exploding wonder storm castle

BACK FROM THE DEAD TO BRING YOU GRIM NEWS

2009-12-24T12:31:00.002+11:00

AUSTRALIAN/NZ VEGANS: BonSoy has been RECALLED
from australian food news: http://www.ausfoodnews.com.au/2009/12/24/food-recall-bonsoy-soy-milk-with-very-high-levels-of-iodine.html

Food Standards Australia New Zealand has advised people not to consume Bonsoy soy milk. Coffee shops, retail and other outlets should also not use this product.

This follows a cluster of nine adults aged from 29 to 47, and one child, who have recently presented in NSW with thyroid problems. These individuals all reported consuming Bonsoy soy milk. Subsequent testing of samples of Bonsoy soy milk revealed unusually high levels of iodine. This brand of soy milk is enriched with “Kombu”, which is a seaweed product.

A consumer-level recall for the Bonsoy soy milk is being voluntarily instigated by the importer today.

The levels of iodine in the Bonsoy soy milk were at a level that is likely to exceed tolerable daily intakes for iodine when as little as 30ml (one eighth of a cup) is consumed per day by an adult.

Iodine is needed for the thyroid gland to produce thyroid hormones. A healthy daily iodine intake is about 80-150 micrograms with a recommended safe upper limit of 1,100 micrograms per day for adults, and from 200 micrograms for 1-3 year olds to 900micrograms for 14 year-olds.

Daily consumption of a cup of Bonsoy soy milk could lead to a daily iodine intake of more than 7,500 micrograms at the levels tested. Chronic consumption of high levels of iodine may affect the thyroid and cause people to feel generally unwell. Anybody consuming Bonsoy soy milk product over a prolonged time who feels generally unwell should consult their doctor.

The body excretes iodine, so when a source of high iodine ceases, levels in the body will decrease over time.

The only soy milk product identified through testing to have high levels of iodine to date is Bonsoy soy milk.

I am still working on a new food/life/thing blog and have otherwise taken up residence at faketrain.tumblr.com for pictures and snippets, if you need to follow me somehow. New blog will start up next year sometime, probably after we move (again!).

end.

2009-10-08T19:15:00.002+11:00

of this blog. i'm going to start something different in the blogosphere. not as food focussed, but still with food. i won't delete this blog, to keep recipes and blah blah blah up for reference points. i hadn't written in here for a while and i just figured i'd say something before jumping ship. as a gypsy, moving spaces isn't uncommon for me. i'm still creating in the kitchen, but i'm also doing and thinking about other things. i'll make another post when i've sorted out a new blog and i know what's going into it.

x L

AWW Polenta Bake.

2009-08-25T21:46:00.004+10:00

I've been meaning to start veganising recipes from the Australian Women's Weekly for a while. Some of their recipes are incidentally vegan or easily veganised by the replacement of dairy milks/butters for other less abusive products and some of their recipes depend on meat or eggs as integral players. So be it a little lazy on my part for choosing this recipe, its just so good looking and I hadn't used polenta for quite some time. The major adjustment made was with cheeses and milk as well as completely halving the recipe as I didn't have a whole litre of milk to spare, and my "lamington" tray is small.

The Australian Women's Weekly presents: Baked polenta with tomato and bocconcini (a la vegan).

INGREDIENTS (with my adjustments and substitutions)
2 cups vegetable stock (I use Massel, and had run out of their really good Chicken stock but would use that if I had it)
2 cups soy milk
pinch of sea salt
1 cup polenta
⅓ cup grated cheezly mozzarella
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
⅓ cup Napoli pasta sauce (we have this around the house sometimes, its a generic mix of tomatoes, tomato paste, and miscellaneous herbs and spices. you could use whatever you see fit, a white sauce or pesto would be nice, or a fresh passata with herbs. as you like!)
6 thin slices of cheezly mozzarella
6 seeded black olives, halved
pinch chopped fresh oregano, optional
flat-leaf parsley leaves, for serving, optional

METHOD
Preheat the oven to 220°C (200°C fan forced). Grease a 20cm x 30cm
lamington pan.

Combine stock, milk and salt in a large saucepan; bring to the boil. Gradually sprinkle the polenta over the stock mixture, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, making sure the polenta has no lumps.
Reduce the heat to low and partially cover the saucepan. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, for about 30 minutes or until polenta is very thick and a spoon can stand upright in the centre. Remove from heat, stir in the grated cheeze and nutritional yeast.

Spread polenta into prepared pan. Stand for about 5 minutes. Spread tomato sauce over polenta, top with mozzarella slices and place an olive half in the centre of each mozzarella slice. Sprinkle with oregano.
Bake, uncovered, for about 45 minutes or until cheeze is melted.

Let sit for about 5 minutes or until the polenta is firm to touch and easily cut. Cut polenta into squares; sprinkle with parsley, if desired.

Delicious, warming and I have no idea why some people hate polenta. Its such wholesome niceness.

Stupid Cake.

2009-08-16T13:23:00.004+10:00

I don't even know why I'm blogging about this cake. Its two layers of Chocolate cake, with sweetened rice crispies (I used agave for some sort of adhiesive in case your wondering) smothered with a peanutbutter icing i whipped up and a dark chocolate ganache. I think it was about 1am when I put this cake together. There was no occasion for it except for that Alex likes chocolate and works late hours. I have been able to finish maybe half a slice of this thing. the icing is delicious, the cake is delicious. apparently this is the most "cakey" cake I've ever made (opposed to the eurotrash cakes I normally pump out) so that's a good thing I guess. But it's really just stupid and I wish I had some visitors to offload it to. I think the theory behind this cake is "I'll make a cake thats like those peanut butter balls I made. yeah. chocolate, peanut butter, rice crispies, where's the glitch?".

Sigh.

The Sun's Out?

2009-07-21T22:05:00.000+10:00

Today it got to 14 degrees celcius in the mountains. That's warm (for the mountains, at this time of year)*. Tshirt warm. And provided good lighting for a picture of our kitchen. Also, had me in the centrelink office to reap the rewards of unemployment and to hide from possible sunburn. Alex played in the garden, which is coming along nicely.

I made this kim chi pancake for dinner using tofu, buckwheat, black salt, and some dumpstered chinese cabbage. topped with steamed pak choy, baked beancurd skin chicken and some kingland soy mayonaise.

*Unfortunately, Al reminds me that this probably means that we won't see snow during our time up here and that's very sad, because we thought and hoped that we might. I have my eyes set on Europe for the end of this year so there might be a chance for my first glimpse of snow then.

Unhulled Marzipan

2009-07-20T14:36:00.007+10:00

lurking behing the marzipan ball is a peanut butter cannonball made using Lindyloo's Copyright Violation.

Unhulled sounds kinda dirty. And if you're used to the white fluffy stuff, you'd probably think my marzipan was maybe, kinda dirty. But. I made it. With my fists. and Straight-up unbleached unhulled Almondmeal. And you can too.

Using 'Chef Jeenas' guildlines I give you dirty roo-poo looking marzipan to use as cake filling, cake topping, or to straight up cover in chocolate and enjoy.

2cups almondmeal
1/3 cup castor sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 tablespoon cold water
1 teaspoon almond essence (which you can omit if you like)

Mix almondmeal and sugar, and add the liquid ingredients into the dry using the much-sought-after well method.
Mix thoroughly, if you've not used almond essence maybe put in a bit of extra lemon juice to keep the ratio right. Be careful not to get it too wet. Kneed until its all combined to your taste and it should feel kidn of like a shortcrust pastry dough. Wrap in plastic and set in the fridge for at least an hour until you feel sufficiently pleased with yourself and almost put your smug face on.

Not quite as fluffy as marzipan made with eggwhites, or as white as the overprocessed kind, but delicious and cheaper than running up to the store every time you want a hit of this almond crack.

EDIT: focussed shot of the peanutbutter cannonball, which has now been renamed a Miracle Pill, a la Miracle Max from the Princess Bride. The chocolate helps it go down easier, y'know.

have fun storming the castle, boys!

Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Marzipan

2009-07-08T22:34:00.004+10:00

Home made marzipan (my million dollar eurotrash addiction that I've begun to budget down on by making my own) rolled in an organic dark chocolate ganash, set in the fridge and then jarred and kept to the bedside for easy comatose access! My up-coming debut into diabetes and possibly a premature death will be filled with almondmeal and blisss. Excuse me, I'll have another, alone. ta.

I tried to get a good shot of what the inside looks like, to show off my brown unhulled marzipan and how much it makes these little babies look like roo-poo but I kept eating them and got too excited to get a good focussed shot after this one.

ATT: MELBOURNE VEGANS

2009-07-06T16:35:00.002+10:00

We made a quick dash to melbourne for a brief holiday. Staying with our beautiful friends Fjorn & Sean in Thornbury, after an 11hr drive from the mountains we were rather peckish and took a walk down from their part of high street to get some take-aways.

As we walked there we noticed a cafe that was covered in GLUTEN FREE, WHEAT FREE, DAIRY FREE, EGG FREE proclaimations in the window. The name of the place was memorised and Alex promised to let me go there in the morning. Could it be, a place where I COULD EAT EVERYTHING??????

Yes.

Tart'n'Round were a well received feature table at World Vegan Day last year. I fondly recall eating a whole caramel slice in one go (yes, I believe I ate the whole thing!) and others smartly ate theirs in portions, and devoured the peanut butter (which are not all disimilar to some i made for TJ's pot luck last year) and cherry bliss balls. They've opened this cafe last week (we visited them on their 2nd and 3rd days of business -twice on the 3rd!!-) in the Thornbury end of High street that seems to be growing more and more in new shops and new interest past Naturally on High, every day. The balls are outstanding and the slices are exactly what you want them to be. The biscuits weren't too impressive (the one we got seemed far too dry and kinda tasteless) but the lentil burger patty and salads were filling and colourful and fresh.
At the time we visited they didn't yet have a coffee machine but were making sounds of expecting one ASAP. The menu also features vegan ice cream choc tops and cheeses, so it's worth checking out, IMO.

Usually I try to be kind of critical/skeptical of places I eat, especially when they seem kind of too good to be true (even if it is super exciting that a place offers vegan food or is a vegan restaurant it's more exciting if the food is delicious and interesting. just cos somewhere's a vegan restaurant doesnt mean we have to love it), but I was being lusted away by my old hometown and I don't know if you realise how amazing it is to be so limited in your diet against your own will and find a palce where you can eat EVERYTHING. If the cookies were a bit less shit and the balls a little less expensive I'd probably move under a table here.

Tart'n'Round
839 High st in Thornbury 3071
Tuesday- Sat 9.30am -5.00pm
Sunday 10am- 3.00pm

Martha-Choke

2009-06-25T13:16:00.003+10:00

What you see here is a veganization of a Martha Stewart Recipe - Roasted Chicken and Jerusalem Artichokes that was the most interesting and appetizing recipe I could find when looking for ideas of what to do with the "sunchokes" as I've never had them before.
I pretty much prepared the recipe verbatim, replacing the chicken with my beloved smofu lightly pan-fried before roasting and some soya chicken slices in a marinade of tamari, umeshu, and lemon zest.

It's a really big dish and I was probably a bit too ambitious with the servings I made for just Alex and myself. I'd like to try this again for more people or with some other veggies as Al made a comment of it being extremely tastey but a bit heavy on the soy products. Otherwise, I found this recipe to be quite encouraging of my veganizing skills and am looking forward to more adventures with Martha and other meat-relying uberchefs.

I wish I'd taken a photo of this one coming out of the oven, it looked fucking fantastic. You can see a version of a vegan Martha-Choke on What the Hell does a Vegan eat anyway? where they appear to enjoy this dish quite regularly and I coincidentally happened upon whilst writing up.

I served mine with leftover brown rice, roasted potatoes & gravy, and a garnish of some of our dwindling watercress.

x

Your Dad Curry

2009-06-24T18:04:00.004+10:00

Last night I attempted a vegan variation on trotski & ash's my dad chicken curry using what I had around. It turned out extraordinarily well and I'll make it again next week maybe to shoot a photo of the actual curry and recipe and my very first chutney.
These photos are of a reheated late lunch I had this afternoon. I love it when I successfully veganise things, it makes me feel so accomplished as a feeder, and a little bit gloaty about what I like to think of as my told-ya-so on the few people I know who still insist all I can eat is lettuce. For those interested, I'm working on a recipe for an even-better Butter Chicken, am still unemployed, and forgot to take photos of an orange and almond cake with home made marzipan that I made for the winter solstice weekend.

Tuna Baked

2009-06-14T23:19:00.006+10:00

As I mentioned below I bought a package of Vegetarian Tuna from Vina's on Thursday after being tricked by my loving partner (because clearly I have no will of my own and blah blah blah who gives a shit, I bought some fake tuna).
I get excited about mock meat because I LOVE MEAT and mock meat is commonly made from gluten products which, because I HATE THE A.W.B., I don't partake of (this is a lie but being a coeliac is BORING) but will happily munch down on any "meaty" product that I can.

Tuna however, I never ever ever ate as an omnivore because I don't eat things that smell like yucky (see: Vegemite -maybe YOU like it, whatever) unless they look good or I'm given a reason to believe I'll enjoy it.
So it would only be a case of trickery that I would venture into untouched meat territory with this purchase, and with a waste-not-want-not policy of purchasing I set out to use it. I was not going to be making some sort of tuna dip or soup or spread for a sandwich (gluten free bread is too expensive for yucky risk taking) and the Vegan Tuna Bakes had been making the rounds through Melbourne's Vegan blogging and pot lucking scene with great success so I thought I may as well give it a go. (ZB also did one recently with tempeh, so maybe there is a national wave of mock tuna happening)

I'd never eaten a tuna bake before, but I do enjoy a macaroni cheese casserole (which is essentially what this is) whenever it's on offer so I figured the only risk was that I'd have to pick out the bits of tuna if I didn't take to it.

I went by Harriet's basic formula of Pasta + Beschamel + Veggies + Tuna topped with Breadcrumbs (naturally gluten free's crunch loaf is what I have around at the moment) and some grated Cheezly Edam in the oven for half an hour and seasoned servings with the good ol S&P, savoury yeast and some home grown parsley.

The veggies I used were red capsicum, mushrooms and broccolini.

The Beschamel/Cheese sauce I make is based on Karina's "Best Cheesey unCheese Sauce" and I combined it with some of Kingland's soy mayonaise on a whim and popped it into the oven at 180c for half an hour which was enough time for the dishes to be done and for Alex to come home with some cola he snatched from his pizza delivery job up here.

The Result? A warming, nourishing meal that had my trickster of a love making incredibley happy "as good as my mum's" noises which (considering the fact that his mum is all about meat and cheese) is enough to satisfy my checklist for a good meal, despite what I think about a certain fish.

I'm not convinced that I'm going to run out and buy another packet of this stuff unless tricked again but I did enjoy it quite enough to eat two servings and feel happy. If you ever liked tuna but can't eat it anymore, this stuff probably does everything you want it to.

Vina, Newtown.

2009-06-12T19:00:00.003+10:00

Just blogging to let Sydney-siders and Sydney visitors know there's a new vegetarian restaurant in Newtown. I should have brought my camera to blog it but didn't, oh well.

Vina is a Vietnamese restaurant on the Southern side of King Street, a couple of shops down from the Sandringham hotel (for a point of reference landmark, this is a big pub). The place had the same song on a loop the entire time we were there (about an ahour and a half in total) but the decor was simple and peaceful and the staff were very sweet and happy.
Meals were well sized and you could control the heat of your soup with additional red chillies, if you so wished. Alex had a spicy rice noodle soup and I had a "Pork" hot pot with eschallots and veggies. Friends we ran into there were having a good time with a bowl of Tom Yum and some lemongrass "Chicken".
Prices are okay with the big soups at $12 and main meals going from there but averaging $16 each, there was a great choice of entrees if you go that way. There were some sharing options on the mains menu that looked like they'd be fun for next time ($35 between two or $60 between four) sort of viet rice paper roll style and possibly a hot broth fondu?
The Dessert menu looked delicious but we had to pinch our pennies a LITTLE as well as make time to get back up the mountain to sleep.
There were complimentary lychee and taro (favourite!) jellies at the counter and the restaurant also sells a few vegan condiments and mock meats for you to buy and take home (large range of tartex, some tuna that was quite cheap that I got -look forward to a potential blog on using it!- and many different kinds of lamyong brand mocks...).

decent food, casual and comfortable.

Vina, 393 I THINK King Street, Newtown 2042

unapologetic photo dump.

2009-06-04T14:59:00.007+10:00

tofu fritatta (favourite!) messy version with added "pork" sausage and home grown oregano. made without a cast-iron frying pan befuddled me in a fight against gravity and made the result turn into rustic almost scramble. for an unmessy recipe with a cast iron griddle go back in time to this post. major changes were adding a bit of umeshu and fresh tomato and yellow capsicum in place of the red.

If you make a mess then it's an unbelievable sandwich filler. the toast is Naturally Gluten Free's Classic bread which is probably the best gluten free brand I've had and luckily I only have to travel to Leura (the township next to Katoomba) to get a loaf for myself. It fared very well in french toast last night. Good sign.

okay i am a bit apologetic that i've almost abandonned my fooding blog, especially because of all the time i spend thinking about food and plants. guh, moving, unemployment and stubbornly staying off centrelink hasn't meant that i havent been making and inventing in the kitchen, i've just been unprepared in my mind to take photos or make alex wait to eat because i need to get the right photo. damnit.

and for those who are curious, i'm still putting too much salt on my portions of food for health reasons, and i'm not getting much better except for that moving to a cold cold cold place for winter has calmed my heart a bit.

this is our new house. yes, the tibetan prayer flags do mean that we are sharing with hippies.
but they're fellow coeliacs and vegans so its tolerable.

In the meantime, I'll try to pick up the recipe'ing habit again. maybe..

TWENTY ONE

2009-05-11T17:29:00.003+10:00

At about 4pm on the 2nd of May I realised something had to be done.
I finally had an Ice-Cream cake in the fridge (that I have been covetting for for about a year, with thanks for the Kosher grocery stores in Bondi and my generous Partner for gifting it to me).
My birthday was to be on the following Wednesday, but I was moving to the Blue Mountains the next day and was going to be in Brisbane on the-day of my birth. CAKE PARTY was announced. 9pm, at Mgtvle (my now-former residence) because we had to do a trip up an down the mountain and wouldnt be back until then.
Alex and I hadn't had dinner yet so we ordered from Mad Pizza and by the time we'd finished eating and taken out the cakes, more friends (who had already had dinner) finally showed up in a timely manner, to taste the Vegan Baileys (as close as you can get without getting your eyes wet)

Kosher Parve Ice Cream cake made out of TOFU MILK. yay.

Pandan coconut cake made by Katrina of Rise up & Bake (who makes the gluten free cakes at Funky Pies).

My sweet-heart friend Kathy made a beautiful Tofu Salad and her aunty made some Sticky Rice Leaves with banana and red bean.

unfortunately I've been really bad at getting batteries for my camera so these photos are from my ex housemate Stella and so there isn't any of the wonderful food I ate in my trip to Brisbane which included: Hell Pizza, 2 kinds of Birthday cake my mum made, Kuan Yin, Magic Wok, Many different kinds of Mochi (INCLUDING A VEGAN CHOCOLATE COVERED PEANUTBUTTER FILLED ONE), and The Forest.

Banana Bread

2009-04-29T19:28:00.004+10:00

(or, "YOU'VE NEVER EATEN WHAT???")

Before a chance taste of it in my bedroom a few months ago, my friend Damian had never eaten banana bread before. Before she came to Australia at the end of last year, she also had never eaten dumplings, risotto, ice cream sodas, mi goreng, or even a pumpkin before.
There is probably a few other things we fed her that she said "what the fuck is this" to that I can't think of. She was also quite fascinated in learning about all the different things I can't eat because of being a coeliac.

For all fairness, before I met Damian I had never had partaken of, nor heard of a sandwich cake before (if you ever befriend a Swede and they offer to make this for you, PARTAKE OF IT!!! Damian's friends Stina and Karin came and made some vegan versions for our house and one especially for me with gluten free bread a month ago, I get cravings for it once a week now).
Damian was so amazingly stoked on any cake she had a piece of that I had made whilst she stayed at our place, especially of banana bread, that I couldn't resist but make a loaf for her especially for her bon-voyage. Damian left this afternoon to return to Gothenburg.

I have a few recipes that I use/mix up between when making banana bread, but decided to go with a variation that Alex and I have agreed on based on this one from theppk.com.
This recipe is very easy but we found the original to be a bit too sweet and "cakey" for our taste and have settled on this adaptation for less-fuss bananabread. It has had a history in our trials of being able to withstand many different combinations of gluten free flours, which is probably the ultimate test of my trust in a baking recipe. I also like this one ebcause it can get quite "bready" sometimes and is delicious toasted, and has an incredibley good crust.

I myself didn't get to partake of this batch as I had to work when everyone was being Damian's company for her last hours in Sydney, but I heard incredibley encouraging reports of its worthiness for the blogosphere (also it photographed well).

1 cup raw sugar
1/3 cup margarine
4 overripe ladys finger bananas, mashed
1 cup plain flour (gluten free generic mix)
1/4 cup self raising flour (this is a gluten free thing that I do, the original recipe shouldnt need the extra boost that gf flours often do)
3/4 cup chickpea flour
1/2 t bicarb soda
1/4 cup rice milk mixed with 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt.

Cream the sugar and margarine, fold in the bananas and milk/vinegar mix and then the vanilla essense. Sift in the flours baking soda, salt and spices. Pour batter into a greased loaf tin and sprinkle extra sugar and cinnamon on top (this helps the crust to get all sweat and caramelised and rustic. it helps if you do this step before you put it into the oven but I forgot this time until the bread only had 15 minutes left) hour, and let cool and rest for at least half an hour before eating the fuck out of it.

Look at the crust! So crusty! So crusty it has an I ♥ D-BEAT tattoo!**

**sorry for the personal joke, another friend of ours who has an I HEART DBEAT tattoo left for Sweden today as well, on the same flight as Damian, and there was much discussion of his tattoo last night.

SMOFU UPDATE

2009-04-22T21:34:00.004+10:00

*smofu: smoked tofu.
IMO blue lotus brand smoked tofu is more delicious than the earnest bean smoked tofu. better texture (smoother) and flavour (more subtle).
thank you, carry on, etc.

note: my opinion on brands of smofu is based on my own requirements and tolerances of a smoked product. the earnest bean has its merits but the blue lotus brand is the origin of my smofu love and therefore, my preferred.

Cook Salad

2009-04-18T11:03:00.005+10:00

On days where I need lunch RIGHT NOW and I am depending on not going out to the shops to pick something up, I cook a salad.

My housemate louise, who is also a vegan, went through a stage earlier this year of refusing to call a cooked salad a "salad" or many other "salad" things, she was avoiding using the word in protest of the stereotypical view of veganism and vegan food, can't make friends with salad, etc.
I believe the term she used to replace salads was "throw-together". Alex had a field day with this on louise, calling everything salad, left right and centre.

I wonder if anyone else feels similarly about the word salad and the normal feelings about how omni-folk (muggles) put on vegans/vegetarians from stereotypes of low food choices and stuff? Do people still even think that all we can eat is salad or rice or whatever? I've never been picked on in such a way because of my veganism, but my friend Tim (who is a very proud vegan) has joked at me that because I'm a gluten free vegan, all I can eat is lettuce...

I like cooked salads because they're fresh and warm at the same time, and because I'm generally a bit wary of raw food and undercooked food (this is a childhood pickishness thing, I guess).
This one is steamed pak choy, steamed oyster mushroom, crispy spicy salt and pepper tofu, green chilli, kim chi (home made for our house by my beautiful friend Jackson!!!) with a miso-mayonaise dressing that i spilled on one of my best dresses!

This was the first time I got to take a photo of a meal I've whipped up for a while/been bothered to.

This was the first time I'd cooked oyster mushrooms, I really really love them and their special taste and texture. I put them in pho a couple of days ago and it woked a treat! I really should experiment with enoki mushrooms soon.

What are your favourite kind of mushrooms and how do you like to use them?

ps: of course i know this isn't a salad but when it's lunchtime and i think I'M GOING TO MAKE A SALAD, i generally end up cooking something like this. don't judge me, i just like cooking delicious food, ok.

'Ninja Vegan

2009-03-31T19:54:00.003+11:00

HEREBY COPYRIGHTING THIS TERM AS PER THE COMMENT I LEFT ON THIS POST.
okay? okay.
also. can i just promise that ninja vegan does not mean "things that i freegan'd from the dumpster" like my friends bin-sweetbread addiction.
not ninja. just punk.

(possibly pirate-vegan)

Apple of my Thigh!

2009-03-28T21:36:00.013+11:00

Here is my adaptation of the German Apple Cake recipe from the Joy of Vegan Baking (thanks little Ruth for getting this for my 20th last year, you're a superstar!) which has pages falling out of it all over the place from over-bending (I don't know if I actually use this book a lot but it is REALLY GOOD and I read it so much when I first got it, like bedtime reading for a couple of months kinda crazily) and this recipe actually fell into my mixing bowl when I opened the book! What a sign!!! I adapted it for the sake of flours and such, and what I had available and how I felt about the flavour of the batter and stuff.

It turned out marvelously and as it ended up being the only cake at Katrina's Housewarming Pot Luck, it shined for everyone.

German Apple Cake (adapted from The Joy of Vegan Baking by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau) my adaptations are asterixed

PREHEAT YR OVEN TO 180c.
GREASE A CIRCULAR TIN
SPRINKLE IT WITH BROWN SUGAR AND CINNAMON (TO TASTE)*

3 apples, peeled and cut into thin slices.
1/2 c. non dairy margarine.
1/2 c. raw sugar
3 T. rice milk*
1/2 c. applesauce (I used a bit more than this because I had a little bit left in the jar and didn't wanna waste)
1 t. natural vanilla essence*
1.5 t. maple syrup *
1/2 t. cinnamon*
1/3 c. buckwheat flour*
1/3 c. chickpea flour*
1/3 c. white maize flour*
1/2 c. generic gluten free "plain" flour mix* (THATS ONE AND A HALF CUPS OF FLOUR)
2.5 t. baking powder

topping: 1/4 c. brown sugar, 1/2 t. cinnamon, 1/4 t. cardamom* mixed.

depending on how you slice your apples you should have enough for both the top and the bottom of the cake. line the bottom of the cake (after you've sugared it) tin with some apples, try to get them in a nice arrangement because this will be the top of the cake. put the remaining apples to the side to do something similar after you've poured the batter in.

Cream the margarine and sugar either by hand or with an electric hand mixer. Add the apple sauce, milk, vanilla essence. Add the flours and baking powder and stir until just combined. Pour onto the apples, and tap the tin a bit to make sure all the apples are covered and there are no gaps or air bubbles.

Arrange the remaining apples to the top of the cake, hopefully you'll be able to cover the whole thing. sprinkle with the sugar spice mix heavily and bake for about 35 minutes.

The cake is done when an inserted toothpick comes out clean and the top is crisp and brown. let it cool for at least 15 minutes before putting a plate on top of it and turning it upside down. the bottom (now top) apples should be soft and sweet smelling.

I think this is sort of what I imagine a 'tea cake' is like. It had a really lovely crumb, a moist top and crisp bottom, almost like a pie-cake. Will make again. yay. Hopefully next time I'll get to have some whilst it's still warm, with vanilla ice cream (we did serve it with ice cream, which was a star of an accompaniment brought by the extra lovely Lizzie!) for more homely-ness.

nb: i just realised how yellow toned my pictures are! my computer must have a red bias in its screen! aaaah. sorry for the acid trip, guyz.

Speed entry: Smoked Tofu

2009-03-17T15:49:00.004+11:00

EAT IT EAT IT EAT IT EAT IT HOLY SHIT WHY DIDN'T ANYONE EVER TELL ME THIS IS SO FUCKING GOOD.
I've eaten things with liquid smoke before and been, quite honest, a bit turned off from it being so overwhelming and kind of weird so I guess that's why I never thought about giving smoked tofu a try.
In Sydney I work two days a week for an organic home delivery service, packing organic fruit and veg and groceries into boxes for delivery. Which, in itself is an amazing thing to be able to work with but not only that I get to snack on 100% certified organic food all the time and discover 'new' brands or products (new to me, not necessarily new to the planet. although we had this Mexican chocolate about a month ago...) and we can eat things/take things home from work when they are out of date or close to it.
SO. I get to have lots of caramelised onion hummus (!!!!) and beautiful fresh jams on my corn things (bleh) as well as beautiful fruit and veg, and I get to slice off a couple of pieces of smoked tofu for myself today and BANG BANG BANG omnomnom my mind exploded.

in shorter: eat the fuck out of this shiz'nit for the picture of it is making me salivate and maybe even have lustful tastey thoughts.

Making time for Best Friends, Punk Rock, and Connectivity.

2009-03-02T12:12:00.005+11:00

my 36-hour secret surprise trip to melbourne entailed the following:

napping in my favourite ever bed in the world - thanks caitlin honey!

fresh produce lunch - asparagus, bok choy, oyster mushroom, bean sprouts, deep fried tofu, red cabbage, red chilli, soya dressing and fresh coriander.
caitlin!!! caitlin told me about how during the heatwave all the coriander in victoria melted, and in queensland's floods, all the coriander drowned and so it was particularly hard to come across fresh australian coriander during this time of hardship. which is a good thing if you're one of those people who think coriander/cilantro is a foot-smelling disgusting herb. fascists.

house show/closing party for a sharehouse where a group of my best friends have inhabitted for around 2 or so years. singing along to a rites of spring cover with Ex Spectator, surprising my besties and people that I love and miss entirely and without exception.

breakfasting at a minor place - henry's white beans, soy flat white (made perfect), dogs and big hugs.

attending a bushfire benefit hXc show and eating ferrer rocher truffles, sushi, rice paper rolls and a delicious banana chocolate smoothie all for the sake of raising much needed moneys for the homes and families of buishfire victims. also, all my circuits!!! what a wonderful, fun band!

coming home to my big happy warehouse and getting lots of hugs from my darlings
x

Make with Fruit

2009-02-26T18:56:00.002+11:00

banana maple buckwheat pancakes with stewed apples and berries and their syrup.
for reference: we generally use this combination of ingredients for pancakes. apples were peeled and sliced thinly and brought to a boil with lots of sugar, a cinnamon stick, some nutmeg and whole cloves. berries thrown in at the end. a thicker syrup was reduced after taking out the fruit and putting in more sugar and boiling til suitable.

this was our contribution to a massive breakfast made by alex, ryan and myself for us and the swedes, for no real reason other than 'happy wednesday late breakfast'.

xo

Red Emma's Sausage Fest.

2009-02-26T12:27:00.000+11:00

There's a couple of habits A and I have when it comes to cooking together.
Alex is really good at making use of all the spare/going bad veggies in the fridge (there's a lot of prolific dumpster divers living in MGTVLE, plus there's 7 of us and only one fridge) before they're totally uselessly expired. This sometimes frustrates me (because I really don't think we have to put EVERYTHING in one dish just cos it's there and the chances are that noone will use xyz thing before it's too late) but sometimes it works well, and it works especially well when we have a couple of "stock" meals that we like to make quite regularly that have very basic guidelines and lots of room to move with, so the meal can be as simple or as heavy as you like/require, based on the likelyhood of chucking out some old veggies.

Red Emma is a pasta dish that has incredibley loose rules. Which should be so, considering the dish's namesake, couldn't be more appropriate!
The "rules" for Red Emma are: at least one chargrilled red capsicum in the sauce. Hopefully the chargrilled capsicum is a stand-out feature of the sauce for the pasta, otherwise it's good to put in other red things (chillies and paprika and tomato paste are smiled upon!).

This version made use of a very intriguing vegetarian "roast sausage" I found in a asian grocery store on Marrickville Rd that seems to be made completely out of soy. I've found the sausages to be almost overwhelmingly pork-like (the only meat that really repels me unless it is in the form of salami) but it found it's place well used in this pasta sauce. I don't often get the chance to cook with sausage (most vege sausages are wheat laden) so felt a bit at a loss with these guys and took a chance for Monday night's dinner..

Fried the sausages (2 small sized sausages cut into circles) with lots of garlic and mushrooms, balsamic and tamari. added chillies, tomato paste and one large charred capsicum, skin peeled off. to make it more 'saucey' I added a thickening mix of cornflour and water, let the sauce come together and added a bit more tomato paste before throwing in a roughly chopped bunch of basil.

This turned out pretty well. Alex was impressed with my soy-heavy sausages' flavour and said in this sauce they smelled/tasted like Csabai sausage!! Which is disgusting if you think about it too long but is really impressive, suitabley european for miss Emma G.

Answer your cravings, They'll love you for it.

2009-02-20T10:31:00.003+11:00

Lamingtons were made after Mandee wrote about her lamington cupcakes. I did the same thin as her except for I doubled the recipe and baked into a square tin. I'd been craving this treat for about 5 months and I was oh-so satisfied. Also feeding this uh, "national" cake to the two people I live with who come from Europe was pretty nice too, such a simple treat to be so impressive!

Phở.

2009-02-16T19:18:00.003+11:00

props to my favourite domestic photographer and ex-housemate, caitlin molloy for snapping this pic in melbourne's footscray.
May the seed of your loin be fruitful in the belly of your woman

After lots of tom-foolery and suddenly deciding that we were hungry RIGHT NOW, it was concluded that Alex and I should partake in a meal that we've both only previously had part of a couple of times and had never made before. I had bookmarked this recipe from Cathy's Gastronomy blog before I moved to Sydney (and was living within shouting's distance of Footscary, sigh!) let it completely slip my mind until last night.

Totally forgetting having been told by my other ex-housemate Riva that this was a hard dish to attain authenticity of (and maybe she would find this attempt of Phở to perhaps be an insult), we went ahead. I made a couple of changes based on what we had around us/didn't have/it was too late to go to the asian grocer to attend to/woolworth's had run out of stuff, but damn if I didn't fool myself into wanting to dive into this beautifully subtle broth.

I onlh took a coupla quick outta-focus snaps before the batteries ran out and my tummy started calling child protection services for neglect.

So an editted version of the original recipe looks like this: (for extra laziness I have literally copy+pasted the recipe from it's original source, cutting out and adding what we did and didn't do!)

For broth

1 leek (leaves only)
1 brown onion
1 chunk of fresh ginger
5 star anise
2 Massel Chicken-style stock cubes.
Water
Soy sauce (Tamari for no Belly-drama!) to taste
Sugar also to taste.

Heat water (about 10-12 cups, depending on how many your serving) with chicken stock cube in a medium-sized soup pot, leaving enough room for the ginger, onion and leek leaves.

Remove the outer layer of the onion and add it whole to the broth. Leaving the skin of the ginger intact, chop off the nubs and bruise using a mortar and pestle. Add to broth. Separate the leek leaves from the stems and add them to the broth along with five star anise “fruits.” Let the soup boil on high heat for 45 minutes to an hour, or until the onion and ginger have softened.

Once the onion and ginger have softened, discard the leek leaves. Add seasonings of soy sauce and sugar to taste. Continue to cook on medium heat for an additional 15 minutes.

For “meat”

Vegetable oil
1 leek (stem only)
1 zucchini, sliced into circles
1 green capsicum, chopped into strips
8 oz. sliced mushrooms (any variety)
Soy sauce (Tamari!)
Black pepper
Dried chilli flakes

While the soup is boiling, thinly slice the leek stems and chop the mushrooms and zucchini.

Saute the leeks with vegetable oil in a medium-sized pan until golden. Add the mushrooms and zucchini to the leek and oil mixture. Season to taste with soy sauce, chilli and black pepper.

Get your lover/partner/best friend/housemate/some guy you see to pull a puss face pose and enjoy.

Grab a bowl and fill it with noodles (banh phở - fresh flat rice noodles preferable) and the “meat” mixture. Pour some hot broth on top. To garnish, add fresh or steamed bean sprouts, onions, cilantro, lime juice, herbs (basil, saw tooth herb, etc.), hoisin sauce and chili sauce.

Melinzana Food Babies.

2009-02-13T11:48:00.005+11:00

FROM THE URBAN DICTIONARY
food baby: When a person indulges in a large amount of food which makes their stomach stick out from the fullness as if they're pregnant.

I still feel like there is a Melinzana food baby in my belly from last night's gorge. Pip left her camera there during Decolonise '09 and so picking it up meant I had to make tracks to Melinzana, which inevitabley involved bringing a bunch of friends and eating ourselves to a slow happy death.

So, you may not see it on the Menu, but this place has vegan cheese. Amazing melty vegan cheese and if you pay $2 more (medium, $3 large) you can veganise your gourmet woodfired pizza. There is also vegan peperoni and ham, should you want to get into that territory. Their pizza bases are home made and they make gluten free bases in a medium size. The following was ordered:
Patata Vegetarian w/Soy Cheese & Gluten free base - Me.
Spinach w/Soy Cheese - Alex S and Rob.
Melinzana w/Soy Cheese - Harriot and Haidee.
Supreme - Richard
Gorgonzola - Alex D.

Lots of sharing went on except for me, because I was limited to one kind of base that cost $3 extra, so my extra moneys came to $5 more which is a bit spenno in my books, but man oh man.

I only got a good shot of the Patata Vegetarian, but the other pizzas looked unbelievable (expect a much-delayed post from Pip when she gets her camera back!). I really liked the base of this pizza, as a gluten-free snob of sorts, it did the trick and I didn't feel like I was missing out on much. I can believe I ate the whole thing, and I wish I could eat it over and over and over again.

Mad props to Richard for demolishing the large supreme almost 100% by himself give/take a couple of swapping of pieces between parties. Three kinds of meat!!! Holyshit.

Anyway. If you're visiting or are in the area, go to Melinzana. Be fed, be pregnant to a potato pizza, and get a bit silly-hyperactive on cheese dreams.

Melinzana Wood Fired Pizza
289 Enmore Rd
Enmore NSW 2043
Phone (02) 9516 1781

Taro Taro Taro

2009-02-07T10:56:00.001+11:00

I'm not going to make excuses for not blogging.

Alex and Damian celebrated their birthdays at Coogee beach and I made a couple of offerings, one being a baked tofu cheesecake, and the other a HIGHLY experimental Taro Banana Coconut cake with Raw frosting (the cake was sugar fest. an absolute sugar fest).
Other food-gifts were vegan Honeycomb made by Kathy, a tofu and asparagus Toss by Louise and Alex made a soba noodle salad. Delcious.

Louise once said she was going to have an "extreme pot luck" where guests would be invited to cometo dinner and bring a dish that used either unconventional ingredients or methods or otherwise seemed kind of pointless. (Her example was a savory 'jellybean pie').
This cake may not be unconventional (it is based off of a Hawaiian recipe list I found whilst trying to figure out what to do with the taro) it was unexpected.
Flour free, lots of waiting for our frozen taro to get to mashing state, not sure whether or not we were cooking it right, also mentioning the idea of the cake to a few people tweaked some "huh?? wtf?" reactions to the concept.

Conceptual cake. Woah. Think about it. Cake concepts. Cake, as a concept. Fuck. Heavy.

Taro-Banana Coconut Cake

2 cups. hot peeled and cooked mashed taro
(we used two pieces of frozen fresh taro that alex got from a asian supermarket. these took a while to cook until mashing state - its ready when kind of purpley)
2 bananas, mashed
1/4 cup melted nondairy margarine
1/4 tsp. each ground nutmeg and cinnamon
1 cup dessicated/shredded coconut
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup nondairy milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Grease a shallow cake pan (we used a loaf tin, but this would make a lovely round cake. it may help to put this off until you've completed making the batter so you know what sort of volume you're dealing with. this cake doesnt rise, so if it's shallow it'll cook more thoroughly. i feel that the loaf tine depth was why we had a very moist cake, which we enjoyed a lot).
Preheat the oven to 180c (350f i think!).
Combine the hot taro with the melted margarine, mashing again as you work the two into each other.
Add the coconut, bananas and sugar, mix in well.
Then the cinnamon, nutmeg, milk and vanilla, beat all together for about a minute. We may have done a better job if we used an electric mixer but we don't have one Also it was 1am.
Pour into cake pan and bake for 45 minutes to an hour (or until firm).

I made a Raw "whipped cream" icing (my first time using a piping bag. didn't win) using the cream section of this recipe.
I have a lot of opinions about the whole 'raw-food' thing, so I got scoffed at by Louise and Al when making this recipe because I've had a history of scoffing at raw food (well. not the food, but diet. I am scared of cults) but as I used maple syrup not honey (for true-to-vegan purity) it became a cooked food because maple syrup is not raw!! Yay, I win, etc.
Fucking delicious, by the way. Made for good ice cream when kept in the freezer, or like a yoghurt with cereal the next day. Whee.

The post-digestion swim in Coogee was amazing and we did some great explorations into the rockpools, hanging out with hermit crabs, bigger crabs, molluscs and tiny fish.

POST SCRIPT: Pip keeps getting me to mention if the recipe is any good, because apparently the inclusion into my blag doesn't actually promise that it is a good recipe and you should try it.
THIS IS. Also, you'll note that my blagging is very sporadic and this is generally because I can't be bothered writing a recipe out for something I only kind-of enjoyed eating.
I enjoyed this cake, Alex enjoyed this cake, everyone at the potfuck enjoyed this cake (albiet, not as intensely was the enjoyment as my tofu cheesecake, but still, people did surprise faces and happy faces for this cake).
ALSO: I have no plan on sticking the "air-humping" tag onto just any ol' recipe, willy-nilly.
NILLY.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Change of Address.

2009-01-17T17:00:00.003+11:00

I have been eating but nothing terribly exciting.
The last week was spent saying goodbye and packing up and was pretty hectic.

Philippa made me some beautiful cookies to eat whilst we travelled for 9 hours north, back seats folded forward and crowded with everything I've owned in Melbourne that I hadn't discarded. An entire pantry's worth of flours and grains and condiments in towe, the cookies lasted until I woke up this morning in my new room.
It's interesting for me to enjoy food made specifically gluten free (ie. using gluten free flours) by people who aren't gluten free but are mostly just being very kind towards someone with an intolerance. I would probably be stumped making a cake with wheat flour these days, not instantly assuming certain adjustments to liquid/flour ratios required when cooking with GF flours or subsitutes.

Alex kindly kindly kindly gifted me a chocolate cake with rasberries he bought from Rowie's Cakes, a gluten and dairy free bakery that makes some egg free cakes and cake/pastry mixes in Marrickville, where our warehouse is.
I feel very spoilt and lucky whenever anyone takes wheat out of food that they are preparing and sharing with me, and it is an extra special treat to be able to eat a cake that has come from a store. Such a novelty, more than anything. Last trip to Sydney before moving here included a taste of a raw cake our friend Lawrence had in his fridge from Concious Choice. I became giddy at the event of that cake particularly.

SO here I am now, in Sydney town. For as long as we last, perhaps. Expect updates with food pictures soon, when they happen and everything is more unpacked and settled. I haven't dug out my camera yet, but it'll happen soon.

FuckYouAstrology - Live 04.01.2009

2009-01-11T22:19:00.000+11:00

I've been trying for almost a week to write something about FuckYouAstrology. I don't know what to say though. I met Wil Smith in '07 (which, looks like 2 years ago, but wasn't) soon after i had my accident and I was still learning to eat food with my new false teeth. We got along well together and I spent the night spooning him and being entertained by his dalmation - Bill Murray. HEY BILL MURRAY! Wil and I sang a couple of songs to eachother, and at this time this band was called the Orphan's Project.

FLASH FORWARD to mid-2008 and I get to see him play with Lara (drums) at the same show I'm playing, supporting the launch of Woollen Kit's album. They were probably the superstars of the night. I then got them to play a show supporting Hee Haw, alongside druids, louise, and my band. A bunch of kids who had seen FYA play the night before came to the show and so they proabbly had the most attentive crowd of the night (Pretty sure 95% of that lot didn't pay entry fee too!). Following that I next saw them play at Puny Mounds and they were shiney like moonbeams and adopted me in a song and everyone was charmed. CHarmed to death, I'd say.

After that show Wil asked Dase (ex-too many bands + the internet) to play bass/effects etc for the project, which although is an awesome idea I was kind of skeptical of. I just didn't recognise any hole in the line up or sound of the project that would lend for a necessity for a third member?

I went to a house show full of the same kids who came to the Hee Haw show only to see FYA, and I came solely for the purpose of seeing FYA. Lara was MIA so it was Wil and Dase, Dase's first time playing live with the project. Despite being almot blatantly ignored by the cliquey group at the show, they play well and tight and I look forward to upcoming shows (may I be able to see them since I'm moving) and hearing releases. This was recorded live at that house show to my i-river. I have no recording programs on my computer, so deal with it.

1. Pap Smear
2. Honey Bunch
3. Hermit Crab
4. Lezzo
5. Parental Guidance
6. Cute Song
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?hyzmgjdnkz2
WMA format, 13.3 minutes.

The Vegie Bar.

2009-01-09T13:11:00.000+11:00

Tim mid-Grooming and Cale being.. Cheeky?!

I have food poisoning. I think. I dunno. It's a really bad time. Fuck. I'm so annoyed.

Sophie and Cale invited me to eat with them at Vegie Bar last night because Sophie wants to work there, I guess. I hadn't been there since my accident in 2007 but I had enjoyed it the couple of times I'd been there prior-to losing my teeth and my dad especially likes this place and often reminds me of when I took him there and "What was that bar called?". I invited Tim and Pip and suddenly I was fifth-wheeling (jokes. we're all friends. but couplesville + Lena seems to happen a lot).

Vegie Bar is normally quite busy but there's never been a long wait in getting a tbale and there's pretyt good service and the place has a pretty successful "it's all happening" kind of vibe, y'know? There's a tiled specials menu above the bench seats and a cabinet displaying desserts. Apparetnly the outside area is really nice and once I went to a birthday dinner here and we sat upstairs and it was real homely up there.

My only big complaint is that there was no salt and pepper shakers on the table andw ehad to ask for salt, which I would have assumed would have prompted a "woudl you like some pepper?". MAYBE this is because they're so confident with their own seasoning that they dont ened to provide this service, but COME ON, really?!?!

There's a great amount of stuff on the menu and we fickle vegans deciphered our way through it and ended up with the following.

Sophie had the Gado-Gado, which despite being not Pip's favourite south east asian dish, she approved of the sauce (we all did, I dipped chips in) and I suppose it was delicious enough to get through despite my feeling that disregarding the sauce it looked like a kind of plain meal. It was nice that they served the sauce on the side, but I like this dish for its full-drowning-of-vegetables effect it can have when served with the sauce everywhere. I should have gotten a report from Sophle but I didn't. Sauce Delicious, good amount of veggies and tofu.

Tim had the Vegan Supreme, of which I could not partake so I have no opinion other than Tim's which is that Tim is Supremely Vegan and this pizza was quite Supreme and he ate the whole damn thing and let Pip have A BIT. And Pip is very good at sneaking tastes of other peoples food for her own judgement and for the fun assortment of flavours it provides. Tim likes to eat, and he at the whole thing, no complains. Cale said that they've changed the cheese, so those of you who are on the ball with Vegie Bar, WATCH OUT- THEY'VE CHANGED CHEESES ON THE VEGAN PIZZA. Crazy. Absolutely wild, this place.

Pip and Cale did twin-orders of the Bean Burrito thingy made Vegan. Pip seemed pretty non-plussed about it, but made little complaint. The Guacamole was fine, I guess. I had ordered a bowl of chips with tomato sauce (not pictured- a bowl of hot chips. and a dipping bowl of tomato sauce. use your imagination people, it was very mystical and avant garde looking so if you're lost on this one then maybe I should take a photo of a potato) which was probably what I enjoyed most about eating the things I ate. It looked real cute though, a nice bready parcel of beans on soem rice and corn chips, some guac as a condiment and a nice leafy salad.

And I had this. It is a rissotto of (apparently) three kinds of mushrooms (Pip and I counted one: BUTTON. whatever), white wine and truffle oil. If I were a vegetarian it would have chevre and parmesan. Which may have made this dish more pretty and maybe may have saved it. Complaint the first: They used BROWN RICE to make this risotto. PRetty sure the best choice would have been Aborio, thanks guys. There was a lot of information and the dish was promising but I couldn't handle the intensity or something. I dunno. It really needed saving. I put a fuck load of salt on it, as is now much custom due to low blood pressure + a taste for salty food anyway, but that didn't seem to do much. The best way I could explain the disappointment I had for this dish was the following way.

IMAGINE SOMEONE IS TELLING YOU A REALLY INTERESTING STORY ABOUT SOME AMAZING FUCKING SHIT AND IT HAS ALL THE KEY PARTS TO MAKING A GOOD STORY AND THE LANGUAGE IS REALLY GOOD BUT THE PERSON TELLING YOU THE STORY IS TELLING IT IN A COMPLETELY MONOTONOUS VOICE. I don't know about you but if/when this happens I think I'd want to be listening to the story, and I'd want to be enjoying the story, but the voice is just not engaging me AT ALL and I keep tuning in and out of it and I don't really see the point of the story anymore even though there is the promise of one.

This is the first time in a long time that I haven't been able to finish a meal. I just. Couldn't handle it. I guess. Maybe it's me, maybe the Risotto is fine. BUT I AM prepared to take the risotto accountable for my food poisoning. WHATEVER. Fuck you, risotto.

+++ Also Because I couldnt finish it and I didnt wanna waste it i thought mayeb I could take it home with me and mayeb make it tastier. APPARENTLY Vegie Bar doesn't allow this, which makes no sense.

Pip will back me up. Risotto was annoying and disappointing.

Dessert, however, saved the vegie bar last night.
There were two vegan options available from the display last night. One was an apple rubarb crumble (could not partake of crumble, but I ate some of the berries which was like HOLY FUCK WOAH OMG AMAZING) which Sophie and Cale shared. Lovers.

Pip and I shared the Choc Royale. Pip dug into it before I got a photo but this cake was gluten free and amazing. I've made a similar cake a couple of times, served warm. This wasn't warm but it was damn humungous and damn delicious and layered and rich and ohmygoodness.

My only real excitement about this place was when I discovered, as -ahem- relieving myself in the single-room ladies toilet, was the AMAZING TOILET. Holy shit.
So. The toilet is a water saver. HOW? All a toilet does is flush lots of water and constantly refill its basin and water water everywhere but not a drop to drink and WE'RE IN A DROUGHT, PEOPLE. FUck. So Anyway, the sink is for washing yourself after doing your what-have-you in the loo, and it is attached to the Cistern of the toilet.
So. what you do is, right, You flush the toilet (half or full, whichever appropriate) and then the TAP TURNS ON. OMG. Magic. So the tap turns on and you wash your hands and then you're like OMG HOW IS THIS SAVING WATER THE TAP ISNT TURNING OFF HOW DO I MAKE IT STOP.

but Stop. Hammertime, check yourself. For reals. Because what the tap is doing, is refilling the cistern. HOLY SHIT.

But really, this place?

Not worth the vomit/diarrhea/nausea party that continues to follow.

Sorry Dad (who is 61 today), I'm not taking you back here.

Jinhua Vegetarian Ham

2009-01-06T21:01:00.000+11:00

This is that "Ham" used in my sweet-n-sour ham dish. It's a beancurd mock very similar in texture to ZhangXiaoBao's Vegetarian Duck (which you can have served at the Shanghai Dumpling house for between $1/$2 more than the price at the grocery store I get it from), and the flavour is only a little bit different to the duck. The main difference is the shape tha tit comes in. It looks like pork chops (I GUESS? I THINK I KNOW WHAT PORK CHOPS LOOK LIKE?) and kind of steaky.

I actually have a recipe for preparing a "Vegetarian Duck" with beancurd sheets which one day I will prepare again and you will all star at me in awe and devotion and OMG I CANNOT BELIEVE THERE IS NO MSG IN IT. Until I buy a packet of MSG, for tastey stomach-hurting good times. (Alex's kitchen has one of these bags -which at last check remains unopened- and it has contact information on the bag for emergency services on it. AMAZING.).

love and kisses, L.

Sweet & Sour Ham

2009-01-06T20:15:00.006+11:00

I'm not even going to write much about this one because I only made it as a quick lunch and to see what the flavor of a soy mock product i have in my fridge tastes like.
The thing about being a vegetarian or vegan is that after a while, you can't really remember what meat is like to eat or to have in a meal. When presented with the option of cooking a mock ham, I was curious but really really confused. Even in my staunch meat-eating days, I never touched anything that came from a pig. I just have no idea when it comes to cooking meat, though I often look at meat based recipes and think "that'd probably be delicious, maybe i could replace the meat with eggplant or mushroom or capsicum and it'd be the same" maybe because I cannot eat gluten mock, i just realy on plant subsitutes generally. WHATEVER.
I used a bottled sweet n sour sauce and simmered some fake ham in it and some snake beans. served on a nest of baby choy sum steamed with (australian) garlic for good measure.
almost immediately after topping with slivered almonds, i dropped the bag of them on the kitchen floor and it looked like an explosion.

+++++ POST SCRIPT: yes Pip, it was tastey. i over steamed the baby choy sum though.

Banaspberry Pancakes

2008-12-30T16:45:00.001+11:00

Gluten freedom is hard to have, hardest when it is forced upon you and you don't really want to accept it (in my case), but also half but also very brave to take on as possibly a sympathetic arm around a shoulder (in Alex's case when we cook together). There's a lot to consider and when you throw veganism into the mix sometimes its sort of like "why bother?".

we shall perservere.

Because that's what you do, y'know. Just go with it. Options keep opening up to people with gluten intolerances, more cafes and restaurants are providing alternatives, some have tkaen the option of not charging extra to provide for those who have dietary requirements and that is pretty awesome. Once upon a time, pancakes that I could eat (gluten free and vegan and not disgusting, thanks) and enjoy eating seemed quite far-fetched and a lot of wasted batter were chucked in attempts to make something that might do for particular cravings, at whatever hour of the day. For some reason, this seemingly simple dish baffled us. Was it because of the gluten free? Was it because of no eggs? we couldn't figure it out.

A very simple recipe from Tony Weston and Yvonne Bishop's "Vegan: Over 90 mouthwatering recipes for all occasions" sent us on the right trail. Their recipe gave us ideas for a very simple fail-proof formula for the vegan pancake, that is easily transferrable to gluten free flours, if you make the adjustments to liquid and flours as you see fit whilst combining.

2.5c SELF RAISING FLOUR + 2c MILK + SALT + LIME JUICE.

The recipe in the book says to cook them with rapeseed oil but as the idea of that seems just way too healthy for me, I tend to go with a dairy free margarine if I have it around in the fridge. Apologies for being a bit 'tradish'. This recipe makes HEAPS but sent us on our way.
The next trick was getting a handle on how hot the pan should be and how much oil/marg should be on the pan before/whilst cooking each pancake. Go with your instinct and like Pip's said: Remember to give the first pancake to the dog. Them's the rules. Which I don't 100% agree with, maybe because I don't have a dog - but I do have the powers of the deduction required to see what alterations need to be made after the first pancake if it isn't a success. and sometimes I'll eat anything, god damn.
The self raising flour is optional but offers a fluffly pancake and the aeration in the batter provided from the baking powder or bicarb or whatever seems to work in favour for the gluten free flours I use. It's easy to go without, for a thinner pancake, but I'm already using margarine to cook them with, so I'm going to stick with my nostalgia, thankyouverymuch.
I'll make a goddamn crepe when I feel like it, but these are banana and raspberry pancakes for lovers who are not concerned with risking diabetes or belly-expansion.

FOR FUCK'S SAKE:

1 cup buckwheat flour
1 cup plain flour
1 heaped teaspoon baking powder
1 healthy pinch of salt
1.5 cups rice milk mixed with 2 teaspoonse apple cider vinegar and left to curdle
.5 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 overripe banana
and as many frozen raspberries as we thought seemed to be reasonable

Combine flours, Baking powder and salt.
In a seperate bowl mash your banana (the riper, the easier to do this. my favourite trick is to pre-mash the banana whilst it's still in it's skin by gently squeezing it from either side till the firm fruit becomes (he he he) a floppy phallus and then peeling it into a bowl and finishing it off with a fork.
To the banana, add the vanilla essence, curdled milk+vinegar mix and sugar.
Make a well into the flour mix bowl and combine well. Add more flour or milk as you see fit, if necessary. When you're happy with the consistency, throw in the raspberries and fold.

I feel like I need to stress the importance of coverage with the oil base you're using in the pan for this recipe. I've had way too many "scrambled" pancakes to not be paranoid. When melting the margarine into the pan, make sure you're oiling up the whole pan and not just spots. When you're happy with the coverage and the heat of the pan, its time to get to work.
Ladle out the mixture into the pan (I like to see how far one batch of batter can go and do half-ladles of it and tip the pan from side-to-side to spread out the batter), when bubbles start to surface, this is when i start lifting the pancake, so we know it's time to get going.
The second side of the pancake should take about or even less than 2 thirds of the time it took to get the first side cooked, depending on taste and heat variables.
It's good to be careful not to burn the pancakes but too much urgency can weild a mushy inside pancake, which can be tastey but is not what you should be aiming for.

This should make a moist pancake that you can taste the banana from (some vegan banana pancake recipes ignore the flavour of the banana and use the fruit solely as an egg subsitute which I find disappointing) and are completely deserving of the impending heart attacks that Alex and I are likely to suffer from if we keep up the marg/sugar kick. If we hadn't spread the batter on the pan and left them thicker they would have been quite delightful as pikelets, but we were pancaking.

Festivus Bird.

2008-12-27T11:07:00.000+11:00

Or: FUCK YOU MOTHER FUCKAZ I GOT 2xTOFURKEY WITHIN 3 DAYS OF EACHOTHER AND Y'ALL IS JUST JEALOUSES.
Or: I shouldn't write food-blog posts whilst thinking about listening to Wu-Tang Clan because the echo-effect of being hip hop isn't actually as reflective of bringing the mother-fucking ruckus (ain't nuttin to fuck with, etcetera).

Tofurkey of the Festive Season #1:
Prepared quite hastily (well, considering that it is a recipe that requires resting over night, i did it pretty chaotically) for Fjorn's birthday pot luck (other contributions to the luck included: olive loaf and coffee scrolls - from Ruth, a curry yum from Sam, salad by Tim and Fjorn herself provided some delicious chickpea stuffed mushrooms from the grill!) - to the stuffing I added cranberries for festive charm or some shit. Mostly because I had intened to probide a cranberry sauce but napping happened instead.
Fjorn's birthday is the 24th of December which makes her Jesus' totally cooler and more-legit twin. The pot luck was on the traditionally (like, according precisely to the episode of Seinfeld that it comes from - information I collected from WIKIPEDIA, TELLER OF TRUTHS) celebrated date of Festivus. For the rest of us.

Tofurkey of the festive season #2:
At Mgtvle, the warehouse my partner and friends live in - in Sydney. Alex had bared witness and ploayed an integral part to the creating of the tofurkey we celebrated winter in Anglesea with in July and had prepared the 'tofu mold' for this bird before I got to Sydney to help finish it off with stuffing, basting, etcetera.
I have little doubt that we're going to make this roast a off the cuff thing tradtion very soon considering I only checked the recipe for cooking times and how to make the cornbread (which I pretty much disregarded in both cases) for stuffing.
Despite being a quite involved, messy and slow cooking recipe, it has become really easy for this to be made based purely on instinct and taste. I realise whilst writing thist post that this was roasted 1 year exactly from the day I first roasted this kind of tofurkey. December 26th, the day of boxes.
We charred it a little on the skin - this bird has a crispy beancurd 'skin' that was marinated and thrown over the top of the roasting tofu halfway through it's time in the oven- because we got a little distracted and excited about the deep frying machine that has recently surfaced at Mgtvle. I have no shame in this fact: I HAVE WANTED TO HAVE A DEEP FRYING MACHINE SINCE I WAS 15 YEARS OLD. Now, I am pretty young, so this is only 5 years ago but still. I am so excited and bouncy.
It's a bit tricky to decide how to slice and transfer the bird from dish to plate elegantly. Here served with sweet potato chips (deep fried). The alterations to the stuffing were carrots in place of celery, and the addition of flat beer with the stock.
Another difference between these two birds were the variables of herbs and stock put into the tofu mould, the kind firm tofu used in either (I can't tell you what Alex used because I wasn't there. I know he didn't have "chicken" stock and that his tofu felt different to the stuff I used on the 23rd) also that Alex left the bird in the mold in the refrigerater for at least 48 hours longer than I did (I only had mine in over one night) which I think spoke for much in terms of what kind of texture we got from the bird.

It took me forever to re-surface the link from which I first decided to make this kind of tofurkey over a year ago, but I found it originally from, and adapted it from here: at What Do I Know? by Kathy - who adapted her recipe from a popular one at VegWeb. I made the bean curd skin from inspiration taken from Bryanna Clark Grogan and what I did was basically just get a sheet of dry bean curd skin, soak it in a watered-down warm version of the marinade we gave to the rest of the bird and wrapped the top of the tofu-lump with it after it had been in the oven for a little over half it's roasting time.

I really wish I'd taken photos of the FUCKING LOVELY Apple & Strawberry custard crumble Alex made for me (with a short crust base that blows my gluten-freed mind) as well as the Veganomicon feast that Louise made for a bunch of us on Christmas Day as well.

Louise made for desert following the bird, a cake based on the Brooklyn/Boston cream pie cupcakes from VCTOW using wheat flour that I should not have partaken of. hehe.

Disfunction

2008-12-21T22:18:00.000+11:00

Dear autonomic nervous system,
Please do not be a jerk.

I NEED YOU

The outlook for patients with dysautonomia depends on the particular diagnostic category. Most forms of dysautonomia are not life threatening,however it is certainly life changing. Patients often black out, faint, get increasingly high heart rates and have to lie down on a day to day basis. Patients with chronic, progressive, generalized dysautonomia in the setting of central nervous system degeneration have a generally poor long-term prognosis. Death can occur in young children and the elderly. Younger patients can die from pneumonia, acute respiratory failure, or sudden cardiopulmonary arrest.

Taste the Alphabet

2008-12-21T11:01:00.000+11:00

RECENT AQUISITIONS: 1. digital camera (chanukah/festivus/christmas gift). 2. gluten free alphabet noodles.
It has since been my goal to make as many different alphabet soups as possible. This morning's alphabet soup goes like this:

2 cloves garlic.
1 onion
1T olive oil
1 "beef" stock cube
2t paprika
4 small bay leaves
2-3 cups boiledwater
2t crushed dried sage
1T margarine
1.5T tomato paste
little bit of dried chilli flakes
pinch of oregano
as much salt & pepper as you like/need/can handle
vegan parmasen to garnish.

+ half a cup of alphabet noodles/however much you like as per your own soup:noodles ratio requirements.

Sautee the onion til transclucent, throw in garlic, stock cube, bay leaves, sage and paprika - combine well and then start pouring in the hot water, stirring as you go. When all water is in the saucepan and combined well with other ingredients, add tomato paste and then once all mixed, add noodles.
Add more or less water/noodles depending on what you think is going on with consistency in the pot and what you like specifically. When noodles are al-dente, lower heat to quite low and add margarine (not necessary, I did this for a creamy style thing) til melted, chilli and oregano. mostly for nostalgic reasons, I added parmesan to again recreate a creamy kind of tomato broth for the noodles.

Season as you will. This was really warming and simple. I don't know why I wanted to make it for breakfast, but at the end of things I guess I am a big bratty kid when it comes to food and I'll make what I want to eat whenever I want to eat it, if it is available to me.

More alphabetical soups are to come, I'm sure. I lit the first candle of chanukah this evening.

Chag Chanukah Sameach.

November 15th: Sydney Food Not Bombs

2008-12-17T12:57:00.000+11:00

Every fortnight (more or less) around 4.30pm at the Martin Luther King Mural on King Street, Newtown, a FoodnotBombs group brings a feast of free vegan food from the Jura Books kitchen to share with anyone hungry, curious, or otherwise inspired. The group works very hard the night before, dumpster diving for beautiful produce to cook with and braving dumpster juice and getting stanky. Unfortunately most of the time when I've made trips to Sydney, it's been on weekends when Food not Bombs was not happening or we were otherwise too busy to attend the cooking or servings. Also is a shame is that the group doesn't have a constant momentum as such yet, from what I can gather, and when Sophie and I came along to help with the cooking on the 15th (the serving was ging to be cancelled but prevailed!) it was just Soh, Jason and I at first, but we were later joined by a few other helping hands.
Nonetheless we were able to contribute a massive 5 dishes for the "masses" including 2 soups, a pasta dish, a warm bean salad and a fruit salad. Sophie has yet to blog about the expedition we made together to Sydney this time so I am liberating her photos that she sent me...

YOU TOO CAN CLEAN THE KITCHEN, COMRADES! Jura books is fantastic and their bookshelves have little notices on them telling the anarchists to please keep the books in order, that anarchism does not = chaos and stuff. Cuties. What you see is two pots of the same soup (winter veg dealie), and two pots of (not gf - did not have any, was well behaved) pasta for Marius's dish. The other soup was a pumpkin and fennel dream that Jason made. Thats me with the dinosaur left-arm action.

Sophie and my's Warm bean salad was amaaaazing. Boiled green beans, cherry tomatoes, celery, grated beetroot and carrot, and cashews. the dressing was the hit on this one, i can't remember what i did besides fivespice and oil and sugar but it was really lovely and understated

Marius' past dish. The sauce was ginger, garlic, mushroom and soy sauce with corn starch (good for keeping down the urges!) to thicken. Everyone went pretty wild about this one

Chillin' @ Jura.

Came home to MGTVLE that night to Louise making a raw pie. Despite how I generally feel about raw food (it's more about how I feel about the raw food DIET and the 'guru's and such things - see this video for more information) this pie was really lovely and Louise delighted in us guessing what made the texture of the pie filling and gave it its flavour adn colour. The base was almonds and straberries and coconut. The filling was, deceivingly made out of avocado but once you realised tha tyou really couldnt help but taste it within. Lovely treat for the end of a lovely eating day.

More info on Sydney's FoodNotBombs:

http://sydfoodnotbombs.blogspot.com/

Every second Saturday. Cooking @ JuraBooks: 1pm, 440 parramatta road, petersham

Serving @ the Martin Luther King mural, king street Newtown. 4.30pm

The Struggle

2008-12-16T19:03:00.000+11:00

THE STRUGGLE, comrades of the blogosphere, is about how I am desperately wishing to write in here but am coming up constantly against great odds:
- Blogspot is actually a bit of a nightmare. I am currently testing out another blog that hopefully will be more entertaining at least for myself, and therefore less deterring to write in and hopefully more active on wordpress.
- Whilst I have two blogs this one will either dissolve or becoming completely food-based. I have had little time to be incredibley inspired in the kitchen lately, and I don't have a camera to document and proof to myself. Also I don't notate whilst creating recipes exactly how much of x,y or z i am putting into w recipe. This is also dettering.
- I can be incredibley critical, of food I eat (that i purchase, make myself, or someone makes for me), I do not want to be 'that bitchy blog' at all.
- My relocation to NSW is very very upcoming, and happens in about one month's time. Experimentation in the kitchen sometimes requires an amount of mess to be made, and often new ingredients to be purchased. I am being as frugal as possible leading up to the move, though I am pretty sur ethat I won't struggle when I move, I am still quite scared of not being able to afford to feed myself, considering the limits of my stomach.
- My recent battles with my health have put me onto an incredibley high-sodium diet as a part of treatment. My appetite is smaller and I am supposed to be eating 5 small salty-as-fuck meals a day, which is basically nothing to blog about. How many times could I blog about a different variation on miso soup?

IN ANY CASE. I still have the abilityn to google-image search pictures of things to talk about.

I would like to finally talk about House of Biskota biscuits - which I started seeing around about 6 months ago but never had my VEGANBYNUMBERS card with me when I saw them so I'd never given into temptation. Until yesterday, at allergyblock, I noticed that their labelling now SPECIFIES the lack of dairy or eggs.
SICK.

Have almost eaten through a box of the tiramisu flavour. Am content. Would eat again. Will.

About Puny Mounds

2008-12-11T22:15:00.000+11:00

I think if you are able to put together a positive experience and it works exactly how you planned and had no bad repercussions, then it isn't such a lame thing to be a friendly person. Puny Mounds was 100% successful - it finished up at 8pm as promised, before the sun went down, nobody got hurt (except for my foot the morning of, getting to the venue) and the cops didn't come. Also was awesome was the fact that I didn't have to leave the space to get filled with food, people brought their parents and dogs, and heaps of people donated money for the interstate bands. Another positive action was the fact that there were so many people there that I don't know and some who I never would have thought to come.

IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME.

Got Sconed!

2008-12-01T14:31:00.000+11:00

BTWYFYI I have been spending almost the past month or two organising a festival and a split cassette release. Times have been hectic, I've also been working on havign enough information in my folio for review as assessment at the end of my course in 2 weeks, and an installation for the end of year show. I do stuff with plants, it's hopefully going to be cool.

A big shout out goes to one of my favourites, Fjorn, who has been overwhelmingly useful and happy to help and working hard on her own work as well as being my co-host in the fest and my bandmate, and helping me with art and stuff. Last night I made dinner for her and her boyfriend, Sean (who's been real busy rattling out a thesis all year) of: lemon asparugus, grilled tomatoes, grilled field mushrooms, and a tofu/almond/mint/pomegranite salad. sitting next to it were some cream cheese&chives scones, stealing the show.

I now present to you, the recipe for the scones WITH PICTURES with love from google image search. heheh.

This is actually the first time I've ever made scones, ever. F'serious, I ate them heaps as a kid but they were something mum always made for us and never showed us how, I guess because they're ridiculously easy. I got the recipe for regular cheese&chives scones and wrote it down and forgot it and then remembered and found it in my Back pocket.

225 g. self raising flour (i used my least preffered GF mix of flours, orgran).

50 g butter (used nuttelex)
1 c cheese (i used tofutti cream cheese)

¼ t sea salt
1 T chives
¼ c milk

rub flour and butter together. lop in the cheese, salt,, milk. put more flour in if necessary. put in chives, etc. its too easy.

220c oven, 10-15 min.

i was scared they'd be too biscuitty btu they came out fine, nice and robust and beautiful with the grilled mushrooms.

also apologies i am actualyl quite shit at writing out recipes.

seven facts meme

2008-11-25T22:57:00.000+11:00

dear vegans. here is the seven facts meme that noone tagged me for (well, lots of people tagged 'everybody'). in return, i am tagging NOONE.

1. This is important and relevent to know when reading my blog/talking to me about ethics or veganism: I DECIDED I WAS A VEGAN WHILST SITTING IN MY LIVING ROOM, STARING UP A CHIMNEY, STONED OFF MY NUT. I'm proud of this and I am never showing my blog to my parents. What had made me so stoned was a combination of (vegan) hash brownies and cookies that I had made. these same cookies/brownies had made a darling friend of mine a few days earlier, get really sick from being high and now she don't touch it. silly goose, they were fucking delicious. THE DAY I DECIDED I WAS A VEGAN, I HAD A BRUTAL BIKE ACCIDENT AND NOW HAVE A PERMANENT SCAR AND BUMP ON MY LIP, AND MY FRONT TWO TEETH ARE NO LONGER MINE. for reals. The last time I consumed flesh, it was my own (a piece of my lip was swallowed). I then couldn't chew food properly for about a week or so and so when I ran out of pain killers, all I ate was heated up hash brownies with soy milk and maple syrup.

2. I never finished highschool. I was a big (fat) nerd and I loved my classes and teachers and the library, but I got really bugged down with glandular fever and didn't complete. Also in highschool, I played a fuck load of sport.

3. I think meat is amazing and congratulate any omnivore who continues to consume flesh whilst knowing everything that is involved in the makings of a meat based meal. I really enjoy walking pass local butchers and seeing their layout and displays. there's a really good one near where I wait for the bus to work. but I think that's just an aesthetics/nostalgia thing..

4. I am legally blind, and don't wear glasses. Sometimes when I am meeting my partner at the airport or train station and am approaching him/being approached, I rely heavily on a couple of signifiers (the way he walks, his back pack, his shoes) to recognise him as I can't see facial details until they are less than 10 metres away, most of the time. Sometimes I can't recognise my parents from far away either. I've gotten pretty good at identifying how my loved ones walk and hold themselves so it's not caused too many problems (once as a child i held a strange man's hand thinking he was my father).

5. I wear a ring on my left hand's "ring" finger. My mother once asked me if this was a defence tactic so I wouldn't get hit on. The ring has a detail of an owl with his wings spread out, which I generally keep facing the same direction as my palm. I like keeping it personal like that. I wear it on that finger because I spent a really long time in the store I bought it from, discussing with the salesperson the merits of the ring on each finger. it looks best on this finger, is the decision that was made, and fuck traditions. The only person who has asked me if I'm married from seeing my ring was an old man who takes my bus.

6. I cheat on my coeliac stomach all the time.

7. I have a slight allergic to tea-tree oil and my mother discovered this when I was 5 after putting me in a bathtub with some in it and I flared up in a hive rash. I am also allergic to imitation strawberry flavouring, it makes me vomit almost instantly. My dad discovered this after I threw up pink coloured milk allover his bed when I was young.

White Goji Antidote CUPCAKED

2008-11-12T22:34:00.000+11:00

It's been a really long time since I've invented a cupcake recipe on my own. Or since I've even wanted to. I don't make cupcakes that often anyway. The last time I created a cupcake recipe, I invented two at the same time and they travelled to New South Wales with me to feed lovers and stoners. The recipes were for a chocolate-licorice type (that was inspired by my partner as well as being stuck on reading Emma Goldman's autobiography, Living my Life) and a coconut-lime-ginger "butter"cupcake.

As I've been sick too often these days, I've actually been really slack with my eating habits or even being organised and motivated enough to cook something and eat it. The most I've been eating has often been different combination of spreads and salad on a corn thin. Seriously. It's been pretty fucked up and I get frustrated when people tell me to eat and I just-can't-do-it. The antidote to this sort of a rut is to bake something.

Even though I make sweets often and eat them often, I actually kind of feel really spiteful towards them. I can't even explain how that works, but baking or making sweet things when I'm unwell seems to get me in a mode of "I can do this cooking stuff, and then I have to eat it or it goes to waste" which is better than "I can't even think about chewing on food". It gets me to this good better-eating habit place because I THEORETICALLY dislike sweets, therefore I must be making sweets for someone else. right? like, that totally makes sense.
Except for in the house I live in now its just Riva and I and though she does love delicious things, she is a small lady, and its still just two of us.

ANYWAY
WHATEVERI made a white chocolate chip cupcake using Quinoa flour and hid Goji berries in 'em and a white chocolate ganache icing. You can do it too!

Preheat your oven to 180c. Learn the metric system if you don't know it.

Dry hump: 1.5 c quinoa flour
1 t bicarb soda
1 t baking powder
0.5 t sea salt
1 c brown sugar
5 T soy milk powder

Wet love: 1.25 c non dairy milk
(this is a rough estimate. see how much you feel is necessary after one cup)
1 T apple cider vinegar
2 t vanilla extract

And then: 0.75 c mini non dairy white chocolate chips
(i got mine from rishon's)
0.5 c dried goji berries.
-this is completely to taste. i think i probably scrimped a bit on the gogoji as their taste is pretty subtle.

These were done after about 20/25 minutes. I think if I do it again I'll look into using a different combo of flours, they tasted delicious but like, earthy. With a nice whisper of SECRET QUINOA LURKING WITHIN.

For the ganache (which there is too much of now sitting in a tub in the freezer) I did this:
double-boil 1c white chocolate chips with 3 T margarine. mixed with 0.25 c water, 3 c icing sugar, 1 t vanilla extract and the juice of half a lemon. oh and a pinch of sea salt. whip-it. freeze it. whip it. freeze it. whip it onto cupped cakes.

INFORMATION ABOUT GO-GOJI!

Make your own fucking frittata.

2008-11-07T12:44:00.000+11:00

Alex came down last weekend on a last minute decision to absolutely never miss any Ex Spectator show ever, as long as it doesnt mean too much expense, etc. He has (we have, but I don't count cos I live here) been at every Ex Spec show since their birth, and Alex is one for tradition. So 11 hours in transport from Sydney to Melbourne via the countrylink service, and apparently hitting a sheep and getting scared the train had derailed, there he was in Melbourne again.

KABOOM.

I woke up early to make a breakfast for him and meet him at the station because feminism works that way as I have made that same trip a few times and know very well how much you really need someone to be at the other end of your journey, hopefully with a meal. I may not be very good at preparing meals for myself to take with me to school or work anymore but I certainly did a good job of breakfast boxes for Alex and I to enjoy before I had to shoot off to work. I took a photo with my mind.

The picture looks like this: Tupperware container. rocket salad on the bottom (flaxseed oil + mustard dressing), grilled flat field mushroom with garlic, rosemary & thyme, and a scramfu with capsicum. simple, but sustaining.

A good effort for a 5.45am wake up and stumbling around the kitchen pretending I wasn't making any noise. Breakfasts are the best shit.

And because breakfasts are the best shit, (a girl I once lived with only knew how to cook breakfasts so she ate breakfast for every meal) I made us a tofu frittata -after craving for it when my housemate made one using a recipe from VWAV that niether of us actually own-using a sketchily transcribed into note version i found by googling "tofu frittata please" and THE POWER OF MY IMAGINATION. yaey.

And now, using the power of my memory puddle, I give you, A RECIPE! Also thankyou Alex for photo-taking this picture and leaving your camera in Melbourne. This recipe is really basic so i encourage you to out-do yourselves again and again and again and again because there is a whole fucking world of vegetables out there and this recipe will take most. This is what I had written down before I made it

Approx. 500grams of firm regular fotu

1. red capsicum, chopped real small.

1. small onion, minced

3. T nutritional yes.

1. t paprika

½. t turmeric

as much salt as you can handle, and pepper accordingly.

and then i adlibbed some shit i can't remember but also:

1. T soy sauce

(or bragg's, if you got it)

1. big kale leaf, chopped roughly.

(whatever leafy green is fine, really. this is what i had and it was wilting and desperate to be consumed)

Prehead your oven to about 180c. standard. oil up a shallow pan (if you got a cast iron pan, that would be AMAZING and PPREFFERRABBLE) and let that one sit to the side whilst we prep.

Make to-goo with your blender, transfer the slop into a mixing bowl and mix in your dry seasoning. Saute the onion and capsicum until soft, mix into your tofu mixture, as well as the soy/whatever sauce you wanna use. and the greens. slap it into your cast iron what-have-you and let it fap around in the oven for about 20-30 minutes, depending on the power of your oven, and how brown/firm you prefer your food.

Whilst i had the foodprocessor out I made a walnut pesto and mixed some of it with rocket (i am obsessed with rocket. i love it! oh! oh!) and balsamic vinigar on the side. the frittata was a medium size, and half of it each filled Alex and I up very happily.

post script: i re-googled the frittata recipe i stole so that i could reference them.. it came from a mini-frittata recipe byRoxy @ Eat Vegan thanks roxy. you made us happy.

x x

We Must move Backwards to Progress

2008-11-06T22:14:00.001+11:00

The Lapse - Betrayal!
mediafire zipped folder, mp3 format.

The Lapse were Toko Yasuda (Enon, ex-Blond Redhead) and Chris Leo (ex-Native Nod, Vague Angels) who formed together in 1997 as this porject following the breakup of The Van Pelt (great band). Good summer music for chilling out and being awesome and highfiving your mate for planting some amazing spinach or something like that. Nothing too brutal or too 'nice', somewhere between, though much closer to 'nice'. I wanna say post-punk-ish but I don't want to say that, lyrically half-spoken and often eulogising. Just lovely. I am enjoying this a lot regularly, and songs from this album are probably going to feature heavily in upcoming mix tapes for friends.

Here comes summer.

More interesting than horses.

2008-11-04T23:12:00.000+11:00

bruce nauman - pinch neck, 1968

Preshafruit Fruit Juices

2008-10-29T14:48:00.000+11:00

So like, the most exciting thing about my work these days (besides being on the site where this year's World Vegan Day festivities took place) is the availability of Donnyboy PRESHAFRUIT fruit juices at the Convent Bakery (famous in my office for really lacklustre coffee, a horrible manager, and the absolutely last resort of catering for meetings held here on site). This stuff is the bitches' bees knees, spread wide and open, fresh from the earth's uterus.

FUCK.

So like, when you normally make apple juice, and other juices, you have to pasteurise the fruit with heat. so the juice is just sort of rendered into this generic 'apple' taste and depending on the company, they will either leave it cloudy (for the vegans) or zap it full of what-have-yous (with fish preservatives!). cloudy apple juice is the most preferred, because it's sort of like the equivalent to an orange juice with heaps of crazy pulp action.

When Donnyboy makes PRESHAFRUIT fruit juices, they pressurise the produce, cold. This makes the shelf life(fridge life) a bit longer, and also leaves the juice with the fragrance and flavour of the specific species-type of fruit in tact. APPLE JUICE WITH INTEGRITY! So far I have only tried the Granny Smith and the Pink Lady juices and -damn-. Damn, fuck, and shit.

x x

BackTrack : Pip's Birthday Cake.

2008-10-28T10:44:00.000+11:00

The wonderpuss, miss Phlippila celebrated her birthday in (gluttonous!) style through food in September. She hosted a potfuck which you can read about on her bl og. I am going to now talk about the cake I made for Pips.

I have to say at the outset that because of the use of Stout (coopers. my favourite) in the cake batter, it isn't really 100% gluten free, but I made it okay for myself by just putting lots of booze in it and in my belly anyway so I was due to suffer from -something- that night, in any case. Wheee!

I've finally gotten around to looking at the photos my housemate, Riva let me take using her camera, so I can blog with pictures about food. like it's actually a food blog, for reals.

I used this recipe from Susie's Parsnip Parsimony. Which is a blog I love and adore and wish she would get bloggin' again because I feel like I'm for-real really learning when I read her blog. And she does cute things and is a big science nerd. A few things went wrong in the making of this cake so it only ended up as two-tiere and I didnt want to waste the icing if I fucked up with my piping bag (I don't know how to use it, ok. i use a spatula. that'll do) but it was all my fault, and not Susie's. Susie can do no wrong. Science can do no wrong. Well. That last sentence, maybe.

Things that went wrong (from my memory, this feels like ages ago!):

I bought a really delicious looking raspberry jam to use, that came in a big jar so I could still have some for myself to do private-things with (like, put it on rice and gross stuff like that which I do when noone's looking), hehe, and would make a good storage jar after I was done with the jam. My sister called me whilst I was on the tram to the bus that I take to get home (I travel an hour each way between my house and work, three times a week, lots of room for conversation) and as I walked from the tram to the bus, the jam jar kamikaze'd itself infront of the bus. I cut up my hand a fair bit cleaning up the mess, and missed the bus. Damn distracting family exploits! bah! So I had to buy cheaper smaller jars of raspberry jam the following day, for a less friendly price.
I am absolutely USELESS with our oven in this flat. It is electric, and I think it tells me lies. and the oven thermometer confuses me. and I just can't bake like I used to. so the first layer was slightly burnt. and then collapsed a little. so I couldn't split the damn thing and make the ultimate decadance of cake-piss-ups for the Pips.
WTF would I get liquid lecithin drops for? I settled for lecithin granules, and they seemed to do the job? I don't know why I needed them, but they didn't ruin anything so Its okay.

I replaced the flour with a standard general-mix of Gluten Free Flour, from a supermarket. For the icing I used Bacardi and I found a vegan vanilla pudding mix at Rishon's in Balaclava. Ummmm.... I also melted down some lindt chocolate and mixed in coffee essence, because the Pip loves coffee.

When the cake collapsed, it left this chunk crumb. I put the filling, some chocolate and some icing and a raspberry on it to serve to Riva as she had international guests staying with her and couldn't attend the potfuck. The mini-cake was much more photogenic and adorable than the mama-cake, but man did the mama-cake work a treat with booze.

x x

TASMANIA IS EMPTY

2008-10-23T23:29:00.000+11:00

this map shows our route.
yellow dots is where we slept the night and green dots are where we stopped.
if you click the map it will expand and you can identify it. we drove clockwise.

Or so you'd think, seeing as the only people in these photos are Alex and I and the golliwogs (R.I.P) I am basically going to cut+paste what I emailed to my family about our trip with more tidbits of info and probably more foodie stuff (though we didnt have much excitement after hobart) because I am lazy.

day 1 - Hobart. we arrived the night before to go see Mt Eerie play a show. My friend grant supported. it was nice. This picture show an armchair that was constructed out of golliwog dolls at the resource collectables shop on Elizabeth street... Hobart was kind of dull but there was an awesome vegetarian chinese place we had lunch pretty cheaply (this was Shu Yuan and was FUCKING AMAZING and we both had dreams about it). There is also a veg/vegan restraunt that is open for dinner but it was INCREDIBLEY pricey/bourgeois and so we gave it a miss (this was Siren's. We read the menu outside the door, Quinoa Caviar, and other fancy crap. averaging $25 a pop, no thanks!). We also found a decently stocked record store on elizabeth street.

day 2 - Upper Florentine Valley. We drove to the site of the Camp Florentine (camp flozza) on day 1, got told some information (see: myspace.com/stillwildstillthreatened) about the site and had tea and soup with the protesters (tree punx) we made dinner at ted's beach at lake pedder and slept at a lookout point over the gordon dam. We thought this would be nice to wake up to in the morning but it was SOOO WINDY AND RAINY that we didnt even look outside.
We had breakfast at ted's beach again and then went back to the tree punx! yay! they showed us where we could go for a beautiful rainforest walk and we gave them an assortment of tea and bread and chillies. We really should have taken photos of the camp site and the treepunx but it didn't happen. The campsite was attacked by a group of loggers earlier this week but as far as i know, camp flozza is still going on. a logger kicked one of the punx in the head and a part of the blockade was hit with sledgehammers.. nb: Camp Flozza is still going at this point and will celebrate it's 2 years of peaceful community protest next saturday!

day 3 - After our rainforest walk, we drove (forever!) around lake st clair and through the national park and ended up in the (very incestuoous, but also helpful) Queenstown to park and sleep the night. They sold fools gold in the petrol station we stopped at which reminded me of being a kid and loving fools gold! There was nothing to do in Queenstown so we got right out of there and drove north and into cradle country.
We didnt do any of the national park walks and stuff becuase those cost money but we walked around and it was really lovely. it was the first day of sunshine we got in tassie and so we were pretty stoked. Lots about the lodge and also heaps of other stuff about tasmania reminded us of twin peaks, creepy and beautiful, lots of beautiful dutch houses and stuff.. heh.
We kept going and ended up in Wynyard, and it was just before the Tulip festival so there was tulips everywhere in the township and we went to see the tulip farm and looked out at the bass strait. we then drove to stanley to see the nut, which is basically uluru, but wet.
Stanley was a really beautiful town parked at the very base of the nut and was tiered, it made driving around the town really cool but also kind of confusing. and we saw penguins (dodgy dark photo with white marks. some of the white marks are penguins) and bunnies! there were lots of bunnies whereever we wanted there to be penguins. heehe. we slept in Wynyard.

day 4 - We drove from Wynyard to Launceston, where the museum has the science centre inside and it is free and there was a really cool exhibition on fungus and lichens and moss and stuff. cooool.
And we went to cataract gorge which was ENORMOUS and AMAZING and IN THE MIDDLE of launceston. We climbed a mysterious way along the side of the gorge (we didnt go through it because we didnt wanna pay for parking!) and found an AWESOME hydro-electric house that'd been run down. we have lots of photos of that.

Most of Tasmania's electricity comes from either wind or water. there were lots of water mills and a big wind farm that we didnt go to. yay natural resources! We then drove from Launceston to the east coast and watched the sun set over coles bay, mt freycinet and the hazards. ti was beautiful. We slept at a coastal town caleld Bicheno (we kept saying 'Bitch-no' because we're gangsta)

day 5 - in the morning it was hot so we went to 9 mile beach which is beautiful and overlooks oyster bay, such beautiful white beaches and crystal clear water!! the water was FREEEZING so we just sat there for a while.
We then drove straight down to hobart to have a geeze at the salamanca markets (boring! couldn't find them veeg pies you bloggers raved about) and went into the huon valley and looked at the APPLE MUSEUM. amazing and creepy! yay, I bought two cook books - one full of apple recipes and one full of pumpkin recipes.
I feel like the apple cookbook should have been called "WHAT TO DO WITH ALL THESE GOD DAMN APPLES", seeing as I think that almost every residence in the Valley either had an apple tree (in beautiful blossoming this time of year!) or was right next to an orchard. We were given some apples for free (this is actually the only time we ate apples during our trip) with purchase, score, they were wonderful apples.
we slept in a nice little bay past franklin. we slept for about 12 hours.. quite tuckered out, i'd say!

day 6 - we woke up and cleaned the van on the inside and then drove to a model village in the town of glen huon. the village was built by frank & betty clarke over the past 20 years and was brilliant. you could go into the big shoe (at the back in this photo)and see the little old lady who lives in it and there was all these bells in the churches and children singing and there was a crooked man in a crooked house and a sculpture of an aboriginal spearsman(not very politically correct) and a teepee and at the end we stuck our heads in the applehead thingy. Back through Hobart we stopped at the Royal Botanical Gardens which was beautiful and informative but I think I was probably too hungry to enjoy it.

we then drove to dodges ferry and sat by the beach which was lovely and then cleaned the rest of the van and flew back to melbourne and slept forever.

we used the standard campervan offered by devil campervans (pictured - ours was yellow) we had a devil of a time. bikini babes were not included.

the end.

PS: AM I THE ONLY PERSON WHO ALWAYS MISREADS THE WORD 'POTLUCK' FOR 'POTFUCK'. ALSO WHENEVER I GO TO WRITE 'POTLUCK' I INSTINCTIVELY START WRITING 'POTFUCK'. CAN SOEMONE PLEASE SHOW ME WHAT A VEGAN POTFUCK IS? DOES IT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH CAKE FARTS?

purple hills

2008-10-20T14:16:00.000+11:00

please tell me what to do with my beetroots.
i was having a bad day and went to the markets and had a bad time so i bought beetroots because i like that if you eat too many you get purple poos but i've never cooked this delicious root before and i dont want to have an even worse time. i've only ever had beetroot dip and once i had some curry thing but my dad ate most of it.

i dont need to make anything big for a while i'm feeding just myself.

++++++++ are spaghetti squashes available in australia? is the general consensus that they are delicious or not worth it?

i have added a few more blogs for the sighting to your right under treasures. my favourite new one is probably raised on sunshine.

ALSO, crazy vegans of melbourne (because you all are actually insane and i am one too) is anyone going to the vegan day celebrations at the abbotsford convent this sunday? i am very interested in going and might even ride the merri creek to get there this time but am a little bit cautious of going myself because the office i work in is on that site and it will maybe feel like i am going to work on a sunday and i don't ever want to do that here.

I Promised this was a Food Blog...

2008-09-29T11:41:00.000+10:00

And so I've pirated pornography of my own efforts from Phillipa. I hope she doesn't mind (!!!)

During Alex's most recent trip to visit me down here in old cold Melbourne, we invited Pip and Tim to come and eat at my home.
This invitation was partly an act of mischeif and deceit as we're actually quite terrible at ever picking a place that has things that everyone can eat and enjoy without spending too much money/ending up at Shanghai dumpling (the deceit within the invitation).

The mischeif lies within the following meals we presented to our dear friends,

1. Cocoa Shepherd's Pie. I believe that the revolution is somewhere in the following "recipe".

We used: two carrots, pealed & diced, one onion roughly chopped, two minced cloves of garlic, a healthy handful of sliced cup mushrooms, a tin of diced tomatoes, maybe 500g of potatoes, two cups of TVP, and the following process:
Soak TVP in 1.5 cups (veg) chicken stock (or whatever you've got), tamari, sesame oil, heeeaps of salt & pepper. Sautee Onion, mushrooms, carrots, whatever veg you're keen on in your pie till it makes you happy (the potatoes are for the top, yo.), and through in the (thoroughly drained, no soggy pies please!) TVP.
I use the following combination of herbs & spices: Rosemary, Thyme, Coriander, Cayenne Pepper, le the veggies absorb the flavours and then added the can of diced tomatoes, and let the whole lot brew for a few minutes. I then added 1 cup of instant gravy mix (1 cup produced through the instructions on the packet. not one cup of gravy powder. gross) and 2 teaspoons of apple cidervinegar. And then. Between one and two tables spoons of dark cocoa powder. It looks amazing going in, and smells completely awesome.
All the while we had the potaotes boiled and then mashed with some rice milk, agave syrup and nutritional yeast, s&p, whatever.. I am actually really really shit at making the kind of amazing potato mash that this pie deserves, but i'm working on it.
Slopped the filling into a pie dish (whether or not us use a pastry crust is up to you, i don't because i am lazy, gluten free etc etc but i'm sure puff pastry would work), sprinkled some cinnamon ontop of the 'meat' and dollopped the mash ontop.
Into the oven preheated at 200c for about 20 minutes and oh-boy.

2. Cashew Cheese stuffed Capsicum (with Shredded Broccoli and Gluten Free Risoni!).

Alex's dish is something that he and I endeavour to convert the world to. We first came across the recipe for "Cottage Cheese" in the Easy Vegan Cooking book by Leah Leneman that my father bought for me before I was a vegan (that's some good intuition, dad!). We were intrigued immediately dismissed the scoffing of raw-food type recipes due to the fact that both Alex and I have a great nostalgia for the treat. And I have to make the following disclaimer: THE CASHEW CHEESE RECIPE TASTES ABSOLUTELY NOTHING LIKE COTTAGE CHEESE and if you don't do much to alter the flavour, smells like feet and tastes a little bit like haloumi. But, we actualyl fucking love this stuff. because you can transform it into a really nice stuffing for veggies or put it in salads and stuff. Just don't call it cottage cheese, because no Hungarian would talk to you if you fed this to them with that name.

The basics are: grab a handful (or however much you're game for) and let it soak in room-temperature water for about three or four days. It's ready for processing when you get the courage to eat one of the cashews and it tastes like haloumi. Smash the shit out of it using your food processor and add garlic, rosemary, lemon, mustard, nutritional yeast, whatever 'cheesey' or at least complimentary flavours you want. we mixed this in with shredded broccoli and some gluten free risoni (hoorah for Orgran!) and stuffed them into halves of the skinned char-grilled (stove top) capsicums that Alex so very much enjoys to make and show off. Into the oven after the pie for about 10 minutes and drizzled a bit of Balsamic Vinegar like the proto-gourmets we are.

And for drinks, Pip brought along an assortment of Phoenix's Juices. we split each small bottle four-ways throughout the meal, it was really cute, like we were taste testing each juice. Next time anybody does this, I reccomend the juices be served in shot glasses. Whee!
And I provided hot cocoa made with ginger and coffee bean essence, compound chocoalte and coconut cream.

I announced on the delivery of the cocoa that I would very much like to one day make a cocoa so fucking delicious that the Coco-Loco would cry his egyptian tears and immediately reduce his prices to something more happy. I stand by this argument, and challenge that I put to myself. Fuck working Vegans into a panicky sweat over prices. Fuck $8. Chocolate Alchemist. Whatever*.

*I should note that his cocoas are totally delicious and like, if you're a bit cashed up and in the area with a lovely eye-fancier, this place is totally cool to go on a date to but for someone who gets hot choclate cravings A LOT, I really really really can't justify $8 a pop on something i could have surpassed at home.

Vegan Bake Sale.

2008-09-26T11:01:00.000+10:00

let the air-humping begin. (Promo pirated from adukionline, bitch).

Inspired by the success of aduki’s Great Vegan Bake-Off, Vegetarian Network Victoria (VNV) will be holding a vegan bake sale on 1 October to raise much needed funds. The bake sale forms part of VNV’s National Vegetarian Week activities, commencing 29 September 2008.

VNV will be out in force that week, looking to highlight the many benefits of a vegetarian/vegan diet and lifestyle. The Great Vegan Bake-off was a fantastic opportunity for the vegan bakers of Melbourne to showcase their talents to each other – now they can show off those talents to the rest of Melbourne and help raise money for a good cause at the same time!

VNV is inviting interested parties to bring their vegan baked goods (not necessarily sweet items, just food that’s easy enough for people on the street to eat with their hands) down to its office in Fitzroy so it can be sold for a gold coin donation. The money raised will go directly back into the community via the support VNV provides for vegetarian and vegan businesses and the information and resources it provides to the community.

What: VNV's Vegan Bake Sale
Where: Kindness House, 288 Brunswick St, Fitzroy
When: Wednesday, 1 October 2008, 9am–12pm
What to do: Bring along your vegan baked goods and donate them for sale
More info: email info@vnv.org.au

Let's Cocoa

2008-09-11T21:20:00.000+10:00

Melissa Stringer is an old darling friend of mine who draws for dreams.(click image for adorable comic!)

For a couple of years, I have been obsessed with, though had never done anything about the idea of using chocolate and cocoa in savory dishes. The closest thing I've ever been served is a kind of mole-sauce. Chili and beans and cocoa, y'know, for dipping or as a sauce or side with other Mexican cuisine. Sort of a stock thing to do.

I had read about the luxury designer chefs that would pour chocolate over steak and chicken. Amazing. They probably use red wine in those sauces too. If nothing else I will adore anyones food if it has done well in sneaking booze into it. That's some sexy stuff.

Today I took the day off from my 11 hour school days I have on Thursdays and lay around imagining lunch. I wrote a couple of shopping lists and then I thought about astral-travelling to the store to make purchases.

I have never made a Shepherd's pie so why the fuck wouldn't i totally fuck up my own perception of what that meant.

I soaked some TVP with stock and sesame oil and mushroom sauce and chopped some red capsicum, leek and mushrooms and an onion. oh and lots of garlic. cooked it all and then. whole peeled tomatoes? done. tomato sauce? okay! gluten free gravy? sweet! sage, rosemary, thyme, coriander, a splash of cider vinegar and.

A TABLESPOON OF COCOA! fuck yes.

mashed what left i had of my butternut pumpkin and lopped it into a casserole dish into a preheated 180c oven for 20 minute and let the air-humping begin.

what was revealed was a big sloppy kiss of really earthy steak-like deliciousness. purple-brown and pumpkin yellow. my favourite colours in food. oh and there was cayenne pepper, i just remembered. fuck yes. will make this a recipe and force Riva to photograph it's worth and feed it to my love.

Shoes, Monk House.

2008-08-22T10:28:00.000+10:00

Things you should keep in mind as i go absolutely crazy about my shoes right now:

1. This morning I was referred to as "sir". This happens sometimes and I'm not sure why. I mean, I HAVE BREASTS, okay. And not in a man-boob way. When this happens I tend to revert back to extreme feminity in taste and action whilst getting quite agitated and simultaenously organising a far-shorter hair cut and beard envy.

2. My paternal lineage is carpenters and shoe-makers. I therefore have some sort of right to have interest in the structure of well made furniture and shoes. I THINK. ha.

3. I am tall. REAL TALL, and so it is very hard for me to find shoes that are cute, in my size range, practical, and most of all: ethical (in obvious vegan fashion I do not partake in the leather/wool/silk industries, though i do believe that exception can be made for second-hand/recycled wares).

And so. For me to buy a pair of shoes is an exciting thing. It is enough of a thing in my life that I would call my father in Brisbane (where there is one store that would relentlessly put up with me and my requirements to make me happy in shoes) to tell him about a pair of red canvas boots.

Keep's Tatum Bootie! Amazing. This picture is of the black one so please use your imagination to invision the same shoe in tomato-red! Still with the green rubber soul! Green and red is such a posi-amazing colour combination I don't care if you think it'll always be associated with Christmas. And maybe you can't see this but the tread of the sole has been cut with the mose amazingly intricate design of long grass crops. I've discovered that this shoe is also available in Purple though I'm not sure where from as Monk House only stock Red and Black, and that is sometimes the only place I ever care enough to regularly pop into to look at things.

Tough red canvas, mid-ankle height, adorable duffle-style toggle closers, I am pretty much going to be stuck in these for at least the rest of the year, I'd say! Not only are they super comfy and practical and veg and ethical (they are partly made in china in approved cruelty-free factories, which is more ethical than some other shoes) but they are proving for instant-satisfaction glimpses under the desk at work.

classic chocolate cake, y'all.

2008-08-04T11:15:00.001+10:00

this cake is pretty easy and makes use of stuff i generally have around the kitchen (apple cider vinegar is a pretty vegan-baker-specific thing to have lying around the house, you can use white distilled vinegar if you like).
it can be changed in so many ways to be more exciting than your stock chocolate cake, and it's really hard to go wrong. i have gone as far as not even measuring anything i put in properly and using milk instead of water and it is always f-ck off wonderful.

- 1.5 cups flour, sifted.
- three quarters cup raw sugar
- one half teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- one third cup dark cocoa powder.

- 1.5 teaspoon vanilla essence
- one third cup melted margarine
- 1 table spoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 cup water

preheat your oven to 180c.

as with most cakes. combine the dry ingredients to eachother. sift the flour and baking soda. create a well in the mixing bowl to best combine the wet ingredients. mix till -just- combined. if you over work the batter, you'll get a really tough cake.

bake for 30 minutes in a lined/greased pan.

I posted this recipe, which is has come from an incest of various vegan cookbooks and recipe blogs i've read in my time, on the yellowghost records forum last night. one day soon i promise to get my shit together and photo-blog the hell out of my cakes.
I generally use the orgran gluten free flours, and split the measurement in half between plain and self-raising flours because baking gluten-free means a denser, less tall cake.. and I like to disguise my ailments.

ATTENTION VEGAN DIABETICS-IN-WAITING

2008-07-03T12:56:00.000+10:00

The Great Vegan Bake-Off is coming to Melbourne.

I have absolutely no intention of competing. But seriously. Damn.

Eat the City at PLATFORM

2008-06-25T08:43:00.000+10:00

Yesterday Pip and I met up so I might show her what my installation studio piece for college has grown into. The installation is a play with fruit and veg and ideas of preservation and domesticity..

Afterwards we met up with Sam and Rohan and went to have a coffee at Pushka and looked at the current display in Platform Group's window spaces.

The exhibition is called Eat the City, created by Bernadette Trench-Thiedeman, who has planted some edible and non-edible plants in architectural models (I think that are modelled from the streets of Melbourne's CBD). I found the models to be really delightful, though I do wish there were a lot more of them. There are a few really playful and smile-breaking tricks that Thiedeman has thrown into the mix to explore ideas of invasion and urbanization...

The exhibition started in the beginning of this month and you could see the poor plants suffering from being in the boxes. The show is for twenty-six days, so is probably due to close soon.

the co-op shop

2008-06-23T13:40:00.001+10:00

The Co-op shop is a new, fresh and energetic community op shop that supports a range of diverse causes and groups.
The Co-op shop sees that what we need to change the world is postive steps, sustainablity, diversity, activism, awareness, peace.
The Co-op shop is recycling used clothing and reusing the abundance of material wealth in our society, rather than consuming new product that exploit people and the environment.
The Co-op shop exists to fund groups with a focus on indigenous, human rights, social justice and environment issues.
The Co-op shop is 100% transparent and all profits are donated to a different cause/campaign/project each month through a "grant" process, that all community/social/environmental/indigenous groups are welcome to apply for!
The Co-op shop is lots of dedicated and inspired people coming together to make a functioning SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY FUNDING RESOURCE.....
The Co-op shop is run entirely of volunteers, all working 3 and a half hours a week/fortnight in among our diverse, friendly and supportive volunteer community.
The Co-op shop is a place where your voice and input is not just welcome but encouraged.
The Co-Op shop is a community resource. Working in co-operation with each other and the local community, we turn used goods into a valuable community resource, providing a sustainable funding base for groups aiming to create a sustainable and just world. We believe that local community needs to be empowered to participate in social justice, environment and indigenous issues, and wish to create the Co-Op shop as a place for this to happen.

i do an alternating saturday shift here. it's pretty cute and new.

it's like an albino carrot..

2008-06-06T13:47:00.000+10:00

There is something about being able to make the favourite things for yourself that your parents used to magic up especially for you. Teaching yourself family recipes that used to stir amazement in your heart every time it was made for you is not spoiling the magic, but makes it even more special (like that time I made random-instinct no-bull bolognese on no-christmas day and it tasted EXACTLY how my mum makes)...
There are some family treats that I will never be able to recreate for the sake of my dietry choices and requirements (osso bucca just isn't going to happen). I take so much enjoyment from the fact that yesterday afternoon I got off the tram and craved this amazing winter favourite, had no credit to call my mother to ask how she prepared it, so I went by instinct. And, shit-damn...

Better-dreaming Parsnip Soup.
2 large parsnips, peeled and roughly diced.
2 thin celery stalks, finely chopped.
1 small white onion, diced.
a good sized knob of non-dairy butter
salt & pepper to taste
ground coriander, dried thyme & rosemary.

I sweat down these beauts with nuttelex in a large pot for about 5 to 10 minutes (when the onions/celery are transcluscent, you'll know it's time) before seasoning and then adding the stock

2½ cups prepared vegetable stock (1 teaspoon massel powder to 2½ cups boiling water, I like using stock but it is really easy to OD on it and have the flavour of the stock overwhelm the integrity of the vegetables, BE CAREFUL)
There should only be enough stock to make the vegetables float a little. This is a creamed soup and you don't want things to get too splashy when it comes to blending.
Cover the pot and leave it on a medium to low heat until the parsnips easily break themselves if you stab one with a fork. When this happens it's time to slowly transfer, bit by bit, the soup into a blender or food processor. If you have a hand-held liquidiser by all means use that but i think that's freaky. You can add a non-dairy milk or silken tofu or both if you like, to produce a creamier soup. I used both and also added nutritional yeast (get b12 in ya) for a nutty happening.

I'd say that this soup is pretty adaptable according to how your feeling or what your particular tastes are. I served it with more salt & pepper (because I am a fiend for flavour) and some fresh parsley from our faux-garden.