NYE 2012

Today, I awoke with the plan of pulling the house together (to the best of my ability, given its construction zone... -ness) since we will be hosting a small informal and starting a new calendar year with your best (/better than nothing) foot forward seems to be a reasonable plan.  Let it be known, here, I am *not* a cleaner -- try as I might, either I take three hundred years to clean a tiny bathroom or I throw my hands up in surrender sometime in the first few minutes -- but I will tidy, organize, and rearrange at full tilt, with a midday break to take a long overdue trip to the grocer, then preparing seitan summer susej for our faux(ko)laches and processing up a double batch of smoked paprika/garlic hummus. 

Quick fauxlache recipe and I'm back to the doings!

Susej & Cheeze Fauxlaches
2 cans Pillsbury Crescents (A++ accidentally vegan occasional foods)
1 recipe Summer Susej (see below)
1 7-oz. bag cheddar flavored Galaxy Foods Veggie Shreds (will only use about 3/5ths)

Preheat to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Divide croissant dough into its triangles. On the large end, place a pinch of veggie shreds, top with 1/3 of one susej, roll up toward pointed tip, and smoosh/pinch dough closed at ends.

Bake for 15 minutes.

Makes 16 fauxlaches with a 2/3rds length of susej remaining.

Calories: 189.9 | Total Fat: 8.5 g | Cholesterol: 0.0 mg | Sodium: 359.6 mg | Potassium: 46.8 mg | Total Carbs: 14.9 g | Dietary Fiber: 0.7 g |Sugars: 2.5 g | Protein: 11.6 g | Vit. A: 14.8% | Vit. C: 2.2% | Calcium: 11% | Iron: 7.7%

Summer Susej
1-1/2 c. wheat gluten flour
1 tbs. smoked paprika
1 tbs. cumin
1 tbs. mustard seed
1 tbs. garlic powder
1 tbs. onion powder
2 tsp. ground black pepper
2 tsp. sage
2 tsp. rosemary
2 tsp. fennel seed, slightly crushed
1 c. vegetable broth
1 tbs. olive oil
1 tbs. shoyu
1 tsp. liquid smoke

In a medium mixing bowl, combine all dry ingredients (wheat gluten through fennel seed) thoroughly. In a separate, smaller bowl, whisk together wet ingredients.

Start water in your steamer/steaming set-up (we use one of those little satellite dish looking steamer baskets in our largest pot with a lid).

Stir wet concoction into dry mixture until a dough begins to form, knead until all dry bits have been incorporated. Divide dough into six equal portions, roll each into a sausage shaped log and securely wrap in a length of heavy duty foil, twisting the ends as if it were a tootsie roll.

Steam susejes for one hour.

Remove susej from [steamer] and (carefully! use mitts) unwrap/discard the foil. Allow susejes to cool on wire racks until room temperature (they become more dense and chewy), then use or refrigerate at will. Will keep for about a week... if they last that long ;)

Makes 6 susejes.

Calories: 163.9 | Total Fat: 3.7 g | Cholesterol: 0.0 mg | Sodium: 189.6 mg | Potassium: 124.8 mg | Total Carbs: 9.6 g | Dietary Fiber: 2.0 g | Sugars: 1.5 g | Protein: 24.1 g | Vit. A: 15% | Vit. C: 3% | Calcium: 8.3% | Iron: 15%

There will be recipes aplenty tomorrow -- fair warning!

 
In this coming year, may your hand always be stretched out in friendship and never in want.

♥
C~

Project ADD

I started strong Monday morning, dark and early, with the first of [however many I can squeeze from remaining fabric] throw pillows to coordinate with the nearly-Christmas-tardy blanket I made for my son's girlfriend. The pillow is loosely associated with Amy Butler's Snow Mum Pillow (pdf), since I cannot seem to simply follow directions and veer sharply from the general aesthetic. Pillows to come next week, when I have more than a single in-progress.

While I was in the throes of a mindless drudgery bit (hail, repetition!), I caught myself looking around our bedroom-come-[craft]-space, as we have taken in a friend who, in the name of humanity, was given the third bedroom and not forced to couch it (haha, if we had a couch) so that my [stuff] could keep its place. It's pretty awful in here at the moment, I'm surprised we can sleep with the amount of visual noise, but I am not shocked in the slightest that the clutter is waging war on my ability to focus and general contentment.

A little back story on the lack of couch and other things...
We were going to move. For five years, we had one foot out the door. We donated a couple tons (literally) of whatnot (three generations of "I might use this later." + pure sentimentality) and sent our nonessentials / things which would be in the way (of renovation) to be stored at Future Home Site I (one hundred thirty miles from current home) seven years ago. About five years ago, the stored things moved to Future Home Site II (two hundred fifty miles from current home). We have had decent starts, but the fits always follow because I have yet to get all of us on the same page at the same time... and the priority list changes every time the old girl (she turned forty-four this year) gives a big hiccup (I'm looking at you, plumbing). So, we've been living without many comforts, essentially indoor camping, for some time.

Small house made smaller by occupancy and war zones, I am desperate to the point of distraction for more living space and my eye is on the garage.

Ah! Just over four hundred square feet of potential! I will have to reserve room for the laundry and some small slice of a walk-in/through tool storage, so probably only around two hundred square feet for me, but it's two hundred more than I have now XD

The excitement of the thought is giving me a case of carthorse. Plumbing first. ... with intermittent cookery and throw pillows.

Prologue

I have been meaning to start a new, big girl blog for some years now, but, like everything on my list of todos, priority is continuously shuffled. Fortunately, for this particular aspiration anyway, it seems there will be a whole lot of staying put this coming year, so I hope to buckle down and chronicle the things which occupy my time.