Plant Based Vegan Cheese, My Way

 Lately I have been leaning more towards a vegan or plant-based lifestyle. I've done a lot of looking around at 'fake' cheese choices. I'm not happy with most of the stuff at the grocer's because it's just flavored oil and potato starch (though some is made using nuts); that is not really recommended for a plant based diet- just more fake food. I've tried out a lot of recipes~ some are OK, some are not so great, but none of them had a texture I was  happy with. So I took a bunch of recipes and rolled them all into this mess~ which will get semi-hard in the fridge. 

Disclaimer- I don't measure a lot of this stuff~ just guesstimate, so tweak as desired. I'll explain the ingredient choices a bit in the end notes.

 

 

 

• 1/3- 1/2 cup cashews/almonds or a combination of the two, soaked for 1/2-3 hrs; drained  
  
• 1/2 T miso
• 1T tahini
• 1T cornstarch (optional)
• 1 1/2 T coconut oil (optional)
• 2 capfuls of natural vinegar
• 2 T vegan yogurt (preferred) or plant milk of your choice
• 1-2 T nutritional yeast
• 1 t lemon juice
• 1/2 t tamari or natural soy sauce
• 2-5 drops smoke flavor
  

Put nuts and some of the liquid ingredients in blender or food processor first and get the nuts mostly ground up. Add everything else and blend or process until smooth. Add a bit of extra plant milk or water as needed to blend it up.

                                                                                Notes
You can easily remove almond skins once they're soaked if you don't want the brown bits. 

Miso, plant yogurt and vinegar will lend a more tart flavor over time as they contain active cultures.

Cornstarch and coconut oil are there to thicken it up as it site in the fridge. If these are not on your diet, you can omit them; it just won't thicken up as well.

I truly don't measure the yeast, lemon juice or tamari, add and taste to get it to your liking.

Smoke flavoring is obviously optional, but I find it lends a nice gouda-like flavor.

Tahini is there because I believe is helps the flavor along. And I love tahini!

Bumps and Bobbles and Whorls

It seems everyone has an opinion about raised bumps on beads. Do you like the feel of them, the fact that they add texture to your beads? Or do you prefer the smooth look and feel of the glass all by itself? Long ago, I was a 'no bumps please' bead maker. But now? Oh give me some texture!
For glass whorl making, bobbles have a purpose beyond looks. They add a little weight to the whorl, which often seems like a good thing. And if they are placed all around the outside, they can also affect the speed and length of the spin. Oh, it's physics, and I am not so good with physics. But it does change how things go around.

To quote Wikipedia:  'Whorl shapes vary greatly and can include ball-shaped, disk-shaped and cross shaped whorls. The shape and mass distribution of the whorl affects the momentum it gives to the spindle while it is spinning. For example a center weighted whorl will spin very fast and short, while a rim-weighted disk-shaped whorl will spin longer and slower.^[9]'

<sup>So, first I make a nice smooth whorl. Then maybe I add some swirls here and there, either evenly all around the bead, or maybe just randomly. Then I wonder if it might need just a little more weight, or if accent bumps would look nice. And then, well, does it need raised bumps around the center to make it spin a bit longer? And, if it happens to be a sea urchin whorl, then bumps and bobbles are a definite part of the design!

Oh, looking through that article, I see spindles are associated with a number of goddesses. Hmmm... going to have to let the brain wheels spin around that for a bit!</sup>

Torch Time Again!

 Good golly, I have not been blogging much! Just popping in now to say my torch is back up and running after being on hiatus for a couple of months. I've started out with some fancy silver-cored fish pendants and glass whorls for spinning yarn.
New curved beads are on the to-do right now list! We'll see how that goes~ they are always a bit of a challenge.

Isinglass Design Makes Pottery

Support Spindle Bowls

   Sometimes it's just time to blog about something new. 

   But  what to talk about? The blazing heat? Where I 

   should live? Getting old? Nah~ let's talk pottery! Wonky 

   or not, it's the latest craze around here. This is news to 

   me too!
  

 Yes, another crafty thing has caught my attention. I have been going to the Arkansas Innovation Hub for a few months now to work on their lathe. Then I saw that there was a hand built pottery workshop coming up. Little did I know how enchanting making pottery could be, and there is so much to learn and try! I feel like I'm under a spell~ My main goal here was to make some support spindle bowls, but I guess that was just a wee bit too easy for my busy brain. Now there are more bowls and containers, incense burners and even a yarn bowl for a buddy to use. 

One day I was walking about and saw a few poppy pods. They have turned out to be a lovely little tool for impressing designs on pieces. And not all pods look the same; the designs on the two pictured are quite different. I've got a whole Pinterest page about hand building pottery, with tons of photos and ideas and I've been watching a bunch of videos from Sarah Pike Pottery on instagram. She's got a lot of cool ideas, and her pottery is lovely!