Happy Halloween!

I was so excited for my first time handing out candy to trick or treaters (we've always been in apartment buildings before). We got about 50 kids, which is great for our little neighbourhood. I had fun carving pumpkins too. Not pictured, I also did a vampire pumpkin.


I roasted the pumpkin seeds with salt...mmmmmm.


We put Dill upstairs and blocked the stairs with a baby gate so that she wouldn't be barking and scaring the little ones that came. For some reason she is afraid of the baby gate, and wouldn't go near it. This picture shows the closest she would get to it to look at me down the stairs, hahaha.

Birthday...

Our beautiful puppy turned 2 today :) Apparently, they're puppies until 2, so maybe we will see some more mellow behaviour now...or not.
On a whim (and I am prepared to accept jabs about how we did this for a dog), we bought a dog "birthday cake" at PetSmart. It's totally vegan and we thought it would be cute. Also, we didn't give her the whole thing!




You know its good when it gets carried over to the dog bed...


In knitting news, here's a picture of the finished bolero. I haven't washed it yet, so I'm hoping it will block a bit and that the ribbing will settle down a bit more nicely. Other than that, I'm quite pleased with the results, although it did stretch out a lot from being worn one day (it is cotton after all).


I've also completed a different project and begun a new one, but these shall remain top secret as they are Christmas gifts :)

Craft Night!

I had a few of my favourite girls in the world over last Friday for a Halloween craft night. There were some challenges (although I picked the simplest crafts from Martha Stewarts website....we decided she has robots to make them for her), but we ended up with a few cute things.

Halloween candles...




Paper Hangups...



And food!

Caroline's vegan chocolate pie (delicious)

the Perfect Sunday

To me, there's lots of different "perfect days" out there. But Sunday is special. That's me time. I was awoken this morning to the smell of cinnamon rolls, because Billy was holding up a cup of "cinnamon pastry" coffee to my nose, along with a plate of cinnamon toast. Mmmmm. Then we caught up on some DVR'ed shows and brought the dog for a walk in the park, while taking in all the beautiful fall colours.

The rest of the day will be spent alternating between knitting and cooking/baking to fill the house with pleasant smells. And who knows, I may even throw a puzzle in the mix.

Here's what I've made so far:

Pumpkin Cake- Sinfully Vegan


This is a lovely spiced cake. On its own its satisfying but nothing spectacular. Topped with the whipped pumpkin topping however, puts it over the edge. The sweetener in this recipe is maple syrup (lots of it). It also has applesauce, whole wheat flour and flax powder in it, so its pretty healthy for a dessert :)

Chicken Soup- Skinny Bitch in the Kitch

Yummy! Apparently this is Billy's NEW favourite chicken soup. It has PC's meatless chicken chunks, veggies, and rice. I subbed the rice for pasta. It's a tad salty for my taste, so I will cut that down next time, but other than that, it's delicious!

Spicy Pumpkin Soup-Quick and Easy Vegan Comfort Foods

There is a lot of pureed pumpkin floating around our household due to Thanksgiving and the season. I'm trying to find different ways to use it (this week was pumpkin chocolate chip muffins). This soup is very spicy, but kind of bland. It only has pumpkin, milk, veggie broth, maple syrup and dried chili flakes in it. Maybe I'll like it more with crackers. However, I also find it hard when an ingredient transitions from "dessert" to "dinner". I think its also why I don't like coconut milk in savoury dishes.

Knitting Update:
I finally finished my brown cotton lacey bolero that I've been working on since June (I frequently hibernated this project when I got to a tough step :P). I just need to sew up the arm seams and weave in loose ends, then I will show it off here :)

Happy Sunday!

Nooooooooooooooooo!

My first time ever hosting Thanksgiving and I forget my &%!$ camera in my classroom! Bah! So we will have to settle with a list of all the food I'm making :(

-chocolate truffles (The Vegan Table): so yummy and simple!
-spinach dip (125 Best Vegan Recipes): always a winner. Note: this recipe is best made with Vegenaise (there are no other comparisons)
-tofu roast (homemade tofurkey, La Dolce Vegan)
-mashed potatoes (mine will have horseradish in them)
-mushroom gravy
-pumpkin cheesecake (Sinfully Vegan)
-green beans in garlic butter sauce (Vegan Table)
-holiday cranberry sauce (Veganomicon)
-stuffing (boxed)
-pumpkin and apple pie

Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Canadians...may it be delicious and cruelty free ;)

Whoops

Two months since I posted...yikes. Buying the house, fixing it up and moving in was a huge drain, not to mention kicking off a new school year! I've been cooking a bit but not bothering to take pictures. Til now!

I'm also hosting Thanksgiving next weekend, so there will lots of pictures from that.

Cupcakes!
Just basic chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting and various sprinkles. These were made for a BBQ night that we had at our place in August to celebrate the end of the mixed league baseball season.


Cheezy cream of broccoli soup- Skinny Bitch in the Kitch

As the weather gets colder, I turn to soups to comfort me. This is a very yummy soup with daiya cheese in it. I was expecting a more orange soup but the daiya doesn't melt all the way into the soup. It's nice and thick though. Skinny Bitch gets a bad rap for having lots of "junky" recipes that use lots of vegan cheese and meats. But every once in a while I get a craving for those kinds of foods, so I like it!




Attention readers: any recommendations for great crowd-pleasing vegan Thanksgiving recipes?