Every once in a while I find myself pining for the next season to start up. Since we are currently in Summer, even if it is winding down, I cannot wait for fall to start. The weather is crisp, the colors of everything are yellows, reds and oranges, and the fashion is fun. Not to mention all of the delicious foods that get brought back to the table.
When it comes to break time during my work day it is usually the time of day when I need a pick-me-up, and that’s when I head over to Booskerdoo to grab a tea or coffee! While it has been warm I am definitely ready to celebrate the beginning of sweater weather and fall flavors, so I mixed the best of both worlds and got this delicious iced Apple Ginger Tea.
This tea smells almost exactly like an apple pie! It brought on a huge wave of nostalgia for cooler weather and more apple/cinnamon flavored drinks. It also tastes just like an apple pie, only slightly more bitter without all the added sugar. I am sure if you try this tea with milk and sugar in it the taste would change slightly, but not in a bad way. Having it iced was great because it was the sweetness of the apple almost made it taste like a desert while still being cold.
I also adored the color of this tea. The picture might not do it justice because the cup was beginning to get all fogged up from the heat and cold all at once. It was the perfect orangey red that just screams “FALL” (the season, not the action)!
I am definitely excited to drink this when the weather cools down more, I might even do another review or at least post more pictures while talking about it. That’s how much I enjoyed it! Thanks again Booskerdoo!
Drink me! I’m delicious!
This is my first Sunday off in several weeks. It feels great to have two day in a row to get errands done and relax. And work ended just in time for Vegan Mofo- Vegan Month of Food. Basically it means I am going to try and blog at least 5 times a week all about vegan food. So get ready for lots of posts.
To stay in the spirit I am doing the Sunday reading slightly differently. I am posting articles relating to veganism or animal rights. I am also trying to keep in touch with other blogs and post recipes on Vegan Mofo participating sites. So ready for some reads and food?
Today is brutal. The weather is unbearably humid and fairly hot. I guess I shouldn’t complain since this summer has been pretty nice to everyone. It didn’t help that we had to park our car farther than usual and I had to carry a dirty wet 25 (and more) pound watermelon a quarter of a mile. My farm grew a record breaking (at least for them) 30 pound watermelon! Eek!
It is so hot that I actually plan on eating out tonight, even though I have more food than what I know what to do with. No way I’m turning an oven on in this small apartment.
I have been plagued by this question- would Sailor Moon be a vegan? I feel like she would. So far I’ve only seen her eat mochi and toast, and that is in fact vegan. Actually, that’s not true. She is always eating generic bento boxes, which probably has some meats or fish packed in there. But I blame Usagi’s Mom, she is the one making the meals. I just picture Usagi sitting in her room eating lots of mochi and Earth Balance Mac and Cheese.
Realistically Sailor Mars would be the vegan since she is a shrine maiden. Shintoism has deep respect for animals, so Rei probably does as well (and her favorite food is vegetarian pizza, whatever that means). Or maybe Sailor Jupitar would be vegan? She is such a good cook that she looks for a challenge by cooking vegan food. She would save so much money! Although Sailor Neptune could be vegan since she is so smart.
Can I make a confession? I kind-of hate watermelon. I know, that is totally un-American of me. It is actually a curse. I love the FLAVOR of watermelon, I just can’t stand the seeds. I am a chewer so I manage to crunch into each and every seed before I can spit it out. I know you are thinking “Well then just get seedless watermelon!” Yeah, I have tried farm fresh watermelon, and now seedless watermelon tastes like bland water pulp. So I am stuck craving watermelon but regretting the first bite.
This leaves me with a problem. Melons are doing really well at my farm. Just last week I took home THREE cantaloupe. Yup. That’s right three. I had to give one away since they were huge. This week I only got one small cantaloupe, and we got one watermelon. Then my mother in law pointed out that there was a huge watermelon that they were having a guessing contest for. Winner takes the watermelon. I never back down from a competition.
Low and behold the skills I picked up from working a restaurant kicked in. I thought “Wow this feels like a 25 lb bag of beets, only minus a pound.” So I guessed 24 lbs even, and I found myself taking a 24 pound watermelon home with my already huge pick from my share. I figured if I was going to get these watermelons gobbled up by the end of the week, I should probably drink them.
I had this recipe sitting in the drafts section for a few months now… 7 months to be exact. Which is a shame because these are great cookies to make with non-vegan friends. It calls for almost all “normal” ingredients. Meaning there isn’t any fake butter, or things you wouldn’t find in the pantry. There is technically 2 tbsp of soy milk, but you can sub it for water. And there is flax and chia seeds, but you can take them out, you’ll just have a more tender cookie.
New York Times have dubbed the best iced latte in America a vegan latte. Hard to believe but true. Two coffee shop owners didn’t want to put an iced latte on their menu because it wasn’t something they would drink. But they knew about the demand for an iced latte, and searched for a way to bring up to their standards. The answer was a velvety nut milk.
Am I claiming my latte is better? Well, no. But it is still pretty dang good. My biggest complaint about non-dairy lattes in stores is that they get gritty when hot, and iced the coffee gets dulled. I like my coffee strong so I find myself making my own coffee often at home because of it.
I haven’t talked about fashion or clothing in awhile. But fall is coming up, and I am very excited about it. Although warm weather is nice, I much rather enjoy cold weather. If I had a million dollars, I would buy lots and lots of coats. It is something I fight since I know I really only need one for the winter. I use to have a wide selection but had to get rid of a bunch since most apartments I lived in had no coat closets.
Now I feel like I should add another coat to my collection, although I might not have enough money for some of them. That’s the problem with coats, they are so expensive and can only be worn for part of the year (and only part of the day too!)
1 : Swell Farewell Vintage / 2 : The Arbor Vitae / 3 : Fox Burrow Vintage
Can I say I am absolutely in love with this plaid swing coat with fur trim? If money was no object I would buy this coat right now. It looks so warm for the winter time, and would be great for layering. And I had a coat similar to this style, and that type of fur collar- simply amazing and snuggable. But I might want something that ties around the waste for flared skirts like this pumpkin spiced colored coat. It is much cheaper in comparison, and has a great color. Fox Burrow Vintage has a great green vintage coat with a houndstooth like pattern. Though, I feel like it would be the hardest to fit clothing underneath it, making it more of an errands coat, not a walk in the city coat.
4 : Butch Wax Vintage / 5 : American Prospecting / 6 : Sartorial Matters
I am not a huge animal print person, but every so often I fall in love with it. I am not sure what makes me love this tiger print fur coat so much, but I want it badly. I was never a huge fur fan, and my vegan-like eating habits make it hard to justify wearing it. But I do love a nice vintage fur trimmed coat. Especially this mustard coat with dark fur trim. It looks nice a roomie for layering. I am also a sucker for capes. I know I shouldn’t since it is impossible to hold a purse with one, but I keep buying them. And I am loving this burnt orange plaid cape.
So is anyone else hunting around for winter coats already?
Sorry that I’ve been MIA these past few sundays. My goal was to keep a list of articles and videos that I wanted to feature each week, but my work schedule kept hindered my writing. It’s not that I work really late, but I am on my feet all day and just need a chance to relax. Pile on some personal life issues and working on the blog fell to the bottom of my to do list.
I didn’t want the Sunday Reading post to go for another week, so I’m featuring lighter reads that I enjoyed and could relate to these past few weeks. Sure, some of these featured posts are a bit older, but I’d still like to share them, especially since they are written by some of my favorite blogs. Although I don’t assume my favorite bloggers have perfect lives, you rarely see any of their struggles through the eyes of their blog. So, I am glad to see some of these girls step up and say “hey, I’ve been going through some tough stuff too.”
I had the pleasure of going to another live wrestling event a few weeks ago and it was just as amazing as the first few times I’ve been. I know I’ve said this before guys…but…man oh man do I love wrestling. We saw on TV that WWE was advertising a taping of their Friday night show “SmackDown” in Newark NJ, and since it’s so easy to get to we decided that we probably had to go. Sadly – I didn’t get a group selfie this time, I’ll have to make that a tradition from now on. We hit a bump in the road on our way to the Prudential Center this time, the train heading that way which we had planned on taking was CANCELLED. At first it had been delayed and we figured it wasn’t a huge deal but once the announcement came over the loud speaker we knew it was too late. Mr. Ian and I couldn’t just hop into my truck and go – mostly because we were meeting Billy on the train and we would have to find parking for either us or him until after the show. The next train ended up coming on time, thankfully, we met up with Billy on said train and got to Prudential in one piece. It was then that we also met up with my friend Vinny! I got to know Vinny through working at Old Navy a year or so ago – and it wasn’t until after we both stopped working there that I found out he also loved wrestling. We both happened to be going to the same live event (also at the Prudential Center) and met up briefly during the intermission. I was just super happy that he could make it to SmackDown with us this time! The trouble with being late to a taping though is that you miss some of the “dark matches” that may or may not happen before the show officially starts. We missed out on a match between two really awesome tag teams – The Ascension, who they seem to be bringing up from the developmental program and show NXT, and Goldust and Stardust. Mr. Ian was pretty bummed, he wore his brand new Ascension shirt and everything! I felt so bad but let’s be real, we were all just happy that the second train wasn’t cancelled too.
Left: Goldust & Stardust Right: The Ascension
If I could just gush about the two men in black and yellow (urm…gold) for a moment. They are definitely two of my favorite wrestlers on the current roster – Cody Rhodes (Stardust) is a chameleon when it comes to wrestling in the ring. He’s had several different gimmicks within the last few years, and his newest one does not disappoint. He changed his move set slightly to mirror that of his (real life!) brother’s, Goldust (aka Dustin Rhodes). I don’t want to rant on and on…but I love them SO much. They are both very talented and I love watching them work!
Highlights of the Night!
Damien “Bruce Springsteen” Sandow
Damien Sandow’s regular gimmick has been known as the “Intellectual Savior of the Masses”, he would come out in a blue robe and hold the microphone as if it were a snifter while telling everyone in the audience about how much smarter he was. It was a great character! He has currently been coming out as different people to try and confuse his opponent…part of me thinks it can be clever and funny, while the other part is just frustrated that they seem to be dropping his original persona. I don’t want Damien Sandow to turn into one of the wrestlers who just wears black trunks and gear and has almost no personality. I will admit though, this was hilarious! It was the week before 4th of July (…I told you this was a little while ago!) and WWE was in New Jersey – what better way to get a reaction out of the crowd than to have Damien come out as The Boss?
