Vegan Mofo V Day 31: ¡Adios Mofos!

I'm sad to see mofo go. I really ran out of steam somewhere during the second week and it's been downhill ever since. Even though it wasn't my best, I decided to keep going and finish what I started. I might do some of the recipes that were skipped in the next few weeks to make up for it. I still need to go back and read tons of blogs I missed out on, there were so many great ideas this year. I have lots of pages bookmarked and my feeds list keeps on growing. I added a few of my new faves to my blogroll, but there might be a few I missed.

Today was super busy so I did not get any cooking done. After walking the dog and getting cleaned up, we went to my niece's school for her class party. Then we came home, had snacks and carved pumpkins. Before you knew it, we had to get dressed/painted to go trick or treating and we still hadn't had dinner yet. We decided to get pizza, throw some tofutti slices and bac'uns on it and call it a day. It's our laziest pizza ever, but we were too hungry to be picky.

I had to go get the pizza in my half assed costume, so I was greeted at the door with "hello kitty" and all of the workers meowed at me the whole time I was in the store. It was only a few minutes but it felt like forever. I didn't feel as stupid as they should have, but maybe they were really bored. If only they knew I had dressed up to match my dog's outfit, they would have had a field day. As tacky as it was, we did get a few compliments when I took her for her walk tonight. Happy Halloween Mofos!

Vegan Mofo V Day 30: Walk Quickly And Carry A Big Purse

Tonight we're going to the movies, so that means sneaking in our own vegan treats. I know it's not classy to do that, but I never said I was classy. I'm on a tight budget until my job starts, so I'll take whatever shortcuts I can. My niece school sells scrip for my favorite theater so I bought two $25 cards. That covers tonight's ticket and the next four movies too.

I bought the sour patch kids at dollar tree. They're the same size as the ones they sell at the theater for about two to three dollars cheaper. The Jokerz and twilight we got at whole foods, but next time I go to Viva La Vegan I am stocking up on Jokerz, Cleo's and Justin's peanut butter cups. I have been wanting to do a Justin's vs. Cleo's showdown for the longest time. I will win no matter what the result is.

Even though a lot of my recent posts have barely made the deadline, I'm not sure I'll be able to get one out after the movie, so I'm doing this mini post now. I had hoped to carve pumpkins and walk the dog before it was time to leave for dinner/movie, but after too much time at the stores, I don't have time to do both. I feel horrible whenever I cheat Penny's walk so I can go mess around, so I want to take her for her normal walk, even if it's a bit earlier it should be the same amount of time. I also do not want to rush my pumpkin carving. Last year I was in a hurry and barely averted disaster. I am hoping to make up for that by doing a much better job this year. These are from four years ago and are still my all-time favorites. Maybe that was the peak for me. I'll take it!

Vegan Mofo V Day 29: Yeah Yeah Yams

After not sleeping well the last two nights I really wanted to take a nap today, but then I knew that would spiral into a whole day of laziness, which is what I do on Sundays. I can't do that two days in a row. Well I can, but I shouldn't. I decided I would just keep busy and tire myself out so I would end up going to bed early, or at least earlier than usual.

When I took an apple break with my dog (yeah I do that!), I noticed she needed to be brushed. Then I thought about trying on her Halloween costumes to see which one I liked the best. I dressed her up for the first time last year and she tolerated it well. When the costumes went on sale for a dollar I bought two more so we'd have some variety. After the bath I tried them on her and took some pictures, but I forgot the most important thing- the treats to bribe her to look at the camera. My favorite was the grape costume, but she figured out very quickly to shake her head and make the hat fall off. She'll probably be a pumpkin again since that's the only outfit that doesn't have a head piece.

All the dog activities tired me out. I didn't want to make dinner, but since I hardly cooked during the week I didn't have much in the way of leftovers. Rather than preparing an entire meal I made the "Sweetheart Fries" from Vegan Diner to go with an Amy's pizza. It's my "teen dinner" because that's totally something I would have ate on a Saturday night if I had to fend for myself. Why choose between pizza and fries when you can have both?

The fries were easy enough, after I decided to ditch the mandoline and finish cutting the yams with a knife. I thought it would be faster with the mandoline, but now I realize I would have prepped faster with a knife. I also wouldn't have cut myself, thanks mandoline! As clumsy as I am, I have fairly good knife skills. It's weird but true. I will go lighter with the seasonings next time. I put way too much pepper so they lost some of the sweetness. Luckily we had some vegan ranch in the fridge to help balance things out.

Vegan Mofo V Day 5- Fix My Brain!*

When I heard my soon-to-be-nephew's birthday was coming up I knew I wanted to make a special treat for him. My sister told me he liked  zombies. I saw a brain cupcake kit at World Market and I knew I had to try and make them. I didn't buy the kit because I already have recipes for amazing cupcakes and icing thanks to VCTOTW. I looked at the directions for making the brains and it didn't look too complicated, so the only thing I was missing were the cupcake aprons.I didn't even know what a cupcake apron was until I saw these, but you could probably make your own easily. I'm too lazy and he's only going to be three so I don't think he'll mind.

I lucked out and found a cupcake decorating set at TJ Maxx, so I was even more excited for this project. I've never piped icing with proper bags and tips so I was really looking forward to learning that. I cruised the internet for ideas and found lots of great ones, my favorite one involved red velvet cupcakes. I didn't even think of that. I was just going to color vanilla ones, but if you're going to break out the food coloring, you better make red velvet (Crimson Velveteen!) , right?

My practice cupcakes were chocolate with  Vegan Fluffy Buttercream from VCTOTW. I am going to color the icing for the real ones. These were more about piping practice than anything else. I now know I should leave the icing in the fridge for a while before I start playing with it. A few cupcakes into it my squiggles were not as well defined and were starting to spread. I also thought I could get away with halving the recipe but I was wrong. I'm so glad I had the presence of mind to do a dry run or I would have had a disaster on my hands. I'm going to try to make the official cupcakes look more like these. I want to make ganache filled ones another time, they look so good!


*I love the Marked Men, don't you?

Trick or Treat

Check out my pup-kin! This is Penny's first Halloween costume and now I'm not sure it will be her last. I had no thoughts of buying one but last night we were at the pet store and the costumes were 75% off. I had an additional 15% off from my sister's fiancé, how could I say no? I was tempted to dress her as a cow or a pig, but her head is too large for the hoods on those. Then I saw the pumpkin cape and that sealed the deal. I got an xl so it would fit her length, but she is not round enough to fill it out so next time I'll get a large. I had to bribe her with cookies to get her to stay still so the first shot is before and the second is after.

Happy Halloween everybody!

 

bat's all folks

i'm really glad i put myself out there for vegan mofo. i thought i would blog everyday and really cook up a storm. i didn't do as much as i had hoped but it's more than i would have done if i had not tried at all. i did get my 20 posts in! it was a lot of fun and i enjoyed reading everyone's blogs and was glad to have a few new readers of my own. i still have a bunch of cookbooks out from the library so who knows what else will show up. tonight i'm taking a break since this week has really had its way with me.

happy halloween everybody! i think instead of passing out candy i might just pass on out...zzzzzzzz.