Scribbles and Scrambles ~ First Day Advice for Monday...

 I saw this video over the weekend at a women's conference. So true and so sweet. And perfect for Monday viewing. 

Scraps and Snippets ~ Marigold Cheesecake Bars

I suggest making this the full day before to let the flavors marry fully and to make the cake the perfect serving texture. This recipe will serve 12 in bar form or 20 in the cupcake version (I suggest silicone cupcake liners. I’m guessing paper will stand up just fine, too, but I didn’t try that scenario out.)  I’m also suggesting possible add-in’s just for the fun of it.

Marigold Cheesecake

10 Golden Oreos (complete) or Vanilla Jo-Jos

10 Golden Oreos or Jo-Jo outside cookies (for a total of 20 outside cookie disks)  (Scrape the middles into a bowl for the filling).

1 TBSP Earth Balance or coconut oil

In a food processor whir the 10 whole cookies, twenty cookie shells and 1 TBSP of butter or coconut oil.

Press the mixture into a 8 x 11 pan.

Or to go even easier. Place one cookie shell on the bottom of a cupcake liner. Fill 20 cupcake liners. Scrape the middles into a bowl for the next step. In this scenario you only need 10 total cookies.

Filling:

Move the bowl of the cookie middles to front and center. To them add:

8 ounces cream cheese (I use TJ's Not Cream Cheese)

1 TBSP orange marmalade

Zest and juice from 1/2 an orange (you could also replace this with 2 more TBSP of orange marmalade)

1/4 Cup powdered sugar

Whip with mixer or food processor.

Fold in:

2 Cups whipped coconut cream. (1 can full fat coconut without water) (-- if you don't know how to do this it's simple. Get a can of full fat coconut milk (I love Trader Joe's - put in fridge for at least 2 days if using another brand.) Open and scrape out the solid, leaving the water behind for another purpose (smoothies, Thai cooking) Whip into creaminess with your mixer. Toss in a few TBSP of powdered sugar and a dash of vanilla if you desire. That's it.

Spoon over crust in pan or cookie half in cupcake liner  and refrigerate until set. Several hours or overnight is even better.

Additions and Wows: 

Stir in additional broken cookie bits if desired. Or add craisins, or both.  Switch out the crust for chocolate sandwich cookies and add mini chocolate chips to the filling. Make a drizzle out of melted chocolate chips and marmalade or raspberry seedless jam,  2 TBSP chips melted with 1 TBSP jam/marmalade. Place in a zipper bag and cut the corner off and squeeze over the bars/cupcakes.

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Tuesday Tee Hee

I saw the actual video tutorial a few months ago and thought it was pretty funny. But seeing Ellen's Q and A and Tori's great sense of humor made it even better. 

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Learning Slugs

I have a confession to make. I don't have cable which is probably real, real good. Because if I did I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to get anything else done outside of watching shows about food. 

Fortunately, we only have Netflix which is dangerous enough. 

Our usual nightly routine is Rob and I winding down our day watching something together. By watching I sometimes mean bingeing on old series. The more intense the more likely we are to extend beddie-bye time. Our current series is Kitchen Nightmares. Okay, it was. We watched the last episode last week. I can't really recommend it because it's A) offensive. B) nauseating. C) highly dramatic. However, there is a sense of escapism and the whole check-out-that-accident,-don't-look,-don't-look,-whoa!!!! syndrome.  My favorite episode included the owner of a reformed and fixed up restaurant that Gordon Ramsey revisited tricking him with a vegan chicken salad! Yes!

Since we watched our last episode we searched Netflix for more cooking/chef shows. We found one that's a PBS show called The Mind of a Chef Sunday around dinner time while I was continuing to convalesce. (Who slices an eye, has random rounds of gastrointestinal distress, a cough, random headaches, a raging sore throat, and intermittent blasts of fever?) (No change of life jokes allowed!) In The Mind of a Chef a different dish or topic is covered by a chef and a scientist. I got mini lessons on making gnocchi out of ramen noodles and good bacteria in food. Short episodes might be dangerous, easy to justify just one more bite.  

On another note. Since I'm randomly nauseated I have not cooked a blasted thing all week. Seriously. I'm living on dry toast or cereal and tea with a random attempt at something else every once in awhile. And oddly, chocolate soy milk. Good times. At least I washed and folded laundry. Now to put it away.

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Wonky Eye Argh!

 So. On Monday my eye started feeling irritated. On Tuesday it was raging, like I couldn't open it very far wonky, and I ended up losing two days of work. Thursday I went into my job and took advantage of one of my benefits, doctors and a PA who can listen, look and prescribe. One of the docs likes "toys" black lights and numbing and cutting and freezing. He was only too happy to numb my eyeball, drop in some dye and take a peek with his black light. I had been concerned a couple of sore spots on my forehead and cheek with a icky eye might mean shingles. 

Fortunately, not shingles. unfortunately a scratched cornea. He sent me to the eye doctor for treatment. In the meantime one of my coworkers really wanted me to patch my eye. So I found a black spoon and struck a pose. 

Then I went to the eye doctor. Fortunately, she found out how I irritated and scratched my eyeball. Unfortunately. it required her to numb my eye again and bring out some very horrifying tools which she used to slice a tiny growth off the inside of my eyelid. Tools? Super pointy tweezers and either a scalpel of some sore or a razor blade. I saw it coming at me and held my breath. UGH. Don't want to see that again anytime soon. (My doc employer will be bummed he doesn't have that set up.) Seriously, the growth was literally like a grain of sand, sharp, hard, tiny. Fortunately I only have to use lubricating eye drops til my eye feels better and it was the quickest trip I've ever had at any clinic. 

Unfortunately. No patch required. Argh! 

Playing With Memories

A blogger I enjoy reading has a blog hop I thought I'd join. She has a young child and has been pondering what images, snippets of memories and impressions she will retain. She suggested readers post early memories. Here are mine. I think you will find some telling and bizarre things there. Just sayin.

Oddly, my earliest memories include dogs. 

As a child we didn't have dogs. 

Well. We did have a Bassett Hound named Bowser for a very short period of time. My memory is iffy on the amount of time but I do remember howling, which is why he didn't live with us long which my mom confirmed at one point. 

In between, or around the doggie memories is a shadowy night that included noise and the discovery that someone had broken into our garage or shed. 

Then, the most vivid memory of all. My folks had people over for a picnic or barbecue and a teenage boy or two were there. For some reason, my wee child crush on the handsome boy manifested itself in me hopping around the grass on all fours and yipping. Also I believe I licked his arm a few times. If I recall...and I really hope it was some bizarre dream actually, he patted me on the head several times and I sat and panted. 

Yeah. I guess it's no wonder I'm a little wonky. Clearly I was born that way. 

I can promise you that I don't lick anyone anymore unless I know them very well and want to annoy them. 

Scraps and Snippets ~ Cafe Gratitude Kansas City Reviewed

Strangers on a subway pose?
We Iowa and Nebraska vegans certainly enjoyed our trip to Cafe Gratitude.

Love that their dishes ask what we are grateful for and
the water bottles are etched with uplifting words.
What was I grateful for? The delicious vegan food. 

A lemon almond cake that was my least favorite menu item. 

I am Extrordinary

Our big vegan restaurant blast included dinner at Cafe Gratitude. All but one of us had been there before and it's earned a stop every time we even get near Kansas City. 

Favorite items we've found items that we love. Their milkshakes for starters. Named, I am Beautiful, I am Cool and I am Eternally Blessed. Crazy good. A dreamsicle orange, a fresh mint and cocoa nib, and a coffee. 

We shared and were glad the portion sizes left us with room for dessert, however, we would have ordered it anyway. As it was we took portions back to our airbnb. 

A figgy nutty cheesecake. Good. But neither of these desserts
touched the unpictured orange chocolate mousse cake..

The starter potatoes were delicious. Heck, do I need to break it down. They were all delicious. The I am Terrific was probably the least favorite of the group and the I am Sensational was just that. Spaghetti squash, alfredo sauce with nut parm. Amazing. The green salads included on most of the entrees are light and delicious as well. 

The prices for organic and vegan with the care going into the preparation are definitely reasonable. 

I have to give Cafe Gratitude thumbs up and I totally recommend it to anyone looking for fresh and delicious. I also think omnivores should check out how delicious vegan eats can be. I honestly don't think anyone eating there could walk away disappointed. 

I am Terrific

I am Sensational

I am Grounded

So. Smarties being disobedient to the sign.
However, we were obedient to the hugging, smiling and warm fuzzy feeling part.
So much so I was afraid we'd be kicked out!