Cursed Sock

The amazing thing to me about the problems I am having with this sock (above photo is a HEEL - yes, a pointed heel) is that I have done this pattern before. In fact, I did a full sock pair which means I have done the heel portion twice.

Heel is now pulled back. So much for my "mindless" knitting project.
Meanwhile, yesterday literally alternated between downpour, sun, and rain and sun. Similarly I couldn't seem to make a decision. Eventually Nim made one for me because he is sick of my cutthroat working schedule.
As you can see we mostly got sun on our hike. Occasionally the skies would heavily darken, but the rain didn't really come in again until we were about done.
This photo looks like I am making Nim hang on over the edge. I swear I am not. :)

Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale Update

I am officially participating in Sidecar for Pigs Peace bake sale benefiting the Pigs Peace Sanctuary (visit their site to read their latest rescue story - it is amazing).

I think you can tell I am really excited about this. I got a response back early this morning that they did need more bakers and my instructions for participating. I am nervous in a good way. This feels different than baking for friends (a more known audience). I want whoever purchases something I make to fully enjoy it.

This made me highly productive because now I have exciting plans that will consume most of Friday. I had a ton of reading to do today so I ended up standing at my ironing board for awhile when my rear was done with sitting.

You can tell Nim has had enough of my working. But I am on a tight schedule now.

I did another tiny batch today of the Mini Chocolate-chip Love Bites. This time I used the appropriate freeze-dried raspberries (big difference and definitely an improvement) and did half the batch with the recommended sugar for taste comparison.

The cookie front and left has no sugar and no chocolate - that one was for Nim (he loved it and his eyes were all huge when I broke it up for him).

I worked on labels today for my three planned dessert submissions which naturally included a tiny picture of Nim. I do see some bake sale submission that are definitely semi-professional bakers. Now I am not one, but that didn't stop me from saying they were from Nim's Kitchen. :)

Don't forget to check the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale site for a bake sale in your area.

"Changing" Promises Monday

Effective this week, I was supposed to rein in all the baking project and instead move them to the weekend as a reward for hard work done. Well it is Monday and already that didn't happen (this is exactly why I don't make rules like this for myself).

But first I dealt with a sidelined knitting project. Nothing like a few hours of school videos that need watching to motivate one to get past the knitting issue. Mission accomplished. Videos watched. Homework submitted.

If I could figure out how to quilt and still learn from videos I would do it. But so far mindless knitting projects are the only thing I can pair with school videos.

As I suspected, with my new self-imposed baking rules, a new recipe showed up this morning that I didn't want to wait all week to try: Mini Chocolate Chip Breakfast Cookies.

My compromise was to wait until homework was submitted and do a tiny quick batch. I reasoned that that I wanted to test frozen berries instead and I wanted to see if this would be a bake sale contender.

The chocolate I used was some of my New Tree Superfruit chocolate bar chopped up since that was all I had around for now. (It probably goes without saying but I did peanut butter rather than cashew butter).

I am pretty sure the frozen berries are the reason the cookies wouldn't set in the middle. But I need to go out and buy some freeze-dried berries to be sure (darn) and trust me, the taste definitely wasn't impacted.

I also made a decision and sent an e-mail to Sidecar for Pigs Peace to see if they needed any more bakers for their bake sale this weekend. If accepted, I will definitely do the scones, and the coconut cake, and probably these cookies dependent on attempt #2...after I make a trip to the store.

Pleasant Saturday

Today I "sort of" tried to make coconut butter.

Long story short, nothing happened. I read one comment in which someone ran her processor for about 35 minutes. If my motor burns out I am going to be in crisis. I gave up after about 5 minutes.

I also only tried about 1/4 cup rather than the entire bag. So no coconut butter gained, and no coconut lost.

I chopped up my chocolate from yesterday for one of my recipes today.

I made Fudge Daddies, which came out really well. I did the under-cooking version and put them in the fridge. I did not wait at least 3 hours to eat. Please.

My chocolate chunks went into the latest white bean recipe attempt: Deep Dish Cookie Pie. I reached an important conclusion: this is not as good without the peanut butter. However the chocolate chunks were really superior to plain chocolate chips because of their coconut flavor.

Notice I am getting really good at cutting recipes in to smaller servings. This is a huge advantage for me:

1. If I don't much care for it, I don't have an entire dessert (and when I hate it, I am not putting an entire dessert in the garbage.
2. I get to bake more frequently which keeps me content.
   

Basically nothing I made today could get my mind off the Coconut Cake from yesterday although the Fudge Daddies were pretty darn good and I would make that one again as well. I am actually trying to decide if I do the Coconut Cake for the Sidecar Pigs for Peace vegan bake sale.

Eventually I moved off desserts.

My plan for today was that stroganoff recipe but with tofu. The reason being is that I am trying to duplicate a frozen meal that I like and I realized last time with making my own sour cream that it was coming pretty close.

Meanwhile, while I was cooking, Emile, Leela, and Nim were in negotiations over the main sun spot.
Note Emile on the dog bed, Nim on the floor.

My attempt just didn't quite make it. This was all because I was too lazy to open another tofu package and made the sour cream with about 4oz less tofu than last time so it just wasn't as creamy.

Yes I will still eat it. Yes I will try again. It is so close.


This was a "warm" day for us. This means cat bellies were exposed. Leela (the only female pet right now) is always so modest.

Emile lets it all hang out.

Skagit Roadtrip - more photos

Time to take a break in my Saturday baking experiments and post more photos from yesterday...

The sister and I have been pooling photos. She took the above photo of Nim in Anacortes in case we couldn't figure out how to find the tulips later (considering our misunderstanding of the Quilt Walk we considered it a total possibility).

Nim and I don't normally get photographed together so he was all naughty to have me at his level. This is at the start of the Anacortes walk. These cut-outs were all over town.

Along the Anacortes walk.

At least she got some photos of Nim looking head-on.

I was probably behind her threatening him into a "sit-stay."

This sister did a great job getting me out the door after a really long week. She always understands me cancelling on her from schoolwork as she is in school full-time to be a teacher. She will be done with her schooling by June and I am really pulling for her that she gets a full-time job right away.

A nice close up daffodil shot she took.

And for course...

Alpacas.

Skagit Roadtrip

I really have to credit a sister with encouraging today to happen. All I had to do was mention I was sort of thinking of heading to the Skagit Valley and she was ready to go! I know I am not the only one having second thoughts of any distance travel with the cost of gas but we had a great time and it was well worth it.

Nim and I both woke up tired and poorly rested. The rain broke around 5pm the night before and he and I booked it up the trail so our night was a little off. Still, you can see he is in the car and ready (sort of).

I was hopeful for the the weather. North Bend was sunny.

Then I got into Issaquah and it was completely clouded in.

Our first destination was Anacortes, which as you can see was also clouded in. There was supposed to be a Quilt Walk. I didn't do enough research on it before I left and not really sure where it was we just decided to walk the water front.

Nim got sick of sitting for photos.

And he worried about the water.


Then...on the walk back to the car we went through downtown Anacortes and figured out the quilt walk system!

Most of the quilts can't be seen from walking the street, but you look for the above Quilt Walk sign and you can enter the store and check out the quilt. I will remember this for later.

By the time we figured this out we had been walking for quite awhile and having a great time but it was time to return to the Mount Vernon area to see the Tulip Festival (it is a little early so mostly daffodils for now).

Now neither my sister or I were willing to pay admission to go into any of the gardens. But we had a good time all the same.

A few Tulips were in bloom.
And some Alpacas which we got yelled at crossing the street to go look at.

Tulips outside the garden we wouldn't pay to enter.


Another very furry Alpaca.


Anacortes was the very dog friendly section of our trip and the Tulip Festival was not. I did know that before heading up and the reviews and comments on this are not kidding. I do understand that dogs in the gardens would be chaos.

Nim was stuck to the car.

More photos on this adventure probably tomorrow. I needed to clear some of the photos with sister (even though they were all amazing she still gets right of refusal) and I think she took some photos too.

I got home flat out tired. The good news is I wasn't able to even bake half of what was planned today (which I bargained myself out of doing yesterday) so that means I can do some tomorrow.

Above is Hot Chocolate Bars (take 2). And yes, I strongly preferred them more true to recipe - far deeper chocolate. The version she does on the copy cat Reese's Peanut Butter eggs are a much lighter chocolate. These will be used towards tomorrow's recipe.


And I also made the Big Fat Coconut Breakfast Cake. I really, REALLY liked this. Basically I just did a quarter amount of the recipe, added shredded coconut and baked it for about 15 minutes in a mini loaf pan.

I had read enough reviews to know I wanted to cut the sugar by half. I was going for more of the spiced pineapple style than the pineapple sugary cake and it was perfect for me.

Pacific Fabrics Quilt Show

The voting started on April 1st for the Pacific Fabric From Your Hands Quilt Show. The closest Pacific Fabrics to me is in Bellevue but it is far enough in that it took me awhile to have an errand that would get me back into the area.

Check out the graph quilt in the above photo!
I had a great time seeing my quilts displayed for the first time ever and checking out other people's projects. The quilt above and left was one of my favorites. I really liked the colors in the above right quilt.
The above left quilt had Guinevere as part of its title (I can't remember the rest). I loved the lime green in its neighbor quilt.
The above left quilt reminds me of the color explosion I have going on in my current quilting project. You would think it would be too much but it actually works.
Love the snakes. LOVE them.
OK, it was a little funny to see my somewhat unrefined baby quilt (which by the way has found a really exciting home after this show is over - one of those "we weren't able to get pregnant miracles." Couldn't have happened to a nicer couple) right next to an super elegant one.
And look at that - my other one is so big they had to fold it! I laughed about that because that darn Mystery Quilt kept growing and growing as I was making it!
It was great to see my quilts displayed for my first quilt show ever! Definitely a fun opportunity.

I wish I had time to go to all the shops and see what people are submitting. It is a great way to get some new ideas. Since Pacific Fabric has a blog going I was hoping they would blog quilt show submissions, but no such luck.