hearty food affairs

Well, the chocolate cake sunk again! So it's down to my baking ineptitude- not oven trouble as I'd hoped! Not sure why... think cakes can cave in if you open the oven door too quickly... but I only opened it after the full recommended cooking time. Still, the chocolate frosting went a long way, it filled the cavity so it was hardly noticeable! But I want to crack this cake because it tastes so good and is perfect for special occasions.
It was rich chocolate cake, covered with a chocolate frosting, decorated with Montezuma's dark chocolate buttons with Alpro soya cream poured over. I used almond milk (which the author lists in another chocolate cake recipe) which is gorgeous. Its a little pricey so just an occasional buy but the boys like drinking it on its own so it doesn't go wasted. One of the wet ingredients is canola oil, which haven't always found that easily but Waitrose sell rapeseed oil, which I think is the same thing?

Anyway, the above was our Valentine's meal pudding at home. The other courses were:

Pasta with garlic, sundried tomatoes, asparagus and coriander from a Viva booklet called 'Get healthy with Heather', and pea, spinach and mint pithiviers with salad (the pithiviers were a Rose Elliot recipe within an old copy of 'Lifescape' magazine. The filling is a lovely mixture of fresh mint, peas, spinach and vegan cream cheese). The boys ate the pithiviers renamed as 'space ships'- saved me trying to pronounce their actual name!

Our Valentine's day meal was actually the day after; I was too tired to cook much on the day, it was punctuated with tasks to do with putting things back in the kitchen, and such excitement as changing the fridge door around......but we did enjoy our little feast on Sunday.

Rohan, Luca and I did some baking for when one of their friends came to visit this afternoon:

These are fluffy white cupcakes from Jennifer McCann's wonderful 'Vegan Lunchbox'. I've just unearthed the book from unpacking, hadn't unpacked it in this house yet. I also found 'Vegan cupcakes take over the world' which made me very happy as I really missed this book on the twins birthday.

Enjoyed the visit of a very old friend who came via Wing Yip. I really need to make a trip to this big chinese supermarket. She brought amazing fruit and veg, like a whole bag of red chillis for £1 and lovely things such as white radishes and pak choi. Mit made a lovely stir-fry with black bean sauce and soya beans added:


So after all this feasting I have an antidote: after a rare eve out with a friend (cinema- 'Benjamin Button'- loved it! ) I had a glass of red wine which served as a confidence boost to register for a half marathon. Eeek! I only ever run in an ambling fashion and for about 3 miles at a time. So, I've got work to do before April!

kitchen at the ready...

Am looking forward to making vegan chocolate cake this weekend. I've a recipe that hadn't worked each time I've tried to make it in this house so far! Hence I've blamed the cooker each time. Now that excuse has gone, I really hope it doesn't sink! Valentine's day seems to be a good day to try it out!

So happy with the new kitchen. It feels like someone else's at the moment, or that we've won a competition. We didn't quite get what we ordered- the cupboards are painted in 'vanilla', a paler shade than the warm, light 'saffron', I chose... but it looks good also, and we've chosen green for the walls which we like. Very much into green!












Dinner tonight was vegetable moussaka veganised from Sarah Brown's 'Vegetarian Kitchen'. Doesn't take much adapting, just vegan butter and soya milk in the white sauce, plus vegan cheese on top. It is delicious, although note to myself: only make this at weekends when Mit's around to play with R and L; its a bitty recipe which has you in and out of the kitchen for best part of two hours. R and L watched tv quite happily, but the guilt pangs were there!









On another quick note: there was an information evening at the boys' preschool recently. I was with the boys so Mit went.. it was great to learn more about the Montessori approach, which is working wonders with our little poppetts. Mit found us a tip in conflict resolution; apparently, the school have those egg timers with sand running through. And if two children fall out over a toy, they put the egg timer on to help with 'taking turns'! Well, I think that's genius! Haven't got an egg timer but I've been setting my mobile phone for three or so mins at a time! It works! The alarm acts as some external decider and I feel less of a referee. Hooray!

almost vegan little travels

The kitchen's almost ready... one more day of finishing touches, but since Saturday, we've had running water in the kitchen again : )
Did any part of the UK escape the snow storms? It's been so picturesque, all the cars and houses look regal iced, the quantity of snow is just so unusual- it was amazing to see it drifted rightup to the front door!

Of course the cold calls for some real comfort food:
We've enjoyed lentil pie- a lovely red lentil and veggie mixture topped with potato as in shepherds' pie, plus mung bean dahl mixed with shortgrain brown rice today. (Cooked mung beans, sauted with some spices, water, lemon sugar... forgot to add the jar of passata I'd bought today, which makes it richer, but the boys happily devoured it anyway: )











Broadstairs was beautiful (we hired a cottage for the first week of the kitchen work being done). Cold of course, but still wonderful and more or less we got into a routine of spending an hour on the beach making sandcastles before going to one of the cafes. The boys loved 'Morelli's' in particular. A real old style ice cream parlour, which apparently hasn't changed in decor since the fifties. The boys really do love ice cream. At home, we only buy swedish glace because its vegan and we all love it, but when we are out and about its very unlikely to find vegan ice cream, unless of course you're in a veggie or vegan establishment. Morelli's, being Italian, offered gorgeous looking coffees, however no soya milk. (When I asked the lady behind the bar if they had it, she shook her head, her body language signalling 'don't be ridiculous!') No matter. I developed a love of americanos. Sometimes all the froth of a capuccino gets a bit much anyway!


Broadstairs was full of lovely cafes, with no chain in sight, and although I love 'Costa' etc for a quick fix, it was nice to be in a place with independent cafes. In the holiday cottage (it was very, very nice, I'd recommend it... a three minute walk from the beach) there were some copies of a local rag called 'the broadie' and there was an article within which made an interesting read. Called 'How to spot a dfl ( 'Down from London') it went on to list several ways of spotting them... including descriptions of young families with posh buggies, blackberry owning, skinny cappucino seeking people who couldn't appreciate the essence of the town because, somebody claimed, it takes twenty plus years to be accepted as a 'broadie' by the locals! Quite an insight into local views of visitors... although there was some ambivalence because the article did acknowldege the boost to businesses that tourism brings to the town. Well, our buggy is old and tired, I don't have a blackberry, and we were just visiting (not buying a house for a holiday home! But ah.. dream on!)

It was a beautiful place to be...of course things really open up in the summer, but there were plus points to a January visit- it was easy to get around, and we were the only people making sandcastles every day!

Week 3 of kitchen refitting, and it should all come together this weekend. I will be so glad to have the cooker, hob and sink again! Reheating stuff from the freezer just isn't the same! And washing up in the bathroom, well its just feels wrong.
I cannot wait to get cooking again. More soon.

Home again

Broadstairs- Viking Bay








Home again following some winter travels that will keep us going for some time. Being in Broadstairs (on the Kent coast) the first week reminded me that a lovely place doesn't rely on weather to hold it's charm. For our second week, we spent it with different family members, ending up on the borders of West and North Yorkshire. I'll elaborate more soon as have plenty of pics (about time to try flickr) and things, plus my thoughts are elsewhere these few days since the last few days of our time away.

Feeling the fragility of life acutely since the news that on old school friend died suddenly within days of the birth of his third child and his 35th birthday. A virus which reached the heart. All love and thoughts are with his wife and family. It impossible to stop thinking about them, how his wife, especially, is getting through the days. There are several of us old secondary school classmates united in shock and grief.

I don't think there is anything that can be said that can alleviate things to the closest family in these early days, it's too terrible. There is an anthology which I think can help make people feel less alone and includes writings on the different stages of grief. As a Shakespeare quote (Macbeth) quote within reads:

'Give sorrow words. The grief that does not speak
Whispers the o'erfraught heart, and bids it break'.

And after time, hopefully;

.. 'in spite of all,
Some shape of beauty moves away the pall
From our dark spirits.' (John Keats, 'Endymion', Book 1)

Many things new

Seen quite a change in the boys this week. Their hours have increased at preschool now they are very settled (and now we receive the government assistance for 3-year olds) and to allow some extra time for work hours. I had been quite worried about whether 6 sessions would be too much. They are certainly tired when they come out, but it doesn’t seem to catch up with them until we are well on the way home, and it doesn’t matter if they nap in the buggy for a handful of minutes.

Their teacher told me at the door on Tuesday that they joined in at 'circle' time. Was so ecstatic; I could feel a film prickle my eyes- a bit over the top! But for four months they haven’t wanted to join in with the more structured 'circle' sessions.This hasn’t been seen as a problem at all, they are little and the school is Montessori and individuality is key.But the difference now is that some of the older children have gone on to primary school, and some new little ones have joined so Rohan and Luca aren’t the youngest anymore. So perhaps they feel more comfortable with this new position within the order of things!

And they LOVE having lunch. They have these bento lunch boxes, which have different colours and compartments and they love them! I heard about them through vegan lunchbox which is hugely inspiring....

And thanks to redlentil found a great idea for a sandwich filling- butterbean and tomato pate. The result from blanching some tomatoes, garlic, a can of butterbeans and tomato puree made a gorgeous combination. I used some for pasta sauce and made a thicker pate of it for sandwiches. They loved it in the pasta, but didn't eat in in the sandwiches, but it was only the first taste in the sarnie form, and new things aren't ever taken up straight away.

Well I am bracing myself for two night shifts packing up our kitchen. We are having the kitchen made good, and a new one installed, and are going to do a combination of reli-visiting and holidaying. Funnily enough, we are going on a little seaside holiday! I know, I have noticed the weather! But... can't stay with family the whole time (a lot to ask any one!) and rates to hire a cottage are so cheap this time of year! Will blog on our return, hoping to have some good vegan experience but will have some supplies in stow at any rate. Some pics coming up of our current kitchen (which I acutally like but need to turn it into a family one):

Chasing butterflies in January

New Year's Eve dinner was the same as Christmas, since realising we still had a tin of chestnut puree left in the cupboard. Desert was vegan plum pudding from 'The Village Bakery' with soya cream. Very seasonal and yum:

Our friends came up to see in the New Year and the boys had fun playing with the girls. They absolutely loved one game in particular, elefun, which involved catching paper butterfiles out of an elephant's blowing trunk!
My friend loves carrot cake so made this vegan version I found here.
It makes a lovely, moist cake and the icing is delicious although it was a little runny so had to keep it in the fridge, don't think I added enough icing sugar.



Part of lunch today was basmati rice salad from the book Vegan. It was a lovely tangy feast, the picture doesn't do it justice. I haven't made that much from this book before. It is one I leaf through when thinking about special occasions; most of the recipes use a range of ingredients, and are good for dinner parties. Very, very good though. We had the rice on the side with butternut squash soup.


Took a picture of the tree, which is stil adding a bit of magic to the setting:

Ended up this eve with a simple favourite of the boys- macaroni cheese; a vegan version on the left (for me) and vegetarian-right- (for the rest of the family) as we have some dairy cheese. The boys happily eat both versions at the moment.

Am on the lookout for inspirational packed lunch ideas. The boys are going to start having lunch at preschool; R currently only eats peanut butter in sandwiches.... but at the school there are two children with a severe nut allergy, and nuts are ruled out altogether as an option. This extends to all nuts so can't try the other nut butters such as cashew or almond. Thankfully the boys have been ok with peanuts. So, got to get creative! I would love to hear of any suggestions.