Love is… Food & Music

Fa la la la la! <– This is me being in the most festive spirit possible (given my cranky nature). Final papers are out of the way! My “Chaucerian woe” – as lovely Lizzie called it — is done! All I can do is keep my fingers crossed that I did not overuse the words “hegemony” and “gender binaries” in my essays. Sometimes the English grad student’s lexicon sounds so silly!

Ok, first things first — FOOD! If you’re in the holiday baking spirit, these are some great vegan treats to try! If you’re, like me, troubled with the idea of having two dozen chocolate chip cookies laying around your house, do as I did and package them up as part of holiday gifts. I, of course, sampled a few of both recipes (linked below) to make sure they were delicious and they were! I highly suggest these recipes, especially the chocolate chip one, which was easy and scrumptious!

Chocolate Chip Cookies (Vegan)

Recipe from Post Punk Kitchen here – Nutritional stats per cookie (24 total): 137.3 calories, 7.9g fat, 40.9mg sodium, 18.1g carbs, 0.6g fiber, 11.3g sugars, 1.1g protein

Gingerbread Cut-Out Cookies (Vegan)

Recipe from Post-Punk Kitchen here – Nutritional stats per cookie (24 total): 99.3 calories, 3.4 g fat, 87.7mg sodium, 16.8g carbs, 1.4g fiber, 8.2g sugars, 1.5g protein

The gingerbread cut-outs were a bit harder to make, obviously, because you have to roll out the dough. Don’t be a fool like me though and invite your niece over to make cookies and then, in the middle, realize you have to wait an hour for the dough to chill. D’oh! Next time, dumb auntie over here will have the dough already chilled! I made a frosting by adding some melted Earth’s Balance with vegan confectioner’s sugar and vanilla soy milk – I can’t give exact measurements because I did it on the fly. I then put it in a ziplock bag, cut an end and used it as a ghetto frosting dispenser. Worked like a charm!  We added unsweetened coconut for decoration. Also, FYI, recipe calls for molasses, which they do not sell at Trader Joe’s, but do sell at Whole Foods, so plan accordingly.

In music news, Amanda Palmer (my girl crush) is in Spin Magazine this month! Check it out! Also, she recently produced Tristan Allen’s first EP – he’s a young pianist she ran into in Boston and, in punk cabaret style, whisked him away to her studio where they made sweet musical love. You can download his tracks for free here. I’ve already given the c.d. to friends who I think could use it — see, this is the type of music that’s almost escapist but still leaves you here enough to contemplate just enough to make the experience self-reflective, but distant enough that you don’t want to jump off a cliff afterward. It’s a delicate line I straddle all too often

In my own band news, we’ve lined up a live performance for February 2011! We’ll keep everyone posted on our fan page and elsewhere. It’s going to be a 40-minute set, which is, well, a whole lot of us if ya ask me. I’m already feeling the tingle of anxiety, but i’ll suffocate the nerves with more Tristan Allen.

Two years ago we wrote a holiday song called “This Time” for one of our fave fans, and I’ve linked it below so you can listen for free, if you’re so inclined.

Listen here

Happy holidays! Any new artists you’d recommend? Favorite recipes to bake this time of year?

<3,

The Cranky One