Creations

So I have an Etsy account, and Chris was suggesting I throw my Etsy stuff up on here as well, so to acquire a broader audience so to speak. Don't really know how this is going to go since I haven't gotten anyone regular on my blog just yet. (My blog could probably use some publicity as well LOL.) DryadCreations is my Etsy account, check it out. I also have other stuff to sell as well, but I was kind of waiting for a hit on the items I have put up before I pay to put more on the site (if it were free I would throw everything up! hehe). I may just start putting them up on here for awhile first. 

All of my postcards are made by my own hands, I use recycled materials, and craft materials that I have in the house at the time, such as magazines, calendars, old photo cards, books, etc, and re-create them into postcards and cards, and I use ink and pen to create the backs and random designs. I see lots of people print out postcards and sell them as handmade, but everything I have is cut, pasted, marked, designed and glued by my own two hands. I am also dabbling in journal making, bookmarks, alongside my postcards, and cards. I will see where all this leads me, one of the things I would enjoy getting into would be making picture books, or simple infant or toddler books for my son.

Hooray!

I started feeling little bumper for the first time this week!

Baby is as big as a turnip.

Yum Yum.

So I have been in the cooking, baking, and doodling in the kitchen spirit lately. Therefore I have decided to throw up some of my favourite things as of recently.

First off cabbage rolls! I found this recipe on The Gluttonous Vegan food blog.

Stuffed Cabbage

150g basmati rice, about half a cup
1 medium white cabbage
60g pine nuts, about 1/3 cup, roughly chopped
Bunch of fresh mint and a bunch of fresh parsley
3 crushed garlic cloves
100ml dry white wine, just under 1/2 a cup
100ml vegetable stock, just under 1/2 a cup

Put the rice in some water and cook it as you normally would until it's soft and done. Drain it, then put it back into the pan (not on the heat). To the cooked rice add the pine nuts, fresh herbs and the garlic and some salt and pepper. (I also added chopped spinach to my rice instead of the parsley or mint)

Grab your cabbage leaves and a pan of water. Bring the water to boil, then place a couple of cabbage leaves at a time in the water until they go a little floppy. Then grab them out of the water and run them under the cold water tab for a second so that they don't cook any longer. Pat dry.

Holding a cooked leaf in your hand, scoop some rice out of the pan with a spoon and place in the centre of a leaf. 

Fold the edges around the filling, then place edge side down in a baking dish.

In a jug, mix the wine, stock and some salt and pepper in a jug, then pour over the cabbage leaves making sure to cover as much as possible. Place in the oven at 180C/Gas mark 4/350F until almost all of the liquid has gone, or until the cabbage is browned.

YUM! SO GOOD, we loved this recipe. And don't skimp on that last step, and certainly don't leave it out because you think you could do without...mmm it made them glorious!

Next is a Lumpia wrapped Asparagus recipe:

10-12 asparagus spears

3 tablespoons vegan butter

20-22 lumpia sheets

salt and garlic powder to taste

Take the asparagus and trim off the hard ends. Then lay out a double layer of the lumpia wraps and brush with butter. Next take two of the asparagus and lay them with the ends starting in the center of the wrap, then fold the wrap up on them - kinda like folding them in a blanket. Then take the right side and fold it over them again, theasparagus heads should still be poking out (depending on how small you cut them). Then just roll the asparagus up in the wrapper and place seam-side down on a baking sheet. Then repeat until you are done. 

Once all of the asparagus are rolled and on the sheet brush the outsides with the vegan butter and sprinkle with salt and a little garlic powder. Then put them in a 375 degree oven. You will have to keep checking them, and once they are nicely golden brown you will know they are done.

Second recipe is from her vegan food blog which I wasn't able to make to the fullest, but I certainly will at a later date. It is a recipe for ice cream cake, but I just made the chocolate cake part, and smothered it with fresh strawberry icing (I will share THAT recipe in a second!)

For the DELICIOUS chocolate cake part:

1 cup soy milk

1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Mix all the dry ingredients, then add all the rest. Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes. I made it in two tin pie pans, and it was perfect.

Now for the strawberry frosting. Just for the record I have NEVER succeeded in making frosting. Ever, ever, ever. And I think I found the missing link, I recently acquired a little hand blender, and used it to make the frosting this time around and it came out awesome.

Strawberry frosting:

1/2 pint strawberries (rinsed and trimmed)

1/4 cup sugar

3 Tablespoons vegan butter

4 cups powdered sugar

You will need to macerate your strawberries the night before or at least a couple hours before you do any baking. That basically means, chop them up, sprinkle with granulated sugar and place in the fridge. This will bring out the natural sweetness of your berries and make them a little softer and mushy for crushing.

Next, remove the strawberries from the fridge and drain any excess liquid. Using a blender, hand blender, or a potato masher, crush the strawberries into a pile of mush. Then, using a mixer, whip the butter until smooth and begin adding the powdered sugar, all while continuing to mix. As you being to run out of sugar, you will see that your frosting is beginning to take shape. Then, add the mashed berries and mix thoroughly.

This recipe is on the web as well.

Now, what I would suggest for this recipe is to use only 2 tablespoons of vegan butter, and a tablespoon of soymilk. Also the first time around with this recipe I added the strawberries at the end and it watered down my entire frosting and basically ruined it. SO I ended up making it again, starting with a tiny bit of strawberries with the butter and milk, just make sure it isn't to much liquid, otherwise you will need quite a bit of sugar. Then I just spooned the smashed strawberries on top of the frosted cake. Just mess around with it and tweak it however you like, once I did it came out real good!!

I am going to make a vegan Zucchini Banana Plum hybrid bread recipe I created from a few recipes I found. So if that turns out well I will definitely post it sometime!

Blinded by the Light

SO being a vegan there are many restrictions on what we can buy. Depending on how strict of a vegan you are will also play into what products are 'vegan' enough for you. I am the type of vegan who is not ok with products that have animal products in them, or test on animals. When I was pregnant with my first baby is when I made the huge switch to being vegan. I was already trying to stick away from products that tested on animals the best I could, which is difficult because you either have to play it safe and follow what peta says, or believe what the company says. I went full no animal by-products, as well as not consuming animal by-products. My veganism is pretty strict, I unfortunately buy sugar that isn't "vegan".
Here is an excerpt explaining from http://www.vegfamily.com/articles/sugar.htm :

(Bone charBone char, made from the bonesbones of cows, is at times used to whiten sugar. Some sugar companies use it in filters to decolorize their sugar. Other types of filters involve granular carbon or an ion exchange system rather than bone charchar. 

Supermarket brands of sugar (e.g., Giant, Townhouse, etc.) buy their sugar from several different refineries, so there is no way of knowing whether it is vegan at any given time.

Brown sugar is generally made by adding molasses to refined sugarrefined sugar, so sugar companies that use bone char in the production of their regular sugar will also use it in the production of their brown sugar. Confectioner's sugar (refined sugar mixed with cornstarch) made by such companies also involves the use of bone char. Fructose may, but does not typically involve a bone-char filter.

If you want to avoid all refined sugars, we recommend alternatives such as Sucanat and turbinado sugar. Neither of these sweeteners are ever filtered with bone char. Additionally, beet sugar--though normally refined--never involves the use of bone char.)

Other then that, no honey, dairy, etc. Honey is the big product reducer, LOTS of products contain honey. Luckily living in Seattle makes it real easy to find many alternatives and companies that have all vegan products.

ANYWAYS - I started this post talking about when I fist switched. And at the time I was also pregnant, so being new to both lifestyle changes I purchased something someone recommended to me Lansinoh, which is a 100% lanolin product that is used for sore, chapped nipples before and during breastfeeding. Luckily I only used this product maybe once or twice before I even gave birth (not liking it so much), because it turns out that lanolin is oil or grease, from sheep. 100% lanolin, 100% not vegan. Heh, and it turns out that oddly enough I was recommended this product by a recent new mother, who was/is also vegan.

I hope I wont have any other stupid surprises like that. One thing that is real cool that I found out, St. Ives has been switching to a more natural company, no animal testing and using mostly natural ingredients in their products. I have only been using their apricot facial scrub, and lotions, but like them quite a bit.