I won’t be eating any pie today, as i’m five days into my now annual gluten-free low-sugar Lent diet*, but I do have some photos from testing for Isa and Terry’s upcoming pie book. I was so excited to test for this one, because I want to learn how to make perfect pies, every time. I have a hit-or-miss history, so I don’t make them very often. I love being able to give and get feedback on what I make, it’s kind of like taking a pie making class for free!

Boston Creme Cake Pie

Blueberry Cornmeal Crumb Pie

Pumpkin Cheesecake (mini)

Raspberry Lime Rickey Cheesecake (also a mini)

The most exciting part? The cheesecakes are Tofutti-free! I had never made a vegan cheesecake before, and in fact I have only eaten a piece of one once, last spring from The Chicago Diner, which I wasn’t crazy about. I was never big on cheesecake pre-vegan anyway, and when I did eat it, it was mostly that Jell-o no bake kind that is overly sweet. But I lovelovelove these, and they are fairly easy to make. So get pumped for pie!

*insert my standard disclaimer that if you have a problem with people giving up things for Lent, even if they’re not Catholic, please shove it. 

Random things I am currently in love with:

I saw these nesting bowls in a catalog at work last week and nearly died.  So colorful and so orderly!  Sadly, they are too expensive for me to justify since I have measuring cups and bowls, but if I needed to rebuild my kitchen supplies I would totally plop down the money.  I also think it’s neat that two of the bowls are a sieve and a colander.

I recently went on a mini-cookbook splurge after doing some freelance work (stuffing thousands of cards into hundreds of tins), and one of the books I got was Joni and Celine‘s The Complete Guide To Vegan Substitutions.  I’m not much of a recipe follower, so I generally buy cookbooks that have pictures, a nice layout, and if I enjoy reading them and learn something, I consider it a worthy buy.  Half of the cookbooks I own, i’ve made five recipes or less from.  It’s just how I roll (lazy and bad at meal planning).  So when I bought this book, I thought i’d learn some stuff from reading through, but I didn’t expect to see the picture above and read the recipe for the Macadamia Brie (stage bottom right) and nearly pee myself with anticipation.  I haven’t made it yet, but it’s definitely on my to-do list.  Also this book is super cute and you should buy it immediately.

I found out about this band (Agent Ribbons) by internet stalking Girl In A Coma, found this video on youtube, and instantly fell in love. I dare you to not play that video a minimum of five times.

And a last minute addition, I just saw these on Whedonesque and I almost died:

I have never wanted to crossstitch so badly in my LIFE. The rest can be seen here.

I’ve been waiting for this day for a very long time.  I always knew that Bonny was a star, and now the whole world knows!

I didn’t test for Isa and Terry’s cookie book, for weight reasons, but when she said she was going to put tester photos in the back, Melisser and I begged to be able to submit photos of our dogs.  If you’ve never seen a picture of Strummer, this is really the only one you need to look at.  All we had to do was take their picture with some cookies.  Easier said than done!  I made a batch of the Chocolate Chip Mint Icebox cookies, gave Bonny a bath, and told her to be her cutest.  In my defense, I had done something similar with Chester a few years ago…

…and it was all I could do to keep him from eating the cookies, so I was honestly surprised when Bonny’s reaction, was, well…

Sometimes, if Bonny can tell you want her to do something but she doesn’t understand what, she gets upset.  So she just stood there and shook and looked really unhappy.  I tried having her sit in Brian’s lap, but no.  Also, Bonny isn’t that into people food and we don’t feed it to the dogs hardly ever, so she had no reason to think those cookies were for her.  To be clear, I wasn’t trying to get her to eat them, I just wanted a picture of her sniffing them.  I would never feed a cookie to my dog, even without chocolate!  So finally, I broke up a dog cookie, hid it under the top cookie, and snapped away as she sniffed and ate those.  You can see the dog cookie a little bit in this last picture.

Also, I obviously totally bailed on MoFo this year.  Personal issues have kept me from eating much outside of oatmeal and cereal (the plus side to the depression diet has been losing ten pounds), and from wanting to blog a lot.  I don’t see that changing until after the holidays are over, when we’ll be moving out of this miserable cesspool.  The only interesting thing i’ve made all month is Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls for a friends birthday.