Oh wow. I had the best fudge ever. Rachael Ray's Recipe is amazing. And almost vegan-so it was easy to swap out the condensed milk for coconut milk.
A note: butterscotch chips are CRUCIAL in this recipe. If you don't have them, it's not going to turn out the same. I'm incredibly lucky to live in the south and have access to this crappy little chain grocery store Food Lion-where they happen to sell "accidentally vegan" butterscotch chips. I bought 12 bags about six months ago and I've been hoarding them. This is probably the treat I'll be mailing to friends as fudge travels well.

Ingredients:

12 ounces chocolate chips (I used Trader Joe's)
9 ounces butterscotch chips (Food Lion brand is the only vegan brand I've heard of.)
14 ounces full fat coconut milk (do NOT use So Delicious brand or light, it won't set properly)
1 T coconut oil (optional, i thought it would help the fudge set)
8 oz walnut halves/pieces
1/2 c currants

Premeasure all your ingredients and have them ready to use before you start. I'm serious. If you don't, there will be consequences! (your fudge will set before you add the nuts and currants).

You will also want to line an 8X8 square pan with parchment or wax paper. My mom always used wax paper for fudge when I was a kid..I haven't bought the stuff in years because (i admit) I'm unmotivated about writing companies to find out their wax source. If you know of a company that sells vegan wax paper tell me!

Preheat a heavy pot over low heat. Add the butterscotch & chocolate chips as well as the coconut oil and coconut milk. Stir until the chips are melted and combined well with the milk. Stir in the vanilla and remove from heat. Add nuts and currants immediately and stir in.

Pour into paper lined pan and chill, covered in the refrigerator.

Try not to eat the entire pan alone. The holidays are about sharing, right?
http://kuntrageous.blogspot.com

One of my favorite brownie recipes had been the one-bowl brownies on the back of the Baker's unsweetened chocolate box. More sugar than flour, and most of the substance was held together by egg. I replaced the egg and some of the butter with pumpkin, and they turned out amazingly tasty.

My version:
4 squares BAKER'S Unsweetened Chocolate (I think I used a mixture of semi-sweet and unsweetened, since I had both and the little squares got mixed up in my supplies)
1/2 cup earth balance
2 cups sugar (I used 1 c. white and 1c. demara, because that's what I had)
1 cup pumpkin
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup flour
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans (I used a little more than 1 c. combo of pecans and dark chocolate chunks, plus a bit more pecans to go on top so as to mark them as containing nuts)

PREHEAT oven to 350°F. Line 13x9-inch baking pan with foil, with ends of foil extending over sides of pan. Grease foil.

MICROWAVE chocolate and earth balance in large microwaveable bowl on HIGH 2 min. or until margarine is melted. Stir until chocolate is completely melted. Stir in sugar. Blend in pumpkin and vanilla. Add flour and pecans; mix well. Spread into prepared pan.

BAKE 30 to 35 min. or until wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out with fudgy crumbs. (Do not overbake.) Cool in pan on wire rack. Remove brownies from pan, using foil handles. Cut into squares. Store in tightly covered container at room temperature.

They came out really soft and fudgy.

Seen a few places this morning: Iron Man Trailer!:http://iron-man-2-trailer.blogspot.com/

...my dreams are waaaay too literal.

Last night, I was alternately dreaming:

a) I was obsessively checking to make sure I set the alarm (which I kept doing when I woke up)
b) I was annoyed at Kent, who came home all excited that the Hurricanes won, and then proceeded to annoy me by hogging the bed and snoring like a bandsaw (ditto)

Add to that a couple of work related dreams, and I feel like I haven't been to bed at all. Needless to say, this has done nothing for my desire to go in and open. Or do the errands I have to after work. Or make dinner tonight for Survivor night. However, I HAVE to work; I HAVE to go to the bank...and I have the beans for soup that have been soaking overnight and need to be used.

Being a responsible adult really sucks sometimes.

Whoa............. apparently I missed the memo on the Inquisition stocking stuffers!!

And Kick-knack sounds amazing!!!Doodad sounds good too........

If anyone is willing to part with theirs, I will make it worth your while.

I got Daya, I got Closet, I got Bah, I got Minotaur, I make it worth your while, capiche?

Very Worth your while.





Oh, and does anyone know if Dark Delicacies is selling Black Lace in their store? One of my friends who I need to visit more lives close to DD, and I maybe could make run there?

Western Pennsylvania. Not the best picture, but the lighting was incredible that morning.

This morning I tried to make brownies, which didn't turn out so great. The recipe is fairly simple (cocoa, flour, eggs, vanilla, butter) and I just replaced the omni ingredients with vegan ones. I used egg replacer instead of eggs and Nuttelex (a margarine) instead of butter.

It mixed up fine and the mixture tasted fine, but when I took it out of the oven it was bubbling and the oil from the margarine had separated out (there was a layer over the top of the rest of the mixture). I cooked it for longer but couldn't get it to cook properly (it stayed as a squishy chocolaty mess) or the oil to combine with the rest of the mixture. What did I do wrong? I can't figure out why this would happen.

So my roommate doesn't get to go home for Christmas until Christmas Eve. I decided to make her a Christmas beret. Hopefully it will cheer her up a bit, because as everyone knows, handicrafts make everything better. I used the Puff Stitch Crochet Beret with Bow from CreativeYarn (new window).

I added an additional round of decreases after Round 15, working 1Ps into joining stitch, 1Ps into next stitch, 2Pstog, *1Ps into next 2 st, 2Pstog* around, join, theen did Rounds 16 - 18 as written. I also decided that I wouldn't sew on the bow, but instead I'm going to put it on a safety pin so she can wear it with or without.

( modeled by me, since I haven't given it to her yet )

Hello my lovely crocheters :). I found this scarf online and I absolutely love it, but not the $40 price tag. I'm pretty sure I could make it, but I'm not quite sure what stitch this is. Maybe somebody could help me out? It would be much appreciated!

I just made an outrageously good pork stir fry. I couldn't tell you the ratios if you held a gun to my head, but the marinade was made with mirin, rice vinegar, dark and light soy sauce, sesame oil, fresh grated ginger, a bit of sugar, and smashed fresh garlic. Some of that was put aside and mixed with cornstarch to make the sauce. The rest was used as a marinade for strips of pork loin.

The stir fry consisted of the pork, thinly sliced carrots, chunks of yellow onion, sliced button mushrooms, and shredded Napa cabbage. Onions and carrots in first, then the pork, then the mushrooms and cabbage, covered for five minutes, then let the juices cook down on high heat, add the sauce, stir and toss, then garnish with thinly-sliced green onion and served with steamed white rice.

I just made an outrageously good pork stir fry. I couldn't tell you the ratios if you held a gun to my head, but the marinade was made with mirin, rice vinegar, dark and light soy sauce, sesame oil, fresh grated ginger, a bit of sugar, and smashed fresh garlic. Some of that was put aside and mixed with cornstarch to make the sauce. The rest was used as a marinade for strips of pork loin.

The stir fry consisted of the pork, thinly sliced carrots, chunks of yellow onion, sliced button mushrooms, and shredded Napa cabbage. Onions and carrots in first, then the pork, then the mushrooms and cabbage, covered for five minutes, then let the juices cook down on high heat, add the sauce, stir and toss, then garnish with thinly-sliced green onion and served with steamed white rice.

I broke many Susan Bates plastic hooks while crocheting (white plastic ones). I think hooks below a certain size should not have been made out of it... Just today I broke an I hook, they always snap on the finger rest narrowing.

I have been tempted to buy a replacement Susan Bates crystallite hook (clear brightly colored plastic), are they any stronger, different from white plastic ones? Did anyone have experience with those?

Thanks.

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http://crochetit.blogspot.com/2009/12/free-character-purse-crochet-patterns.html

"STOs are not something I'm into. So, if you're a breeder, you may be a totally awesome person. But I'm still not gonna date you. 'k. thanx! bai!"

What does STO stand for, anyone? Googled to no avail.

He's such a good dog :).