Beach Fail. Bonus pizza and doughnuts!

Hey friends. I'm gonna be slow blogging in the next few weeks, as my 'lil sis is still here and I kinda forget about these things when I have visitors. We're having so much fun! We tried to go to the beach this past saturday, but that was kind of a major fail. In fact, it was so bad, it was downright comical. Original plans were to venture to Long Beach, in Long Island, but after reading up on the temperature of the ocean (48F!!!), we decided to keep it cheap and just stay on Brooklyn sand. Off we trekked to Coney Island, with the sun shining on us, only to arrive to clouds galore and really really harsh winds and coldness. Brr! We brought a lovely picnic and everything, but it was pretty frustrating to try to eat a sammich with sand flying at your face. Gross! Coney Island sand! There were a bunch of crazies swimming in the water, but we only cautiously dipped our feet in and ran shrieking away (wusses, I know). We did manage to bury Jenna up to her neck, and it was pretty funny watching her try to wiggle out of the piles of sand we heaped on her. Our train ride there was longer than the time we stayed there, ha! All three of us had a layer of sand covering us when we left, and I'm still finding it around the apartment. Should have went to the park!




I made some Isa Pizza, from Vegan with a Vengeance, last week, topped with the cashew ricotto, pesto, tomato sauce, zucchini, and fire-roasted red peppers. Um, yum!! I love this pizza and it is worth all the time it takes to make all the different toppings.


The other night, my sis and I made DOUGHNUTS. Heavenly, I tell ya. I used this recipe, which I have used once before, with great results. We rolled them in a powdered sugar/cinnamon mix and I even piped in some raspberry jam in a few (we just used a regular heart-shaped cookie cutter for the filled ones). I stuck a chopstick in and moved it around a bit, to create a little space and just piped it on in. Easy-peasy! Total sugar-coma!




There has been lots of healthy smoothies and salads also, but pizza and doughnuts are way funner to photograph!

I have been tidying up my Etsy shop, unlisting older things that I don't feel fit well anymore, and working on adding new listings. I took a bunch of photos this weekend of art cards, so I'm mostly listing those in the next few days. I want to re-photograph some of my originals also, but that will most likely have to wait until next weekend (please sun, cooperate). A recent new addition to my shop are these blank notecards, from my Love and Peace series. I had them at Renegade and they did really well, and I finally got my butt in gear to put together a listing online for them. Yay!


More to come soon!

Yummy weekend

Happy long weekend! My lil sis arrived latelate friday night (stupid bus) and we have been walking all over the city this weekend. We enjoyed the car-less streets on Bedford ave. in Williamsburg yesterday afternoon and sat in the park to people-watch for awhile too. We went to dinner at Soy and Sake (my fave all-veggie sushi place) later in the evening and headed west in Manhattan to try and catch the Macy's firework display. We ended up with a pretty clear viewing spot, despite getting there kinda last minute and there being millions of people. It took forever to get out of there, after the fireworks, but it was a nice night out. Here's a pic of my sis and I (I'm on the left). Isn't she the cutest?? Dimples! :)




French Toast!! I used the recipe out of Vegan with a Vengeance, but put a coating of sugar/cinnamon on the outside because french toast without it is just not right! Soooo delicious.



Nik, my sister, and I went to Soy and Sake for dinner on the 4th of July and we stuffed ourselves. This was the rock shrimp tempura appetizer, which is my favorite at this restaurant. Mock shrimp with a really light tempura batter and a delicious sauce.

Grilled Bourbon Chicken appetizer with a sweet sauce. I love their fake chicken and it hits the spot everytime.

My entree was the Vegetable sushi platter, which had Kampyo / tofu skin / asparagus / oshinko / avocado & mix vegetable tempura rolls. The tempura rolls are my favorite! This is the 2nd time I have gotten this here. So good!


Ahh Monday. Back to work!

Da Gunks

Last weekend, some friends and I went hiking and camping up in The Gunks. So pretty! I can't believe I've never been there before. We spent all day saturday hiking around and to the Ice Caves. Sadly, there is no actual ice in the ice caves in June, but the hike was pretty beautiful in itself. Must go back next early spring to see the ice! We went into New Paltz for a little bit for dinner and then set up camp at one of those free camping sites, near the parks.









Water! Such a pretty change from the water I'm used to seeing around NYC. Haha.

Campfires are the best.


I laid around on a big rock/cliff overlooking a gorgeous lake alllll day sunday. So relaxing!



I got out of work early today and have the day off tomorrow for the 4th of July. My lil sis is coming tomorrow night! She's taking some classes at FIT this coming month, so we'll get to do all sorts of fun things together. Hooray!

Happy belated Canada day to my Canadian friends! Happy 4th and lonnnnng fun weekends!

Salad, salad, salad, BLONDIES

I feel like I only eat three things in the summertime: salad, fruit, and ice cream. At least I manage to cover almost all my food groups with this diet, but yeah, it's all about the simple things in the summertime. I get so many greens in my CSA that I have to get a little creative with my salads, or it will quickly get old. Here are three salads from this week.

Marinated (one lemon + shoyu + garlic scapes + pepper + thyme) and grilled tofu topping a pretty awesome salad that is plentiful with the fruits and veggies and nuts and seeds and arugula. Used the marinade as a dressing. Strawberries on a salad is THE BEST. Strawberries paired with cashews is even better! I really like how the fruit mixes with the dressing and gives it some sweetness.

extreeeeeeeme closeup! *cue Wayne's World tune*


Tonight was a taco salad-like concoction. Black beans as my protein paired with some guac and veggies and spinach and some veganaise mixed with some fire-roasted salsa and some cayenne pepper for a kick. Yoww! My fave dressing is usually a creamy one, and salsa is great mixed with the veganaise.


Steamed and then sauteed tempeh (in a simply olive oil/salt/pepper) was quite lovely topping this salad! My staple olive oil + apple cider vinegar + sea salt + thyme +pepper dressing and some strawberries to sweeten it up!


I had a sweet attack the other night and also needed to use up some strawberries that were too ripe YESTERDAY, so I made some blondies! I used the VWAV recipe, but used applesauce instead of yogurt and made a strawberry compote to replace the raspberry preserves. DELISH. I put them in the fridge, since my baked goods always start to go bad too soon if I leave them out on the counter in this humidity, but they were realllllly good today all cold and firm. My sweet tooth loves me today.

Vote for me!

Super-fun! Would you please vote for me in the latest Etsy color poll? I would appreciate it!

Vote here (have to log in): http://www.etsy.com/voter_list.php?ref=voter&room_id=57

Thank youuuu!
xo

Holy moley garlic and the best ice cream ever!

Two more testers for Jae Steele's new book, Garlic Scape Pesto and Pesto Potato Salad (using the garlic scape pesto). Guys, this book is gonna be soooo good!


Some leftover breading from the fried green tomatoes, used on some yellow zucchini. One of my faaaaavorite summertime veggies.


I had a desperate sweet tooth tonight, so I made some quick ice cream, that turned out AMAZINGLY well. I used that new stuff, the So Delicious coconut milk, unsweetened and I just put it in a bowl (ohh, about 1.5-2cups? I was eyeballing everything, desperate I say!), added about a tablespoon of corn starch, 1 tsp of vanilla extract, 1 tsp chocolate extract, and sugar to taste (I don't put too much in; a couple small handfuls, precise I know!) Whisk until corn starch and sugar is dissolved and add to ice cream machine. Let the magic begin! I added some shredded coconut in the last five minutes and ohhh was it perfect.



I'm super-excited about this weekend. Going camping with a few friends up to The Gunks. We're going to venture into the Ice Caves and do some hiking. I hope the weather cooperates!

I'm working on a few different paintings right now and one, much larger, project that has multiple parts that won't be revealed for awhile. I've added a few of those mini paintings I posted about awhile ago and my whale painting to my shop this week.

Happy weekend everyone! I feel like summer has finally started!

Recipe testing!

Hello! I recently became a tester for Jae Steele's followup to Get it Ripe and went kinda bananas this weekend making stuff. So fun and yummy!

First thing I made was the Strawberry-Rhubarb Muffins, since hello abundance of both of these key items in my CSA this week. She recently posted the recipe for these on her blog, so you can enjoy the yumminess as well. This was my first time baking with spelt flour and it produced some pretty yummy results! I had these this morning for breakfast, paired with a green smoothie packed with awesomeness (no pic, it was in my tummy too soon!).




These are more testers: Tempeh "Soysauge" Patties, Fried Green Tomatoes, and Citrusy roasted Asparagus. Best dinner! I felt all happy afterwards.





...And some homemade strawberry ice cream for dessert...YUM! Recipe from here and I used that newish So Delicious Coconut Milk-unsweetened as the non-dairy milk. Worked really well!

Ernesto Neto at the Park Avenue Armory

This past Saturday, Nik and I ventured out into the rain (paired with being SUPER-exhausted from a long day at his bro's wedding the previous day) to go see the "Anthropodino" exhibit, by Ernesto Neto. This was a commissioned installation for the Drill Hall inside the Armory. Super-cool place! Walking into the hall, the installation was pretty overwhelming and awesome in every way. It was also a kid-haven, as there were lots of interactive portions, like a ball-pit, squishy things to jump on, and lots of holes to peek in/out of. Also, those big drippy things hanging down were filled with yummy smelling spices, like cloves, nutmeg, and cayenne. Made for a happy atmosphere! It was semi-mindblowing thinking about how Neto even conceived of this, let alone implemented it. Crazy!