Vegan Mofo VI- Day 30: Cool It Now

I can't believe what is happening back east with this storm. It's impossible to truly understand what is happening by just seeing photos or footage, but it is even more difficult to fathom such things when you don't even know what weather really is or what it can do. We are fortunate to have such lovely sunny skies almost all year round. We get a bit of rain and once in a while we have to stop wearing shorts and put a jacket on, but there's really no need to get bundled up unless you're going to the mountains or trying to look cute in a photo. I hope the worst is over and everyone is getting the help they need to get through this.

It's been in the high 80s over here, so I can't bake anything, but I also don't need to nail all my windows shut, so believe me I am not complaining. There are only a few no-bake sweets I like to make but luckily I had some frozen treats that required even less effort. These are the TJ's version of Tofutti Cuties. I haven't had the originals in a while so I can't really do an accurate comparison but I think they are quite good. The only difference I could tell right away was the these are less melty, if that makes sense. They take longer to melt so I try to remember to take one out and let it rest a bit before biting into it. Maybe you could microwave for a few seconds? TJ's saves the day again. I am crossing my fingers for the TJs version of daiya shreds. Do it!

p.s. Here is a corny joke:

p1: knock knock
p2: who's there?
p1: ice cream soda
p2: ice cream soda who?
p1: ice cream soda people can hear me

Vegan Mofo VI-Day 24: Poppin' Fresh (Vegan) Dough!

When I found out there were refrigerated, ready-to-bake cinnamon rolls at TJ's I just had to get them! I didn't have a lot of money when I stopped in, but my sister offered to buy me something so I let her buy these while I took care of the more reasonable purchases. I'm not even sure how much they were since the price card was missing but I'm guessing they're under $4. Does it really matter though? These are cinnamon rolls you can have in about 20 minutes, anytime!

I really want to make my own cinnamon rolls from scratch, but I admit I am still a little intimidated by the process. TJ's is not helping me to get over it by making it much to easy for me to have yummy cinnamon rolls with very little effort. You are meant to get five rolls, but I had trouble separating mine and left it at four. They come with an icing packet too so you can have all sorts of fun decorating them as nicely or as quickly as possible depending on how soon you want to gobble them up. It would be great to just keep a few tubes stashed in your fridge for the wintery months in case you have surprise visitors or you just feel like pigging out but are in a hurry to to do so. As much as I love making my own treats from scratch, every now and then it's great to take a shortcut.

Vegan Mofo VI- Day 23: My Cups Runneth Over!

I thought I would be really lazy and just make some Peanut Butter Cups today. As much as I love pb and chocolate together I've never made my own pb cups until today. What an experience! There isn't really so much work involved as there is waiting. Some finesse would also be good, but as long as you aren't serving these to anyone too snobbish I don't think they'll care if they look less than perfect. It's the though that counts, right?

The recipe in Hearty Vegan Meals for Monster Appetites is meant to yield 12 standard muffin sized pb cups. Because I am a pain in the butt, I chose to use Halloween mini cupcake liners and do smaller pb cups. I thought they would be cuter and hopefully survive longer. I forgot that this meant it would also take twice as long to make them. I should have tried doing regular size first so I would have the basic skills down. I didn't go far enough up the sides so there is a gap on almost all of these. You have to be careful when biting into one since the filling oozes out, not that it's a bad thing, just unexpected. I did wait the full hour before trying them so maybe the pb I used takes longer to set or I just put way too much pb in them. I'll know better for the future, but this was a decent first effort. I'd like to try again with a different peanut butter, maybe a crunchy version!

Vegan Mofo VI- Day 9: Frittering My Time Away

I love apples and am thrilled that Honeycrisps are back in season. They have been hard to find in our area so I was super excited when I had my first one last week. We did a storytime about apples at work and my co-worker brought in a variety of apples to show the children. When we were getting ready to go home she wanted to divide the apples up amongst us. I told her I'd take whatever she wanted to give me but she knew which ones I wanted most so she gave me 3 of the Honeycrisps. Yay!

I think they taste perfect on their own but sometimes I will dip them in peanut butter. Since I had extras I thought I would try using them in a recipe. I didn't have enough for a pie and didn't have time to make donuts, so I decided on fritters. I printed the recipe and planned to make them on Friday or Saturday but I didn't get around to making them until today.

They turned out great! My sister stopped by on lunch break to try them and loved them too. I think next time I will use a cookie scoop to drop them into the pan so they come out more uniform, but as long as they are evenly cooked through I don't think anyone will complain. I was tempted to make another batch before putting everything away, but I realized that wouldn't be a good idea. I'd rather make them again when there are a few more mouths around to enjoy them. I definitely plan to make them again, but will probably just dust them with powdered sugar rather than trying to glaze them.

I'm glad these were a success because they were the last recipe to be mixed in my favorite bowl. It was on the very top of the dish rack and I somehow managed to knock it off. I didn't even think to try and catch it because it's hard plastic. I thought it would just fall and then I'd pick it up and re-wash it. I quickly learned I was wrong when I felt a chunk of plastic hit my leg. It cracked in half and a few small pieces went flying. It's silly but I am sad to not have my favorite bowl anymore. It was a good size and we made tons of delicious treats together. I hope I find another bowl I like almost as much. I need to start looking because I have tons of baking on my to-do list.

"I Wanna Dip My Balls In It!"*

My sister decided to have a small get together to share a photo project she worked on throughout March, so she enlisted me to help with the food. She requested the "Smoky Curls" and "Great Smoky Mountain Cheeze" from Vegan Diner and the rest was up to me. I wanted everything to be easy to grab and go but also wanted it to be cute and impossible to resist. I knew for sure I would make Oreo truffles, which set me on a path of small, ball type snacks. I offered to make chocolate dipped macaroons but she said she'd prefer the truffles. 

I wanted one more poppable dessert so I decided to make the "Cookie Dough Scoops" from VCIYCJ.  I have really underused that book so I was excited to try a new recipe. Plus, it gave me a chance to use the new hand mixer I bought myself for Mother's Day. It's so much better than the one I had been using, plus it's my very own which makes it so much more fun to use. I don't have my own kitchen (yet) but at least I have my own equipment.

I am still working on my chocolate dipping "skills". I've gotten better but still have a way to go. I dipped all the oreo truffles while the cookie dough scoops were in the freezer. I think I had about 4 dozen of each so that was a lot of dipping. I originally planned to cover the cookie dough bites completely but ended up just dipping the bottoms in chocolate like the recipe suggests. They're so yummy. I can't wait to mix them up with some ice cream.

I put them in mini cupcake wrappers so they would look fancier on the table. I wanted to bring s'mores bars too, but I just didn't have time to make them on Sunday. I ended up making them yesterday before work so I shared some with my co-worker and brought the rest to my sister's for our slumber party.  Even though I've made and enjoyed all these sweets the last few days I have actually been eating a lot healthier lately. I am working really hard to get my weight down so I can eventually get off of my blood pressure medication. I am going to kick it's asparagus!

*if you don't know, now you know. 

Vegan Mofo V Day 22 : Time for Treats

We're having our Friday "Dinner and a Movie" tonight since last night was too hectic. Since my sister is cooking dinner, I decided I would make dessert. We won't have any of the kids next weekend so this is kind of our last Halloween hurrah.

I did chocolate cupcakes with orange-ish buttercream on top, both recipes from VCTOTW of course. Then I put chocolate sprinkles on top of that. I don't have a proper cupcake carrier (yet) so they don't look very pretty in the makeshift rig I've got going right now. I didn't want to do the sprinkles on the table and make a bigger mess than I already had.

When I told my sister the cupcake idea she wasn't too thrilled. I took it the wrong way and got upset for a minute until she reminded me that we had chocolate cupcakes a few weeks ago and again a few days ago from the bakery. It was a good point, but not as good as the argument that you can never really have too many cupcakes of any kind. She suggested cookie sammiches, but I wasn't really in the mood for those. I wanted to practice my piping, which still needs practice (see pics).

Luckily I was able to find a solution. I would do my cupcakes and the cookies, just not cookie sammiches. I made my favorite chocolate chip cookies, probably the only one I will ever use until forever. It's from The Joy of Vegan Baking. I am going to bring six cupcakes and a dozen cookies, so each of us will get one cupcake and two cookies. I'm probably going to bring my own almond milk along too. It's been a while since I switched from soy to almond milk but the other day I had my first sip of vanilla Silk in ages. It was so sweet I couldn't believe it. I love my o.g. almond breeze but am going to try the unsweetened one since it's probably just as good, if not a million times better. What is your go to beverage for washing down desserts?

Truffle Shuffle

As a single gal, I am a reliable, and yet slightly boring Valentine. Every year I buy my sister and niece the same box of Sjaak's truffles. I buy one for myself too, because I love me, and I might as well get the most out of the shipping charges. We had our traditional V-day dinner last night and ate way too much food. I wasn't even going to break out the purchased treats, since we have homemade ones that will expire much sooner.

By request, or rather, pushy demand, I made cookie sammiches. These have been a favorite since the first time I made them. They're also the reason I load up on EB sticks and shortening whenever we make a run to the "nearest" veg friendly store. I hope to be able to remove the quotation marks one day but I think we'll move closer to a major area  
before they bring any goodness out our way.
For a surprise, I decided to finally make the Oreo Truffles I printed out ages ago. I feel bad I do not remember where I got it from and can't link to it or give credit. I know it is all over the internets though, so seek and ye shall find. I'm still trying to figure out if my food processor sucks because it is too small or because it shares a motor with a blender, or because I just put too much stuff in it at once. I seriously thought I killed it when I added in the cream cheese but I pushed a few other buttons and it worked just fine. I will read the instructions before I use it again, don't worry.

The rest of it was easy, kill time while the "filling" refrigerates, melt chocolate in your makeshift double boiler and dunk the little balls of yum into the melted chocolate. Of the two of us, my sister is the one who makes chocolate covered sweets so I was not as adept at fishing the truffles out and nicely laying them on the wax paper. I know if we were racing side by side she would have totally kicked my butt because I take way too long, trying to make sure each one is sufficiently coated. Meanwhile the chocolate starts to solidify and there is not nearly enough left to finish since I don't get it right until halfway through the process. Luckily I had more chocolate to melt and learned to be less picky about how they turned out. They're incredibly rich and remind me of brownies, which is fine by me since I love brownies but have yet to make them just right.

Next year I'll remember to either make or buy treats but not to do both. It's far too much of a good thing. If I really get a good thing going maybe someone will be treating me by then.