keep putting it up...

harvest is in full swing around here! I spent my weekend thrift shopping, going for lunch, napping, spending time with friends, picking blueberries and canning, canning, canning. I'll probably take some pictures and post my thrift finds on HOME SWEET HOME next Saturday.

My aunt and uncle own a farm out in Errington that has a huge blueberry patch. Last year, my first year on the Island, there weren't very many blueberries because it was so hot. This year it's been so cool we've / I've been complaining, but there are so many blueberries. It's pretty exciting. There weren't very many today, but in a week or so, if it's sunny there should be more! Finger's crossed for sun!

This coming week is a busy one with visits from my dad and my bff and her boyfriend. I've got lots more canning to do (cherries, apricots, cabbage) and am thinking about canning fish this year. I'd much rather have canned salmon over frozen salmon, you know? XO

"and when you get home you can tie me to the murphy bed"

for some reason today i didn't take any pictures and the one above is my last ditch effort to get a photo in for the day. and i wish i had documented today because today was so great! so awesome! so phenomenal! i woke up with seth at 7:30am and we slowly lingered up, i had coffee, and then we mosey'd to the farmer's market. and it was in full swing and it was only just after 9am! we got our hands on $20 worth of local veggies (including daikon and oak leaf lettuce and beets!) and a small snack from the wonderful japanese woman who makes the best baked goods (i'm addicted to the salted fig and walnut bun)!! then we woke stew up and went to nanaimo to hit up costco and fabricland (finally) where i picked up some heavy duty cotton fabric to make another sling for seth. i'll have left over fabric and will probably make a pillow or something. we'll see. it's pretty and pink! and reminds me of a east-coast boating extravaganza!! then we went to chapters where they were having a sweet sale and i got bridget jones 2 for stewart and another book for my aunt for xmas (we do a family xchange and i got her this year. just have to knit one thing and her xmas gift is DONE!!). stewart got two skate/surf magazines, one called JUICE that we've never seen (nuts) that is really rad.

well, my muffins are almost done so i should pull them out. i've been loving the bran muffins lately. tomorrow is sunday night supper club! i still haven't finished my book, i just extended the due date. and now i'm going to knit for a half an hour or so and then SLEEEEEEP. tomorrow is stewart's last day before he goes back to work so i must be rested for the shenanigans.

oh canada, the plains stretch out for you

on saturday we went to tofino for good times and to eat copious amounts of crab. despite our numbers (8 of us?) we couldn't get through the 5 crab so stewart and i ended up bringing 2 home. and after he spent the better part of an hour pulling out their flesh i put together these crab cakes (which we ate with left over green salad from saturday, we'll have that salad all week). the recipe kinda sucked. i used mesa sunrise cereal instead of the crackers, red instead of yellow pepper, didn't have celery. i used cumin, pepper, and red pepper flakes instead of the called for spices and should've mixed it with the egg before i added the mayo because it was way too soft and gooey. i ended up putting a total of 2 cups of crushed cereal in them. and then coating them with a crushed cereal, oatmeal, flour mixture. which saved them and they didn't fall apart as bad. we ate them with sour cream and OMG they were SO delicious and SO rich. there's a few left in the fridge which i'll have to eat tomorrow before the crab goes bad.

here's the copy and pasted recipe from the Oprah magazine website, but with my modifications. xo

ingredients:

Corn Crab Cakes with Cilantro Sauce (we had them with sour cream instead)

* 1 pound lump crabmeat (meat of 2 crabs)
* 3/4 cup minced onion
* 1 teaspoon minced garlic
* 1 cup frozen corn , cooked
* 1/2 cup finely diced yellow bell pepper
* 1 cup mayonnaise (i would reduce this to half if i made it again)
* 1 teaspoon ground cumin
* 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
* 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
* 1 egg , lightly beaten
* 4 cups saltine or water cracker crumbs (i used mesa sunrise cereal crumbs)
* 1/2 cup flour
* 1/2 cup steel cut oats

Directions:

In a bowl, combine all ingredients until the crumbs. put 2 cups of crumbs in with this mix. Form mixture into patties.

In a large saute pan, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium-high flame. Coat each patty with remaining crumbs mixed with flour and oats and cook until golden brown on each side, about 3-4 minutes per side. Add more olive oil as needed.

Serve crab cakes immediately with sour cream

"somewhere along the line i slowly lost my mind"

yum!!! this morning i made this bread and just devoured one of the ends, toasted, with a bit of margarine (oh how i miss being able to afford earth balance). in the february 2010 issue of martha stewart living there was a recipe for basic white bread that was SO easy and the cinnamon raisin seemed like a welcome addition to this week's eating. i'm thinking about making grilled sandwiches with it for lunch tomorrow. the recipe makes two loaves: the one above is the one with less sugar and the one in the freezer is the super sweet one. i was surprised how easy it was to actually make this bread and will be messing around with it as per the recipe (there's a rye and multigrain version too!). maybe will do one with nuts and seeds, etc.

i just got home from meeting our doulas and it was so good! not only are they the sweetest, smartest, and most warm and comfortable women i've met in a while, they were funny, open, and easy to talk to. yay! we have to set up a meeting for a month from now just to go over the final birth "plan" etc., but just meeting them has made me SO EXCITED to deliver this baby. wahoooo!!! and, to boot, they're willing to work for partial trade and it sounds like i have a kid's batman sweater to make soon!

tomorrow at midnight is the last of my to do list and i still have 5 things on it but am pretty confident that i'll get 4 of them done (everything minus the hanami shawl). i'll just be busy busy busy busy busy. but the sense of accomplishment will be great! (and then i can spend the rest of the week painting, working on the project we're doing on jade's sailboat, and that hanami shawl). xo

mmm muffin!

This morning I got up to give Stewart a ride to work and came home to decidedly make muffins rather than go back to bed. I poured myself a big glass of the lady grey ice tea, preheated the oven, and got to work putting together this recipe with things we have lying around the house. When I put things together without really following a recipe (esp. baking) I'm always wary of it turning out like crap (like the time I forgot oil and the papers wouldn't come off the muffins). These muffins, though, aren't vegan (but you could easily sub with rice milk and faux egg), but they are delicious! OMG. I'm so happy I made more than a dozen of them. Enjoy!

Maple Apple Walnut Muffins
Preheat oven to 400F. When you put the muffins in the oven lower the temp to 375F.

Combine in a big bowl:
1 cup oats (I used oatmeal, but you could use oatmeal with rye flakes/barley flakes, whatevs!)
1/4 cup flax seeds
1 cup walnuts
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1 1/2 tsp nutmeg

In a smaller bowl combine:
1/2 cup oil (I used veg, but you could use olive or almond or something)
1 egg
2 cups liquid (I used 1/2 cup cream and 1 1/2 cups water because that's what we had. If we had soy I probably would have used that)
drizzle of maple syrup (or 1/4 cup, whichever you have in the fridge)
1 apple grated (I always use gala)

Pour liquids into bowl of dry ingredients and mix well (with a fork). Using a 1/4 cup measuring spoon pour into paper-lined muffin tins. I was able to make 17 muffins.

Bake for 20-25 minutes depending on your oven. Eat them hot out of the oven with peanut butter. But cool at least 7 of them for your week ahead and freeze them! xo

"holy moly, mi oh my, you're the apple of my eye"

Today I finally got to make Calzones! It was my plan last Saturday but the yeast was bad. Bah! I used this recipe for the dough, doubled it (5 cups white flour, 2 cups whole wheat), and let it rise for 40 minutes and as you can see it just exploded out of the bowl! So, that's what dough looks like when the yeast works?! YES! I'm definitely a yeasty-convert now. For the filling I managed to get my hands on some LOCAL pork hot pepperoni from Hilliers Sausage on my way back on Hwy 4. I sliced it up with crimini mushrooms and shallots. We had some marble cheese that I put small bits of inside. I used canned spaghetti sauce I scored at Safeway (it's so delicious, my new favourite canned anything) and ended up making only 7 calzones and a pizza roll. I think next time (there will be a next time!!) I'll make them 1/2 the size and do pineapple (I love pineapple in pizza) or spinach and ricotta.

On top of all this I also made a bizarre bean/lentil filling with spinach and chipotle for burritos (paired with brown rice). They're currently freezing and will probably get wrapped up in the morning and get ready to be eaten for lunch. I also made two quarts of iced lady grey tea and bought the stuff to make tzatziki tomorrow. YUM. My week is definitely going to be filled with yummy lunches and not at all with instant noodles (which now make me so sick, bleck).

Aside from today's insane cooking projects this week has also been busy. We finally got on the floor and I spent most of my week troubleshooting network issues and picture messaging problems for mobile users in the US. oi! The fun part was talking about the snowstorm that hit the east coast and wishing for snow. Here = cherry blossoms and green grass. It's weird. This is my first winter ever where I've experienced growth so early in the year. I don't know how to comprehend it, really. I've also been knitting socks, working on wrist warmers for Loki, and am almost done Stewart's vday giftie. LOVE the knitting. Love it.

Oh! And check out Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros. They rock my everything right now.

diandra's vegan brownies

So, I've been looking at my analytics page a bit for fun. And found that time and time again the thing that people search for when they search and get d-funk.blogspot.com is my vegan fudge brownies. they're an adaptation of the rebar recipe and can be found on the old endearing records site here. and below, with a few modern-day-diandra modifications. i haven't made these in forever since discovering the kinikinik gluten free chocolate cake mix (which i use bananas and soymilk with, so it's very much the same, just no gluten). loves!

Diandra's Vegan Fudge Brownies

1 1/2 cups unbleached flour (or 1 cup unbleached, 1/2 cup kamut)
1/2 cup cocoa
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups thick soy milk (like vitasoy original)
1/3 cup olive oil
1/2 cup walnuts, roasted and chopped
1/2 cup dairy-free chocolate chips

1. Pre-heat oven to 325F. Prepare a 9"X9" pan by greasing it.

2. Sift together the flour, cocoa, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, stir together the coffee, soy milk, and olive oil. Combine the wet and dry mixes and stir to mix well. Stir walnuts into the batter. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, sprinkle the top with dairy-free chocolate chips and bake for 25 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

3. Divide the pan into 12 squares and enjoy!

(Diandra came up with this recipe by adapting the brownie recipe in the Rebar Modern Foods Cookbook, p. 318.)