Gothic Granola

VNV Nation is the official dishwashing music of Gothic Granola.   There's nothing particular about Ronan Harris and Mark Jackson's synthpop that makes me want to wash dishes; their music has a way of keeping up my momentum. I don't have any issues with dishwashing motivation, but I like music while I work.

  This town has become progressively buried under snow. Despite it being Colorado, high elevation, blah blah blah, northwestern New Jersey still has more snow and colder temperatures. "I like winter/ I like snow/ I like icy winds that blow." NAME THAT CHILDREN'S BOOK!*

Whatever genius came up with this "cooking hack," it's now common knowledge. No less than four blogs (and many more than that) list the same darn recipe, and so, four sources = common knowledge = no need to cite. CAULIFLOWER CARNAGE!! 

Like last post , this post also contains two variations on the same recipe. My grandparents helped TC and me get a nice waffle iron, "one that flips," as TC specified. Previous waffle recipes I have made did not turn out well. There were mitigating factors: too much liquid, not enough liquid, the dynamics of small pans, the problems of converting traditional recipes to vegan and gluten-free. Also, the iron I had until I moved West was drenched with a peculiar sadness; it was never truly "mine." Nevertheless, waffles, with all their nooks and crannies, hold memories. Ownie Mom made chocolate waffles on various occasions and gave us a bag of "chocolate waffle mix" for when my cousins and I went to the OBX with our grandparents. I remember my grandmother soldiering through making vegan waffles for me when I became vegan (the recipe isn't even listed here, it was that terrible and goopy of a recipe I pulled from some website).  My grandparents also introdu...

Cornbread, cornbread, always will be mine... Yeah, that was an attempt to play on And One's " Military Fashion Show ." "Girlfriend's girlfriends never could be mine," girlfriend = GF, GF also = gluten-free, get it? I made so much cornbread (like, a batch a week) when I first became gluten-free in 2011. My recipe then was heavily fruit-based , though I've made other variations since, including applesauce-really-fast , basil-beer , and blueberry . 

When my parents gave me a Vitamix blender for a graduation present, my mom and I soon realised, as I was reading the accompanying cookbook aloud one afternoon, that there was a Vitamix "lifestyle." Much like California cuisine , which highlights fresh ingredients and often merges cultural cooking styles, the Vitamix cookbook emphasized using the freshest ingredients possible and provided options for healthy, vegan, raw, and haute cuisine dishes. Several creamy sauces, including a creamy tomato and alfredo sauces, incorporate tofu instead of heavy cream. While the cookbook includes a homemade mayonnaise recipe (eggs and oil at 2 horsepower blending--woo hoo!), there was not a vegan mayonnaise option, to my surprise. I forgot to buy "nayo" at Sprouts on Saturday when I was buying provisions for our Saturday night barbecue.  

I'm not a fan of baking with protein powder, for the record. The " Shakeology Cookies " I made this time last year tasted odd and sharply fake-sweet. The stevia and other low-calorie sweeteners in most protein powders just don't set well with me either raw (by themselves) or baked. These brownies are good, in theory, when you're looking for a substantial but sweet snack, and the texture became almost cheesecake-like. I haven't been impressed with the vanilla blended Sun Warrior protein powder, and it's still pretty gross in brownie form, too. So use whatever protein powder, preferably chocolate, that you already like. Since I used vanilla powder, the brownies were not as chocolate-coloured as they could be.