Check out my Tumblr site, 15 Cardigans. If you look under the tag “typography,” you can follow a series of quotations I am doing layouts with.  Some might make it into the shop someday!

I’ve recently added a series of mini prints I did a few years ago to the shop. They are matted and ready to go into a 5×7 frame. Many different sayings, celebrating the seasons and a positive outlook.

Have a look!

Like silver dollar pancakes but with cornmeal. Vegan, quick and easy. Since I have not been working a regular job, I have been making these on a regular basis for breakfast.

This recipe is for just one serving… that’s how it was where I found it at Kiss My Broccoli.  I reccomend using good cornmeal- not the de-germinated stuff. Indian Head is the brand I buy in cute yellow bags at the grocery store for really cheap, and its tastier than the Gold Medal stuff in the cardboard canister.

Golden Dollar Pancakes (aka, Vegan Cornmeal Pancakes)

In a small dish mix 1/2 tbs ground flaxseed and 1 1/2 tbs warm water. Let sit so it can thicken.

Mix 1/4 cup soymilk and 1 tsp cider vinegar (I used Bragg’s) in a measuring cup, and also let sit so it can thicken.

In a bowl, measure: 4 tbs cornmeal, 2 tbs flour, pinch salt, 1/4 tsp baking soda. With a fork, ‘cut in’ about 2 tsp of shortening (Vegan Smart Balance here). Stir in 1 tsp of maple syrup (or other sweetener), the soy milk mixture and the flax mixture. Fry on a lightly greased griddle, like any other pancakes.

I love these with blueberries in them… I don’t mix the berries into the batter but rather just scatter them onto the pancakes as soon as I pour them onto the griddle.

I’m figuring this out… how to put my Instagram photos on the blog. I’ve been photographing a lot of things I’ve been cooking, so if I’m going to keep publishing recipes this will be practical.

Three new note card designs: summery florals with tiny polka dots! Now available in the Confection Letterpress Online Shop on Etsy!

As in, a picnic. The heat has broken- beautiful day today, in the low 80s, not humid, perfect. I decided to go on a little urban picnic to enjoy it.

I did not set out with a destination, but the park next to the Amesbury Public Library is where I ended up On my way through down town, I dropped into Ovedia for a big iced green tea.

Super healthy gluten free vegan lunch. I made up a bunch of lentil salad earlier in the week to have something nourishing for cold lunches. Its made of:

Lentils, finely diced carrots, minced red onion (sometimes I use scallions), chopped up dried cranberries, sliced almonds, salt and lemon juice (sometimes I use orange juice.)

On the side, baby carrots and snow peas with Annie’s Goddess Dressing, which I am so addicted to. Its an elixir of tahini, soy sauce and lemon. I know, sounds odd for a salad dressing, but try it and see how amazing it is!

Its really hot in New England today. But someone put the idea of baking a cake into my head, and I spent way too much time this morning going through cookbooks looking for some kind of lemon blueberry cake recipe. At first I was thinking Bundt cake… then maybe something like lemon bars? Too many eggs in most of the recipes, though, so I switched gears and went online to find a vegan recipe.

The Half Assed Kitchen had a promising looking recipe. No tofu. No En-er-G egg replacer. (I don’t have either on hand.) Half a fresh lemon, check, soymilk, check, cornstarch, check… lets do this. I halved the recipe, doled out 1/4 cup portions into a cupcake pan, and stew some frozen wild blueberries on top.

Vegan Lemon Muffins (or Cupcakes?)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Prepare a muffin pan with 8-10 paper liners.

First: Stir together in a glass measuring cup (so it can curdle a bit),
3/4 cup almond, soy, or rice milk (I used plain soymilk)
1/4 cup lemon juice (not enough in my lemon half so I supplemented with Real Lemon bottled juice.)
Zest from half a lemon (lacking a zester, I use the smallest side of my box grater.)

Next: Cream together in a small bowl,
 1/3 cup vegan margarine (I used plain Crisco. Organic Smart Balance is great for baking, though. I just didn’t have enough.)
1/2 cup sugar (unbleached organic sugar to “keep vegan!”)

Then: Stir together in a large bowl:
1 3/4 cups white flour (again, unbleached is best. King Arthur flour is my standby.)
1 3/4 tablespoons corn starch
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt

Finally: Stir creamed mixture and half of soy milk mixture into flour mixture. Then stir in the rest of the soymilk mixture. Give it a good stir for a minute or two.  Divide among muffin liners. I put a small handful of frozen wild blueberries on top and poked the batter with a butter knife attempting to mix them in. They didn’t distribute evenly but I prefer it this way to weird grey blue batter. With fresh blueberries you could very carefully stir them in to the batter before putting it in the pan.

Bake for… I can’t remember. Sorry. This is why I was so drawn to that Half Assed Kitchen thing. 25 minutes perhaps? They don’t take on a lot of color, so don’t overcook.

The results were… just what I was looking for!  Attractive pale golden yellow color for a muffin without eggs. Delicate lemon flavor perfectly compliments blueberries. Muffins puffed up pretty well. I would make these again, definately! Probably not on a 95 degree day, though. (To put a positive spin on it… compared to my kitchen, the rest of the house feels cool!)