baby burger

puppy stuffs.

noreply@blogger.com (vanessa) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:31:00 +0000

I like this line of pet dishes form Wetnoz.

Carlton has been needing a bigger water bowl, and this scoop bowl would be perfect. Of course if he gets a new water bowl, he needs matching food bowl right? (he is spoiled but not $80 for a water dish spoiled)

a new project.

noreply@blogger.com (vanessa) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 22:57:00 +0000

i am starting a new project in the form of a blog.

this came about for two reasons:

1) there is no lack of vegan food blogs out there on the the interwebs, but very few have appealing photography.

2) once people learn that i don't eat meat, dairy, eggs or honey, their first response is "then, what do you eat?". that is a really hard question to answer, because i eat such a variety of foods. i thought it would be easiest to show people what i eat.

my food photography isn't the greatest, but i am hoping that this project will give me a chance to learn and improve. also to share recipes and yummy food with all of you, weather or not you are vegan. the first few posts are stolen from this blog, but i am taking a bunch of pictures of foods i have cooked, foods friends have prepared, and restaurant food too. so there is lots more to come.

go check out no animals no secretions and let me know what you think!

soul food

noreply@blogger.com (vanessa) — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 03:26:00 +0000

sweet potatoes, collard greens and corn bread.

collard greens are "citrus collards with raisins" from Veagan Soul Kitchen. we are really liking this book at my house and the author lives here in oakland (although originally from the east cost). You can watch a cooking video of the collards recipe here.

carlton

noreply@blogger.com (vanessa) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:05:00 +0000

jsut for fun.

olive oil and magic loaf.

noreply@blogger.com (vanessa) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 16:00:00 +0000

this is my favorite new kitchen gadget. it is an oil sprayer. you use it like you would pam but you can put whatever oil that you like in it. Less wasteful then buying spray oil at the store, and more fun too.

cooking up veggies for the loaf: carrot, celery, onion + garlic

i wanted to write about "magic loaf", but i never took pictures of the actual loaf.

it is really fun to make up recipes based of what you have in the house. i have made 3 different loafs so far, and they were all really good. i like to use lots of veggies and herbs, and i have tried both black beans and lintels. i also add tomato sauce as the "liquid", because i had it around, and i like tomato flavor.

brussles sprouts cooking with garlic for a side dish.

magic loaf is a good way to use up odds and ends of things you have around the house. the down side is that in addition to cooking for 45min to an hour, it calls for cooked beans. if you don't have leftover beans/lintels then it would take a few hours to make dinner.

The start of a mushroom gravy for the loaf, I also made dill mashed potatoes this night

I cook up big pots of black beans and then freeze them in small portions. That way I always have beans on hand and dry beans are much more cost effective then buying can beans.

tuesdays are for knitting: baby leg warmmies

noreply@blogger.com (vanessa) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 16:00:00 +0000

I finished these a while back, and just now got around to photographing them.

Baby legwarmmies are fast and fun to knit, so i cast on another pair, in a bamboo yarn.

cloth napkins

noreply@blogger.com (vanessa) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 03:27:00 +0000

not too exciting but i made some napkins from some fabric scraps that i had. i swear that it takes me longer to remember how to thread the machine then it does to actually make these. hopefully i will be doing more sewing before i forget how the sewing machine works again.

peanutbutter chocolate pillow cookies

noreply@blogger.com (vanessa) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 03:21:00 +0000

I made cookies. The recipe is peanutbutter chocolate pillow cookies. mine didn't turn out as "pillow-like" as in the picture, but they are really tasty.

here are the peanutbutter middles before they got covered in chocolate cookie.

pride

noreply@blogger.com (vanessa) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 05:39:00 +0000

the short story:
c and i took carlton out to pride last weekend, and found ourselves at the beach instead.

the long story:
we were running late and missed most of the parade, and celebration festaval wasn't going strong yet. i wanted to eat, but didn't want to pay $$ for bad festival food, so we decided to walk to get lunch and then come back.

we took the long way from civic center to north beach, and we grabbed some picnic food at Trader Joe's and then walked to crissy fields, where we spent the rest of the afternoon lazying around in the sun.

after all was said and done we ended up walking almost 10 miles (9.8 to be exact). here is a screenshot of our route. carlton was a little trooper and walked the whole way!

it was a good day.

we put a halmet on the dog

noreply@blogger.com (vanessa) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 03:13:00 +0000

things i hella love about oakland (part one)

noreply@blogger.com (vanessa) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:46:00 +0000

tuesday is for knitting: a work in progress

noreply@blogger.com (vanessa) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 02:13:00 +0000

my roommate, asked me to knit him a sweater. so i have started one to give him on his birhtday the 2nd week of augest.

i was a little concerned that the boyfriend sweater curse, may also apply to roommates, but i have been assured that it doesn't. even so, i have taken some steps to ensure that, after all of the time and care i put into making a sweater, at the very least the thing gets worn, and worst case, i don't loose a friend and roommate:
1) i knit him a hat, and even tho it made him look a little like an acorn, and his friends at school teased him, he wore it every day this past winter.
2) he has mentioned to his friends that i am a talented knitter (on more then one occasion)
3) he asked for the sweater
4) i decided to forgo the element of surprise and i let him choose the style he wants and have asked 100 question about every detail.
5) he is thin (i am making a 33 inch chest size). this means that the sweater won't take a tone of money or time and reduces my sentamntal attachment to it.

i let him choose if he wanted a ribbed cuff to match the hem of the sweater, or a turned cuff with a pop of yellow. he chose the yellow, which i think was a good choice.

this is what the cuff looks like turned inside-out

he wanted a plain cardigan with a deep v-neck. i am knitting it in the round from the bottom up using a elizabeth zimmerman's method of proportions. this is my first time knitting a sweater from the bottom up, i usally make them top down.

last weekend while i was working, he reached over and touched the fabric, saying, "it's so soft, do i have to take special care of this? what if i really like it and want to wear it everyday, will it fall apart?" i think that is a good sign that the sweater curse dosn't apply to roommates.

big purple socks.

noreply@blogger.com (vanessa) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 03:38:00 +0000

i finally finished these socks for marius' birthday (a little late). you cant tell from the picture but they are huge! he has size 11 shoes + i made the cuff extra long, they are almost knee high on me!

hope he likes them as well as he other socks i have made. i knit these up using panda soy, which is a bamboo and soy fiber blend, and should be nice and cool for spring and summer.

shagmister

noreply@blogger.com (vanessa) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 03:34:00 +0000

he will be getting a hair cut this weekend.

i want this.

noreply@blogger.com (vanessa) — Thu, 21 May 2009 21:45:00 +0000

and i know you do too...
because, who doesn't want glow in the dark shoes?

glow in the dark havaianas at kidrobot.

"quote"

noreply@blogger.com (vanessa) — Tue, 19 May 2009 23:01:00 +0000

colin wright

stefan sagmeister

tuesday is for knitting.

noreply@blogger.com (vanessa) — Tue, 19 May 2009 22:10:00 +0000

not my knitting (and i have been knitting), but check out this cool beard cap! i love it too bad i don't ski. it is made by an Icelandic design group named Vik PrjÃ³nsdÃ³ttir. i think it would be a fun project to knit one!

via: http://kitsunenoir.com/blog

things i forgot to do yesterday

noreply@blogger.com (vanessa) — Wed, 06 May 2009 16:56:00 +0000

— pay the rent
— take pictures for "knitting tuesdays"
— pack a lunch for today
— mail netflix
— call the hair dresser
— missed an apt

so i am headed home for lunch to do these things.

unrelated. i have been in the mood to try sewing these days.

tempura and miso soup.

noreply@blogger.com (vanessa) — Mon, 04 May 2009 01:54:00 +0000

this is my second attempt at making tempura. it came out a lot nicer then then my first attempt about a month ago, but i think i still need some practice making look as good as what you get in the restaurant.

i followed the recipe over at vegan yum yum , and used broccoli, green beans, carrots, sweet potatoes mushrooms and onions. it is a really easy way to use up the various vegetable that you have in the fridge.

key hook.

noreply@blogger.com (vanessa) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 02:59:00 +0000

i needed a birthday gift for a friend that just bought a house, so i decided to make a simple little key hook. (i have a hard time buying stuff for people. for some reason, i always feel obligated to make something or it doesn't feel personal).

to make the key hook i painted a little street scene on a piece of birch plywood, then i screwed 4 cup-hooks on the bottom and added a picture frame hanger to the back. simple.

just because i think he is cute.

noreply@blogger.com (vanessa) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:00:00 +0000

tuesday is for knitting.

noreply@blogger.com (vanessa) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 15:00:00 +0000

i made myself a sweater.
it has been done, and i have been wearing it around for a few weeks now, but i just now got pictures (curtsy of the roommate who doesn't know about the blog and thinks i am a narcissistic weirdo who want's pictures of myself wearing things that i make. ha!)

i love it. it is from this pattern. i really just looked at the pictures and didn't follow that pattern at all because my yarn is thinner and i had a totally different gauge. i also made the ribbing really long around the sleeves and the hem.

bagels

noreply@blogger.com (vanessa) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 04:49:00 +0000

fresh from the oven

bagels are kinda a big deal at my house, and i have been wanting to try making some homemade for a while now.

i did a little internet research and found this homemade bagel recipe to try. they aren't too much work, but there is a lot of waiting time, so it is a good project to make while you are doing other things around the house (i did some knitting in-between).

shaped dough setting to rise

the only thing that i would do differently is that the recipe says after you form the dough into bagel shapes you should let it set on the counter for 20-mins. i let them set on a wood kitchen cart that we have, and they ended up sticking, so my bagels came out shaped all weird. next time i will put it on wax paper or maybe just a smooth plate will work better.

"a bagel that isn't boiled is just a biscuit with a whole in the middle"

they came out quite good and i plan on trying garlic and whole wheat versions in the future.

gumbo z

noreply@blogger.com (vanessa) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 05:16:00 +0000

i got a new cook book "vegan soul kitchen", and the first thing that i tried from it is the "gumbo z".

this is a really great cookbook so far, although this recipe took several hours to cook it came out delicious and i can wait to try the other recipes. we really love soul food at my house.

it's not tuesday...

noreply@blogger.com (vanessa) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 19:14:00 +0000

but that is when i took these pictures! (so i think that counts as "tuesday is for knitting")

it was so hot at the beginning of the week, i went for coffee and got the last of the ice!

"A" asked me to make some leg warmers for her we one to wear with sundresses when it gets cool in the evenings. i am really happy with the way that this yarn is knitting up, so bright and fun.