Knock, knock.....Ether bunny...Ether bunny who?

We had so much fun for Easter...I think we have started a new tradition in our family and I hope we can inspire you to start one too! Instead of decorating eggs this year again we've decided to decorate cupcakes. I got the recipe from "Vegan cupcakes take over the world".

We should have made alot more cupcakes, we were just getting good by the time we were finished decorating the 24 that was made, but it was Sandy, Dennisa, Taylor, Anthony, Seth, Grandma (pictured above, decorating her one cupcake :0) and of course, me there decorating. Dennisa being the professional that she is, brought over all of her tips for making cool flowers and grass and all types of special effects on our gorgeous cupcakes. Here's some examples....

We had a blast, alot of laughing, we also had a small little "fake" contest on who could make the best decorated cupcake, Can you guess who didn't "fake win"?

We all had our favorites and I hope we can inspire you to make a friendly switch to make "everyone" happy next Easter. FYI...We had to much fun with our cupcake decorating that Dennisa and I are planning on doing it for Dad's Fish Fry this year! Little fish, a line with a hook on it with water bubbles, little boats with TAS on it....endless ideas!

Here's all our beautiful creations, so many different ones. Dennisa was so sweet to make all the colors but I think next time I make the frosting I will use just the shortening instead of adding any soy garden butter...room temp. it didn't want to stay "set up" making our flowers droop some. Owell, still delish though.

Believe it or not...I made an awesome potato salad and spinach dip with roasted garlic bread and I didn't take a picture of it...I know, call me crazy! I made everything to last 2 days and it didn't last past Saturday... :0) I think that was a complement.

Potato Gnocchi Night

I added:
1 med. onion
1/2 package of Soysage
1 can mushrooms
4 garlic cloves (we love garlic)
Fresh basil (I have basil growing and never use it, FINALLY get too!)
1 quart of tomatoes...mmm...probably a large can
1 package of the potato gnocchi

I sauteed up the soysage first, seasoned it with garlic powder, salt and pepper, when that got browned nicely I added the onions, garlic, mushrooms and sauteed that until the onions were looking translucent then I added my tomatoes, (which you can drain if you want, I liked all the tomato juice.) and basil. This is a good time to taste it to see if you need anything like salt, sugar to cut down on acid, pepper....In the meantime you have to boil water for the gnocchi and once it's a rolling boil throw the gnocchi in for 4-5 minutes or until it floats. Then drain and I added right to the pan of tomato goodness! Just let it sit for a minute and then served it. Jim put some cheese on top, of course.

I accidently added to much salt this time around, but it was really good, we both enjoyed it and I'll probably make it again soon.

Lovin' my new cookbook!

I LOVE MY NEW COOKBOOK! I could sing it in the highest of mountain tops...ok, that might be dramatic (but I could). Sunday I made BBQ Seitan and Crispy Coleslaw Sandwich, pg. 102 of Veganomicon. I did add some extra veganaise to the crispy coleslaw...about a cup...I like that creamy texture and more salt. Also, I made my own homemade seitan from the cookbook, pg.131. Jim and I are totally freakin' out about the texture, it's the first time either of us has had seitan, and it is very close to the texture of eeek, dare I say it, meat. BBQ seitan is alot like BBQ beef. It was very, very good. Seth wasn't a big fan but lately he's been a picky eater....

It was a lot of work but so worth it and you could make your seitan ahead of time. I made fresh cut fries to go with our sandwiches. I brushed them with a mix of the marinade that the seitan cooked in and olive oil, then sprinkled them with garlic powder, salt and pepper. Flipped them after about 25 min in a 350 degree oven and did it again, put the marinade and spices on and cooked them for an additional 25 min. They took a long time to cook but they were so good.

Whoops on the photoshoot, I told April she would laugh at this one. I built the sandwich with the bun side up on total accident. I should really fill you in on a secret, this is my photo practice week and I wanted to try some extreme closeups and see how my camera handles it. Please bear with me as I'm learning :0) so here's your extreme closeup:

See all the BBQ sauce and coleslaw and spices on the fries...BEAUTIFUL! (plus if you couldn't see it you're very much blind, the picture is huge! :0)

Yum...

I received a new cookbook from my AWESOME friend Sandy...Veganomicon By Isa Moskowitz & Terry Romero. So of course we had to try the most anticipated recipe which was the Chickpea Cutlets...They were so very good, I can't believe how good they are. I made the "cheezy sauce" from the same cookbook to spread over it. Also made mashed potatoes (been loving them lately) and broccoli. I, myself, put the cheezy sauce over everything, I'm in love with the sauce. Jim wasn't sure about the sauce because it has a definate nutritional yeast flavor and if you don't like that, I guess you just don't like it. But dinner was very, very delish.

We ate out of the freezer yesterday, Jim worked 16 hours so he ate out, Seth had veggie corndog and french fries....Now that's a Saturday dinner.

We made a beautiful breakfast this morning. My mom gave us some canned white potatoes so we've been using them when were feeling like "lazy" chefs. I opened 2 cans of those, chopped up a red pepper, onion, opened up a can of mushrooms, and chopped up 2 garlic cloves and threw all that together in one frying pan with probably a teaspoon of olive oil, Jim was in charge of the crumbled soysage. We put the potato mixture in a bowl and sprinkled the soysage on top. I put the "cheezy sauce" on mine and it was "over the top" delish. I'm totally full now and I'm going to enjoy the rest of my Sunday watching the boys play video games. (Note to self: Great pictures this time!) ~ Peace

"Almost" Homecookin'

I was so in the mood for mashed potatoes last night but running low on about everything in the kitchen so I came up this yummy meal... (note to self: I really need to work on my photography skills, it's pretty busy and you can hardly see the food) Has anyone else tried the Gardenburger Riblets? Oh my gosh are they delish, we've had them a few times now, the first time we made them into a sandwich with veganaise and lettuce on a piece of bread...so good. This time I made mashed potatoes, I boiled them in vegetable bouillon and then added soy garden butter and some plain soy milk with salt and pepper. Then made fried spinach which I just pattied up and coated it with flour, garlic, salt and pepper and fried it in some canola oil till the outside was crispy. We add some malt vinegar to it once it's on the plate. Not the healthiest way to eat your spinach but, boy, it reminds me of "home" because my mom use to make it the same way. Then the riblets are so easy because you just pop them in the microwave and 3 min. and 30 secs. later they are done. Terrific meal, we'll be eating it again soon! :0)

Winter Storm food...

Winter Storm Food 2008

Jim's Sunday Breakfast...Wild blueberry Pancakes with Soysage...Jim's Soysage is in the center for a pancake sandwiche (I tried to give it an italian accent)...He also had scrambled eggs on the side but we waited so I could take this beautiful vegan plate :0)

Here's my plate with the soysage just placed on the top. I thought the plate was pretty so I took a pic. Jim is starting to make fun of me because of my "need" to take pictures of everything I cook :0)

Peanut "better" cookies from Viva le Vegan by Dreena...Yummy, yum, yum. I accidently left them in about 1 min. too long because they usually come out really soft and chewy, this time crunchy and still yummy..so owell, my boys still loved them ;0)

Seth's cupcake that he sprinkled himself, you can see no white frosting on the top of his...Just like a kid, too cute!

Soysage gravy and homemade buscuits ....My made up gravy recipe and buscuit recipe from "How it all Vegan" cookbook, I'll post it soon. I wanted to get all the photos up first, trying to figure out how to save the recipes to a different page so all you have to do is click on the name and you'll be at a easy page to print from. We'll see. :0)

Friday we had taco salad, with Refried black beans, Boca Crumbles with canned tomatoes from the garden, onion, chili powder, rubbed sage and cumin, Sour Supreme (Vegan sourcream), Lettuce and hotsauce with tortilla chips on the bottom...Yummy.

We had such a fun weekend, It was sad seeing Jim slip and slid his way out of the driveway and go to work this morning. But it gives me an opportunity to think of great things to make him this week and work on my photography skills....Hope everyone is dug out by now. Here's a picture looking in to my front door....

Being snowed in...

This is starting out to be a really fun weekend, we are getting a snow "event" and we could get up to 2 feet of snow! All I know is my favorite thing in the world is having tons of snow outside and baking inside, it makes everything so cozy! We started this weekend out with vanilla cupcakes with buttercream frosting from "Vegan cupcakes take over the world" cookbook. (Thanks Sandy)

These turned out wonderful, my boys agreed. I can't wait to make the chocolate ones. mmm.mmm.good

This is as of this morning, we wanted to try and show how high it was on the door and Paco thought it was his cue to run outside, then came right back in kicking the snow in to the living room...Yuck! But my wonderful husband picked it up and threw it back outside.

So we decided to make breakfast this morning and we made soysage gravy and buscuits. Recipe will be provided at a later date.

My internet is so painfully slow right now, I will finish this soon...Happy "snowed in" Day! I hope we are all making great things for our families!