Domestipithecus

Our little rattie furbaby, Denver, died yesterday in my arms. We’ll miss him terribly.

I don’t think I could let the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin pass without talking about it. After all, I am an upright ape.

So yay for the Theory of Evolution and yay for science!

I am glad that we got to see Lucy so close to Darwin Day. Kind of a nice little pairing, if I do say so. I find the entire thing amazing and utterly fascinating. I mean, who can’t look at chimpanzees/gorillas/bonobos and see similarities? Feel the connection? Sense the intelligence lurking in their minds? *sigh*

The universe is so incredible. We are so incredible. Earthlings, all of us, from the smallest single-celled organism to the biggest whale. The enormousness (is that even a word?) of it all overwhelms me and amazes me, comforts me and frightens me and makes me feel like a giant and so very small all at the same time.

Here is an added treat: Me as an australopithecus afarensis

So, I finally got around to trying acai juice. It smells like olives and tastes like… olivey chocolate blueberry. I tried to drink it with my nose blocked, to try and minimize the olive thing, but it’s in my head now so it will always taste olivey. It’s not horrible, but I probably won’t be drinking it again.

Let’s hope the Purely Decadent coconut milk ice creams I got to try are more on the positive side.

Mr. Pithecus is currently two time zones away for work stuff. I have a feeling I won’t be eating as well as when he is home. Though i do have a lot to make for my sister-in-law’s (vegan) engagement party. Mini quiches from FatFree Vegan Kitchen (though I may put crusts on them for presentation purposes), pineapple upside-down mini cake thingies and toasted coconut marshmallows (from the Angel Food mix).

I got some veggie tamales from Whole Foods for dinner and the oven is heated, but part of me would rather have the veggie baked beans with Smart Dogs cut into them. Talk about comfort junk food. Yep. Not gonna eat very well at all

Ok, I’m going yo heat up the tamales. I’ll do the beans tomorrow. Or not.

I have finally gotten around to trying the Meringue Cookie Mix from Angel Foods. I ordered it through VeganEssentials, an awesome site for vegan products.

The process was very simple. Some of packet a, some water, some of packet b, some ultrafine sugar. That’s it.

I added some vanilla and cocoa at the end of my mixing. All-in all they have the same melty in my mouth feeling meringues had. The batter was a little sticky and heavy, unlike regular meringues, but that could have been my doing. I only made one batch so I have more times to try.

As I get more and more frustrated with the ass lights in my kitchen and the eh-ness of my camera, I want to post less photos. I mean, how can a yellowed-out low light or washed out flash picture make anyone go, “Oh wow that looks DELISH!” So minimal pix on this one.

Set up (yes the sugar is regular sugar and probably not vegan, but it is in the house and I have to use it up. If you want your own vegan extra- or ultrafine sugar just take your regular vegan sugar and pulse it in a food processor or similar for a bit)

I didn’t mix the cocoa all the way in so it made some swirlies

And the nifty hollow inside thing that I loved so much about meringues

Next time I am going to give my old Meringue Surprise cookies. Basically folding chocolate chips into meringue with a bit of vinegar. The surprise is that from the outside, you can’t tell there are chocolate chips in there.

I also have the same company’s marshmallow mix. I will probably get tho that in the next week or so… Actually, my sister-in-law’s engagement party is the 17th so I will probably make some sort of coconut marshmallow thingy. It’s a hawaiian theme (he proposed there) and all vegan.

We’re off to Thousand Oaks (ugh) for the annual New Year’s Day gathering. It’s usually at Boo’s parent’s house, but they are having the floors done so it’s at another relative’s home.

I made my traditional New Year’s Day baklava (agave instead of honey). The pictures are crappy (my kitchen has the worst light ever and I need a new camera) and I don’t have time before I go to fix em up in Photoshop, but here they are:

mmmm nutty sweetish goodness

Well, Happy Ape really. My mother-in-law got me an awesome gift (she got my name in the name draw)!

How cool is that? I have a littler one on my sidebar now. Heee…

Have a safe and happy holiday season!

Well, I am back from a pretty dern horrible week. Last Monday I received a call telling me a family member had died in a horrible car crash. He was only 21. He was the most adorable child and seemed to be growing into a pretty awesome guy. It was a difficult couple of days, watching his mother have to deal with the loss of her child and watching my grandmother get just a bit more sad and angry as she continues to watch people she loves die.

His sisters and friends got up and spoke. I think that was the hardest part of all. Watching these young people in so much pain. It was heartbreaking when his mom went up to comfort one of his closest firends, who looked like he wasn’t going to make it through the pain. It brings tears to my eyes just writing about it now.

This is how I will always remember Joshua Robert. The smiling, beautiful, little boy.

This is the young man he was at the time of his death. The young man I never really got to know, living so far away, but someone who was loved very much by all who knew him.

I flew back east on Tuesday to be there for the Wed. afternoon calling hours. The funeral was Thursday and I came back (just barely) on Friday.

The ‘just barely’ is because of the ice storm they had that brought down trees, power lines and telephone lines. We lost power on Thursday evening and my sister just got it back today, and she is one of the lucky ones. Everyone around her is still without.

All in all, it was a miserable trip.

That said, we got our Vegan Essentials shipment while I was gone, so yummy vegan stuffs to come.

I have some pics that I haven’t uploaded, but will hopefully get to this weekend. Just wanted to post a glance at Boo’s Xmas stocking.

This is done with the two handed technique I learned at The Philosopher’s Wool website. I hope it gets better with blocking. Yeah yeah, it’s wool… I never claimed to be a full blown vegan yet. Babysteps ok?)

Have a cruelty free and delicious day!!