Twenty years old.



How strange.

Memorial to my Great Grandfather.

I did this print in the last part of this past spring semester and just recently was able to document it. I hung it in a class show at Astrix Gallery in Milwaukee in May, 2011, two months after my Great Grandfather passed.






Few words, many emotions.

Enjoy.

I have the sweetest plant.

Seriously, such a trooper. I ignorantly underestimated you, lone green bean seed.

Meatless Manicotti, amongst other things.

I adapted this recipe from my mother's Meatless Manicotti that we used to eat growing up. Her version includes cheddar and cottage cheese with sloppy joe seasoning mix and tomato paste. I made tofu ricotta in place of the cheese and good ol' veggie marinara for the sauce.

Manicotti:
1 package manicotti shells
3 cups diced zucchini
Tofu ricotta
1 jar of your favorite marinara sauce


Parboil manicotti shells for 6 minutes at a rolling boil. When done, shells will be slightly hard and hold their shape. Make sure shells are not touching while they cool. (Using the plastic trays they come in works as a perfect holder until you are ready to stuff them.)


Tofu Ricotta (basically double of Isa Chandra Moskowitz's recipe):
2 blocks extra firm tofu, crumbled
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp. salt
Black pepper to taste
Handful of fresh basil, chopped finely
4 tsp. olive oil
1/2 cup nutritional yeast

Mash all ingredients together with a fork (or your hands if you want to get messy).


Mix together the zucchini with the tofu ricotta. Use a spoon to stuff each shell with the mixture and place them in a single layer in a baking dish. Pour marinara sauce over the stuffed shells.

(This would be great with Pine Nut Cream on top. That recipe can be found in Isa's Veganomicon, however I did not make it with it this time. Pee ess, sorry I didn't take a picture. I completely forgot.)

Bake covered at 375°F for 30 minutes, uncover and bake for another 10 minutes.


...


I just sent my 'thank you / goodbye' letter to my teachers. My stomach sank right after I finished it. I am REALLY sad. But excited. Hopefully this give and take thing works out for the best.. I think it will.

I am also *this* close to renting my apartment. Thank you, craigslist. (PLEASE SOMEBODY TAKE MY LEASE.) I am looking forward to catching my breath. But this house is really becoming more of a home lately, however obvious it is in its ephemerality.

I hung up this clothes line yesterday. So freaking cute. And it's outside of my house.





Peace out, faithful readers.

Vegan Zucchini Bread.

At the coffee shop this morning I saw they had zucchini bread slices with the bakery. I realized that's what I have been missing! I totally forgot about putting zukes in bread, it's mostly just been stir fries all summer. Silly me. So now I have two loaves cooling on my kitchen counter. One for the house and one as a friend's housewarming treat.



Ingredients:

- 2 cups grated zucchini
- Egg replacer, equivalent 3 eggs
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 3 cups flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 Tbsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tsp nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease 2 bread pans - which I totally forgot, but they slipped out fine... Stir together the zucchini, egg replacer, oil, sugar and vanilla. Add remaining dry ingredients and stir well.

Pour batter into pans and bake for 50-60 minutes.


On a side note, I freaked out for a minute because I don't have a grater to grate the zucchini. And then I thought, "I wonder if I could just run it through the food processor." And THEN I remembered that my food processor is SO AWESOME that it has a shredding blade! Oh, Hamilton Beach, you treat me well.


It's good. You should make this.

Hello, watercolor.

Baby painting.

I apologize for the awful terrible picture quality. I have no scanner or real camera at the moment, and this is way cooler in real life.

The past few days have been an overload on me entirely - drawing self portraits, trying to figure out my crazy living situation that keeps changing, showing my house, doing weird things, figuring out my relationships with people, writing to my teachers about leaving MIAD, thinking aaaand thinking about everything, etc etc. I cannot focus at the moment. I have been up since 8 am and all I have consumed is a mug of coffee and a glass of water. Plus I am anticipating that my life will continue to be insane throughout the next 5 years, and I'm not sure how I am going to handle myself.. Cross yo' fingers for me.

Growin' stuff.

Today I picked my first ripe tomato! I have so many more green ones that are on their way, and take a look at those zukes. I accidentally let that one grow a little too long. Oops! It's like the size of a child...





My dad and brother came up for the Milwaukee Air Show yesterday, which was totally awesome, by the way! It was my brother's birthday yesterday, so happy birthday again, brother. Dad brought me awesome veggies and peppers from their garden! Yum. I think I'm having a cookout this evening, so I'm definitely putting those in some bellies. And I just got an idea for tofu ricotta stuffed jalepenos. I think I'll try that.



I just poured my most recent batch of kombucha into its jar - thus the fuzziness. If you don't know what kombucha tea is, you should read up on it and get into it! Super delicious, naturally carbonated, really good for you tea. Instead of buying it for like $3 per serving at the store, you get a culture and make it yourself!

PS, my culture is in need of trimming. If you want to make your own, hit me up and I'll give you part of mine. The mushroom keeps growing, so you can share.


In other news, I am officially done with school until 2012. My last day to turn in all my summer school stuff was Friday, so I'm a free bird except for working my two jobs. My plan is this: make art, make food, and do stuff. We'll see how the other stuff works out. (Still in search of someone to sublet my room, moving is up in the air, etc.) Oh, and I'm turning 20 in 22 days. Don't know if I'm ready for that number.

Carrots, Cows, and THRICE CREAM!!!!

So, uh. My carrot harvest was pretty pitiful, but rather cute aaaaand delicious. If you have any carrot growing tips, please do share!


This is Espresso Oreo Soy ice cream from Babe's Ice Cream in Bayview. Whoever came up with this flavor is a total genius. If I remember correctly, I have not had an ice cream cone in four years - the length that I have been vegan. I got a double (aka a lot of thrice cream), which made me feel full but not sick like dairy would have if I ate that much. o_o The experience was rather nostalgic to my childhood - the cone is getting a hair cut, come on... "Look, Ma. I need a hair cut. *CHOMP." Yeah. But it also made me think of cows and how glad I am to not eat them.

A couple days ago, I stopped at a gas station for a potty break during a trip back home from up north. There was a semi trailer full of live 'cargo.' My friends and I went over to see them. I'll tell you what. I love cows. I think they have the cutest noses and they are just so sweet. The cows in that trailer were so close together, standing in their own poo and pee, and being peed on by the cows on the levels above them. They were so dirty, but so beautiful. I was sad and happy at the same time, just in my transfixion and staring. I wondered how crazily uncomfortable it is for them to ride together in that trailer. I heard cows crying and moving and wanting out, and the ones we got close to obviously HATED us humans.

I walked back to the car with a mind full of anger and tears in my eyes, not only from witnessing the animals' present but also thinking about their past and future. What made me more angry on top of that was watching the morbidly, McDonald's greasy, disgustingly obese driver walk back to his beloved career.

No respect.