Goodbye Summer

I know, summer ended officially on Sept. 21 but I can't say I fully embraced it with the early warm weather fall and my flowers still in bloom. Alas, the weekend has come where I say goodbye to summer and I say it gladly. I love summer, don't get me wrong. I love swimming (in pools), getting sun baked, wearing shorts and tanks, cutting flowers, eating beans, etc but one can only take so much of the work that summer requires and begs you to do in it's basking sun. It wants you to be outside and you feel guilty when you want to be inside making that fruit salad or just taking a nap (I don't do outside naps...allergies). Note: I did not take one nap this summer.

With that said, I have started to fully embrace fall! It allows me more time in the kitchen and more time to clean my house, not that it is clean but I putter around and try. Today I took down my dried hydrangeas and replaced them with a paper pear and some fake, YES FAKE, fall colored flowers. Don't judge me, it adds color and they don't look too fake. Its not like they are bright blue or green mums or something! gosh! Anyway, I also cut down my dahlias, although they were still blooming because it is time to get those suckers out of the ground and ready for next year (crossing my fingers they still "plantable" over the winter).


As far as cooking goes, I have been reading books and cooking like mad with fall edibles. I LOVE squash and we have something containing its brilliance once a week. I have also gone to making soup with some of our left over summer veggies. Fall/winter = food, in my opinion. In fact, this morning I made vegan french toast, veggie sausage (not from scratch), biscuits, and veggie gravy for breakfast. Needless to say, it is noon and we still aren't hungry. Its heavenly.

Next on the list: start knitting again and finish some home make overs.

To leave you on a good note and enjoying that warm cozy feeling, I present vegan french toast. Seriously, good.

Vegan French Toast
adapted from "I can't remember"
Yields 4 pieces of French Toast

INGREDIENTS
1/2c raw cashew pieces
1c soymilk
1/2t vanilla extract
generous coating of oil
4 slices bread (a bit stale works best)

METHOD
1) Grind cashews in dry blender or food processor until powdery.
2) Add soymilk and vanilla. Blend until smooth.
3) Pour into a shallow dish.
4) Preheat skillet coated in oil, enough to "fry" bread. Don't be shy.
5) Dip the bread in cashew mixture and flip onto both sides.
6) Transfer coated bread into hot pan and flip after 45 secs - 1 min or until brown. Note that most of the cashews have fallen to the bottom of the shallow dish and you may want to scoop some manually onto the top of your bread with a spoon.
7) Serve with maple syrup.

Enjoy. Preferably with coffee. Mmmmm