vegan chocolate chip cookies

VEGAN Chocolate Chip Cookies

modified from the Joy of Cooking

photo courtesy of Nathaniel's mad skillz

Preheat the oven to 375. Grease or line 2 cookie sheets.  or, bake on a baking stone.  Mine were baked on a Pampered Chef round baking stone.

I used a stand mixer.  My children put the following ingredients in the bowl in no particular order:
1 cup plus 2 Tbs all-purpose organic, unbleached flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup (1 stick) soy margarine (that was presoftened because it had been out on the counter for about 2 hours)
1/2 cup organic cane sugar
1/2 cup packed organic dark brown brown sugar
1-1/2 tsp egg substutute (i used ener-g powder, it's in the baking section at whole foods)
4 Tbs water (you may need more if it is too dry)
heaping 1/4 tsp salt (you may need more if it tastes flat)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

I put the bowl on our stand mixer with the hook and let it mix.  when it was pasted to the side of the bowl (not really the best way to make cookies), i mixed it by hand (which is why there is 4 tbs of water rather than 2 - the egg substitute calls for 2 tbs of water but that wasn't enough, so i added more.)

then, kendal was done with it.  holly was still involved, so she and i added a half-bag (1 cup) of vegan chocolate chips (from whole foods, though i am not sure what the difference is between regular and vegan chocolate chips but they cost the same so i got the one with the "special label").

She tried to use a spoon to drop onto the baking stone and i was using my fingers to regulate what she was plopping down (some were big, some were 1 chocolate chip and a dab of dough).  Like normal, they were about 2 inches apart and not really big to start with.  We baked them, 1 sheet at a time, until the cookies are just slightly colored on top which took longer than normal - like 12 or 15 minutes. Since i used dark brown sugar, they always looked golden, so it was more of a olfactor way of telling when they were done - when they smelled done and lost their shine, well, they were done.  i let them sit on the pan for about 5 minutes to cool (they were still soft) and then i used a metal spatula to move to a rack.

they were absolutely perfect.  crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside.  these are absolutely the best chocolate chip cookies i've ever eaten.

i see the moon and the moon sees me

oh the big hoopla about the moon being closer than it has been in like 20 years or so.  so, i guess that once before in my life i've seen it like this.  and, hopefully i will see it again a couple more times.  either way, i took photographs of it to remember it and show my children.  they saw it too, as they were in the car with katelyn when it was rising.  yes, that's right.  they spent the night with katelyn and she came to pick them up.  and, they left with her.  we both almost cried when they were waving bye to us.  oddly enough, we watched a dragontales video during dinner about spending the night with friends and it was "OK to leave sleep over with your friends".  i think they need a mommy and daddy version of that!  kendal and holly spend the night with mamaw and granddaddy all the time, but they don't come get them and take them away.  guess that was the difference!

anyway, the point of this is the moon!  i had such a great time taking pictures!  we found a curve by a field on top of a hill in franklin county.  way out in the middle of no where.  no light pollution or anything.  it was so dark that when i tried to get car trail pictures, i couldn't even tell if i actually had the road in the shot until after the car went by (you'll see...)

here are my results!  i had to crop in the picture about half because the best zoom lens i have only goes to 200mm.  i played with the F stop and aperture and got interesting results.  i also converted a couple to black and white in photoshop.







here is where i slowed down the shutter speed and let in more light.  you can't see the detail in the moon but it did make for some neat shots.  it was a little cloudy as you can see.



this one isn't cropped - this is how it was shot in my camera.



i mentioned it was dark?  i couldn't even tell that i didn't have the lens pointed in the right direction to get this car driving by...



i did a little better this time, same curve but this time the car was coming towards me rather than away from me (red = taillights, white = head lights).

parade slideshow

here are the rest of the pictures.  these are mainly for katelyn to see and so mom can find them to show kendal (later).  :)

the treasure box

the only bad thing about having a child with a christmas birthday is that i can't remember if a gift is a christmas present or a birthday present.  either way, i can remember that amy and mark gave her a 'treasure box' (as the kids call it) and last night it was their toy of choice.  holly was already on our bed, covered in jewelry (she was showing her dad) and he packed up the rest of the box and carried it to the bed to continue play (they were in holly's room). 

it wasn't long before the shoes came out and even kendal got in on the action.  usually he just likes helping holly "get dressed" but every once in a while, he likes to try on stuff too.  i think it is cute when he does it.  he looks funny in girl stuff and we all laugh at his silly antics.  i think sometimes he does it just to make us laugh.

so, here are some pictures from last night's dress up! 

(keep in mind that holly's shirt and both their faces are stained orange - we had spaghetti for dinner! and, kendal was half-way dressed for bed, thus explaining why he doesn't "match".) 

black and white

i suppose this blog title could mean hundreds of things but what i'm talking about is one thing in in photography, rather processing, i feel i need the most work.

today, i was making valentines for kendal and holly (for their classes, for the family, etc.) and i realized that i have yet to print grammy christmas pictures as she requested almost a month ago.  so, in efforts to "de-holiday" them, i decided to make them black and white.

problem.  i hit a road block, big time.  i love our christmas pictures, one of the things i love most about them is all the color and the way they were processed - IN color.  i did not process them with the intent on converting them to B&W - and i did not save the raw files.  so, i am left with the color images to desaturate somehow.  i know that sounds simple, but it is not.

i have several "action" sets that do it in several different ways, plus photoshop has about 7 options for converting to black and white - and all of them are different.

so let me give you an example here of one i'm sorta stuck on.  i think the rest turned out OK but the ones that were the hardest were the ones of just holly.  and, that would be because she had on a "loud" dress.  it isn't loud until you desaturate.  i realize these differences are subtle, but they are huge to me.

[oh, and to give credit where it is due, i didn't take this picture.  Rebecca Gilliam did during our "christmas trade portrait session" (where i took her family and she took mine).  we did our own processing.]
here is the color version:

the first one here is my attempt - from scratch - to convert it.  it is my least favorite of the four.

on this one, i used one of kelsey anderson's actions.  it is a wonderful action but it did not do well on this picture.

this one is the pioneer women's black and white action converter.  this one is usually my "fail safe" black and white converter.. but, in this case, holly's face appears overexposed still.

this one ends up being my favorite, if i can have one (the color version is still my favorite).  i think her face doesn't appear to bright, and her dress is ok too.  this is one of MCP's actions.

which one do you like the most?

Doctors Thornburg and Thornburg

Dr. Kendal looks quite stunning in the surgeon's outfit, don't you think? And don't be fooled by Holly's chef outfit (Dr. Chef Holly).  Both kids know how to play doctor! (I really was sick that day - with a migraine!)