Goodbye Butterflies

Saturday was the last day of my internship at the Pacific Grove Natural History Museum. While some of the projects they had me doing were slightly random, overall it ended up being a great experience. In the last couple weeks, they began to give me more substantial assignments when they saw what I could do with photoshop and design. The director of the museum had me create posters for their upcoming exhibits, brochures for a big fundraising event, and a sign to honor all of the museum donors. She referred to me as the official "graphic design intern," which is pretty cool :)

I wish I could be here to see the monarch exhibit opening in March. I think it's going to be a really fun, interactive, multimedia display. It's amazing to see the amount of work and attention to detail that goes into this kind of production. The exhibition curator and I spent a long time just picking out a font from 3 very similar choices to go on the inside of the advertising flyers!

The box of over 200 folded origami butterflies...
all done by yours truly. 

Monarch caterpillar sleeping bags for kids to crawl around in-
aren't they adorable? They were really fun to paint, too.

I will miss working in Pacific Grove, with all of it's great people and small-town charm. However, I also can't wait to get back to school- did I really just say that? 

Yes I did. I'm a nerd. I love school.

You know what I also love? 

Nutella. 

My friends I'm staying with have a whole jar in their cupboard that looks so yummy, but unfortunately, this delicious chocolatey spread is definitely not vegan. Thanks to Chocolate-Covered Katie, however, now I can make my own! I cut her recipe in half and added a splash of extra soy milk because it was a little thick, but result was amazing. There is so much you can do with it! Spread it on bread, graham crackers, bananas, swirl it in oatmeal, bake with it... the possibilities are endless. Next time I will make a full batch- I could eat this stuff by the spoonful. 

I have an incredibly early flight tomorrow (leaving at 4am... gah), so I think a quick breakfast of toast and vegan nutella is in my future. Now that is something to wake up for.

Also, side note, That's So Vegan just joined Twitter! Follow me for updates on my vegan baking, cooking and life adventures.

Chocolate and Peanut Butter is for Lovers

Don't worry, I will have more fun stories about California and my internship coming up soon, but I wanted to take a quick break from that and talk about the holiday that is fast approaching...

I've been posting a lot about chocolate and peanut butter on here lately, but unless you happen to be deathly allergic to either one, I don't think there's anything wrong with that. Chocolate and peanut butter were a match made in heaven and therefor perfect for Valentines Day!

Now I may not have a significant other, but I am not one of those people who gets really depressed around February 14th because they feel so unloved. Excuse me, but who wouldn't enjoy a day where you can get together with your other single friends, watch bad movies and eat lots of chocolate? It's all about being with people you love- romantically or not. 

So, what better way to express your love for someone than by making them homemade Reeses peanut butter cups? You can find this fabulous recipe at Have Cake, Will Travel. The only alteration I made was to use powdered sugar for the filling instead of brown sugar. Oh, and make sure you reheat the chocolate while the peanut butter filling refrigerates- I had an incident involving rock-hard chocolate and a mini blowtorch. It was mildly dramatic.

Let me tell you, these babies were better than the real deal. Not only do they leave out the icky chemical stuff in the original candy, but they are made with delicious dark chocolate, stuffed with all-natural creamy peanut butter, and made (I assume) with a whole lotta love. 

Cut down the edges of normal cupcake liners to make them look pretty!

How do you feel about Valentines Day?

Here's a song for friends (obvious, I know),
and here's a song for your special friend :)

Berkley and Lillian's Shallot Spaghetti

love.

Well. I spent my weekend living in a house with my very liberal cousin and her 9 male, conservative, mormon roommates. How was your weekend?

Seriously, though, I felt like I was in the middle of a ridiculous sit-com or something! They were all super nice guys, but there were some semi-awkward debates about politics and a lengthly explanation of what exactly being a vegan means.  

Speaking of which, Berkley is like vegan heaven. Almost every restaurant at least had options for me, but some were all vegetarian or vegan. There is this ice cream sandwich shop called Cream that has vegan ice cream sandwiches. Oh. My. God. I got chocolate cookies with white chocolate chips stuffed with cherry chocolate chip soy ice cream and practically had a heart attack at the first bite. I would have taken a picture to try to show you how incredible it was, but it was gone within a couple minutes.

Sorry the photo quality isn't great- it was dark and there were no leftovers to photograph in the daylight!

My cousin and I also made a lot of our own yummy meals. This one we created from some random things we had on hand, but I wanted to share it because it was so amazingly good! Lillian said that one of her meal-time staples is to make pasta with caramelized shallots and garlic. The secret is to slice the shallots super thin and saute them slowly, so that they are soft and stringy and blend in with the texture of the pasta. We did a spin on this basic dish by adding mushrooms and parsley for a richer flavor. The measurements are not set in stone, so feel free to adjust them slightly to your taste- just don't skimp on the shallots! 

Lillian's Shallot Spaghetti with Red Wine Mushrooms and Parsley

serves 2

1/4 pack of whole wheat spaghetti
olive oil
6 shallots, thinly sliced
6 cloves garlic, minced
8 white mushrooms, sliced thinly
1/4 cup red wine
1 medium bunch of parsley
salt and pepper, to taste

1. Heat olive oil (enough to cover the pan) in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the shallots and half of the garlic and lower the heat. Saute for about 30 minutes or until they begin to brown. Stir occasionally to prevent burning.
2. While the shallots caramelize, heat a little bit of olive oil in a medium pan and add the rest of the garlic and the mushrooms. Once the mushrooms begin to cook, pour in the red wine. Stir and let simmer until all of the liquid has evaporated. 
3. Prepare your spaghetti according to the package directions. To serve, divide up the spaghetti among plates and top it with a generous helping of shallots, mushrooms and parsley. Sprinkle on some salt and pepper and enjoy!

We turned our meal into a whole feast, complete with a salad that we threw together from mixed greens, strawberries, and fresh-squeezed lemon juice, complements of her backyard lemon tree.

And a dessert plate, of course, with strawberries and yummy No-Cookie Cookies.

This is one of my favorite new pasta dishes- it tastes like a gourmet meal, but it is so simple!

Candles and red wine make everything fancier.

Puffy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

This weekend I'm really excited to take a little break from my internship and visit my cousin in Berkley. I've never been to the area before, but I can't wait to check it out! I'll be there for three days, then I work for one more week, and then it is back to cold and dreary Ohio... boo. At least I'm looking forward to seeing friends again and starting up some good classes for the semester! More about all of that later. Time to talk about cookies.

I actually made these cookies while I was at home. My dad is a peanut butter fanatic, so I like to make at least one treat for him while I'm in town. These have the consistency of a fluffier shortbread and are full of delicious peanut butter-y flavor, but of course my dad still insisted on eating them with some extra peanut butter smeared on top :)

Puffy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies (recipe adapted from Just Everyday Me)

makes about 2 dozen cookies

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup earth balance
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
1 tsp sugar
1 eggs worth of egg replacer
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat your oven to 350º and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Prep your egg replacer.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the salt, baking powder and baking soda. In a medium bowl, cream together the earth balance and sugars. Then add in the peanut butter. Once that is fluffy, add the egg replacer and vanilla.
3. Add the wet ingredients into the dry and combine. You may want to use your hands so thats it's not too crumbly. Roll smallish pieces of dough into balls and form them into mounds on the cookie sheet.
4. Bake for about 10-12 minutes- do not over-bake or they will get too hard! Let cool for about 10 minutes and enjoy.

These cookies are especially yummy dipped into my favorite kind of tea.

Have a great weekend! If you have nothing else to do, bake these. You will not be disappointed.