There's a midnight sushi train and I'm on it.

I have a theory that if insomniacs became vegan there would be enough vegan food to feed all of the babies in canada for 5 years straight. I'm still developing this theory and have yet to perform any case studies but it's a thought. Point being, I love making time consuming things at late hours of the night. It's almost midnight. I made sushi. It makes me happy.

Right, so.

Prior to making those awesome pop-tarts which tempted my roomates to venture over into bad-breakfast-decision-land, I spent two whole sleepless nights researching what I thought would a) triumph over that crap you buy in the cereal aisle that has probably been sitting on the shelf for months and b) be super easy to make and require very few ingredients. The recipe that met both of these requirements is actually not vegan but that is nooooo problem when you are the bees-knees. So here it is, Peabody's Pop-Tart Recipe (veganized by Raven Bees-Knees Price):

Peabody’s Poptarts
pie crust(recipe follows)

good jam(your choice)
Glaze
Sparkling Sugar

Pie Crust
1-1/2 cups sifted flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup shortening
1/4 cup vegan margarine
3 tablespoons cold water
Combine flour and salt in bowl. Add shortening and margarine and blend with fork, pastry cutter or your fingers until mixture is fairly coarse. Add water, 1 tablespoon at a time, gently mixing dough after each addition until dough forms a ball. (Dough can also be prepared in food processor. Use the pulse button just until it starts to pull away from the sides. Be very careful not to overwork the dough.) Place dough on a lightly floured surface and roll into a square/rectangle. Cut out long strips about 2 inches wide, and 3 inches long. Repeat till you run out of dough.
Glaze:
1 cup powder sugar
soy milk to thin
Place powdered sugar in bowl. Pour milk slowly until it has a consistancy of really thick syrup.

Assemble: Take one pie crust rectangle, fill with a tsp of jam. Cover with another piece of pie crust. Crimpe all four edges. Repeat until you run out of pie crust. Bake at 450F for about 7-8 minutes or until slightly brown. Set aside to cool. Once cooled, pour glaze on to Poptart and decorate iwth sparkling sugar.

One busy vegan and the ever-lasting bag of flour.

That will be the proposed title of my life story, or maybe just the story of this month. One bag of flour apparently yields a month's worth of random crap. Pierogi, scones, cookies, cookies, cookies, pie crust, tarts, quiche, cookies. My pop-tarts are almost entirely perfected and I will probably be posting the recipe for those within the next hour, my chocolate tart could use some work, the pierogi was perfect but alas I forgot to photograph that experience *insert tragic sigh here*, anddddd cookies were just the same old boring recipes so nothing to post there. As of this second I am debating on what else should be included in this smorgasbord of a post and thinking that my hands smell of garlic. Badly. Thank you, quiche. I am thinking that within the next week I will probably make sticky buns, spanish tortilla, y una mescla de cosas que estan en mi cabeza a este minuto. Okay, quiche is done, love you, bye.

Coming soon....

A scone.

I like to describe it as a sweet and doughy version of a biscuit. Upon researching for two days I discovered that scones should traditionally be round, tall, and only slightly sweet. Shocking. I've only ever come into acquaintance with those triangle shaped sugar coated things with more sugary stuff inside that they sell at that very popular coffee place that I work at. Round, tall, slightly sweet. I can dig that. Orange style. I used Ina Garten's Cranberry Orange Scone recipe as a semi guideline for measurements and such but in the end my hands discovered my heart's own twist.

yields 12-16 scones
scones
4 1/2 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder
2 tsp salt
1 tbsp orange zest
1 tbsp canola oil
4 tbsp margarine
2 tbsp flax eggs
1 cup soy cream

orange icing
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup orange juice

- preheat oven to 400 degrees
- in a large bowl combine flour, sugar, powder, salt, and orange zest
- add margarine and mix with hands until butter is the size of peas
- add the oil, cream, and flax until blended
- place dough onto a floured surface and form into a ball
- with a floured rolling pin, roll dough 3/4" thick, and cut into circles using a cookie cutter or glass
- place scones on a pan lined with parchment paper and bake for 20 minutes, allow to cool completely before icing
- mix together the powdered sugar and orange juice until a thick goop is formed, dip each scone into the icing and place on a wire rack until the icing is set. After a few minutes dip again

Almost nearly entirely somewhat mostly moved...

save for a load of laundry at the old apartment which at this point I'm a wee bit tempted to abandon. Ooops. Who needs towels? Not I, said the dry woman. I greatly enjoy living in Norfolk and more specifically in my new house. I've lived in just about everything but a house for the past 14 something years and I am taking careful note of the feeling of real hardwood floors, a garden, a decent sized kitchen, and tons of room for our abundance of kitties. [side track] we have a garden! Tonight I enjoyed a quick lettuce wrap which featured home-grown jalapenos scattered amongst brown rice, hummus, tomato, and artichoke. [end side track] The mere fact that I am no longer physically residing on VB soil has been enough to drop my stress level drastically. The abundance of kitties helps too. This past week I wandered around nearby shopping centers and discovered 2 huge thrift markets, an antique shop, an international food market, and a small health food store. We're talking within a 10 minute biking distance. I am 10 minutes and $2.14 away from a vegan lemon poppy seed cookie and a cane sugar jamaican root beer! It's love!

Baking soon at a kitchen near you: Chocolate Pecan Pie or Pumpkin Cream Cheese Whoopee Pies

- Love, Raven

Apricot Thumbprint Cookies

For some reason these cookies remind me of sleepovers at my nana's house. That lady has an abundance of apricot preserves. What do you do with that much apricot? Bagels? Toast? Cookies! These are exceptionally fun because you're supposed to squish your fingers into them.

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup almond milk
1 1/2 tsp almond extract
1 cup apricot preserves

-Preheat oven to 350
-Combine flour, baking powder, salt, & sugar in a medium bowl
-In a separate bowl combine oil, milk, and extract. Slowly beat into flour mixture until a soft dough forms
- Lightly oil two baking sheets with cooking spray. Roll dough into 1 1/2" balls and place balls 1" apart on sheet
-Bake for 7 minutes, then quickly remove from oven and place your thumb into the center of each cookie to form an indentation. Spoon a tiny dollop of preserves into the hole. Place back into the oven and bake for another 7-10 minutes