I don't hang out here any more

For anyone who comes here looking for me you can now find me over at http://www.gorgeousvegan.co.uk/blog. It's a much nicer place to be.
x

awwww. mmmm!

I have got so excited about this dark chocolate Gold bunny. Every year I look at the Easter aisle at the supermarket in the hope that one year they have something exciting...and this year they have! Of course, as Easter is a celebration of fertility I have bought two bunnys (2 for £6. Not cheap but they are heavy) and I fervently hope that they breed! (I guess if they did they may look a little like these wee rabbits )

A fat feast

So after yesterdays sugar blow out which has left me feeling drained and hungover I thought I would end today by feasting on fat. Delicious it was too.

So here we have lots of green leaf, a mountain-ette of grated carrot topped with sunflower seeds and with a pouring of flax oil and some lemon juice.

These are big wedges of toast with individual artichoke bakes (4 between 2 of us). These were easy as to make. Taken vaguely from the Garden of Vegan it is a mix of mayo, soya yogurt, cream 'cheese', english mustard, nutritional yeast, squeeze of lemon, pepper...oh and a can of chopped artichokes. Creamy, cheesy and very moreish they were bubbling and golden. There was just so much fat between the salad and the bake but I justify it thusly: The bake is full of bad hydrogenated fats and omega 9's which people in general get too much of in the diet and causes an imbalance of fats in the body therefore I was doing my body a favour by eating the extra flax oil as it gives my body the important omega 3 oils required to metabolise vitamins, minerals and bad fats, do a bit of converting chemical bits in my body and redress that imbalance. hurrah!

Mystery hangover

I have a strange mystery hangover today. I have the headache, feeling slightly ill...feels exactly like a hangover but (and this is the mystery bit) I haven't been drinking! At all.

Do you think eating half a maple syrup and apple cake last night might have something to do with it? :/

xCat

A backward nation?

I sometimes feel I live in a backward nation. SO far on the local news I have had to watch deer being shot as part of an "essential" cull in the Cairngorms. The excuse is that it is being done to conserve the area which in reality is agricultural and could be solved by putting up deer fencing. Instead they are flying in "professionals" to ensure clean killing. Instead I got to watch two deer being shot and stumbling around before finally falling. Not exactly clean.

Following on from that there was a story on how youngsters were being encouraged to fish as there has been a decline in angling (good) and that it is essential to fish for environmental reasons!!! (That was the report which stated this although failed to mention what was so environmentally friendly about all those discarded lines and hooks.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggh!!!

(couldn't find any links to these stories as the bbc don't have them up, if I find them I'll link to them)

chocolate mousse cupcakes

Fluffy chocolate cupcakes filled with a light chocolate mousse and topped with a dark chocolate fudge icing. mmm. I got the idea from Cupcakes by Elinor Klivans. It's a beautifully illustrated book which I bough purely for inspiration as none of the recipes are actually vegan. I used a cupcake recipe from Vegan Lunch box which I played about with a little by removing the coconut extract and replacing almost a 1/4 cup of flour with cocoa powder. I used the whole recipe and got 12 large cupcakes although next time I would probably go smaller. All I did for the topping and mousse was adapt the recipes from the book. I put soya cream in the topping instead of cow cream and for the mousse filling I replaced cow cream with silken tofu blended very well with a little maple syrup.

I also ended up with some left over filling so I soaked some apricots in amaretto and blended them with the remaining mousse. tasty.

x

Those beautiful canals

Coffee temptation

No matter how I hard I resist it there is always another good reason for drinking coffee. This time it is the dinky coffee cups which I think would be just as beautiful full of a rich and alcoholic chocolate mousse.

Bombay and beans: Spoils from The Dam

Homemade vegan bombay pate bought at the saturday market and chocolate coffee beans (what's left of them!).

Fushia fruit

At 6 euro this is the most expensive, beautiful , bland tasting exotic fruit I have ever tasted.

Holland Days

Have I really been away that long? Just back from a trip to Amsterdam (which only accounts for 5 days of my time) and it was a bit of a culinary trip...and by culinary I mean that I ate...LOTS. It is a city with such International flavours that I ate Thai, Indian, Ethiopian and Indonesian.

Highlights were Vada (semolina dumplinga) in sambar, giant dosa's, fresh fried chips with sate and sambal, falafel galore, soya lattes in Brandmeester after being at the Van Gogh museum and an Indonesian exhibition followed by a ten dish spectacular Indonesian rice table. Will have photos up soon.

x