Stuffs to be working on

Hopefully you'll see blahg posts about all of these exciting things in the next few weeks. By exciting I mean pretty boring.

Painting: I have to finish this one that I started yesterday. At least I finished the fruit bowl so we can use the fruits now, but I'm not sure what I want to do with the background. Ink wash? Pencil or charcoal? The background's mostly black so I hesitate to do more pastels.

Gardening: I'm sure it's just being a tease, but the weather's actually been... sunny? Not raining?! In Seattle, in January, so I should take the opportunity to put down some mulch and maybe a few bulbs, since daffodils are apparently already sprouting. I bet there's a blizzard.

Various restaurant and cafe reviews: How to eat out as a vegan in non-vegan places is always a fun topic. The best coffeeshops to work in, their pros and cons are another useful one.

Debt management: One of these days I should have enough money for both bills and creditors. I may also switch to a credit union so that Bank of America doesn't keep stealing $35 overdraft fees from me every time I'm short a few bucks (AND HAVE PLENTY IN MY SECONDARY ACCOUNT YOU FUCKING BASTARDS). If I have any tips for dealing with collections I'll post my experiences.

My current schedule involves attempting to wake up at or before 9 (today it finally happened!), playing until about lunchtime (should not be on the computer though) and working until dinner or so.

Now... a little Wii and then I get to work!

V-con dinner

This is curry-marinated baked tofu, garlic saffron rice and cornmeal-masala roasted Brussels sprouts from the Veganomicon. 3 mix and matches, all vaguely Indian spices inspired.

Sam, the thieving bastard, has been hoping I forgot about my large glass casserole dish for the past several weeks so I've been going crazy trying to figure out where it was and making things in smaller containers. Tonight it would have helped, but instead I baked the tofu in my George Foreman G-5 for a hella long time on medium-low, which kinda worked.

The cornmeal sprouts really didn't turn out as advertised. Way too much oil, I got a batter rather than crumblies, and it never really toasted up in the oven. This may be because the rack was a bit low, or maybe it would have done better on foil or a cookie sheet. I cooked it for an extra 10 minutes, too.

I used brown jasmine rice instead of white, so I cooked it for 40 minutes instead of 20, and then forgot to move it off the heat and open the lid after 10 minutes so it got a bit squishy.

All in all, though, still yummy, just some things I would change for next time. Like, say, use 3 tablespoons of oil instead of 6 in the sprouts.

Blueberry Almond Scones

Joni accidentally opened an extra box of soymilk, so I thought I'd make some scones. Of course in our house, we call them sconces - back in my Starbucks days there were a few customers who were unaware of the difference between pastries and home decor. I can't find my copy of Vegan with a Vengeance for some odd reason so I had to use my google-fu, and altered this recipe to match my ingredients.

Cherry Almond Scones

1 C. All-Purpose White Flour
1 C. Whole Wheat Flour
1⁄2 C. Turbinado/Raw Sugar
2 t. Baking Powder
1⁄2 t. Baking Soda
1⁄2 t. Kosher Salt
1⁄4 C. Margarine
1⁄2 C. Soymilk (plain or vanilla)
1 t. Vanilla Extract
3⁄4 C. Fresh or Frozen Wild Blueberries
1⁄2 C. Slivered Almonds
Extra Soymilk and Sugar, for topping

1. Preheat the oven to 400º.

2. Mix together the flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the margarine and cut into the flour mixture using a pastry cutter (two butter knives held together) or your fingers, until the mixture resembles a coarse, crumbly meal.

3. Add the soymilk, almond extract, blueberries and almonds. Mix well with a wooden spoon or your hands until the mixture comes together to form a dough. You may need to add an extra tablespoon of soymilk if the mixture is too dry.

4. Scoop the scones in approximately half-cup mounds onto a cookie sheet and press the tops flat; round the edges if needed.

5. Brush the tops with a bit of soymilk (I used my fingers) and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, until the edges and bottom are golden. Place scones on a plate to cool.

Makes 9. 

Blogging: Redux

I've been thinking about getting a new blog going for a while. "I have enough content that it can be something other than angry, drunken rambling", I thought: the best cafes in Seattle to work from, how to freelance when you suck at time management, getting along as a professional when still broke... plus fun things, like creative projects, vegan recipes, restaurant reviews, and perhaps the occasional story about crazy friends and family, or tales of living with 4 very distinct personalities, a dog and a cat.

Since I had this and used it for a while, I thought I'd resurrect it rather than taking up yet more space in the tubes. There are some parts about this layout that I really like, and some parts that are really dated and lame. Some of those things are the same, because I'm a little bit dated and lame, myself.

Also, I will attempt to use the labels function effectively for navigational excellence. 

6 Years of Posts

I stopped using this back in 2003 and switched to livejournal and have been posting from there for the past six years. If for some strange reason you feel the need to have a complete picture of my life, go there.