Glaciers of wonderment

"We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner! I can't think what anybody sees in them,"
- The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

M and I have just had the most fabulous long weekend in Mt Cook. So it's not food but it does have the word 'cook' in it. That counts for something right?! Mountains, adventure, sunshine, brilliant views...pretty much my perfect holiday! Mt Cook (Aoraki) is New Zealand’s highest mountain at 3754 metres. Although not particularly high as far as tall mountains go, it is supposed to be a difficult climb for its height. My eldest brother has climbed it twice that I know of. He’s pretty awesome! Neither of us are mountaineers so we were certainly weren’t there to climb Mt Cook itself (!!) but I had never been before which definitely needed to be remedied since it is a very special place for much of my family.






I didn't want to come home and I'm looking forward to my next adventure all ready.

Delighting in a food coma

"...silly things do cease to be silly if they are done by sensible people in an impudent way. Wickedness is always wickedness, but folly is not always folly. — It depends upon the character of those who handle it."
- Emma by Jane Austen

Hello! We're busy playing the 'guess how big that aftershock was' game after a rather large shake (it knocked a few things out of our pantry so it's got to be at least a 5. Extra points for guessing where it was centred. You might laugh but some people had bets on one at work once!).

M and I have spent most of the day in a food coma after eating up large at the vegetarian expo and then eating lots of cake and bread at his parents' house (his Mum made this vegan orange cake especially for us. I think I'm going to have to get the recipe off her because it was delicious). I have to say though, a food coma is a bit more pleasant than the total exhaustion state we were both in last night after a rogaine based out of Castle Hill (it was crazy - we started in a snowfall and finished in beautiful sunshine a few hours later!).

First up, before we even got inside, we got vegetarian sausages with all the trimmings (mustard, sweet chilli sauce, onions and tomato sauce). I devoured mine in no time because I was starving (only having an apple for breakfast will do that for you...but I was determined to eat far too much at the expo so had to make sure there was going to be room). I think the sausages they used were the Frys ones. Later, inside the expo, I had a good chat to the people from Frys about their new products which are coming soon and I got all excited!


Next up I got all excited by these tiny little cupcakes and the vegan society stall so I had to get one of the lemon ones. It was eaten in no time (you could have eaten the whole thing in one go but I tried to make it last a bit longer).

I then downed a shot glass of vegan beer from the Cassels & Sons Brewery. Now that was quite nice and I might have to pop out there and get some but it was a bit early for me and alcohol to meet (11am). I think I got a whole lot more giggly after that.

Then it was time for some serious browsing of the stalls (while I giggled continuously and got all excited at the smallest of things). This didn't last all that long because I stumbled across another stall selling the most amazing looking vegan baking. Cat Rescue Christchurch had a big table filled with delicious-looking home baking but my eye was instantly caught by the ginger crunch so I had to have some of that.

After the mini sugar coma I was now in we decided something savoury was in order. We'd thought about pies but ended up going for samosas with chutney from, well I can't remember where from but they were delicious and very spicy.


Drink was definitely required after that but when we wandered over to The Lotus Heart stall I got carried away and ended up getting a slice of raw lemon cheesecake instead!! It was divine. They have got this whole raw dessert thing down to a T (or is it a little t? I've never written that phrase down before). Luckily M was a bit more sensible and bought us some sparkling orange and ginger drink to share.

You'd think we'd be full by now but the pies were still calling. We ended up getting a Country Pie to share from the Linda McCartney Foods stall. The pastry was delicious but the filling was slightly too 'meaty' for my taste. M seemed to like it though.

Then just to top it off, I'd come to the realisation I hadn't gotten anything chocolaty yet so I headed back to the lovely ladies at Cat Rescue Christchurch. I don't know who you ladies are but you do amazing work and are incredible bakers. When we have somewhere where I can have a cat I am totally heading your way. Anyway, I picked up a slice of peppermint chocolate cake which I picked at once we got home (it was incredible).


So yeah, basically the vegetarian expo was awesome and I'm most grateful for the lady at work who told me about it. As you can probably guess by this post (and like I said on the feedback form afterwards), I was pretty much just there for the food and it did not disappoint.

By the way, for those who were curious, the official quake magnitude is now up and it was a 5.5. Exciting!

Pie in the sky (with diamonds?)

'This is pretty nice for Hell,' Fi said to me as we paused in the cool stone gap.
- Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden

After far too many late nights this past weekend (yes, I am a nana and proud of it) I am so tired that all I really want to do is curl up on the couch while watching episodes of Jonathan Creek. I've only seen 3 episodes so far but along with his lying on The Unbelievable Truth (he talked about tigers AND managed to smuggle all 5 truths past everyone so he earns extreme points for that alone) I am becoming an Alan Davies fan. I get a bit obsessed about things. This might turn out to be one of them.


Random photo of a rock to distract you momentarily. Note how they felt that you required a cone to point the rock out in case you missed it. They've gone a bit cone crazy here I think.
Right, well today I thought I would tell you about pie. Pie in New Zealand would pretty much automatically mean a meat pie of some kind for most people. I remember when I was a kid my Mum would occasionally buy a supermarket 'family' pie and attempt to cut it into 5 pieces. There would be much argument over who got what bit because the pie was, rather unfortunately, a rectangle and if you got one of the end pieces you basically only got pastry (although this wasn't too bad since that was the only real bit I liked on them).

Anyway (that was quite a tangent...got a bit nostalgic there!), fast-forward to today (or, in reality, a few weeks ago) and I thought I might try my hand at making my very own pie. I've never made a pie before and I'd bought myself a pie dish after getting all excited and buying everything in sight back when we were setting up our flat. This pie is nothing like the pie of my childhood. In fact, it's nothing like any pie I'd ever had before but it was darn tasty. It's a bit of an adaption on the Mushroom, Leek and White Bean Pie from Vegan Brunch with my first ever batch of homemade pastry.


I didn't have enough mushrooms (or the kind of mushroom it talks about since I've never heard of cremini mushrooms before but fortunately white button mushrooms worked just fine) so I added heaps of onion. It seemed to all work out. But what couldn't when it was encased in rich, melt-in-your-mouth pastry (I think I might have overdosed on the margarine!)? I know the recipe says to leave it at least 30 minutes before serving and that it's best at room temperature but honestly, I thought it was way better hot out of the oven (or hot after being heated up in the oven again) and with a whole lot of my Mum's feijoa and ginger chutney.


So, I've done the savory pie but it appears that most of the world are used to associating pies with sweet desserts. M's Mum gave us the most ginormous of pumpkins and I was pretty much over eating pumpkin soup and putting it in every meal we had so I thought, since we were heading off to a pot luck, that I'd attempt to make pumpkin pie. I've never had it before (apart from a raw version at The Lotus Heart) and decided I'd use the Pump-Can Pie recipe from Kris' 100 Best Vegan Bak­ing Recipes.


It seemed to work out okay although I should have actually used the amount of sugar the recipe called for rather than naively thinking it would be too much. It sort of tasted a bit weird but then again, the idea of pumpkin pie seems a bit odd to me. I think I'd rather make it with kumara (which my Dad thought was even more of an odd idea). People did seem to enjoy eating it though, even my friend's little girl who hated the pumpkin in the savoury dish. She ate all her pie but didn't even finish her ice cream!

The last pie, however, is definitely awesome. Caramel Cream Pie...with a name like that you can't really go wrong! I have made a variant of it before (using tofu instead of soy cream cheese which is actually probably the best way to go to be honest because then it isn't so mind-blowingly rich) but this time I thought I'd go all the way and see just how many fake dairy products I could use!


This pie lasted ages because you could only eat fairly small slivers at a time before feeling ill and like you might need a lie down after the explosion of sweet, rich, fake dairy goodness. Make it now but be prepared for the coma you might find yourself in afterwards!

Right, sorry about all that rambling. I'm tired and my brain is spinning around and drifting off a bit. But go and make some pie. That will make everything better!

Randomness with creamy fizzy baking

When he awoke in the morning, the first thing he saw was Tigger, sitting in front of the glass and looking at himself.
"Hallo!" said Pooh.
"Hallo!" said Tigger. "I've found somebody just like me. I thought I was the only one of them."
- The House of Pooh Corner by A. A. Milne

I've been thinking about this for a while now. I don't tend to blog much about myself here, trying, attempting to keep it all about food and keep my world (mostly) anonymous. Seemed to make sense to start with but as time has gone by most people (that I know of) know who I am or at least a lot more about me than I blog about. Also sometimes I just don't feel like blogging about food or food and life are often so linked together that it is hard to seperate the two. Plus my brain is always a little scattered and all over the place so I thought I might try something different sometimes.


Kinda unrelated, but last week we ran to work in the snow because we couldn't get the car out of the street. It was entertaining, especially when we got interviewed by the newspaper partway there...!
So to start, and because it's kinda scary, I will tell you five things that aren't related to food.

1. My favourite song is Yellow by Coldplay. It has been for years, probably since the moment I first heard it.
2. My favourite colour is yellow. I didn't even think about the fact that my favourite song had the same name until people asked me if that was why I liked the song. All I know is that I love the colour yellow.
3. When I was younger I knew all the words to Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Princess Bride.
4. I love running or riding up hills. It's the best thing ever. I hate coming back down again with a passion. Bit of a problem when the hill behind our house is massive so the downhill stretches on into eternity.
5. I can't spell so spell checks, little squiggly lines under words and google are my best friends (I had to use them to work out how on earth to spell squiggly...you don't even want to know my first attempt).

Top of a mountain (holding on for dear life so I didn't blow away...it was that windy)? Check.
Yellow jacket? Check.
Anyway, to make everyone feel at home again (myself included), I will let you into my kitchen for some baking. Imagine you have some soy cream and a can of lemonade (Sprite for those of you who aren't kiwi or Australian). What can you make. Obviously you will need some more ingredients like, um, flour, baking powder and sugar but I'm sure you knew what I meant?


Scones of course!! Lemonade and cream scones to be exact, from the Alison and Simon Holst bread book. Super easy and super delicious. I found I needed more liquid (lemonade) than the recipe called for but I think that's because the cream is thicker. Can't find soy cream (and live in New Zealand)? The Safe shop delivers super fast!


And how does one serve these scones? For a lazy breakfast with more cream and dollops of jam, that's how.


Anyone want to come round for breakfast?

Pumpkiny, gingery snow

Something cold and soft was falling on her. A moment later she found that she was standing in the middle of a wood at night-time with snow under her feet and snowflakes falling through the air.
- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis

Golly gosh, it's been an age since I've last posted! That snow I mentioned may not have come on Sunday but it sure was around by Monday. So much so that we couldn't get into work. Snow day!!!


The park on our street
I wish I could tell you that I spent the day cooking and baking up a storm to keep us warm but instead I spent most of it on the couch or in bed horribly sick. Thankfully I managed to redeem myself today as snow blanketed the city yet again (I could get used to these long weekends!).


Look at the magic you encounter when you go running in the snow!
Cooking in my brand new fast slow cooker is a big pot of pumpkin, coconut and lentil soup (to go with five seed loaf from the breadmaker). I hope it works out because the instruction manual did my head in!

M was cutting up part of a huge pumpkin for me to use in the soup but it was too much so I pondered what to do with the extra. In the end I boiled it up and then blended it to make a puree. Half went in the freezer but half went into a ginger and pumpkin loaf which has already been partly devoured. I am trying restrain myself from eating the whole damn thing right now!


Gingery Pumpkin Bread
Adapted from a couple of recipes in Kris' The 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes.

1 cup white flour
1/2 cup wholemeal flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup apple puree
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1/3 cup milk (I used oat milk)

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Lightly grease a loaf tin (a smaller one is better since it doesn't get all that big).

In a large bowl mix together the flours, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon and salt. In another bowl whisk the pumpkin puree, oil, apple puree, brown sugar, molasses and milk together until smooth.

Add the wet mixture to the dry ingredients and mix gently until just combined. Spoon into the loaf tin and bake for about 45-50 minutes until, well, done. It might take a tiny bit longer but our oven is fan-forced and I can't figure out how to stop it!

Leave in the tin for at least half an hour before turning out onto a cooling rack.

Feasting for winter

“...your kitchen looks like a bear came in search of honey.”
- Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris

Right now I am buried deep in boxes after the truck came and dropped off all my stuff from Auckland. SO exciting! I am impatiently waiting for M to find something to prop the front of my bookcase up on (the floor is uneven) so I can unpack all my books. Impatient might be an understatement...


Anyway, a couple of weekends ago we invited M’s parents and sister round for dinner which was an awesome excuse to get my hands dirty doing some fun cooking. I really wanted to make bread from scratch which is something I haven’t really done before (apart from making pita bread once which is pretty fun). I had a recipe from my old flatmate which I was keen to try out so on Saturday afternoon I found myself elbow deep in flour! But it was all worth it because the bread came out divine.


I also really wanted to make corn chowder so I had a array of different ingredients I thought might possibly go in it but no real idea of what I was going to do. This seems to be a common theme of my cooking! I had browsed various recipes but nothing was quite what I wanted so I just made it up as I went along. There is onion, pumpkin, potato, celery, corn, coconut cream, veggie stock, sundried tomatoes, various spices among various other ingredients I can’t remember now. It all seemed too chunky for my liking once it was done though so I bizzed it up a tiny bit with the stick blender so there were still plenty of lumps but nothing too ginormous.


It ended up turning out delicious and served with the bread I was quite impressed with myself! We ended up eating way too much and getting super full...always a sign of a successful meal. But of course you have to have dessert. I had a whole lot of rhubarb in our freezer which M’s Mum had given us so I stewed that up with some apples and raisins and made a delicious crumble. So all in all it was the perfect winter feast.


Since then it’s got steadily colder. In fact they reckon there might be snow down to sea level tomorrow...I hope they are wrong! But now I have all my books so I guess it could be worse!

Sleepy casseroles of winter

‘The idea is much too big for my little head.’
- Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder

M and I moved house last weekend so now we have somewhere of our own which is terribly exciting. I mean, I have a fancy big fridge all to us and a kitchen that I can arrange any way that I like! And, at last, my cooking inspiration is slowly starting to come back again after what feels like forever (months? Years even?).

But our first meal at the new place was Hell pizza on the only furniture we’d moved at that stage...a table with a couple of chairs! I like to customise the Sinister pizza (which is naturally vegan but mixing the toppings up a little is always fun) and if you get the big one then you have leftovers for the following night when you’re too tired from moving to even contemplate cooking something proper.


The first meal I actually cooked though was pretty boring but still delicious, tofu stir-fry with turkish bread. Always a good safe option especially when getting used to a new kitchen.


I think I spent half the time trying to remember where I'd put everything and getting used to the fridge being in the laundry. Sounds weird but it actually works fine and that means we have more space in the kitchen.

Next up is a rice and veggie casserole which is based on the Cheezy Broccoli and Rice Casserole from The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook. I liked the concept of this and the taste was pretty awesome too but there was far too much rice to veggies even though I had added more veggies than the recipe originally said. Although I didn't have a cup measure and I think the cup I used for the rice was, well, definitely larger than your average! But still, it definitely needs some modification to reach a level of awesomeness!


Yes, it looks quite good in the photo above but the veggies (and beans) are all on the top and the rice is all underneath in a thick mass.

Another night I made a delicious wintery scone-topped casserole (you can tell it's pretty wintery round here by these last two dishes...-3 the other morning when we biked to work!). This has to be one of my favourite winter dishes and you can make it with pretty much anything you have on hand.


The casserole part of this dish has onion, carrot, cauliflower, celery, pumpkin and tinned sweetcorn with a tin of butter beans and a creamy sauce (pretty much just oat milk, flour and sweet chilli sauce). You cook all that up then dollop spoonfuls of scone mixture on top and bake for about 15 minutes at a super hot temperature. Voila, an awesome winter dish that is also brilliant the next day or even frozen.


Anyway, that's enough food for now. I am so tired! It's been so busy since moving and last night we had M's parents over for an awesome feast (which I will blog about shortly) and today we went for a lovely bike ride (route is here) so I feel about ready to fall asleep on my seat. I wish we had a couch!

Oh, and for anyone interested, our new flat is in the white zone which means it hasn’t been assessed yet but I can’t see any reason for it to be classed as orange or red so I think we’re pretty safe. It’s got the usual cracks that every house in this city now has but it all seems pretty superficial. If you are interested, there is more information about the zones here. It is about whether the land is safe to live on rather than whether the structures themselves are safe (that’s different again - but appears to have a similar colour scheme as far as I can tell).