Yummy vegan sausages

A few weeks ago I discovered the Everyday Dish site where Julie Hasson has an online cooking show and recipes. I have been watching the videos a few at a time and I love them. I am a very visual person and while I can get an idea of the final product from a written recipe, I am more inspired by pictures and video. I have been in a major cooking mode for the past several weeks which has been good for our bellies and for our bank account. I have been trying some new recipes out of the cookbooks I already have and some things I found on the Web. My favorite new recipe is the vegan sausage recipe from Everyday Dish which can be made ahead of time and then thrown into whatever you are cooking. These sausages are also perfect for the grill since they don't dry out like their commercially made counterparts. To show you how quick and simple they are to make I am including the YouTube video in this post. Enjoy!

Free money, woo hoo!!

Yesterday I started shredding some of the documents in our shred bin and I came across a $55 check from Philip's work. It said that it was part of his workers' comp from when he fractured his foot at work, but we can't figure out what it was supposed to be for since they paid the doctors' bills and his salary while he was away. We didn't even realize he was supposed to get a separate check (which is how it ended up in the shred bin.) If that wasn't enough, we received our stimulus check today. Since the tax money is going into savings (where it will not stimulate the economy, take that Uncle Sam) it isn't as exciting as the workers' comp check which we are just going to blow. Happy free money day!!!

Fresh produce on a stormy day

Since Philip and I didn't get our CSA this year (re: I put the check in an unstamped envelope and left it on the dinning room table for two months and by the time I had a stamp the CSA was full) we are going to use our CSA money to buy $20 a week of produce at the farmers' market through the summer and the fall. Today I made the first early morning trip and while I didn't find the fiddleheads that I really wanted, I did make out with a pretty decent selection of produce. I got a large head of organic lettuce, a pound of mustard greens, 2 tomatoes, a basket of ripe peaches (for ice cream,) two large zucchini (for zucchini burgers,) 3 candy onions, half a pound of oyster mushrooms, a few unidentified mushrooms, and a pound and a half of green beans. Now I have a bit of cooking to do.

Knitting Tips & Trade Secrets

What do you get when you put hundreds of knitting tips from people all over the country together in one place? The answer and my new favorite knitting book- Knitting Tips and Trade Secrets, Expanded: Ingenious Techniques and Solutions for Hand and Machine Knitting and Crochet. I picked this book up at a used bookstore last night and I read it cover to cover. I love sitting at snb and learning little tricks from my fellow knitters and this book bottled that knowledge and much more in a handy reference guide. I bought the book after reading the section on doing seamless intarsia (argyle socks here I come,) but found it contained tons of other techniques I can use like knitting backwards, illustrations for picking up stitches, and how to reinforce the shoulders of a sweater to prevent stretching (very important when knitting with plant fibers.) This book also functions as a basic reference guide with directions for increasing, decreasing, seaming, grafting and several other techniques so if you are in the market for a reference guide I recommend this one since you get so much more than just the basics.

Lovely handmade goodness

I finished the adult Guimauve hat over a week ago, but was too lazy to actually photograph and post it. I am still thinking about overdyeing the hat with some red dye so that the colors better suit my complexion, but Philip thinks these are good colors for me. What do you think? Leave a comment and let me know if you think it would be better in deep reds and browns.


In other news, Sarah and I drove up to Columbus for TNNA on Sunday. Due to problems with both of our schedules we only had one day to get through the show (last year we barely made it through in two.) Sarah mapped out all of the vendors that we had to see and wrote down the orders we needed to make so that we wouldn't get too far off track. Even though we mostly stuck to our plan, we did manage to see a few unexpected new things at the show and we added three new big lines for the Fall (and are considering a few others.) We also have places in two limited sock clubs starting next month. The show was a lot of fun, but also very tiring. We made it all the way through, spent thousands of dollars, and only forgot to see two vendors so that is pretty good. After the show we headed over to Wholly Craft so that Sarah good drop some stuff off and so that we could do some shopping for local handmade goodies. I made it out with an Octopus t-shirt, octopus necklace, a zine, some hand blended fiber, and a few other goodies.

Something a little sweet

For a few years I have been sitting on the idea of making my own vegan ice cream. I bought the Vice Creambook and dreamed of someday buying an ice cream maker. After reading Mary Jessica's initial ice cream experience I was sold and I decided to finally take the plunge. After looking at a few blogs and reading lots of reviews I decided on this lovely red modelwhich arrived in the mail on Tuesday. Electric ice cream makers don't need ice and rock salt, instead they have a bowl that contains a liquid or a gel which you simply freeze overnight and place in the machine when you are ready to go.

For my first experiment, I went with the green tea ice cream recipe from Veganomiconwhich relies on coconut cream as a thickening agent. At first I was a little weary of using such a high fat milk, but after doing the math I found that there is less fat per serving than my favorite soy ice cream so I decided that it would be okay.

Green Tea Ice Cream

1/2 cup cream of coconut milk
1 cup soy milk
3/4 cup sugar
6 oz. silken tofu
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons green tea powder

Puree all ingredients in a blender until smooth. Pour into an ice cream maker and follow the machine's instructions.

Overall I am very happy with the recipe, it came out rich and delicious just like the green tea ice cream you get in a restaurant. The coconut flavor did show up in the final product which was good for this recipe, but I could see where it might be a problem in others so that is something to be aware of. As for the machine, I am completely in love. It turned liquid into a fairly firm ice cream in 25 minutes and the clean-up was nice and simple (a huge plus in my book.)

Crazy storms

Philip just called to tell me that part of the hospital's roof flew off onto our car. Oops!