Its alive....ALIVE.....

So, my laptop died a horrible death over the course of the last few weeks. Huge thanks to Carl, who was able to switch out my hard drive and bring my "sweet mathilda" back to life. I was able to save a text copy of my book, but I lost all of my pictures for the book, and the info for the three (yes three) posts that I was working on for here and the one for This Dish Is Veg. Hopefully, over the course of this next week I can rehash what I was working on and get some content up for you lovely folks.

I've only got three weeks left here in South Dakota. I'm hoping to post a "What and Where I'm Eating" log while I'm on the road. It'll be sort of along the same line as what Kristen over at Will Travel for Vegan Food is doing, but without reviews. I've managed to keep up with my travel blog My Journey Back To Me a little better over the past month. It's currently about how I'm in the process of preparing for my adventure to North Carolina. So, if I seem to have fallen off the face of the Earth, you can find me over there. I'll have another delish recipe from Jon's series of Vegan Cooking from a Non-Vegan for you in a day or two.

Have a fantastic week!

July Vegan Food Swap

I feel like a slacker, I haven't posted in almost a month. This heat wave and lack of air conditioning have left me feeling uninspired. I've spent most of the month hiding in the basement reading, since its the coolest part of the house. Luckily its the part of the year where a big fresh salad makes the perfect meal. This has saved us from further heating up the house.

I once again participated in the monthly vegan food swap put together by Cat over at The Verdant Life. This month my giftee won't be receiving hers until almost August, as she is currently on vacation. I didn't want to send it and have it languish in the heat as it awaited her arrival home. My box arrived about a week ago from Gina at Vegan Strong, filled with great stuff. Unfortunately due to some technical difficulties with my camera, I can't post any pictures right now. As soon as I get that fixed I'll post them in the comments. My box included an assortment of teas with a Cuppow to drink them from. I'm loving my canning jar to go cup! Gina also included a bag of Somersaults, which I'm now hooked on, and a couple of snack bars. Thanks so much Gina!

Getting it together....

Sorry I've fallen off the face of the earth this past month. Life has been crazy. I'm planning to get my July Food Swap post up later today and hopefully a recipe or two posted by the weekend. I have however been posting over at My Journey Back To Me, its my new blog about my upcoming trip across the US. I also have a new post up at This Dish Is Vegetarian, if you need a recipe fix. Thanks for reading, folks! Vegan Love!

June's Vegan Food Swap

Once again, I participated in the monthly Vegan Food Swap that Cat over at The Verdant Life has put together. I'm really enjoying sending and receiving boxes of great vegan products with other bloggers. I hope that I'll still be able to be a part of it while I'm at JCCFS. I'm not sure what my resources for tasty bits to ship out will be though. This month I shipped a box of citrus themed goodies to Shelby at Everyday Vegan Girl. My box of treats came from Veronica at Short Silly Vegan. Carl and I snacked on the Primal Jerky before I could get the picture taken. The Sweet Potato chips and Cinnamon Thin Cookies from Lucy's are two of my new favorite things. We still haven't tried the Hot Cereal, because we haven't wanted to eat anything hot for weeks due to the heat. We'll save it for cold South Dakota mornings this winter.

Weekly Ramblings and Pineapple Mango Salsa...

It's been a busy week thus far, which makes me even happier that I have a three day weekend to look forward to. This past Saturday's Bountiful Basket brought with it lots of amazing fresh fruit. We got bananas, a pineapple, and a watermelon from small farms in Mexico, and plums and apricots from California. We also received a five pound bag of potatoes from a small farm in Idaho as well as many other goodies. Though I know it would be better for the environment for us to buy local produce, there still hasn't been much at the farmer's market. I plan to go down this weekend and see if we've moved past the jams, meat, and crafts portion of the year and on into the veggies and fruit portion. It would be nice to buy local every other week and from BB on the off weeks, so we could support both while still getting good variety.

I started my travel blog that will document my journey to John C. Campbell Folk School. You can find it at My Journey Back To Me. I plan to try and keep up with both blogs while I'm working as the Student Host at JCCFS. I'm fairly certain that I'll be mostly posting on my travel blog though.

Since its summer time I thought I'd include one of my favorite salsa recipes. This Pineapple Mango Salsa is quick, easy, and perfect on a hot summer day.

Pineapple Mango Salsa

1 cup Fresh Pineapple

1 cup Fresh Mango

4 cloves Garlic

2 Jalapenos, seeded

1/2 cup Cilantro leaves

1/2 cup Green Onions, chopped

2 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar

Pulse all ingredients in a food processor until desired texture is met. Let set 1 hour and enjoy.

Beautiful day and what's to come....

It's a beautiful late Spring day here in Rapid City, SD. I'm getting ready to start my day with a hearty bowl of oats with crushed pineapple and a cup of coffee. What do you usually start your day with?

I'm getting close to finishing the Season of The Vegan cook book. All the recipes are loaded into the publishing software, the recipes that will be photographed have been chosen, and a great friend has volunteered to copy edit. Now I need to cook and photograph food and write the index and forward. Then its off into the world! I can't wait. I think the hardest part about the whole experience so far has been trying to do it in my spare time. But I suppose that's what makes it a labor of love.

I'm also getting very close to the end of this leg of my journey in life. In early September I'll be driving across the country to Brasstown, NC to work as the Student Host at John C. Campbell Folk School. At that time I'll continue this blog (with a bit less frequency) and begin a blog about my time there. As the SH there, I get three Silver Bullet classes (ones I can't get bumped out of or pulled away from for work). I've signed up for White-Line Printmaking, Kente Cloth Weaving, and Beginning Mountain Dulcimer. Given I'm not really stepping too far out of my comfort zone with any of these, but they are classes that will allow me to further my skills. I'm also hoping to try my hand at Blacksmithing, Book Making, Forging for Mushrooms, and Danish Folk Dancing while I'm there. I'm still uncertain where I'll end up at the end of next January, but then again I'm never very sure where I'll be from year to year. I do know, that if I'm to put down roots it would have to be for a career and not just another job. I need to be working for causes that I care about. Either in the arts or for a company promoting veganism. If you know of any good leads in those fields, let me know.

Yum....

So a while back I posted my recipe for Vanilla Rum Banana Bread. I finally got around to taking some food photos the other day.

 

For this batch I added some semi-sweet vegan chocolate chips. So yummy!