Flexing my buns

Something about the hot weather has us wanting to eat things on buns. Can't you just see how elated Kevin is to be devouring those lil' baby sloppy joes? (Vegan Dad's Red Lentil Sloppy Joe's on homemade burger buns from Adventures in Beanland.) I was taking the KitchenAid for a spin that night, so the buns were kneaded in the 'Aid, though the thickness of the WW dough basically derailed the bowl a couple times. Runaway Train! I also made the garlic whipped red taters in the KA. 

Having had success with these buns, I attempted to re-create a Wisconsin Oktoberfest favorite: beer brats on German dark rye rolls with saurkraut. I'd never seen mass produced dark rye hot dog buns until I lived through an October in Wisconsin. We'd picked up some Tofurkey beer brats, so naturally they HAD to be on rye buns. My attempt crashed and burned. The dough, which never rose, tasted delicious: WW flour, blackstrap molasses, agave, cocoa powder. Yum! Too bad it didn't work out. I was waiting for a rematch with the recipe, but alas... after a morning of eating saurkraut from the jar before breakfast, I decided it was high time I just bought some rolls and did it up! We cooked the brats in foil with beer and red onions (onions soaked in beer- try it.) The result were alright. I think I'm just not a tofurkey girl. Most meat analogs just don't quite feel right. I think I'll take red lentils over fake meat any day.

Here in the Vegan Kitchen, we've had a major development. The drawer pulls are on, which might sound minor but after months of having to leave the drawers open because they were too hard to open otherwise, pulls are a big freakin' deal. And they match the fridge and dee-dubya.

Also, let there be light!

Because we're either:
a. gluttons for punishment
b. clinically insane
c. fond of being strapped for cash
....we are considering more renovation. This project would be Kevin's baby. Not sure if it'll come to fruition, as we're waiting on bids from a few contractors to see if it's plausible. But, for fun, I went to Second Chance today to poke around. It's the series of salvage warehouses where I bought my stove. They have so much cool shit. Today's treasures included some new vintage stoves, set pieces from The Wire, plethora of clawfoot tubs. I snapped a few photos before my pager went off, causing me to abort to puruse-and-photo mission.

Two little Fire Kings sitting in a tree. I think the blue one wants to come home with me. (Wouldn't it make a cute little accept piece?)