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August 31 2010
Bold as Brassica...
Sometimes, all I want is something hearty, comforting and smothered in gravy to eat. The weather in Bathgate is deceptively mild - 17oC outside with blue skies burst by blinding white sunlight that means you can't drive without your sunnies on - but is accompanied by a bracing breeze that ensures all your clothes air really quickly on the line and you wear a long sleeved sweatshirt to go collect your kids from school.
For all the sunny facade, I know Autumn is on it's way. I can feel it nipping at my toes at night, I can see the condensation on the windows in the morning and the morning walk to school is chilly despite the kiss of sunshine on our cheeks.
I felt like one of my favourite Polish dishes - Bigos. This traditional meat-rich cabbage stew is usually made in winter to stave off the cold with plenty of rye bread and beer as accompaniments. Having cooked various vegan versions of it, I think I finally have an pretty authentic recipe which involves sundried tomato paste, my mum's extra spicy homemade garam masala, finely chopped dried beancurd, fresh and dried mushrooms and baco-bits. The Mister tells me I treat cabbage as a separate food group anyway (This was after I gave him a helpful sauerkraut tip - it's delicious in place of fresh salad on a veggie burger!) so i don't need an excuse to open a jar of s.k, slice-up a savoy cabbage and make merry with the slow cooker. I threw the ingredients in for five hours on high before switching off and leaving overnight to let the flavours develop. Today I fried a large diced onion in lots of margarine with some salt and pepper until golden brown and soft, added a heaping serving of Bigos and heated through until piping hot and served it with creamy mashed potatoes (plenty of vitalite, soyamilk and parsley) and some Bisto vegetable gravy.
It was delicious and really hit the spot. I think I'll make some curried lentils on the side tomorrow to enjoy the rest of my pan of (Bargain)Hunter's Stew.In Other News:
If Dexter came round for afternoon tea, this is possibly what the scene would look like...
Toes nibbled at...
Decapitated with their wee hemp eyes plucked out... it's pretty nasty.All we can do is eat them up quickly to put them out of their misery...
These gingerbread men were a quick 'cooking with children' project that was a lot of fun! The recipe I use for my dough is an old Allrecipes one from my pre-vegan days, but I've tweaked it substantially since then to suit my changing tastes! This is not the syrupy-sweet short gingerbread you find at the bakers. These little fellows taste like traditional German gingerbread biscuits and so are just perfect for my spice-loving sweet tooth! You can decorate them before baking if you like - me and the kids used raisins, goji berries and hemp seeds I had kicking around the kitchen. They're also lovely with a simple lemon water icing added after baking.
Gingerbread Victims Men
110g vegan margarine
100g sugar
100ml black treacle
25ml light agave nectar
1 flax egg
250g wholemeal flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
Cream the margarine and sugar together until smooth. Add the black treacle, agave nectar and flax egg and stir in. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices. Mix together with a wooden spoon until smooth adding more flour a little at a time if necessary to prevent the dough being too wet. Cover and chill for at least an hour, preferably overnight.
When your kids are really bored you're ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350oF/GM 4 and roll your dough out on a lightly floured surface till about 1/4 inch thick. Cut out your shapes using cutters, decorate with raisins/seeds, etc, and transfer to ungreased baking sheets. Bake for 8-10 minutes until firm. Longer yields a crisper biscuit. Let cool for a couple of minutes on the tray before moving the biscuits to a wire cooling rack. Ice when completely cool - if you can wait that long... !
May 28 2010
Beauty and the Feast
Here’s the beauty…
…and here’s one of the items that featured in the feast…
You’ll have worked out what the occasion was? Our baby girl’s 21st birthday!
What can I say about our wee girl? Well, at about 4ft 10ins, she IS wee! That, added to her sweet young face, has people thinking she is much younger than she is. She is not pleased about this! I tell her it’s hereditary!!!
She is, and has always been, the much loved wee sister of her big brother, Johnny,
(though the occasional spat is not unknown!) and they share many interests. She is very shy with strangers, but feisty and funny with people she knows well. Added to that, with her family she is very, very loving, kind and caring. She was, of course, home educated until she started university. It’s hard to believe that she’ll graduate in just over a month!
Johnny calls her a ‘geek chick’! In her last year at university she became involved in doing the lighting at the uni drama group, which she taught herself; she can work out how anything technical works without recourse to a manual; and she loves science fiction and fantasy. She also writes fantasy adventure books, which, now that her studies are over, she hopes to get ready for an agent. She is rarely seen without her iPod plugged into her ears. She has always loved reading and never goes anywhere without a few books in her bag…
Jane (or Jenny, as she’s known to family and old friends) has always been a very girly girl. Here’s a memory book page I made when she was younger:
When she was tiny, she loved dolls and pink clothes and cute wee animals. Now she squeaks over babies and, after a period when she would wear nothing but black, despite not actually being a Goth, still loves pink clothes and cute wee animals!
She is my darling daughter and I love her more than words can say!
So, on to the feast! Jane had asked for a strawberry birthday cake and who was I to deny her that? However, in my usual dotty way, I forgot that the syrup from the tinned strawberries would add a lot of sweetness and so I added the normal amount of sugar. (I tell a lie. I actually added a wee bit extra sugar because of a dotty mistake that would take too long to explain…). So when the birthday girl licked the bowl, she declared that it was very sweet indeed and suggested that I might make lemon icing to counteract this. So I did. Boy was that icing lemony! It brought tears to my eyes when I tested it! But it turned out to be a great combination and the sweetness and the watery-eye-ness complemented each other very nicely.
Yes, I did remember the candles this time, but our local shop didn’t have any ‘twos’, so it was back to the old-fashioned kind and ‘tens and units’.
Jane had her final exams at university on the two days following her birthday, so there were no high jinks with similarly harassed uni friends. Instead we had a family birthday lunch the day before with her Nana and her Auntie Syl …
I had ordered Sosmix, at Jane’s request, but it didn’t arrive in time, so we had chilli en croute instead, with potato salad made with Plamil mayonnaise; chopped salad (John’s special: spring onion, celery, red pepper and cucumber chopped up small); green leafy salad; tomato and basil rolls; trifle and the aforementioned cake…
… and on the day itself, she and I went to Glasgow and had lunch at Stereo, a vegan restaurant. Then we went to see Meet Me in St Louis at the cinema. It was so great seeing it on the big screen! My only problem was worrying about the lights coming on when there were still tears dripping off my chin!
OK! Let’s get down to recipes! What would you like? Will we start with the strawberry cake? And then follow that with the chilli en croute? And maybe the trifle? OK, then… But you’re a bit demanding, aren’t you? Sheesh!
Strawberrry Cake
Ingredients:
250g self raising flour
125g sugar
1 tin of strawberries
1½ teaspoons egg replacer
125g margarine
¾ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon salt
Water
Method:
Set oven to Gas Mark 5/375F/190C
Mix egg replacer with the juice/syrup from the tin, made up, with water, to 200g. Put aside.
Mix together all the other ingredients and the egg replacer mixture.
Divide between two round cake tins.
Bake for 35 minutes.
When cool, sandwich with icing and ice the top. I used stacks of icing sugar, a large dollop of margarine and enough lemon juice to choke a whale. But I’m afraid that’s the most accurate measurements you’re ever going to get with my icing. I’m an instinctive icing maker!
Chilli en croute
Ingredients:
1 large onion
1 red pepper
250g mushrooms
500g passata
1 carton organic kidney beans
1 teaspoon Very Lazy Chilli
1 teaspoon molasses
Method:
Fry the onion, mushrooms and pepper together. I like to do them with the gas on full, stirring constantly until they’re getting nice and soft. Smells good, too!
Add the rest of the ingredients, bring to a simmer and leave to cook for about half an hour. Preferably make it the day before you’re going to eat it to let the flavours develop.
Unfold some ready-roll puff pastry and cut it into two strips. Spoon some chilli down the centre of each, cut slits all the way down each side, and then cross the strips over on the top.
Bake at Gas Mark 8/450F/230C for about half an hour.
Trifle
The day before you want it, bake a chocolate cake, using the recipe I’ve already given you in my blog post about John (Penny has a Darling Lamb). Cut half off one of the layers and put it aside. Enjoy what’s left…
The next day, using your fingers, break up the piece of chocolate cake until it’s like bread-crumbs and then make up one of these
with the liquid from a tin of summer fruits made up to three quarters of a pint and brought to the boil in a saucepan. Mix in the jelly and stir. Leave to set.
Then make up another jelly, as before, but stirring in the two tins of drained summer fruits. Pour it over the solidified bottom layer. Leave to set.
Spoon most of a tub of Swedish Glace vanilla ice-cream over the top and grate some chocolate over it. I used Organica rice milk chocolate. Mmmm….
As you can see, I also made up a separate custard. You know all about that… And if you don’t, you haven’t been following my blog properly!
And that’s it! Jane is now catching up with all the books she’s been wanting to read and the films she’s been wanting to see, but couldn’t because of her studying. And it’s off to the job centre in a couple of days!
So that’s the last of my birthday blogs! From now on it’ll be back to ordinary musings again… I’ll try to be more diligent! OU essays allowing…
Well, for goodness sake! That boy will hijack anybody’s blog post! I do apologise!
Today’s title: Beauty and the Beast – traditional folk tale
Today’s fruit salad: orange juice; apples; kiwi fruit; bananas; grapes.
April 13 2010
Penny has a darling Lamb
No, unlike my sister, Sylvia, I DON’T have a rescue male sheep. Here’s my Lamb here (in sleepy mood!):
John, my husband, known to me as Lambie!
John celebrated his 50th birthday last month,
so what better time to immortalise him in a blog entry? (Well, a better time would have been earlier than this, but I’ve been writing essays… And acting as his secretary… Something’s gotta give! But he wanted me to get on with it as he said it was a strain being on his best behaviour for so long, in case I said something nasty about him! So, here we go…)
You’ll have noticed the candles? Yes, true to form, I forgot to check the candle situation beforehand…
When John and I first got together, I was part of the junior management in the Civil Service office where we both worked and he was (and still is!) 13 years younger than me and a member of the clerical staff. Although he was very clever, he hadn’t gone to university, as his father had been ill and the family needed John’s income. I knew he was very shy… What I didn’t know was that he fancied me! (Yes, dear readers, I was slim but curvy and quite fanciable in those days. Luckily he thinks I’m now curvier and even more fanciable, a piece of rose-tinted-bespectacled-ness, but I’m not complaining!)
One evening, at an office ‘do’ for some people who were leaving, we found ourselves sitting next to each other. I was recently separated and in no rush to get home, so when he told me that he hadn’t brought his car, had missed the last train home and didn’t have enough money for a taxi (!!!), I offered him a lift. We talked for hours, both on the journey and after I stopped near his house. We liked the same books and films and most of the same music. He loved the 60s and was very impressed that I’d seen the Beatles live! We supported the same causes. We had the same sense of humour. I was a Quaker at that time and he knew Quakers were pacifists, not just pictures on a cereal box! This time I was the one who was impressed! A couple of days later we walked my dog, Sammy, together. A couple of days after that I took him to an Amnesty International meeting. Soon after that he moved in with me!
Earlier that year, John had seen an advert for the Open University in the Radio Times and had started studying. He had also given up smoking, thank goodness, or this love story wouldn’t have happened! Since then he has completed his BA honours degree with the OU, a Masters degree in Education at Stirling University and a diploma in Philosophy at Glasgow University. He was promoted in the Civil Service and then, a few years later, decided to change career and become a teacher. He has become head of his department, a lecturer with the Open University and, one day a week, he trains student teachers at Stirling University. And he’s the principal exam setter and marker in Scotland for one of his subjects. He’s done all his studying while working fulltime and looking after me and our babies. In fact, he sat his first Open University exam the day before Johnny was due to make his appearance. He expected to be called out of the exam room at any moment, but our boy waited!
He is an adoring husband and father, which is nice, because we’re pretty fond of him, t
oo!
John loves his allotment where he grows lots of vegan-organic fruit and vegetables but so that he could bring stuff on nearer to home, the extended family clubbed together to buy him a greenhouse for the garden. John is NOT handy, but here he is, pleased as Punch, after having built it up all by himself! He says it’s the best 50th Birthday present he’s ever had!
He is and has been devoted to all our cats and dogs, past and present, but his favourite companion animal of all time is … Bobby!
John is a thoroughly modern male, but feels that it’s his duty to be the main bread winner, since I’ve raised and home educated the offspring and looked after our home. He works very hard for us all and is loving, kind and considerate. He’s also great company and VERY funny! He makes us all laugh A LOT!
Happy (very belated!) birthday, Lambie!
Oh, sorry, did you want the chocolate cake recipe? OK! Here it is! I adapted it many years ago from a muffin recipe sent to me by an American omni friend. It has graced most of our birthday celebrations since then!
Penny’s chocolate cake:
Ingredients:
130g margarine
130g sugar
1 ½ teaspoons egg replacer
26g cocoa powder
224g self raising flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon salt
166ml soya milk
Method:
Set oven to Gas mark 5/375F/190C
Whisk the egg replacer into the soya milk and put to one side. Mix together all the other ingredients and then add the liquid last.
Because this recipe uses margarine instead of oil, the mixture is stiff, so I prefer to start it off in the mixer, as I get a very sore arm otherwise – but it can all be done by hand.
Once everything’s mixed through, I get a silicone spatula and wallop it about in the bowl a goodish bit, to get plenty of air in there, to make the cake nice and light.
Divide the mixture between two round cake tins, lined with baking parchment (I use round cake tin liners from Lakeland) and bake for 35 minutes, until the top is cracked and a skewer comes out clean.
Cool in the cakes in the liners.
Once they’re cold, spread jam on the bottom one (blackcurrant jam is nice and sharp and contrasts well with the sweetness of the cake) and then sandwich the cakes together with ‘butter’ icing. Slather more icing on top.
Now, I’m afraid you’re on your own with the ‘butter’ icing, but you know how to make it, don’t you? I never measure it; I just chuck together margarine, icing sugar and cocoa in vast quantities and blend them together. I’m sure you’ll manage…
Well, for goodness’ sake! How on earth did that picture slip in here? Sorry about that….
Today’s smoothie (Yes! It’s smoothie time again, folks!): orange juice; kale; rocket; lettuce; apricots; apples; broccoli stalk; celery. Mmmmmm……
Todays’ title: I won’t insult your intelligence!
January 31 2010
10
I’ve been nominated by the lovely Vegan Fox for an Honest Scrap award. Thank you Vegan Fox! Now I have to thank her, which I’ve just done, list ten honest things about myself ,which I’m about to do, and link to ten blogs I feel embody the spirit of Honest Scrap and which I find brilliant in design and/or concept. That last one is the trickiest. Apart from the fact that I’m not too sure what the first bit means, I love lots of blogs and would hate to hurt anyone’s feelings by missing them out… So if you’re not listed here it doesn’t mean I don’t love your blog, OK?
Right… Here’s the list…
1. I’m terrified of daddy-long-legs (also known as crane flies), even though I know they can’t hurt me. When John and I first lived together, daddy-long-legs used to often get into our bedroom. I would cower under the quilt screaming, ‘Get rid of it! Don’t kill it! Get rid of it! Don’t kill it!’ and My Hero would catch them in his hands and put them outside. (He still does this with the enormous spiders that scare the s**t out of Jane and me.) To be honest (and that’s what this list is all about!), I’m not a big fan of insects in general. (It’s OK. I know spiders aren’t insects!) Even though we have a wildlife-friendly garden, I’d really rather not see them appreciating it.
2. I’ve been vegan for nearly 21 years, since just before Jane was born, and was vegetarian for 19 years before that.
3. John is 13 years younger than me. We met properly when I gave him a lift home from an office ‘do’. He was 23 and I was 36. He was single and I was separated. We’ve been together for twenty-six and a half years and will celebrate 25 years of happy marriage this December. Johnny was the guest of honour at our wedding!
4. I’m paranoid about travelling anywhere. It didn’t bother me until I had my babies, but I totally and utterly adore my offspring, and it’s reciprocated, so I always dread anything happening to me.
5. Although I love all the cats, Tom is my favourite. He’s the perfect combination of monstrosity and lovingness! 
6. I’m a (probably rather annoying) stickler for correct grammar and punctuation and regularly shout at people on the TV and radio. I proofread everything I write myself about four times and am mortified if I let a mistake slip through the net.
7. My family complains that I bake more for stalls than for them. (So yesterday, at their request, I made spicy muffins. The recipe is below.)
8. When friends send me e-mails that I’m supposed to ‘pass on to ten strong women I love’ etc., I never, EVER, do… I don’t want ten of my friends to feel obliged to do the same. This is different, though, somehow…
9. I can’t deal with the concept of ‘moderation’ and could eat a whole tub of chocolate Swedish Glace ice cream in one sitting. Since I need to lose weight, I daren’t even have a taste of it.
10. I get very annoyed when I hold the door open for people and they just sail through, often without even looking at me. I say, ‘THANK YOU!’ very loudly and glare at them.
Here are my favourite blogs. I love lots of others, though, and found it very hard to stick to ten…
I know! I cheated! That’s eleven! But I couldn’t leave any of them out!
And now here’s the recipe for those spicy muffins. I adapted it from a lacto-ovo one I got from an American friend many years ago and it’s a big favourite here. It’s not the most beautiful muffin, so I didn’t bother to take a photo, but it tastes wonderful!
Ingredients:
125g margarine + 50g margarine
125g sugar
1 ½ teaspoons egg replacer
255g self raising flour
85g sultanas
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon salt
260 ml rice milk (or preferred non-dairy milk)
Method
Preheat oven to Gas Mark 5/375F/190C
Line 12 muffin cases.
Whisk egg replacer into milk with a fork.
Mix together all the ingredients (using the 125g of marg)
Distribute among the muffin cases. I use an ice-cream scoop for this, the kind with a wee lever thingy that sweeps across.
Bake for 30 minutes.
Melt the 50g marg in a saucepan. Take your jar of cinnamon sugar off the shelf. (Wait a minute! You do have a jar of cinnamon sugar, don’t you? If not, you’ll want to prepare one now! I keep one filled with ground cinnamon and sugar to the ratio of 1:2. It’s great for when you get the urge for cinnamon toast…)
Where were we? Oh, yes…
Brush the melted margarine lavishly over the tops of the muffins and then sprinkle them with the cinnamon sugar. You don’t have to wait till they’re cool. You won’t want to. Eat them while still warm, by a roaring fire. In fact, I don’t think it’s actually legal to eat them any other way!
Today’s title: 10 – film starring Dudley Moore and Bo Derek
Today’s smoothie: I know! I said it would be soups in the winter, but in my attempts to lose weight (see above) I’m having a fruit smoothie for breakfast every day, so… Banana, orange juice, kiwi fruit. Oh! That wasn’t very interesting was it? OK, I’ll return to soups next time…
Maybe Soup is currently being updated? I'll try again automatically in a few seconds...
