vegan nutella
When planning for our last A Moveable Feast, I knew I wanted to make crepes, and I new I wanted to make them extra special. What’s extra special? Nutella.
While I was apprehensive at first about this recipe, it seemed like the best option rather than getting into a recipe testing spree trying to recreate vegan condensed milk. You can’t really argue with a fresh nut butter and a good cocoa mixed together.
The key to this recipe is the simple act of toasting the hazelnuts, giving it a warm, rich flavor. Peeling the hazelnuts is a pain, even if you scrub them with a damp dish towel, but other than that, this recipe is easier than pie. A word of warning though: hazelnuts, they’re not cheap. It’s totally worth it though as the decadent dark chocolate delicacy is better than any pre-made treat you can buy.
I may or may not be eating this with a spoon for dessert for eternity (or until the jar runs out).
Dining Room
The fact that our apartment actually has a dining room still amazes me. I think back to our old apartment and how cramped it was despite our best efforts, and I feel like our new home is a huge breath of fresh air. Being able to cook for other people and actually have the space to entertain is such a dream come true. I feel so lucky that we found this apartment. Anyway….
We searched and searched for a dining room table and Shawn finally found this whole set on craigslist. It was in beautiful condition and surprisingly more affordable than many of the other tables out there. It came with chairs as well, which we’re not in such good shape. I just realized that we only have 3 chairs at the table in this photo. I swear we have more! I probably should have taken the table cloth off too, but I am so glad that I finally have a tablecloth.
Obviously the highlight of room is finally being able to display our Victrola. You know you’ve found a winner for a husband when you meet a guy who collects all these fantastic vintage things. This lovely thing had been in our dreaded storage unit forever. For the record (no pun intended) it still plays and sounds beautiful. It does need a little dusting though.
That’s it for our home tour at the moment. There are still 3 rooms and one terribly long hallway to share, but that will come all in good time dear readers.
In case you missed it, we started with the bedroom.
cats and rainbows
When taking photos of our bedroom this weekend, I became a little distracted by the rainbows that filled our room. Since I’m not often home during the day, I didn’t know how many tiny rainbows permeate the space. It felt like magic swirling around the room. I tried to catch all the colors.
The cats seemed to like them too, although I suspect they were mostly just pleased that I was making the bed.
bedroom
I said I would begin sharing a little bit more of our home starting today and I decided to start with our bedroom. It’s a fairly simple room and I feel like there is room to grow in terms of decor, but I’m also very happy with it. Our kitchen for instance, will not be seen on the blog for quite some time as over the past few weeks I’ve concluded it must be painted white (it’s light yellow now) which will be quite the undertaking.
Our bedroom unintentionally ended up with a blue, white and grey theme. We picked up the bedside table and dresser (and another matching one in a different room) at a thrift store for a steal, but the blue stripes were covered with a country plaid fabric. Lucky for us, when we got them home and removed the fabric, the stripes underneath were a nearly matching light blue to a quilt we already used. It was all tied together with the blue and white bunting from our rehearsal dinner.
My favorite thing in the room is the star chart which I found after being introduced to a similar moon chart by the ever so stylish Honey Kennedy. Shawn and I were particularly pleased that the time frame captured covered both of our birthdays.
I intended to start a small collection of owl and bird art but once I started framing and hanging the pieces I had, it all seemed pretty cramped. I stuck with my three favorite pieces, two vintage book plates and a print I purchased at the last Renegade.
I let this post bleed out a little into our hallway as I think these two sections are the best. As a side note, it’s really difficult to photograph a 40 foot long hallway let alone the things in it. The painting outside our bedroom door as well as the masks are all made by Shawn and have been used in various films that he’s made. I’m glad that these are out on display in our home rather than hidden away in a closet as they once were.
The pink bike was the first road bike I bought for myself, an adorable, very little Schwinn prelude. At some point I converted it to fixed gear making it light and fun to ride around the neighborhood (although she hasn’t been out in awhile to be honest).
I hope to have a few more pieces of our home to share this week, not to mention some of the delicious things I concocted for the dinner party I held this past weekend. If there is anything you would like to know more about in these apartment posts, please do let me know (although I more than likely cover too much detail for the average person).
Q & A
Happy Friday everyone! It’s almost time for the weekend. Kim and I are hosting one of our dinners on Saturday so it will be filled with lots of cooking for me. I’m excited though because we’re doing breakfast for dinner, which is pretty much the best.
So I said I’d answer questions and a few of you had them so here goes!
When did first decide to go vegan and what prompted it?
Well, it’s not really a short story but you can read it here. I’m closing in on six years being vegan, which makes me happy.
What’s your favorite breakfast, lunch and dinner?
This question is a lot harder than one might think. Let’s start with breakfast. I eat the same breakfast nearly every day: sourdough toast with earth balance and nutritional yeast. So I guess you could say that is my favorite. On the other hand, I do seriously love some tofu benedict, but that is sort of a special treat.
Now lunch is pretty tricky. I’d have to say some kind of sandwich. I am a big fan of extra creamy tofu salad sandwiches. I eat a lot of tofu banh mis as well since there is a Vietnamese place near where I work. I also love vegan reubens.
As for dinner, I’m gonna go with pizza. I love nearly all kinds of pizza. I’m still dreaming about this one. I particularly like thin crusts with exotic toppings.
Obviously this is not a very balanced diet in combination with each other…but you did ask my favorites.
What exactly is it you do for a living?
I’m a Post Production Accountant. Sounds boring, huh? Basically I do accounting for films and TV shows after they’ve finished filming when they’re editing and just wrapping up different aspects. It’s definitely more interesting than regular accounting and I’ve learned a lot about the finance side of film production so I appreciate that. Oh, and I’m good at it, so I’ve got that going.
What do you want to be when you “grow up?”
Gosh, I don’t even know if I have an answer to this. I want to be a filmmaker. I guess in some ways I am already but I’d like to actually get paid for it.
The truth is though, I just want to have the opportunity to be creative and make things.
When do we get to see more of a sneak peek into your new house?
What if I say Monday? I think I could make that happen. I hope. In the mean time, here are some details and other things to hold you over.
How did you and Shawn meet? 🙂
The short version is that we met in a 7/11 parking lot on a bike ride. The longer cuter version is here.
Miss Alix – why does Mochi look so shell-shocked? What has she seen that she cannot unsee?
Oh I hope we haven’t traumatized our cat by watching too many horror movies around here. Most likely she just caught her sister eating the last of the cat food.
