Ring-A-Ding!

Oh me! Look at this magnificent bike bell!



P.S. Amazing Eclairs!

French Kick

Bender en Francais courtesy of my local library!

I checked out Mireille Guiliano's books, French Women Don't Get Fat and French Women for all Seasons. These books are good fun. People seem to get very up in arms about them in reviews, but I thought they were really cute. The author is totally over-the-top, but hey, it's entertaining! She does make some great points about portion sizes and really enjoying meals.

I also checked out Amelie, which I have seen 4 billions times and could watch 4 billion more. Second film up was Claude Chabrol's Les Bonnes Femmes. Whew! I am too much of a happy-ending girl to love these broody French films, but the clothes and scenery are enough to keep me coming back always.

I loved the brunette, Bernadette Lafont. She reminded me of a vintage Kathleen Hanna, all surly and take-no-prisoners attitude in a killer dress.

These movies make me crazy! I am totally ready to chop my hair off again. I will wait a while, but it's an exciting prospect. Here's the pic of Jean Seberg that I took with me to the salon last time I went short...and I loved my haircut!

Au revoir!

Jambalaya...Sorta.

Ok...I didn't think I was a spicy food girl, but I guess it's all relative.

I made the healthy Jambalaya recipe that I posted a little while back, and boy did it take some Louisiana magic to get it up to par!

First a little help from Holy Mary of spiciness!

Then a little kitchen witchery beyond what the recipe called for! I also added vegan sausage crumbles. Look at all the magically vegan things you can add to food

Here's the final (well almost...I cooked it down some more) product.

My conclusion: leave the regional food up to the experts. Try Kittee's awesome NOLA recipes!

Win it!

My mom says if you share you get more.

So here.

:)

Artsy Fartsy

Happy July! It's my birthday month!

My art-coffee-mayhem partner has flown the coop to un-sunny Oregon...and I miss her terribly. It's been a year since she moved (can't believe that!) and I am finally feeling creative again. I've got a few painting projects in the works.

Lately I've crafted an old pair of tights into some cute over the knee socks/thigh highs. Yay! I also found a cool toy sink at the Goodwill and decoupaged it into sauciness worthy of my kitchen. It started out pee-pee yellow and ended up like this. I love the "chrome" sink and drainboard. It even has a tiny little drain plug on a chain. (Beware, friends who send me mail. Your gifts end up chopped and glued, but well loved!)

You can see my Hello Kitty toys and wind-up sushi as well :)

I also pink-ified our carport indirectly when I spray painted a shelf red for the kitchen. Here's my little cookbook area. My next idea is to somehow get a fishnet pattern onto that mannequin leg. Fun! Bonus Smorkin and hula hoop visibility.

Next project is to do something fun with my wine corks. Maybe something like this.

Cheers!

Ani Phyo: Raw Sundried Tomato Cheeze & Mylks

Last night in between testing recipes for Jae Steele's upcoming book, I whipped up a few raw specialties from Ani Phyo's "un-cookbook."

First I made some pumpkin mylk, which is said to get the skin glowing! I used the pumpkin milk in an un-raw gravy recipe and it worked just fine. Here's a recipe for Ani's vanilla mylk and a chocolate mylk shake. Check out the cookbook for all the great variations.

Vanilla Mylk

Blend:
1/2 cup almonds

1/2 cup pitted dates

1 vanilla bean (or 1 t vanilla)

pinch sea salt

5 cups filtered water

Chocolate Mylk Shake

(pic from Ani Phyo's website)

1cup almonds
1/2 cup pitted dates
1/2 vanilla bean, or 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract, alcohol free
2 tablespoons cacao powder
2 tablespoons coconut oil, liquid
3 cups water

Place all ingredients in your high speed blender, and blend until smooth.

Then I made a batch of Sundried Tomato Cheeze. With the cheezes and pates, a food processor is really ideal. I don't have one (I'm appliance phobic) and just use my Oster blender. I usually adjust recipes a little in terms of adding more liquid so that my blender can handle it, but they still come out great.

The raw cheeze is brazil nut-based and pretty tasty. I think it could handle a little more of something zingy...I will have to work on that. I might stir in a little nutritional yeast, because I am not hardcore raw and therefore can breeze through the issue of whether its raw or not. Love the nooch!

Here's a link to one of Ani's recipes involving a "cheeze." Yum!

Have a great day!

Vegan Baklava

Exercise update: I hula hooped 30 minutes last night! My muscles are sore today, but I did learn how to spin around and keep my hoop going at the same time. That whole walking and hooping thing is gonna take some work...

Here's what I made my dad for Father's Day last weekend! Vegan Baklava!

I finally got my hands on some vegan phyllo dough sheets at a local HFS. I used these and a recipe from Recipezaar to make the baklava. I've never had baklava before, so I can't compare vegan and un-vegan, but this definitely tasted good! Phyllo dough is quite a challenge, but I'd like to try making more desserts with it- so pretty and delicate!