memorial day weekend in photos
Hope everyone had a lovely long weekend. It was nice to have an extra day for things. We had zero plans for the holidays but still went to a few bbqs and watched a few movies which was nice. And I did a lot of laundry. Yep.
In keeping with the theme of the weekend of not doing too much, I didn’t quite finish the posts I had planned, but I do have a bunch of lovely photos to make up for it.
circus girl
So here is something you may not know about me…I used to be in a circus.
It’s sort of hard to explain. I spent most of my childhood summers at a camp that, amongst other crazy activities, had a circus. The kids would rehearse every day and then perform every few weeks.
When I first started, at 10, I was part of the simpler performances: globe (walking on a giant ball), trick bike, double dutch jump rope. Every time I auditioned, my dream was always to be in the aerial acts. I wanted to be on of the performers who would hang from ropes and fly on trapezes just like in Cirque du Soleil.
Once I finally made it, I did everything, from single trapeze, to rope, to cloud swing, to flying trapeze. I was fearless and I loved it. I hung upside down, tied knots around myself and swung from the rafters.
At the end of every summer I would go home wishing I could continue. I tried to convince my mom that we should hang a trapeze in our back yard. Circus fun was always relegated to the summertime. And over time my circus dreams faded. Until now… (more…)
cats & cookies
More free time around here means more treats. Like cookies. Big fat cookies to celebrate a new camera in our household. Happiest of days. That means there will be more photos here on the blog. Hooray!
But let’s get back to the cookies…
I couldn’t decided what sort of chocolate chip cookie to make, and the votes on twitter were split, so I went with something all together different. I had seen this recipe for Malted Chocolate Chip Cookies over on C’est la Vegan and thought they’d be a perfect use for some malted barley syrup that has been hanging out in my fridge.
They’re very much like traditional chocolate chip cookies in texture and flavor, but they have an extra kick of malt. Not an everyday dessert, but highly recommended.
Malted Chocolate Chip Cookies
adapted slightly from the original recipe found on Bittersweet
- 1 cup flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1⁄2 tsp salt
- 1⁄3 cup packed brown sugar
- 1⁄3 cup malted barley syrup
- 1⁄4 cup Earth Balance
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1⁄2 cup vegan chocolate chips
Preheat your oven to 350° and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In a separate bowl, cream together the brown sugar and Earth Balance. Add in the malted barley syrup and vanilla and mix until combined. Gently mix in the chocolate chips.
Spoon out the dough onto the baking sheet. I used a standard ice cream scoop to make larger than normal cookies. With the small batch I ended up with 6 baseball sized cookies, but you could definitely go smaller and make more.
Bake for 10 to 13 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack. Gobble them up!
The other cool thing about having a camera I can use at any time is taking photos of these little darlings whenever I feel like it.
More Meeme & Mochi on the blog too!
I thought I’d post some of the instagram photos I’d taken over the past few weeks in honor of the fact that I now have my own camera to use, and won’t have to rely on my phone (which is about to bite the dust anyway) or borrowing Shawn’s camera for quick snapshots. Not to mention, they’re fun and show what I’ve been up to recently. (more…)
fresh bread
Making bread is one of those things that I wish I did more often. It’s really so simple and so rewarding, and yet I never make the time to do it. Perhaps because the process of rising and waiting seems so much harder than it actually is.
This weekend I made a few loaves using this recipe and I dare say they turned out perfectly.
As you can see, by perfectly I mean a little odd. They grew from beautiful orbs of dough into misshapen blobs. Delicious misshapen blobs. They were moist and fluffy on the inside and perfectly crusty on the outside. Everything that I want in a piece of bread.
We’ve already eaten our way through these two loaves, slicing them up and smothering them with various spreads. Such a treat. So here is to turning bread making into a habit.
