Where have I been?

Hello all! Where have I been?  I've been frantically trying to go through my IEPs, order stuff for my classroom, look at apartments, organize stuff for school, and occasionally have some fun.  My boyfriend keeps telling me to post, and although I think he's the only one who reads it, he is correct.

The apartment hunt has been depressing and frustrating, the school stuff has been super stressful and overwhelming, and I did not accomplish nearly as much with everything else as I had hoped. Suddenly summer is over-- how did that happen?!?  Oktoberfest beers are out (so tasty!) but I refuse to drink any until after the first day of school.  While it is delicious beer; I refuse to let go of those happy little bottles of summer until after I go back to work-- which is soon! August 27th & 28th are for teacher in service, and the kids come back the 31st! Seriously, where has this summer gone?

In between all the madness I did manage to catch up with some friends, go see a couple ska shows, and a friend's wedding.  All which were awesome.  Here are some pictures describing the last couple weeks.

 The Mighty Mighty Bosstones at Toad's place on July 11th. It was awesome, and it was also our friends' nephew's first show so he was like whoa.

So as if that wasn't awesome enough, Spring Heeled Jack came to Toad's two weeks later! So I went to that show with my wife and her husband and it was awesome fun as always!  Ari and I revert to 16 year olds again when we see them, and although we play it cool whenever we see Mike Pellegrino it makes us feel giddy but he's a sweet heart and remembers us and I get hugs and yay. 

 The awesome part about Toad's is that we make friends with the bouncers and they give us special seats.  A bunch of years ago, Bond carried me up to the secret area behind the sound booth. Now we have found a place on the side of the stage which is good, but I can only get photos from one side of the stage.  The show was great-- they started doing annual reunion shows a few years ago, and life has been happier since.

 I also went to my friend, Stephanie's wedding and she did EVERYTHING by herself for decorations! Oh, and the cupcakes.  She is amazing. She did all gluten free, did some dairy free for me, and vegan for her husband's niece.  Yeah-- that cupcake is one of the many she did. She decorated them, made cake pops and even did the tiny cute little fondant flowers.

Oh, and she made all these little cupcake boxes for to go cupcakes. There were also beautiful center pieces, decorations and so much more she did.  She is amazing.

Oh, and while we were in New York for the wedding, we went to Kmart and found these fun warnings on the propane tank cage.... See what you want. Since the boy and I have the mentality of middle schoolers-- we giggled... (seriously- what are those rhinos doing with the tanks?)





I also made some cupcakes, however, I will provide those recipes in different posts... for now it is time for sleep... I really need to start getting on the "Back to School" Schedule soon...

Not a disability, just a different ability

So I'm sitting here waiting for my car to be fixed yet again and it hurts to move my arms.  My backpack feels like it's full of bricks (well it is full of IEPs) and why am I in such pain you ask? Because I am super out of shape and exercised for the first time in a while yesterday.  To be fair, it wasn't your typical work out-- I pulled my cripple ass up a 30 foot wall using only my arms and a pulley system.

Thanks to Prime Climb and Paradox Sports, there was an adaptive climbing class.  It's a new thing they started and is going to meet every other Monday and I am so doing it again! Now I am not nearly as hardcore as I look up there.  It is actually pretty awesome what they do.  They had someone in a regular harness with a pulley to help her with her feet, and they had different ways of doing the one I did.  The system I used was a harness that you sit in and get strapped in (kind of like a kiddie swing) and there is a pull up bar that is attached to the rope and the buleyer helps with the weight.  There are different body weight ratios-- first number being what you pull, second is what is being pulled for you- 1:3, 1:2, 1:1.  I did the 1:3-- for every one pound I pulled, they pulled 3.  I'm going to try the 1:2 next time.

  I just used the pulley system, but one of my friends there went not only on the 1:1 pulley, but also pulled himself up the actual rock wall. I said I'm not there YET, but I'm keeping an open mind.  The have an over night planned for real rocks and camping in October, but that's cold... and real rocks are scary- but maybe.  Being out and active again made me realize how badly I really need to find a sport or gym to keep busy. It felt great to break a sweat and feel exhausted!

My spinal cord injury happened 13 years ago next week.  Since I've been in a wheelchair I've tried a lot.  Prior to my injury, I wasn't very athletic. I was on dance company, I loved roller hockey and I did enjoy indoor rock climbing but that's pretty much where it stopped.  Since I've been in a chair I choreagraphed and performed in a wheelchair dance, tried sled hockey, tennis, boxing, krav maga (just once), skiing, basketball (that one was just with friends, not on a team), went skydiving, and now rock climbing.  I got my drivers license and returned to school within a year of my injury, and have done all sorts of road trips, vacations, and random adventures independently.  I feel that this is what helps me with my special education sudents- Don't be afraid to go out of your comfort zone, don't let people say you can't do something, always find a way to try. Always have realistic expectations-- there are some students that may never go to Harvard, just like I may never independently get up a flight of stairs-- but there is no reason why you can't try to find a way to get to the top.  End soap box rant...

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Good morning everyone.  I hope that you are all having a pleasant weekend.  Last night we had friends over and were going to go see the local fireworks, but by the time we finished eating we decided we didn't want to deal with traffic and stuff so we stayed and hung out.

Our friends that came over have a similar eating style to my boy and I.  Kim has been vegetarian since she was seven, and her husband Jason is a carnivore, much like my boyfriend. So for the boys I made bacon wrapped steak, I spent like 30 minutes in the meat aisle at the store wondering what to buy and how much to buy because I've seen these boys eat like an entire pack of hot dogs plus a few burgers.  Sadly, as most veggies know- finding something easy to cook on the grill is a challenge. So Kim and I ended up with veggie burgers. But to make up for that sad, I got corn on the cob from the farm and made veggie kabobs with zucchini from the farm.  I thought about making home made veggie burgers but instead decided to do cupcakes instead.  Good choice- and that's what I'm going talk about now.

These are delicious easy chocolate cupcakes with a peanut butter cream frosting.  I adapted them from the amazing Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Best book ever! Goes great with a glass of soy milk or a big cup of coffee.

Chocolate Cupcakes:
(makes 12 regular size cupcakes or 24 minis)
Ingredients:

1 cup soy milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon chocolate extract (optional)
1 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line cupcake pans with paper liners.
2. Whisk together the soy milk and vinegar and extracts, set aside to curdle a few minutes.
3. Beat together the sugar and oil in a large bowl.  Add in liquid and continue to mix until blended.
4. Add flour, beat together.  Add in cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt and continue to mix until completely blended together.
5. Pour into lines, filling 3/4 of the way. Bake 18-22 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the venter comes out clean. Let cool completely before frosting.

Peanut Butter Frosting:

The frosting can be tricky.  If you use natural peanut butter that gets really hard in the fridge, be sure to let it stay out so it softens up a bit.  I just opened the jar, so it was a little hard to work with because it is so runny.  If it's too difficult to work with, melting it slightly in the microwave may help a little.
Ingredients:

6 tablespoons vegan margarine, softened
2 tablespoons shortening
2/3 cup creamy peanut butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups coonfectioners' sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
2-3 table spoons soy milk

Directions:

1.  Beat together margarine and shortening until smooth. Add peanut butter and vanilla and continue to smooth.
2.  Beat sugar a little at a time. If it begins getting too thick, start adding soy milk a little at a time. The frosting is really fluffy and yummy, but does have a bit of a crumbly appearance. You're going to want to eat it with a spoon- I did...

Bess was very interested in this frosting.  She was quite the supervisor in this peanut butter prep.

She approved.  

The frosting was a bit melty since it was a fresh jar of peanut butter, so I chilled it while washing the dishes just to make it easier to work with.  The frosting is a weird color, I mean it's peanut butter color, but it looks a little funny. 

Enjoy the deliciousness that are these cupcakes, and keep cool-- Bess knows how to!

Back to School Blues

So yesterday I went to my new school to take a look at my new classroom and the custodians wanted me to draw a picture of how the furniture should be set up for me.  I realized that I am both excited and terrified about going into 6th grade. Excited because I have a lot of bulletin board space to work with and I can be more creative with setting up the room.  Terrified because I haven't been in 6th grade since my student teaching in 2008!!! I have no idea what I'm doing. Today's post is to show my classroom in the before and then in another few weeks when I am able to get back in there (they have to clean and wax the floors) I will have another post in the after.  So here's the before:

   The book shelves on this side are built in so I have limited movement there.

 I like the giant bulletin board over on this side.  I think this will be a great place for student work.

 I have a big white board and a small bulletin board on this side.  I'm even getting a Smart Board! (of course I am still waiting for the projector screen and printer to be hooked up in my school last year- which the principal promised but has since retired...)

Another bulletin board on this side, probably a good welcome/ news spot.  There's a big bulletin board behind the computer desks, but not much space to work with there.   They're going to replace the tall file cabinet and tall closet with short ones so I can reach everything.






So my dad was really excited about setting up my room last year but I didn't have a room until like the week before, and high school there isn't much to set up. This year I have been looking at Pintrest for ideas and have a lot to think about. It's overwhelming to think of how I want it all to look and what I need-- especially since I know very little about 6th graders.  I'm open to any suggestions about anything that will help.

The custodians asked for a drawing of how I wanted the furniture, and they said I won the blue ribbon of designs since they never saw such a detailed design.

I tried just drawing and it wasn't working out.  I'm a visual/ kinesthetic learner so I had to actually cut out tiny pieces of furniture out of my trusty pink steno pad and kept re-arranging my furniture on the paper until I thought it would work.

This is what I ended up with.  My biggest challenge was trying to figure out how to set up my teacher's desk so the cord will reach the outlet.  Last year we arranged our room and then realized there was no outlet, they added one but it ended up an obstacle course since it was between the teachers' desks. It's not set in stone, just paper.

I am excited about getting my room set up, I've already started buying things I know I'll need as I see them, but now that I know what my room looks like and have a lot of decoration decisions to make.

Well that's it for today.  Look forward to how it will look and more cupcakes are yet to come. I really feel like making some, but have no reason to. Mine and my boyfriends birthdays are coming up in a couple weeks so perhaps I'll start baking and freezing for that.  Enjoy the weekend all.

Vegan Strawberry Daiquari Cakepops (21+)

Happy July everyone! So I apologize in my lapse in writing. If I am unable to keep up during the summer, not real sure how it's going to go during the school year, but we'll see.  Speaking of school year-- I went to Target yesterday and they have all their back to school stuff- so not ready for that yet. I picked up a couple of items for my room from the $1/ $3 bins, but don't even know what my room looks like so didn't over do it.  This week I'm going to start reviewing my IEPs so some school stuff may be added soon.

So back to summer! One of the enjoyable parts of summer is having a frozen strawberry daiquiri on a hot day, not any of that pre-made sugar water, but using real strawberries.  A couple of weeks ago,  my mom and aunt went strawberry picking and came back with a ton of fresh strawberries.  So cute and tasty.

The sad part is, the season doesn't last to long. So I cut and froze a few knowing I was planning on making these cake pops.  I added a little bit of sugar to them to get them sweet and juicy before freezing them.

For the 4th of July we had a picnic to go to and I was set on making the cake pops. I have a love hate relationship with cake pops.  While they are adorable and delicious, they take forever to make,  mine never come out pretty and perfectly round and beautiful, and I usually get annoyed with them, but I am determined to keep trying-- but I still prefer cupcakes.

All steps can be done in the same day, however it takes a while. My usual way of doing it, is to do step by step over a course of a couple days.  The longer the cake cools, the better it works. If you are short on time, you can use the freezer but make sure the cake balls don't freeze.


Strawberry Daiquiri Cakepops:

Cake:

1 cup sliced strawberries with juice
2 tablespoons white rum
1 teaspoon lime juice
1/2 cup soy milk
1/4 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon strawberry extract (optional)
1/2 teaspoon lime juice (additional)
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a cake pan by greasing the bottom (I used coconut oil, but cooking spray would also work) and lightly adding flour to line it.
2. Use food processor or magic bullet to blend the sliced strawberries, rum and 1 teaspoon of lime juice.

3. In a large bowl, beat together 3/4 cup of the strawberry mixture, soy milk, canola oil, extracts and sugar.  Sift in flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  Mix until batter is smooth.  Pour into prepared cake pan and bake for 20-22 minutes.

4.  Once cake is done, cool in pan until it is cool enough to touch.  Crumble cake into large bowl to cool completely.

For the frosting, you can make a regular butter cream, but I decided to try to make a whipped cream type topping, since it's less sweet and whipped cream on daiquiris seem like they go.

Vegan Whipped Cream Frosting:

Ingredients:

1 can of coconut cream
1/4 cup confectioners sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

1. Chill can of coconut cream over night in the fridge, or an hour or so in the freezer. NOTE: Make sure that you don't shake the coconut cream.  By chilling it, the cream will float to the top leaving the oils on the bottom.  I accidentally dropped the can on the way to the fridge and it mixed all together and was too watery.
2.  Blend the coconut cream with electric mixture adding sugar and vanilla until it's fluffy. Using a chilled metal bowl helps.

To Make Cakepops:

1.  Take out crumpled cake.  Add 3 tablespoons of the strawberry/ rum/ lime juice mixture. Blend with electric mixture.
2. Add 1/3 cup of the whipped cream mixture blend together until the mixture is crumbly like a dry cookie dough.  Add more confectioners sugar if needed to thicken, or more cream to make it softer.

4. Spoon out mixture and roll into balls and put onto wax paper.  The color and consistency reminded me more of small meatballs than cake.

5. Chill cake balls while preparing melted chocolate.

Vegan White Cocolate:

It is very difficult to find vegan white chocolate. If you're not vegan or do dairy, you can use the melting wafers to cover it.

I ordered raw cocoa butter from Amazon. Just be sure it is FOOD QUALITY.  You don't want to eat body lotion.  It's expensive but goes a long way.

Ingredients:

1. I used 6 chunks of the raw cocoa butter, added up to about 2 cups dry- 1 cup melted.
2. 1 teaspoon coconut oil
3. 3/4 cup confectioners sugar
4. 1/4 teaspoon vanilla



Directions:

1. Melt cocoa chunks with coconut oil either using double boiler method or microwave. I used the microwave. If using the microwave, stir every 30 seconds or so.
2. Once melted, add vanilla, and mix confectioners sugar one tablespoon at a time to thicken up the chocolate.  I found letting it cool for about 10 minutes on the counter prior to mixing made it a little thicker.
3. When chocolate is at desired consistency, dip cake pop stick into chocolate and then push 2/3 of a way into cake balls. The chocolate works as a glue so they sticks stay.  Let cake balls with sticks cool in the refrigerator for about 5 minutes.
4. Dip cake balls into mix covering completely.  Since this mix is very thin, you'll need 2-3 coats to cover it.  Let chill in the fridge between dippings.
5. If desired, decorate more. I took sparkly blue decorating sugar and a fan brush to add a bit of blue to make them red, white and blue for the holiday.

Like I said, cake pops are a lot of work!  But, they were a huge success. These also make great cupcakes, without all the work of dipping in chocolate.  I was able to make 30 cake pops out of this recipe, or it would make 12 regular size cupcakes, or 24 minis.

Happy Monday everyone! (no such thing really-- except on long weekends or days off) So this weekend my dad any I went to see Kinky Boots at the Bushnell in Hartford-- It was AWESOME!

I got the tickets and the soundtrack for my dad for Christmas, so I've been listening to the soundtrack (yay free Amazon download with CD purchase). The music was great, Lauren (played by Lindsay Nicole Chambers) stole the show, especially with the song "The History of Wrong Guys". My dad and I had fun-- great performance, and even better costumes! Anywho, so what I like about summer break is the time to cook, sadly it's also usually too hot to cook but it's been pretty mild this week so I decided to try something different. I bought cauliflower and mushrooms at the store today and didn't know what I wanted to do with it, so I started looking at cauliflower pizza crusts and went from there. I had some Trader Joe's Polenta and looked up some recipes and kind of tweaked it to make it my own. It's not much like a pizza but it's tasty so yeah. I should probably test it again, but I took pics and I'm not a professional, just blogging for fun.



  Gluten Free Polenta Pizza (more of a casserole than a pizza) : 
Ingredients:
  Crust:
1 package Trader Joe's Organic Polenta
1 small head of cauliflower
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon rosemary 1
/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast

  Pizza: any sort of pizza toppings-- I used cheese and veggies and sauce. Kraft 2% mozzarella shreds are lactose free!

Directions: 1. Cut up cauliflower into bite size pieces, brush a little olive oil onto the pieces, sprinkle with salt, oregano, rosemary, and garlic powder (I didn't really measure these, just until it looks good.)
 2. Bake at 450 degrees for 10-15 minutes until tender. Flip about half way through.
 3. While cauliflower is cooking, cut up veggies.
 4. Let cauliflower cool for about 10 minutes while preparing the polenta.

5. Cut the polenta and put in the food processor. Add olive oil, red pepper flakes, basil, oregano, garlic powder, salt, and nutritional yeast.

6. Blend and add 3/4 of the cauliflower. I used the rest for topping. Continue to blend until a cookie dough consistency.

















 7. Spread the mixture into a 9x13 pan lightly greased. Cook at 450 for about 15 minutes.

 8. Add sauce, cheese and veggies and continue to cook for an additional 30 minutes. 9. Let cool about 10 minutes before serving.

*Tips*: Ok, so this isn't the most scientific or accurate measurements, but I wanted to post stuff, so I did.
 - The polenta should probably be drained prior to processing.
- It may be better to cook it a bit longer prior to adding toppings.
- DO NOT use a pizza stone-- it makes a mess!

Vegan Pina Colada Cupcakes (alcohol free)

So I just got home from meeting with my new department head. As mentioned, I'm a special ed teacher and I got bumped from my cozy high school setting to the madness of middle school. Don't get me wrong- I'm happy I have a job in the district, but I love high school and was just finally getting the hang of it all, and now I'll be starting over in 6th grade in the fall--eep! But, at least I have a smaller case load and actual resource room time with my kids... I will have to stop with the sarcasm tho...

 Ok, so on to the important things-- CUPCAKES! So I made these at the end of the school year at the request of my advisory kids (like a homeroom, but we only met weekly for 30-40 min but I love these kids!) We had a party and when I said I'd bring in cupcakes, some of my girls requested Pina Colada cupcakes so I was like sure, I can do that. Then I realized mine usually include rum, so I'd have to figure out something different.

 So here goes--- Oh,I'd also like to apologize about the pictures. I did this pre-blog days, but really wanted to put something up. I will make it up next week as I have some fabulous ideas in the works for next weekend's picnics.


VEGAN PINA COLADA CUPCAKES (makes 12 cupcakes or 24 minis)

  Ingredients
Cupcakes:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup crushed pineapple (in its own juice)
1 tablespoon juice from pineapple
1 teaspoon lime juice
1/3 cup coconut milk
1/8 cup canola oil
1/8 cup coconut oil (melted)
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla

Frosting:
5 tablespoons vegan margarine-softened (I use Earth Balance)
3 tablespoons shortening
3 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch (optional)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon coconut extract
 1/4 teaspoon lime juice
1/4 cup crushed pineapple
1 tablespoon coconut milk

 To top:
Shredded coconut
Maraschino cherries

Directions:
Cupcakes: 
1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a cupcake pan with liners
2. Melt the coconut oil. I put it in a small pyrex and microwaved it starting at 30 seconds, but monitor it depending on your microwave.
3. In mixing bowl, mix together the melted coconut oil, canola oil, and sugar. Add the coconut milk, pineapple and juice, lime juice and vanilla. Mix to combine.
4. Add the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix until ingredients are well blended-- there will still be chunks of pineapple.
5. Bake for 23-25 minutes for regular size cupcakes. 18-20 minutes for minis.
6. Cool completely before frosting.

<- cupcakes before they were cooked









Frosting:
 1. Beat the shortening and margarine together until combined well and fluffy. Add sugar a cup at a time, and continue to beat until it is crumbly.
2. Add coconut milk, extracts, lime and pineapple, continue to beat until smooth. Add a bit more cornstarch or sugar if it needs to be less liquidy or more coconut milk if too dry.*
3. Chill until ready to use-- definitely easier to work with after being in the fridge for about an hour. 

*Here's where I kind of fail at measuring. I usually add liquid and powder as needed and don't always pay attention to exactly how much I'm using. This is what I started with, but I ended up adding a little too much pineapple then too much sugar and yeah... I'll try to do better at measuring.

  To assemble:

 After cupcakes have cooled, pipe frosting onto them and then distribute shredded coconut to make them pretty. I cut the maraschino cherries in quarters since I used mini cupcakes and put them on top. Keep chilled for best results. I did have mine out in the classroom all day, and they were fine but if it's hot they will melt. They came out really pretty and tasty! The pictures don't do them justice. I will definitely make the rest much prettier.

Welcome!

Summer Vacation. Those two words are anticipated by students and teachers alike, and feared by parents. As the year comes to an end, the students become anxious as their attention spans dwindle, and teachers struggle to complete all that comes with the end of the year and count down their days to freedom. And then, that glorious day arrives. That final bell rings and students run out the door cheering, leaving a trail of papers in their wake. Following on their heels are the teachers, gearing up for 2 months of nothing but rest and relaxation with no thoughts of school until September; at least that's what everyone who is not a teacher assumes happens. Those of us who are lucky enough to be teachers know that the clock doesn't stop when that bell rings and that summer vacation isn't all fun and games, however, it is usually a time that allows some freedom, much less stress and most importantly, well deserved time outside of the classroom. So, with all that being said-- welcome to my attempt at blogging. So, I'm on my summer vacation as of this past Friday, and it's the first time that I don't have a job. I've been wanting to start a blog for a while, but the school year is insane and I hardly had time to get my work done, nevermind anything I wanted to do. So let me introduce myself, I'm Tanya. I am a special education teacher by day and Adult Education English Teacher at night. I love to cook, craft and create. I'm in a wheelchair, due to a spinal cord injury almost 13 years ago, and have an awesome Service Dog because of it. I love to bake vegan deserts. I'm not vegan, but I'm super lactose intolerant so I bake all vegan stuff. I was vegetarian all throughout high school and college and still cook mostly vegetarian, but you may see a couple chicken dishes from time to time. Ok, so this is a place that I will share recipes, lessons, school stuff, pictures of my fur babies, and just randomly sharing stuff. I promise, there will be more interested stuff than this on here. So sit back, grab a Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy, and enjoy. And to get this started, let me add photos of my kids.

Bess and General Tso Kitten (they're bestest friends)

Cody cat in the salad spinner box (cats do love boxes)

Cody and GT the one time I caught them snuggling

Bessie Boo