Short 'N Sweet

First of all, I forgot to mention in my last post that it snowed on Christmas!!!  I was SO excited!  Finally, a white Christmas :)

This is the view of my backyard, as seen from my kitchen.

And now, for a little more of what I've been doing the past few days!

Baking...

Custom holiday order of gluten-free/vegan treats!!!  Adapted Chocolate-Covered Katie "Butterfingers," Chocolate Peanut Crispy Clusters and Macaroons.  One of my favorite yoga teachers, Tommy, ordered this from me :)

Custom order for "Pumpkin Dream Brownies."  The lady who ordered these has already placed one custom order for the brownies so I am flattered that she came back :)

Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies with Walnuts, Sea Salt and a hint of Cinnamon.  These were another custom order from a student at the yoga studio where I work.  Her friend follows a gluten-free diet and she wanted to bring this friend some gluten-free (and of course vegan) treats for when she visits this weekend!

Also for the gluten-free friend: a batch of raspberry-filled lemon scones!  Here they are, pre-cut...

 ...and here they are, cut and glazed!  I LOVE the glaze.  It is a wee bit on the tart side but I really like tart things and I'm hoping others do too and that I didn't err on the side of too tart... 

Eating ... 

My mom's dear friend, Rob, had the two of us over for Christmas Eve and he made a special vegan cake just for me!  It was not gluten-free but I SO appreciated the gesture and it looked phenomenal so I had me a big 'ol slice ;)

Here's what the cake looks like...mmmmmmm

This coconut mango sticky rice with rum-soaked raisins and cinnamon was last night's comfort food dinner and boy, oh, boy was it great!  I got the recipe (which I modified slightly) from Allyson Kramer's book, Great Gluten-Free Vegan Eats, which I received as a Christmas gift :)  

I made a vow to myself last night that I am actually going to MAKE recipes from my cookbooks and not let them just collect dust on my bookshelves.  I seem to have an affinity for buying cookbooks and then not making anything from them : /  Tonight I have already decided to make this mushroom-corn chowder soup from her book.  I will post the results of my labor!

Blending...

I've also been making a LOT of smoothies since getting my Vitamix for Christmas!  I LOVE it and it's a great way of getting in more fruits and veggies (mainly fruit though!).  I've had some less-than-great-results (a few had too much kale and my poor stomach could not handle it) but I've also had some great  ones!  This one here was really good:  kale, cranberries, orange, apple and a squirt of lemon juice.  I know it might sound weird but it sure was tasty!

And THIS smoothie had to be my favorite!  It was a combo of two unfrozen kiwi fruits, 1/3 c. pineapple, 1/4 c. freshly squeezed pineapple juice, 1/4 c. freshly squeezed orange juice (okay, I was lazy and did not squeeze mine but I'm sure the smoothie would be all the better with freshly squeezed) and 8-10 ice cubes.