Another Flying Apron success!

I made these sweet little vegan Apricot Thumbprints a few weeks ago and man, did they disappear fast! :) Yet another fabulous recipe from The Flying Apron baking book. Did I mention these are gluten-free?

Apricot Thumbprints

2 & 3/4 cups brown rice flour

1 & 1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon garbanzo bean flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 teaspoon orange zest

1 cup canola oil

1 cup organic whole can sugar, plus more for sprinkling the cookies

1 cup rice milk

Apricot Puree (recipe follows)

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

2. Combine the brown rice flour, garbanzo bean flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and orange zest in a large bowl. In the bowl of a standing mixer (which I don't have...I used a handheld mixer and it worked out fine) fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the canola oil and organic cane sugar until well mixed. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture and rice milk alternatively, a little at a time, until well mixed, about 3 minutes (more like 8 with my little hand-held!!).

3. Scoop the cookie dough into Ping-Pong ball sized mounds and place on greased or parchment-lined baking sheets, leaving 3 inches between the cookies. Make an indentation in the center of each cookie with the back of a wet spoon. Fill each indentation with a teaspoon of Apricot Puree or your favorite jam.

4. Sprinkle the edges of the cookies with organic whole cane sugar and bake until slightly firm to the touch, about 14 minutes.

Makes 30 cookies.

Apricot Puree

1 & 1/2 cups dried apricots

2 cups boiling water

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 & 1/2 tablespoons organic whole cane sugar (optional)

1. Place dried apricots in a large bowl and pour boiling water over them. Soak the apricots, covered, for 2 hours. Drain the apricots, reserving 1/4 cup of the soaking liquid. Transfer the apricots and reserved soaking liquid to a food processor or blender. Puree until smooth. Blend in lemon juice, vanilla and organic whole cane sugar.

Japanese Maple

Per our backyard. :)

Shower=Tiled

Kip and his mad tiling skills...

Bye, yellow!

Filing one edge to make the tile 1/16" smaller!

Me using a tile cutter for the first time in my life. It's similar to a super heavy duty paper cutter. Since our tile is ceramic, a wet saw is not necessary (you must have a wet saw for natural stone tile).

Craig and Kip had to cut and file the top rows...

Next up: grouting!

Chives

Chives have the cutest little blooms.

Photo is from our backyard.

D-light

"This is love: to fly towards a secret sky..."

Jalal ad-Din Rumi

(link)

Toilet Tissue Holder

Super glamourous topic (!), but that's what I'm thinking about right now. We'll need a new one for our new bathroom, and this one is my favorite so far. It's a little pricey, but in such a small space I feel like the details need to be special and good quality. Plus I may find a killer deal on it, somewhere on this world wide internet! :)

Tiling update

Here's the latest, folks! I lied the last time I posted about the tiling; we're not going to do the inset until the end. There, I said it.

Yay, moving onto the next wall!

Tribble made a guest appearance...

Kip applying the thin-set on the remaining wall.

Making the grooves...

Our progress so far! We're going to do more tonight, hopefully finished by the weekend!

fabric corsages

I got the tattered-roses itch from my uber-artsy friend, Robin. She's making fabric flowers for a group of gals in her wedding, and I started practicing how to make them in case she wanted my help. Anywhoo, I ended up liking them so much I made fabric corsages for my mom and mother in-law for Mother's Day. Here's the blog where Robin found the tutorial.

I inserted floral wire in the leaves so I could bend 'em.

Wisteria

Yay for spring!

Photo of our backyard wisteria...

Mumsey

I took some photos of our Mother's Day table decor...

I was inspired by Once Wed's idea of spray painting an old frame and books for a centerpiece. I used different size vases to hold wisteria, football mums, chive blooms and snowball viburnum.

I proudly copied Twig and Thistle's idea for fabric-wrapped cheese wheels with crackers as a place setting.

My lovely in-laws. My parents couldn't be there as they are at my sis' graduation from Emery (GO BECKY!), so that's why I don't have a photo of them here. :)

Healthy breakfast

My friend Jaime recommended I try this quinoa porridge recipe. The only modifications I made were to add 1/4 tsp nutmeg at Jaime's advice and I used maple syrup instead of agave. Yummy and filling!

shower tiling

Kip and Craig started tiling our shower this weekend! Yay!

Pattern for the tiles...

Applying the mortar and tiles...(the tiles look like they're at an angle, but it's just the camera)

Good stopping place for now. They'll tackle the yellow inset next. We are SO pleased with how it's looking so far!

one of my favorite blooms

Viburnum are one of my favorite spring blooms (there are over 150 species, the type pictured below is similar to the Snowball). They are a flowering shrub and bloom for several weeks in the spring. These pictures are from my neighbor's tree, but I plan on getting one for our garden this summer.