This week’s recipe is a favourite of mine : Cocoa Nibbles! These raw bars rival any over-priced, mass-produced bars you can find in your local supermarket or health food store and are quick and easy to make.

I admit to using carob powder in lieu of cocoa powder, just because. The recipe provides some great add-in ideas, keeping this recipe fresh and different depending on your mood (and what you have on hand). This time around I added cinnamon and ground Vanilla Rooibos Tea. Rooibos or Red Tea is just full of anti-oxidants, and I love the vanilla flavour it adds. I often add a teaspoon of rooibos to my smoothies or raw bars…that’s just the kind of girl I am.

I’m not the best bar-shaper, mostly because I don’t really care about their visual aesthetic. I just want them to be delicious. After I roll them out into a log-shape and chill, I cut them up, and set them on a piece of foil. You can use the foil to push them into a square or bar shape, and your fingers stay clean!

You don’t have to individually wrap these, but I like to have them as on-the-go snacks. Don’t they look so “Lost In Space”esque?

Ready for the best part? You can make these, even if you don’t have Sweet Freedom yet! Visit Diet, Dessert and Dogs for the Cocoa Nibbles recipe!

Have you made anything yummy from Sweet Freedom this week ? Stay tuned next Saturday for another installment of “Sweet Freedom Saturdays”. We’ve also got a brand new Sweet Freedom Flickr Group – come join us! Other Sweet Freedom Saturday deliciousness here in the Fishbowl : Mrs. K’s Date Cake, Raw Apricot Bars, Tomato Spice Cake, Carrot Snack Cake, Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins, Gingered Apple Muffins, Spiced Pumpkin Millet Pudding.

If you’re looking for the Sweet Freedom contest winners, please go here! Congratulations once again to the lucky ladies.

I had a rather difficult time adjusting to school as a 5 year-old.

In fact, I actually quit school, at the tender age of 5. Twice.

The first time was because a mad brute of a boy who stole my bouquet of pussy willows. And injustice. These were the most beautiful, silvery-silky-soft pussy willows I’d ever seen, and my father lovingly soaked his feet as he trod through the freezing-snow-just-melted swamp to cut them down for me. I was bringing them to show and tell because we’d just learned a song about about pussy willows*, when this obviously uncivilized boy tore them from my hands and stomped them into a puddle of mud. Adding insult to injury was the fact that there were no sanctions, no punishment, nothing. Just a stern mutterance*of disapproval from Mrs. A. The nerve! I stomped off and was home before Mrs. A even knew I was gone. (Luckily, we lived just down the street from the school.)

The second time was because I was in protest of my teacher’s obvious academic ineptitude. I was insulted and incredulous as my teacher, Mrs. A, made us write our first names in all capital letters! All capitals! I was horrified that this sage-looking woman in her 50’s seemed to lack the basic knowledge of common English grammar, knowledge I possessed, somehow missing the subtle yet important nuances between the capital and lower-case differentiations. Moments after I walked in through the front door, eyes rolling and head shaking disapprovingly, Mrs. A called my mother, asking if I’d shown up. Hump!

Thus it should come as no surprise to you, gentle reader, that I had little respect for the often ridiculous activities we were to accomplish for Mrs. A. She had us use terribly fat and difficult to hold pencils, making it a chore to write, and because once we were done with our busy-work, we were allowed to play in the miniature log cabin in the corner of the classroom, well, I rushed through her little mundane activities as quickly as possible. Why bother putting any effort into it, really? I mean, she had no idea first names took a capital letter after all.

As you can imagine, Mrs. A did not appreciate my slapdash work-ethic, and often had me re-doing activities two, three and four times, until it was to her liking.

“Stop rushing, it’s too messy,” was her response when I’d hand her my work.

Things were growing more and more tense for Mrs. A and I, and my mamafish knew something had to be done. Mrs. A knew I was bright, precocious, and that I had no regard for her methods, even at 5 years-old. Poor Mamafish had to do what many parents find themselves forced to do : explain that the teacher is the teacher, that even though I was right about many things, Mrs. A was still the teacher, and that if I didn’t try to do things the way Mrs. A wanted them done, well, it was going to be a very, very long school year.

“Haste makes waste,” Mamafish told me as I was colouring at the kitchen table one afternoon.

I had to ask for a translation, and a quick one to boot, because I didn’t understand what “haste” meant, but I still had pictures to colour, and re-runs of Wonder Woman to watch, and a fort to build outside, and all of that before it got dark, so hurry up Mamafish and tell me what it means…

The following day at school, I sat very concentrated before my busywork, so much so that it took Mrs. A by surprise.

“You’re working rather hard on that,” she offered.

“Well, you know, haste makes waste.” I replied matter of factly, secretly hoping she also had to ask her mother what haste meant.

I’m here to tell you that I am still, quite often, in a hurry to get things done. And sometimes, after rushing through something to get to the next thing (geeze, I wish it was to watch Wonder Woman) I hear the voice of Mamafish saying gently, “Haste makes waste.”

There was indeed a huge amount of wasted time put into this apron. I wanted it done faster than possible, and found myself ripping so many seams for really stupid mistakes. I was too busy to follow a pattern, and this one is loosely based on another one I made using the suggestions from Bend The Rules Sewing. And even though, in the end, I vowed to take my time and if it didn’t get done in time for this month’s Tie One On, well then, it didn’t get done, I still fouled up a step and have an unsightly double stitch line along the waistband – though it can’t be seen from the front, because luckily it’s on the inside.

Haste makes waste, kids. Wise words to live by.

*mutterance: shellyism, the muttering of an utterance.

*Here is, for your musical enjoyment, the pussy willow song I learned oh-so-long ago:

I know a little pussy,

He’s very fuzzy and gray,

He lives down in the meadow,

Not very far away.

He’ll always be a pussy,

He’ll never be a cat,

For he’s a pussy willow,

Now what do you think of that?

Meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow…

Scat!

Have you managed to get any lingering W.I.P.s finished up? Whatever your works-in-progress, have a crafty week, and don’t forget to see what the other Wipsters are up to, and to check out our W.I.P. Wednesday Flickr Pool, too.

…to bring you a very special announcement!

Two very groovy ladies have won themselves a copy of Sweet Freedom :

CrazyVeganMom has won a hard copy, and MadCap Cupcake has won a PDF. Please send me a little email (fishbowlmusings at gmail dot com) to claim your prize.

Thanks so much to everyone who participated – I wish I could give you all a copy of this book, because I really do think it’s the bee’s knees. I’d also like to thank author (and friend!) Ricki Heller for generously donating the books for this giveaway!

Your regularly scheduled W.I.P. Post will be up before the day is done! Thank you.

]]> http://shellyfish.wordpress.com/2009/07/01/we-interrupt-your-regularly-scheduled-w-i-p-wednesday/feed/ 6 Shellyfish coversf2 wipwed_blyel http://shellyfish.wordpress.com/2009/06/27/vegan-frangipan-is-as-easy-as-pie-or-tart-or-positively-scrumptious-daring-bakers-time-kids/ http://shellyfish.wordpress.com/2009/06/27/vegan-frangipan-is-as-easy-as-pie-or-tart-or-positively-scrumptious-daring-bakers-time-kids/#comments Sat, 27 Jun 2009 09:45:05 +0000 shellyfish http://shellyfish.wordpress.com/?p=2367 ]]>

Looking for the Sweet Freedom cookbook giveaway? You have until midnight Paris time today! Just leave a comment.

The June Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart… er… pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800’s in England.

I have 2 confessions to make :

Confession number one = I wasn’t very excited about this challenge.

There. I said it.

When I saw this month’s challenge recipe I found it rather uninspiring and even considered skipping out because I had a multitude of other baking obligations this month…Nearly 200 cookies for Guppy’s school (not at once), 36 savory scones for my school…I’ll stop here. I didn’t think this pudding tart thingy sounded very exciting, and just kept dragging my feet about the whole thing.

Confession number two = Sometimes I am SO wrong about things it’s funny.

My husband, Monsieur Fish, doesn’t read my blog, thankfully, so I can share with you and the monde entier that sometimes I just don’t have any idea what I am talking about (often times to myself, but I digress…).

Wednesday evening, in true last minute style, I thought I should maybe make this month’s challenge. I knew I had yet another work luncheon on Thursday, and my students had requested I bring something sweet. I shrugged my shoulders as I began setting up the kitchen and figured at least I could bring it to my students who just love to see how I transform desserts into Vegan yummies.

Yummy is rather an understatement here.

I don’t know why, but as I printed out the original frangipan recipe from the forums, it dawned on me that I was about to veganize frangipan!! For many, this may seem like small potatoes, but here in France, frangipan shows up in many beloved patisseries that I’d never attempted before. Why, if I could successfully veganize frangipan, I could make a galette des rois this year. Ha!

Reading the Alternative Baking Forums I’d seen that many of my Baking possé had great success veganizing the frangipan using various strategies and ingredients. I decided to throw caution to the wind and follow the recipe as written and just swap in Ener-G egg replacer for the three eggs and to use non-dairy butter.

Oh yeah, can you get a whiff of the sweet smell of success here?

I also changed up the crust and used the Vegan Shortbread Crust from The Joy of Vegan Baking. This is a wonderful and versatile crust that I thought would work well. Rather than pre-baking the crust as per the recipe in JOVB, I put it in the freezer while preparing the frangipan, and then just followed the challenge recipe instructions.

I brought the tart to my French class and it disappeared before my very eyes. The class is made up of students from all over Europe and the world, none of them vegan. They all loved it and just couldn’t believe there were no eggs in the frangipan. Yippie! It was indeed delicious, and I’m really grateful to our hosts for proposing such a wonderful staple recipe to add to my repertoire. I for one know I’ll be making this one again.

Sorry about the wonky pic, we were eating outside and I had to hurry and snap a shot before the tart was all gone!

And because my work is so intertwined with my private life, I used homemade cherry and raspberry jam I’d received earlier in the week from students in my English classes. I love homemade gifts!

Vegan Frangipan

125g non-hydrogenated, non-dairy margerine, softened
125g powdered sugar
The equivalent of 3 Eggs (Ener-G worked perfectly here)
2.5ml almond extract
125g ground almonds
30g AP flour

Whip together the Ener-G and water with beaters, set aside. Cream margarine and sugar together for about a minute or until the mixture is very fluffy. Scrape down the side of the bowl and add the Ener-G eggs. Beat well. The batter may appear to curdle or separate – it’s all good. Add the almond extract, almonds and flour and mix until well blended. Yum.

Do you like to play with your food? Visit The Daring Kitchen for wonderful food articles, sexy food p*rn and lovely portraits of the Daring Cooks and Bakers. Also, don’t forget to check out the other Daring Bakers and their tarts!

You still have time to get in on the big Sweet Freedom giveaway! Just leave a comment here before midnight Paris time for your chance! The two lucky winners will be announced on Wednesday, July 1st, in honor of Canada Day.

This is Mrs. K’s Date Cake. Monsieur Fish also announced to me that this is his favourite thing ever that I’ve ever made. Ever. Monsieur F is a gourmand, and while he often says he just love this or that, this is indeed the first time I’ve ever seen him so passionate about a dessert.

So passionate in fact that when I left the kitchen for a moment…

There were four more pieces missing! I had to hide the cake! So silly, I know. I’d much rather see him go crazy with this cake, however, than many of the less “healthy” versions out there.

This is indeed a decadent little snack cake, but it’s 100% natural and delicious.

Have you made anything yummy from Sweet Freedom this week ? Stay tuned next Saturday for another installment of “Sweet Freedom Saturdays”. We’ve also got a brand new Sweet Freedom Flickr Group – come join us! Other Sweet Freedom Saturday Deliciousness here in the Fishbowl : Raw Apricot Bars, Tomato Spice Cake, Carrot Snack Cake, Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins, Gingered Apple Muffins, Spiced Pumpkin Millet Pudding.

If you’re looking for the Sweet Freedom giveaway, go here! Three more days to enter!

I hate feeling like the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland, however, that’s pretty much what I’m looking and sounding like right now. I’ve got so many plates spinning I’m feeling a wee bit dizzy, but I know it’s pour la bonne cause.

Working on appreciation gifts for Guppy’s two teachers is becoming a real priority since her last day of school is next week. I’ve just started stitching this adorable elephant that I modified from this free pattern (thank you!). Guppy’s class spent the year studying around the theme of circus animals, so I thought this cutie could look sweet on a little zipper bag…perhaps with some dark chocolate inside?

Who doesn’t love cookies? I’m only making “special” gifts for Guppy’s teacher and her aid, but not wanting to leave anyone out, I made a double-batch of the Oatmeal Raisin Cookies (with chocolate chips, because I can!) from one of my very favourite cookbooks, The Joy of Vegan Baking for everyone else – everyone else meaning the team of aids and auxiliary personnel who do so much for the kids and who often don’t get the thanks they deserve. It’s so fun making cookies and cupcakes for her school, because they are viewed as wonderfully exotic by the teaching team – and they always ask me for the recipes. I brought these to the school last week after Guppy’s school programme. She was a lion, and she roared the very best, and I’m not just saying that because I’m her Mamafish!

And lastly, here are some pattern pieces I cut out to make two aprons – and if I can get them done in a jiffy I’ll be sending them off to this month’s Tie One On. The theme this time around is “Pie Making Aprons”, which I think just sounds so fun and summery…the flower print fabric is so cute, and I think it works really well with the gingham. We’ll see in a few days…

I can’t wait to see what everyone has been up to W.I.P.-wise! Whatever your works-in-progress, have a crafty week, and don’t forget to see what the other Wipsters are up to, and to check out our W.I.P. Wednesday Flickr Pool, too.

Happy Saturday everyone! I just love Saturday, and what can make your Saturday even sweeter? How about some Raw Apricot Bars?

These delicious raw bars will satisfy your sweet tooth in an oh-so-healthy and delicious way. They are a real snap to prepare which I just love, and you can even frost them if you want to with the Coconut Date Frosting recipe – also raw of course! I opted to just give them a light sprinkling of shredded coconut this time around.

I wish I could say they were a big hit with Guppy, but, alas, they were not. She is such a funny bunny; she just loves raw and dried fruits, but she just can’t get her raw treats groove on. Monsieur Fish is the same way – salé raw cuisine is no problémo, but when it’s sucré, he just wrinkles his nose. Whateveah. That means more raw goodness for me! These would be an excellent mid-morning or mid-afternoon sweet snacky treat – portable and easy to stash in your gym bag or purse. Who needs to purchase over-priced raw bars? These are even tastier!

Now, didn’t I say something about a giveaway?

It’s nearly July, and that means three of my favourite freedom-related holidays : July 1st is Canada Day, July 4th is Independence Day, and July 14th is Bastille Day here in France. Wee! While I could debate the idea of freedom, and it’s obvious subjectivity – I won’t. At least not today. Today I’m here to share Sweet Freedom with you! Author Ricki Heller, who blogs at Diet, Dessert and Dogs, has graciously donated two copies of Sweet Freedom, a hard-copy and a PDF, for me to give to YOU!

We’re entering into the “heat” of BBQ season, and you’ll be the hero of the picnic when you arrive with treats that everyone can enjoy!

There are three ways to enter :

• Just leave a comment below to be entered. You can improve your chances of winning by doing one (or both) of the following :
• You can Tweet about the giveaway, linking back to this post. This will score you an additional 3 entries. (Visit Tiny URL if you need to condense.) Just don’t forget to comment with a link to your Tweet so it can be counted!
• Blog about the giveaway, linking back here. 3 more entries are yours! Just don’t forget to comment with a link to your blogpost so it can be counted!

The drawing will be closed next Saturday, and the winners will be announced on Wednesday, July 1st, to celebrate Canada Day in style! Bonne chance à tous!

Have you made anything yummy from Sweet Freedom this week ? Stay tuned next Saturday for another installment of “Sweet Freedom Saturdays”. We’ve also got a brand new Sweet Freedom Flickr Group – come join us! Other Sweet Freedom Saturday Deliciousness here in the Fishbowl : Tomato Spice Cake, Carrot Snack Cake, Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins, Gingered Apple Muffins, Spiced Pumpkin Millet Pudding.

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I just want to say a big Thank You to all of you who sent me gifts for my 60th birthday. This was the biggest birthday surprise I have ever had! Each one of you went above and beyond all that I could have imagined with your attention to details….special cards, and wrapping. Even the gifts you chose were perfect. Bath tea that arrived just after I had a fall, and baths brought so much relief. Cups of coffee and teas to enjoy, and the chocolate….all the delicious chocolate. Chocolate caramels from Montana that I had to order more of, heavenly. The beautiful apron, napkins, tote bag, candy dish,maple sugar candy/maple syrup…delicious, and healthy sweets to eat…amazing books and stationery…..really, there were too many gifts to list. I could literally feel the love and care in each package. My cup runneth over! My hope for each of you is that the blessings you gave me will come back to you in many ways.

Love, Renee/ Mammafish

There’s not much I need to add, but thank you. You’re a group of amazing women and I am so thankful for you all.

Don’t you just love happy accidents? I found the lovely Wee Gallery totally by mistake one day, and what a happy find! Just gorgeous prints and other lovelies for babies and small children…though I feel I can speak for adults when I say I love them, too!

I was extra lucky the day I found Surya’s blog, because that very day she put out a call for some testers to sew up some kits to make soft books and I was chosen! Fortuitous, indeed.

Shortly afterwards I received a lovely and very complete Soft Book kit to sew up. This is a very satisfying project because it is a one-sit affair : very easy to follow instructions, nothing to measure or fuddle with. Depending on how quickly you sew and if your iron is set up, you can have this project done in 30 minutes flat, maybe less. Or longer, I suppose if your thread jams up, your telephone keeps ringing and you notice that there hasn’t been any noise from Guppy’s bedroom in a few minutes – silence is always a bad sign. Even with those distractions I was done in less than 40 minutes, so there.

Surya also had some just beautiful Circus Coloring Cards up for grabs. She graciously sent me the PDF file, and Guppy has been really enjoying colouring them.

Though Guppy recently turned 4, she does usually colour a little neater (she doesn’t get that from me!). I asked her about the jiggly lines and she looked at me, somewhat exasperated, and sighed, “Mumma, they’re moving!”. Well, silly me. That should have been obvious I suppose.

These sweet colouring cards are now available in her Wee Gallery Etsy Shop. You should also check out their Wee Gallery Store for other beautiful prints. And thank you again Surya for allowing me to test your pattern! It was a real pleasure.

Are you being buried by a pile of unfinished W.I.P.s (or is it just me?). Whatever your works-in-progress, have a crafty week, and don’t forget to see what the other Wipsters are up to, and to check out our W.I.P. Wednesday Flickr Pool, too.

I’ve had Veganomicon for well over a year and this is just the first time I’ve made the “Beanballs”. I feel like we have a great deal of catching up to do.

Maybe it’s because of their name, “Beanballs”, rather unappetizing, really. That being said, I haven’t really got a brilliant suggestion for an alternate title : Beanie Boulettes is the best I could do. It’s amazing how much sexier things sound in other languages, don’t you think?

This was vegan fast-food at it’s finest : the beanballs were super simple and quick to make, mostly because I nearly always have homemade frozen sauce in the freezer. I also had some frozen (cooked) garbanzos, so I used those, but I’m pretty sure any bean would be lovely. Dinner was on in no time and I heard nothing but “miam“s, and “c’est trop bon“s from the Fish Family so I was nothing but smiles. Ok. Tomato sauce-smudged smiles.