I was asked by a friend to create something simple for her waxing-salon. She wants it to be gender neutral and clean and simple. I've gone through a couple ideas of trying to incorporate silhouettes of bodies but it seemed impossible to represent a man's hip in such a way that made sense.

Anyway, this is the new design that I've started. I created the letter forms in Illustrator and kinda wanna keep with that feel, but not sure about a color palette. She likes greens and, as previously mentioned, wants it to be gender neutral. 

Any other suggestions/ideas, totally welcome! Thanks!!!

ps, happy holidays! :)

mood: creative

I thought I had margarine. I do not. All I have is a tub of Earth Balance and a tub of Smart Balance. Will either of them work?

I ask before trying because I used EB in a cookie recipe years back and they just ran and tasted like poo.

My 1 year old keeps asking for a cookie but I have none to give her and my family had millions of cookies all over tonight at the holiday party. She was going to lose her mind.

If it won't work are there any similar recipes that are simple so I might have everything I need? Cookies, cookie bars, anything! My beeb needs a cookie! :)

A very happy holiday to all whom celebrate the festive December 25. And a Happy Friday to all else.

http://robotmonsterghost.com/christmas/09/

I asked everyone for some help doing a Harry-Potter themed secret santa for work, and I wanted to share the results! Everyone was very jealous, with the boss and the boss' daughter both saying that they are going to rig the selection next year so that I pick them!

I started off with dragon's eggs (brownies) in a basket with "grass" (tissue paper was all that I could find at the last minute) I used a recipe from vegancooking, but I can't remember exactly which one I used. And I made them in a little mold that I got for easter a couple years ago to make easter egg cakes to decorate, and then glued the halves together with frosting.


The second day I made Pepper Imps (peppermint patties) from a recipe on vegweb. I took an empty applesauce bottle and filled it with the imps and googled for some images to decorate it. I used a mold of gingerbread boys and girls (cause sadly my local kitchen store didn't have an "imp" mold, whatever that would be).



For the last day, I made Chocolate Frogs. I found a website that shows how to make the boxes, and I googled Frog Cards so that I could make my girl her very own wizard card. I found a frog mold, and made the peanut butter cups from vegweb.


All in all, it seemed like a big hit! thank you all for your suggestions!

-theme parties

Recipe is from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Used the Orange Pudding Cupcakes minus the pudding and the Orange Buttercream Frosting w/ orange zest instead of lemon zest. Annoyed at the number of typos and mis-prints in this cook-book, though. The orange buttercream frosting recipe has three extra sentences from what I can only assume is another recipe involving blueberries. :)

Recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World:
Orange cupcake:
1/3 cup canola oil
3/4 c granulated sugar
3/4 c plain soy milk/rice milk
1/2 c freshly squeezed orange juice
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/3 c flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp grated orange zest



( More recipe )

desserts-cakes-fruit, desserts-cupcakes

I am trying not to fall victim to the temptation of non vegan cookies this year. help! i know this is last minute but what are some good sugar cookie recipes and peanut butter cookie recipes. also snickerdoodle types would be great! 

also it would be nice to have an already vegan recipe vs. using a substitute. whatever you have is fine though! ill probably just end up buying newman os. lol pathetic substitute for vegan cookies but i left all my cooking things in my dorm and i doubt im going to go out and buy new everything. we will see. i hope i dont cave and eat the non vegan cookies... :(

desserts-cookies-peanut/other nut butter, desserts-cookies-snickerdoodles/spiced, desserts-cookies-sugar, dorm-cooking

These are simply the best truffles ever. Not only because the flavor is the perfect blend of sweet, salty and festive, but because they're actually pretty darn good for you.

( the recipe )

-pictures of food, desserts-truffles, techniques-desserts

This year my coworkers and friends are getting homemade granola. Here's the recipe I've come up with after significantly modifying Mark Bittman's. Because the dry ingredients are so bulky and not necessarily consistently shaped, I used my scale to measure them consistently. The cup measurements are just rough estimates based on memory for those who don't have kitchen scales.

( Apple-hazelnut granola )

breakfast foods-granola, fruits-apples, nuts-hazelnuts/filberts

Hey folks! It's dinner time, and I'm not sure what I want. But I have a container of Tofutti cream cheese (with chives) and I want to do something with it. I'm thinking like a base for a pasta sauce? I'm not sure. What are your favorite recipes that use cream cheez?

condiments, substitutes-dairy-cream cheese

If anyone is after a quick fruit cake that's simple for xmas then this is it !



I made this on monday, doubled the recipe worked perfect.


Ingridents
2 tsp egg replacer
4 tbsp water
1/4 cup vegan margarine
1/2 sugar
170g mixed fruit
1 1/4 cup of water or orange juice
1 3/4 cup flour
1tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bi-carb soda
1 tsp all spice


Method:

1. Preheat over to 180 degess celcius
2. Briefly whip the egg replacer in 4 tabs water until fluffy
3. Place margarine, sugar, mixed fruit, whipped egg replacer & water/orange juice into a saucepan
4. Bring to the boil and cool for 10 mins stirring occasionally
5. Sift the flour, baking powder, bi-carb soda & all spice
6. Mix in boiled mixture and transfer into a greased loaf tin or a greased 8inch diameter cake tin.
7. Bake for 35-40mins
8. Let cool in tin.

Note: as you can see I made mine in a round cake tin, and pressed 120g of blanched almonds on top before cooking :)

mood: content music: Behind Crimson Eyes desserts-cakes-fruit, holiday food-christmas

What's the best seitan recipe you've ever used? Or your favourite?

edit:

err. I dont mean how to make it.. I mean how to use it.. like what dishes do you use it in.

seitan

So, my freelancing book is en-route, but I have a billing question I just thought of that I'd appreciate any advice..

I am billing a nonprofit, which I know means I can't charge them sales tax. I do get charged income tax on this though.. Is it customary to work a proportionate amount of your tax estimates into your billing somehow? Sorry if this is a stupid question, just curious how other people deal with this.

But for my other clients, should I be charging them tax? Am I going to get taxed for this somehow that I don't know about? I've only ever worked with nonprofits so this hasn't ever come up before, but I've had a few this year now. I will be charged taxes on my income..should I be adding this future charge to my statements, or figuring it into my charges in the first place? What do other people do?

Thanks!

pricing & billing, starting & running a business or co-op

i_hope_that
For many of us, the holidays can be kind of rough. If you're searching for a network of understanding friends, this ultra-nurturing community encourages you to express your heartfelt wishes and offer other members encouragement and acceptance. Not for the terminally snarky or emotionally-challenged, this is a good-spirited place to lend comfort and support.

i_hope_that, support, wishes

diygifts
Feeling crafty? If you've got a few last folks on your holiday gift list, this is a great place to seed your creativity and generosity. You'll also discover wonderful DIY tips to decorate your home and entertain guests. Offering a no-frills-no-skills attitude that welcomes the cash-challenged and arts-phobic, you're sure to get ideas and make friends in the process.

crafts, diygifts, do it yourself

cooking_club
A fun and friendly community dedicated to those who love to cook, whether you're a meat-and-potatoes type, an aspiring gourmand, and/or a vegan. In search of a brilliant dish to use up those weekly leftovers? Post your ingredients and you'll be whipping up a feast by dinner. You can also share favorite recipes. For Type A chefs, you can spice up your culinary repertoire with exciting cooking challenges.

cooking_club

Hey, I hope someone can help. I am making some baked goods for my family for Christmas and my mom wanted Cranberry Walnut Bread but said she didn’t like the orange flavor that is usually in it. While searching, all I could find were recipes with orange so I was going to stick with the recipe in Veganomicon but it calls for 1/4 c orange juice & 1 Tbs orange zest. Has anyone else made this recipe and can say if it has a distinct orange flavor? Or I was finding that I could possibly use (soy)milk instead of orange juice but does anyone know how that would change the recipe, if at all and would I just omit the zest? Thanks in advance!

location: Rochester, NY -what does this do?, substitutions-fruit juices, techniques-baking substitutions

For dinner tonight I have a couple of cups of quinoa, a block of extra firm tofu that's been frozen and thawed, and a medium sized bag of frozen mixed veggies (carrots, corn, green beans) to work with.... and pretty much every seasoning and condiment readily available in a U.S. grocery store. How can I season/serve this to make it amazing? My brain just isn't working creatively on the food side of things this week.

make my dinner!!! the cooking game show