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!
Christmas wishes
Do you have a Christmas wish this year? Something special that you really want? Maybe it’s not a thing, maybe it’s a change in your life or a feeling you’re in search of. Maybe it’s a wish for someone else.
These two little cats are very practical in their wishes. They wish for what they really really want. So much so, that I’m sure I know what they’re wishing for.
Sometimes when you wish for something hard enough, it really does come true. Sometimes a friend comes over and brings you an entire bag full of your favorite pom poms.
Sometimes your mom and dad stay home for a whole week and give you all the snuggles in the world; making up for all the times they wouldn’t let you sit on their computers while they were working.
What are your Christmas wishes?
Animal friends
Every year, Best Friends Animal Society puts on a huge adoption event at the La Brea Tar Pits. They fill the whole park with tents and bring as many adoptable pets out to find homes. We’ve been going for the past few years just to check it out and it’s really hard not to leave with one of these sweet animals.
Actually two years ago, before we had Meeme and Mochi, we tried to adopt a few cats from the event, but they were adopted before we made up our minds. It was very sad for me, but I’m so happy they found a home.
This year we had the extra incentive of visiting the C’est la V Bakeshop booth which was set up with a ton of vegan goodies.
So I totally fell for this cat Zara. She was rescued from a hoarder’s house who had 200 cats and 100 dogs. Insane. She was so quiet and calm. She shared her cage with two kittens who were rambunctiously jumping around, all over, even on top of her, but she just hung out. Gosh I hope she found a home; she deserves a home.
Shawn liked these sweet little kittens, Zoey and Zelda.
I thought these white brother and sister cats were so pretty.
They had lots of darling dogs as well. Like this adorable Pomeranian. I didn’t get as many photos of dogs because they were a lot more wiggly than the cats and hard to photograph.
As I may have mentioned before, I’m kind of obsessed with animals who are a little weird. Which is why I loved the little wheelie guy up top. He was just carting around, happy as a clam.
They also had a few bunnies and some ducks visiting from a duck sanctuary.
This is Kingsley. I love Kingsley. I wish I could have brought him home. I don’t think it would have gone over so well. I wish we had a bigger place! He was so curious and friendly and adorable. Bunnies need homes too!
Anyway, if any of you are considering bringing a furry (or feathered, or scaled) friend into your home, please adopt. There are so many animals that desperately need homes and deserve happy lives. These aren’t damaged goods, they are just animals who were dealt a bad hand in life. They’re just looking for someone to look out and care for them. Check out your local animal shelter or one of the many adoption sites like Petfinder.
Go save a life!
meow
I haven’t cooked a thing in quite awhile. Nor made anything of significance. I’ve been awfully sick. That “I can’t get off the couch or do anything at all” kind of sick.
Luckily I’m feeling better, but not quite better enough to make something to share.
Instead, I’m going to make it up to you by sharing my cats. Because, well, they make me happy and forget about what ails me. And they’re damn cute. Also, since I changed the layout on Cute and Delicious they aren’t up on the header anymore and I think they deserve an appearance.
This is Mochi (the grey fluffy one) and Meeme (the white and stripey one) on the day we brought them home from the animal shelter.
I just want to say that if anyone ever tries to tell you that there is something wrong with shelter animals they are insane. These darlings are just precious and actually more affectionate, well behaved and friendly than many cats out there. Not to mention that adopting from the shelter was insanely easy and SAVES A LIFE (or two). In other words, I recommend it.
I poured over the LA animal services website for weeks in anticipation of getting these little critters. Ultimately we just went to the shelter and met a few of the cats. It wasn’t easy going into a room full of sweet cats that needed homes and choosing who to take home. We knew we wanted to get two though, so they would always have company. When we found out Meeme & Mochi were sisters, we knew they were the ones.
They are my little babies. Even when they drive me bonkers I just adore them. Meeme, likes to knock stuffed animals onto our heads around 5 or 6 am so I will get up and feed her. She’s a little bit of a crybaby and will sometimes follow me around meowing. Mochi likes to run around our apartment at lightning speed demolishing whatever gets in her path, including, on many occasion, me. She’s also amazing at sitting down in exactly the spot that will block the entire screen if you are watching a movie, usually right in front of your face.
But even those things that might irritate some people I find endearing. Not to mention the other adorable things they do. They both love to play fetch, especially with aluminum foil balls (or yarn pom poms in Meeme’s case). They love to snuggle on top of our china cabinet, or in their scratch lounge. They are the sweetest, snuggliest cats and I just love them. I love that they both have completely different personalities. I love that they’re always waiting at the door when I come home. I love that I can just scoop them up and give them a hug always.
Since they’re from the shelter, we don’t know exactly when their birthday is, except that they were about four months old when we got them on January 2nd. So that makes them two now! My little girls are all grown up! Ok, thanks for letting me be the crazy cat lady for a little bit. I’ll be back with some treats soon.
Potlucks
Up until last year, when I was fortunately invited to meet up with some Los Angeles vegan bloggers, I had never been to a potluck besides some family holiday affairs. Recently though, it seems like every weekend I’m trying to make something to bring to an event. The most amazing part is that most of these have been vegan potlucks which is extra awesome because you get to try a bunch of treats made by other vegans.
There is always the dilemma of what to bring. Ideally one should bring actual food to a potluck so that everyone can eat. It’s no fun to show up when there is only various flavors of chips and dip. A few weeks ago I attended the BBQ/potluck after Feel My Legs, I’m a Racer, a bike race up the ten steepest hills in Los Angeles. I did not race up any of the hills, instead I biked a macaroni and chreese with broccoli casserole in my basket across town. I managed to arrive right on time, coming right around a corner to meet Shawn just as him and the other racers finished. Everyone was super hungry and most everything was devoured including veggie hot dogs, homemade seitan, vegan corn dogs and pasta salad.
Just the next day I got to attend another BBQ at a friends house. When I asked what to bring, I got the go ahead to bring dessert and was quite excited because there are few things I like more than baking cupcakes. I decided to try out a new recipe for spiced tea cupcakes. Since I wasn’t sure how many people would be there I went ahead and made mini versions. The spiced tea cakes were sweet and simple, a subtle black tea flavor with a bit of a kick. Even though it was an omni BBQ, our hosts made us an awesome vegetarian chili with extra beer, veggie dogs and grilled corn (with earth balance!). There was also homemade sangria to be enjoyed. Delicious!
We were also lucky enough to visit the new home of Sunny of Vegan Beauty Review and her husband along with some other vegan friends. We chowed down on vegan mushroom pate made by George from Sante la Brea and fried faux shrimps from Garden Wok brought by Lex and Kristen of Vegan LA. Vegyogini from Hugger Food made some tasty vegan cadbury cream eggs and Foodeater from To Live and Eat in LA brought a ton of adorable, colorful mochis (which I gobbled up quite a few of). I made cupcakes (again!) this time going for a simple strawberry shortcake cupcake. You can’t see the surprise filling of fresh strawberries hiding under the extra fluffy frosting. Unfortunately I was so full of other food I didn’t even get to try one of these, but Shawn assures me they were delicious and in fact still hold the place of his favorite cupcakes.
On a non-food related note, something I’ve been meaning to show off for a bit is the wall scratcher I made for my cats. When I first got Meeme and Mochi I was enthralled by all the modern looking cat furniture that was nothing like the carpet covered trees I’ve always seen. On the other hand, I was not excited at all about the prices. I decided to take matters into my own hands and make my own version of a wall scratcher. I ordered a piece of lovely orange carpet and obtained a leftover piece of wood shelving from a construction site, glued it together with some industrial adhesive and voila! While my custom piece cost less than $25 all together, the much smaller version it was based on cost double that. Most importantly though, Meeme and Mochi love streching out and scatching it so I have deemed it a complete success.
