Bunny

Chick in a bunny costume

Vegan Police Shirts

I went ahead and created some Vegan Police shirts on CafePress (sans "no vegan diet, no vegan powers" text). You can check them out here at my shop. The prices are a bit high, unfortunately. I'm planning on expanding the shop in the future and designing more shirts, cards, etc., and possibly opening up a non-CafePress store so I have more control over the prices. Stay tuned!

Vegan Police

I thought the "vegan police" segment of Scott Pilgrim vs the World was pretty funny (and recommend the movie in general). Sean suggested that it would make a good Halloween costume. I could see myself wearing it around town on non-Halloween days, as well.

This is the first design I've done, which is intended to be printed on a black shirt. "No vegan diet, no vegan powers," is a quote from the movie (and possibly from the graphic novel Scott Pilgrim & the Infinite Sadness, which I have yet to read, but on which this portion of the movie was based).

I think I'll play around with it a little more and then put it on CafePress.

Vegan Bake-off!

I'm going to be competing in the 3rd Annual Toronto Vegan Bake-off on October 2nd. It's from 1:30-4 at Harbourfront Community Centre. Please come if you can make it!

If you do, put in a vote for my orange cinnamon sticky buns, also known as Cinnamon YumBuns ;).

Charlie's bed

This is something I made a long time ago, but it's found new life! A ridiculous fleece cow-print pillowcase that I made for myself before moving away to college has been sitting in our hall closet, languishing away under a pile of sensible white cases. I folded it into a big square on one of our floor cushions to create a bed for Charlie, and it's become one of his new favorite places to hang out! I have to admit, one of the main reasons I wanted to create a new designated Charlie area was to prevent him from sitting on my keyboard/tablet/hand/arm while I'm trying to get some work done. This way he gets to be nearby instead of on top of me, and we both win!

Crocheted pal

This guy looks kind of like a cartoon turtle whose lost his shell. I'll call him Mike.

When lying on his tummy with his legs out, he measures 14" tall.

Terrier with a swirly leash

This is an early iteration of a banner I'm working on designing (click to see it actual size).

Birdlike creature

Blank-eyed creature

Shaggy sad creature

Legged snake

Strangely enough, the head and body of this creature (sans arms) sprang into my head the other night as I was drifting off to sleep. I didn't remember it until I set pen to paper the next day.

Cuddly monkey-dinosaur

Blue bird

June

Meet June, a creature of indeterminate genetic origin. She's available for sale on my Etsy site, which I've just begun using again to list new items. Stay tuned for more!

Breakfast for dinner

I made breakfast for dinner the other night. Tofu scramble, kale chips (not really a breakfast item, but tasty and a good way to get some veggies into a breakfasty meal), pancakes, and bacon.

I made the bacon out of strips of a fresh bean curd I found in Chinatown. I marinated it using the recipe for tempeh bacon from Vegan with a Vengeance, and then pan-fried it with coconut oil. They turned out pretty well, and even looked vaguely bacony. You might notice that a couple of the strips ended up a little burned, though.

The jars on the table contain local farmer's market maple syrup (amazing!), homemade crab apple syrup, and pearsauce, which I made using some pears I picked recently with Not Far from the Tree. The messy stuff you see in the background is a bunch of jars and canning supplies.

Bedbug

Man in a yellow shirt

Man in a blue shirt

Woman in a red shirt

Girl in a pink shirt

Apple cake (again)

I tried my apple cake recipe again, this time choosing to wait a long time for it to cool before attempting to remove it from the pan, after my last disastrous experience. Unfortunately, this one had an unexpected texture, so I'll have to try again. At least it looks pretty, right?

Applesauce and cider

I went on my second pick with Not Far from the Tree this week, and came home with about 60 beautiful no-spray apples from an amazing tree in the neighborhood. In case you're unfamiliar with the organization, it aims to harvest fruit that would otherwise go to waste from residential gardens. Small teams of pickers will travel to homes in different sections of Toronto, and the harvest will be divided into thirds. One third goes to the pickers, one third goes to the owner of the fruit trees/bushes, and one third goes to community food banks or other charities for distribution.

The organization and its volunteers have surpassed their goal for the year and picked well over 13,000 pounds of residential fruit! In its first full picking season in 2008, the group harvested over 3000 pounds, so it's expanded significantly. If you live in Toronto, I encourage you to sign up as a picker or a donor.

Anyway, I decided to make some applesauce for the winter, which I've been meaning to do anyway, with farmer's market apples. I happened upon a slew of canning jars at a neighborhood yard sale last weekend (score!) and went out and bought myself some lids. 50 apples, several hours, and three batches of peeled, sliced, boiled, and food milled apples later, I ended up with six jars of applesauce. The two pinkish jars were made partially with unpeeled apples and a bit of sugar and cinnamon. Up next, tomatoes!

Deviled "eggs"

I loved deviled eggs when I was a kid. I honestly can't remember the last time I had one, but it occurred to me that it would be a fun challenge to try to create a vegan version.

Here's a picture of my first attempt:

It was tasty and turned out much better than I'd expected for a first try, but could definitely benefit from a couple more rounds of trial and error. Since I don't have anything egg-shaped to use as a mold, I just used a few small bowls, which are perfectly round instead of oval. I used navy beans as the base for the "yolk," and silken tofu and agar agar for the "white," and piped out the filling with a pastry bag, just as I would've if making traditional deviled eggs.

Clock creatures revisited: 12

Clock creatures revisited: 11

My new website!

I'm still working on fixing a few things and adding a little more information and artwork to my new portfolio website, but here it is anyway! Huge thanks to my own personal web guru, Sean, for putting this all together for me and prodding me to keep working on it.

You can check it out for yourself by going to blonderland.com.

Cinnamon buns

I decided to use a variation of the dough I used for my whole wheat bread loaf to make cinnamon buns. I thought it might be a lower-guilt version of one of my favorite desserts. They turned out a bit more like raisin bread or breakfasty buns, but once you get to the gooey center section, you can't tell much of a difference. I used raisins and chopped up dates in the center part, along with the usual Earth Balance, sugar, and cinnamon.

Jack's Super Burrito Wrap

I really miss a restaurant in LA called Pure Luck. One of my favorite dishes there was a creation called Jack's Super Burrito Wrap, which was about three pounds worth of beans, barbecue sauce, sweet potato fries, and jackfruit "carnitas." I decided to try recreating it after coming across Melisser Elliott's blog entry about the very same carnitas.

They turned out pretty well! I used baked beans instead of straight pinto beans, so I think next time I'll stick with some homecooked pintos, but otherwise I was quite happy with the results. I forgot to whip up some of Pure Luck's signature sauce, which I think is probably just barbecue sauce and Vegenaise but tastes like heaven.

Here's a picture of the burrito before it was all wrapped up.

Whole wheat loaf

I've been working on a recipe for a decent whole wheat sandwich-type bread loaf that's easy to make at home. Previous efforts have come out more like bricks than bread, so this loaf was much closer to the mark. It wasn't perfect, but it was quite tasty, and I have a few ideas in mind for what to do next time. I've also discovered the joys of quick-rise or instant yeast. It's an amazing timesaver!