It's Snowing!

Happy winter everyone!

Hope all is well with you and yours, and the snow hasn't gotten too much in your way :-) Except of course for my dad who has been unable to fly back into Aspen for two days! But I think today is his lucky day!

Well I've been sick with a head cold for the past few days- Which always seems to happen on your day off :-) So i've been running errands and cooking. One particular errand that had to get done, since it has snowed close to 16 inches in the past two days is...

Rescue our garden gnome Tor.

He's buried Alive!! Where is he??

So I put on all my snow gear and headed out for a rescue mission.

after much digging, I found him, and his little mushroom lantern.

It was a long and trecherous journey.... As you can plainly see.

 

Moving on.... I did manage to make something besides quick soup or rice this week, I actually made up a pretty delicious recipe if I may say so myself :-) here you go...

Tofu Scramble

1 medium onion,  thinly sliced

1 medium garlic clove,  minced

1 Tbs Grapeseed oil

1Tbs Smart balance

4 inch piece of soy chorizo

1 block of firm tofu, drained and crumbled

1 tsp tumeric

1tsp cumin

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp seasoned salt

1/4 cup medium salsa

dash of hot sauce

chopped fresh cilantro

salt and pepper

1. Saute the onion in oil and smart balance on medium heat until softened, add garlic and saute a few minutes more, then add the soy chorizo.

2.Add the crumbled tofu to the pan and stir. Add all the spices. (this dish needs to be really well seasoned, so add more of any of the spices if you wish) 

3. Turn heat to med/low. Add the salsa and hot sauce, season with salt and pepper to taste. Stir and  let cook for a 5-10 minutes (the longer it all cooks together in the pan the better the flavors will be) add in the cilantro.

4. Serve on a corn tostada or a corn crisp like i have shown in the picture. Enjoy!

I also managed to finish some knitting this week- lots of baby booties for two important ladies who will be having little additions to their familes come April. I have pictures of them, but debating if I should keep them a surprise! Ah, I'll show them to you. The surprise is which ones they will get!

I think there was a smudge on my camera when I took this,

But it makes them seem like it's from an old catalog! Ha! 

 I assure you, they are much cutter in person.

Well i'm not sure if it is the Actifed talking or if i'm just really run down and tired from this cold, but I'm really happy it's snowing, (Though I wish my dad could fly in! stuck in LA for two days, UGH!) it makes you want to stay inside and get cozy. Or in my husbands case go out and get all the fresh powder!  Well I wish you all the best this week, stay warm and healthy and don't forget to laugh! I'm going to try and make a wheat free vegan muffin that might actually taste good... wish me luck!

New Recipes!

( I wish it looked like this outside :-) WE NEED SNOW! )

Hey all, I was just being so domestic today, and thought I would share with you what I've done so far :-) Just trying to fit it all in before we get lost watching the super bowl :-)

So here we go.........

First off is the lovely apron I made this morning, While watching Weekend at Bernies 2. A brilliant film of which I gave five stars to on Netflix.

Out of oil cloth and fabric- Perfect for gardening and flower arranging :-)

(Seeing as how I will be doing a lot more of that in the near future, thanks to starting my own flower business - Sierra's Designs :-)

The patterns is SUPER easy if anyone wants to give it a go!

Next On my list today was- Sorbet.... Well actually it was my roomate Barry's idea, but no matter, we all get to enjoy it! - I apologize in advance for the picture- not very interesting :-)

Mango Grapefruit and Ginger Sorbet

3 ripe Mango's peeled and diced

1/2 cup Simple Syrup (sugar and water heated and cooled)

Juice of one Grapefruit

1 inch piece of peeled fresh ginger

Blend all ingredients in blender until smooth. Adjust ingredients to suit your taste buds :-) then pour into ice cream maker and let it do it's thing for about 15 min. Then transfer to freezer proof container to harder up a bit more- then DIG IN!

And the Last thing I am probably going to attempt today, I say probably because knowing me I will want to cook up something as soon as i'm done typing this, are these......

Chocolate Chip Squares

 (These are NOT wheat free, I couldn't stand not baking anything normal! I probably won't try them, i'll have Jim do that, I'm sure he won't mind :-)

Crust:

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup vegan margarine (I use smart balance sticks)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 tsp ground flax seed

1 tsp EnerG egg replace

2 Tbs warm water

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/3 cups ( 30 oz) semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup chopped pecans

Topping:

1/2 cup (3oz) semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 350.  Combine flour, baking soda and salt, set aside.

2. In stand mixer, cream margarine and sugars, mix flax seed and egg replacer with water and add to creamed sugar. Add vanilla extract . Gradually blend in the dry ingredients. Fold in the chocolate chips and nuts.

3. Spread dough evenly in a 13/ 9in pan. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the top is golden brown.

4. For the Topping, spread the chocolate chips over the hot cookies. Return to oven for two minutes, take out and spread the melted chocolate over the cookies with a spatula. Add chopped walnuts. Cool in the pan on a wire rack before cutting into small bars.

 So there you have it, my day so far. Hope your day is great too! Lots of love to you all :-) GO SAINTS!