Exams, work, and cosplay!

Sorry for the long dry spell in posts. I'm pretty sure only my family reads these posts anyway but that's ok :D I have been too busy to do much in the kitchen other than quick meals for myself. I had 3 exams back to back last week and several coming up in the near future. I do have a couple cake orders for the upcoming months and will definitely have pictures for Halloween. I can't wait! I love Halloween and this year my friend and I are going to do something I've always wanted to do and that is have a Halloween party with FOOD! She and I are going to bake, make some finger food (nothing fancy we Are college students), and decorate her place. Not totally sure what I'll have time and money to put together but I will take a lot of pictures. My boyfriend and I are working on costumes not only for Halloween but also for AUSA which is coming up in November. I'm going to be Heather Mason from Silent Hill 3 and he's going to be the Spirit (movie version) for Halloween. No, we don't match at all but we're making up for it at AUSA ~.^

(Kisuke and Yoruichi costumes are almost finished!)

More good news! I finally have a job again. It took me two months due to my jobs lack of communication skills with their managers but I've made it on the schedule. They better not try to make me work this weekend during the State game which is my first and only ECU football game or on Halloween. I've worked too hard on both of those to miss.


I was also able to find my Joanna a home over the break! I hated to give her away but I didn't have the time, money, or room to take proper care of her. Plus the person I gave her to built her a custom wooden cage before I even gave her to him so I know he's going to take good care of her :)

Hopefully it will stay cold soon and I can try out some of my hot recipes from my Veganomics cook book. I love fall and the recipes that go along with it ^_^

Win an awesome shirt!

Giveaway time indeed! Who wants to win a rad shirt of your choosing from Akumu Ink?! Of course in the size of your choice in either male or female *^_^*(link on the designs below)

To enter, all you have to do is blog and/or tweet about this giveaway
and leave a comment with a link to your post/tweet, or do both to have
more chances to win (Other forms of promoting this giveaway are
encouraged). A winner will be picked at random.

(click here to see what you can win! so awesome)

Asian Salad

Do you like Panera's Asian Sesame Chicken Salad? I LOVE it! I don't like the cilantro (why do we not call it coriander?!) but everything else, especially the dressing, is awesome. However, unless you want to shell out at least $6-$8 for this yummy salad you're out of luck. Until now! I played around with the ingredients for the dressing until I found one that tasted pretty darn close to the one at Panera. I looked at what some other people had tried but I think mine is the closest. I am very picky about salad dressings so now I can finally enjoy some without having to drive 35-45 min and pay for the overpriced restaurant salads. Hope you enjoy! ^_^

1/2 c Rice vinegar (rice wine vinegar is the same thing, just be sure it's not the seasoned kind)
1/8 c Light (not roasted) sesame oil
1T sugar
2 packets Sugar substitute (or 3 more T sugar if you prefer)
1T or TT lime juice
Boil sugar, substitute, and vinegar till sugar is dissolved. Let cool completely to allow it to thicken a bit. Pour into a tall bowl. Then, with a hand blender turned on medium, slowly add sesame oil till desired flavor. Add juice a little at a time until it's to your liking and then blend again to keep the emulsion. Pour over a bowl full of mixed greens, sesame seeds, sliced almonds, pepper chicken, wonton strips and ENJOY!
The wontons can be easily made by buying some wonton wrappers in the fridge section of your supermarket and slicing them into 1 inch strips. You should probably use peanut oil but I was out so I used safflower oil instead. When the oil is heated, drop 2 strips in at a time flipping once. It only takes about 4 seconds per side if your oil is nice and hot. Remove from the oil just when they start to brown because they continue to darken after you pull them out. Lay on a paper towel or two to soak up the extra oil.

The bread in the picture is whole wheat chickpea bread made by me ^_^

Yuki is finally relaxing a bit after her spaying. She's been running around like a crazy girl since I brought her home yesterday.

Jelly Burgers

I love going to the Grand Asian Market in Raleigh and looking around for new things. Usually I try to buy at least one thing I've never had before and this time I decided to buy Jellyfish. I had never even seen it as a food and, even though I had no idea what I was going to do with it, I bought a bag of natural jellyfish to try out. I found this awesome recipe for Jellyfish Burgers and since I had a ton of red potatoes fresh from the garden I decided to give it a try.

I didn't have everything so I had to modify it a bit but they still turned out amazing. Everyone loved them and there's plenty of left overs for lunch tomorrow ^_^ I hope everyone enjoys the recipe. We had ours with a side salad which was just the right amount of food. So get out there and help Japan eat up their Jelly infestation!

Homemade Vegan Ice Cream

I have been dieing to make some vegan ice cream since it's impossible to find any around here and it's been SO hot! I don't have an ice cream maker but then I found a method to make it with out one. So tonight I tried it out. It was so much fun! I used the directions from this site and the recipe from this Vegan Ice Cream blog. I made Rocky Road with peanuts, pecans, and almonds. It was fun to kneed the ice cream and it only took 15 minutes! My mom stole a taste and we both agree it turned out delicious! I didn't have arrow root or coconut milk so I used soy milk and corn starch. As I said though, it turned out great. Gir liked it as well O.O

Master Clubs Cake

Made another cake for my mom's friend but this time it was a gift for her friends. I'm not sure what it was for other than it was a church event. She gave me a patch to go off of for the design and then I did my own thing (the dots). I was very happy with how it turned out, it looked just like the patch. This one was a white cake with vanilla buttercream. Glad to have all the cake business/practice. Hope they keep coming ^_^ I'll be going back to ECU in about a month but I hope to still find time to work on cakes. I can't wait to get back to school but I'm not looking forward to going back to Greenville, that place has nothing but at least it's only for another year or so. Anyway, Thanks to all my loyal customers!

Sushi Time!

I have been craving sushi a lot this month for some reason. I have actually had it 3 times this month...I know, I'm bad lol But I love it. So, to save some money, I made some for my boyfriend and I on our date night. I attempted to make dynamite rolls like they make at Kobe Japanese Steakhouse. I didn't have the exact ingredients so I just used what I had. I made them with sushi rice, nori, peppered eel (needed teriyaki), lump crab meat, avocado slices, hot sauce spread, tempura flakes, and teriyaki sauce. They turned out pretty and they tasted pretty good but not what I was hoping for. Hunter liked them so that's the important thing :) Also made a really good udon noodle, kale miso soup and served that with left over sushi rice. I made mango Dofu for dessert which was insanely sweet Asian jello. Went to see Predators after that which was REALLY good! Lots of action. I highly recommend it if you like the other Predator and/or Alien movies.