Silly Coincidences

Snickers and Doodles

hazellucia — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 22:18:51 +0000

I recently came across this recipe for snickerdoodles and I’ve been wanting to back them ever since. And today I did.

Now, I’ve never really been a fan of snickerdoodles, I didn’t even know what they were until this year, but these are by far the best (and easy and nutricious and least messy) cookies I’ve ever made. Very simple too. Cherry on top: they’re vegan. The dough isn’t all gooey and greasy, but soft and subtly sweet. I’m thinking about using the dough for chocolate chip cookies, or maybe try some chocolate snickerdoodles..

Apple Pies

hazellucia — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 23:45:42 +0000

There was a bit of leftover pate brisse from the blueberry hand pies. There was also a few very delicious apples. So this became of it:

The pastry tasted much flakier for some reason (1/2 of Vegan Yum Yum’s recipe made about ten tiny dumplings) and there was hardly any mess because I added chunks of apple coated in cinnamon & sugar. I definately liked these better than the blueberry hand pies.

In unrelated news, here’s a pretty picture I took of sweet corn.

Blueberries in Pies

hazellucia — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 20:50:31 +0000

Blueberries. Just the thought makes me giddy. They look like blue grapes but turn into the prettiest shade of toxic purple when heated. And they taste like nothing else that I swear they were only meant for gods. So it was a real treat when my mom bought me a package of fresh blueberries the other day. Then my mind started rushing o what to do with them. So I first went with the obvious, blueberry muffins. I tried a veganized version of the To Die For Blueberry Muffins, which certainly live up to their name even after proper vegan adjustments. But those were gone by the next day.

Then I wanted to try something different, no cakes or cookies. So I settled for hand pies.

Growing up I called them empanadas, but it’s basically the same concept of a portable, handheld, filled pastry. My grandma always made them semi-circle shaped though.

This was my first attempt at making pastry dough, so of course I was nervous that it would come out well. But the pate brisse was alarmingly simple, and was, dare I say, better than the pastry my grandma and mom make. The filling, however…

Exploded.

It was then that my mother came to me with all her wise words of wisdom, after they were done, of adding breadcrumbs to thicken, yaddah yaddah… I think it was also my mistake of not leaving enough space for the filling.

Nonetheless, they tasted great. A good first try.

Vacation

hazellucia — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 05:09:38 +0000

Some pictures. Too tired (still) to write much.

A very big marshmallow.

A phone as old as my grandparents.

What I saw as I left Morelia.

Third Time’s the Charm

hazellucia — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 00:05:30 +0000

My third attempt. Came out much more realistic. Still needs improvement.

Amigurumi Break

hazellucia — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:28:25 +0000

Taking a break from all the baking and fondant (because I ordered a bunch of new chocolate molds and I’ll be busy with that until the trip to Mexico I’m oh-so excited about), let’s take a look at what I’ve been knitting these past few weeks.

When I looked through my yarn stash, I found this weird fuzzy green yarn that I couldn’t do much with. I also found some ugly brown wool yarn that wasn’t exactly my favorite color. Put the two together and you get these little trees.

I absolutely adore this tiny turtle amigurumi pattern from Knitted Toy Box. Can’t get enough bitty turtles on my shelves!

F for Fondant, Flowers, and Fun

hazellucia — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 00:16:59 +0000

With that pound of fondant that I bought there was more than enough left over from the cupcakes. So, these bored hands decided to take a try at fondant roses before it was pushed to the back of the pantry to go rancid and hard.

The petals were a bit thick. It was tricky trying to keep them from wilting over and falling off. But for a the first flower, it’s pretty decent. I’ll just have to keep practicing.

My Time with Fondant

hazellucia — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 22:48:36 +0000

It was easier than I expected, but I took a rather simple approach at decorating this lovely batch of vegan strawberry cupcakes (that came out good for once).

I did the plain and the flowers while my sister went all out and made the stars. Before I topped the cupcakes off with the white playdough I filled the cupcakes with strawberry jam. Even my parents liked them. They didn’t even know they were vegan (but they don’t care, really).

Dolls and Faeries

hazellucia — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 09:09:07 +0000

I’m excited about the upcoming Blythe doll, Milky Way Sugar. Just look at those eye chips!

And, she resembles me a lot, clothing style and all.

The Hunter’s Moon by O.R. Melling

rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is the third book I’ve read this month where the guy gives up/loses his immortality to spend the remainder of his life as a normal, mortal human. With the love of his life, I might add.

Hunter’s Moon tried my patience and halfway through the book I hated it. Melling’s style of writing involves loads of Irish culture, language, mannerisms, etc. and many occurrences that don’t seem to have anything to do with each other (at first). The only thing that kept this book in my hands was the faeries. Because I’m a sucker for the faeries.

In the end, I liked it. It had death and rebirth hand in hand, and a new faerie king, whom I here appears in the next book. Another trilogy to get warpped into.

View all my reviews.

Three Milk Cake

hazellucia — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 21:26:31 +0000

This cake is so expensive here in the US, but it’s so frickin easy to make at home for less than half the price (no joke). A cake mix, evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, 1 cup of your normal milk. I topped it off with whipped cream and even my parents, who are from Mexico, liked it. Now my ever restless mind is thinking about using different flavored cake mixes and maybe soymilk in lieu of normal milk…