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.