Fabulous Fall

It is definitely fall here in Savannah....and it sucks!  Did I mention I don't like the cold?  I'm sure you're all sick of my complaining by now, but no one ever seems to appreciate just how much it hurts!  That 40 degrees feels like the inside of a butcher's freezer and every time the thermometer drops below that comfortable 80 degree line I wonder where I can move that would fulfill my need for constant sunshine and flip-flop weather.  I never thought I would be a "Southerner," but now I'm beginning to wonder how anyone can live up there in the cold North.  You people are crazy! (And you know who you are!). 

But complaining aside, the fall is my favorite season and has so many wonderful things to offer.  The South just doesn't cut it when it comes to leaf color and apple varieties.  But we are doing our best to make the most of the cooler weather down here, which means faster runs and lots of baking. 

One of our more recent meals was courtesy of my co-worker's garden and Jason's master culinary skills.  He has been learning the art of vegan cooking, and I'm pretty sure has already surpassed me tenfold.  Check out these stuffed peppers he came up with the other night.  

His original plan was to make black bean burgers to put on the grill, but with my refusal to eat hamburger buns, he decided he might as well just stuff the burger mix in a pepper.  Ingenious!  They were fantastic!  I can't take credit for this recipe.  It was all his idea.  But I do know the foundation of the mix was a combination of black beans, tofu and rice.  And there was definitely some garlic in there...but the rest would all be speculation.  Whatever they were, they were good! 

So while he's toiling away in the kitchen, I've been trying to exercise my creativity in the craft arena.  Have you ever seen a Sweet Gum Tree?  I don't remember ever seeing them up North, which is why I have this apparently unnatural obsession with the star-like balls that they produce and drop all over the ground.  I think they're fabulous, but most people around here think they are Satan's droppings.  I will admit, I am not a huge fan when I step on the spiky devils with barefeet, but they are just so pretty.  I've been trying to figure out someway to use them that would highlight they're unique natural beauty, and finally it hit me!....a wreathe!

It was a little rough on the fingers, but the end result was pleasing.  I'm debating whether or not to coat it with a light layer of frosty white paint.  Any thoughts? 

I'm entering an art contest (not with the wreathe!).  I just finished a puppy portrait of Reilly out of fabric.  I don't have any photos of the finished project, and it's currently hanging in my shop at the cemetery.  I did, however, take one last Sunday morning when Reilly decided to try and help...ok, so she was really just serving to keep me warm, but that was a HUGE help!  And anyway, this contest is for employees of the City only, so how many artists can there really be among the throng of landscapers, sanitary workers and grave crews??

So while the temperatures drop outside, at least I have some ways to be productive indoors.  Now if only I could find a nice comfortable desk job that would allow me to enjoy my coffee in the warmth of a computer glow and not hovering next to the 80 year old furnace in my glorified outdoor garage. 

One last thing...check out the squash! 

I might not have been blessed with a green thumb, but that doesn't mean I can't benefit from the talents of others.  And we might actually get some sizeable fall vegetables from this patch...if only Reilly would stop picking them prematurely.  I'm not sure why she does it (and no decibel of yelling is going to stop her from doing it either), but she has decided these little round gourds make a great chew toy.  I guess what they say is true, negative or not, this dog is an attention seeker. 

 

Pizza!

Where do the hours go on Saturday!?  I swear there just aren't enough hours in the day.  This is the first time I've sat down all day, and yet I have barely scratched the surface of my to do list.  However, I promised a post on pizza and I fully intend on crossing that one off the list before I lose steam today.

I have never disliked any of our results in this pizza dough experiment.  That does come with a bit of a disclaimer, though.  With all the trouble I have deciding what to eat and my challenges at the grocery store, I will eat almost anything if it fits the vegan bill and doesn't stink.  So you have to take my taste opinions with a grain of salt, because I would gladly eat a piece of cardboard smothered in tomato sauce and probably be quite content.  That having been said, this last recipe was not bad.  I wouldn't say it was our best, and it is certainly not perfect yet (but then where would the fun be if we already struck gold!?).

Our biggest challenge seems to be in the yeast department.  Our doughs never rise and tend to be really dense.  A lot of that stems from the gluten free flours we're using, or it could be the brewer's yeast we're attempting to use for baking...It brings a whole new meaning to "beer bread."  Nevertheless, the flavor was really good, and the texture was the only thing holding it back. 

The toppings, though, were phenomenal!  Our best ever!  Artichoke hearts, shittake mushrooms, zucchini and soy mozzarella; all items we just happened to have laying around. 

If you'd care to try it yourself, here you go:
combine and let sit:
1 1/2 cup wine/yeast mixture (date wine)
3 Tbs brown sugar
Mix together:
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup garbanzo bean flour
3 tsp baking powder
2 tsp xanthum gum
1 1/2 cup millet flour
1 1/2 cup soy flour
1 Tbs salt
1 Tbs rosemary
1 diced jalapeno
(can you tell we were just trying to use up the flour we had in the pantry?)
Knead everything together, spread out on a pizza stone and cook at 400 degrees until the crust browns. 

And while we ate...the dogs slept.  I don't blame them.  It was after 9:00pm by the time the pizza came out of the oven.  These experiments take longer than you might think.

Ok, back to that to do list, and Saturday night!

Boss's Day

If you haven't noticed it already, scroll to the top of the page and check out my awesome papillion logo.  The image was created especially for this blog by the wonderful and talented Kirstin Johnson who responded to my request minutes after I sent it.  Within a single evening of back and forth texting she came up with this design and it was sitting in my inbox before I had even finished my first post.  Talk about customer service!  I guess it helps to have years of history with the artist.  If you are ever in need of graphic design help, she comes highly recommended.  See for yourself! kirstinjohnson.weebly.com/resume.html

Sunday is National Boss's Day, which is very unfortunate if you work a typical Monday through Friday job.  But I'll make sure my supervisors are appropriately recognized, because if nothing else, it gives me a great excuse to play in the kitchen.  I decided to make these "Little bosses" sugar cookies (no, they're not vegan).  I have been craving candy corn all day, so I came up with the idea simply to give me an excuse to purchase the sugary devils.  Sadly (believe me, very, VERY sadly) the only brand I could find contained egg whites, so my craving goes unquenched, but I the bow ties turned out pretty cute.     

Sorry for the short post, but the pizza just came out of the oven and that smell is driving me crazy!  You know what that means...first pizza entry tomorrow! 

Church Heiku

You've all been to the South at some point, right? I know most of you have come to visit me at least once since I moved down to Savannah.  So, I have to assume you are all familiar with the church sign boards; those grammatically erroneous attempts to encourage members and lure in people off the street with enticing messages of hope and sometimes the unabashed fear of God.  "Church heiku" is how my father refers to them.  I passed this one during our long run this past Saturday, "Friends are God's apology for relatives."  Actually, it was spelled "relativies," because these signs just aren't complete unless they fail the English language at least once.  The message seemed a little inappropriate for a church to announce, especially because they're supposed to be supporting the church "family,"...or maybe those are the "relativies" to which they are referring.  It certainly doesn't want to make me attend.  But that's all that I am going to say on that issue in case any of my "relativies" are actually reading this blog.  I would love to hear your thoughts, though.

I guess I should probably live up to the title of this blog and actually feature something vegan.  I don't have much time to play in the kitchen during the week, but I did make these no-bake energy balls last night.  Not a very appetizing name, I should probably come up with something more mouth-watering...how do Sweet Power Bites sound?  I didn't really measure, so the following recipe is rough at best.  My food processor is one of those tiny apartment-size models so I just packed it with ingredients and called it good.

So load your processor with approximately:

1/2 cup rolled oats
5 - 6 dates
1/4 cup chickpeas
1 Tbs agave nectar
1 Tbs peanut butter
4 tsp vanilla

Pulse until all the ingredients are combined and voila!  You're done!  Spoon out little balls and they're ready to eat.  I put mine in the freezer to make them easier to handle, but the mixture was surprisingly not sticky.  I made mine quarter size for a bite-size energy boost, but you could probably make them larger for more of a protein bar effect. 

One more thing and I promise I will sign off for the day...

We have puppies in the cemetery!  A stray has made her nest in the hollow of one of the old trees marked for removal.  She's hidden her litter of 8 inside the stump.  It's actually quite roomy in there!  (I crawled in to play with the pups while she was out scavaging for food this morning).  They're so cute and a lot chubbier than I would have expected from a stary family.  Georgia mutts for sure, but they look like they are some sort of a retriever, chow, rottweiler mix. 

Better Late Than Never

I realize it has taken me far too long to accept the 21st century, but I figure better late than never, right?  I don't know what hit me, but all of a sudden I was overtaken by an urge to join the vast blogging community.  Literally, it became an obsession almost overnight.  One day we're installing wireless and the next it's taking over my life.  The first thing I did when I woke up this morning was check my email.  All day long at work I stressed over blog names and internet searches to perform when I returned home.  (Most of you reading this were probably involved in the process and my incessant texts requesting name assistance).  I am making up for almost two years without internet access outside of the coffee shops, I'm sure I'll get over it soon...maybe. 

I'm not sure I'll be very good at this blogging stuff and honestly I don't expect too many people to even read this, but I am excited about the challenge.  More than anything, I'm hoping this will be a good way to keep up with my friends (Ladies...you know who you are)!  You all know I'm much more likely to write than pick up a phone, so I am hopeful this will give you better insight into my day-to-day life.  And I would love for this to turn into a sort of forum to stay connected...so please, please, PLEASE comment and let's get some verbal sparring in where possible.   

And if you're curious about the name...several suggestions were thrown around and votes were cast, but Vegan Papillion won by a landslide.  I added the your because I want all of you to know I really am writing this for your benefit and hope you will take some possession of this blog as well.  The vegan part was important to me because I do intend to use this blog to experiment with some recipes and keep tabs on some of my quests.  Recently, we've been on a mission to find the perfect gluten-free vegan pizza dough.  We've had some successful, and some not to so successful, results.  And based on the endless links to various off-the-cuff pizza recipes, I know we are not the only ones devoting hundreds of weekend hours in the kitchen to this mission.  So you definitely can expect some accounts of funky cooking experiments and some not-so-artistically photographed results.  Lastly, the papillion signifies my social dreams for this page (get it? social butterfly?) and the word itself has special meaning to me. 

So there you have it...for now.  I don't want to be too wordy in my first post (I'd hate to lose you already!).   If you have any suggestions or comments, the floor is yours!  I will post some photos soon and [hopefully] figure out how to make this thing more attractive. 

Can't wait to get connected!