Friday!!!!

makes 10 donuts

For donuts

• 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup soy milk (any milk works)
• 3 tablespoons neutral oil like canola
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

For the glaze

• 7 heaping tablespoons powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 2 tablespoons soy milk
• splash vanilla
• pinch of salt
• sprinkles!!!!…optional

Preheat oven to 350

In a big bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and baking soda, salt, and the cinnamon. In a separate bowl mix together the pumpkin puree, sugar, soy milk, oil and the apple cider vinegar. Dump the wet mixture into the dry and mix until combined.

Ready the donut pan by really making sure it is well grease. Fill each donut mold about a 3/4 way full. I use a spoon but you could transfer that batter to a piping bag if you want. Place pan into oven and bake for 15-18 minutes or until the donuts are golden brown and a fork stabbed into one comes out clean. Pop donuts out of mold and let cool completely on a cooling rack.

Note. I have one pan that does 6 at a time. I had to wash, dry and re-grease the panto bake all the donuts.

Once donuts are cooled, gather the glaze ingredients. In a shallow bowl whisk together the sugar, cocoa, and salt. Add in a splash of vanilla and then the soy. Mix together until a glossy not to thick but not to thin consistency . If its too thick, add in another splash of milk, to think, more powdered sugar.

To glaze, take each donut and place face down in glaze and give it a little twirl.%u00a0 Remove and place back on cooling rack (glaze size up) and cover with sprinkles. (optional)

Then eat the donuts

Any uneaten can be placed in airtight container for 2-3 days or can be stuck into freezer.

I know that sometime some of the foods that I eat might seem a little strange to people. But think about it. Isn’t there something that you eat that other people think is kinda weird or that you know might be a little on the strange side and yet you love it.%u00a0

So apple lentils. I know some people think it’s weird, but trust me, it’s not, it’s actually pretty freaking magical. Lentils, especially red lentils, have a mild, nutty flavor that make them perfect to use in any type of dish, sweet or savory. And so nutritional value, with protein up the wazoo, these little guys are mega fantastic and yeah. SO don’t knock it till you try it.

Now first off, YAY for apple season!!! Aren’t we just so happy for fresh delicious apples? I am, so much so that I have made up a super cool apple jig where my head bobs up and down and my legs shift and convulse all over the place. ( could be mistaken for a seizure) It’s a sight to see for sure.%u00a0 And a second YAY for warm food again. The past week or two I have been waking up to temps in the 50’s giving the world just enough chill for a cozy morning sweater, a throw blanket and a nice hot bowl of breakfast porridge. (It also taste fantastic made ahead then eaten cold if the world decides to get warm again) My morning have been great, all cuddled on the couch with a book. my coffee, ad a bowl of apple lentil porridge. Best way to start the day.

The stuff. An apple, some red lentils, water, and some cinnamon. You can also add some maple or brown sugar to the mix if you want more sweetness.

Firstly, water ans lentils go into a pot and placed on the stove until the the water is boiling.

While that is happening, chop up you apple.%u00a0 Big pieces, little pieces, or both. I like both because the smaller pieces kinda of dissolve in the lentils and the bigger chunks will keep shape.

So once your lentils have started to boil, dump inmost (save a little bit to toss on after the lentils are cooked)%u00a0 of the chopped up apple and a good pinch or two of cinnamon. Mix it all around and place back on heat on low so simmer and cook.

Soft and all cooked to perfection. Gorgeous.

Dump the porridge into a bowl, add on the left over chunks of apples and give it another good sprinkle of cinnamon.

Breakfast of champions right here.

And because it’s what I eat every day…I am a champion.

You can be one too! (just eat some lentils)

-C

Makes one serving but can easily be double

• 1/2 cup dried red lentils
• 1 cup water
• an apple ( mac, honey crisp, paula red are good varieties)
• 1 teaspoon or so of cinnamon

Optional… Add a little sweetener like maple or brown sugar if you want

Stick water and lentils go into a pot and bring to a boil. Chop apple into pieces, some big, some small or all the same size. Once the lentils are boiling, dump in most of the chopped apple (save about 1/4 of it for later) into the pot and sprinkle with cinnamon. Stir around, reduce heat to a low and cook until the lentils are soft (about 10 minutes) Once they are cooked, taste and decide if you need sweetener. If you do, add a teaspoon or two of whatever in now and mix around then,transfer the lentil goodness into a bowl, toss on remaining apple chunks, sprinkle with cinnamon, and go to town.

Spoon to mouth. Happiness.

Sometime you look back at a week and think, blah, or whatever, or that sucked. This week I look back and smile. It was a good week. Nothing to special, just springy and warm. I got to hang out with my peoples, see the world turn green and lush, and I didn’t stress too much about anything because what is the point? Plus I bought a single pink carnation at the grocery store at the beginning of the week for the mr. and every time I see it, I smile a little. Sometimes just a little something something is all we need.

So yeah, the week was good. There was the normal stuff of work and what not but also a fair amount of not work stuff. I saw my moms for Mothers day and brought her food. The mr and I went for some long walks that did not involve any outdoor clothing (just normal indoor clothing) We hung out with the littles for a good afternoon of tree house chilling, baby running, three wheeling, and all sorts of other fun. Miley was super pumped to show off her new shoes that are partially gold. She was obsessed and needed to wash them off at the end of the day. Those were the days,when you cared about your shoes? (I am assuming you don%u2019t now , like me, but maybe you do.) Also Barb finally come back to me (school is over so she has time again) me and I feed her soup. Megan also came over for a soup lunch and a walk because that is what we do. (We are a family of eaters and walkers.) I worked on some clay rainbows, planted some more plants, and cleaned under my fingernails. The one big thing that I tried to accomplish and haven%u2019t yet managed is the bike thing. I have been shopping for a new bike and it is so so so HARD! I am not good at buying anything in general, especially when it is for me, and not food, and costs more than 5 bucks. But not just that, it%u2019s that there are so so so many bikes to choose form. I am all like , YIKES! And so I did myself a favor and just gave myself another week to ponder and look and decide. The right bike will present itself when it is suppose to, or when I finally break down and just buy this one.

Yesterday was a good solid day of getting shit done. I got the winter tires changed to summer (thanks Justin!) and hung with Alex while it was happening. We talked music and cassette tapes and how music is everything. Then I went home to the yard and all the massive piles of leaves, dead tree(so sad) and over all lawn degree and the mr and I got it all into the truck to send off to compost land. After hitting the transfer station to offload we made a really quickly stop over to see Anthony getting ready for his prom%u2026.Oh my shit. The kid is like not a kid anymore and was wearing a tux and looking all old and what not. The shinny ass shoes alone were too much for me. (more shoes that need cleaning). How is it possible that I have a sister that is old enough to have a kid that is old enough to be going prom? OH, because I am getting old. That is how. Ha.

And after that, it was back home to finish cleaning and eat dinner and water the garden and feel exhausted but accomplished. I don%u2019t mind being super tired, just as long as I have something to show for it (The yard looks A+ so I am happy)

I think today mainly going to be a work day. The mr has a project that he is in the middle of so he is going to be doing that all day and I have a few things I need to get done and then a ton of other things that need doing as well. Don%u2019t worry, I will be spending some of that time outside with the green things in the dirt, making sure I have sun screen on, listening to some good tunes and drinking coffee like it is going out of style.

The ways of the internet this week.

– The news of abortions and women reproductives rights has been front and center this week. The lengths women have to go to to do what is right for themselves is shameful at best, but basically pretty fucking grotesque. These are the people that are trying to help. The Secret Baby Catchers of Alabama.

–Report: U.S. Navy Cracks Case Of Majestic Sky Dick. Phew. Now we know who to hire for our own sky dick.

-Can%u2019t wait for that new pool to be build around the corner%u2026NOT. And really, didn’t we all know this already? Your Neighborhood Pool Is Full of Unshowered Pee-ers

-A lot of breakfast food in America is basically junk food if you really think about it. Muffins (really cupcakes), pancakes (really cake covered in maple sugar), Pop tarts (pie) yogurt (almost ice cream)%u2026 Its all just desert with a different name. I Broke Breakfast. Americans eat a narrower variety of foods for breakfast than anyone else.%u00a0

-Imagine the magic.. I get feels just thinking about this place. A Fleeting Dandelion Wish Processing Facility Appears For Two Days Outside of Los Angeles

–ECLECTIC DINING STYLE.. I want all the tables and chairs. Just where to put them%u2026%u2026????

-After reading the list, I feel pretty dang awesome cause I clean all that shit! Cleaning Supplies Might be Spreading Dirt Around Here%u2019s How to Clean Them This Weekend

–How Did Chickpea Flour, A Staple Of Indian Cuisine, Become A Health Food Sensation? Because it is amazing. See recipe for Socca.

–Have you tried plogging, the Instagram trend that might be the sustainable sport of the future?. Even if it%u2019s trendy and a way to be cool, well it is pretty cool and great and I am all for it.

–Can %u201cIndie%u201d Social Media Save Us? Something needs too.

Pictures from the week.

And all of a sudden the world is green and it is mazing and magical. The best time of the year, when all the cool and wet weather pays off with sunshine and flowers and the greenest greens. No longer freezing and it is yet to be too freaking hot. Spring spring SPRING. It is not lost on me. I take it, I suck it up, I appreciate it all. Even the cray cray rain storms. What a time, what a time.

Last week we started off Sunday going to see some jumping fish. We packed our lunches, grabbed the camera, drove the 2 hours to the river and sat around watching and waiting. Sadly we saw no jumping fish. And that was that in case you were wondering. One of these years we will see it.

The rest of the week has been a little crazy. In between work and chores and life stuff, just about every day we have had anywhere between 2-4 littles. What for their parents needed a sitter or a ride here and there cause their car broke down. Or just some aunt and uncle hang time because who doesn%u2019t want to hang with us? So beside the mr finish off the trophies for the Lund Family Fund Raiser, me working the pug mill at the studio, or us trying to trade off the car in hopes that we both can get where we need to go in time for getting there. (Oh man the car thing, that is a whole other beast.) Yeah, it%u2019s been busy and hectic. On the bright side we have spent a lot of the time running around outside, drawing, and eating. A few little highlights. One of the nights So was feeling a little sick and Coco was feeling mean and wouldn’t let her nap on the couch so she ended up dragging a bunch of pillows into the pantry and falling asleep. It just made sense. Then there was Judah with his mad drawing skills drawing me pictures of vegetables (amazing) then farting with his armpits. And Miley, with her tude and phone. Getting her to hang out and just be sweet was nice. And Coco. That freaking little. Always happy, always eating, always causing trouble. Loves to run into the garden and jump all over the couch covered in peanut butter. (that is the baby, not me. ha) We found him a three wheeler. His legs might be too short but we will figure it out. It is gonna be a fun summer!

After the week long little marathon that ended with sticky littles eating pancakes (and being dangerously low on maple syrup), thrift store shopping (I scored the best new photo piece), and stopping in on my maybe future new bike(???), I came home and cleaned the crap out of everything. It never fails to amaze me how gross kids can be. The toilet alone, well, lets not go there.

Today, as it is Mothers Day and all, I am going to be a dutiful daughter and go see my Mama. Right now (at the wee early hour of 5 am, I%u2019m about to pop some bread and then a cake into the oven as offerings. We are going over around lunch so I%u2019m going make focaccia grilled cheeses (with the fresh bread) and hand over the blueberry cake that she loves. Then hopefully just spend a couple hours drinking lots of coffee and chilling on the porch.

Look at me, I am such a good daughter.

Links of interest on the internet.

–Yes, I’m In School for Nutrition. No, I Don’t Want to Hear About Your Diet. I feel this. Sometimes people feel like they need to tell me everything they eat, for approval or something. And I actually don%u2019t mind talking about what people eat. I’ll even make suggestions about foods that I like to eat or ways to prepare certain things but I stay away from telling people what not to eat%u2026 (people always assume I am going to tell them to not eat meat. I say, I do me. You do you.)

-I don%u2019t know how may times I have seen Bill and Teds Excellent Adventure. This should be good. PlusI totally have a thing for Keanu Reeves. Bill & Ted are embarking on a third excellent adventure next year

–How Weeds Help Fight Climate Change. Weeds are not the problem friends. The chemicals that people use to get rid of them are!

-If you are interested in VT State Parks, here its the list of all the parks opening days. Can%u2019t wait for CAMPING!!!

-Did you go through an Arizona iced tea phase? I had a very brief stint with the green tea%u2026 I can%u2019t even imagine drinking one now. The Dream of the %u201990s Is Alive in AriZona Iced Tea

–An Interview With A Man Who Eats Leftover Food From Strangers’ Plates In Restaurants. I think this is awesome and have much respect.

-A question the I didn%u2019t know I wanted answered until I read this article. Why do cats%u2014and so many other animals%u2014look like they%u2019re wearing socks?

-I get all sorts of feels when I see pandas. MY favorite favorite animal growing up. I carried a pink polka dotted panda around with me for years. SO many panda things. So this is fantastic and I hope to visit one day and hug me a panda (with pink polka dots) China%u2019s new panda park will be three times bigger than Yellowstone

–I have heard and seen some crazy fights in the past in places we have lived. A good few actually. It is never a comfortable thing but sadly, we got used to it. Listening to My Neighbors Fight

-Mothers Have Been Complaining About Mother%u2019s Day Breakfast in Bed for More than Half a Century. Why Does It Go On?. I am a strict, NO FOOD! in bed person. It just have zero desire to eat in bed so breakfast in bed sounds terrible to me. Plus I am awake at 430 every morning and I don%u2019t eat for a few hours after I wake up. It just wouldn%u2019t work.

And pictures from the week.

I think we are pretty much out of the clear. Yes I woke up yesterday morning to a light coating of snow on the ground, but I feel like that was it. It has got to be because I have to wash my winter jacket that is as of now, covered in dirt and concrete so it needs to be washed. And once it is washed, it is getting packed away with all of the other winter stuff. So you see, we really cannot have any more winter jacket weather because I won%u2019t have a jacket anymore. It must be sweater weather or warmer and that is that. Are you listening weather?

The week good, if not a bit hectic and all over. There was work, paper work, the %u201cmust not be mentioned%u201d and no they are not done yet but must be by next Monday or else. The mr has been running around all over town doing this and that which has been a slight pain because when he is super busy and I am busy and we only have one car and my bike needs a good tune up before it is safe%u2026 Well it makes things some what difficult. But so far we have managed and there wasn%u2019t too much arguing over car. We did manage to take a nice walk down by the lake, I also was able to sneak in a warm afternoon of clearing out the garden and picking up yard trash. The back porch is almost ready for summer living and green things are popping up all over the place making me ache for more more more. Think of it, trees with leaves. I am getting more excited every day.

Friday was a crazy day. Woke up, went to the gym with no plans other then work at the studio and having the littles over for dinner. By the time I came home I had plans to quickly make a cake before work because the littles pizza party turned into a family birthday party for Megan. So I made that cake, ran to work, moved 700lb of clay and loaded kilns. The mr picked me up with littles in tow, we ran home in time for all the family and partied partied until I kicked everyone out of the house at 7 because I was exhausted and plus Megan needed to go to Costco so she needed to leave anyway. Ha.

Yesterday, after a near sleepless night due to a racing mind, we woke up (again, to snow. BLAH), I bundled up and out we went to spend half the day pouring wet, heavy, cold concrete. I must say, pouring concrete usually isn%u2019t the worst, but yesterday, well it was. First off, we were working in very tight quarters making moving somewhat difficult.. Secondly, I was sore from all the clay moving the day before. And I was freezing. And tired, so so tired. By mid morning my fingers and toes had tuned to ice, I was covered in so much dirt and concrete, the mr was basically rolling around in dirt (reference picture above) so was trashed worse then me, but we were getting it done. The mr was brilliant and saved us so much time and hassle by coming up with a tarp and jostle concrete mixing technique so that was good. Anyway, the concrete was all poured and it is over. (Now we wait for it to set to finish porch construction) The rest of the day was short and went by with cleaning the house. I don%u2019t know how my family does it but there were sprinkles from the cake EVERYWHERE!

Today, after a quick romp to the gym, the library, the grocery store, and all the other little chores I need to do, the mr and I are going for a drive to look at a van. We need a work car. The life car is getting trashed, we have been having to get materials delivered (which costs money and stupid time) because we cannot fit wood and big stuff in the car, and it is just not practical for us to share. So van. A van for work, A van for cross country travel. A van for sanity. Hopefully this van is the one. Wish us luck.

Some stuff from the internet that you might care to look at.

-Thinking real hard about buying these Birkenstocks%u2026but not sure. Any opinions?

–Stop Asking Kids What They Want to Be When They Grow Up The question forces children to define themselves in terms of work. And really, what do you consider grown up?

-Gluten sensitive? Try sourdough. Why Some Gluten-Sensitive People Can Still Eat Sourdough Bread.

–Kitchen spices look startlingly different in the wild. So pretty

–Brown is one of my favorite colors

-Got a power drill? If yes, you also have a oven cleaner. I Cleaned My Oven with a Power Drill

–All Right. Some Cats Do Fetch. Only never fetched. That would have been beneath him. But he did respond to his name. Cats Might Not Act Like It, But They Know Their Names As Well As Dogs

-I very much like this house.

-Will Kevin Costner be my neighbor? Floating cities could ease the world%u2019s housing crunch, the UN says

–10 Things Nobody Tells You About Plywood. I love a good application of ply wood. We have plywood floor tiles in the pantry and our kitchen cabinets are plywood and they are great.

And some pictures from the week.

Hey there people. Happy end of March. Yes, it is true, already a quarter at the way through the year. And no, I don%u2019t know how it happened either. But so that is the way of time now isn%u2019t it.

A week, oh what a week. Not going to lie and say it as all to fanatic to start with. We have been so busy with work and other stuff. Other stuff being bills and paperwork and me trying to get the taxes done. (New rule. We just not mention taxes again until they are done). We did manage a warmish walk to with the littles to spend an hour arguing over weather they can get a king sized candy bar at the store over a lollipop (ended up with gummy worms). There was also a little wood carving, yarn weaving, library pursuing , and neighbor visiting to be had, but other then that, not much else of interest. The week just came and settled into what it was.

And then it was Friday which was a shit day. First off, it was the anniversary of Seans death so you know, already a not great day. But better yet, I Woke up at 4, stub my toe hard on the way back from the bathroom, laid in bed in pain until the throbbing subsided, went to the kitchen to start coffee. As soon as a I turned the faucet on, a little mouse ran across the counter. It took me a good minute of just staring at counter before I registered what happened and started to scream FUCK, FUCK FUCK! I woke the mr up with my profanity. Yup, a mouse in the house, munching on the a bowl of squash seeds I left on the counter. So what can you really do at 4 in the morning? Not much so I went to the gym. I then came home and started cleaning before I had to work at the studio but as I started in on cleaning, the vacuum decided to stop working. Agh. And so the cleaning ceased, I went to work, came home, ate dinner, emptied all the food from the pantry into bags and boxes, then felt all to defeated and sad to do much of anything so just crawled into bed. I figured I would just deal with it all Saturday and I just really needed the day to be over.

Yesterday was the lady, my moms, 60th birthday. Whoop whoop!!( HAPPY HAPPY TO MY MOM). I woke up, baked two cakes, two batches of focaccia, and home made mac and cheese, salad, prepared other foods, and then something for my dinner (my breath still have not recovered from the funk that is of a red onion eaten raw).There was a quick detour during the bake-a-thon to the library for the annual seed swap plus I definitely took out everything from the pantry and vacuumed and sprayed every surface and inspected every piece of food for mice disturbance. (I pretty much have the cleanest pantry ever now.) As for the rest of the house, it is still a mess. Not anything to do with mouse mess, just my Saturday, tear the house apart before I clean and put it back together, mess. While baking I starred in on my weekly clean but things happen and all of a sudden it was time for the mr and I to pack up all the food and head over to my moms house. There we finished food preparing, helped Erin decorate and clean up the house, and then lost my mind a bit. After a near breakdown due to lack of sleep, I mellowed out in time for everyone to show up while Mark and Paul were out with my mom for coffee. When they came home, Mom walked into a house full to the brim with all her kids and most of the grandkids. She was so very happy, I think%u2026.. Ha, no, she was. We then ate the dinner I spent the day slaving over, played outside, went for a walk that looked like a parade, came back for cake and ice cream and presents (everyone got her plants.), and whoa, before I knew it it was 7:30 pm and I was still awake and not in bed. Craziness. But that was it, I lost all steam. We came home to a half trashed house and I basically just assed the f out. The mr set the mouse traps. Have- a-heart, but also some not. I don%u2019t want to know. I just can%u2019t.

Today I am going to clean clean clean. Then maybe clip my toes nails, brush my hair, and get my head ready for the hectic week to come. It%u2019s going to be a full one. There is concrete pouring, the dreaded %u201cnot the be mentioned until they are done%u201d papers, I have a shit ton of stuff that needs to be glazed, seeds to start, yards to clean. It%u2019s spring. Everything needs to be done. Good thing the world has coffee. I am going to need it all.

P.S. It is official. The sandals are out. No more shoes for the next 6 months!

Here are some interesting reads from the interent this week. Read what you want.

-The most significant event in the history of earth. Thats some shit. The Day the Dinosaurs Died

–Why Do I Put Off Doing Things I Love? I know I have been guilty of doing before but I really try to use what I have, especially it is my favorite. Having shit just stashed away is pointless. Use it (whatever it is)

-I want to experience the greatness of the cherry blossom. 25 gorgeous photos of cherry blossoms

-Life we would be something with giant cats. Japanese Illustrator Imagines A World Where Humans Live Among Giant Animals

-I love airbnb but this is definitely something that has crossed my mind and kind of freaks me out. Airbnb Has a Hidden-Camera Problem. But there are cameras and hidden cameras everywhere so%u2026.

–Why Rewatching the Same Shows Is Actually Good For You. I get this. I barely watch tv, but when I do, I like to watch old shows that I have watched before. Gives me good feels and plus I don%u2019t have to pay attention. Plus. Too Much Video Streaming To Choose From? It’s Only Going To Get Worse

-Whoa dude. Yep, You Can Juice a Lemon Without Cutting It%u2014Here’s%u00a0How

–14 ways to break your plastic habit. Even doing a few of these things will make a difference.

-Awesome. KAWS Floats a Massive Inflatable Sculpture in Hong Kong%u2019s Victoria Harbour

–GREEN IN THE KITCHEN. Yes to all of them.

Pictures from the week.

Hey there lovely peoples. So nice of you to stop by. Hope all is well and dandy with you. Well and dandy.

Holy crap am I one tired lady. Mentally and physically but mostly mentally because it has been one of those weeks. It all started off with the mr and I both feeling like absolute crap. Sinus infections and some other fun stuff. Heads and brains super dysfunctional (although we can%u2019t blame being sick for all the dysfunction). I blame the ick on the weather and it not being spring yet. But let%u2019s not talk to much about the weather. It%u2019s a touchy subject for me right now and I just can%u2019t. Anyway, the week started slow. We got a few things done that needed doing then got ready to take off for PA to visit with my dad and go to my grandmothers funeral.

Took off mid week, the mr driving the 6ish hours down and over. A super sunny and bright day it was . One might think that sounds kind of nice but I hated it. Brightness while in a car without sunglasses makes for brain pain, at least in my case. So I had my head under a blanket for a few hours. Got to PA alright but as soon as we pulled into my dads driveway the wave of pain knocked me to my knees and I got a full fledge migraine. I haven%u2019t had one of those fun episodes in years and I can safely say that I hope to NEVER get one again. But after a night of zero restless sleep, I got up and rallied and went about the next day as half a human baking machine. Made the breakfast pancakes, some lunch, a birthday cake, cookies, my dinner, and cinnamon buns for the next morning. %u201cDon%u2019t worry%u201d my dad said. .%u201d We can go to the store and get as much flour and sugar as you will need!%u201d And so we did because I used a lot of flour.

The next morning was the funeral. Early to wake, walked the dogs, fed people buns and headed to the Catholic Church. The one my dad and his siblings went to for their entire childhood. OH boy oh boy, what a hoot. Their mother finally got them to go back one last time. HAHA. And as for me, I can say that was the first time I have ever been in a Catholic Church (for church reasons) and seen a catholic funeral. Very interesting to say the least. And I do go to hand it to the priest. He was pretty cool. Hip, sweet, not a typical catholic church man, and he kept calling my grandmother Ava instead of Eva. That got some laughs. My grandmother would have loved it.

The funeral ended and we all went to a restaurant and did the food thing with the family love fest. It was very bittersweet. Sad because of the loss but we were celebrating a freaking amazing lady and her amazing long life. Oh Grammy. She was the greatest, coolest, funniest little lady ever and I will miss her deeply. So yeah. Then after all the food we topped it off with the birthday cake I made for Teena cause it was her birthday too. My family, we packed it all in because that is how we do it.

After hugs, pictures, Shannon falling asleep in a booth, we headed back to the car and away we went, a long drive home with lots of shitty weather and bad roads. But we made it. And I even unpacked the car and managed to shower off before passing out. And a pass out was exactly what I needed and still kind of do. I told myself I would let myself sleep in a bit, but 430 came and look at me, awake.

So it%u2019s today and I must do some stuff. I%u2019m going to go to the gym for the morning, Run run run until I cannot possibly run anymore. Then I will come home and eat eat eat until I can not possible eat any more. After that it is a bunch of chores that need to be done and I need to go see the littles because I miss them. And I know I will need a nap at some point because I am feeling the even all the coffee in the world will not be enough to keep my brain afloat for a full day. Or maybe I%u2019ll just go to bed at a unreasonabley early hour. (5ish sounds good to me. Ha. But really) Yup yup, looking forward to that.

Until then.

Internet link from the online.

–Greener Childhood Associated With Happier Adulthood. NO SHIT for reals.

-My Library even lends out baking pans and garden tools! 8 Unexpected Perks of a Library Card. And I don%u2019t think the article mentions, but library cards are cool people card to. HA

–Thank a cloud today. Five reasons you shouldn’t take cloud cover for granted. OH how I love me a nice cloudy day.

-Nothing like FRESH HORSERADISH ROOT. Might be picking up a piece today to knock out my sinus crud.

–Do anxious owners make for anxious dogs? Yes. There is no question in my mind what so ever.

-I listen to a story about this article on NPR. It%u2019s really crazy how people, especially in our culture, are living to work,n to working olive. Workism Is Making Americans Miserable

–A scientist on the myth of ugly produce and food waste. Interesting, very interesting.

-I don%u2019t need a baby nursery but if I did (or ever do) I want it to look just like this. MARIGOLD%u2019S NURSERY TOUR

-What. I thought they were real. Balloon Birds by Terry Cook Mimic Their Real-Life Counterparts

–Vanuatu Has One Of The World%u2019s Strictest Plastic Bans. It%u2019s About To Get Tougher. We all (the entire world) should be getting tougher.

And some pictures from the week.

Did you get a good dumping of snow this week? Sunday was awesome. A good foot and a half and it came down fast. Enough where everyone was pretty much snowed in for a least part of the day. Too bad it was mother freaking cold out so being outside for too long was very uncomfortable, but still. Any snow is good snow to me!

Monday was still crazy with the snow and all the roads so things were not much different then Sunday. We managed to make it up to the hospital for a visit with Coco, and the mr did work some and had to go into town to shavel more, but other then that, we pretty much just hung around the house. I really wanted to go cross country sking or snow shoeing but it was still like -20 out so being outside for more then a half hour wasn%u2019t the smartest. My body couldn%u2019t handle it, but man, after a few walks in that cold, my nose and eyeballs felt like they were going to shatter. Oh and it was my birthday so there was that.

After a semi quiet Monday, it was back to it. Coco was in the hospital up until Friday so we had the older littles all week. So we would work and do our thing during the day but then meet them at home after school, do the homework, eat the snacks, make the dinners, fight about computer time and showers. Just the every day type of stuff. Then we would get them ready for bed, do balloon yoga, look up real estate listing for houses with a private bathroom for everyone that was within their school district (found and it was a million dollars) and then get their butts to bed. Part time parents we are. Good thing we like those littles.

Friday when Coco was finally released from the hospital prison, he and the other two came over for dinner, abc puzzles, and a sled walk. After that Coco went home while the two others slept over. Slightly burnt popcorn while they watched Bio dome and who the heck knows what else they did.. I was so exhausted I passed the F out.

Saturday was pancakes with the normal hoopla and then the littles went home. After that the mr and I did a few things, he worked, I cleaned. Right back to the grind.

I am hoping today will be a good day. We might get a little fresh snow and it%u2019s suppose to be hella warm out (mid 20%u2019s to 30 degrees!) and the roads are not treacherous so that means we can grab our snow shoes and head out into the woods. I need, like really really need some nature action. I didn%u2019t get enough last week. After that, well, I don%u2019t know. Maybe I will just build a snow fort in the woods and hide out for the rest of the week. So if you really need me, you might want to check the trees.

Interent to check out while I am away in my Snow Castle of Solitude (thats what I will name it)

–Sorry, SweetHearts Candy Hearts Won%u2019t Be Sold This Valentine%u2019s Day. Are you going to miss them?

-People are already complaining%u2026 It%u2019s way to early for that. Wait until mid March, that%u2019s when the fever really sets in. Yes, cabin fever is real%u2014here’s how to prevent it

–What’s Healthy At The Grocery Store? Shoppers Are Often Confused, Survey Finds. Ill tell you whats healthy, the stuff that is not in a box or can or has 1-2 ingredients like a bag or dried beans or whole wheat flour.

-Wool is an amazing fiber. 10 Things Nobody Tells You About the Benefits of Wool.

-Fresh spices are always the best but sometimes you find a little baggy stuck in the way way back of the spice drawer sooooo.. How Long Do Spices Actually Last? We Asked an%u00a0Expert.

–New ‘tent’ makes it possible to camp underwater. Always up for a new camping experience!

-Pack your bags for crazy town! 7 Things to Know Before Checking Into %u2018Lindsay Lohan%u2019s Beach Club%u2019

-The mr and I are back on finding a van or something to run away in. NOT YOUR AVERAGE AIRSTREAM. Any one of these will do.

–Can Americans learn to love ugly fruits and vegetables? I sure hope so. I never understood how people can think of produce as %u201cugly%u201d. The more fun the shape, the better. And a few dings and bruises in the food never hurt anybody.

–Can We Stop Calling Cake “Bread” & Bread%u00a0″Cake”? It%u2019s something about baking anything in a loaf pan. I call banana bread baked in a circular cake pan banana cake. It is what it is.

Pictures from the week. o

Mid January and I love it. Yes I know it is coldest part of the winter and still dark early and people are still crashing over the holidays, but this time of year always makes me feel like the world is all for me. Even the cold, the super cold that is scaring most people inside, well I love that too. Crisp and clean and oh so beautiful. I%u2019ll take this freezing cold any day over being hot. I am a winter lady here through and through.

This past week had been busy busy. Mark and Paul turned 21(Happy Birthday BROS!) and had a little birthday party, alcohol free, but with 2 cakes. Drove out to the North East Kingdom in a freaking snow storm to see some of the mr%u2019s family. We went and made dinner with the littles then watched Miley play her saxaphone in the sixth grade band concert. I finally got to pick up farm share. (I went through more then half my stock of frozen garden veggies over the past week which is sad because I have been rationing them and hoped the chest freezer of veggies would last a little longer..Oh well) The mr spent half a day creating ice sculptured on the porch. We did some work and dealt with annoying things. All this while I have barely been able to move my neck. I think the drive to Rhode Island last weekend started off a tweak in my neck the has turned into a pinch nerve or something and I have been spending more then too much time in pain with either a ice pack or hot water bottle propped up on my neck. It has sucked and still really does. I can%u2019t wait for the day when it doesn%u2019t hurt. It%u2019s gonna be amazing.

Jeff Dad came into town for a long postponed weekend. We did dinner at Megans, I made soup and so much bread. Then yesterday the whole family came over for the postponed Christmas with Dad. Sure I had no tree, and there was no Christmas music or anything, but it was super fun. The kids were all behaving and being nice to each other, probably because they were not all cracked out on sugar. I fixed a bunch of food and it was all eaten. We all exchanged presents. Jackson stuffed his shirt with my squash. Good time. And my house got trashed which was a-ok because it was cleaning day anyways.

And to is Sunday again already. In a few hours the mr and I are zipping, if that is what a 4 hour drive is called, down to Rhode Island again for the afternoon and then zipping that 4 hours back. Excited to see family, not excited to sit in the car for 8 hours. My brain and neck already hurt thinking about the drive.

And then I am taking tomorrow off and doing nothing, or as close to nothing as possible.

Interenting from the internet.

-Have you watched and started to %u201ctidy%u201d your life? My life is pretty tidy so I am good on that but it seems eveywhere I go I am hearing people talking about it. Marie Kondo and the fantasy of a tidy life, explained

-Who knew those little demons were actually helping to grow the rainforest. How termites help rainforests survive climate change

-I never use measuring devices when cooking and even sometimes when I bake (as long as I am not writing a recipe) It really is a lot less dishes and hassle to use the old eyeballs. Your Life Will Change When You Learn to Eyeball Measurements

-I have thought about this on multiple occasions and the song always changes. What%u2019s the last song you want to hear before you die?

–ISLAND: A Cast of Colorful Creatures Pop, Quiver, and Hiccup in a Charming Stop Motion Animation. Only watch if you want to smile.

–How Much Junk Am I Consuming Online Every Day?. People average 12 hours a day%u2026That shit is crazy! I feel pretty good about my 1ish hour of digital anything a day. If you want to stop, read. How to go on a low-information diet

-Good time of year to get all the shut eye you need. Why do people need to sleep?

-Why Costco? 27-Pound Bucket of Macaroni and Cheese and %u00a0Costco%u2019s Giant Tubs of Nutella

–Don%u2019t Reply to Your Emails. Ok. I won%u2019t.

-I didn’t know I wanted a net in my house until now. 10 Homes With Nets to Make You Feel Like a Kid Again

Pictures from the week.

What a world wind of the first week of the year. I feel like nothing has happened and everything is happening all at once. With all the holidays birthdays and family gatherings, happy and sad ones%u2026 it has been a lot to take in. I am in serious need of some time hiding away, not that I don%u2019t love everyone and have had loved being around them, its just been a lot and I can only hold it down for so long. You feel me?

We started the week with Judah Birthday (Happy birthday Judah!!!). I made an ice cream cake and the mr slept on the couch for half the day until it was party time. Poor guy, he has got such a heavy sinus infection so he has been feeling like shit all week long. Some days worse then others, and he has been trying to push through but this infection had really taken hold. I have been pushing all my concoctions and tinctures and good stuff into him and I think we are started to see some of the better feeling mr.

New Years was low key as can be. We went for a little drive, a little hike, and that was it. I stayed awake until 9 then passed out which is exactly my kind of night. New Years day was much of the same, went for a long walk to the river, hung around the house trying to get the mr better. and was just so exciting because I got to start a whole new calendar and binder system. Fresh paper, a nice new pen, and not a cluster fuck of a bunch of bills and papers yet. It was like the excitement of shopping for new school supplies. It really made me happy.

After A calm New Years, it was back to the grind. Working and doing the life thing. The littles over a few times for games of Sorry, and trying to french braid Judah%u2019s hair. Sophia came over for a day and helped me repot some plants, spun around in circles on the kitchen floor for like an hour, and hit Barb right in the face with a snow ball. I finally took the tree down and packed up most of the Christmas decorations, deep cleaned the pantry, and made the phone calls I have been dreading making for the past few weeks. Get it done, got it done.

Yesterday was another long ass day. We grabbed our nice shoes (are hiking boots nice shoes?) and climbed back into the car for the 4 hour drive to Rhode Island for Seths Memorial. 150 plus people packed inside his and Pamula%u2019s loft to listen and honor this amazing person. And I must say, it was sad, but so good. So much love and sharing. Music and food and family. Hearing the stories and the way he impacted so many lives, it really was just such a lovely night and really gave me a bit of happiness from such a shitty situation. After hanging at the loft and spending as much time as I could around all the people, the mr and I jumped back into the car and drove on home. By the time we got home, we were pretty trashed. Walked in the door and crashed. That was only just a few hours ago.

And yet I am still awake. I don%u2019t even know how Im still woke up at 4:30 this morning. My brain knows no other way I guess. For the rest of the day, after my 4-6 cups of coffee (I will drink all the coffee and then some today) I am heading to work at the studio for a while, going to do some gym, maybe hit the library, then I need to go grocery shopping because farm share was canceled this week and now I am running dangerously low on food. After that I will probably come home and crash. Yeah, and then off to a fresh week of more family and birthdays and work stuff, but hopefully this week the mr will not be sick, I will catch a little more sleep, and the snow storm that we are suppose to get will actually be and we get 2 feet of snow. That would be just so nice.

Internet from the internet.

-Top sky-watching events coming in 2019. Super blood moon eclipse is my birthday!

-Me. Why Am I Always Cold? I started eating more cooked food a few years back because I would be freezing after I ate.

-Bread inspiration for sure. LEOPARD BREAD

–The 100 Best Pens, As Tested by Strategist Editors. I love pens, really good pens. I draw with then so I have my own little box of special pens that no one is allowed to use besides me.

-We are aassholes. We’ve wasted so much plastic, it’s almost impossible to picture%u2014these charts will help

–When Too Cute Is Too Much, The Brain Can Get Aggressive. Yes, Have threatened to %u201csmoosh%u201d or %u201cpop%u201d a baby or puppies head off. What I find really works is when the feeling strikes, punch the mom, it helps.

–I Keep My Holiday Lights Up All Year Long%u2014Here’s Why You Should, Too. I love my lights, they make me happy.

–Dog influencers are so popular, they need their own talent agency. Hope this dogs are getting a cut of the pay to go towards all the best

-When someone tells me a fact that I might not believe I ask were they got the info from. If they say the internet, I assume there is a 50/50 chance that is is wrong. How Much of the Internet Is Fake? Turns Out, a Lot of It, Actually.

–What Foods Are Banned in Europe but Not Banned in the U.S.? Seems like these food should also be banned in the stare too.. Hum.

I found another bag of frozen rhubarb in the chest freezer which is never a bad thing, but my rhubarb patch outside is growing strong and I will have all the fresh rhubarb I could possible eat within the next few weeks. So found rhubarb just means I need to eat it right fast before the fresh stuff comes in. (I haven%u2019t had a problem with that. it%u2019s almost gone already). Plus the other day while I was digging up and transplanting raspberry bushes to the back yard, my neighbor came over and gave me a gallon of frozen raspberries, harvested from said bushes that I was currently planting in my yard. Score for me! Free bushes and berries%u2026I have such nice neighbors.

So the logical thing to do with my new found and giving bounty was of course to hurry up and bake something. Cobbler. Why cobbler? Well, why not? I figured the mr would really like it and eat it and I also didn%u2019t want to make anything to fussy because I was just to dang busy spending all of my extra time outside doing outside things. And cobbler, it%u2019s not fussy because it is basically biscuits and jam baked up all together. Not a lot to think about and comes out looking all homey and sweet and smelling all nice and cozy. Doesn%u2019t that sound nice? And not a pain in the ass?

And best part. A made cobbler works as dessert or breakfasts or just a snack. Just asked the mr. He ate it for all the reasons. With a dollop of yogurt or cream of course because he is fancy like that.

And yeah the fruit I used was frozen, but fresh works just the same here too.

Now, lets get to that cobbler.

The stuff. Raspberries (frozen), rhubarb (frozen), sugar, flour, salt, baking power, cinnamon ,almond milk, apple cider vinegar, cornstarch, and oil.

Raspberries, rhubarb, sugar, cinnamon, cornstarch. Its all there in the bowl. Just needs to be mixed. So mix it.

Dump fruit mixture into well greased 8 inch pan and pop it into a hot oven to get a head start on baking.

While the fruits in the oven, make the biscuit dough. Mix the dry together then mix in the wet until just incorporated and a sticky dough forms.

Pulled from the oven, the fruit is starting to cook down and whoa, it just smells so good!

Drop on the biscuits dough on top of the fruit (careful of the hot pan). Evenly if possible, but don%u2019t work to hard to make it look perfect. Imperfection makes it look perfect, you know?

Once biscuits are on, lightly brush the tops with a little milk and sprinkle with more sugar then pop it back into the oven for another 25-30 minutes or until the biscuits are baked.

Pulled from the oven with a bubbly filling and a golden brown biscuity top. Things are looking good here.

And now it%u2019s time.

Dig on in my friend. Sever with something creamy like whipped coconut cream or some type of yogurt or ice cream situation of your choice. And again, this can be your breakfast.

Happy spring people!

-C

make a a 8 inch round which serves 5-6

For the Filling

• 2 cups raspberries (fresh or frozen)

• 2 cups rhubarb chopped into 1/2 inch to inch long pieces (fresh or frozen)

• 1 1/2 tablespoons corn starch

• 3/4 -1 cup sugar (lesser amount if you like a little more tartness. I used lesser amount)

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

For the dough

• 1 cups all purpose flour

• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 3 tablespoons sugar

• 3 tablespoons neutral flavored oil

• 1/2 cup plant based milk

• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 350.

In a large bowl mix together the rhubarb and raspberries with the corn starch, sugar, and cinnamon. Grease a 8 inch round pan the is at least 2 inches deep (can use a slightly large pan or a square) and dump in fruit mixture. Place into oven to bake for about 15 minutes or the fruit starts to break down.

While fruit is baking, mix up biscuit dough. Flour, salt, 2 tablespoons sugar, and baking powder go in a large bowl and mixed until combined. Add in the oil, the milk, and the vinegar. Mix until just incorporated and a dough has formed.

Remove the fruit cooking from the oven. Turn heat up to 375.

Carefully drop spoonfuls of biscuit batter on top of fruit. Brush the top of the biscuits with a little milk and sprinkle with remaining tablespoon sugar. Place the pan back into the oven and bake for another 25-30 minutes or until the biscuits are all nice and golden brown on top.

Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes before serving. Serve warm with a scoop or dollop of soothing creamy (coconut cream, yogurt, ice cream%u2026..whatever floats your boat.)

Left overs can be stored in pan, just cover it with something and place in fridge. Can be eaten cold to or reheated in microwave or oven.

It%u2019s a smoothie. And no, we have never really been smoothie people in this house, but what can I say, sometimes smoothies happen, especially when you have about 20 ripe bananas in the fruit bowl with no room in the freezer and no need for 7 loafs of banana bread.

So I smoothied. And I like it (a lot).

This is a smoothie of simplicity. Nothing fancy. Simplest of simple. Straight to the point. And all sorts of good.

You might think, does this simple smoothie you speak of taste very good? Yes, yes indeed it does. It is all sorts of fantastic. Basically if you like creamy, nutty, oaty, bananery things, you will like this. And it%u2019s a perfect breakfast, snack, dessert, or just wanting a little treat like thing that is not garbage food. A smoothie of all smoothies with the most basic ingredients. And takes about 15 seconds to whip up. Can%u2019t complain about that.

To the smoothie goodness!

The stuff. A ripe banana, some old fashion rolled oats, a pinch of salt, water, and a smidge of maple syrup if you want it.

Everything goes into blender.

And blended until smooth. Hence the word smoothie.

Pour it into a cup (or if you are feeling primal, drink it straight from the blender%u2026 it%u2019s totally cool)

And done.

A banana oat smoothie.

Let the good time roll!

-C

makes 1 smoothie

• 1 very ripe banana

• 1/3 cup raw old fashion oats

• 1 1/2 cups water

• pinch of salt

• a tablespoon or two of any sweetener you like (optional)

• a pinch of cinnamon (optional)

Place everything into a blender and blend until smooth. Pour into a cup, sprinkle with cinnamon if you wish, and drink right away.

I am sadly at my last few bags of frozen garden foods from last season. As of now I have a bag of tomatoes, a couple bags of shredded zucchini, and a bag of rhubarb. Well, had a bag of rhubarb. I think I have eaten almost all of it already. My rhubarb patch better get up and producing stalks soon. And as for the rest of the veggies that I will require. Guess I am going to be surviving mostly on roots from farm share (we are getting a lot more greens though!!!!) and probably doing a bit more grocery shopping then I care too. A few more months. I can do it.

Anyway, enough about my freezer and lack of fresh produce problems.

Here in Vermont maple season is well on it%u2019s way making it a perfect time for anything maple. And rhubarb. Yeah I am using my frozen rhubarb from last year, but any time now (after the snow melts) there will be plenty of stalks for the taking. There will be so much maple and so much fresh rhubarb which are the perfect taste combination. Exciting times! And when added to oatmeal, things just get more gooder. (I know gooder is not a word but I think it should be) Oatmeal, especially baked, is the stuff where all gooder things start.

Have you had baked oatmeal yet? It truly is fantastic. Not at all gummy and gloopy like stove topped cooked oatmeal (but I like it like that too). It still has a good bite to it while still being soft and creamy and boy oh boy is it just the bees knees. With the addition of some crunchy almond friends, well even better. Trust me. If you are a oatmeal eater, you must try it baked. Best part is that it can be eaten as breakfast but also I have been serving it to the mr for dessert with a healthy drizzle of more maple. It%u2019s that good friends. From breakfast to dessert. Everyone is happy.

To the baked oatmeal.

The stuff. Old fashion oats, cinnamon, salt, baking powder, rhubarb (fresh or frozen), REAL maple syrup, some plant milk, a few flax eggs, a bit of tahini, and some almonds.

To start. Oats, cinnamon. salt, baking powder and almonds get a quick toss together in a big bowl.

If you rhubarb is not already chopped up into inch long pieces, do that. I already did before freezing it so yea me. Once its chopped, layer almost all of it (reserve a few small needful to toss on top) into a lightly greased 9×9 inch baking dish then cover evenly with the oat mixture.

In now empty bowl mix together the milk, the flax eggs, the tahini, and the maple until evenly incorporated.

Pour the wet mixture all over the oats and let it absorb.

Once the liquid is all absorbed , top with any left over almonds and the left over rhubarb. For good looks.

Pop into a hot oven to bake.

Golden brown with crispy edges. Rhubarb and maple baked oatmeal for all your maple, oaty and rhubarbie needs.

Fresh from the oven scooped warm into bowls. Top with extra maple if thats what you should want do.

Enjoy and happy maple season!

-C

Make a 9×9 pan of oatmeal

• 2 1/2 cups old fashion oats (make sure gluten free if need be)

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 2 teaspoon cinnamon

• 1/3 cup maple syrup plus more for serving

• 1 tablespoon tahini or any other nut butter

• 2 flax eggs (2 tablespoons ground flax seed with 6 tablespoons warm water)

• 2 1/2 cups fresh or frozen rhubarb chopped into inch long pieces

• 1 1/2 cup plant milk (water works but it won%u2019t be as creamy)

• 1/2 cup chopped almonds (optional)

Preheat oven to 375

Lightly grease a 9×9 inch baking pan (I used metal because it makes for crisper edges but glass works too) and dump 2 cups of the rhubarb in and evenly distribute on the bottom. In a large bowl mis the oats, the baking powder, salt, and cinnamon together. Mix in chopped nuts if you are using. Evenly cover rhubarb with oat mixture. In now empty bowl mix together the milk, flax eggs, maple syrup, and tahini until evenly incorporated. Pour mixture over oats. Let the mixture sit for a few minutes until the oats have abosbed all the liquid. Toss the rest of the diced rhubarb and a few more chop nuts to the top and pop into the oven to bake.

Bake for 30-40 minutes (shorter time for a wetter oatmeal, longer for a denser crispier oatmeal)

Once baked to your likeness, remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes just so it is not super hot. Scoop into bowls and serve warm with extra maple and milk or whatever you might want to serve with it.

Left overs last great in fridge for 3-4 days or individual portions can be frozen for a month or two. Just pop into microwave for a couple minutes to warm up.

I love pomegranates but barely ever buy them because they are usually really expensive. A few weeks ago I was pleasantly surprised to find that that the grocery store was selling them at a reasonable price so I bought one. Duh. Anyway, that was a few weeks ago and I have had the pomegranate chillin in the fridge, just waiting for the perfect time to bust open and retrieve all the bright pink jewel like seeds. But I also kind of forgot about it. It was hiding behind a giant rutabaga. When I finally grabbed the rutabaga for some soup, the pomegranate reviled itself again. It was time, it needed to be eaten. And me being me, I can%u2019t not share right? So I asked the mr what he wanted me to bake. He said muffins, and that is how I came to pomegranate orange and poppyseed muffins. Look at me, poster child for sharing good things. I should get a gold star!.

Anyway, these muffins came out awesome. First, they smell so good because anything baked smells good but the orange really shines and the smell is still lingering in my hair. Secondly, people really were into them. The mr said they were amazing when I finally let him eat one (two actually because I made them mini) and when I brought them over to Megans house for dinner, my Dad at one, then two, then three.. ..He stopped at 5, and this was after dinner. When a guy eats 5 muffins and is not a muffin man, you take it as a good sign.

Do yourself a solid this cold ass weekend and bake something. These muffins are a good place to start.

To the muffins!

The stuff. Flour, baking soda and powder, and salt in a bowl. Poppy seeds, an orange, a pomegranate, sugar, oil, vanilla extract, and a little apple cider vinegar.

First, remove arils from the pomegranate. Cut the fruit in half, hold the cut side face down in your hand and place over a large bowl. Take a wooden spoon and wack the outside of the fruit and the seeds will just fall out. And yes , the juice stains so watch out.

Next, whisk together all the dry ingredients and add in the sugar, poppyseeds and the zest of the orange. Whisk again to combine.

And then add in the oil, milk, vanilla, and the juice of the orange.

Mix until just combined. Don%u2019t over mix or the muffins will get gummy.

Last but not least, fold in the pomegranate arils.

Such a pretty muffin batter.

Scoop batter into well greased muffin tins and pop into a preheated oven.

Orange and crimson and golden brown goodness.

Out of tins and onto a rack to cool

And now you eat.

Stay warm this weekend and bake some muffins.

-C

makes 24 mini muffins or 12 regular muffins

• 2 cups all purpose flour

• 2 teaspoon baking powder

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 cup white sugar

• 1/3 cup canola oil

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

• 1 cup soy or plant based milk

• 1 orange

• 1/4 cup poppyseeds

• 1 cup pomegranate arils

Note. To easily remove arils (the seeds) from a pomegranate, cut it in half, hold the cut side down in the palm of your hand over a large bowl and wack the outside of the fruit with a wooden spoon. The arils will fall right out into the bowl.

Preheat oven to 350

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Zest the orange into the bowl and add in the poppyseed and whisk. Next add in the oil, juice of the orange (about 1/4 cup) the milk, and the vanilla. Mix until just combined. Fold in pomegranate seeds.

Scoop batter into well greased muffin pans and place in oven to bake until golden brown and a tester stuck into the muffins comes out clean, which should take about 15 minutes (22 fish if normal sized)

Once baked, pull form oven and pop from pans. Place on a wire rack to cool.

Eat at your leisure.

Soup is all about comfort and I needed comfort this week. What with being all sad and slightly stressed with a little touch of the holiday blues. And I needed something to warm me up because is has been freaking chilly cold. I needed soup. But I wanted something slightly special, not the everyday, but also not anything fussy or finicky. A soup that I could make really fast or let sit on the stove all day. A soup that would bring a little brightness without being overly rich. A soup to take away the chill and make me happy.

Is that asking to much of a soup? I think not.

This soup, it did it all. But also take into account, this soup is not for the people that do not like squash. Or for the people that do not like apples or cranberries. Or for people that do not like thick creamy soups. But if you are not one of this people (you are a person that likes squash, apples and cranberries, and creamy soup) then this soup is for you. It is for us. Creamy, flavorful, slightly sweet and spicy with a little tang and just so dang delicious. It is like a warm blanket of soup. Comfortable and lovely. I have basically eaten an entire pot all to myself in the past two days.

It has been just what I needed.

Join me.

The stuff. A butternut squash, a couple apples, and some cranberries. Also a carrot, an onion, some fresh ginger, a few cloves garlic, cumin and chili powder, salt and pepper, apple cider vinegar, and a little olive oil.

Start by chopping up the carrot and the onion. Small pieces just because they cook a little faster.

Peel and grate or mince some fresh ginger too.

Toss that all into a big pot with a splash of olive oil and a splash of water and cook on a medium heat until tender and fragrant.

While the veggies cook, chop the squash into small cubes. Remove the seeds, but no need to peel.

And chop up the apple too, but set aside a half of one for the apple cranberry relish.

Now toss all that into the pot along with the cranberries.

Add the spices, salt and pepper, a few splashed of apple cider vinegar, and water to cover it all. Then place it on stove, bring to a boil, then turn heat to medium and let cook.

While the soup is cooking, make the relish. Mince the half apple along with about 1/2 cup of cranberries.

Place in a bowl with a pinch of salt and a few splashed of apple cider vinegar. Then just let it sit and meld.

Soup is looking good. Everything is soft and falling apart and ready to go.

Blend it all until smooth.

Thick and creamy goodness right here. If it is to thick, add more water, too thin, cook it down a little longer. The consistency is up to you.

Now all you need to do is ladle soup into bowls and top with a couple spoonfuls of the relish.

This is comfort. This is good.

Have a great, comfy weekend.

-C

makes 6-8 servings

• 1 small butternut squash (about 5 cups cubed)

• 1 large onion

• 1 carrot

• 2 macon or mac apples

• 2 cups fresh cranberries (you can use frozen too)

• 2 tablespoon cumin

• 2 tablespoons chili power

• 2-3 cloves garlic

• 2 tablespoon fresh minced or grated ginger

• 4-5 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

• olive oil

• salt and pepper

• 6 cups water

Start by chopping the onion and carrot into small pieces. Place into large heavy bottom pot with a splash of water and a tiny splash of olive oil. Mince the garlic and peel and mince ginger. Toss into the pot as well and place it on a medium heat to cook until the veggies are tender and fragrant.

While the veggies are cooking, dice up the butternut squash. Remove any seeds but there is no need to peel. Also dice up the apples, reserving 1/2 of one for the relish. Place the chopped squash and apples into the pot with the cooking veggies along with 1 1/2 cups of cranberries , the chili powder and cumin, 2-3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar, and the water. Place the pot back on the stove, bring it to a boil, then reduce heat to medium and let cook.

Once soup is on the stove, take reserved half apple and the other 1/2 cup of cranberries and dice into very small pieces. Place into a bowl with a little pinch of salt and 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar. Toss around and set aside.

And back to soup. Once the squash is tender and starting to fall apart, it is time. Remove from heat and either with a immersion blender, or a regular blender, blend the soup until smooth. After its blended and creamy smooth, check for thickness. If you think it is too thick, add more water. Too thin, place back on stove and cook down until it thickens up a bit more.

When you are ready to serve and eat, ladle soup into a bowl and top with more pepper and a spoonful or two of the apple cranberry relish.

Then eat and feel cozy.

Well happy first day of fall to you! Are you as excited as I am? I am very very excited because well, cooler weather, shorter days, pretty trees, pumpkins, sweaters, and of course apples. All the apples!!

I am not going to lie, I was going to wait to do a big apple pick to start with my apple baking but this week the grocery store was selling apples form the orchard I am going to go picking from for a 77cents a pound!! I mean, I couldn%u2019t not buy 20 lbs right? Sure I felt a little guilty that they were not hand picked by me, but in a way they were because I did hand pick them form the store so that kind of counts? Plus I am still going apple picking, today in fact so not harm in having a shit ton of apples.

Anyway, so apple brownies. Why, because why not. Slightly chewy but soft, dense, full of all the cinnamon and apple walnut flavor one could want or need to feel all the feels of the apple season. Made them and fed them to the people and they were gone within a minute. Huge success in flavor and texture. and best part, it was slightly chilly out when I made them so the oven on was extra nice, and my house smelled amazing. Oh gosh, I am just so excited that it%u2019s fall, it%u2019s the best time of year!

And now I am for real going apple picking! I%u2019ll probably make these brownies again, just because you know, apples and I’ll probably come home with another 100 lbs or more so you know, I%u2019ll have the apples to do it.

The stuff. Apples. sugar, applesauce, cinnamon, and walnuts. Also some vegan butter, flour, baking powder, and baking soda.

FIrst, chop up the apples. And no, don%u2019t peel them, just chop, into little 1/2 inch cubes.

Butter and sugar get a good beat until light and fluffy (I read somewhere that when you beat the sugar with butter in brownies, it helps make that crisp, crackly top)

Fold in the apple sauce and cinnamon .

Like a galaxy of cinnamon goodness.

Then all the rest of the stuff: flour, baking soda and powder, salt, apples, walnuts, get folded in too until just incorporated.

Batter gets spread evenly in a greased and parchment lined pan. (There is parchment there, I was running low so it only covers the bottom of the pan. Better if it goes up the sides though.)

Then into the hot oven they go.

Popped out at just the right moment. See the top? A bit crisped crinkly, kind of like a brownie! Now pop them out of the pan and let cool completely. Or cool enough to cut. Or, cool enough to handle and eat%u2026..

There you go, apple walnut brownies.

And now you can officially enjoy the first day of fall because there is a lot of apple goodness in these brownies and what is fall without apples?!!

Have the best day.

-C

makes a 9×9 pan of apple goodness

• 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour

• 1 cup white sugar

• 1/2 cup vegan butter

• 1/2 cup applesauce

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 tablespoon cinnamon

• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

• 2 large Macintosh apples (about 2 cups chopped)

Preheat oven to 350

Core and dice apples into about 1/2 inch cubes . Measure out 2 cups ans eat any left over apple chunks. In a large bowl, beat together vegan butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Fold in the applesauce and cinnamon. In a smaller bowl whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Dump into wet mixture, along with the apples and walnuts and fold together until just evenly incorporated. Grease and parchment line a 9×9 baking sheet. Dump the batter into the pan and spread evenly then pop into oven and bake for 40- 45 minutes or until browned and a tester stuck in the middle comes out clean. Check after 35 minutes%u2026 you don%u2019t want to over bake! Once cooked all the way through, remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes. Once cool enough to handle, remove the brownies from the pan (you really need to line the pan with parchment to do this) and let cool completely on a wire rack. When they are cool (if you can wait that long because really, these are great eaten warm too.), cut and eat.

Store left overs in a airtight container for a day or two or freeze any extra. Great warmed and serves with a scoop of some ice cream or a yogurt situation.

I think that my favorite thing abut summer is probably the food. Yeah, no, definitely all the food. If it weren’t for all the delicious amazing things that grow during these summer months, I would probably hate summer. %u00a0Well, I mean, not hate it because summer is nice when it it nice, but lately it has not been so nice and so I am trying to make myself feel better by finding all the good things that I like about summer. Summer trees, summer flowers, the smell of fresh cut grass, river rocks, summer sandals, summer… well that’s what I got right now. But summer produce, that is the best and what keeps me happy when I am extremely over heated and over sunned and just want a blast of cold air accompanied by some dark clouds, a sweater and the smell of decomposing leaves. Obviously I am being a little crank butt, and I actually do usually like me some summertime, I am just over this summer. To hot, to humid, to dry. I am ready to move on.%u00a0

But back to the good parts of summer that I am not over.%u00a0The food.%u00a0The corn is flowing steadily (I am getting on average 10 pieces of corn a week from the farm. That is a lot of corn for 2 people, one of which says he doesn’t like corn), the kale is growing in super abundance in the garden, and it’s is for sure blueberry season. When we %u00a0have those three things and we toss in a avocado, as little onion, and lots of lime juice ,%u00a0BAM,%u00a0another super fantastic summertime eating time, reason that summer can be a ok. Makes %u00a0all the heat a little worth it.%u00a0

I am telling you, this is my new favorite food combination. Blueberries are magical (I think so anyway) and really add the perfect little sweetness, tartness, and texture to this salad. Crisping up the kale and corn elevates the deliciousness, and avocado always is welcome is any salad situation. This is one of those salads that you will make for yourself and then immediately want to make for someone you like because it is so good you want to share. OR you just want to make it for yourself again because you could share or you could just eat more of it yourself. It’s ok either way, you do you.%u00a0

The stuff. A cob of fresh corn. some fresh blueberries, a bunch of dinosaur kale, a lime, an avocado, a piece of a sweet onion, sea salt, pepper, and a little oil.%u00a0

First off preheat the oven then cut the corn off the cob.

Then deal with the kale. Each leaf needs just the slightest bit of oil. The easiest way to do this is to dump a little oil into your hands and grab each piece of kale and rub your oily hands all over the kale.

After the kale is oiled, chop it into chunks. First place the corn on a baking sheet then add the kale on top. Placet it into the oven to get all crispy… The kale will might get crispy before the corn, which is fine because you can remove the kale then pop the corn back into the oven for a few more minutes to keep cooking if you want. Or you might just want to call it cooked, it’s your call.%u00a0

I popped the corn back into the oven to get a little more color. I like a real crispy corn.%u00a0

Cut up some onion and avocado into chunks.%u00a0

And time to compile. Kale, onions, corn, avocado, blueberries, and lime juice. And don’t or get a sprinkle of sea salt and pepper.%u00a0

Toss it all around and be delighted.%u00a0

Just look at that salad. Who wouldn’t want to eat that?%u00a0

Heres to summer salads….The reason I can barely stand the heat!

-C

makes one salad

• 10 or so large Lacinato (Dinosaur) Kale leaves
• 1 fresh cob of corn
• %u00a01/2 of an avocado
• 1/2 cup fresh blueberries
• 1/4 of a sweet onion (about 1/4 cup diced)
• 1 lime
• teaspoon olive oil
• sea salt and pepper %u00a0

Preheat oven to 350

Cut the corn off the con and place on a lightly oiled baking sheet. Take a little oil and rub into hands then grab the kale leaves ans rub oil all over them. Once oiled, rough chop into medium sized pieces (don’t chop small, it will shrink a lot in the oven). Place chopped kale on top of corn and stick into hot oven. Bake until the kale is crispy, about 12-15 minutes.. What closely after 10 minutes to prevent burning.

Remove the kale from the baking sheet and place in a large bowl. The corn will be cooked, but if you want to make it a little crispier , just toss it back into the oven for a few minutes. %u00a0Once corn is to your liking, remove from pan and toss into two with the kale.

Small dice up some onion and dice up half of the avocado. Toss into the bowl with the kale and corn. And the blueberries, add those in. Sprinkle the whole shebang with a little sea salt and pepper and squeeze the juice of at least half of a lime all over (use the whole lie if you want) Give it all one last toss and that is it.%u00a0

Eat your new favorite salad. Think about making it for all your favorite friends and family and how impressed they will be because this is one of those impressive salads. T

It’s melon season!%u00a0The past few farm shares have included at least 2,, if not 4, watermelons and cantaloupes… Can you imagine. eating 4 watermelons a week? That’s a tall order, even for someone like me who could probably eat a whole watermelon in one sitting, it’s just doing it 4 times a week might be a problem. %u00a0It’s a whole lot of melon and not enough stomach, you know what I mean?%u00a0

So what do I do with so much melon? Well first off, whenever anyone comes over I try to get them to %u00a0eat as much of it as they can, which helps a great deal. Secondly, I cut it up and freeze some. But here is the thing, I love eating chunks of frozen cantaloupe, but frozen watermelon,%u00a0never been my favorite so I usually just pass on sticking in the freezer, until now.

There is something magical that happens when you stick the frozen watermelon and cantaloupe together into a blender and making it into a slushy. It’s like eating a ray of sunshine or maybe even a rainbow, just really satisfying and juicy, and sweet but not overly sweet, and just really freaking good. Especially with all the stupid hot and humid weather we have had lately, these slushies have really been hitting the spot. %u00a0Even the mr who says he dislikes watermelon was all into these melon slushies. (he likes things that he says he doesn’t like all the time. I am pretty sure he is taste confused) Like %u00a0he was really into them. Usually I have to prompt him to tell me how something tastes, but not the slushy, he told me right away how good it was. I was like, I know dude, I just drank 2 of them myself. And I could have drank 2 more but I was trying to not get tot far ahead of myself. Moderation is key, plus I didn’t;t have any more of the melons frozen. Time to restock the freezer.%u00a0

Go make yourself a slushy, it’s juicy deliciousness will make you happy.%u00a0

The stuff. Watermelon and cantaloupe. There should be a lime in there too but it must have rolled away….%u00a0

Chop some of each of the melon up, remove the rinds, and place on a big baking sheet and stick into the freezer until frozen. You can do as little as 2 cups %u00a0of each or as much as a whole melon, it’s up to you. (I suggest freezing extra)

Frozen melon. And now you can slushy.

Equal parts watermelon and cantaloupe go into blender, along with the juice of half (or more to taste)%u00a0a lime and you are probably going to need to add about 1/2 a cup of water, to help the blender blend it all together. %u00a0And that’s it. You blend until it’s all slushy.

Pour into cups, garnish with a lime and/or little chunks of melon and you are good as golden.%u00a0

From now on, or until summer is over and I run out of melon, I will be keeping the freezer stocked, especially because I know that the next few weeks are suppose to be stupid hot again.%u00a0

Waterloupe slushies. Summertime goodness.%u00a0

-C

• about 2 cups %u00a0of a watermelon
• about 2 cups of a cantaloupe%u00a0
• 1 lime
• 1/2- 1 cup water%u00a0

Note. The amounts above are for two%u00a0 2 cup slushies. You can, and should,%u00a0freeze a crap load more melon for future slushies. %u00a0Also, no one would fault you for maybe adding a little nip of some clear alcohol to this slushy situation to make it more of an adult drink……

Cut up a watermelon and a cantalopjue. Eat some and reserve at least 2 cups of each. Remove the rinds from the melons and cut into cubes. Place melon on a baking sheet and stick into the freezer until frozen.%u00a0

Once frozen,%u00a0place equal parts frozen watermelon and cantaloupe into the blender with the juice of a lime. Turn blender on. Slowly add in water until the blender can handle blending the frozen fruit. Blend until smooth. Pour into cups, garnish if you want with more melon and lime, then get to drinking.%u00a0

I can’t believe it is Sunday already. The last week has just blown by so fast. These summer days, they can do that. But they are coming to an end and I might be a tad sad about it but I caught myself  longingly looking at all of my sweaters the other day… I will leave that one alone for a little longer. 

Our camping adventure last week started off with us under a bridge. It was so freaking hot out that my earwax was melting so the mr found the coolest place he could think of to fish, and that was under a bridge. After that, we just headed up the mountain to our campsite.  When we got there to check in we were pretty much guaranteed  to see a bear because there had been so much bear activity, especially at our site. So I was a bit nervous, a lot excited, and ready and prepared.  After the mr started a fire from logs he threw into the air and dropped so they would break (we forgot a saw) and ate our dinner, all traces of food were then packed away in the car.  All evening every little noise we heard, I was expecting bear but nothing. So we went to bed. I had my noise maker ready at my head, my shoes untied and ready to slip on, and my camera because I would need to get a picture. Every time I woke up (I wake up a lot) I would poke my head out the tent window looking for a big fury mass, but all night I did not see one. We didn’t get a bear. So much for that. 

After packing up camp super early, it was back to a river for some prime fishing and coffee and reading before heading back to the real world of noise and work and people. And we needed to get back to the cat, which I keep finding in piles of leaves next to the house looking dead. I was scared once or twice but it turns out he just likes looking like a dead cat in a pile of leaves.  Yup. 

Tuesday we had the littles over for a sleep over. We gardened, drew pictures, sat around and read, ate lots of corn, and walked down to the neighborhood cornerstone for creamees. After we sent the baby back to it’s mother, the littles and the mr watched another inaproperate Adam Sandler movie, I went to bed, they stayed awake all night watching cooking shows, and I had to shake them awake the next morning in order to feed them all the brightly colored pancakes before  dropping them off at camp. Those guys are doing summer vacation right. 

Wednesday the mr and I had to quick quick run up to see our friends in the north at Ikea. It was last minute, we needed a countertop, so no I did not have time to call everyone I knew to see if they wanted me to buy them anything. But shitty shit, when we got there, the countertop we needed was not there, so that kinda sucked. But I did end up getting a new toilet paper roller, a toilet brush, and the mr picked out a new pillow. We drove all the way up there, we couldn’t leave empty handed. 

And how is your fresh farm and garden food these days? Farm share is at it’s peak and so is my food consumption. I find myself eating more then I really want to just because we have so much fresh and beautiful goodies that I just can’t stop myself. The tomatoes are so ripe and sweet, how can I not eat like 10 a day? (my acid reflux is kicking up a little)  And not only are the tomatoes going gang buster at the farm, but my garden is like a tomato jungle. There is probably going to be a day when I am buried alive by the tomatoes. It so could happen.

Saturday was work at the studio. I was on fire and unloaded  2 kilns (someone piece blew up in one) and loaded a glaze kiln in record time. After that I was pretty tired, my hip was sore (to much bending over kilns) so I came home, had a snack, cleaned the shit out of my house (there was watermelon stickiness on everything) and called myself ready for bed at like 8. The days are getting shorter again so I don’t feel so bad crawling into bed earlier. HA

Today is family day. Our cousins are up in Vt at the camp so we are heading there to spend the day with them. After that, the mr and I are camping in some field somewhere (probably a baseball field?) outside of the city to each the meteor shower. It’s at it’s peak tonight and I am super excited to sleep under the stars and watch. Hopefully we don’t get any shit for illegally camping in a park. We aren’t going to have a fire (so we can see the starts, duh) so it really shouldn’t be a problem. Right? 

Some reads from the internet this week. 

-It’s tonight guys! How to See the 2018 Perseid Meteor Shower

–It’s Time to Admit That Iceberg Is a Superior Lettuce. I wouldn’t call it superior but I have to admit, I do like me some iceberg. It’s kind of like my junk green. Not much nutritional value but taste so mighty fine dipped in mustard. Crisp an refreshing. 

-I know some people (mom..) that might have a slight buying books addiction, even when they won’t necessarily read them all. Tsundoku: The art of buying books and never reading them. I stopped buying books (or rarely do and its usually a book I have read and love so much) and just do the library. It would be very expensive if I just bought books… I read to much. 

–Angry People Tend to Overestimate Their Intelligence. Ever have to deal with an angry know it all…. its enough for me to run away screaming. So frustrating. 

-“If you’ve ever seen someone with testicles get kicked in the groin, then you probably know that male genitals — often portrayed as a symbol of male strength and virility — aren’t actually that tough.” hahaha, what a great opening paragraph. Boxers Or Briefs? Experts Disagree Over Tight Underwear’s Effect On Male Fertility

–What’s the Difference Between Zucchini and Yellow Squash?. One is zucchini and one is yellow squash. 

–Spent $200 on a Weighted Blanket, and It’s Changed My Entire F*cking Life. I don’t think I will ever spend $200 on a blanket, but I am really into the idea of getting a weighted blanket..I think Ikea sells one for like $30.

-I could live in a state of natural silence for ever (or for a very long time) Are You Listening? Hear What Uninterrupted Silence Sounds Like

–8 Fruits and Vegetables You Shouldn’t Be Refrigerating

Pictures from the week.

Hey there lovely peoples. So nice of you to stop by. Hope all is well and dandy with you. Well and dandy.

Holy crap am I one tired lady. Mentally and physically but mostly mentally because it has been one of those weeks. It all started off with the mr and I both feeling like absolute crap. Sinus infections and some other fun stuff. Heads and brains super dysfunctional (although we can%u2019t blame being sick for all the dysfunction). I blame the ick on the weather and it not being spring yet. But let%u2019s not talk to much about the weather. It%u2019s a touchy subject for me right now and I just can%u2019t. Anyway, the week started slow. We got a few things done that needed doing then got ready to take off for PA to visit with my dad and go to my grandmothers funeral.

Took off mid week, the mr driving the 6ish hours down and over. A super sunny and bright day it was . One might think that sounds kind of nice but I hated it. Brightness while in a car without sunglasses makes for brain pain, at least in my case. So I had my head under a blanket for a few hours. Got to PA alright but as soon as we pulled into my dads driveway the wave of pain knocked me to my knees and I got a full fledge migraine. I haven%u2019t had one of those fun episodes in years and I can safely say that I hope to NEVER get one again. But after a night of zero restless sleep, I got up and rallied and went about the next day as half a human baking machine. Made the breakfast pancakes, some lunch, a birthday cake, cookies, my dinner, and cinnamon buns for the next morning. %u201cDon%u2019t worry%u201d my dad said. .%u201d We can go to the store and get as much flour and sugar as you will need!%u201d And so we did because I used a lot of flour.

The next morning was the funeral. Early to wake, walked the dogs, fed people buns and headed to the Catholic Church. The one my dad and his siblings went to for their entire childhood. OH boy oh boy, what a hoot. Their mother finally got them to go back one last time. HAHA. And as for me, I can say that was the first time I have ever been in a Catholic Church (for church reasons) and seen a catholic funeral. Very interesting to say the least. And I do go to hand it to the priest. He was pretty cool. Hip, sweet, not a typical catholic church man, and he kept calling my grandmother Ava instead of Eva. That got some laughs. My grandmother would have loved it.

The funeral ended and we all went to a restaurant and did the food thing with the family love fest. It was very bittersweet. Sad because of the loss but we were celebrating a freaking amazing lady and her amazing long life. Oh Grammy. She was the greatest, coolest, funniest little lady ever and I will miss her deeply. So yeah. Then after all the food we topped it off with the birthday cake I made for Teena cause it was her birthday too. My family, we packed it all in because that is how we do it.

After hugs, pictures, Shannon falling asleep in a booth, we headed back to the car and away we went, a long drive home with lots of shitty weather and bad roads. But we made it. And I even unpacked the car and managed to shower off before passing out. And a pass out was exactly what I needed and still kind of do. I told myself I would let myself sleep in a bit, but 430 came and look at me, awake.

So it%u2019s today and I must do some stuff. I%u2019m going to go to the gym for the morning, Run run run until I cannot possibly run anymore. Then I will come home and eat eat eat until I can not possible eat any more. After that it is a bunch of chores that need to be done and I need to go see the littles because I miss them. And I know I will need a nap at some point because I am feeling the even all the coffee in the world will not be enough to keep my brain afloat for a full day. Or maybe I%u2019ll just go to bed at a unreasonabley early hour. (5ish sounds good to me. Ha. But really) Yup yup, looking forward to that.

Until then.

Internet link from the online.

–Greener Childhood Associated With Happier Adulthood. NO SHIT for reals.

-My Library even lends out baking pans and garden tools! 8 Unexpected Perks of a Library Card. And I don%u2019t think the article mentions, but library cards are cool people card to. HA

–Thank a cloud today. Five reasons you shouldn’t take cloud cover for granted. OH how I love me a nice cloudy day.

-Nothing like FRESH HORSERADISH ROOT. Might be picking up a piece today to knock out my sinus crud.

–Do anxious owners make for anxious dogs? Yes. There is no question in my mind what so ever.

-I listen to a story about this article on NPR. It%u2019s really crazy how people, especially in our culture, are living to work,n to working olive. Workism Is Making Americans Miserable

–A scientist on the myth of ugly produce and food waste. Interesting, very interesting.

-I don%u2019t need a baby nursery but if I did (or ever do) I want it to look just like this. MARIGOLD%u2019S NURSERY TOUR

-What. I thought they were real. Balloon Birds by Terry Cook Mimic Their Real-Life Counterparts

–Vanuatu Has One Of The World%u2019s Strictest Plastic Bans. It%u2019s About To Get Tougher. We all (the entire world) should be getting tougher.

And some pictures from the week.

Did you get a good dumping of snow this week? Sunday was awesome. A good foot and a half and it came down fast. Enough where everyone was pretty much snowed in for a least part of the day. Too bad it was mother freaking cold out so being outside for too long was very uncomfortable, but still. Any snow is good snow to me!

Monday was still crazy with the snow and all the roads so things were not much different then Sunday. We managed to make it up to the hospital for a visit with Coco, and the mr did work some and had to go into town to shavel more, but other then that, we pretty much just hung around the house. I really wanted to go cross country sking or snow shoeing but it was still like -20 out so being outside for more then a half hour wasn%u2019t the smartest. My body couldn%u2019t handle it, but man, after a few walks in that cold, my nose and eyeballs felt like they were going to shatter. Oh and it was my birthday so there was that.

After a semi quiet Monday, it was back to it. Coco was in the hospital up until Friday so we had the older littles all week. So we would work and do our thing during the day but then meet them at home after school, do the homework, eat the snacks, make the dinners, fight about computer time and showers. Just the every day type of stuff. Then we would get them ready for bed, do balloon yoga, look up real estate listing for houses with a private bathroom for everyone that was within their school district (found and it was a million dollars) and then get their butts to bed. Part time parents we are. Good thing we like those littles.

Friday when Coco was finally released from the hospital prison, he and the other two came over for dinner, abc puzzles, and a sled walk. After that Coco went home while the two others slept over. Slightly burnt popcorn while they watched Bio dome and who the heck knows what else they did.. I was so exhausted I passed the F out.

Saturday was pancakes with the normal hoopla and then the littles went home. After that the mr and I did a few things, he worked, I cleaned. Right back to the grind.

I am hoping today will be a good day. We might get a little fresh snow and it%u2019s suppose to be hella warm out (mid 20%u2019s to 30 degrees!) and the roads are not treacherous so that means we can grab our snow shoes and head out into the woods. I need, like really really need some nature action. I didn%u2019t get enough last week. After that, well, I don%u2019t know. Maybe I will just build a snow fort in the woods and hide out for the rest of the week. So if you really need me, you might want to check the trees.

Interent to check out while I am away in my Snow Castle of Solitude (thats what I will name it)

–Sorry, SweetHearts Candy Hearts Won%u2019t Be Sold This Valentine%u2019s Day. Are you going to miss them?

-People are already complaining%u2026 It%u2019s way to early for that. Wait until mid March, that%u2019s when the fever really sets in. Yes, cabin fever is real%u2014here’s how to prevent it

–What’s Healthy At The Grocery Store? Shoppers Are Often Confused, Survey Finds. Ill tell you whats healthy, the stuff that is not in a box or can or has 1-2 ingredients like a bag or dried beans or whole wheat flour.

-Wool is an amazing fiber. 10 Things Nobody Tells You About the Benefits of Wool.

-Fresh spices are always the best but sometimes you find a little baggy stuck in the way way back of the spice drawer sooooo.. How Long Do Spices Actually Last? We Asked an%u00a0Expert.

–New ‘tent’ makes it possible to camp underwater. Always up for a new camping experience!

-Pack your bags for crazy town! 7 Things to Know Before Checking Into %u2018Lindsay Lohan%u2019s Beach Club%u2019

-The mr and I are back on finding a van or something to run away in. NOT YOUR AVERAGE AIRSTREAM. Any one of these will do.

–Can Americans learn to love ugly fruits and vegetables? I sure hope so. I never understood how people can think of produce as %u201cugly%u201d. The more fun the shape, the better. And a few dings and bruises in the food never hurt anybody.

–Can We Stop Calling Cake “Bread” & Bread%u00a0″Cake”? It%u2019s something about baking anything in a loaf pan. I call banana bread baked in a circular cake pan banana cake. It is what it is.

Pictures from the week. o

I am kind of sick right now. A chest cold thing and maybe e coli from all the romaine. Plus my arm hurts a shit ton from kind of dropping a 500 pound cast iron sink on it. Oh and I spilt boiling hot water on my leg and burn the shit out of myself, and I grabbed a falling cactus which got a hand full of prickers stuck into it. Plus I am still feeling all sorts of sad about Only. I guess you could say I am not at my finest right now. But this time nest week, I am sure I will be radiant and gleeful. HAHA. (But I sure do hope so.)

The past two weeks have been a blur. Only getting sick and then having to put him down took it all right out of me. Dealing with him being so sick and then the week after him being gone%u2026just so shitty. But there was good stuff too.. There was lots of snow that made me so so happy. Shannon had a pizza birthday party. The family did the annual pre -Thanksgiving Thanksgiving, which the mr and I only spent a short time at because we had to bring Only to the vets. There were dinners with the littles, more snow, cold weather, work stuff, broom shopping, heavy cast iron sink moving. There was stuff.

Then we did a little Thnaksgiving on actual Thanksgiving with Erin and the littles. We played board games (well, they did, I was cooking), made Christmas decorations, listened to Christmas music and danced a little. I made tofu lasagna, mac and cheese, potatoes, and bread. And of course there were veggies and fruit, but yea, starch bomb. But that is what the littles wanted. I am nothing but accommodating. Quite, low key, and everyone was happy. It was a just what I needed.

And then the day after Thanksgiving was Erins birthday so the littles came over again and we made her a cake and they slept over and we watched more Christmas movies and ate pancakes for breakfast all the while I was feeling like garbage. So after we brought them home, I kind of curled in on myself. I can%u2019t deal with being sick.

So today the mr and I are going to keep it a low key day, probably just putz around the house, maybe hang the Christmas lights outside, read a lot, drink lots and lots of hot tea (and coffee). I don%u2019t want to get any sicker then I am so I need to kick it. That%u2019s the goal for the day Get un-sick!

Some stuff from the internet that I looked at that you can look at too.

-I asked the mr if he could ever do a fake tree. He hesitated but said no. (the hesitation shocked me) I could never get a fake tree, or scratch that. I must always have the main tree be real. Having extra fake trees is ok. Hking in the woods to cut our tree down is probably one of my favorite things ever. Real all the way. Real And Fake Christmas Tree Sellers Fight For American Hearts And Minds.

–Reading Fiction Makes You a Little Nicer. With all the reading I do, should I be nicer. Ha

-We must ACT NOW! It isn%u2019t a freaking joke. Shit is already hitting the fan. Climate impacts grow, and U.S. must act, says new report

–Sweet Potatoes: It’s A Thin Line Between Love And Hate. Sweet potatoes are amazing. I can%u2019t understand how some people hate them. They just haven%u2019t had it roasted with cumin and chili powder or covered in tahini.

-Can Anyone Save PBR? The beer that conquered Brooklyn is on the brink of extinction. I know a lot of people who will be so sad if PBR goes away. (the mr for sure)

–Why Does It Seem Like Everyone Is Getting Sick from Salad? Another reason to eat as local as you can. (although more then half my food is local but I am still convinced I got E coli form the romaine%u2026 I need my own farm to grow ALL my own food!)

-Holiday crafting is the best. I am working on something like this.

–Breathing Through the Nose May Offer Unique Brain Benefits. To smell all the smells.

-I am really feeling these shoes%u2026but I will never buy them because I don%u2019t buy shoes. But someone needs to get a pair.

-Oh, The Places You’ll Go: Toilet Signs Try To Help

Pictures from the past two weeks. There are not a lot because I pretty much didn%u2019t take any pictures for a week.

Did you wake up at 3:30 because your body is used to waking up at 4:30 but we add an extra hour and now you don%u2019t even really know what time it is for real? Yeah, that would be me. I look at my phone, at my computer, but don%u2019t trust all the self resetting clocks. I have to check the kitchen stove to see what time it was yesterday before I can figure out the time today and then check the technology clocks to see if they really know. But woo hoo, daylight savings. I am one of those people that really likes it. I like the light in the morning, I like the early as shit dark. It suits my life (early to bed, early to rise) and also gives off a feeling of coziness that I can%u2019t quite describe. Plus I am a slight creeper and love walking around the neighborhood after dinner when it is dark and seeing inside peoples house. Not like too creepy where I go an actively peer in, just looking in if their windows are open, checking out their decor, seeing what they are watching on tv, or what they are eating for dinner. Don%u2019t judge, you know you do the same thing too.

This week was a blur. On Sunday we spent way to much time walking around Ikea, checking out the Christmas stuff and choosing a new duvet cover. We had time to kill before Barbs plane landed from Italy (and it was late). So Ikea was the natural waiting place. It wasn%u2019t bad, the mr got to try the new veggie dogs, said they were absolutely fantastic and we actually did buy a duvet cover. But as soon as the plane landed we jumped in the car a drove circles around the terminal until the ladies appeared with smiles and bottles of wine and olive oil, which I have still yet to receive. Then a drive back home to where we stopped for drinks, I opened the trunk of the car and smacked my head on the door so hard I think I broke my skull. Anyway, she made it back from Italy and I am pretty sure I gave myself a concussion. Good stuff.

The week started. I spent the first half doing paperwork and making all sorts of phone calls about things that I don%u2019t know anything about trying to gather information to make said phone calls and blah blah blah.

And then it was Halloween and we didn%u2019t do a damn thing. We were suppose to take, at the very least, Judah out, but Coco got super sick again and landed himself a bed up at the hospital. Things got confusing and crazy and he ended up going with a family friend and their kids. We were pretty bummed, and so was he. What a bust. And we had only enough candy tor give 3 little kids so we didn%u2019t do that either. Another Halloween come and gone. Meh. But the next day we had the littles over for a school night sleep over. Not as fun as a weekend sleep over because there is bedtime, homework, the need to shower, and waking up early. But those guys championed, did all their homework, took their showers, and brushed their teeth without a single rebuke, and we had a grand old time. They even went to bed and woke up without giving me any shit. Then after a humorous breakfast of dried cereal, eggs, and toast, they got themselves ready and I dropped them off at school, again, with out any complaining. Those littles%u2026 So good. On the way to school I tried to explain why we do daylight savings. Things got off topic a bit and I might have blamed all the time changing on Voldemort and magic and yeah. Someone is going to need to sort that out with them someday. OR not.

After dropping them off I worked at the studio for the rest of the day. Megan came to visit me and bring me coffee. Which probably saved my life. Then I pugged clay for way to long and had to have the mr come to the studio and help me take the bolts out of the pug machine so I could take it apart to clean it, or more like I pugged, he took it apart and he cleaned it. My mr, he be so nice.

Yesterday was a burn out day. Might be getting a head cold (or it%u2019s the concussion) and I could barely keep my head from falling off, SO much pressure, even my eyes looked bleak and blue. But I did some stuff. The mr and I took a research drive, I got the grocery shopping done, did laundry, cleaned he house. And then went to bed early.

And now I am awake and it%u2019s early. My head is still pretty pressurized, but I think it might be starting to deflate a little which is good because today the mr and I have some outdoor plans. What exactly the plans are is still up in the air. It is suppose to be sunny and slightly warmer so we need to get to and get us some woods. I almost want to try and convince him that we should go camping and I totally would if I hadn%u2019t packed away everything and we had fire wood and if I wasn%u2019t afraid of the bears coming to eat me. One last meal before hibernation. Haha. No, its not the bears I worry about, our bears don%u2019t eat people here, it is the hunters I am actually worried about. I don%u2019t own any blaze orange and I move like a graceful doe in the woods. Yikes!

Some internet stuff I read this week.

-The mr sent me this link. He thinks I am crazy because I said that I want to live the next day without the extra hour yet and take my extra hour on Monday around 2, for like a nap time or something. I think I can do it, but only if I don%u2019t look at my phone clock. If I lived in the city, this guy could make it happen for everyone. The Man Who Turns Back New York City%u2019s Clocks, Hand by Hand. What a badass job.

-You Can Wrap All of Your Friends Christmas Gifts With Your Face This Year. Hahaha. I hate gift wrap, think it is a complete waste, but this is hilarious

-Another reason to get your shut eye. How Sleep Deprivation Messes With Creativity

-Do you love or loathe coffee? Your genes may be to blame. Both my parents drink pretty much nothing else but coffee so I think I am made up of like 25% coffee. Now I have a 99% tolerance to caffeine. The only thing that is does to me (that I notice) is that I get a major headache if I don%u2019t have it. But I am one of those people that could drink a pot of coffee and sleep like a baby for 8 hours. Same as the parents. Got to be genetic.

-If I lived in a brownstone in a loft in Brooklyn, this would be the one I would want.

–How Do You Move A Bookstore? With A Human Chain, Book By Book. This is just so fantastic.

-Just because it is not summer anymore and we are no longer gardening does not mean that there is any less produce out there to eat. Your Ultimate Guide to Fall Produce

-About That Monstrous Black Hole We%u2019re All Orbiting. Just in case you want to know. Life and black holes. What are you gonna do?

-Do any of yo have a septic system and grow ferns on top?. Something I have been thinking about fo septic system landscaping purposes. Anatomy of Ferns

–Thick Strokes of Paint Create Featureless Portraits in Abstracted Paintings by Joseph Lee

Pictures from the week. I didn%u2019t take very many, but I did get Barb eating so there is that.

Another Sunday, another week gone by.

So last Sunday I took some of the family (cousins, Dad, a few siblings and a couple littles) on a hike, a hike that I did not think would be a problem for anymore. Just a 5 or 6 mile, in and out, up a mountain hike. You know, easy. Turns out that some people are not as mountain climbing able as I thought and I might have almost killed a person or two. Oops. It was good though, actually is was freaking fantastic, and most of us made it to the top, to see the spender of the world, and we all made it back down alive so all ended well. And once were were down, everyone took off, and the mr and I headed for the campground. It was raining a little, cold as shit, but still glorious. We got there, set up, then tromped through the woods some more until we were just too cold. Headed back to camp where I chopped up a pumpkin for dinner and a little asshole chipmunk stole and ate half an apple. We then spent the rest of the evening trying to stay warm sitting by the fire. When it was finally an acceptable time to sleep, (8ish) I wore all my clothes, hat and mittens, and socks to bed. I fell asleep, woke up a few hours later to some load bros being dicks and shouting, but tyou know, that shit happens, but managed to be lulled back into sleep by the mr%u2019s snoring. Woke up in the pitch dark, made coffee, packed the site, and off to the river for the mr to do his morning fishing thing. And then back to the world of others and not just the trees. How do I not live in the trees? Some day, some day soon.

The rest of the week was whatever. Work stuff here and there. I ripped out most of the garden which was a little sad but freeing feeling. Barb came over for dinner and I plugged in my new lamp that I found on the side of the road and found a shade for it. I made a cake, cleaned the fridge, put away summer clothes. Boring stuff. There were two days back there when it got really warm again, and super humid and I almost lost my shit. And I got caught in the rain during farm share and got soaked, but other then that, nothing to eventful.

Friday I worked at the studio all day, cleaned a shit load, loaded kilns, did the happy human interaction thing. While I Was working the mr picked Judah up from school and after a trip for hot choclate, they came back home to meet me for dinner and a hair cut. That little finally let me take a few inches of hair off his head so he can now see again. I made pizza for them, we walked, Judah punched and karate chopped everything ( mostly the mr), Shannon randomly stopped by which was nice because I don%u2019t see here enough, and then everyone left. I assed out like a champ.

Yesterday was one of those day. I am not sick, but very tired and needed a kind of down day to just not, although it was very productive anyway. Trimmed some pots, ran chores, cleaned the shit out of the house. The mr did some fly tying and we went for a long walk. Slow and nice.

And it%u2019s Sunday which means CAMPING! We said it last week, and the week before, but I think this might actually be the last weekend camping for a little while (I am determined to get the mr to do a little winter camping) I don%u2019t know what I am going to do now because all week long I look forward to the taking of, going hiking, having a big fire, no house to clean up, and sleeping in the tent. I guess it%u2019s not like we still can%u2019t do all that, and still, it%u2019s just maybe we don%u2019t sleep in a tent outside anymore. Huh, maybe I might be preemptively saying we are not camping anymore.. Maybe we can just sleep in the car , do car camping from now on. Good idea me, keep it keeping on. Anyway, to the Queeche Gorge State Park today. The mr hopefully has his fishing waders, I have 2 books (one to finish, one to start), a pumpkin and lentils for dinner, and my winter mittens, extra socks, and lots and lots of fire wood.

We are ready.

Stuff you might find worth looking at on the internet this week.

–Why we need small farms. Giant farms scare me. I feel like I can trust a smaller, local farm over any big as mega farm any day.

–The Best Ways to Make a Carved Halloween Pumpkin Last Longer. I might try the soaking in water, I hear it really dose work well.

-I see it happening all the time was it scares that shit out of me. The babies know how to use a freaking computer, sometime even better then me. Craziness. Raised by YouTube

-I have got mine down. How and Why to Cultivate an Evil Laugh

–The Outrageous Master Sommelier Scandal, Explained. Oh man, would I be so so pissed if I was one of the honest test takers. That shit is HARD!

-This made me smile. Same-Sex Penguin Couple Fosters An Egg In Sydney

-Did you know Ikea had veggie dogs? In two months, Ikea sold 1 million of its new veggie hot dogs

-Definitely one of my life goals. The whole trail, one fell swoop. I might even have to drag the mr along too. What’s It Like To Hike The Long Trail?

–Yes, There’s a Right Way to Measure Brown%u00a0Sugar. I always back as much as I can%u2026

-Ginger Lime mule is the BEST! Polar Seltzer Limited Edition / Winter 2018 Released.

And Pictures from the wee

It was cold last night, cold enough where I ended up grabbing a wool blanket to add to the bed. Sure,I probably should have just closed the windows and turned the fan off, but fresh, clean, cold air. Ah, so refreshing. And I love a good warm cuddle bed so I was not complaining.

The week kicked off camping at Little River State Park. We hiked, the mr fished, I read a lot and knitted. Lentils and squash for dinner, a campfire, a quiet world. So relaxing, so peaceful. Even if the owls hoot hooting all night kept me awake, or the rusting of the trees that the mr thought was the forest on fire (yeah, I think he was having a nightmare). Never a dull moment, even when we are being dull. And then we woke up, packed up, the mr fished some more, I read some more, and back to the world of things to do.

And we did some things, mainly work things.

Tuesday night I made dinner for Megan, So, and the boys. First Spaghetti squash of the season. We ate, we played, So showed me all of her art work while the mr tried so hard to try and pull her loose tooth out with no success. She told me late that it fell out the next day, and that the tooth fairy left her a book, some cool clip on stars for her bike, and money. What I want to know was where this tooth fairy was when I was a kid a losing my teeth, we only got a quarter per tooth. She then told me that is was inflation.

Wednesday and Thursday was weird days where I didn%u2019t get as much done in life that I needed to. The mr got some painting done, a few other projects started, and we we kind of running around, doing this, waiting for that, thinking it was going to rain when it didn%u2019t or that it wans%u2019t going to when it did. Painting in unpredictable weather, a challenge. And the weather has been a little unpredictable. So sure, the time is ticking and we need to get the house painted before the winter, but really, do we? I mean what%u2019s the worst that happens, we can’t finish this year so we finish it nest spring? Yeah, that wouldn’t be the worst. But no, we will finish this year because we are awesome and we just will, But no pressure.

Jackson 17th birthday was Friday. I worked all day at the studio then quickly ran home to finish frosting his cake. His family dinner consisted of two cakes because he asked me to make him a cake but never told Shannon. I told Shannon but she wan%u2019t listening or something but yeah, two cakes. And the funny thing is that we both made chocolate peanut butter cup cakes, just because. We do shit like that all the time, thinking or doing the same thing with our knowing what the other is thinking or doing, because we are like the same person. #sistersister

After the party we took Miley and Judah home with us where we had conversations about global warming and natural disasters. That was an intense conversation, but a needed one. I pretty much told them they need to be smart, stay in school, take care of the environment, then save the world. I bet they will do it. Then they watched some comic book movie and I crawled into bed, listening to the wind almost blow the house down.

Next day we woke up, the house was still standing, so I made the pancakes. Barb came over, we picked up Coco, and off we went to pick some apples! What a gorgeous apple picking Saturday. Sun was out, but not to bright, it was chilly enough for a sweater, but not cold. The apples were amazing, the orchard was quiet, and the littles were ready to eat. Coco%u2019s first apple picking experience and it was everything you could ask for. Walking around saying apple, eating apples and picking apples. All the smiles and laughing.. That Coco, he might just be the cutest baby ever.

After that, I was pretty wiped but I had a mission. First before I could takle the Saturday cleaning, I needed to to get on making hot sauce. I picked probably 100 jalape%u00f1os at farm share and needed to get them sauced and out of the veggie drawer and into jars. Took me at least a hour to de-seed all the peppers, even burned through a pair of rubber glove. And the fumes from the pot while I was cooking them%u2026 these jalape%u00f1os were hot hot hot, but hot so good. So I got it made and done and now my finger tips are burning, and my lips, and strange parts of my face (I might have touched my face a few times while cutting the peppers). Then it was time to clean house, and house I did clean. Some people might think I am crazy with my Saturday night cleaning ritual, but honest here, I look forward to it every week. I am happiest at home when my floors are mopped, the toilets are scrubbed, the pantry is sparkling, and all the walls and base boards have been wiped down. Then I can relax.

We are camping tonight and it%u2019s going to be a cold one. And last night I noticed that it got dark out at like 730. This might pose to be an issue for some, but I am actually quite excited. Cold camping is fun, and rewarding, and crawling into the tent at 8 is my kind of night. Ha! And here to hoping that I get a good amount if knitting done while we are at it. I feel like I am falling behind on my knitting projects. Camping knitting, that what I am going to be doing.

Internet looking at from the week

–Listen to the world. This takes a little while to listen too, but it is freaking awesome.

-Not me,I have some plants that I have had for more then 10 years, but hey, maybe you are just the unlucky ones that are getting all the dying plants because all plant so in fact die.. Why Are You So Good at Killing Your Houseplants?

–Venture to Earth%u2019s Most Extreme Places Through These Maps. Who doesn%u2019t love a good map?

-I love when librbaries loan out cool things other then books. It really is a great community resource. If You Have A New York Public Library Card, You Can Now Borrow Ties And Handbags

–Wood-Burning Cookstoves for the Kitchen. I want the first one. It%u2019s amazing

-I am not one to be scared of a little mold, except in bread. Sorry, but There’s No Such Thing as the “Clean Part” of Moldy Bread

-Is Vermont Really Losing Young People? I know so so many people my age that have moved away but say they will be back. Wonder if there is going to be a move back boom in like the next 10 years%u2026 but all those people will be kind of old. Ha. Is Vermont Really Losing Young People?

-Introverted Doesn%u2019t Mean What You Think It Means. I know I am very introverted. I can hang with the best of them, but people take so much energy out of me. I need to be by myself (without a phone or computer or any interaction) more then not, or else I freak out. Introverted Doesn%u2019t Mean What You Think It Means

-Ballon goals. Balloon Sculptures by Masayoshi Matsumoto Present Air-Filled Interpretations of the Animal Kingdom

-I want to be an American woking in an Australian coffee shop. Why Are So Many Australians Working in American Coffee?

Pictures from the week

And it’s September which means that I can talk all I want about how excited for fall I am. Because I am very very excited. Apples, pumpkins, sweaters, cozy blankets, darker evenings. And no more humidity! Ha, jokes on us, it suppose to be stupid hot and humid again all next week. WHY!!! But after that it’s gonna get cool right, cause eI can’t take the heat anymore.%u00a0

The week started off by giving Miley a hair trim and Coco his first ever hair cut. He could have cared less about it but I think it %u00a0might have traumatized me and his mother more. He looks like a completely different kid now. And %u00a0so old. I miss the curls, but I think he looks %u00a0really good. Maybe I should go into the hair cutting business? Yeah, maybe that’s just what I will do. Then the next day, with littles all fresh and trimmed we went %u00a0for a picnic walk on the last day of summer. This was when the mr decided to make the nastiest sandwich he could (Cream cheese, cheddar cheese, Apple Jacks, veggies straws, pickles, mustard, and ketchup on white) just to gross the kids out. They had bagels with just cream cheese.%u00a0We had the intentions of walking to a playground, but due to the heat almost killing use we only made it to a green park where the mr ate the nasty sandwich and actually liked it, Miley read, and Coco and Judah %u00a0rolled around in the grass like dogs.%u00a0. We then decided ice cream because duh, and %u00a0instead of buying individual ice cream cones, bought a half gallon and I just let the 4 of them go to town and eat as much of the ice cream as they could. I figured to hot to walk it home and also last summertime hurrah. They got through just about the whole thing.%u00a0

Work wise, we have spent most of the week, going back and forth with paint colors for one of the houses because we are crazy and spend way way to much time on colors.%u00a0%u00a0We have a million gallons of a color that we are not super excited about but in the end, saving at least $700 bucks in paint, well we finally decided to just go with it. %u00a0It is Mint green, but it is %u00a0growing on me. I think we can make it look cool. No, I know we can. You just wait and see.

Then there is the new addition of the cat door for Only. We installed it in the back of the house so he will stop sitting on the front porch meowing like he is starving to death and we won’t let him in the house. Our neighbors think we are terrible. But what they don’t know is that he is allowed to do whatever he wants. Eats a whole hell of a lot, but is just a really really mouthy cat. But yeah, we would like him to start meowing at the back door instead. Hence cat door.%u00a0

And Barb came over for dinner and tattoo drawing. She wants a tattoo bad. I am ok with it, as long as she waits a while and listens to exactly what I tell her. Ha. %u00a0Megan and So %u00a0came the next day so So could tell me all about her fist few days of kindergarten and to have lunch. And to make a bedtime box, which in fact, has been used by other littles for bedtime. Kindergarten is really making her smart that one.%u00a0%u00a0

On Friday afternoon we went to the fair. And whoa shit it has been like 15 years since the last time I went to one.%u00a0%u00a0We kind of had too because we had free tickets even though I am not a fair person by any means. I don’t like crowds, I don’t like rides, I don’t like playing games for toys, but it was actually pretty cool to see the animals. 4H and blue ribbon carrots and big ass pumpkins. %u00a0All the farm animals were very cute and the giraffe.. a little out of place, but cool non the less. My biggest thing though was where did it live? I know the farm animals all came from farms around the state and the animals were taken care of, but the giraffe. It made me kind of sad. I am just hoping it gets to go back to a good home too. And after the animals we %u00a0did do the walk through around the rides and it was cool to see all the rides and colors and such, but after that I had to go. An hour was all I could handle.

The studio is closed for the weekend so I didn’t have to work. Instead the littles came over for a sleep over. We watched a movie then I went to bed and they stay up all night watching whatever. Woke them up to squeeze bottles full of colored pancake batter to make crazy pancake and then after Judah got enough of beating the shit out of the mr, we went to the farm, picked flowers, climbed trees and played tether ball. The weather was spot on too, nice and cool and crisp.%u00a0%u00a0It was a fanatic morning.

And then I went home and spent the afternoon cleaning the littles ick and processing the new pile of tomatoes and squash that have started to overflow (again) on the counter. This time of year, it’s like having a part time job just keeping up with all the veggies, which is not a complaint, just an observations of my life.%u00a0

Today, after a quick bike ride to the gym and library this morning, the mr and I are grabbing the camping stuff and taking off for the day and night. It’s Labor Day tomorrow so we have to camp tonight. That is what we are all suppose to do,%u00a0right?%u00a0

Internet finding that I found this week.%u00a0

-This is where we are staying tonight. New Discovery Stage Park. I am very excited, neither of us have ever been to this park before.%u00a0

–Goats Like It When You Smile at Them, Extremely Heartwarming Study Says. I mean, who doesn’t prefer a smile.%u00a0

-Got to know what to look for up there this month.%u00a0%u00a0Can’t-Miss Sky Events in September

–The forest beekeepers of Zanzibar.%u00a0I couldn’t imagine having to climb a tree to get to a hive. These folks are awesome.

-Aagghh %u00a0Pesticides. Son of a bitch.%u00a0What You Need to Know About the Massive Times Pesticide Report.

– 5 Proven Benefits Of Play. We all need to play more!

-When the mr and I first started dating, we used to stay up all night and watch this show, It is one my top three favorite shows %u00a0of all time. Mr Tastee is a classic.%u00a0The Adventures of Pete and Pete%u2019s Mr. Tastee Episode Is the Perfect Ode to Summer

%u00a0-I was thinking about fainting recently (on a very hot day), like wondering if I did faint, if I would go down gradually or hard and fast and bash my head open. I think about these things.%u00a0%u00a0Fainting Is a Pretty Weird Thing for a Body to Do

-No more excuses. You are or you are not. Ha A Sociologist Finds Vegans Are Too Open to %u2018Free Riders%u2019

–Why you can smell rain%u2014even though it’s odorless. But is it really?

All the pictures from the week.

Have a great long weekend!

-C

The beginning of the week started off with cabin time with family and friends. All the sisters went up with their kids and we ate food, made bracelets, walked to the river, and just hung out for the afternoon. Seeing the family is (almost) always a good time. Then the mr and I ventured our way to our secret camping spot,%u00a0went for a little hike, then ate our dinner in a park where I watched the mr open a can of beans for me by rubbing it against a rock. It was like magic, especially because I was starving and was smashing the end of the can like a rabid beast against, well everything. I forgot to bring the can opener for my can of beans which could have been the end of me. Luck for me the mr is so good and I never will need a can opener again. Anyway we ended up not camping out for the night. Our main reason for camping was to see the meteor shower, but the sky was all clouded so we couldn’t see squat. Plus the mr was tired and feeling sore, I was little tired, so we just headed back home. When we got home we sat under the %u00a0slightly less cloudy sky in the backyard for a bit until the mr sprayed %u00a0bug spray that turned into bug bomb and %u00a0that not only kept all the bugs away, kept me away too. He had to take shower to ge the stink off and still he smelled. The smell lingered for days.. And to think it was just essential oils. %u00a0Then we slept in our bed which was way more comfortable then usual because we were really suppose to be sleeping on the ground.%u00a0

The rest of the week went as usual. %u00a0Had little bursts of rain, although never quite enough to help the heat, only enough to up the humidity. Qui came over for dinner where he drank out a a mug with his face all over it and tried to talk the mr into getting his own scooter. I told the mr if he wants one, well then he should go for it. But I don’t think its happening any time soon.%u00a0%u00a0Barb and So came over for %u00a0lunch and spent time harvesting all the goodies out of the garden. So picked a watermelon that turned out to be not quite ripe (so sad) and Barb picked all the kale that she could stand picking. Other then that, there was farm share, lots of running around, a chocolate zucchini cake, and the realization that I have Summer Seasonal Affective Disorder. (yes, it is a thing) %u00a0A well rounded, semi productive, way to hot,%u00a0week.%u00a0

And then there was yesterday.%u00a0It was amazing.%u00a0Sure I was at work inside most of the day glazing hundreds of pots that little kids made, but when I got out, the sky was covered in big grey clouds with a slight rainy drizzle. The temperature was like 68 degrees, and there was a cool breeze. I might have even gotten a slight chill. It was everything that I have needed all Summer long. Seriously, to much warmth and sunshine is not good for me. I need cool rainy(dare I say snowy) days to help keep that balance, so yesterday really hit the spot. I was even able to wear a long sleeve shirt for like the first time in months. %u00a0And when I went to bed, I was able to sleep under the blanket. So nice. So nice.

And we made it to today.%u00a0The mr and I were talking last night about going comping today so we might do that. Or we might not and just veg out for the day here at home, maybe stop in to see the littles that are home from sleep away camp.%u00a0I am leaning towards camping.%u00a0We skipped out last week and if the nights are going to be anything like last tonight, (%u00a0nice and cool), a fire will be ever so lovely and welcome. %u00a0And I am sure the mr would love to do some fishing and I of course can be happy reading and drinking coffee just about anywhere. %u00a0

Stuff I read on the Internet this week.

-%u00a0Amazing music, amazing person. She will be missed. Aretha Franklin: In Memoriam Playlist.

–The exhilarating history of roller coaster photography. And to have your picture taken at a “Oh Shit Point”… Makes for some good pictures.%u00a0

-This is a place I would love to stay (or build An A-Frame Cabin Celebrates the Zero-Emission Lifestyle in Finland

–We Discovered Helium 150 Years Ago. Are We Running Out?%u00a0I never thought about helium as being anything that we could run out of. Huh.

-Seriously, what the fuck dudes.%u00a0Traces of Weed Killer Found in Cheerios and Quaker Oats Oatmeal-

–Genius Hidden Messages People Didn%u2019t Expect To Find On Everyday Products.%u00a0Sometimes it about the little extra attention to detail, and a little humor that keeps people coming back for more.%u00a0

–12 Signs You Suffer From Summer Depression. See, its for real. and I have it.. number 2 and 6.%u00a0

-Because in VT, we will pee on on your tomatoes. Haha.%u00a0%u2018Pee-Cycling:%u2019 Vermont Researchers Look at Value in Human Urine

-What’s the Difference Between White and Yellow %u00a0and%u00a0%u00a0Popcorn 101: Butterflies, Snowflakes & Mushrooms (oh my!)%u00a0

-The colors and patterns really caught my eyes.%u00a0New Synchronized Photographs of Swimmers by M%u00e1ria %u0160varbov%u00e1

Pictures from the week.

I think that my favorite thing abut summer is probably the food. Yeah, no, definitely all the food. If it weren’t for all the delicious amazing things that grow during these summer months, I would probably hate summer.  Well, I mean, not hate it because summer is nice when it it nice, but lately it has not been so nice and so I am trying to make myself feel better by finding all the good things that I like about summer. Summer trees, summer flowers, the smell of fresh cut grass, river rocks, summer sandals, summer… well that’s what I got right now. But summer produce, that is the best and what keeps me happy when I am extremely over heated and over sunned and just want a blast of cold air accompanied by some dark clouds, a sweater and the smell of decomposing leaves. Obviously I am being a little crank butt, and I actually do usually like me some summertime, I am just over this summer. To hot, to humid, to dry. I am ready to move on. 

But back to the good parts of summer that I am not over. The food. The corn is flowing steadily (I am getting on average 10 pieces of corn a week from the farm. That is a lot of corn for 2 people, one of which says he doesn’t like corn), the kale is growing in super abundance in the garden, and it’s is for sure blueberry season. When we  have those three things and we toss in a avocado, as little onion, and lots of lime juice , BAM, another super fantastic summertime eating time, reason that summer can be a ok. Makes  all the heat a little worth it. 

I am telling you, this is my new favorite food combination. Blueberries are magical (I think so anyway) and really add the perfect little sweetness, tartness, and texture to this salad. Crisping up the kale and corn elevates the deliciousness, and avocado always is welcome is any salad situation. This is one of those salads that you will make for yourself and then immediately want to make for someone you like because it is so good you want to share. OR you just want to make it for yourself again because you could share or you could just eat more of it yourself. It’s ok either way, you do you. 

The stuff. A cob of fresh corn. some fresh blueberries, a bunch of dinosaur kale, a lime, an avocado, a piece of a sweet onion, sea salt, pepper, and a little oil. 

First off preheat the oven then cut the corn off the cob.

Then deal with the kale. Each leaf needs just the slightest bit of oil. The easiest way to do this is to dump a little oil into your hands and grab each piece of kale and rub your oily hands all over the kale.

After the kale is oiled, chop it into chunks. First place the corn on a baking sheet then add the kale on top. Placet it into the oven to get all crispy… The kale will might get crispy before the corn, which is fine because you can remove the kale then pop the corn back into the oven for a few more minutes to keep cooking if you want. Or you might just want to call it cooked, it’s your call. 

I popped the corn back into the oven to get a little more color. I like a real crispy corn. 

Cut up some onion and avocado into chunks. 

And time to compile. Kale, onions, corn, avocado, blueberries, and lime juice. And don’t or get a sprinkle of sea salt and pepper. 

Toss it all around and be delighted. 

Just look at that salad. Who wouldn’t want to eat that? 

Heres to summer salads….The reason I can barely stand the heat!

-C

makes one salad

• 10 or so large Lacinato (Dinosaur) Kale leaves
• 1 fresh cob of corn
•  1/2 of an avocado
• 1/2 cup fresh blueberries
• 1/4 of a sweet onion (about 1/4 cup diced)
• 1 lime
• teaspoon olive oil
• sea salt and pepper  

Preheat oven to 350

Cut the corn off the con and place on a lightly oiled baking sheet. Take a little oil and rub into hands then grab the kale leaves ans rub oil all over them. Once oiled, rough chop into medium sized pieces (don’t chop small, it will shrink a lot in the oven). Place chopped kale on top of corn and stick into hot oven. Bake until the kale is crispy, about 12-15 minutes.. What closely after 10 minutes to prevent burning.

Remove the kale from the baking sheet and place in a large bowl. The corn will be cooked, but if you want to make it a little crispier , just toss it back into the oven for a few minutes.  Once corn is to your liking, remove from pan and toss into two with the kale.

Small dice up some onion and dice up half of the avocado. Toss into the bowl with the kale and corn. And the blueberries, add those in. Sprinkle the whole shebang with a little sea salt and pepper and squeeze the juice of at least half of a lime all over (use the whole lie if you want) Give it all one last toss and that is it. 

Eat your new favorite salad. Think about making it for all your favorite friends and family and how impressed they will be because this is one of those impressive salads. T

It’s melon season! The past few farm shares have included at least 2,, if not 4, watermelons and cantaloupes… Can you imagine. eating 4 watermelons a week? That’s a tall order, even for someone like me who could probably eat a whole watermelon in one sitting, it’s just doing it 4 times a week might be a problem.  It’s a whole lot of melon and not enough stomach, you know what I mean? 

So what do I do with so much melon? Well first off, whenever anyone comes over I try to get them to  eat as much of it as they can, which helps a great deal. Secondly, I cut it up and freeze some. But here is the thing, I love eating chunks of frozen cantaloupe, but frozen watermelon, never been my favorite so I usually just pass on sticking in the freezer, until now.

There is something magical that happens when you stick the frozen watermelon and cantaloupe together into a blender and making it into a slushy. It’s like eating a ray of sunshine or maybe even a rainbow, just really satisfying and juicy, and sweet but not overly sweet, and just really freaking good. Especially with all the stupid hot and humid weather we have had lately, these slushies have really been hitting the spot.  Even the mr who says he dislikes watermelon was all into these melon slushies. (he likes things that he says he doesn’t like all the time. I am pretty sure he is taste confused) Like  he was really into them. Usually I have to prompt him to tell me how something tastes, but not the slushy, he told me right away how good it was. I was like, I know dude, I just drank 2 of them myself. And I could have drank 2 more but I was trying to not get tot far ahead of myself. Moderation is key, plus I didn’t;t have any more of the melons frozen. Time to restock the freezer. 

Go make yourself a slushy, it’s juicy deliciousness will make you happy. 

The stuff. Watermelon and cantaloupe. There should be a lime in there too but it must have rolled away…. 

Chop some of each of the melon up, remove the rinds, and place on a big baking sheet and stick into the freezer until frozen. You can do as little as 2 cups  of each or as much as a whole melon, it’s up to you. (I suggest freezing extra)

Frozen melon. And now you can slushy.

Equal parts watermelon and cantaloupe go into blender, along with the juice of half (or more to taste) a lime and you are probably going to need to add about 1/2 a cup of water, to help the blender blend it all together.  And that’s it. You blend until it’s all slushy.

Pour into cups, garnish with a lime and/or little chunks of melon and you are good as golden. 

From now on, or until summer is over and I run out of melon, I will be keeping the freezer stocked, especially because I know that the next few weeks are suppose to be stupid hot again. 

Waterloupe slushies. Summertime goodness. 

-C

• about 2 cups  of a watermelon
• about 2 cups of a cantaloupe 
• 1 lime
• 1/2- 1 cup water 

Note. The amounts above are for two  2 cup slushies. You can, and should, freeze a crap load more melon for future slushies.  Also, no one would fault you for maybe adding a little nip of some clear alcohol to this slushy situation to make it more of an adult drink……

Cut up a watermelon and a cantalopjue. Eat some and reserve at least 2 cups of each. Remove the rinds from the melons and cut into cubes. Place melon on a baking sheet and stick into the freezer until frozen. 

Once frozen, place equal parts frozen watermelon and cantaloupe into the blender with the juice of a lime. Turn blender on. Slowly add in water until the blender can handle blending the frozen fruit. Blend until smooth. Pour into cups, garnish if you want with more melon and lime, then get to drinking. 

I can’t believe it is Sunday already. The last week has just blown by so fast. These summer days, they can do that. But they are coming to an end and I might be a tad sad about it but I caught myself  longingly looking at all of my sweaters the other day… I will leave that one alone for a little longer. 

Our camping adventure last week started off with us under a bridge. It was so freaking hot out that my earwax was melting so the mr found the coolest place he could think of to fish, and that was under a bridge. After that, we just headed up the mountain to our campsite.  When we got there to check in we were pretty much guaranteed  to see a bear because there had been so much bear activity, especially at our site. So I was a bit nervous, a lot excited, and ready and prepared.  After the mr started a fire from logs he threw into the air and dropped so they would break (we forgot a saw) and ate our dinner, all traces of food were then packed away in the car.  All evening every little noise we heard, I was expecting bear but nothing. So we went to bed. I had my noise maker ready at my head, my shoes untied and ready to slip on, and my camera because I would need to get a picture. Every time I woke up (I wake up a lot) I would poke my head out the tent window looking for a big fury mass, but all night I did not see one. We didn’t get a bear. So much for that. 

After packing up camp super early, it was back to a river for some prime fishing and coffee and reading before heading back to the real world of noise and work and people. And we needed to get back to the cat, which I keep finding in piles of leaves next to the house looking dead. I was scared once or twice but it turns out he just likes looking like a dead cat in a pile of leaves.  Yup. 

Tuesday we had the littles over for a sleep over. We gardened, drew pictures, sat around and read, ate lots of corn, and walked down to the neighborhood cornerstone for creamees. After we sent the baby back to it’s mother, the littles and the mr watched another inaproperate Adam Sandler movie, I went to bed, they stayed awake all night watching cooking shows, and I had to shake them awake the next morning in order to feed them all the brightly colored pancakes before  dropping them off at camp. Those guys are doing summer vacation right. 

Wednesday the mr and I had to quick quick run up to see our friends in the north at Ikea. It was last minute, we needed a countertop, so no I did not have time to call everyone I knew to see if they wanted me to buy them anything. But shitty shit, when we got there, the countertop we needed was not there, so that kinda sucked. But I did end up getting a new toilet paper roller, a toilet brush, and the mr picked out a new pillow. We drove all the way up there, we couldn’t leave empty handed. 

And how is your fresh farm and garden food these days? Farm share is at it’s peak and so is my food consumption. I find myself eating more then I really want to just because we have so much fresh and beautiful goodies that I just can’t stop myself. The tomatoes are so ripe and sweet, how can I not eat like 10 a day? (my acid reflux is kicking up a little)  And not only are the tomatoes going gang buster at the farm, but my garden is like a tomato jungle. There is probably going to be a day when I am buried alive by the tomatoes. It so could happen.

Saturday was work at the studio. I was on fire and unloaded  2 kilns (someone piece blew up in one) and loaded a glaze kiln in record time. After that I was pretty tired, my hip was sore (to much bending over kilns) so I came home, had a snack, cleaned the shit out of my house (there was watermelon stickiness on everything) and called myself ready for bed at like 8. The days are getting shorter again so I don’t feel so bad crawling into bed earlier. HA

Today is family day. Our cousins are up in Vt at the camp so we are heading there to spend the day with them. After that, the mr and I are camping in some field somewhere (probably a baseball field?) outside of the city to each the meteor shower. It’s at it’s peak tonight and I am super excited to sleep under the stars and watch. Hopefully we don’t get any shit for illegally camping in a park. We aren’t going to have a fire (so we can see the starts, duh) so it really shouldn’t be a problem. Right? 

Some reads from the internet this week. 

-It’s tonight guys! How to See the 2018 Perseid Meteor Shower

–It’s Time to Admit That Iceberg Is a Superior Lettuce. I wouldn’t call it superior but I have to admit, I do like me some iceberg. It’s kind of like my junk green. Not much nutritional value but taste so mighty fine dipped in mustard. Crisp an refreshing. 

-I know some people (mom..) that might have a slight buying books addiction, even when they won’t necessarily read them all. Tsundoku: The art of buying books and never reading them. I stopped buying books (or rarely do and its usually a book I have read and love so much) and just do the library. It would be very expensive if I just bought books… I read to much. 

–Angry People Tend to Overestimate Their Intelligence. Ever have to deal with an angry know it all…. its enough for me to run away screaming. So frustrating. 

-“If you’ve ever seen someone with testicles get kicked in the groin, then you probably know that male genitals — often portrayed as a symbol of male strength and virility — aren’t actually that tough.” hahaha, what a great opening paragraph. Boxers Or Briefs? Experts Disagree Over Tight Underwear’s Effect On Male Fertility

–What’s the Difference Between Zucchini and Yellow Squash?. One is zucchini and one is yellow squash. 

–Spent $200 on a Weighted Blanket, and It’s Changed My Entire F*cking Life. I don’t think I will ever spend $200 on a blanket, but I am really into the idea of getting a weighted blanket..I think Ikea sells one for like $30.

-I could live in a state of natural silence for ever (or for a very long time) Are You Listening? Hear What Uninterrupted Silence Sounds Like

–8 Fruits and Vegetables You Shouldn’t Be Refrigerating

Pictures from the week.

These are definitely my favorite shaped cutout cookies I have ever made. I mean seriously, carrot shaped carrot cookies, what could possibly ever be better? Nothing, and that%u2019s truth for you.

Not only are they carrot shaped, they are also carrot flavored. Yup, Carrot shaped, carrot flavored, awesomeness. A little cinnamon added to the cookie for little extra boost of flavor and an orange glaze because it works and orange is good and fresh and springing. All good stuff.

You might be thinking, huh, carrot puree in a cookie, well that doesn%u2019t sound right. But it is, it is right. And you know how I know that these cookies are awesome? Well I packed them up, (2 dozen of them) and took them over to the littles house for an after school treat. When I got there, the two older ones had friends over. I asked them if they wanted a carrot which earned me that look that said %u201care you serious%u201d but them showed them the cookies. Of course the wanted a carrot so I gave them each one. They ate their cookies then proceeded to beat the shit out of the mr. Then they asked for another cookies and beat the shit out of the mr some more. This when on and on for about a 1/2 hour until all the cookies were gone and the mr was crouched in the corner with a broom trying to defend himself against 4 rulely kids who where slashing at him with light sabers and spraying him in he face with kitchen cleaner. It%u2019s because they wanted more cookies. (and yes, the littles are getting crazy). So yeah, the cookies are good. Ass kicking good.

Anyway, a cookie with some goodness mix into it, shaped into a great shape, that will make everyone smile and happy. You could make them by yourself, make them with your friends, make them with some kids, with some old people. They are the perfect cookie to leave out for the easter bunny(do you leave carrots out for the easter bunny?) or to serve up at any easter party, spring party, or any garden party you might be attending. This cookie is pretty much perfect for any and every occasion that required a cookie. Or a carrot because carrots are always welcome.

To the carrots! I mean, the cookies!

The stuff. Flour, baking soda, salt, sugar, vegan butter, carrot puree, cinnamon, an orange, some powdered sugar, and food coloring.

Into a big bowl the sugar, vegan butter, and carrot puree go.

Beat for a minute or two until completely incorporated.

Add in all the rest of the dry stuff and mix by hand until it turns to dough.

This is the dough it turned into.

Gather the dough and wrap it or place in a plastic bag and stick it Into the fridge for a few hours or overnight. The dough NEEDS to chill.

After you let the dough be, remove from fridge, liberally dust counter, and roll out dough about 1/4 inch thick.

And then it%u2019s time to cut the cookies out. I unfortunately do not have a cookie cutter so I improvised and make 2 carrot cutouts from paper and hand cut each cookie. That worked but took forever so I got crafty and used a fat Christmas tree cookie cutter then just did a little trim and pinch to make it into a cookie. (I am a genius for that). Any way works, and you can also do other shapes too, the cookies don%u2019t change taste in different shapes. (but that would be so cool if they did)

Carefully place cut out cookies onto a baking sheet, giving them a little space because they do spread a tiny bit.

And into the oven to bake they go.

Out in 10 minutes looking all carrot like.

Carrots waiting to cool so they can be glazed.

The glaze. Pretty straight forward. Just zest orange into powdered sugar and juice the orange into the sugar and mix.

Divide glaze and dye one orange and one green

And glaze away. I recommend doing it over a rack and baking sheet to minimize mess because they do drip a bit.

Now just you look at that, carrot shaped carrot sugar cookies .What a sight!

And of course, carrots come in bunches. HA

Enjoy some carrots!

-C

makes about 2 and a half dozen (depending on size)

• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour plus more for dusting

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

• 1/2 cup vegan butter

• 3/4 cup granulated sugar

• 1/2 cup carrot puree ( see note about how to make puree)

  For the glaze

• 2 to 3 cups powdered sugar

• on orange

• orange and green food coloring

Note. To make carrot puree, steam a couple carrots until completely soft them blend until smooth.

Place sugar, vegan butter, and carrot puree into a big bowl. Beat with a beater until light and fluffy. Add in the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon and mix by hand until completely incorporated and mixture tunes into dough. Gather dough into a disk and wrap in plastic or place in a plastic bag and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to overnight.

Once dough has chilled enough and you are ready to go, preheat the oven to 350.

Place dough on a flour dusted counter and roll out about 1/4 inch thick. Cut out the cookies with a cutter or by hand and place on a baking sheet. Bake cookies for 10-11 minutes or until just starting to turn slightly brown around the edges. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

Once cookies are all baked and cooling, make the glaze. Place powered sugar into a big bowl, zest in the orange then add in the juice od half the orange. Mix completely and check consistency. You want it to be slightly running but not liquid, but also not to stiff. Add more juice or more sugar to get it right. Once it is the right consistency, separate into 2 bowls. Dye one green and one orange. Now glaze you cookies. A knife or small spatula works best and yes, the glaze drips a little so do it over a baking sheet, but after about 10 minutes the glaze hardens.

And then you have carrot cookies and all is good. Now go eat a carrot cookie!

Store uneaten cookies in an airtight container for up to 5 days. They can be frozen too.

I have a bag of coconut flour that I need to use up so I have made coconut snack cake a few times the past couple weeks. Once with orange instead of lime. Once I added chocolate chips. This time I stepped it up made a little glaze action, toasted a little coconut for some extra coconutiness and took these here pictures and wrote down the recipe. Just. For. You.

Not that I don%u2019t know already that my snack cake creation is good, but I guess it was just super A+++. I threw this one together right before the mr and I headed down to PA to hang with my dad. As soon as he (and sister and nephews) started in on it, well the responses were more then average. My dad even snuck a piece off and hid it for later. They really, really, really were into it. Wanted me to make another right then and there. Normally I would but my dad doesn%u2019t keep coconut flour on hand and I don%u2019t make it a habit to travel with any myself. (I might have to change that.) Next time he will know to stock the coconut flour.

I didn%u2019t realize my people were such coconut people. Good thing for them that I like coconut people. As a matter of fact, I consider myself a coconut person. And coconut is not code for awesome, but I am that too. HA

Anyway enough about me. Coconut snack cake is what you want to know about. It is soft and dense. Moist, not overly sweet. Lots of lime and coconut flavor and is just perfect for snack time. Eat it with a fork on a plate with coffee or tea or grab an piece and eat it walking down the street while thinking about green leaves and warmer weather. Or wherever and whenever. If you make it then it%u2019s up to you when and where you eat it. That only seems fair.

Now to the snack cake of your coconut lime dreams.

The stuff. Gonna need all purpose flour, coconut flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, a couple flax eggs, some warmed coconut oil, plant milk, brown sugar, vanilla extra, apple sider vinegar, a couple lime, some powdered sugar, and some lightly toasted shredded coconut.

Grab a big bowl. Add in the brown sugar, flax eggs, warmed coconut oil, apple cider vinegar, and vanilla. Mix it all up until evenly incorporated.

Dump in the flours, baking soda and powder, and salt. Zest in lime, squeeze in lime juice and start to mix. Add in the milk as you are mixing.

Cake batter mixed and done. Now to bake it.

Dump the cake batter into a well greased baking pan and level it off with a spoon or spatula.

Now it%u2019s oven time to bake into a great and well cake.

A cake out of the oven, great and well. Golden brown and smells of all the goodness that a coconut cake could possible smell.

While cake is cooling, which it should be now, make the glaze. Powdered sugar, lime zest, and lime juice. Mix until it%u2019s glazy.

Pour the glaze all over cooled cake.

Don%u2019t forget the shredded coconut. Get it on before the glaze starts to set.

And then it%u2019s just the matter of cutting cake%u2026%u2026.

You know once you cut it, that means snack time right? Coconut lime snack cake for all of your coconut time, lime time, hungry snack time needs.

Keep it good.

-C

Makes a 9×9 cake

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

• 1/2 cup coconut flour

• 3/4 packed cup brown sugar

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 cup coconut oil (warmed to liquid)

• 1 1/4 cup plant milk (I used almond)

• 2 flax eggs (2 tablespoons ground flax seeds with 1/2 cup warm water)

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

• A lime

• For the glaze

• 3/4 cup powdered sugar

• a lime

• 1/4 cup or so toasted shredded coconut to sprinkle on top (optional)

Preheat oven to 350

In a large bowl, mix together the bbrown sugar, flax eggs, warmed coconut oil, vanilla, and apple cider vinegar until completely incorporated. Next dump in the flour, coconut flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Zest the lime into bowl. Start mixing, adding in the juice of the lime and the plant milk. Mix it all together until completely incorporated.

Dump mixture into a well greases 9×9 baking pan and level off with a spoon or spatula. Place into oven and bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown and a tester stuck into the middle of cake comes out clean.

Once baked, remove from oven, let cool in pan for a few minutes then carefully remove cake from pan and let cool on a wire rack.

While cake is cooling, make the glaze. Just zest other lime into powered sugar then add the juice (or as much juice as you needed) of the lime until a pourable glaze forms. If your lime is not particularly juicy enough and the glaze is still really thin, just add a splash of water to thin out as needed.

And when cake is completely cooled, pour glaze all over cake and cover with toasted coconut flakes.

Now cut. And eat.

Store left over cake in a air tight container for 3-4 days. Individual pieces freeze well for all your future snacking needs.

Currently it is like 50 degrees outside and raining buckets of cats and frogs and what not. I live in Vt for a few reasons, and one of them is winter, so the warm rain is just not nice. Apparently these cookies are the closest thing to snowflakes I will be seeing for a little while%u2026(sad face inserted here) But I am hoping that juuuust maybe it will turn, and all of a sudden it will be snow coming down and not rain. And that it snows and snows and snows, like a foot or 2 of it. I want so much snow that I am stuck in my house for a least a solid 24 hours (of course with the power still on and all the necessities I would need) and the only way out being by foot or sled. And you know what I would do if I was snowed in? Lounge around in my pj%u2019s all day (or at least until like 10 am), have a never emptying cup of hot coffee in hand, play around outside and make a snow fort, and definitely make cookies. Doesn’t that just sound so nice?

But I am not snowed in, and wasn%u2019t snowed in and probably will not be snowed in for the foreseeable future. But I can still, and did make cookies so there is that. Chocolate cut out snowflakes with orange glaze to be exact. A good all around chocolate cookie jazzed up with a citrus kick. Simple, elegant and perfect for all of your holiday cookie needs. Plus it is just a really pretty cookie. I just might make a few more batches and liter the front yard with them. I%u2019ll make my own freaking snow, even if it is out of cookies. Then I really wouldn%u2019t be able to leave my house due to the crazy fat squirrels attacking the lawn. That would be something. HA.

To the snowflake cookies! (They can be any shape really, but snowflakes are so nice)

The stuff. Sugar, vegan butter, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt, canola oil, brewed coffee, grind chia seeds, vanilla extract, an orange, and some powdered sugar.

First, mix the ground chia seeds with the coffee for caffeinated chia eggs.

Beat the butter with the sugar to give it a good fluff, then add in the oil, vanilla, and chia eggs to the mix.

Place all the dry into a bowl and whisk together until fully incorporated.

Dump the mixed dry into the were and grab a wooden spoon. Start mixing.

Cookie dough is a-formin.

Collect the dough in some plastic and smash into a disk. Place in fridge to rest for at least a few hours, but a day is good too.

Chilled dough, flour, a cookie cutter, and a rolling pin. I think you know what to do. Just really make sure to keep the counter and rolling pin floured or else the dough will stick and that is just so annoying.

Yes this dough is a little delicate, but not in a bad way. It might tear or slightly crumble but you just smoosh it back in there and you are all set. Anyway, after rolling dough out to about 1/2 inch thick, cut cookies out with a well floured cutter.

Cookies on the baking sheet ready for the oven.

Cookies on a baking sheet right out of the oven.

Now those cookies got to cool so get them on a rack.

While cookies are cooling, fix yourself some glaze. The powdered sugar, zest of orange and juice of orange will do the trick.

A good looking glaze. Thick put drizzable consistency.

And to finish. Drizzle the cookies with glaze, dunk the tops in the glaze, or do a little of both (I say both). The glaze does harden after a few minutes so these are very much stackable cookies.

And then what you do with the finished cookies is up to you. I let the mr eat a good few, saved a few for Christmas and dropped some off to some peps. They were well received for sure.

Hope you are enjoying the weekend and are able to get in on some cookie making.

-C

makes about 3 dozen cookies

• 2 1/2 cups flour

• 1/2 cup cocoa powder

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1/3 cup vegan butter

• 1/2 cup oil

• 1 cup white sugar

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• 2 tablespoons ground chia seeds

• 6 tablespoon coffee or water (coffee brings out the chocolate flavor more)

• 1 orange

• 1 cup powdered sugar

In a large bowl, cream together the white sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add in the oil, vanilla, and coffee chia eggs. Mix until incorporated. In a separate bowl mix together the flour, cocoa. salt. and baking powder. Dump dry into wet and mix until a dough forms. Gather dough into a ball and place in plastic and flatten into a disk. Place in fridge for at least an hour or overnight.

When you are ready to bake, preheat oven to 350

Take dough from fridge and unwrap. Place on a well floured surface and roll until it is about 1/4 inch thick. The dough is delicate and a little crumbly, but don%u2019t worry to much, just squish it back together and keep rolling it out. With a floured cookie cutter, cut your shapes and gently place them on a cookie sheet. Gather remnants of dough back into a ball and re-roll out and cut more cookies until you have used up all the dough. Place cookies into oven and bake for 11-12 minutes or until the cookies have puffed up a bit and the bottoms are slightly browned. Once cookies are cooked, let cool on a wire rack.

While cookies are cooling make the glaze. Mix about a tablespoon of the zest of the orange with the powdered sugar and add in a few tablespoons of the juice of the orange until the glaze is slightly runny. Once cookies are cooled either dip the tops in the glaze or drizzle the glaze on top of cookies (or do some of both). Then eat. If you wait a little while, the glaze will harden and then you can stack them and then if you want, maybe wrap on a few in little packages to give to someone you like. Either way, place uneaten cookies in a airtight container. Should last about a week, but can you not eat them for that long?

I have been making at least one cake, if not 3, a week for the past month. Last week I did not have a cake that I needed.to make, so what did I do? I made a cake.

I might have an alternative motive here, I have started my winter squash stash, and already it is looking pretty impressive. I have delicata, acorn, kombucha, and sugar pumpkins littered all over the house. As of now I think I have a count of about 27. Some came fro the garden, some from (and still coming, all winter long) from farm share, and some came from when they went on sale at the grocery store and I filled the shopping cart up. The cashier checking me out thought I was crazy, but I get that a lot. (Like when I buy 20 heard os cabbage.. it%u2019s like I scare them) The alternative motive is that some of the squashes don%u2019t have the shelf life of some of the others so I need to get on to eating the ones that don%u2019t last as long, like the delicata and pumpkins, which I am doing, gladly might I add. So while I am eating those, I figured I would use up an acorn squash for cake because well, I don%u2019t want to have a million acorn squash laying around and I am just too busy eating the pumpkins to get the acorn. And this is why I made an acorn squash cake.

What does acorn squash cake tase like? Basically like pumpkin cake. Every time I make any sweet thing with any squash other then pumpkin, no one really seems to notice the difference, but that is not to say there isn’t one. I would say that acorn has a slightly sweeter and nutter flavor then pumpkin so you might get a more flavorful flavor out of an acorn squash. And really, if you like pumpkin, your gonna like the acorn. And people love them some maple frosting so smothering that along with walnuts on this cake, well I know made some people really really happy.

That%u2019s the real reason why I made this cake. To make some people happy. Jeeze, I am just so nice. Ha HA!

The stuff. A roasted acorn squash. flour, baking soda and baking powder, spices of cinnamon, ginger and a pinch of nutmeg, salt, oil, soy milk, brown sugar, white sugar, and a little apple cider vinegar.

Start by pureeing your squash If you haven%u2019t already which basically involved removing seeds and skin (save seeds to rest, eat skin, it delicious) and blending the squash until smooth.

You are now ready to cake. Add squash puree and oil into bowl with the sugars and mix until completely combined. Whisk together all the dry ingredients then add in the sugar, squash, oil mixture to the wet along with the milk and apple cider vinegar. Mix until just combined then stop mixing so you don%u2019t over mix.

Batter then gets poured evenly into two greased and lined cake pans.

And into the oven they go.

Golden brown and smelling all nice and cozy. A tester in the middle making sure that they are cooked completely.

Cakes get popped out of pans and and placed on a rack to cool completely. In the mean time, make the frosting. Powdered sugar, salt, vegan butter, maple syrup, and maybe a splash of soy milk (you might or might not need it). And don%u2019t forget the walnuts.

Sugar, salt, butter, and maple get beaten together until creamy and smooth.

Toasted walnuts get chopped into bits.

And now it%u2019s cake assembly time. Place one completely cooled layer on a cake plate and spread half the frosting on top. Sprinkle with half the chopped nuts. Place second layer on, spread rest of frosting on top, and sprinkle with the rest of the nut.

Now eat.

Enjoy the fall weekend and all the squash.

-C

makes and 8 inch 2 layer cake

For the Cake

• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

• 1/2 cup white sugar

• 1/2 cup brown sugar

• 1/3 cup neutral oil

• 2 cups acorn squash puree*

• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 tablespoon cinnamon

• 1 teaspoon ginger

• pinch of nutmeg

• 1 1/2 cups plant milk (I used soy)

• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

  For the frosting

• 3 cups powdered sugar

• 1/2 cup earth balance or any vegan butter

• 1/2 cup real maple syrup

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1-2 teaspoons plant milk (if needed)

• 1 cup toasted walnuts

Note. For acorn squash puree. roast an acorn squash by place entire squash into oven at 425 degree for about 1/2 hour or until fork tender. Once cooked, cut in half, let cool a few minutes, then scoop out all the seeds. Remove skin and blend the squash until smooth.

Preheat oven to 350

Place brown and white sugar into bowl along with the oil and squash puree. Mix until completely incorporated. In a larger bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda and powder, salt, and spices. Pour wet mixture into dry almond with the soy milk and apple cider vinegar. Mix until just completely incorporated then stop to prevent over mixing.

Grease and parchment line two 8 inch cake pans. Pour batter evenly between pans then place into oven for 30-35 minutes or until Depp golden brown and a tester stuck into middle of cakes comes out clean. When it%u2019s done, remove from oven, let cook a few minutes, then remove from cake pans. Place on a wire rack o cool completely.

While cake is cooling, make the frosting. Beat together the powdered sugar, salt, maple, and earth balance until nice and creamy. If the frosting seems to thick, add a splash of milk, to thin, add a 1/4 cup more of powdered sugar.

Chop walnuts into small bits if they are not already.

Once cakes are completely cooled, assemble. Place first layer on cake plate and spread 1/2 the frosting onto first layer and sprinkle on half of the chopped walnuts. Place on second layer, spread the rest of the frosting on top, and sprinkle on the rest of the nut. And that is it. Now you just need to eat it.

Store any left overs in for a day on the counter, but any longer place in an airtight container in the fridge. I even froze a few pieces and the mr loved them frozen to if you like frozen cake%u2026..

Who doesn’t like a good bun, right? %u00a0And just because this is where my mind wonders, peachy sweet buns. Doesn’t that sound like a pick up line or something you say to your significant other. Like, “Oh hey peachy sweet buns, you are looking good. Woo hoo”…….. Anyway, this is not about anyones peachy sweet buns, it it about actually sweet buns so u-hum, yeah.%u00a0

I am not trying to float my own boat here, but I am really really good at making buns, and you know what, I bet that you are too. They may seem a little intimidating, but really, it’s quite easy. I think what throws some people off is the yeasted dough and having to knead and waiting for the dough to rise,%u00a0but don’t let that stop you from sweet sweet buns. They are no harder to make then a boxed cake (maybe a little harder) and the results are by far more amazing and delightful (we don’t use the word delightful enough around here) then any old box or pre-made thing will ever be. Ever. Freshly made buns are what is right in this world.

If you are awesome and decide to make buns like any good person with a baking itch or a need for some sweet bun goodness does, make them peachy because its peach season and how can a peach bun not be that much more amazing? %u00a0Just think. Soft sweet dough, jammy cinnamon peaches, covered in a sweet lemony glaze……

Go on now, go and get yourself some peachy sweet buns.

The stuff. Flour and salt in the bowl, melted earth balance, brown sugar, yeast, warm soy milk, cane sugar, cinnamon, powdered sugar, a couple of lemons, and af course, peaches.

Warm (not hot) soy milk, yeast, cane sugar, an melted (but again, not hot) earth balance go into a big bowl and get whisked around. Then add in the flour and salt ans mix around until you just can’t.

Time to knead. Dump the dough ad all the little bits onto a flour surface. Gather it all together and knead away, for about 5-8 minutes, or until the dough looks like….

This. Nice and soft and glossy. %u00a0Lightly grease the bowl ans stick the dough back into it, covered with a towel, and set for about 1 hour to rise and double in size.%u00a0

As soon as the dough is set ti rise, start on your peach filling. Chop up enough peaches that you have about 2 1/2 cups of chunks.

Brown sugar and peach chunks go into a pot and stuck on a medium heat until they start to bubble then set to a low simmer for about 20 minutes or until the peaches all break apart and reduce by half.

Add in the cinnamon and stir.. Peachy goodness. Now quick and stick that shit in the fridge or freezer to cool down.

BOOM. Dough did what it’s job and doubled. Time o make the buns.%u00a0

Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and roll our into a rectangle of sorts that is about 1/2 an inch thick%u00a0

Cover the surface with all the peachy jammy goodness, and sprinkle on the remaining finely chopped peaches.

And roll, as tightly as you can, without squeezing all the filling out. I roll towards me, but roll away from you if it is easier. %u00a0It might get a little sloppy… it’s ok, just lick your fingers and keep going.%u00a0

Rolled and cut into 12 pieces.

Place the rolls carefully onto a grease and parchment lined baking 9×13 baking dish. In my picture I used a baking pan, which was not what I wanted to do, but I wasn’t thinking properly and so that’s what I did. Something with sides is preferable, but the baking pan did the job so really, your call.%u00a0

When you place the buns in the dish, place them toughen a bit, it helps then bake up high instead of out. %u00a0And any remaining go on jam that spilled out can get scraped right on top of the buns,%u00a0if you didn’t already eat it.

Now into the preheated oven these %u00a0babies go.

Look at those beauts. And they smell. A-MAZ-ING!!%u00a0

Right away get that glaze made. Powdered sugar, lemon zest, ans lemon juice. Super easy, just add the zest and juice to sugar and mix until smooth and glaze.%u00a0

Pour glaze over warm buns. Make sure to hit them all or someone is going to be pissed they didn’t get enough glaze…..%u00a0

Then it’s really just up to you whether you wait for coffee or tea or not, but really, just eat right away. There should be very little time between newly glazed buns and a bun in your face.

Enjoy the peaches!

-C

Makes 12 Buns

• For the Dough%u00a0
  • 3 1/2 cups all purposes flour
  • 1/4 %u00a0cup cane sugar
  • 1 cup warm soy milk
  • 2 teaspoon or 1 packet yeast
  • 4 tablespoons melted vegan butter%u00a0
  • 1 teaspoon salt
• For the Filling%u00a0
  • 3-4 good sized ripe peaches (about 3 cups chopped peaches)
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon cinnamon
  • Juice of half a lemon
• For the Glaze
  • 1 lemons
  • 1 1/2 cup powered sugar

In a large bowl mix together the yeast,%u00a0warm (not hot) soy milk,%u00a0sugar, and melted but cooled butter. Now add in %u00a0the salt and the flour. Mix until it’s too hard to mix then dump it all onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 7-10 minutes until the dough is %u00a0soft, elastic-y,%u00a0and smooth. Place dough back into a clean lightly greased bowl and drape with a damp towel. Let dough rise for about 1 to 1.5 hours or until it has doubled in size.

While the dough is rising, chop the peaches up until you have about 3 cups.%u00a0Place 2 1/2 cups of the %u00a0peaches into a medium sized pot with the brown sugar and lemon juice and stick on medium heat. Set the rest aside. Cook for about 20 minutes, stirring and mashing with a wooden spoon every few minutes,%u00a0until mixture has become thick and reduced by about 1/2. Remove from heat, stir in cinnamon,%u00a0%u00a0and place in fridge to cool.%u00a0

Once thee dough has doubled, dump onto a flour surface and roll our into a retacnge that is about 1/2 inch thick %u00a0Grab your peach mixture and spread the mixture evenly over the dough. Evenly distribute %u00a0the remaining chopped peaches over jam. %u00a0And then it’s the to roll.

Start from the long side and start to roll toward the other end, keeping it as tight as possible without squeezing out all the filling. %u00a0Once rolled, slice into 12 even sized buns.

Place on a lightly greased and parchment lined 9×13 inch baking sheet or pan and let rest and rest for another20 minutes or so. OR if you want to wait to bake them off,%u00a0cover them with plastic and set into the fridge for up to 24 hours. When you are ready to bake, remove from fridge and let the buns set on counter to come to room temperature before baking.%u00a0

Preheat oven to 350.

Place rolls into oven. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until all the buns have gotten a nice golden brown on top, and if you want to take the internal temp, that the temp has reached 190.%u00a0

Once the buns are done %u00a0baking, mix together the zest and juice of the lemon and powdered sugar. If the glaze seems to thick, add more juice or water, to think, add more sugar. Pour glaze all over warm (but not hot) buns.

And now all you need to do is serve up those buns right away, nice and warned.

Any left overs should be stored in the fridge for 3-4 days but should definitely be warmed up in the microwave for a minute or two before serving. They also freeze well too.%u00a0

The rhubarb is ready and I am ready. There will be rhubarb in everything for weeks. But what to start with? I was debating if I should go classic and make a pie, or maybe savory and make a rhubarb tomato soup (going to make that soup later), or maybe just a big batch of jam to stick on and in everything.. Then I remembered %u00a0that I had a cookie dream last fall, a dream that I had made almond rhubarb cookie. (that is the extent of my dream memory) %u00a0And who am I to ignore a cookie dream? So I starting off rhubarb season with cookies.%u00a0

These cookies are all sorts of good. They have oats, almonds, flax, and a vegetable (because we all know that rhubarb is technically a veggies right?) so right there is a good enough excuse to make them. And to eat whenever, including breakfast, because remember, all the good stuff. But don’t let that good stuff fool you. These cookies are just as good, if not better then any other cookie. Soft and chewy. So nutty, sweet but not too, and rhubarb all tart and fantastic cutting in to say hey hey hey. These are springtime, any time, cookie time cookies. Dream cookies that are now reality cookies.

Let the rhubarb begin!

The stuff. Almonds, oats and rhubarb. Brown sugar, vegan butter, a flax egg, cinnamon, baking powder, vanilla and salt.

First we need to turn the oats into flour so blend them in a food processor until that happens%u00a0

Next up are the almonds. These you want to pulse for about 2-3 minutes they become %u00a0more of an almond meal the flour. Don’t over blend or else you might end up with almond butter.%u00a0

Next up. Sugar, vegan butter, cinnamon, vanilla, ans flax egg all go into a big bowl.

Mix well until all combined and incorporated.%u00a0

Now add in the oat flour, almond meal, cinnamon, salt, and baking powder.

Stir it up and there you go.. but the rhubarb!

Remove the leave from rhubarb if you haven’t already.%u00a0They will kill you!(or make you violently ill).%u00a0Chop the rhubarb stalks into small pieces that are roughly the same size as chocolate chip. Some chunks can be a little bit bigger, but you don’t want the piece too big or else you will end up with soggy cookies.

Rhubarb goes into cookie batter Mix it all in.%u00a0

Scoop out dough onto baking sheet and give them all a good pat to flatten them down a good bit. Place them into the oven for %u00a017-22 minutes to bake. until nice deep golden brown.

Golden brown and baked all nice. Look at those rhubarb chunks.%u00a0So pretty.

Cookies out on a wire rack to cool and firm up a bit.

So now you eat yourself a cookie. Or two.

-C

makes 18-22 cookies depending on size

• 1 1/2 cups raw almonds
• 1 1/2 cups old fashion oats (gluten free if needed)%u00a0
• 1/3 cup vegan butter room temperature%u00a0
• 1 flax or chia egg (1 tablespoon ground seed and 3 tablespoon water)%u00a0
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1%u00a0 teaspoon vanilla extract%u00a0
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon%u00a0
• 2-3 stalks rhubarb (about 1 1/2%u00a0 cups chopped)%u00a0

Preheat oven to 350

Add oats to a food processor and blend until the oats turn into flour, which will take about 2 minutes. Dump the now flour into a bowl. Add almonds to the food processor and pulse for 2-3 minutes until the almonds turn into fine meal. Dump into the bowl with oats.

In a large bowl mix together the vegan butter, brown sugar, flax egg, and vanilla until fully incorporated. Add in the oat and almond flours, cinnamon, salt, and baking powder and mix until la dough forms.%u00a0

Grab rhubarb and chop into little pieces that are roughly the size of a chocolate chip. Measure out 1 1/2 cups and dump into batter. Mix until incorporated.%u00a0

Scoop out cookies onto a parchment lined baking sheet and flatten each cookie to aboutt 1/2 inch thick. Place into %u00a0preheated oven. and bake for 17-22 minutes (rotate after 12)%u00a0%u00a0or until a nice golden brown on top and bottom. (Depending on your baking sheet and stove, it could take a few minutes longer, just keep your eyes on the cookies!)%u00a0%u00a0Once bakes, place on a wire rack to cool.%u00a0These cookies are very fragile until they cool off so be careful handling them.%u00a0

Let cool and eat. And yes, these are 100% exceptable to eat as a breakfast cookie.%u00a0

Left over cookies should be stored in an airtight container at room tempature for 2-3 day, longer in the fridge, and can be frozen .

And eat yourself a cookie. Or two.

Cookie anecdote. %u00a0I placed a cookie sheet full of cookies back into a cold oven to store while I was cleaning up the kitchen. And left them there and kind of forgot about they, And then I cranked the oven on to make dinner and a few minutes later smelled something burning. OH fuck… the cookies! I pulled them out just in time to see that I had completely burnt the bottoms. SO PISSED ( I might have raged cried a little). But you know what I did? I cut all the bunt bottoms off and placed the crumbles up un-burnt bits onto a bowl. The mr came home and ate the bowl of crumble and was happy as a clam. And lucky had left out half of the cookies l on the counter so not all were lost. But lessons learned. Cookies crumbles are just as good as whole cookies and always check the oven before turning it on. There might be cookies in there!!!%u00a0

I have fond memories of young me skipping school and sitting in front of the tv with peanut butter,%u00a0a package of graham crackers, and a glass of milk to dunk the peanut butter cover crackers in,%u00a0watching myself some Martha Stewart. I also have some fond memories of the days in college I would skip class (obviously to finish a paper or something), and sit around eating graham crackers covered in peanut butter and nutella,%u00a0dipped in beer? Wait no, it was coffee.%u00a0(although….beer? Could be something there.)%u00a0%u00a0Apparently I liked to skip class and eat peanut butter graham crackers. But don’t blame the cracker for the bad behavior, blame the eater. And I didn’t do it all the time, only once in a while. (A girl needed to watch her some Martha or write a 20 page paper.)%u00a0

We had a BBQ this week and for some reason I though people want to eat s’mores at a BBQ. (I guess I got that confused with camping.) %u00a0I figured even though the days of skipping life and eating graham crackers has passed me by, that I needed to make the graham crackers for others to enjoy. And then I wondered why the heck no one ever makes graham crackers. They are by far the underrated crispy cookie (lets just call it what it is ) of the snack world.%u00a0%u00a0I think I might make it my new thing. I’ll make graham crackers for ever cookie swap situation, every event that requires a dessert, every time a snack is need,%u00a0until people realize what they are missing. I’ll bring the graham cracker into all it’s glory.%u00a0

These graham crackers were raved over by people who like graham crackers and were absolutely perfect for s’mores.%u00a0%u00a0A few of the littles that don’t like graham crackers did not care for them, but I guess you can’t make everyone happy. Tthey just wanted to eat the marshmallows.)%u00a0They are crispy and crackery, tiny bit smokey and sweet but not to sweet, and perfect for all your graham cracker needs.

The stuff. In one bowl there is graham flour, all purpose flour, baking soda and salt. The other bowl has brown sugar, honey and molasses. Also going to need vegan butter, vanilla, and a little bit of plant milk.%u00a0

The big bowl of sweet stuff get beaten together with the butter and vanilla until smooth, then the dry mixture and milk go in an beaten until just combined.%u00a0

. This is what graham cracker dough looks like.%u00a0Course %u00a0and chunky,%u00a0but done. Don’t beat it anymore, just use your hands to gather it tighter.%u00a0

Gather the dough into a ball then wrap %u00a0in plastic (or stick in a plastic bag)and smoosh flat and rectangular. Place in the fridge for at least 2 hours, if not overnight. IT needs the time firm up.%u00a0

After the dough has firmed up, its time to roll it out. Cut the dough in half (place the other half back in fridge until you are ready for it) and roll out on a very floured surface. The dough is sticky and %u00a0not super strong so go slow and make sure to keep the surface and the rolling pin floured so it doesn’t stick .

When it’s all rolled out, trim the sides even the cut %u00a0into into squares or rectangular (or any shape you want). I was going to measure and make them all the same size and then I was like, yeah, no. I just eyed it and made them kind of the same size. I don’t live in a world where I need perfect graham crackers.%u00a0

Gently transfer the crackers (%u00a0I used the bench scrapper to list them, but a spatula would be good too) on a parchment lined baking sheet. Run a %u00a0line the doesn’t cut all the way through in the middle of each cracker and then poke 6 (or how many you want) hole on each side. You can use a toothpick or a wooden skewer. I used a size 8 kitting needle.

Get all your crackers made and sprinkle the tops with a little graduated sugar. Pop into the preheated oven to bake for 15-20 minutes,%u00a0rotated around 10 to keep an even bake.%u00a0

Done. Golden brown graham cracker success.%u00a0

Cool the crackers on a wire rack.

And now you have yourself graham crackers for all your graham cracker needs.%u00a0

May I suggest a smear of peanut butter, maybe a glass of milk or coffee and some Martha Stewart on the tv?%u00a0

-C

Makes between 20-30 crackers depending on size

• 1 1/2 cups graham flour (unbolted whole wheat flour with the germ and bran)
• 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour%u00a0
• 1 teaspoon salt%u00a0
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup honey (can sub %u00a0in golden syrup or brown rice syrup)
• 2 tablespoons molasses (not black strap)
• 1/2 cup vegan butter%u00a0
• 1 teaspoon vanilla%u00a0
• 1 tablespoon plant milk%u00a0
• 1 tablespoon white sugar

Stick the butter, brown sugar, honey, molasses , and vanilla %u00a0into a large bowl and beat with an electric beater until smooth, In a smaller bowl, whisk together the flours, salt, and baking soda. Dump the dry into the wet, add in the milk and beat on low until mixture just starts to come together,then use your hand and smoosh and knead the dough into a ball. Either wrap or place dough ball %u00a0in a plastic airtight bag, smoosh into a flat rectangular shape, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, if not over night.

When you are ready to bake the crackers, preheat oven to 325 and line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.%u00a0

Cut dough in half and place one half back in fridge while working with the other half. Flour a surface and the rolling pin and roll dough our into a retangle about 1/8 inch thick. Trim sides ( a pizza cutter or dough scraper works really well here)%u00a0to make a sides straight (straight enough) and then cut into equal sizes pieces that are the size of your liking. (What it did was cut in half, then each half into thirds %u00a0vertically %u00a0then the whole thing in thirds hortiztally. I ended up with 18 pieces) %u00a0

Place the crackers on prepared baking sheet and take you cutting instruments and run a line along the middle of each cracker without cutting all the way through (if you cut all the way through, it should fuse back together in baking) Take a wooden skewer %u00a0and poke 6 holes into each side. Sprinkle with white sugar. Now grab the second half of the dough and do the same thing. And don’t forget to gather all the trimming and either roll into more crackers or just make one weird shaped blob cracker for taste testing.

Once all the crackers are prepared, stick into the oven to bake for 15- 20 minutes (15 for a softer cracker, 20 for a more crispy cracker)%u00a0, rotating after 10 minutes to insure even baking. Once the crackers are a nice %u00a0golden brown, remove and place on a wire rack to cool.

Eat the way you do.%u00a0

Store uneaten crackers in a airtight container for a up to a week.%u00a0Crackers can be frozen for later use.%u00a0

The person that invented sprinkles is a very smart person. Whoever they are, I wonder if they new exactly what they were doing, that even the mention of sprinkles can, and does, drive a person (mostly littles) mad with the need for sugar. Just the mere glimpse of the rainbow colored topping was enough to bribe a few little littles into somewhat decent behaviors, even for just a little while (especially when I let them know about the sprinkles on the inside, well they just snapped into line).%u00a0No rainbow sprinkle cupcake if you don’t clean up and eat all you peas!. That goes for everyone, not just the littles. Haha.%u00a0

Have you notice that most of the snow melted and it’s finally spring? Whoop whoop. Now that the house is feeling fresh because the windows and doors are thrown open, I feel the need to blast music and bake. I went with cupcakes because I haven’t in a while, and lemon because its fresh, and sprinkles because we need to celebrate spring and really, sprinkles in and on everything will never be a bad idea.

%u00a0I have more or less been using kind of the same recipe for a vegan vanilla cake for a while. And while it was a good cake, it was never a great cake. When I made these I decided to tweak it a bit and they came out awesome. Finally a great cake. The mr, the littles, everyone who has eaten one has reached for another. And eaten the crumbs off the table and licked the parchment wrappers clean.%u00a0The littles even asked if they could have the recipe so when they grow up they can make them by themselves. (So cute.) A cake winner here for sure.%u00a0%u00a0

So if you are feeling sprinkly and lemony and want a sweet, then go, go to your kitchen. Throw open the windows, blast some tunes, and bake away.%u00a0

The stuff. Vegan butter, oil, sugar, and a few lemons. Flour, baking soda and powder, salt, plant milk, apple cider vinegar, vanilla extract*, and of course sprinkles.%u00a0

*I used imitation vanilla extract because I have read in more then a few placed that the typical funfetti cake uses it. So I did and there were zero complaints.%u00a0

Start by mixing the dry together along with the zest of the lemon. After zesting, add the juice of one of the lemons and the apple cider vinegar the milk and give it a mix.%u00a0

Beat together the sugar, butter, and oil until light and fluffy. Add in the vanilla.%u00a0

Then to mix it all together. Interchange adding dry to the butter mixture and beating, then add some milk mixture. Repeat until lit’s all mixed and beat just until everything is all incorporated. Don’t over beat the mixture.%u00a0

And for the happiness. Fold in the sprinkles.

Cupcake tin lined and greases. Fill each equally until you have no batter left.%u00a0

Into a hot oven they go to bake and be great.

Baked and looking all sprinkly. %u00a0Get them out of the tin and onto a wire rack to cool.%u00a0

While the cupcakes are cooling, make thefrosting. Vegan butter, powdered sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice %u00a0with a splash of vanilla. Or if you want to make it all vanilla, omit lemon zest and juice with %u00a0more vanilla extract and a little splash or plant milk.%u00a0

All beaten together until nice and thick and creamy.%u00a0

Then it’s time. Get them frosted.

And don’t forget to add more sprinkles.

Now you are done and now you eat.

The rainbow coffee cup was a completely coincidence.%u00a0

-C

makes 12 cupcakes%u00a0

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cups sugar
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup vegan butter
• 1/4 cup neutral oil
• 3/4 cup plant milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I used imitation vanilla)
• zest of 2 lemons
• juice of 1 lemon
• teaspoon apple cider vinegar%u00a0
• 1/4 cup spinkles%u00a0

For the frosting%u00a0

• 1/3 cup vegan butter
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1 lemon (zest and juice )
• %u00a01/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract%u00a0

Preheat 350

First zest the lemons because it is alway easier to zest a whole lemon then a half of one. Measure out the milk and add In the juice of one lemon and the apple cider vinegar.%u00a0In a small bowl mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and %u00a0the zest of the two lemons . In another bowl beat together the sugar, vegan butter, oil, and the vanilla. Interchange adding %u00a0the dry mixture into the butter sugar mixture and bating with the wet mixture. Once all is together, %u00a0beat only until all the ingredients are incorporated, then stop so you don’t over beat.%u00a0

Grease and line a cupcake pan and fill each mold evenly until batter is gone.. Bake for about 20- 22 %u00a0minutes or until a slight golden brown and a tester comes out clean. %u00a0Once baked, remove from pan and place on a rack to cool completely.%u00a0

While cupcakes are cooling, make the frosting. Beat together the butter, sugar, and the juice and zest of a lemon until light and fluffy. IF the frosting seems to thin add in a splash of milk or too the, a few tablespoons more of powdered sugar.%u00a0%u00a0!f you prefer vanilla frosting, omit the lemon and add another 1/2 %u00a0teaspoon of vanilla and a splash of plant milk.%u00a0

Once cupcakes are cooled, frost them and cover with sprinkles.%u00a0

Eat at your leisure. Cupcakes will last in a airtight container for 3-4 days but really, they probably will be gone before you get a chance to hide them.%u00a0