Apples! Apples! Apples! Apple Pie!

Fall is probably the best season in Michigan. It's absolutely beautiful. With so many deciduous trees changing their color, mid-October is really a sight to see. Various orange, reds and yellows fill the streets and bring fun, colorful joy! Also there is plenty to do around this time. Michigan is filled with tons of apple orchards and cider mills so you can get your apple fix. Apples are Michigan's largest food crop with an economic impact at an estimated $700 million! Just last weekend, my boyfriend and I ventured just a few miles north and went to Blake's apple orchard and cider mill. I went here as a kid and remember sitting on a picnic bench with my dad, freezing my butt off, drinking hot cider and eating delicious, fresh doughnuts. We picked half a bushel of apples and got some fresh pressed apple cider. (No doughnuts for us this time, since they're not vegan, but as soon as I get a deep fryer, I'm making some!) With our fresh, picked-from-the-tree apples, we tried to make as many meals containing apples. Justin (my boyfriend) made apple baked seitan, which was excellent! He also made an apple cider reduction to put on top of our pancakes one morning. I made an apple pie. The best apple pie I've ever made. Here it is!

For the Crust:
*Make this crust ahead of time. It needs to chill in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes. I made it a day in advance so putting the rest of the pie together was super easy.

-2 cups all-purpose flour

-1 teaspoon salt

-1 tablespoon sugar

-1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

-6 tablespoons room temperature vegan margarine

-6 tablespoons shortening

-6 to 8 tablespoons ice water

In a large bowl, sift the flour, salt, sugar and cinnamon. Then using a dough blender cut in the margarine and shortening and add the ice water. Once its well mixed, roll it into a ball, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate. *I use margarine AND shortening because it gives the crust a very flaky and buttery taste.

For the filling:

-4-5 TART apples. I used Granny Smith.

-1 tablespoon lemon juice

-1 cup sugar

-2 tablespoons flour

-1 tablespoon brown sugar

-1/4 teaspoon salt

-1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

-1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

Peel and slice your apples and place them in a bowl filled with cold water and the lemon juice. This will prevent them from turning a funky brown color. Drain the apples and mix in the rest of the filling ingredients until they're coated.

Assembling your pie:

Cut your "ball" of dough in half. Roll out one of the haves 1/8th of an inch thick & an inch larger than your pie plate. Wrap it onto your rolling pin and roll it out into your pie plate.

Place your apples in the pie! Add four chunks of vegan margarine on top of the apples. This will give it a very "rich" taste.

Roll out your second half of dough. Depending on what type of crust you're going to use the next step will vary. You can just wrap it around your rolling pin again, and place it on top of your apples OR you can make a lattice crust, as I did. Whatever crust you choose to make, make sure your top crust has holes. Your pie needs room to "breathe".

Before you pop your pie into the oven, take some foil and wrap it around the crust of your pie. This will keep the crust from burning, but remember to take off the foil 10 minutes before your pie is done.

Bake your pie at 400 degrees, 50-60 minutes or until bubbly.

Enjoy with some ice cream! :)

New PUP!

About 2 months ago, Justin and I decided we wanted to adopt a pup. Since we are both animal lovers and pretty much against breeding we knew we had to rescue the pup we wanted. There are tons of animals out there sitting in kennels and shelters waiting to be adopted. I urge anyone looking for a new companion to adopt. I actually adopted both of my kittens. ANYWAYS.. We had been searching online for a few weeks and we were checking various shelters looking for a puppy to adopt. We walked into this particular shelter on an adoption day and saw some puppies and kitties but nobody was really stealing our hearts like I expected a puppy would do. We walked into the "back" where the kennels were and saw two dogs there. One which was barking like a mad man and the other who jumped up and shoved her little nose through the fence to say hello. Her name was Isis. We knew immediately we wanted her to come home with us. We took her home that day! She is a German-Shepard mix. She was already 9 months old but that was okay by us! I would rather save a bit of an older pup because people aren't as interested in them. What I liked about this particular shelter was they were a no-kill shelter, so they would keep an animal as long as needed until they found a home for it. Most shelters will put a dog to sleep if it gets "kennel-cough" or any other type of sickness because of the cost of treating it. A lot of dogs that come from pounds get "kennel-cough" which is like a common cold for dogs. Our dog actually had kennel cough before we got her and because this particular shelter rescued her, she wasn't put to sleep. She was able to go home with us!

I've never really had a dog before and it's quite possibly the most heart warming thing ever. They way she follows me around the house and the way she looks at me with those eyes just melts my heart. She's my little baby. I will do anything to make her life happy. She already knew how to sit and lay down and LOVES other dogs. All she wants to do is play, play, play! I've lost a couple pairs of shoes to her puppy-dog teething ways, but I still love her nonetheless.


For more information about animal shelters, read this letter from a shelter manager.

Marinated Tofu

Quite possibly my new favorite thing to make (and eat) is marinated tofu. It's super easy to make and extremely delicious & nutritious. There are endless ways to marinate tofu and it all depends on preference and what you feel like eatin' that particular day. Basically all I do is take extra firm tofu and slice it the way that I want (I did triangles this time around) and take any type of container that may fit all or most of the tofu you are going to use and put your marinade in there. I basically eyeballed but here are some approximations.

-1/2 cup of white wine vinegar
-1/4 cup of Braggs liquid amino acids
-2 tablespoons tamari sauce
-Freshly squeeze lemon juice (half)
-1 clove of garlic, minced
-Pinch of basil, tyme, oregeno, salt & pepper
-A little h20

Add more or less of each ingredient depending on how much tofu you're marinating. Marinate for at least an hour (1/2 hour for each side) or marinate over night! After thats all done, fry it up until both sides are brown and indulge. Lots of nom noms. I made this for dinner last night, with some garlic/lemon/sesame seed asparagus and some red skinned garlic mashed potatos. There was lots of garlic goin on in our meal last night. I blame it on my half italian boyfriend, I never liked garlic until I met him!

LIFE GOAL

As I was searching through google looking for a cool spot to go camping in a couple of weeks, I stumbled upon a website outlining the Appalachian Trail. Okay, cool. As my eyes glance over the page, I come to a dead stop when I see the numbers 2,174. That's 2,174 miles. A trail, that people hike, is over 2,174 miles. I utter the words "holy shit". I instantly became fascinated. The trail extends from the northern tip of Maine to the northern tip of Georgia. There are shelters and towns along the way, that are accustomed to these hikers. The hike can take a much as 7 months to as little as 3 months. There are several slangs to go with this trails and the hikers that decide to this wondrous journey. Blue-blazers, yellow-blazes, north-bounders, south-bounders, purists, thru-hikers! It's insane! I've decided this is one of my LIFE GOALS. No joke. I will take 3-7 months out of my life, someday, to HIKE THIS. Camping, and hiking into towns to restock on food, and above all being in nature and observing the wildlife and grasping all the beauty the earth has to offer. No computers, no phones, no nothing. Just walking (with whomever chooses to join me) peacefully throughout the 11 or so states. Reading books, writing a journal, enjoying life. THIS NEEDS TO HAPPEN. Then maybe I'll know how Thoreau felt..

Mr. Beebles.

A friend of mine recently found a kitten under her house. She has two dogs, a cat and 3 month old, and couldn't really take on the task of a new kitten. I asked her all the details and what, and why and where. After a quick pit stop at a pet store, Justin and I went and picked him up yesterday. He's the cutest little mother fucker around. My friend told me he was about six weeks old, but with more research we've discovered he's probably only 3-4 weeks old. His head is still really wobbly and he stumbles around everywhere. He fits in the palms of my hands and has the cutest blue eyes. We haven't decided if we're going to keep him or try and find a new home for him. For the time being we are calling him Mr. Beebles. Taking care of a baby cat is similar to taking care of a toddler. You can't take your eyes off them, you have to make sure they eat and go to the bathroom, and they can get annoying. This lil guy wont stop biting me and attacking my hand as I type this. Animals!

NEXT FRIDAY!

Critical Mass on Friday

So on Friday we had a decent turn out to our Detroit Critical Mass. I was pretty stoked. The downside was, none of our friends came. All I knew was obviously Justin, Laura and Vanessa. The great part about it was about 50+ people came. So, if we can get THAT many people to show up that we don't even know, I think in the months to come, we could get even a greater amount. Especially since we didn't spend that much time letting people know about it, now we have a whole month to let people know. SO next one is APRIL 24TH AT 5:30 PM AT GRAND CIRCUS PARK, DETROIT. :)