Fun time had by all.....

Normally- Goods and I are too busy to jet here and there on the weekend - you know - like to ACTUALLY relax and enjoy the weekend??? Well this weekend we squeezed a couple of fun Michigan things in between projects.

Guess where we went Saturday????? The Michigan Renaissance Festival - Yes we dress because we are cool like that!! Goods was a pirate (the theme for the weekend) I was his gypsy girl.

Go figure I took a picture of The PUB. And here is a pic of the Good-Men.....

Men in tights - love it. I didn't take any pictures of the food I did eat there....they don't have much of a selections for vegans. I did have a famous dill pickle, a order of crisscross fries, that were undercooked, and then a bag of overpriced Kettle Korn...my favorite!

I did take a photo of one of our favorite acts at the renn fest....if you ever get a chance to go - this is a must - they are hilarious! Great improving! They are The Bocca Show...

Then on Sunday we hit the streets of Ferndale, Michigan for....

Funky Ferndale Art Fair & DIY Street Fair.

It was a lot of fun...next time we go we will be allowing more time to people watch.

Ferndale is a cool town....they have some great eatery there. They have one of my favorite health food store there....and a newly founded (by me) this place.....

Where I was able to purchase and consume THIS-
It's been over 3 years since I have actually bought a milkshake or even icecream out. This brought me massive amounts of excitement and glee.
Here is Goods enjoying our shared, Peanutbutter, Chocolate & Banana milkshake.....

And to boot - it was great! Here is a link to AJ's - we will be going back to check out what else they have to offer.

....so a fun weekend had by all in the Goods' household.

I'm back and I'm raw...

Yes, it's been a long time. I was going to start blogging again after our Halloween extravaganza-in fact that Monday with "Flower of the Week"- but that Monday (11/3) turned out to be totally sucky and I had another matter to spend my energy on. You can see below posts, if you care to. It still sucks, but one must proceed with a new normal.

SOOOOOOOOOO....my new normal is RAW. Okay, not really but over the summer and fall I've been doing a lot more raw "cooking". This is my new favorite junk food - KALE CHIPS!

Kale Chips

1 big bunch of kale, washed torn, remove thick stems.
put in big bowl
add: enough tahini to lightly coat (or more to taste- I used approx 1/4 c.)
then add some spices - suggestions: SPIKE (awesome), Garlic Powder, Italian Seasoning, Cayenne Pepper, Nutritional Yeast, Fresh Parsley - endless possibilities.

Stir until well coated.

Lay the Kale onto the dehydrator trays and dehydrate at 105 degrees until crispy. This usually takes 12ish hours. I flip the kale in the midst of the dehydration time...I also sample throughout, which is crucial in the dehydrating process :-)

I guess the kale chips are not 100% raw - I can't find raw tahini (not noted on my label of tahini) and I don't know if the seasonings are truly raw. But it's all so good....and much better then potato chips and I'm talking health and TASTE wise! humm... how about some tahihi potato chips??? I guess an experiment will be forth coming.

Also another favorites is raw corn chips- but I'll save that until I have a photo.

But I will leave you with a photo of Goods and me attending the Greenfield Village Halloween Nights . ...and yes, we were pretty much the only adults dressup WITHOUT KIDS. Who needs a kid when I have Goods????

Our Halloween Photos are in a Flikr set here. I forgot to take photos of all the vegan food I made for the party...my vegan chilie was a hit along with my favorite nacho cheese recipe.

Goods and I have a ton of activities planned for the rest of the year, so hopefully I will have some fun posts posted! See you then.

Oh - and GO PENN STATE!

Lot's of GOOD things to do in DEE-troit

Goods and I try and do some fun things throughout the summer even though our yard and home projects should have 100% of our attention. This past weekend Goods suggested we go to the Henry Ford's Greenfield Village. The village is set up with various houses, workshops and stores that Mr. Ford bought and moved to the village. The Wright Brother's House and Bike Shop, Edison Homestead and my favorite, the Cotswold Cottage.....

Okay - this isn't the cottage part, but people where having "TEA" outside, and it would have ruined the pic so I didn't take any pics of the cottage itself.

My next favorite was the Firestone Farm- some inside pics....

As I stated, they call it a working farm. The ladies in the house just explained what they made, and ate for lunch - Ham Pie.....I didn't ask.

Tons of ChooChoos, not sure what they had to do with the Model T or any other models he produces but they were cool.....

I also drulled all over these wagon wheels, since I've wanted one - like forever - to put in our yard. The old sign said that they were only $26/pair, but NO ONE was around to take my money.

And we ended with an Old Time Baseball Game - what a hoot. Note, they don't wear gloves, helmets, spikes- NO PROTECTION!!.... but they did have some spiffy ties!

We had a grand ol' time at Greenfield Village- check it out if you are in the area.

My next entry will be more adventures in the Raw -
our first Raw Potluck!

VEGAN SUGAR

Since I'm a newbie in the Vegan lifestyle, I have a lot to learn. I try and read the labels of products, I'm learning a whole new Vegan vocabulary, and I've learned that you have to ask a lot of questions. I've learned so much already just from other Vegan Bloggers- it's made the switch to vegetarianism to veganizm so much easier and exciting.

I learned from other Bloggers about how most white sugar is processed with bone char. I was not all giddy about that when I read it. I've always loved baking & I bake a lot- My man, Goods, likes his bake goods and since I refuse to by all that sugary, fat loaded, chemical loaded bake goods at the grocery store for him - I bake. So the dilemma then came about concerning what white sugar (I do use my share of Turbinado sugar) do I use???? The past few years I've been buying a local Michigan manufactured brand - Pioneer Sugar. So I sent them an email asking them about their manufacturing process and here is what their response.........

Dee,

Thank you for your inquiry.

Michigan Sugar Company’s sugar products do not contain any animal products. In addition, Michigan Sugar Company does not use bone char as a filter aid or any other animal products in the production process.

Sincerely,

Matt Tucker
Quality Assurance Supervisor
Michigan Sugar Company

So Yeaaaahhh, Pioneer Sugar is vegan friendly!!!!!!!

BTW- I live in Southeastern Michigan, so I'm not sure how far their distribution area extends.

Here is a page from their website explaining their manufacturing process
http://www.michigansugar.com/documents/supplement/17.pdf

Pioneer is a beet sugar. I've been reading a little on sugar cane vs. beet sugar, and there seems to an industry preference to cane sugar. As I stated previously, I've been (unknowingly) using VEGAN beet sugar for years. I've canned with it, baked with it, and made cocktails with it. I haven't noticed a difference. Has anyone out there have a preference???