Blogging

I've taken a hiatus from the blogosphere, and supplemented it with the wonderful world of social media.

Follow me on Tumblr.

Instagram: srcrumley.

Currently I'm working on a video project that takes up a majority of my time and I've been hanging out in New York a lot.

Check out some of my concert photos in Brooklyn Vegan.

In the meantime, I have a whole bunch of new New York stuff on my website, in the next few days I'll even be adding *gasp* video. VIDEO?? REALLY?!? I just finished my first commercial video two months ago, I've been working as a second video shooter in NY, and well, the project in Boston is also primarily video-oriented.

Anyways.

Sorry for the brevity.

Boston Barbeque Cat

July 2011-

Well, finally, summer is here. Finally.

Summer equals...

BBQS!

Bike rides!

Friends!!

Jared combined all of those together for a BBQ themed alleycat, benefiting the Boston Bicycle Messenger Associations.

I was working at Superb that day but fortunately we were also a Checkpoint...BONUS!!

In between customers I was able to duck out to grab a few shots:






Pickle slaps were exchanged for pogs. As were solo cups filled to the brim with pickle juice.

As an anti-pickle person, I shuddered at the thought. I feel like that's a viable response, seeing as pickle juice is essentially dill and garlic seasoned vinegar.

Yikes.

Joyous New England Tragedy

June 2011-


So. It's been four years since Tragedy played New England. Unfortunately I wasn't able to see them at Maryland Death Fest this year so when we discovered they were playing in Providence, a mere hour away from Boston, the answer was a hands down, emphatic HECK YES.

Not to mention, we got to visit two fabulous vegan nibble joints: Garden Grill Cafe and Wildflour Bakery.

In all of the excitement of vegan treats, I did not have half a mind to snap some photographs of this amazing food.

Naturally, we went for dessert before dinner.

I had the pleasure of chatting with one of the managers/owners who used to work at City Feed in Jamaica Plain. Super knowledgable about coffee and tea, it was great to get to hear about some other eastern roasters. Thanks for letting me geek out about coffee for a little bit!

The bakery works to be as local and organic as possible, while maintaining an amazing variety of both raw and baked vegan goodies.

We snagged a slice of coconut raspberry and lemon ginger cake, along with a variety of bakery delights (cinnamon buns, lemon poppyseed muffin, a variety of savory scones, coffee cake..yes..I know..that's a lot of sugar) and WERE BLOWN AWAY.

Great job guys! Glad to see a totally vegan bakery in our general vicinity! A Boston location in the future would be really lucrative...hint hint hint.

Garden Grille is always a fabulous experience. Eggplant stuffed with tofu cheese served over grilled polenta in a marina sauce? Uhm..is this even REAL?!

Needless to say...we left satiated, satisfied and swaggering to the show.

The show was at Industry, (ex Jerky's Bar). While there weren't a significant amount of people there, the age spectrum was pretty notable- from people barely (if even) twenty-one to old guys louging on the couches lining the walls, it was really awesome to see that variety braved it to Providence.

We ended up getting vegan ice cream milk shakes (yes, after all of the aforementioned food. I'm not joking.) and made it just in time for Tragedy.














There were several awesome photographs of the crowd, but apparently through the musical compact flash cards I've been playing at the shop and at home some of these photographs got lost in translation. So I hope this will suffice.

Vegan Haters Gonna Hate But...

May 2011-

Just throwing it out there: vegan treats sans dairy doesn't mean sans excellence in the baking realm.

Last night boyfriend made (and I came through with the cleaning/carrot grading assist) the best carrot cake I've ever tasted, vegan or otherwise.



Boom. Chicka. Boom.

Taste tested even by the omnivores at our shop today--this delight past with flying reverent colors.





Classic Vegan Carrot Cake

yields 2 8×8″ cakes (or 2 9″ round cakes)

2 1/3 c all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
½ tsp salt

6 tbsp flax seed meal
3/4 c warm water
1½ c sugar
1 c oil
1 tsp vanilla
2 c shredded carrots
1 c walnuts, chopped

Cream Cheese Frosting
8 oz vegan cream cheese
¼ c margarine, softened
1 tsp vanilla
2 c powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350º. Line two 8×8″ pans with parchment paper. In a small bowl, sift together dry ingredients (flour through salt). In a large bowl, whisk together flax seed meal and water. Beat in sugar and oil. Add vanilla and carrots and mix until combined. Add dry mix and stir until moistened. Fold in walnuts. Pour equal parts into pans. Bake for 18-20 min, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in pans 10 minutes.

For the frosting, beat together cream cheese and margarine. Add vanilla and powdered sugar; whip until smooth. (Don’t overbeat; in my experience, store-bought vegan cream cheese has a tendency to get runny.)

Use a knife to loosen edges of cake from pans. Using parchment paper, lift cakes out of pans. Carefully remove parchment paper from one cake. Frost cake, layer, and decorate with a marzipan carrot (brush a little cocoa powder into the indents for some realism). Serve chilled.

Thanks to Hell Yeah It's Vegan for making my Sunday night a tasty one.

Superb

May 2011-

So I've been working at Superb for about a month now, and it's been pretty awesome. Beautiful bikes, components and people to take pictures of.

Here's just a brief medley of some of my favorite shots:



Justin, a custom build customer/shop friend waiting patiently in our mechanic shop for his bike.



Pake frame lineup for 2011. Pakes a plenty!



Beautiful authentic Italian Bianchi Road bike I had the pleasure of shooting. I'm both grateful/bummed that it's not three cm's smaller. (My bank account is praying with thanks to the steel Bianchi gods of fate.)


Shop manager Jason Hollingsworth teaching a basic math lesson. Yeah, we're a well rounded bunch.


Ryffrank catching some rays through our shop window.


More coming later.

Late Night Train Adventures

May 2011

Last week a few friends and I decided to have a late night adventure. And for a bunch of 22-year-olds, adventures mean exploring, and under the cover of night, that means the taboo rules all: train yards.



Entry. Woops.



The Christkicker backpatch--a cycling group in the Boston area.



Walking the tracks. Sorry Mom and Dad.





Caboose entry.



I have a tendency to catch people mid sentence.




A fallen soldier, fatality of the train yard.

These times, they are a-changing.

March 2011-

Geez louise! I've been off the pixel map for awhile.

As of two weeks ago, I officially quit my college job of slinging coffee to working at Superb. I'll be getting my blog on over there with frequency so click it often for updates on new fabulous bike products, bike events and dance party extravaganzas.

Also, boyfriend ended his 8 year no pet hiatus and got a dog, which by proxy means that I sort of have a dog now. Sweet.



O hai.



...still is inconceivable how someone could actually abuse this little critter.


His name is Danzig. He is the man. If you don't know where that comes from do us both a favor, save mutual embarrassment and frustration and just google the name. You know where it comes from. I promise.


Up next: pictures from a myriad of shows, WRITE UP OF THE HEART OV STEEL COMPETITION.