I had a hankering for some old fashioned Snickerdoodles just like I used to bake with my mom, only vegan this time.
I’ve been asked, so to clarify…yes, this is my pic I took of the just-baked Snickerdoodles, not a random Google photo.
I realize that a majority of my recipes are zero sugar and include all forms of kale and tofu and lentils; healthy and organic for the Angels, but they’re not here right now and I have truly eaten enough kale to last several lifetimes, haha.
I developed this recipe after doing tons of online research. The internet offers dozens of variations; some recipes include flax seeds, coconut sugar, and spelt/oat/amaranth/chickpea flours (including gluten free)–but I prefer to keep things simple.
My philosophy is that more people might want to try a vegan lifestyle if it’s not too complicated. At least at first, and then as one delves deeper into cruelty-free living, it’s fun to experiment with more exotic ingredients.
Gather ingredients; Cream of Tartar is the key to snickerdoodle’s unique flavor. I know it’s against all the rules to use Crisco shortening, but once in a while is OK, and it’s awesome for cookie texture.
I didn’t think anything could be better than my Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies, but I was blissfully happy with the results of these crackly, chewy, intensely cinnamon-y full moon shaped pillows of satisfying spicy sweetness. (But not too sweet.)
If you have patience, let them cool for about ten minutes before eating, but if you’re anything like me, you won’t be able to wait. I hope you try them and let me know your results.
My friend is going to drop off a bottle of imported vanilla so I’ll make them again, but I might still use the maple syrup because the maple flavor really enhanced the spicy cinnamon profile.
Caution: I go HEAVY on the cinnamon because I love it so much. If you don’t, adjust the amount to be mindful of your own tastebuds.
It has come to the attention of my brain that I seem to write a lot about weather.
Sun, heat, rain, hail, snow, clouds, fog…I wonder if that’s because there’s really so little weather here in SoCal. For a majority of the time, it’s sunny and warm. Or sunny and hot. Or sunny with drought-like conditions. This isn’t me being critical of our weather; I’ve simply reflected upon how much of a weather watcher I am.
From the monsoonal–like deluge
that transformed a dry river bed into a not-so-dry river bed
to a beautiful sunset.
I was driving on a favorite street — do you have a favorite street? Mine is one that offers a breath-taking view of San Gorgonio and San Jacinto, mountains to the north of me. They received several feet of new snow during the same winter storm.
This sight is so beyond magnificent, it literally took away my breath for several seconds.
Hand to heart, as I was snapping a few photos of the snow covered mountains, one of my most special songs came on the radio, Fleetwood Mac’s Landslide, with the iconic lyrics, “And I saw my reflection in the snow-covered hills –‘Til the landslide brought me down.”
Mother Nature gifted us with rain, wind, hail, snow, and surf.
Yesterday was so windy, it almost knocked me over. Trees and power lines were down all along the coast.
I think it’s astonishing that I can see these mountains sixty to eighty miles away when I stand in the middle of my street right in front of my house. I live exactly three miles away from the Pacific Ocean. It’s a bit hazy and the camera lens is trying as hard as it can to capture the snow capped hills.
After walking up nearly fifty steps to the very top of my garden, this is the view facing east to either Palomar Mountain or Mount Laguna (I can’t tell the difference) where they had about a foot of snow.
The power lines are actually quite far away; they seem closer than they actually are.
These apartments are an ugly blight on the landscape, ruining the mountain pic. This city has zero sense about the value of open space.
I would love to drive up to Mammoth Mountain to ski ‘cos I hear they received eight to ten feet of new snow in the Sierra Nevada, but I had a bad experience driving to Snow Summit and have never been able to shake the fear. I had taken my son skiing for his thirteenth birthday and we had a really fun day together but on the way back home, my brakes went out and we almost crashed. REALLY! Actually, we ran off the road at a Ranger’s Station and we’re lucky to be alive. Highway Patrol arrived and we were towed to San Bernadino and the shop was able to repair whatever brake issue caused the malfunction and we drove home. Ever since then, I’ve been too afraid to drive to the mountains. That was about the closest to death I’ve ever been and it traumatized me. Not my Angel Boy though; he’s fearless, and that’s the way it should be.
After the rain, our beautiful ocean is still a little agitated, and the next storm’s clouds loom on the horizon…
My appointment for my first Covid vaccine was scheduled for 8:15 this morning. I chose the Jefferson Street Scripps location because it’s close and also brand new so I thought it’d be nice and clean.
I got there early like I always do and stood in a not-very-long line. I was the 9th person. The entire wait was about twenty minutes or so. Every so often, an employee came out to update us on the status and thanked us for being patient.
We had some rain and then a rainbow appeared!
When it was my turn to get checked in, the process was smooth and swift and I was sent to another short line waiting to get into an actual room for the vaccination.
I’m a very cautious person…trying to stay healthy, that’s all!
The RN explained that I would be receiving the Pfizer vaccine and was given a small card to save with the date and vaccine lot number.
The actual injection was absolutely pain-free and over in less than five seconds.
From there, I was escorted to another area to sit for about thirty minutes to determine whether or not I was going to have an adverse reaction.
Guess what?
I DID!
After about ten minutes or so, I could feel my tongue start to feel thick and when I talked to the nurse, my voice was hoarse. Since I have asthma, I’m used to what it feels like when I’m experiencing respiratory distress. I was also a little dizzy. The nurse decided it was time to take me downstairs to be further evaluated by a triage team in Urgent Care.
Vitals were taken. My blood pressure was 160/120 and my heart rate was 114. Oxygen was 99% which is good, but there was definitely some type of negative reaction to the vaccine. The doctor suggested, and I agreed, to an IV hydration drip. Since I can’t take steroids because of bad reactions to THAT, she thought I should have Benadryl. I opted to wait and see how I felt after the IV before doing that. I should say here that if I were counseling anyone else, I’d tell anyone to definitely get the Benadryl, but I’m a pretty stubborn girl and like to make my own medical decisions based on what I know about my own body.
I was nicely set up with an IV, a pillow, and a heated blanket tucked in around me. That was so lovely.
I rested for the next hour or so; every so often someone would pop their head in to check on me and my symptoms didn’t worsen. I started to feel a little better.
The doctor took my vitals again; BP and HR were back to normal and I was discharged to go home and take my own Benadryl, 25 milligrams four times a day.
So far, the only other symptoms I’ve noticed is that my vaccinated arm is starting to become sore and I’m tired, but that could be from the Benadryl.
Before I left Scripps, I had an email for my second Covid vaccination in three weeks. How efficient is that!
I spoke with Josh, one of the location managers, and told him what an amazing and organized job Scripps did with the vaccines. Everyone was kind, professional, and caring.
All in all, it was a satisfying experience. I hope everybody gets the Covid vaccine as soon as possible so we can resume living!
Day Two: I woke up with a sore arm and no other side effects, fever, aches, or chills. Fingers crossed!
UPDATE: Forty-nine-year-old transient, Dawn Ann Crawford, was arrested for causing this and other fires in Carlsbad. ________________________________________________________________
What a day!
On this auspicious January 20, 2021 when we welcomed President BIden and Vice President Harris along with their beautiful families, the weather here was warm and super windy.
I saw a notice on PulsePoint that there was a vegetation fire down the street from me. Hmmm, I thought to myself, should I go see what it’s all about?
And then I saw another alert for another fire just a couple blocks from the first one and then all hell broke loose around here with the sound of sirens and fire engines and police cars speeding down my street.
I didn’t even change my clothes. I was wearing old animal print leggings and a “Someone at Yale loves you” t-shirt. My hair was in a messy bun and I was wearing my glasses, but I couldn’t resist being nosy, so I got my good camera and jumped in the car.
Streets were already blocked off and homeowners were being evacuated so I had to turn around and find my secret pathways (not gonna tell). I was able to get super close and take incredible video and photos.
A couple structures were slightly damaged but I had to leave after the planes dropped fire retardant because it was hard to breathe.
I don’t have official confirmation but off the record, I heard it was arson.
All the firefighters and the police did an absolutely amazing job. Many thanks to Cal Fire, Vista Fire Department, San Marcos Fire Department, San Diego Fire Department, and Encinitas Fire Department.
If not for their heroic efforts, this entire neighborhood would have burned up.
The last five years have been a collective dark night of the soul for this country as well as for many people who have endured their own somber and murky life experiences.
We were collectively ravaged by a malignant sociopathic narcissist. By all rights, in 2016 Hillary Clinton should have been our president; there’s no argument that she won three million more votes, but because of our weird system of the Electoral College process, for whatever reason it didn’t turn out that way.
Ultimately she conceded, not by inciting riots and insurrection, but in a super classy way. However, she knew. She KNEW. And so did I.
Today we’re witnessing the tortuous climb out of the depths of hell, reaching toward light out of darkness.
Do you think I’m being melodramatic?
I don’t. We’ve all witnessed an absolute decline in humanity, of empathy, of compassion, of civility, and now, the universe is setting things right.
The kaleidoscope shifted just a bit, but enough.
Part of President Biden’s inaugural speech: “Our better angels have always prevailed”
As above, so below.
Did you know that a good friend of mine recently died from Covid-19? He was only fifty-two years old and in good health. It was a mere three weeks from the first day he felt sick to the day he died in hospital in a medically induced coma on a ventilator and dialysis. I went to RiteAid for a sympathy card and noticed that all those racks were empty. There were a lot of birthday and anniversary cards, but slot after slot of folded pieces of paper designed to express our care and concern were empty. EMPTY. I went to another store and another and found the same scenario. That’s when it really hit me. There are so many deaths, now 400,000 — that we can’t keep up with the demand for condolence cards.
Witnessing Joe Biden and Kamala Harris take the oaths of office as President and Vice President will once again allow us to feel proud of being Americans. We’ll have rational humans in charge again. Thank goodness.
I regret not being able to see and hear Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Namaste and I’ll end this with the great and beautiful Lady Gaga singing The National Anthem
I have a friend who keeps bugging me to bake something so I decided to develop a vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe.
My favorite kind of chocolate chip cookie is one that is 90% chocolate chips bound together by as little cookie dough as possible. The cookie dough is merely a vehicle to transport as many chips in my mouth as possible.
I think I achieved that today with this vegan recipe.
Assemble all ingredients first, this really saves time. I ran out of sea salt, so I had to use this kind…You could use coconut oil instead of veggie oil, but you’d have to melt it first, and I’m allergic to coconut and don’t really like it anyway. Another option is to use shortening or vegan butter, which is more traditional, and then it would be necessary to first cream the butter with the sugars.
(Recipe below with a cool Canva template.)
Combine sugars and wet ingredients.
Add dry ingredients and chips. Of course you can add fewer chocolate chips if you choose, or add nuts.
Cooling on the rack. I can’t wait to try them!
YUMMY. Crispy on the outside, chewy and sublimely chocolatey all the way around. Pretty much the PERFECT vegan chocolate chip cookie!
Since astrologers say that we’re in another Age of Aquarius, I hope 2021 marks a new desire to stop killing people because of the color of their skin.
This injustice needs to STOP once and for all.
The last few years have revealed a very dark and ugly side to the United States of America that I honestly thought no longer existed.
But parts of this country are as racist and filled with hate as they were one hundred years ago, and that’s incredibly disturbing. And disgusting. And ignorant.
Personally, I’m weary of the constant spewing of delusions and distortions intended to incite a base of brain-dead cult followers.
In the words of Martin Luther King, Jr….
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.The time is always right to do what is right.
In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
Although leaves appropriately dropped during autumn’s abcission, I assumed it would lie fallow and stay calm until springtime, but that’s not what’s been happening.
This particular tree seems to be on its (his/her?) own schedule or maybe the mild weather is confusing the internal timeline, because in the last two weeks, it flowered, dropped the flowers, and is showing all new green leaves. In January!
Today’s temperature hovered around eighty degrees and we’re in the middle of a Santa Ana heat wave. I’ve known a few January days that have been this warm, so I’m not exactly sure if it’s climate change related or if it’s simply because it’s Southern California.
It’s the perfect time to pick fresh garden veggies and make a salad.
My lettuce crop is thriving; so are the ruby red radishes.
I also started growing celery from the base of the stalks. It’s really easy. One method is to cut off the base and place in a cup with water to watch it sprout, or you can do it my way, plant it directly in the ground. The ribs aren’t as fat and wide as the original, but it’s super fresh and tasty and the leaves are deliciously herby. They’re surrounding by protective spicy mustard green leaves.
These pepper plants are two years old and still producing. There were almost completely destroyed by squirrels when they were in another location, but I rescued and replanted them in a safe location that was critter-free, and they’ve thanked me by continually producing tasty little green peppery jewels.
