Weekends

How was everyone's weekend?  Mine was exciting!  Richard and I both have decided to go out of our comfort zone to enjoy new experiences so this weekend we set out to do just that!

Friday night we hung out with an old friend at Houlihans.

I woke up early Saturday morning to bake vegan pumpkin spiced muffins for a Vegan Meetup.  If you have never been to a meetup I suggest hoping onto their site and finding a group you find interesting.  Not till after the meetup I realized we could have been drugged, raped and murdered but we survived :)

Take caution when meeting up with people you don't actually know.  We both discussed how we won't go to another meetup at someone's house.  But without further ado I give you my pumpkin spiced muffin recipe.

Pumpkin Muffins

The website I got the recipe calls them Vegan Pumpkin Cupcakes but in my head I like to think a muffin is healthier without icing :)

I had never baked anything vegan before and since I have been making pumpkin muffins like crazy I decided to stick with the first recipe I found and follow it almost on point.

Makes 12

Ingredients:

• ¼ cup plain almond milk or soy milk
• 1 t. cider vinegar
• 1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• 1 t. baking powder
• ½ t. baking soda
• 1/3 cup white granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1 t. ground cinnamon
• ½ t. ginger
• ½ t. nutmeg
• ½ t. salt
• ½ cup pumpkin puree (I used a whole can)
• ½ cup canola oil
• 1 t. vanilla

Preparation:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners and set aside.

2. In a small cup, combied the almond milk (or soy milk) and vingear. Allow mixture to rest for 5 minutes.

3. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugars, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt. Set aside.

4. In another mixing bowl, mix together the pumpkin puree, canola oil, vanilla and almond milk-vinegar mixture. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, mixing until just combined. Divide the batter into the cups, filling each liner about ¾ full. Bake for 16 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake emergest clean. Allow cupcakes to cool completely.

While your "muffins" are baking take tons of photos of your puppy.

I have been practicing my food photography.  Being a photographer of people for almost four years I am kind of rusty.  I have been looking to get a macro lens but can't decide between the 50, 60 and 100mm.

I have a normal three mile loop I run throughout the "hills" of Parkville.  I like to emphasize "hills" because I am pretty sure they are mountains.  I climb mountains on a daily basis here in Parkville.  No big deal.

Sophie demanded to be in my photoshoot.  The pants I ran in were Lululemon spandex.  Granted I love every piece of clothing from Lululemon that I purchase I can't get over how much I hates these pants.  They kept falling down and sticking to me in weird unusual ways.

After baking, running and looking at lenses we ended the night at the Veg Meetup where I met Lesley from The Purple Carrot.  We have been chatting for a month or so over facebook but haven't officially met in person.  We are hoping to start going to their church!  We have been searching for a church but have not found the right fit for us.  But I think we finally stumbled upon a church with a really relaxed atmosphere.  No photo shown of the night.  I felt awkward at the first meetup.

Sunday we got up took the pup to daycare and traveled to Jowler Winery.  It is a family owned winery and all organic.  No pesticides on these grapes! Also they have solar paneling!  I was very impressed with their wines.  They don't have a huge variety but you can tell what they do have is an example of their perfected craft.  

Don't bring a 50mm lens to take photos of buildings.

If you can tell I liked them all, which is unusual for me because I am picky.

I honestly could have bought every single wine and not have felt I wasted my money.  Go to this winery if you have the time!

Jowler was named after a coondog which roamed the area long ago.  There is a creek and road named Jowler.  All of their bottles is named for a type of animal or critter.

We ordered a bottle of the Chardony and Critter Cuvee.  The Chardony was promptly opened.

Jowler Creek Events

Check out this link to see their upcoming events.  The weekend after Thanksgiving they are having chestnuts roasted on these fire pits!  Next weekend they have a Thanksgiving wine pairing and event Richard and I are going to try to go to is the cookies and wine pairing December 10-11!  Let me know if anyone wants to go with us!

We were on our way to Pirtle Winery but we seen a sign for Riverwood winery.  Since we have already been to Pirtle we took a detour.

It is in an old school house!

I hate to say it but I didn't care for their wines.  I enjoyed tasting them but I wouldn't buy a bottle.
They also had an international tasting.  I bought this one for my mom!  Shhh don't tell!  It is for Christmas.  It is from Spain and is called Alvear Cream.  A very strong wine but the flavor was amazing.  It reminded me of an almond totty.

They had the Chiefs/Broncos game on so what did we do?  We bought a glass of wine.  Now what I did like about this place is they had an auditorium where you can bring your own food or buy food from there.  You also can buy wine by the glass.  They always have something playing on the big screen television.  We might go back for the atmosphere!

After a much needed romantic afternoon we headed to Petsmart to pick up the pup.  Petsmart really knows how to achieve customer loyalty.  Everyone knows Sophie's name and they make you feel so welcomed.

This weekend weather was so beautiful in Kansas City.  We had to take advantage of the last warmer days so we headed to the dog park.

If you live in Kansas City or around the area and you have a dog you need to take advantage of the dog park by Liberty Memorial.  Best discovery for free entertainment.

Until we found glass.  One guy we ran into said it use to be a landfill.  Richard thought about turning this photo into the city but my mom has a fear they will shut down the park.  But there is no reason a dog park should have a bunch of glass lying around!

We ended our weekend at Granite City.  I had the Portobello melt with fries. 

We also ordered the beer sampler.  I am not sure if it was the all day of wine tasting but I did not enjoy any of the beers.  We choked down about three.

Richard ordered the Adult Mac and Cheese and side of fries.

This was the side of fries.  America.

I started monday morning off with tea.

I have been to class all day and got off of work at 8:00.  I need to organize my planner and then I am going to bed.

I have a few recipes coming up this week for some hummus and baba ghanoush!