ATC's

I spent the weekend gaming. And then time on Sunday making some artist trading cards. There is not much to say about them. One focuses on texture and the other was more about me making something for the sake of doing it. 

Here are the pics. 

 

Blueberry Muffins

Know what makes them awesome? My homemade blueberry liquor. Yeah, I did that. Yeah, it makes them tasty. 

The recipe is from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. But... veganized and tweaked as usual. 

I used frozen blueberries and thawed them and drained them. I saved the liquid to add to the batter, but the process helps the blueberries hold up a bit better. They do not really need the extra blueberry juice, and I would leave it out next time. 

1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup soy milk with 2 tablespoons flax seed (egg substitute) well whisked together
3/4 cup soy milk or other milk sub.
1/3 canola oil
(I also added 2 tablespoon of blueberry liquor. I will post the recipe in a later post). 
1 teaspoon or so finely grated lemon peel. 
1 cup well drained blueberries (thawed or fresh)

Oven at 400 degrees

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl and make a well in the center. Combine wet ingredients and add to dry ingredients until just moist. Add blueberries. Fill greased or lined muffin pans 2/3 of the way full. Bake for 25 minutes.

If you wanted... just before baking you could add a bit of jelly or jam to the top of the batter.

Time to pamper through the allergies.

They kicked in early, those pesky allergies. I am sniffly and sneezy and maybe several other dwarves (like bitchy, by the end of the day). The thing about allergies is that, for me, I don't feel sick. I just sneeze and sniffle and swell up. But by the evening I am exhausted.

So time for a little herbal help. Eucalyptus to the rescue. It is refreshing and opens up all those respiratory passages. I found a recipe that makes shower pucks that I through into the shower. I made them super strong, and added dried eucalyptus leaves at the bottom of each puck. I through them into the freezer, and then when nice and solid, I put them in a jar to store in the bathroom. 

Here is a link to the pucks!

I really love a lot of the stuff at Livingonadime.com. 

Maybe a nice little gift idea...no?

 
 
What I love about this recipe is the ability to add other essential oils to it. Remember that aromatherapy is so good for the soul. For me, lavender (duh). For a refresher  a mint base with a citrus lift. I can't even think of a limit!

Blessings!
 

Coffee Cake Muffins

I haven't been baking much since we decided to move. And here we are... in the new house for two months and I suddenly want to make all the things. 

So I pulled out the big old BHaG cookbook. We all know the one. In it is a bunch of great muffin recipes but not so much with the vegan. That is quite alright. I can fix that.

Coffee Cake Muffins made vegan:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 cup shortening
1/3 cup soy milk and 2 tablespoons ground flax seed (this will be the egg sub.)
1/2 cup soy milk

************

1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup chopped nuts ( I used almonds as that is about all anyone in my house will eat)
1 tablespoon flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon melted earth balance or other vegan margarine

Sift the 1 1/2 cup flour, sugar and baking powder into mixing bowl. Cut in the shortening until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs. At the flax mix and the milk and mix until just moist.

Combine the brown sugar, nuts, 1 tablespoon flour, cinnamon and melted EB.

Place half the batter into muffin tins (greased or lined with muffin cups), sprinkle nut mixture over, then top with the remaining batter, filling half full. Then bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes.

They did take a bit longer for me, I think my oven is running cool. But they seem to be a big hit. I would even top them with a light vanilla icing.

Dream Collage

I know that I told you we moved. And we are finally starting to feel settled. Trust me there is a ton of renovation work left to do... such as building a new room and laying all new floors, and let's not even talk about all the painting or the bathroom work. 

However, I finally got my work space set up and proceeded to crank out 6 scrapbook pages for my sister-in-law. Those may or may not get posted. Some turned out fabulous.

My oldest daughter decided to have a fully shabby chic room. Which has been a blast for me. I have made curtains, have some ideas for pillows, just really going to town. I made a wee collage for her wall. Painted wood piece with paper and lace and a tag and flower.
I love the way it turned out. I am even thinking of doing a line of similar ones for the shop. 

  

And on a new year

While we wait for the house to close (which is looking further and further away... hopefully a new date will be set tomorrow) I thought I would post a couple of pics of the Avengers quilt we made for shorty!

She is the biggest fan of  The Avengers... comics, cartoon, and the movie. And as we are moving and she gets her own room, we thought this would be a great addition. We in this case is my friend who keeps me both grounded and reaching for the sky. She is amazing. Let's call her AC.

Look for lots of new stuff in the coming year.

Holy Heck in a Handbasket

I don't even know what is going on in my world anymore. I think we are buying a house. I know we are trying to buy a house. This is not something I ever thought we would do. (There are a number of reasons, several of them political...so just go with it).

However, right after I quit my job (and let me just say, things have been pretty nice for me since leaving all that stress) we received an email from our landlords wanting to raise our rent. There were several things wrong with this. Not the raising of the rent... but how much and how much notice and the fact that now they want a very long lease. There were some illegalities in their handling of the situation. But it got us thinking. And the conclusion of the thinking was maybe we can afford to buy a house. After some number crunching and only about a week of looking (really it was one day, but we had to look at the house twice) we have an offer in, we are in escrow, and are waiting for the final little bits. It looks like we will be moving with the new year!

I am still committed to doing a handmade Christmas. Just scaling back who is getting what. More photos will come as I can. My camera is on it's last legs... so there may be horrible photos.