In the kitchen!
I'm probably boring you all with my large amount of culinary posts, but cooking is something I have to learn to do. I tend not to want to eat a food that's supposed to be a substitute for meat, especially if I'm not sure of its origin. But it turns out seitan and such is super easy to make, and I'd be okay eating it, since I know every ingredient that went into it.
I did find something pretty awesome just now, and that is a vegan recipe for Twix. If you search it you can find it pretty easily. I have every single ingredient, and am very eager to make them. I'll of course update on how they come out.
Tonight I have plans to cook the seitan I bought pre-made into some Zatarain's for dinner for the rest of the week. Brady bought 2 medium pizzas for himself, so I'll have to make do.
I'm rambling now. I'm at work, and I have 1 hour, 8 minutes remaining of an impossibly slow Sunday.
S'mores!
First of all, an update on the stupid headphone situation. And thank you Holly~ I wrote the iFrogz customer service, and it has been confirmed that my headphones, are indeed, IMITATION LEATHER. I'm very happy to not have to be so worried, and I also feel very stupid for stressing over nothing. So, whoo hoo!
Now, for the topic of the post. My first batch of vegan cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World was a hit. I'm not sure how it went with the other boys, but Brady especially loved them. They were peanutbuttery with chocolate drizzle on top, and chopped peanuts. They were subtle enough to eat with breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and as a snack. I'd have to say Brady probably had the most of them.
So I had to make another batch of a different kind of cupcake, and test those on him. I definitely have to say that vegan cupcakes are among the tastier cupcakes I've had. They've got healthier ingredients (the peanutbutter ones had flax seed in them) and are lighter and more moist.
So today's cupcake of choice was the S'mores Cupcakes with Vegan Buttercream frosting. I'm not sure how they came out yet, since I kind of screwed up the idea of "graham cracker crumbs." Essentially I was supposed to grind some graham crackers into practically dust, and mix that in with the batter. I got large crumbs, just not bitty pieces of graham dust. Next time, maybe, but I suppose these will be a bit chunky.
The batter was very runny, as I suppose it should be, since the directions said to fill each cupcake to the top of the paper. The buttercream is essentially shortening and margarine, with confectioner's sugar, vanilla, and soy milk. Yummy! It was fluffy enough before I put the soy milk in, and I'm afraid the soy milk may have made it runny, but we shall see. I'll send an update with what Brady thinks as soon as he tastes one.
For the rest of my day, I'm relaxing in bed, in a t-shirt and shorts, in front of a fan and an open window. Today was definitely a hot day. I was running around in jeans, in front of an oven. Blah.
UPDATE: Brady tasted one of the s'mores cupcakes, and they're a hit! "Even better" than the peanutbutter ones, which I thought was hard to do. It seems the pieces of graham cracker that were left over were absorbed by the rest of the mix, and not even noticeable when eating the cupcake. I was a little worried because Bryan, our roommate, got to the cupcakes first. I worry when someone tastes something I make before I do.
A Review of the Headphones
So, I used the headphones all this morning. I really like them. They sound good, even though I've never really used headphones that went over my ears like that. It blocks sound out totally, and requires Brady to wave his hands at me if he wants my attention.
Now... the downside. I noticed the top band is definitely a leather-like material. I'm not a leather person, and especially not now because of my new vegan lifestyle. I'm so conflicted because it's not like I can get rid of them, and I really like them, and they were cheaper than any set of headphones that I could find, that I actually LIKE. I just feel icky whenever I use them and weird. I can't tell if it's leather, but it DEFINITELY looks like leather and smells like leather.
I just feel like a hypocrite, but I honestly didn't know it had leather on it. I could have emailed the person selling them, but I was lazy, and I didn't.
So now I just feel guilty, and I don't want to stop using them, because it's a waste of money and a waste of an animal's life. I'm glad I didn't buy them from the actual manufacturer, but someone still made money off it.
Oh Crappy Day…
Today was just the worst day at work. Half of the customers I spoke to were either crazy or just plain rude to me. Sometimes, I just wish I could ask people why they thought they could treat me the way they did, honestly. That is all I'll say about that.
I'm happy because I got some yummy coconut flavoured vegan icecream sandwiches at the Newark Co-op the other day. They're so yummy and small and animal-free. I could eat a million of them, but I won't, because that would be bad.
But another thing I like about being on a mostly-vegan diet now is that my diet is cholesterol free. I'm never going to have to worry about having eaten too much cholesterol and getting sick from it. I always get enough protein because protein is in like, everything. There are only a few vitamins I have to worry about, and I have to make sure I get enough sun for those, and take my daily vitamin. For calcium I've been drinking calcium orange juice every morning with my breakfast.
I said "mostly-vegan" up there because there are still some veggie substitute things that manage to have whey in them. I'm not really sure the reason for it, but it's there. I should give it up eventually I suppose.
If anyone is really wondering why I became vegetarian again (and even vegan this time) is not only because I felt I wasn't being myself, but also because of a movie/documentary called Earthlings. It's a documentary that shows how we treat animals. Basically animals aren't ours for any purpose in live, except to share the Earth. It's a really sad documentary, and I did cry a few times through it, but I recommend it for anybody.
I'm going to be trying a few new recipes this week. I want to make Brady some more vegan cupcakes or some muffins. Also I want to try a few stir-fry recpies with the package of seitan that I bought from the Co-op. I think that if I don't like tofu very much, I'll really like seitan.
Besides all the new vegan-y stuff in my life, I found a new musician to listen to. Her name is Lenka, and the album I have is her self-titled one. I really like all the songs on it, but my favourites are "The Show" and another one, that I can't really remember the name.
I'm finishing up here; I'm going to try to upgrade my WordPress to the newest version, and watch Family Guy with my loverly husboi. <3 <3 <3
Headphones
I was in need of some headphones, so I can enjoy my music and computer with Brady around. I bought these, the iFrogz ThrowBax in Pink.
Click the link to go to the store that sells them, however I got them on eBay for $18. I'm not sure if they're very good, but they're cute, and the eBay shipping was free. I'll be sure to give my review once I get them.
They would be perfect for a morning like today, when Brady went to bed at 5:30 am this morning, and I don't want to sleep until the start of my shift at 3pm.
This is the end of my spending for this week. <3
New Things
Today I got this:
I really want this:
I had to move upstairs from the boys' 48 hour LAN party, because the computers just got too hot. I'm listening to Loveline and enjoying Adam Carolla's return.
A Wasted Saturday
I got up to go to lunch this morning with some friends from Apple. We went to Moe's and had tacos and burritos. I've also realized I can no longer stomach chips and salsa. I drank a little too much alcohol one night, and had chips and salsa, then got sick, so every time I eat them now it reminds me of being sick. Which is a shame, since chips and salsa are one of the only things you can almost guarantee will be vegan when you go out to eat.
But despite my not being able to eat chips and salsa, Moe's was a good time. Heidi was there, along with Camo and his two daughters. Camo and his daughters are vegan, so they chattered away about their favourite vegan foods. They brought vegan marshmallows for me to try, and we nearly ate the whole box. His one daughter was picking the tofu out of her salad, and leaving the vegetables.
Afterwards, I was supposed to go to a doll meet-up/picnic in Baltimore, but honestly, I didn't feel like going all the way to Baltimore, and I had left the cupcakes at home. Instead, I followed Camo and his daughters to Newark Natural Foods to pick up a few staples. Camo showed me some good stuff to get, and helped me sign up for a membership there. I think I've officially spent too much money on food this week, but at least it will last me a while.
I tried my hand at another recipe from one of my new cookbooks today by making chocolate chip cookies. Unfortunately, I'm a moron, and forgot that margarine spread =/= margarine STICKS... and although the dough tasted delicious, the cookies burst into dust upon removal. Great. It's okay, because I realized that the chocolate chips actually contained milkfat, so I couldn't eat them anyway.
Alice Star
So another thing about me is that I collect dolls. Not regular dolls, like ones that pee and poo and drink milk from a bottle. These dolls are very expensive, and essentially movable works of art. They're called Asian Ball-Jointed Dolls. Although other countries now make them besides Asian ones. There are dolls from Holland, Australia, the USA and others.
All of my dolls happen to be Korean.
Each doll ends up being a project. I'm not the one that does the painting of them. I pay other people to do that. Essentially I just like to stare at them. If you're interested, I have my dolls all laid out at another website.
But my next project is the character of Alice from the Resident Evil movies. Her head is made by Doll in Mind, and is a "minimee" head. Minimee is a service they provide where you can request that the mould a doll after a certain character, celebrity, or anything else. You can order 1-10 at a time. The more people you have, the cheaper the head is. Her head is obviously moulded after actress Milla Jovovich. I may end up buying her an orange wig as well to make her be LeeLoo from Fifth Element but for now, she's just Alice.
I don't have any personal pictures, but I'm borrowing the ones that were sent to me from the artist Miriam Bos who painted her. I'll be posting more of my own once I get her.
The eyes and wig being used actually belong to Miriam, but I've purchased some new ones for her to use when she gets in. I'll take pictures when I get her in with her eyes and hair. Unfortunately she doesn't have a body yet. I am going to order her one from Doll in Mind later, I just want to make sure I don't cut myself short. The body itself will be $311 total (which includes EMS shipping from Korea).
I'll be sure to post entire pictures of Alice when she's done. I'm excited to have her.
Cupcakes!
So as a result of my new-found vegetarianism, I'm trying to find more ways to make tasty things that both Brady and I will enjoy. Brady's not vegetarian, not even close. But it makes me happy if I can make something that's cruelty-free that he enjoys.
Which is why I decided to get some cookbooks today at Border's. I bought two. Vegan with a Vengeance and Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, both by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. Today I decided to make some cupcakes. It was pretty daunting since there are literally 75 different recipies to choose from in this book, and icings, too. I finally decided on the Peanut Butter Cupcakes. It's a simple recipe that involves natural chunky peanut butter, molasses, flaxseed, vanilla, soymilk, and other basic ingredients. The "icing" is supposed to be a drizzled semi-sweet chocolate ganache. Unfortunately I didn't have a piping bag, and I forgot I could make one out of a ziplock bag. But my experience with a ziplock bag wasn't really useful for drizzling, so instead I just spread a small layer of the ganache on the top. Granted this is probably more chocolate than is required, but it'll do. On top of that I sprinkled some chopped peanuts, and voila. Cupcakes a'hoy.
I have to say, after trying one, they are pretty good. Less sweet than you would expect a cupcake to be, but I think that's the point. I mean, peanut butter cookies aren't generally sweet. It tastes pretty wholesome, and the chocolate ganache wasn't overbearing. They're extremely moist, and I had to eat them over the sink so I didn't lose the entire cupcake all over the floor.
I'm looking forward to cooking the other recipes in this book. I learned a few things, like I didn't know that soy milk would still curdle with vinegar the way that cow milk does. I've noticed you can use less soy milk where you'd use cow milk. I'm glad I don't have to crack eggs anymore or melt butter.
I'll be updating future posts if I make any more of these cupcakes, along with some reviews. The book is definitely a good resource, and I recommend it, even if you're not vegetarian or vegan. It was $15.95 at Border's, and they had quite a few.
A Small Update
Hello, everyone. I'm publishing this from my new WordPress blog, but it's going to cross-post to LiveJournal. I just wanted to give you an update on my life, since it's been about 2 years since I've regularly blogged anything. The problem was that I was dating this guy Kevin, and he didn't like me to be honest. He didn't appreciate that I'd ever write the truth. I wasn't always happy with him. He was logging into my LiveJournal and reading entries. Reading entries that existed before I was dating him, and during. I'd change my LiveJournal password and he'd still do this. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if he somehow found my WordPress blog as well, but that's besides the point. I want to be able to write with honesty and not have to worry about someone reading it and feeling hurt. I did end up leaving him, thankfully. I no longer felt my trust would be compromised in any way.
I work at a web-hosting company now, (and they're not hosting this blog, someone else is.) I met a boy there, and his name is Brady. I had a small, insignificant crush on Brady when I first met him, but I didn't let this bother me, since I was with Kevin. I just wanted to get to know him a little more though. He seemed to be pretty cool and liked good music. In October of 2008 I went with my friend Allyson to see Hanson in Atlantic City. We somehow convinced a couple of guy friends from work to come hang out with us after the show. Brady was one of those guys. We hung out and drank and had fun, and I was good, knowing I had a boyfriend at home. But after that weekend, Brady let me know that he really liked me and wanted to get to know me more.
Kevin and I were constantly off and on, and I honestly didn't see much hope left in the relationship, so I let it end, as I should have done months before. I wasn't really ready for a relationship with Brady yet, but I found myself hanging out with him more and more, until it was obvious what it had become. Essentially we fell in love within the first few months, and now I live with him in Bear, Delaware, along with his friend Bryan. We have 4 cats and 1 fish, and probably twice as many computers as cats. I'm pretty happy, as happy as I can be. I've since worked for the hosting company for a little over a year, and I've been with Brady for 6 months. I can see a pretty decent future for us.
I've also become vegetarian again. This is something I have wanted to do for a while. I was vegetarian for 5 years, starting in highschool and lasting throughout college. I stopped for some reason, maybe because Mike, my ex, promised to cook for me if *only* I would eat chicken. I remember he bought me a chicken sandwich at Wendy's, and I cried over it, and then ate the sandwich, covered in salt from my tears. I eventually got over it and began eating meat again. I've been questioning myself as to why I made that move. I don't particularly like meat, and I knew it was cruel, yet I kept eating it. Friends like Sarah and Mike (another Mike I know from working at Apple) helped me get back to myself.
I don't have much else to say, but I can promise I will start blogging on a regular basis again. I do check and read LiveJournal, so if you want to add me, feel free. I will read your posts. Just comment here at WordPress what your username is. And feel free to comment either here or there, I will read both.
I'm very much looking forward to doing this again.