Gourmet dinner, my treat

my mom was working today, so my dad had the good idea to cook dinner for my mom, but somehow this turned into me cooking dinner. it was a lot of hard work.



this recipe was VERY poorly written so i don't really recommend using it. and i don't recommend grilling artichoke, it became inedible and i had to throw it out.

-jmg

todays adventures in domesticity (includes two recipes)

the gals came over today for some homemaking fun!
first we whipped up some Mediterranean-style mac 'n cheese

(sorry its blurry, but it was delicious i promise)

then we made gingerbread cupcakes (with cinnamon homemade royal icing/frosting because i don't really know what vegetable shortening is) (and not vegan because i ran out of vegan stuff but the recipe is animal-free!)

cupcakes pre-frosting

cupcakes post-frosting

the gals (lei, karla, and stephanie)

we also punked out some clothes with studs, but those are for another post once i get some pics of the clothes.

-Jasmine

cranberry oatmeal cookies: another great vegan recipe

this has to be one of my favourite recipes from the internet (thanks for sharing this one Holly!).
it makes fantastic oatmeal cookies.... srsly the best i've ever eaten or made and, believe me, i've made some mean oatmeal cookies. I followed the recipe exactly except i threw in a bunch of dried cranberries and i shortened the bake time to about 10-11 minutes, but you'll know when they're done because they turn a bit brown on the top and bottom.

here's the recipe: Best Oat Cookies that Ever Existed
vegweb is a GREAT vegan recipe resource. use it and love it.

and, of course, here are some pics(getting supplies, check out my pants from the last post!)

(kristy being my wonderful assistant)

in conclusion, these are worth your while.

-jmg

sailor pants to awesome pants

i swear i've been sewing a lot more lately, but it feels like most of it is changing buttons and hemming pants (boring stuff!) so i'm going to pretend thats why i haven't been posting but today i share the fruits of my labor: sailor pants turned to tight ankle pants!

of course i don't have any before pics... just picture high waisted, wide legged, really long pants. they were cute but i hate pants enough as it is, i don't need them to be long and wide.
here is what they look like now:
and, of course, they are cute rolled up with heels:
(hat is from charlotte, and heels are TUK)

-jmg

Dreams do come true: a recipe

you may or may not know this about me but breakfast is by far my favourite meal of the day. i try to have at least 3 breakfasts by noon. my brothers share my love for breakfast and breakfast foods so when we get hungry at around 10pm, breakfast foods are what we reach for in the kitchen.
pancakes are our fav, but as much as we love pancakes, our current pancake mix is awful, bland, and dumb so our options were to make some from scratch (not likely) or make our pancake mix better. i decided to mix it with instant oatmeal to make a supreme breakfast food. the result was amazing. here's the recipe:

1/2 cup pancake mix (its okay if it sux)
1 packet instant oatmeal (we just used the flavored quaker ones)

(action shot)

on a side note, the pancake mix is a 'just add water' mix but these pancakes weren't as good cooked with water.

-jmg

Septum

Here you kinda see it. Finally have one.

vegan peanut butter choc chip cookies

by popular demand, here is my vegan version of the last recipe.

ingredients:
1/2 cup applesauce (i use unsweetened)
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter (i use the natural one again)
1/2 cup margarine
1 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3 tbsp soymilk
1 tbsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup soy flour
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 baking soda
optional vegan chocolate chips

preheat oven to 350 degrees

1. combine peanut butter, margarine, brown sugar, soymilk, vanilla, and applesauce in a large bowl and blend well.
2. combine flours, salt, and baking soda in another bowl. add to creamed mixture slowly until blended. mix in chocolate chips.
3. lightly flour baking pans. form dough into small balls (~1.5 inches) place on floured pan and flatten a little with fingers/fork. bake for 5 minutes.

makes about 3 dozen cookies

-jmg