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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!
February 18 2010
Sundae Wednesday! Happy (Birth)day!
You remember Rhona, don’t you? My rescue roasting tin? Well Rhona’s talents don’t stop at granola baking.
Here she is filled with a yummy mixture of the following: a sprinkling of olive oil; chopped onions; some cloves of garlic, left whole; chunks of carrots, sweet potato, butternut squash, red and yellow pepper; some mangetout, broken in half; a mixture of half and half olive oil and maple syrup, with a wee spot of salt. She’s about to do duty in the oven at Gas Mark 8/450F/230C for an hour.
When the hour was almost up, we heated some tortilla wraps and smothered them in hummus or Tofutti Cream Cheese, according to taste (Jane had one of each) and then we filled them with the roasted vegetables and rolled them up.
Oh!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So good!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m planning on making these OFTEN!
‘But wait!’ I hear you say. ‘What’s that got to do with Sundae Wednesday Happy (Birth)day?’ And the answer is, ‘Nothing at all! That bit comes next.’
Read on…
It was my birthday last Wednesday (10th February) and I had forgotten to buy the jellies for the trifle. This trifle is the standard pudding for birthday teas in our family. Here’s how I make it…
In a trifle bowl I make up one-and-a-half strength jelly with half a (usually chocolate) sandwich cake layer crumbled into it and leave it to set. I then mix up another one-and-a-half strength jelly with some tinned ‘fruits of the forest’ mixed in. Then I top it all with a huge mound of vanilla Swedish Glace ice cream. And I sometimes grate some chocolate over it. Recently I’ve also been making a big bowl of vanilla custard. Here’s how I make the custard…
First, I heat up most of a pint of soya milk with about a tablespoon of margarine and two tablespoons of sugar. In the measuring jug, I mix together the rest of the milk and two tablespoons of custard powder. Then I stir the custard mix into the pan and whisk as fast as my aching muscles will allow until it’s all thick and bubbly. It’s then put in a bowl and allowed to cool.
I’m sorry. I was SURE I had a photo of a trifle I made before, but just can’t find it anywhere. I must organise my photos SOON!
I would actually like to have the custard on top of the jelly as part of the trifle, but Jane, who’s a creature of habit, loves the trifle the way I traditionally made it, without the custard, so she doesn’t want me to change a winning formula. She does sometimes have some custard with it, though…
Also, a note on tablespoons… We’re not talking wee measuring spoons here. This is the type of chap you want for this recipe.
Available at any charity shop near you… (If you live in Scotland, that is. I can’t speak for other parts of the world…)
Anyway, back to 10th February 2010, 63 years since my birth on a cold, snowy day in Glasgow… And no jelly… As far as trifle was concerned, I was snookered…
So, first I thought of just having the custard and ice cream.
Then I thought of my favourite pudding in the whole, wide world: chocolate custard and ice cream. I could eat bucket-loads of this, with or without a sliced banana on top, if my weight weren’t such a problem. I make the custard as above, but with two tablespoons of cocoa powder added to the custard powder mix. OK, so there are probably several days’ calories in a small bowlful…
Then, however, I had such a good idea that if I’d been a cartoon drawing a wee light-bulb would have appeared over my head. CHOCOLATE NUT SUNDAES!!! Now, I’d never made these before, but necessity is the mother of invention. Here’s what I did.
I made half a pint of chocolate custard, but as I didn’t have custard powder I used vanilla rice milk and cornflour. I also made some chocolate sauce thus:
84g margarine
90g golden syrup
About 30g cocoa powder (more or less, depending on how strong you want it)
I melted the margarine and sugar together and then added the cocoa, all over a low heat.
Then, in our two sundae dishes plus two tall mugs and a pint beer mug, I layered ice cream, chocolate custard, chopped nuts, ice cream, chocolate sauce, chopped nuts and so on to the top.
It was SO GOOD! Unfortunately the camera didn’t like photographing it with flash and it was too dark to get a good picture without the flash, so you’ll just have to make do with this one and imagine its chocolate-y goodness, because I’m afraid that not even for you was I going to keep it till the next day, to take a photo in daylight!
So, what could have been a disappointment on the pudding front was turned to unmitigated delight! I’ll be making these again! But not too often… Just for birthdays…
I must tell you about the wonderful home-made birthday card I received from the offspring. Last year they themed my card around my new Vita-Mix; this year it was themed around my new studies and it featured a cartoon bear, created by Johnny, who stars in most of his home-made cards. There was a chart showing grades for ‘sweetness’; ‘compassion’; ‘inspirational qualities’; ‘sense of humour’; ‘chef skills’ and ‘devotion to family’ and I was awarded the top grade of ‘excellent’ for all of them! I’ll be honest with you. The tears were streaming down my cheeks, sentimental old fool that I am! There was a lot more sweet and loving stuff in it, too… (sniff)
And here, just to finish with a nice picture, are two people who also tick all the boxes (though not exactly the same ones as me!): Tom and Mimi… (What do you mean, ‘Oh, not HIM again!’???)
Today’s title: Sunday, Monday, Happy Days – theme song from the series Happy Days. John suggested Sundae Girl by Blondie, but I’m not going to pander to his adolescent fantasies about Debbie Harry…
Today’s soup: onions; red lentils; chunks of carrot, turnip (Swede/rutabaga), leeks, celery; passata and water all pressure cooked together, with some salt added at the end. Mmmm… Perfect for a cold winter’s day!
November 22 2009
It’s Johnny’s Birthday!
Well, no. I’m lying. It was his birthday last month. But I didn’t want to rush this, just to get it out on time, so I’ve waited till now. His early development is inextricably tied up with our ‘journey’ to veganism and home education and I wanted to do it all justice. Anyway, on we go…
It was 24 years ago last month that my baby boy was born! From the moment I knew for sure I was pregnant, I morphed from a woman who had no interest at all in human babies (kittens, puppies, piglets, etc. were much more interesting!) to someone who read every available book on pregnancy and childbirth. I plotted his development in my womb so that I knew at any given point when his nails had developed, when he could suck his thumb, what size he was, etc. However, nothing could have prepared me for the overwhelming love I felt for him once he was born.
Johnny was a very bright wee boy and by the age of two he was desperate to be able to read. From his buggy (stroller) he would point to every sign and poster we passed. ‘Words! Words!’ he would say and I had to read them all out to him. So I decided to see if he could learn to read for himself. I used a mixture of phonics (letter sounds) and whole words, using his favourite topic of steam trains to make a picture book with captions dictated by him. I also covered the doors of a cupboard with blackboard paint and every night I would write his ‘new word’ for him to discover in the morning. He LOVED this! In fact, any misdemeanour on his part could be halted in its tracks by a sad shake of my head and the sorrowful words, ‘I’m afraid there won’t be a new word tomorrow for a naughty boy…’ By the time he was about three and a half he was a fluent reader and got enormous pleasure from this.
I know some people say that children shouldn’t be taught to read before the age of seven, but not allowing Johnny to read would have been like not allowing a baby to crawl or a toddler to speak in complete sentences.
When I became pregnant with Jane, Johnny was ecstatic! He would put his face on my tummy every day and say, ‘I love you, Jenny*! I can’t wait for you to pop out!’ John and I had been trying for some time to go vegan, but we kept back-sliding. Just before Jane was born, we decided to attempt it again. This time I explained to Johnny what we were trying to do. I reminded him that I had breast-fed him and told him I intended to do the same with Jenny. Then I asked how he’d feel if someone said, ‘Wait a minute! Jenny can’t have that milk! WE want it!’ and stole it from me. He didn’t like that idea at all! ‘Well, that’s what they do to mummy cows and baby calves,’ I said. He was horrified, and, from that moment, there was no way we could have backslid. We were committed to veganism!
I’d read that your older child’s first sight of his/her new sibling shouldn’t be of the baby in the mother’s arms, in case it causes jealousy, so when Johnny was due to arrive at the hospital to see us, I made sure his new wee sister was in a cot on the far side of my bed. I needn’t have worried! Johnny couldn’t understand why I wasn’t holding her. ‘Where’s Jenny?’ were his first words to me and he rushed over to gaze into the cot. He has remained an very loving, kind and protective big brother and their relationship has always delighted John and me.
They have fierce arguments on occasion, but they have mostly the same interests (in the films, books and music they enjoy) and ideals (veganism and pacifism) and are devoted to each other.
When it was time for Johnny to go to school, he was very excited, but it just didn’t work out. He was expected to ‘learn’ stuff he’d been doing since he was a toddler. He was reprimanded for putting his arm round the wee boy sitting next to him. (We’re a very demonstrative family and he didn’t understand it when the teacher said, ‘No cuddling in school!’) He missed Jenny and me and our cats and dogs. The list could go on… In the end, after six weeks of misery, John and I decided we should give home education a try. We never looked back! Johnny continued to follow his interests and, as Jenny grew out of babyhood, they learned together.
From my memory book...
Johnny is now doing a post graduate degree, at Glasgow University, in Museum Philosophy and Practice, as well as working part-time as a museum assistant, to fund his studies. He’s also a volunteer at the Citizen’s Advice Bureau and the museum. The latter often involves taking round school groups!
He is an extremely loving, kind, caring and considerate young man. He would no more hurt anyone’s feelings than pull the wings off a fly. He is also very funny and, as well as his own-brand humour, he can find a suitable Simpsons’ quote for almost all of life’s experiences!
*‘Jenny’ is a Scottish pet-name for ‘Jane’ and is what our sweet daughter is called by family and very old friends…
Today’s smoothie: We didn’t have one… Sorry….
Today’s title: ‘It’s Johnny’s birthday’, recorded by George Harrison for John Lennon’s birthday.
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