Maui baby! part 3

ok, this post is all due to Andrea. She got me to check out River's blog (which is even more cool than normal because this month is Halloweegan) and now here I am posting something. Andrea is tricky :).

Before I blab about Maui (a trip I took way back in the spring), I need to give a shout out to the bake sale I'm organizing.

Vegan Bake Sale
October 23rd & 24th
Sidecar in Seattle

I can attest from doing this bake sale 5 times before this that there is something for everybody. delicious! Here's how I recommend planning your trip to the bake sale: have a great breakfast / lunch at Wayward, then head across the street to the bake sale. Should I also mention that Sidecar has a bunch of new stuff?

If you'd like to bake, please email seattlebakesale [at] hotmail [dot isn't is annoying that spammers force me to chop up an email addy?] com

Now onto Maui... and believe me I could use me some Maui today. It's gloomy here.

For me these are the bfasts of fantasy - perfect fruit including maui mangoes, toasted bagels and most imporant, we ate them out on the balcony overlooking the water.

bfast view. the inlet that you see in this pic doesn't have the clearest water for snorkeling, though not murky water shark death either. The reason to snorkel here is that every day, there are at least 6 GIANT turtles. This tiny inlet is directly south (and adjacent) to Napili bay. Btw, if you go to Maui, check out Napili bay beach. It has a steep slope, so you can lay on the sand and the surf will shoot you up the beach and back down. it's really fun, but be prepared for a bathing suit filled w/ sand. Miso mayo on a bagel, hell yeah! the purple fruit is some strange HI thing that was pretty but didn't taste like much. cleanup duty by a very brazen vixen or dude. not sure which.bonus of banana bread from mana foods that I put in the toaster. it's hard not getting pb on your english muffin when Andy is working the toaster.
This wasn't bfast, just a random fruit snack
Joy's Place
I love going to Joy's place because you can get both raw and cooked food that tastes great after getting slammed around by the waves.

joy roll (fresh roll wrap around nori, sprouts, carrot, avocado, and more)
indo crunch wrap (my fave). I forget what the crunch part is, but it's all good.

hummus wrap

smoothies and a coffeechai drink

raw chocolate pudding & raw macaroons

The Scary Ride To The Airport

On our way home, the main road to the airport was closed due to a brush fire. Typically rental companies forbid their cars being driven on the road that is on the NW tip of the island, but the fire left them w/ no choice but to allow it. There is good reason because it's really narrow and winding. It is different than the road to hana because there road really doesn't fit 2 cars and there aren't many places to pull over. Luckily for us, we only met up w/ 1 car going the other direction.

not only narrow, but if you go off the edge, you're going for a death ride.

keeping some distance from the motorcycle (that passed us on this road) and freaky mini van driver dude that had a need for speed.

Whole Foods

After the "fun" narrow road, we ate lunch and bought food for the plane. They have a great food bar that has lots of vegan options. Even a station that had more than 1 made to order vegan sandwich.

Fresh rolls covered w/ a tasty sauce. you can see my brother's fingers patiently waiting as I take some pics.

Pizza w/ Daiya. I really got to snacking before I remembered to take a pic. Excellent whole wheat crust :)

Phew! That's my Maui trip. Next time I go to Maui, I'm staying in a hotel (vs. a condo) because Maui is vegan friendly enough that you don't need your own kitchen.

If I remember I will update this post w/ the 1 place that sells vegan choc covered macadamia nuts. personally I find them to be gross because the chocolate doesn't have a high enough cacao % for me. I prefer my macs roasted & salted. The store is either the KMart or Walmart in the airport town.

Faline aka Lady Cat hanging out in the cat cage. Please note the well kept grass. ha!

Kobie the sleep thief

rant rant rant...

Kobie typically sleeps on the stairs. He has more than one bed to sleep on, but for some reason, he prefers the stairs. Once in a great while, he decides he wants to sleep in the bedroom, but ususally not on the bed. This makes me happy because he is the biggest bed and pillow hog ever. He also lays down with his legs straight out and kicks if you invade "his" space.

He saves the best for the AM. Instead of jumping off the bed and barking to get one of us up, he moves around sighing and making a big to do for as long as it takes to get everybody up. He isn't fooled by a trip to the bathroom, he knows when he really has you up.

Today was special because after he was done trying to steal my pillows, he moved onto the cat bed above my pillow and ousted Faline (she was pissed). Did this put an end to his sighing, heavy breathing (right in my ear) and snorting? Nope. FYI, he is 60 lbs and doesn't really fit above my head or on a cat bed.

Which explains why I got up around 10 AM on a Saturday and started typing a post for this blog that I have been neglecting. Thanks, Kobie!

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PIF = done!
I finally finished PIF, yay! Everybody got the Cat Calendars that I made except PirateWA; he got dishtowels that I crocheted (no pic).

Here are my PIF buddies:

Wingraclaire
Sal
Beastmomma
Tejolote
PirateWA
Charlotte

The cover of the Cattywumpus calendar. Hard to believe that this is year #6 of Cattywumpus.
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I'm sticking w/ the cattywumpus vibe of this blog and ending w/ food (sort of), not cats. I've been cooking up a storm in my time off. I could torture you w/ a ton of pics, but I'll spare you.

I made tons of sugar cookies and 16 mini blueberry pies for the December Pigs Peace Sanctuary bake sale that I organized. I wasn't feeling Martha enough to make a proper top crust :).

Andy also made cheddar cheezly scones.

The pic is rotated courtesy of blogger's stupidity.
Since I'm talking about the sanctuary, I'll worm in a picture of the scarf I crocheted that was raffled off for them.
See ya later! I'm headed out to get some food.

2 Seattle events in October

I hope you all are mofo'ing up a storm right now! I miss you :)

I'm not back in blogland until sometime in November, but thought I'd post about these 2 October events that are near and dear to my heart.

Vegan Bake Sale at Sidecar for Pigs Peace
October 10 & 11 from 1 to 4 PM

Vegan baked goods... need I say more? This was really fun in June and seeing all those vegan homemade goodies under one roof was awesome. I'll be there all Saturday and very briefly on Sunday to drop off some more baked num nums.

All proceeds go to the Pigs Peace Sanctuary.

Pigs Peace is a safe haven of love for pigs and their friends (other animals). It is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to providing a safe home for unwanted, abused or neglected animals in need and is committed to spreading the message of compassion and respect for all animals.

Sidecar For Pigs Peace
5270 B University Way NE
Seattle, WA 98105

If you’d like to donate a baked good for this event, please email my alter ego, seattlebakesale[@]hotmail[dot]com for more information.


NARN Halloween Party
October 30 at 7 PM

$10 at the door gets you into a great party with music, games and vegan snacks. All proceeds go to Northwest Animal Rights Network.

Skin Deep Dance Studio (there is lots of free parking)
El Centro de la Raza
2524 16th Ave S, suite 311
Seattle

Northwest Animal Rights Network is a Seattle-based animal rights organization. NARN has been dedicated to ending the exploitation of animals by raising awareness of animal suffering in the food, entertainment, experimentation, and fashion industries since 1986. Our efforts include outreach, demonstrations, litigation, and educational events.

I'll be the witch that's hanging out w/ the warlock.

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Faline will be at home keeping everybody behaving (not), but she thinks you should go to these events and say hi to me.

My favorite sautee ever

It continues to be super hot here. I have to force Kobie to come in and cool down for a few hours during the day. I think it will only be around 65 on the day of the 3k walk, so that will be ok. Right now it's a bit overcast, so Kobie and I are going to run some errands before the sun really comes out. Doggie doesn't like to miss his car rides.

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Neptune's Gift from the Veggie Works cookbook is my all time favorite sautee. It has lots of fresh veggies (In the pic, I forgot the kale) and dulse. The dulse adds a really nice salty sea taste to the dish and complements the tofu. I love dulse. The recipe says to put a huge chunk on top of the sautee and remove after cooking. I disobey and just crumble the dulse up all over the pan. Delicious dulse!

I have tried other sautees in this book, but didn't like them that much. I really need to branch out into other parts of the book, but every time I open it w/ that intention, Neptune's Gift calls to me and I put off trying new recipes. ~~~~~

Faline was hanging out in the shade of the blackberry vines and other picky growth in the cat cage. She is avoiding the camera on purpose. grumble.

This was taken a while ago when it was sunny out, but not hot enough for The Judge. He also demands to be under a blanket when he's inside. Don't have a blanket? No problem! He'll try to crawl into your pant leg or up your shirt. Not the least bit annoying.

Peepa is eating kobie's food right now. That cat will eat anything, even peanut butter and jelly.

Onion pancakes extraordinaire

Ever since my friend, Jane, brought me some amazing onion pancakes (pan fried dough with green onions), I have been pleading with her to have her dad show me how to make them.

This past Saturday, Jane organized a pancake making workshop. I think her mom and dad were very sweet to take time to show me how to make them. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!! And of course many thanks to Jane for having me over to her house :)

Her dad showed me how to make them and her mom showed me how to fry them up. Here are step by step pics.

First I will introduce you to the chefs. Here is Jane's dad and daughter.
Here is Jane's mom. Now onto the instructions. The dough isn't just a yeast dough. It also has baking powder in it to help it rise while being cooked.

Roll out the dough into a rectangle.
sprinkle some salt on the dough,
then spread on some oil,
then sprinkle on chopped green onions roll the dough into a long snake.
Roll the dough snake, so it looks like a cinnamon roll. here are all of the onion pancakes in cinnamon roll form. They rested for a while. Not too long.roll out each "cinnamon roll" until it is very thin.
Fry them in a covered frying pan with a tiny bit of oil. When the pancake starts to bubble, it's time to flip. You will end up with a stack of very delicious pancakes that have a nice onion flavor. Here is the start of the stack.

Jane and her mom made the most incredible feast & it was all vegan. Yay!

Here are some soybeans that her mother in law had boiled, drained, put spices on (5 spice), then baked in the oven. They were sort of chewy and very very good.
Soup with tofu and enoki mushrooms.
A big bowl of delicious mushrooms including woodear mushrooms and some frozen then thawed tofu. This was a great dish for me because I love mushrooms :)pea vines. They are really good. They taste a tiny bit like spinach.

Kabocha (?) squash. I think everybody that reads this blog is a squash lover. The skin of this type of squash is edible.
Edamame. yummy.

Tofu, sesame oil, cilantro and some spicy red pepper mix. The cilantro was from Jane's garden. It still surprises me what will live/grow in the Seattle winter.

Wow! as you can tell that was a huge and wonderful feast. I brought some of the onion bread home and it didn't last long. I was nice and gave Andy 1/2 of them. I also got some of the other leftovers to bring to Andy, but I ate them myself.

After the feast, Jane's daughter played the piano for us, which was a treat. She plays very well. She has an upcoming recital, so wish her well.

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Here is a pic of the only time I have seen Faline stealing some of Kobie's food. This is not something she or the other cats do. Typically it's the other way around.

This was before Faline stopped eating. It took many weeks, but it turned out she has a hyperactive thyroid. She is now on meds and has stabilized. For some reason when she was initially having issues, the thyroid tests came back as normal. She just wanted to put us all through a long discovery process and stress me out.

Mom, what are all these cars doing in my house?!?

I made Sweet Chickpea Curry Casserole from Vive Le Vegan that Joanna had blogged about. Very very delicious and really easy. Thanks, Joanna, for blogging about it.


Just chop stuff up, dump some cans of stuff in and toss it in the oven. I'm sure you're wondering how such a lazy dish could ever be good. Well, it is more than good. It's amazing. Bow down to the kitchen queen that is Dreena.

Here is what I did differently:

1. If you use full fat coconut milk, only use 1/2 can + water.
2. I added in about a cup of leftover mashed squash, it made it really creamy and thick.
3. you gotta add some hot sauce or jalapenos unless you like 0 stars.


I also made some brown basmati rice that I cooked with some cardamom pods (about 3 of them for 4 people's worth of rice). When it was almost done, I added in some frozen peas.


Now you have 2 bloggers that give this the thumbs up, so get out there and make some.

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Just a smiley gingerbread cupcake from where else, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Do I have to mention that it was really good or have we all figured out that cupcakes from this book are always yummy?


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My mother sent me a ton of these wind up toys in my xmas box. The cats really don't know what to think.

It's party time when we wind them up. Even the sleepiest cat will get up to join in.

Peepa is contemplating a smack down. This car goes in circles and apparently it deserves extra smacks when it goes around something, like this tripod leg.

Faline is ready to spring into action.

And here is her big move -- sniff the boat that goes around in circles.

VeganSnowFo day 2 - crescent roll ring

If October is VeganMoFo, then the winter months should be VeganSnowFo. Basically it's when you're trapped at home because of bad weather and you end up blogging about vegan this and that.

My cough must be getting better because I went out in the cold and I didn't have a coughing fit. I'm betting I won't be able to pull off that feat at night. Thank you huffing medicine!

The bonus of the snow:

• Andy is forced to work from home
• The sky is clear blue and the sun is shining. I'm getting my sun fix without having to travel. In the seattle area you need this in the winter.
• The potential of snow sculptures. Maybe I can try to make a snow cat. When I was little we made a snow dragon.
• The yard looks really good
• an acutal white christmas
• you get to see cats in the snow. They don't want to go out there, but if we do, their nosiness forces them to follow. Case in point:

Tubs. Hanging out in the tunnel that leads to the cat cage.

Faline looking grumpy.

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I found this recipe in a cookbook that assembles processed foods so you can trick people into believing that you spent lots of time in the kitchen. Though I can't imagine who would be fooled. I don't own this cookbook in case you're wondering. Some of the recipes are from celebs. This is Katie Couric's Cresent Roll Ring. It was pretty good.

You can check out the link for the official recipe, but I'll include pseudo directions in case the link disappears. I wouldn't want anybody to miss out on some prefab sweetness.

top: pillsbury crescent roll dough - just 1 sheet's thickness.

middle: jam (I used raspberry)

middle: marzipan

bottom: crescent roll dough - just 1 sheet's thickness.

She somehow arranged it in a ring. I'm sure that's why her's is thicker than mine. I just made a rectangle.

bake like you would a normal crescent roll, then slather with glaze. I just used powdered sugar, lemon juice, vanilla, water.

I didn't have marzipan, so I mixed up some almond flour, powdered sugar, water and a small amount of lemon juice in the food processor. It wasn't as smooth as marizpan, but it tasted fine. I formed it into a thick plank with my hands. I'm not as dainty as Katie.

For you sickly types out there, it tastes good with tea and is a nice break from lentil soup and toast. ha ha ha. ok, that's at my own expense because I'm pratically hooked up to an IV of tea right now.

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Chippy is still refusing to drink. Why drink water when your servants will fill you up with subcutaneous fluids?

I can tell that he is feeling better because he did some grooming today. Well, not exactly the type of grooming you're used to seeing a cat do.

I'm typically safe from this because my hair is too long. Plus Andy's hair greases up more overnight, so the yield is better.