Vegan chocolate cake VEGAN CHOCOLATE CAKE VEGAN CHOCOLATE CAKE WITH CREAMY CHOCOLATE FROSTING recipe from Cook's Illustrated Magazine (preparation 3 hours, 1 hour active) For the Cake: 1 1/2 cups natural large crystal cane sugar=20 (testers prefer Sugar in the Raw) 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 cup oat flour 2 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/3 cup Dutch-processed cocoa=20 (testers preferred SchaffenBerger Natural Cocoa Powder 1/2 cup natural cocoa 1 1/2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped 1 [...]

even the sky had a voice "Living with my Indian friends I found I was a stranger in my native land. As time went on the outward aspect of nature remained the same but a change was wrought in me. I learned to hear the echos of a time when every living thing, even the sky had a voice, that voice devoutly heard by the ancient people of america, I desired to make audible to others." Alice Cunningham [...]

15 books 15 books share Rules: Anyone can play. Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you've read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes. Tag however many you wish, including me, because I'm interested in seeing what books my friends choose. (To do this, go to your Notes tab on your profile page, paste rules in a new note, cast your picks, and tag [...]

15 books 15 books share Rules: Anyone can play. Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you've read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes. Tag however many you wish, including me, because I'm interested in seeing what books my friends choose. (To do this, go to your Notes tab on your profile page, paste rules in a new note, cast your picks, and tag [...]

openheartedness in this moment. The shadows we regard as our adversaries then become our most profound teachers. We learn to meet them with grace and serenity. In that calmness we begin to understand that peace is not the opposite of challenge and hardship. We understand that the presence of light is not the result of darkness ending. Peace is not found in the absence of challenge, but in our own capacity to be with hardship without judgment, prejudice [...]

Rumi This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all! Even if they're a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of it's furniture, still, treat each guest honorably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight. The dark thought the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite [...]

"Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front" Love the quick profit, the annual raise, vacation with pay. Want more of everything ready-made. Be afraid to know your neighbors and to die. And you will have a window in your head. Not even your future will be a mystery any more. Your mind will be punched in a card and shut away in a little drawer. When they want you to buy something they will call you. When they want [...]

Roshi There is no time. There is no time, anymore - to mellow with age, to accumulate experience like merit badges, to wait for life to transmute into wisdom. We who remain must leap into life, as though it were the net beside our burning building. I say rush now toward wisdom. Because there is no time to study cause and effect. No time for blind testing of the spirit. Wisdom must be found and grasped still hot [...]

Every child has known God Every child has known God, Not the God of names, Not the God of don'ts, Not the God who ever does Anything weird, But the God who knows only 4 words And keeps repeating them, saying: "Come Dance with Me." Come Dance. -- Hafiz

HOW POEMS ARE MADE/A DISCREDITED VIEW By Alice Walker Letting go In order to hold one I gradually understand How poems are made. There is a place the fear must go. There is a place the choice must go. There is a place the loss must go. The leftover love. The love that spills out Of the too full cup And runs and hides Its too full self In shame. I gradually comprehend How poems are made. To [...]