Girl Scout Cookies for All!

It seems like everyone is on a special diet lately--and we are no exception. Whether you are vegan, gluten free, want to cut out refined sugar, or want to enjoy cookies with less calories, these cookies will do the job. 

Of course, it's a plus that they taste like a certain girl scout cookie...

Except lighter tasting and delicately flavored. They are so insanely good. The are more coconut-y, which is always a good thing for me. 

I adapted this recipe from The Pursuit of Hippieness which is a great blog about vegan eating while studying abroad in Paris. Jealous! 

Her recipe is a combo between a macaroon and a cookie, and it works perfectly. 

Vegan Samoas

1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut

3 tbsp water

1 tbsp vanilla

1 flax egg (1 tbsp flax meal soaked in 3 tbsp water)

½ cup course oat flour

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

2 tbsp + 1 tbsp molasses or maple syrup, divided

3 tbsp milk substitute of your choice

1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

First, some ingredient notes. 

If you don't want to buy oat flour, just grind up 1/2 cup of oats in a clean coffee grinder, food processor, or some other contraption. They don't have to be finely ground, the texture of the cookie is very forgiving. 

If you are not vegan, I am sure you could use an egg in place of the flax. But, the flax egg saves you 40 calories and 171 mg of cholesterol in the recipe, and adds a nutty flavor and omega 3 fatty acids. Just use the same grinding device to grind the flax like you did the oats, then mix them with 3 tbsp warm water. Or buy the flax already ground and save a step.

If you are worried about the sugar in the chocolate chips, there are options for alternatively sweetened chocolate chips on the market, often sweetened with brown rice syrup. Check your local health food store for options. 

LET'S COOK! 

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

In a small saucepan over low heat, heat the 2 tbsp molasses gently until it begins to bubble. Let simmer for about 3 minutes, stirring frequently with a spatula to keep from sticking to the sides of the pan and burning. Remove from heat. Stir in almond milk rapidly until completely combined and continue stirring as it cools and thickens slightly.

Put the coconut and water in a food processor and grind until combined, with course flakes still intact. Add the vanilla, flax egg, oat flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, molasses mixture, and one extra tbsp of molasses into the food processor and pulse until just combined. 

Line a baking pan with parchment paper and drop the batter by rounded tbsp onto it (should make about 12 cookies).  Bake for about 10-15 minutes, until browned at the edges and firm to touch. Remove from heat and let cool for a couple of minutes before transferring the cookies carefully to a wire cooling rack or your cold counter (I don't have a cooling rack). 

Note: This was my first batch, made with maple syrup. I made another batch with molasses and the cookies were much darker in color. 

In an improvised double boiler situation, melt the chocolate slowly. Use a spatula to drizzle chocolate over the cookies. Messy is good. 

Try not to drool. Eat them. 

Thanks for reading! Best wishes and love from Portland. 

Finished, Finally!

I finally finished the dresser. The very last step was rubbing on Feed-N-Wax with an old sock, and letting it absorb. That was so easy and quick. Then I got the rest of the handles on it and brought the whole she-bang inside. I set it up in the guest room and did some accessorizing. 

As a reminder, here it was before, fresh from the curb: 

Are you ready? 
















Really ready? 





















Really really ready? 



















Ok, here it is!

Overall, I'm really happy with it. It was free, which is obviously great. I learned how to strip wood, and how to finish wood without stain. The wood itself isn't the nicest, but it goes with the rustic decor we have going on in the guest room. It will be nice to have some place for guests to store their clothes!

To keep with the rustic travel decor we have going on in the guest room, I placed some international-ish items on the dresser. There is a picture collage from Mykonos, Greece, a camera I used in high school, my favorite ceramic bird, travel books, and some Japanese tea cups. It will probably change, but  it works for now. 

I am so excited that this project is finished! I am glad I got to share the journey with you. 

Thanks for reading! Best wishes and love from Portland. 

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

On Friday, we went to the Chinese Garden in Portland to take part in their two week long Chinese New Year celebration. 

The show included a wonderful dance by some lovely ladies, as well as a great dragon dance. 

The gardens are built around shallow pools, and they were filled with floating lanterns of various colors. 

I really like Dragons, as evidenced by my long time friendship with a certain stuffed dragon belonging to a friend. 



Dragon had friends here:

The regular lanterns were neat too, especially since there were some blossoms on the trees already!

Here are some videos of the dances so you can feel like you were there, complete with commentary from yours truly. Mostly, "DRAGON, get the pearl of wisdom! (That's what he was chasing.) I love you Dragon! John Bonomo!!!! (Our Colorado friend with the dragon above)"

Thanks for reading! Best wishes and love from Portland. 

Almost, But Not Quite

It's a rainy, cold day here in Oregon. Perfect for working on my dresser in the garage and listening to the rain. 

When we last left Mr. Curb Dresser, he just finished being painstakingly stripped of paint and waiting in the garage. 

The paint stripping process was effective, but a pain. 
Here's what worked for me: 

Apply Stripper
Let sit 24 hours
Scrape with a paint knife
Apply more Stripper 
Let sit 24 hours
Scrape with a paint knife
Scrub areas with a green scrubby
Scrub areas with a cleaner green scrubby
Scrub areas with a toothbrush
Wash with Murphy's Oil Soap
Dry with paper towels
Repeat process for all sides, since you can only work on sides parallel to the ground. 

Mr. Curb Dresser was a source of so much frustration that he sat in the garage for a while. He had to think about what he had done. Today, I felt like he has had enough time to think. 

Thankfully, the rest of the steps are a JOY. 

I got some Danish Oil in Medium Walnut, Howard Feed-n-Wax, and a pair of old socks. 

FYI: The Feed-n-Wax will have to be shared in the next post, as the Danish Oil is currently drying on the dresser. Tomorrow I will apply the Feed-n-Wax and the dresser will get to move inside! 

 I am out of gloves, so I rigged up a CLASSY solution. 
Do you have any idea how hard it is to take a picture with your right covered in plastic bags and a sock, and the left hand having to reach to the right side of the camera to take the picture? That's why this picture looks like this: 

Anyway, I just poured a bit of the Danish Oil on my sock and wiped it onto the wood. It applied really evenly without trying. It says not to pour it on the wood directly, but I got some drips accidentally and they wiped out great. 

Here's a drawer with the right side oiled and the left side bare. Looking good! 

After I applied the oil all over, I went back with a second coat. The wood was absorbing the oil nicely. I will go back out this afternoon and wipe off any excess oil. 

And after the two coats (and a hardware mock-up):

Here's what the front of the dresser looked like after oiling: 

I just can't wait to have this project all done! The end is within sight! 

Thanks for reading! Best wishes and love from Portland. 

Magic Overnight Bread

I have been totally stressed out this week (for really no good reason), so please forgive my lack of pictures on this post. Here's a picture of a raccoon holding a kitten: 

That's better, right?

Now for the main event!
 I have made my fair share of bread. 

This recipe, BY FAR, was the easiest and most successful bread I have ever made. It comes together fast while dinner is cooking, and is ready for lunch or dinner the next day. If you want to impress someone with your mad bread baking skills, make them this bread. 

It comes out like what the grocery store french bread wishes it could be. Tender, moist, but more flavorful and satisfying. It has a great crust, but it's not hard by any means. I make it in a big round loaf, like a boule.

Here's the google image of a boule shape for ya:
 
Aaaaaannnnndddddd......now I'm craving some bread. 

It's not quick, but it's easy and foolproof. You probably will have to get a special flour for this, but you will want to make it all the time. Having the flour on hand will pay off with fresh delicious bread. 

Ingredients: 
4 cups bread flour 
2 tbsp active dry yeast
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp salt
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 cups warm water
a bit extra oil to oil the bowl and baking sheet

In a big bowl, add the water, sugar, and yeast. Do not stir, and let sit for 5 minutes. Slowly add in the flour, salt, and oil while stirring with your hands. Turn out onto the counter and knead for 5 minutes. The dough should pick up any extra flour that wasn't absorbed yet, and become smooth and elastic. If it is too dry, add a tiny amount of water. Too wet, add a tiny amount of flour. Keep kneading, 5 minutes will go by fast. Just think of how awesome your arms would be if all you did was made bread. That should occupy your time. 

Wash and dry the bowl, then add about a tsp of oil in the bowl. Put the dough in and turn to coat. Cover with plastic wrap. 
Let sit on the counter for 30 minutes to an hour. The dough should be rising now, and you just gave it a jump start before sticking it in the fridge. 

Place in the fridge overnight. 
In the morning, or lunchtime, or evening, (whenever you want fresh baked bread) pull the dough out. Oil a baking sheet lightly, then dump the dough out on the sheet. You might have to loosen the dough with your hands to get it our of the bowl, but be very gentle. The idea is to touch it as little as possible. 
Whatever shape it comes out of the bowl is what it will be. No touching. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees, and let the bread sit on top of the oven while it heats up. Oil the top of the dough lightly. 
Bake for 25 minutes, or until the bread is lightly browned. 
Try and let it cool before you slice it. It's hard. 

Thanks for reading! Best wishes and love from Portland. 

Spring Cleaning Challenge!

Spring is coming to Portland! The crocuses are blooming, the daffodils are coming up, and the ducks are pairing off at the park. I know Spring is but a distant dream for many parts of the country, but I still feel that the time for spring cleaning is now! Why don't we clean when it's still cold? That way it's all done once it's warm outside and you are ready to spend as much time outside as you can. I do like the idea of spring cleaning, as it feels great to start spring with a fresh house.

Today, I am starting a spring cleaning challenge. I have 23 steps to a clean house. I will do one per day, which shouldn't take much time. They are simple tasks, but add up to clean fresh house!
 The list is from a blog called Finely Ground. Here's the link for that site. 

And here is my slightly modified list:
(I replaced vacuum bag with cleaning the garage and dry clean coat with washing pillows)

Spring Cleaning Challenge

1. Dust light fixtures and ceiling fans--microfiber dampened with vinegar is good.
2. Sweep cobwebs in corners and along the ceiling.
3. Dust all horizontal surfaces—tops of doors, picture frames, shelves, baseboards, counters...
4. Spot-clean the walls.
5. Wipe down circulating fans, wall, and floor vents with a cloth dampened with vinegar.
6. Sweep the garage and straighten the contents.
7. Take everything off the bed and launder, including things you might wash less often like comforters or bedskirts.
8. Sprinkle the mattress with baking soda and let sit for at least an hour, then vacuum it all up with the brush attachment. You can do this while your bedclothes are in the wash to save steps!
9. Vacuum all upholstered furniture and vacuum or launder curtains.
10. Take rugs and mats outside and beat with a broom handle.
11. Vacuum the floor REALLY thoroughly before you put the rugs back down.
12. Spot-clean the carpet.
13. Give the kitchen a deep clean, especially the parts you usually skip (drip-pans, anyone?)
14. Check expiration dates in your fridge, pantry, and medicine cabinet, and bring things to the front—or to the garbage!—accordingly.
15. Give the bathroom(s) a deep clean, especially the parts you usually skip.
16. Go through your make-up and throw out anything that smells funny or you never use.
17. Wash windows inside and out. A mix of water and vinegar with a microfiber cloth work great!
18. Scrub out all window tracks with soapy water and an old toothbrush.
19. Go through your wardrobe and if there's things you never wear or have worn out either donate them or put them in a rag-bag.
20. Bring summer clothes to the front and hide winter clothes in the back.
21. Wash or dry clean all pillows. 
22. Treat any dingy whites to a soak in vinegar or borax. Might be a good time to do the dishcloths, too!
23. Polish and condition wood.

I hope that you will join me on my spring cleaning quest. I will be updating with my progress, as well as sharing tips and tricks for cleaning your home with green products. 

Thanks for reading! Best wishes and love from Portland. 

Colorful Kimchi

Happy Valentine's Day! We're not up to much today, just making some heart shaped pizzas later. Still dealing with sick town around here. 
 What are your V-day plans? 
Tell me so I can live through you!

 I made some Kimchi, and it was so easy! Here's how it went down: 

Kimchi is a traditional Korean dish of fermented cabbage and vegetables. Usually, it's made with Napa cabbage and Korean chili powder. It might also have salty tiny shrimp in it or fish sauce. I deviated from the tradition in several ways. I used red cabbage, both because that's what I had and because I wanted a colorful kimchi. I also used a chili garlic sauce, as I really like this sauce in normal cooking and had it on hand. You can use sriracha too if you would like. 

I left out the non-vegan shrimp and fish sauce. I also added more additional veggies than the regular kimchi, like the daikon and carrots. Daikon looks like a huge long white radish, and has a sweet, earthy, peppery taste. It can be found at well stocked grocery stores or Asian markets.

Ingredients
1/2 head purple cabbage, cubed
1/2 of a daikon radish, peeled and cut into matchsticks
2 cups carrots, cut into matchsticks
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 bunch scallions, all parts, cut into 2" lengths
1/2 cup kosher salt
3-4 tbsp chili garlic sauce
empty glass jars

First, place the cabbage into a big bowl and sprinkle with the salt. Fill the bowl with enough cold water to cover the cabbage. Some cabbage will float, but that's ok. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit overnight. 


The next morning, rinse the cabbage well and squeeze any excess water out. Place in the big bowl and add all ingredients. Toss with your hands until the chili sauce is evenly distributed. 

Pack the mixture into the jars, forcing as much as you can into the jar. 

Let the jars sit on the counter for 24 hours to start the fermentation. Open briefly after the 24 hours to let any accumulated gas escape. Store the kimchi in the fridge for 3-7 days to finish fermenting. Once it is fermented to your liking, eat it up! Eat it over rice, in fried rice, or as a condiment for any Korean food you happen to be enjoying! 

They say that kimchi is one of the healthiest foods out there. With all veggies and no fat, I would hope so!
Totally try making this, it's really easy and so fun. 

Thanks for reading! Best wishes and love from Portland. 

Coconut Milk

I love using coconut milk in food. The creamy canned variety is great in a curry or creamy soup. It has great versatility and is a vegan cooking staple. 

But this great ingredient has a bad side. If you have a can in your house, check out the ingredients. You might be surprised on what's in there. 
You can find coconut milk that has cleaner ingredients, but it's hard. Also, the lining of the can contains the highest BPA  content of almost all canned foods. This chemical hasn't been banned in the USA, although it has been banned in most of Europe. Check out this comprehensive article here on the more controversial aspects of coconut milk. Who would've thought? I take the better safe than sorry approach here. Also, I'm on a quest to reach the stage where the most unprocessed versions of food enter my house. This is a huge step in that direction. 

So I used my magical google powers to find an alternative. 
I had unsweetened dried coconut flakes on hand, so I started with that. 
I took about 1.5 cups of coconut and blended it with 5 cups of water. Blend for about 5 minutes, then check. Your coconut milk will be warm, due to the extended blending. If it still has a lot of clumps, keep blending. Blend until most chunks are gone, but some texture won't kill you. You can strain it if needed, but for most applications the remaining flakes will be fine. 

Congrats! You just made a whole bunch of coconut milk that is healthier for you...and probably cheaper! 
At about $2.00 for a can of coconut milk, and about $2.00 for a POUND of unsweetened coconut at my grocery store, I can safely say that homemade is much cheaper. 

I used this coconut milk last night to make a ton of Thai sweet potato lemongrass soup. It was delicious. 

Thanks for reading! Best wishes and love from Portland. 

Miracle Noodles

 We are both sick. Normally, only one of us gets sick and the healthy one can help the sick one, but not this time. We spent the whole weekend just laying like slugs on the couch. It's a whopper of a cold. Still, I since I possess the know-how in the kitchen, I am in charge of making sure we both get fed. 

These easy to prepare noodles, packed with as many barely-cooked veggies as I could fit in them, helped us survive the weekend. 

Use the vacuum packed udon noodles for this. Often found in the refrigerated section by the produce, near the wonton wrappers and tofu.These noodles are avaliable in most well stocked grocery stores and in asian markets.Try to find the ones without the seasoning packet, as they get tossed for this recipe and have icky ingredients anyway. 



 FoCo peeps, go to Bangkok Asian Market on Drake and Shields. Portlanders, Uwajimaya is the bee's knees. 

Ingredients: 

Bean Sprouts

Ginger

veggies--use as many colors as you can. I used red cabbage, swiss chard, carrots, green onions, sprouts, and broccoli. 
3-4 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp minced fresh ginger
5 tbsp soy sauce

3 tbsp sesame seed oil
2 packages udon noodles, no flavor packet
roasted sesame seeds for garnish
sriracha (duh.)

Add the sesame seed oil to a big frying pan over medium heat. Throw in the garlic and ginger. Stir, then add your long cooking vegetables. In this case I added the broccoli and carrots first, as those take longer to cook. Let them cook for a couple minutes (overall we are going for a still crunchy, barely cooked vegetable). 

Add the rest of the veggies and the soy sauce. 

Stir to combine. Cover and let cook for 4-5 minutes on medium low. 
Add the udon noodles, separating them with your hands. You will experience noodle breakage, which is normal. 
Stir, then let cook for just long enough for the noodles to heat up. Sprinkle the sesame seeds onto the dish until the sesame seed density makes you happy. Dish up and serve with plenty of sriracha! 

I hope that this dish keeps you going when you feel icky. It's a new Long family favorite! 

Thanks for reading! Best wishes and love from Portland. 

Quilt Update

I have made a bunch of progress on my quilt, although lately I've been focusing more on the dresser project. I know y'all deserve an update though!

To review, I cut 5" squares, then placed them right sides together (I used a brown batik for the stripes, so each square was 1 batik square and another random square)

Then I sewed 1/4" from the diagonal on the squares on each side. That is confusing, so here's the diagram that I stuck in a previous post. 

I finished all of the over 300 squares while watching Whisker Wars. This series is on Netflix and is about competitive beard growing. Perfect quilting entertainment. 


Yep. 


I cut the squares on the pencil line, then pressed them open to create two triangles sewed together via the hypotenuse. I pressed the seams toward the brown fabric so that the dark fabric wouldn't show through the lighter fabric on the right side of the quilt. 

Once they were all done and ironed, husband sorted them for me into like piles. 

Then I pushed back the couch and started laying them out. This step is important so that you get a visually balanced quilt in the end. I'm not done with that step yet, but once I am, I will be sewing the top all together. I'm super stoked with how it looks! 

I think (although I'm not done yet) that the cutting out of squares was the hardest part of this quilt. It's been a super fun project though. 

Thanks for reading! Best wishes and love from Portland. 

Let's get to strippin!

Finally! Finally it was warm enough to get my strip on with the dresser in my garage*. If you forgot, I picked up a dresser on the curb a while ago. I wanted to strip it, but it has been too cold. Yesterday I washed the car in the driveway and figured that if it was warm enough to do that, it was warm enough to strip. 

*Double entendre intended. Let's actually just assume that for this entire post about stripping. 

Here's what it looked like before: 

First things first, I wiped the whole thing down with some soapy water. I let it dry while I worked on the drawers. They were all lined with super old brittle shelf paper. I ripped all of it out. It was extremely difficult, and I kept telling myself that this was probably the hardest part of the whole project. 

This picture makes me seriously cringe. Is it possible to get PTSD from shelf paper removal? 

I applied my safety gear.  

I was trying to smize, like Tyra Banks. I don't think I would be America's Next Top Model. The stripper I was using was a 'less toxic' formula. Less toxic, hmmmm. I'm a paranoid parrot, so I figured I would load up on the safety gear. Husband has the awesome mask anyway from spray painting projects. 

Then I applied my stripper to the dresser, using a brush. Simple. It has the consistency of pudding and smells like artificial oranges. Don't eat it. 

The directions say that you can leave it for up to 24 hours. When I was heading inside for the day I could already tell it was working, and it was very exciting. 

The next morning I headed out to scrape the paint off. It worked pretty well, especially on the top of the dresser and the flat part of the drawers.

 I was frustrated with the sides though.

 So I re-applied stripper to the top and drawer fronts, and I am about to go attack that now with a scrubby pad. Once the tops are done I will do the sides laying down flat, which I think will help the stripper stick better.

Thanks for reading! Best wishes and love from Portland.