Twilight and Shadow

Glaciers of wonderment

2011-10-25T22:07:00.003+13:00

"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

2011-10-09T22:01:00.000+13:00

"...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?)

2011-09-05T22:16:00.001+12:00

'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

2011-08-27T22:47:00.002+12:00

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.

My favourite song is Yellow by Coldplay. It has been for years, probably since the moment I first heard it.
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.
When I was younger I knew all the words to Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Princess Bride.
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.
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

2011-08-15T18:16:00.003+12:00

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

2011-07-23T15:03:00.005+12:00

“...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

2011-07-10T19:01:00.000+12:00

‘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).

I remember

2011-06-20T22:01:00.002+12:00

So many thoughts scrambled for the emergency exit in Moist's brain that only one remained.
- Making Money by Terry Pratchett

I have tried to write this post so many times but it never comes out right or I think no one would be interested or it just ends up so long and twisty that I give up. But in the end I thought perhaps you might be more interested than I thought or that at least sometimes it is helpful so say what you need to say (even if it bores everyone else to tears)...

Last Monday started out like any other day. It didn't stay that way however. It was just after 1pm when we got the first big earthquake (a 5.6 I think) which had us diving under our desks. It wasn't long after we'd all managed to calm down and get back to work again that the 6.3 struck. The sounds are the most frightening to me. The groaning and grumbling of the earthquake itself, the collective holding of breath (which has a sound presence that is impossible to explain), panicked screaming, the rattling of, well, everything...and then the silence. That small moment of time feels like a lifetime. Then everything else gets broken down into tiny segments of memories.

I remember the terrible smell of chlorine spilling out of the cracks that formed in the spa pool outside. I remember seeing the birds flying manically through the sky in all sorts of directions and in huge flocks. I remember eating handfuls of licorice allsorts that the boss had taken out of his freezer (and wondering why he would keep them in there), not caring they weren't vegan. I just wanted something.

I remember drinking fancy wine out of a fancy glass while sitting outside in my fluro bike jacket and my helmet. I remember needing to use the bathroom but not knowing what I was supposed to do so just waiting and waiting. I remember our company director lifting my bike over the security fence which we couldn't get open because it needed power. I remember biking slowly through the park in an attempt to not to get sprayed by the liquefaction but wishing I could bike faster because I had visions of trees falling on me. I remember the dust and the queues of cars and getting lost on my way home when I found I couldn't take my usual route. I remember the poor lady at the traffic lights who spoke like someone had taken the bottom out of her world but that I just wanted to get away from her and the doom and gloom and get home.

I remember sitting in a doorframe near the front door at home worried about M because I couldn't get hold of him (despite knowing he would be fine) and holding my cellphone really tight in the hope that someone might magically realise I needed some company. And then just as it was becoming unbearable there was a knock on the door and our neighbour, who I'd never met, was there asking me if I was okay and if I wanted to come over to his house until people got home. I remember listening to his windup radio and being unable to sit still while he calmly cleaned up the mess in his kitchen.

I remember the relief to see familiar faces as everyone came home or popped over to make sure we were all okay. I remember the power coming on just after dark and sitting inside, still in my fluro jacket, watching the news on our warped television screen. I remember not wanting to be alone and wanting to keep everyone here I cared about in the room with me. I remember wondering how it was possible to be so tired but so unable to sleep. I remember crying and wondering why. I remember being alive. It was never in doubt that M and I would be okay but the magical feeling of surviving is amazing.

Anyway, in case you have managed to read down this far I do have something for you...on the day before the earthquakes I made myself an oatmeal cake for breakfast before going orienteering. It was super delicious, especially with soy yoghurt and because I am awesome I even have a recipe for you (based on the ones here).

1/2 cup wholegrain oats
a pinch of salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1/2 a banana, mashed
3 Tbsp oat milk (well, any non-dairy milk)
1/2 Tbsp oil
1 Tbsp golden syrup
2 Tbsp peanut butter (or other nut butter)
1 small handful of chopped walnuts
1 small handful raisins (or chopped dates or something similar if you don't like raisins)

Preheat the oven to 190°C.

Combine the dry ingredients, then mix in the wet ingredients.

Spoon into a greased ramekin (about 1 cup I think) and cook for about 20-25 minutes until it's firm(ish).

Let sit for about 5 minutes then tip out onto your plate and hope for the best (you may need to run a knife around the side)!

A whirlwind of dark nights

2011-06-08T21:23:00.001+12:00

...either too many words to an idea or not enough furniture for the idea itself or somebody else's furniture; always a muddle and clutter of speech.
- Towards Another Summer by Janet Frame

I am home alone tonight and it's all dark and cold outside. M is out of town for work and my other flatmate is, well, out somewhere. I don't really like being home alone even when it's light. It's not that I can't entertain myself. More that I just like to know there are other people around. I could do with some chocolate but there is none...very silly I know!!

Since I'm feeling a little down I'll tell you a little about a couple of my favourite meals that I've been having a lot since I got down here. I've always loved nachos (well, at least in the last few years) but the way I've made them has changed over time. I found this old post from 2008 where you can barely see the bean mix under all the vegan cheese! But here is a plate of nachos from the other week...and I think this is the best version so far.

Everyone else was having sour cream so I got a little jealous and thought I'd try some hummus instead and it worked really well!

Another favourite is, well, a sandwich. Makes a great dinner when you fry up some tofu, spinach and mushrooms. Makes an even better dinner when you've been at the climbing wall for the last few hours, it's gotten super late and you are really hungry.

There is something about toasting the bread that takes it from being lunch food to super awesome dinner food...kind of weird but true.

I have also had a lot of tofu (and veggie burger) sandwiches for lunch lately...well, especially since starting my new job last week. ARGH!!! Can't believe I have a job! But it has made life even more of a whirlwind of madness than it was before...but life is still amazing.

I like cookies

2011-06-02T22:20:00.002+12:00

Chapter 29
- Thou wilt get a brush and a little chalk to my sword - 'Twill be only in your honour's way, replied Trim.
- Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne
(and yes, that is the entirety of chapter 29)

Look! It's me! I'm still alive!

Seriously, I have all these half-finished posts that haven't made it up because, well, I've ended up super super busy. Life can do that to you sometimes.

On my bench at the moment I have a whole lot of lemon shortbread cookies cooling for our work morning tea tomorrow. We are having a British themed morning since it's Queens Birthday this long weekend in New Zealand (it's not actually the Queen's birthday since that's in April sometime I think, but this is when we celebrate it). No photos of them yet but they do taste super delicious even slightly warm and still a bit soft!

But I do have cookies for you today. Even a recipe. This is an adaption of a recipe my old flatmate would make all the time. She would try all these different versions and we'd all get to taste test them. I was feeling a little homesick the day I made these and it cheered me up thinking heaps.

Anyway, I also made them the day before this crazy 24 race (eventually there will be a post for this and many others here when i come up for air again) the weekend after I arrived so I could have something yummy to eat in between legs and to warm my heart when the rest of me was freezing (and grumpy)!

I ate at least 10 on the first day of the race (and a few more on the following day although I was slightly over cookies by then).

HyunJin's Magical Cookies (my chocolate, walnut and sultana version)
I got about 24 quite large cookies out of this recipe...and they are far yummier than they look!

2/3 cup vegan margarine (I used olivani or whatever it's called)
1 scant cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp golden syrup
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups oats
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
80g chopped walnuts
1/2 cup sultanas (or raisins or currants or chopped dates etc)
1/2 cup dark chocolate, chopped

Preheat the oven to 170°C. Line a couple of trays with baking paper.

Slowly melt the margarine, sugar and golden syrup in a big pot over the stove. Take the pot off the heat and mix in the flour, oats, baking powder and salt. Stir in the walnuts, sultanas and chocolate.

Place spoonfuls of mixture onto the baking trays with a bit of space between each. Lightly flatten (not too much). Bake for, hmmm, about 12 minutes or something like that. Just don't overdo them. That's all!!

Beauty and rocks

2011-05-20T15:05:00.020+12:00

I will own a cat and not fear being called a witch, I will dance and not fear being named a whore. I shall ride my horse and go where I please. I shall sore like a gyrfalcon. I shall live my own life and please myself. I shall be a free woman.
It is no small thing, this, for a woman: freedom.
- The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory

So the other day I was out exploring the Port Hills and I couldn't help but think about what a beautiful city I live in...as if I hadn't already worked that one out! It reminded me of the nice chat I had with the lady serving me at the chemist today.

Looking down over my new city from Summit Road
Down the bottom of the valley there was some pretty impressive rockfall which I briefly considered taking some photos of but my desire not to hang around was stronger! Most of the time I don't feel fazed by earthquakes (I was in the process of joining the library earlier this week when there was a rather large shake and we all just carried on with life as though it wasn't happening - the guy signing me up didn't even bat an eyelid) but every now and then I get a little panicked and this was one of those moments...and I didn't even require the earth to shake!

But since you are normally here to see some food I will oblige with some chocolate. Whittaker's Ghana Peppermint chocolate to be exact (man, their new website makes me crave chocolate really bad). This was the chocolate I carried with me on the plane here in case I needed that support that only chocolate can give! One of my old flatmates told me that even the Wilderness magazine says you should not leave home without chocolate so it must be as magical as I always thought!

I totally adore this chocolate. In fact, it is dangerous to have around. I gave a block to my parents once. They said never again. It's that, well, "bad" for us peppermint lovers!! Of course, if you are trying to avoid eating it you could just make mint slice with it right?

Stuffed with stuff

2011-05-17T10:27:00.000+12:00

A parcel, taken from one place to another, handed from one owner to another, unwrapped and bundled up at will is all that I am.
- The Red Queen by Philippa Gregory

So many things to talk about!! But because I can't decide where to start we'll just focus on dinner last night...

M went to the fruit and veggie shop after work and came home with a huge bag of capsicums so naturally there was only one thing to do (okay fine, I’m sure there were lots of things we could have done but only one came to mind at that point), stuff them.

It turned out rather delicious so I thought I’d attempt to give you the recipe...but then I realised that my cooking method is very much the “bit of this” and “handful of that” approach so these amounts that I’ve made up below are probably hopelessly incorrect! Oh, and you end up with more mixture than required but then again you can always make more or just eat the mixture by itself. It's quite tasty.

Stuffed Capsicums

Serves 4 (of us...don't know about you guys though)

Rice (mixture of brown and white) - about 1 - 1 1/2 rice cooker scoops
a large handful of sultanas

1 onion, finely chopped
8 button mushrooms (?), diced
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp sweet basil
1 large carrot, diced
1 large tomato, diced
1 tin of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
a handful of chopped spinach
a small handful of pumpkin seeds
a dash of sweet chilli sauce
a sprinkle of yeast flakes (savoury yeast)

4 capsicums, halved and de-seeded (we had a couple of large red ones and a couple of smaller yellow ones)

Set some rice cooking with the sultanas (I used the rice cooker).

In a frypan, heat some oil and fry the onion. Add the mushroom and cook for about a minute then add the cumin, paprika, coriander and basil and cook for another minute. Add the carrot and tomato and fry until almost cooked then add the chickpeas, spinach, pumpkin seeds and sweet chilli sauce. You can add salt and pepper at this stage too but we tend to add ours individually when dinner is served. Take off the heat.

Add the cooked rice mixture to the chickpea mixture and mix together. Spoon the mixture into the halved capsicums until basically overflowing (you can pile it quite high and press it in). Sprinkle some yeast flakes (savoury yeast) on the top of each one.

Bake in the oven at 200°C for about 25 minutes.

Eat.

Exciting!!!

2011-05-09T17:21:00.011+12:00

You’re off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So…get on your way!
- Oh, the Places You'll Go! by Dr. Seuss

So, I did say there was some big stuff happening and today is the big day! Today I will be on a plane moving to Christchurch. Depending on who you talk this is either exciting, crazy (often rephrased in a more positive light as brave) or scary. Or a combination. I think it's exciting although I have been through the whole range of emotions in the last few weeks (especially in the last few days). Despite the earthquake and everything sometimes you've just got to dive into life no matter what.

Anyway, because I am the most useless blogger ever I have no photos of my awesome leaving meals but I will tell you about them anyway! First up was a lovely evening hanging out with my cousins and watching a bit of the royal wedding. We ordered rather excessive amounts of pizza from Hell and my aunty made a delicious crumble. Yay!

There was also my last day of work where my boss took me out for lunch at Landreth & Co on Ponsonby Road. The lady at the counter was super helpful at working out what they could make for me and I ended up with a huge bowl of pasta with bountiful amounts of tomato, spinach and basil. It was so good. We also got through two bowls of fries. Is that bad to admit? It was 3pm by the time we had lunch though...!!

But the most exciting and awesome meal was my farewell dinner at the flat! My flatmates are so awesome and put together the coolest dinner ever. Basically it was make your own rice paper rolls but the spread of things we could put in them was incredible. So many different veggies and fruit as well as rice noodles, tofu and sauces. I ate so many it was a bit ridiculous. Then for dessert I made the Mocha Melt Cake (but gluten-free for the lovely H) from Have Your Cake and Eat It Too (in the rice cooker!!!) which I served with banana ice cream (frozen bananas, a bit of soy milk and vanilla essence all blended up together...SO good). I am really going to miss all these guys. Best flat and flatmates in the entire world. Ever. Seriously.

And then (because I can't stay away) I ended up back at my flat for my final night in Auckland because, well, I really didn't want to say goodbye! They cooked up this awesome Indian curry along with a beautiful dahl soup which I will have to attempt to recreate at some point. It was perfect. And then I rushed out before any of us could start crying!! From one home to another...

So the next post will be from my new home!! How cool is that?!

V is for vegetables

2011-05-02T11:23:00.000+12:00

I wish I had remembered, as she taught me, that it is easier to unleash evil than call it back again. Any fool can blow up a wind, but who can know where it will blow or when it will stop?
- The White Queen by Philippa Gregory

Sometimes all you feel like is a big, hearty dose of vegetables. It is a weird thing. You see, it doesn't feel like all that long ago that the only vegetables I liked were carrot sticks and frozen peas (yes, only if they were frozen!). In reality that was well over a decade ago but sometimes I don't feel very old and wonder where the time has gone. Nowadays though, I adore vegetables. If there is one thing that I crave it is a huge vegetable stirfry or similar.

What about carrot sticks (harking back to my childhood), grilled eggplant, wild rice and barley (care of my flatmate), panfried tofu and a mixture of in season stir-fried veggies to help with those cravings?

I think that photo is making me hungry just looking at it. Tragic and probably also a sign my breakfast just didn't cut it this morning.

Most weeks my veggie box has had some kind of leafy green (various different types of kale, silverbeet, some other random one that I'd never heard of before and promptly forgot the name of but was delicious...) and I discovered my favourite way to cook them up was to chop them up and stirfry them with some onion and, maybe, some other vegetables I might have sitting around and served on a bed of brown rice. My new favourite comfort food.

As you might have noticed from the last two photos, I also have been having a lot of plain (well, salt and pepper) panfried tofu. I think because so much has been going on and I've been a bit stressed plain food has been the kind of thing I've craved the most.

Another way to get a whole heap of veggies is to whip up a curry...although with this one I think we ended up with too much coconut cream so it was super rich. I was eating leftovers for days afterwards though which was awesome.

Oh, and in case you didn't know, leftover curry is also great on toast and you can mop up the extra sauce with bread. Delicious!

How about a sandwich stuffed full of veggies and tofu? Especially good after a long mountain bike ride with some monster hills. Another good way to pack in those vegetables.

A few weeks ago I was on a real sandwich kick and was making these pretty much every day. The thing that makes them even more awesome is chutney and my current favourite is sundried tomato and olive. Mum made a couple of different feijoa chutneys too (feijoa and ginger and feijoa and chilli) but I haven't opened them yet.

Another sneaky, but delicious, way to get some veggies is in these awesome muffins from The Damn Tasty Guide to Vegan Baking. I use this book so much that it is falling apart and some pages have stuck together from when I've spilt stuff on it!

These are even more delicious slightly warmed with margarine and a salad. Ooo, this is making me want to bake up another batch!!

Cake or death

2011-04-21T21:50:00.005+12:00

Even in the world of today we can see how mighty powers can come apart at the seams when confronted with simple demands for peace, love, food for the poor, and amnesty for the enemies of the state.
- Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder

I know, I know. Blah blah blah...

Anyway, before I race off to bed (before racing off before dawn tomorrow for the national orienteering champs in Hawkes Bay...scary!!) I thought I'd just quickly tell you something. Kris's new vegan cake book is out and it's called have your cake and vegan too. It arrived in the mail at my parents the other day which was super exciting!! I was a tester for it so I can tell you that it is awesome. Actually, her cake recipes are pretty much the only ones I ever use.

I whipped up one I hadn't tried for my cousin's birthday last weekend, Bubbie's Chubby Tuxedo Cake. It seemed fitting after how much she adored last year's cake (the oreos got her very excited).

As usual for Kris's recipes it was simple, reliable and worked out perfectly (well, it took a bit longer to cook in our ancient oven and my baking always seems to turn out a bit more moist...not that anyone would complain about that).

It went down a treat and my flatmates gave the leftovers I brought home 5 stars (5 michelin stars actually!). Awesome :)

Anyway, I promise to post more once life settles down and I also promise to post about my exciting (terrifying) news soon!! Oh, and if you were wondering about the title watch this.

Getting high on tea

2011-04-06T16:40:00.000+12:00

The consequences of our actions are always so complicated, so diverse, that predicting the future is a very difficult business indeed.
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling

So, last weekend (just to clarify, not the one that's just been but the one before that!) I decided to treat Mum to a special afternoon tea at the Heritage Hotel...any excuse to try their vegan high tea!! It was a pretty miserable day which meant our plans for a walk were dashed so we took the bus into town early and spent way too much money on shopping...although Mother and daughter shopping these days is more to the likes of Macpac (I know some of the ladies on the homepage - just a little shout out to the Macpac Girls On Top!!) and Bivouac!

Anyway, after all that shopping it was time for food especially since I hadn't eaten lunch (I had a late breakfast in preparation!). I had called ahead so when we arrived it only took them a few minutes before we had this placed in front of us...

First up you've got to have sandwiches.

We've got wholemeal sandwichs with avocado, hummus and cucumber and white bread sandwiches with tomato, basil and vegan cashew cheese

Next up, we all need some sweet treats in our life.

We've got brownie bites, fruit tartlets, vanilla macaroons and chocolate dipper apricots.

But for the main event, and probably the thing I was most looking forward to, scones.

Cranberry, orange and ginger scones to be more precise, served with strawberry jam and soy cream!

Oh, and there was tea...because what is High Tea without, well, tea?!! It came in a teapot. No photos. Use your imagination.

Basically I think the photos pretty much speak for themselves. Mum loved it and I thought it was totally awesome although I did leave on a bit of a sugar high. My favourite was definitely the scones with cream and jam. Definitely a combination worth repeating. And it has inspired me to go out and buy some more soy cream and do "stuff" with it...what kind of stuff I don't know yet but I'm sure I'll come up with something!

Nutty Mornings

2011-03-27T19:45:00.000+13:00

It was always there, just out of sight, waiting.
But what was it waiting for?
- The Tangle Box by Terry Brooks

I have been doing a lot of eating out lately, which is not to say that I haven't been cooking (which also happens a lot...and in case you started to feel concerned, I have still been cooking way more than I have been going out) but just that, well, there are reasons. But anyway, what you really want to see is some food and, with my crappy camera in tow, I have some...

So on Wednesday morning I met my cousin D at the Heritage Hotel Lobby Bar for breakfast because I'd managed to score a 2 for 1 voucher off Moira's blog. Well that wasn't the only reason but it helped! We both ordered the pancakes (there wasn’t a lot of choice in terms of larger meals although there are several small options) and fresh juices.

I have a favourite juice combo - carrot, apple, beetroot and ginger so naturally when I saw that on the menu (Liver Lover) I knew I had to order it and I have to say, this was the best version I've had. I loved how super thick and super gingery it was.

The menu was new and for some reason (of which I can’t remember now) we got one plate of pancakes before the other. To make up for it though they brought us out another dish as well, the soyurt parfait with cranberry muesli, grated apple. I thought this was really awesome but D thought the yogurt tasted a bit too much like soy (I'm pretty sure it was the Kingland Soy yogurt).

We both ended up ordering the pancakes (there wasn’t a lot of choice in terms of larger meals although there are several small options). To be more precise, berries, macadamia and buckweat pancakes served with maple syrup and grilled banana.

The pancakes weren’t very sweet which I loved and had an awesome nutty texture (both from the buckwheat and the macadamias). They tasted healthy...but in a good way if that makes sense. Plus they kept me full all morning and into the afternoon which was fortunate as I was so rushed off my feet at work I didn't get to have lunch until quite late.

I will be honest here and say that I didn't exactly expect that much when I went but I came away feeling very excited. Our waiter was excellent and the manager came over to have a chat with me and he seemed genuinely passionate about their new menu and the direction the food at the Heritage is going in. You've gotta love that.

But come back next time (or at least some time in the future) for an even more exciting meal at the Lobby Bar...

Desperate for vegetables

2011-03-22T15:10:00.001+13:00

So there is all of my tale. I cannot die until my time is come, and who can know when that is? Until then I will be alone, alone as no mere man can ever be, alone with my wretchedness and meaningless evil and self-disgust until the world collapses and is born anew..."
- Child of an Ancient City by Tad Williams and Nina Kiriki Hoffman

AGES ago (as in way back in January when I was back in Christchurch...although at least we are in the same year) B and I went to the Welcome Chinese Vegetarian Cafe for dinner. I just did a quick check and yes, it is one of the few vegetarian restaurants that have managed to open after the earthquake. So go there if you are in Christchurch because they make great food.

I can't remember anything that we ordered so you'll just have to make do with the pictures!!! It was all delicious but as usual, too much food but better too much than too little!

I have to admit that once I got home though I was really feeling the lack of vegetables in the dishes we'd chosen. Hmmm, my tastebuds have certainly changed over time!

Back up in Auckland and only a couple of weeks ago I went to a vegetarian Indian restaurant with a couple of friends, Jai Jalaram Khaman after my flatmates raved about the place.

I ordered a thali (most options were vegan apparently) and also got some other random dish on the side that I forgot to photograph because clearly the lady serving us felt sorry for me not being able to sample on of my friend's dishes. It was good, whatever it was though! Actually, all the food was really delicious but again I came home really feeling the lack of vegetables. I think there might be something wrong with me!

From inside the box

2011-03-15T21:21:00.006+13:00

He shook his head sharply in the hope that it might dislodge some salient fact which would fall into place and make sense of an otherwise utterly bewildering Universe, but since the salient fact, if there was one, entirely failed to do this, he set off up the road again, hoping that a good vigorous walk, and maybe even some good painful blisters, would help to reassure him of his own existence at least, if not his sanity.
- So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish by Douglas Adams

Hello!! I have been floating around on another planet but tonight I have briefly touched down to give you a post (and a recipe!!!) and just say, well, there is some big stuff happening soon which is all terribly exciting but terribly scary at the same time but you'll have to wait.

So...food.

For the last few weeks I've been getting a fruit and veggie box from Ooooby (you can see Moira's posts about Ooooby here) which has been really cool because not only does it save me trips to the shops where I ultimately end up buying the same thing every week but it has also led me to try things I don't normally cook with. My goal each week is to finish the box and try everything. It's not a very hard goal but it's fun!

Anyway, each week they include a piece of paper that tells you where everything is from and if it's organic or whatever. They also include a few recipes which normally I ignore because I'm not very good with recipes but one week they included a red cabbage in my box and I had no idea what to do with it so I thought I'd give the recipe a try...and was pleasantly surprised! Perhaps I should do it more often!

Cabbage, Avocado and Pear Slaw
I ought to say here that this is not quite the recipe that was included because, well...but it is pretty much the same.

Sesame Dressing
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil (or rice bran oil but I used olive oil so therefore that's what I've put!)
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp sesame seeds
1 tsp sesame oil
Salt and pepper (which I think I might have forgotten to put in but I can't remember now

Salad
2-3 cups (approx) finely shredded red cabbage (or sort of chopped as thin as I could be bothered if you are like me)
1 pear, cored and sliced
1 apple, cored and sliced
1 avocado, peeled, de-seeded and sliced

Make the dressing by whisking all the ingredients together and set aside. Toss all the salad ingredients together, pour over the dressing and serve.

You might not want all of the dressing but it is quite nice! The slaw is quite good on the side with almost anything but even better with slices of fried tofu on top.

Escaping with Big Boots

2011-03-03T15:12:00.000+13:00

Christopher Robin was sitting outside his door, putting on his Big Boots. As soon as he saw the Big Boots, Pooh knew that an Adventure was going to happen, and he brushed the honey off his nose with the back of his paw, and spruced himself up as well as he could, so as to look Ready for Anything.
- Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne

So...I'm getting quite bad at this blogging thing and right now things are feeling more than a little stressful which is all rather understandable but doesn't change the fact that I have a whole lot of friends trying to live in a city that pretty much resembles a war zone. But I did have a beautiful weekend. M managed to fly up from Christchurch on Friday night (he requested that I bring water and food to the airport - just a hint at how desperate things are down there) and was quite excited about having a shower since his place was still without water. After M showered and we had dinner we escaped up to my beach house for the weekend.

Somehow Auckland managed to turn on a beautiful fine weekend with no rain whatsoever which is a bit of a miracle! After lazying about and sleeping in (felt like the first time in ages) and going for a paddle on our archaic (but totally awesome) polystyrene surfboards and swimming I made us lunch...hummus, tomato and mushroom toasted sandwiches with a red cabbage coleslaw (recipe to come).

After lunch we did a bit more lazing about because we could and then wandered up the hill for some fresh air. The view from the top is always incredible (not that the view from out our front door isn't though!).

Then I made us an awesome green curry packed full of veggies, chickpeas and butter beans (my new favourite bean) on brown rice. We both went back for seconds.

I actually had some bananas I hadn't got around to eating or freezing (this is quite rare since I normally pretty much buy bananas, deliberately leave them on the bench for a couple of days and then freeze to make smoothies) so I decided I was going to make us banana bread. The one from Veganmicon to be specific. I think I've got it down pat now and it's my favourite. It even toasts quite well a couple of days later too.

We had a slice each for dessert straight from the oven and then pretty much devoured the rest the following day. SO good! Of course, we needed delicious banana bread to fuel us for a run in the hot sun over in Tawharanui...

Apparently I am in this photo as a tiny wee pink dot halfway up the hill but I am too small to really make out
And then all too quickly it was time to go home again and for M to head back to Christchurch. It felt even harder than normal to see him go...

Life is surreal

2011-02-23T11:18:00.007+13:00

His eyes were filling with some great emotion, as a pitcher fills with water when it is dipped in a spring.
- The Waste Lands by Stephen King

Things have been busy and now things are just plain overwhelming and scary. It all seems so surreal. Everyone I know in Christchurch is okay but that doesn't really make it that much better. I can't help worrying about M and all my friends. I just want them here and safe. Makes being at work seem completely irrelevant.

But you've got to try and keep your spirits up so here is the cake I made for a combined birthday party we had in Christchurch a few weeks ago for M and our friends.

This is before the cake made it to the party hence the awesome kitchen bench background
We ran around outside doing a crazy orienteering course, we ate lots of delicious food and even more delicious cake and we danced to awesome 80s music until I was too tired to stand up any more. Beautiful memories.

Shaky ground

2011-02-02T16:00:00.000+13:00

How many men had their marriage vows witnessed by fire-breathing dragons and man-eating cats?
- Dreams Made Flesh by Anne Bishop

Oh dear! I'm getting very slack at this blogging thing of late but life has just been so super busy. I flew to Christchurch on Boxing Day then we went kayaking which you can read about here and here.

When we got back I hung around in Christchurch for another 3 weeks. In amongst working (I can do some work remotely) and surviving aftershocks (there was a 5.1 one morning which was a rather interesting way to wake up) we had some more adventures as usual! Then it was back to Auckland...well, for about 5 or 6 days anyway until I flew back down for the weekend! Now I am finally back in Auckland again and attempting to settle back into routine but it is proving a bit difficult!

So in my last post you got to see some of what we ate kayaking. Here are some other holiday meals (you can probably see a theme to our camping meals by now!!). At a holiday park in Hamner Springs we cooked up an indian curry mix from a packet with a tin of coconut cream and as many vegetables and beans as we could cram in. Simple and delicious.

Another weekend we went exploring around Craigieburn and camped somewhere near Mt White Station with some friends. Dinner consisted of veges, beans and pasta sauce on, well, pasta. So good after a long day out adventuring.

Here's the view from our campsite that night. I love the brooding sky.

When we weren't out exploring we still ate pretty well. I got very slack in the picture taking though...

We also had M's parents round for dinner one night and cooked up a storm. I didn't take pictures on the night (feeling a little bit self concious!) but here are some photos of the leftovers...M made a massive vegan lasagna which was pretty incredible. I think he made it with a whole lot of veges (mushrooms, courgette, pumpkin and possibly a whole lot of other things!), beans and tinned tomato.

For dessert I made a crumble with rhubarb from M's Mum's garden, apple and sultanas. It was SO good that it was difficult not to dive in for seconds and thirds but I was way too full.

Another night we went round to their house and M's Mum cooked up a really wicked vegan feast of salad, pizza and black currant crumble. I couldn't believe the effort she went to for us, even finding vegan cheese and I wish I'd taken photos but rest assured everything was super delicious.

Paddling for food

2011-01-18T10:12:00.000+13:00

And there was nothing you could do about a woman like that. She just turned herself into a hammer and you ran right into her.
Fortunately.
- Making Money by Terry Pratchett

So yes, we are now well into 2011 but my posts are still stuck in last year...typical! I've been so busy I only end up getting further and further behind!

Anyway, after Christmas M and I had planned to do a 3 day kayaking trip up the Queen Charlotte Sound which is in the Marlborough Sounds at the top of the South Island. Unfortunately the weather turned ridiculously nasty overnight and as we continued our drive North it felt like our little rental car was going to either be blown off the road or stuck in water. A typical kiwi summer!

So that meant we couldn't start our kayaking that day and we were stuck in Picton for the night. We didn't fancy another night camping if the storm was going to continue so after ringing round a few places we managed to find a motel with space.

After scouting around the local supermarket in search of food to cook up for dinner, I discovered Bean Supreme marinated tofu on a super special (it had an expiry date for the following day). Sweet! Add a packet of frozen stir-fry veggies and we were set.

Fortunately the following morning dawned calm and clear so we were off on our adventure. We had flexible dates so we could still head out for 3 days of magical scenery.

Our kayak on the left all packed and ready to go

It was one of the most amazing adventures I've ever done and I can't wait to do another kayaking trip! You can read more about our trip here.

So what do you eat when you're out kayaking for a few days? You can pretty much take the kitchen sink with you on these double kayaks so we ate pretty well! We had a little gas cooker to make breakfasts and dinners on and lunch was a fine assortment of veggies and peanut butter on crackers (finished off with some licorice for good measure). M did most of the cooking while I did the chopping of vegetables. There's nothing like a bit of teamwork.

Dinner on the first night was pasta with fresh veggies, a bottle of pasta sauce and a tin of kidney beans. Our veggies had a little trip into the sea so there was no need for salt (okay fine, we did rinse them in fresh water afterwards but a little salt never hurt anyone right?).

Our second dinner was boil in a bag rice (classic!) and curry (made with a random sachet of curry paste we found at the supermarket, fresh veggies, a small tin of pineapple and a tin of chickpeas). The others at our campsite kept commenting on the amazing smell coming from our little cooker. I think they were jealous.

Breakfasts were porridge made with wholegrain oats, water, jumbo raisins and banana. Oh, and I had to add peanut butter to mine because I'm like that. Kept me going all morning each day (always important if you're going to be paddling for hours on end.

Everything tastes so much more amazing when you are outside on an adventure!

Happy New Year everyone!!

The dreaded tofudabeast

2011-01-07T11:31:00.005+13:00

Deep groans and creaks shivered her bones, as though some vast ship a thousand times bigger than any human vessel was sailing past their window, mere inches away but invisible behind the thick, cold mist.
- Shadowrise by Tad Williams

Yes I know, it's not Christmas any more. It's not even 2010 any more! But anyway, I thought I would share my tofukey recipe that I subjected everyone to at our family Christmas party.

I remember reading about tofukeys and finding the whole idea hilerious so a few years ago I thought I'd look up a recipe and see if I could create my own one for our family Christmas party. It ended up going down really well and tasting delicious so I made it again the following year. Last year I made something else but this year it was back and better than ever.

Below is the recipe for the tofu part. For the stuffing I used the Seasonal Stuffing with Nuts recipe from The Vegan Table. I halved the recipe and still ended up with way too much but that's okay 'cause you just end up with delicious leftovers! I did add a little more liquid than the original recipe though so that it held together better...but feel free to use your own stuffing. The recipe sounds complicated but actually wasn't nearly as hard as I expected.

Tofukey
Tofukey
350g firm tofu, drained
1 1/2 Tbsp cornflour
2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
2 tsp powdered vegetable stock powder
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1/4 cup roasted, unsalted peanuts
1/4 cup roasted, unsalted cashews
1/4 cup chopped, fresh herbs (sage, thyme, parsley, marjoram)
freshly ground pepper

Stuffing
Your choice...I used the Seasonal Stuffing with Nuts from The Vegan Table

Marinade
1/4 cup olive oil
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp tahini
2 Tbsp orange juice
1 teaspoon French mustard

Tofukey
In a food processor, puree all ingredients. Place in a bowl in the fridge while preparing the stuffing.

Stuffing
Once you've made the stuffing you may need to add more liquid so that you can roll or press it into a log about 20cm long. I tend to wrap mine in baking paper and squeeze it to make it stay together!!

Marinade
Whisk all the ingredients together. Set aside.

Assembly and Cooking
Preheat the oven to 175°C.

On the kitchen bench lay down 2 pieces of baking paper. On top of the baking paper spread the tofu mixture in a thin rectangle about 24cm long and wide enough to wrap around the stuffing log. Place the stuffing log on the centre of this. Carefully lift the edges of one end of the paper, lifting the tofu up and over the stuffing. Gently pull the paper away from the tofu and lay flat again leaving the tofu around the stuffing. Repeat with the other side. The tofu mixture should meet at the top and wrap all the way around the stuffing. Gently press the edges of the tofu mixture together and smooth over. Press the tofu over the ends of the stuffing log and smooth this over also.

Brush the entire top of the roast with about half of the marinade (keep the other half for basting later).

Wrap up the roast with the baking paper and then wrap in a couple of layers of foil. Gently place in a baking tray and bake for about 45-60 minutes. Remove from the oven, allow to cool, and then refrigerate until about 1 hour before serving.

About an hour before serving, gently unwrap the roasts. Brush with more marinade (make sure there is still some reserved after this) and re-wrap. Place in the oven and bake for about 20-30 minutes at 175°C

Remove foil and baking paper. Brush with the remaining marinade and place back into the oven for around 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Slice and serve with cashew or tahini gravy.

Eating is good

2010-12-29T14:49:00.001+13:00

"You cannot hide me, or hide from me," she is said to have told her accusers, "because you cannot find me. I was lost when I first drew breath."
- Shadowmarch by Tad Williams

So while I'm off galivanting the countryside I thought I'd leave you to see a couple of cafe meals that M and I devoured the weekend before Christmas (then next time you can see my awesome tofukey I made for our family Christmas party also that weekend...it's become quite the party tradition!).

First up, Saturday lunch at Cosset after a bit of ridiculously hot rock climbing. Cosset is an all vegan cafe in Mt Albert and since I was last there the food as definitely improved. First up we went for their berry smoothies in an attempt to cool down a little...I would recommend these smoothies. The best thing is that they are thick enough to eat with a spoon.

Their menu is apparently always changing...M picked the filo spiral which was filled with curried vegetables and chickpeas. I stole a bit and it was definitely delicious.

I decided on a piece of the filo pie...and managed to snag the last piece. Definitely a good choice. It was nice and light (filled with veggies) but filling at the same time. Pretty much perfect for a hot day.

We were so taken with our filo meals we have decided we have to try recreating our own.

The cakes on the counter looked way too amazing to pass up on despite the fact we were going to be eating our weight in food that evening so we shared a piece of the cricket cake which was served with caramel sauce and vegan cream.

Oh man, this cake was amazing...a cricket cake is, apparently, a chocolate, orange and caramel cake and I think what really took it from just being another piece of cake to being something amazing was the caramel sauce as well as the soy cream.

Next up was Sunday lunch at Revel on K'Rd. This cafe is definitely up there on my top cafes for their unfailingly awesome food and their super range of vegan baked goods. Anyway, I thought I'd try something new on the menu (or at least something I'd never tried before), the Tofu Satay Salad.

Lots of veggies and spicy, peanuty tofu on top of a bed of salad leaves is a pretty much an ideal summer meal. I hope this stays on the menu for a while yet.

Of course, we couldn't pass up on their mint slice for dessert...

...but you could always make your own as per my previous post!

Minty Christmas!

2010-12-26T21:58:00.004+13:00

The sky above the port was the colour of television, tuned to a dead channel.
- Neuromancer by William Gibson

The dessert place at our Christmas lunch...
I have a thing for peppermint chocolate so it wasn't surprising that I fell instantly in love with Revel's mint slice. So what better way to spend Christmas Eve than trying to concoct my own version!!

Mint Slice

Base
125g margarine, room temperature
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup cocoa
1 cup coconut thread

Mint Filling
3 Tbsp margarine, room temperature
3 cups icing sugar, sifted
1/4-1/2 tsp peppermint essence
1-2 Tbsp milk (oat, soy, rice etc)

Chocolate topping
250g (1 block) Whittaker's Ghana Peppermint Chocolate (or any block of chocolate really but I only had this one on hand...)
1 Tbsp margarine

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line a 20 x 20cm square baking tin with baking paper.

Base
Cream together the margarine and brown sugar until fluffy. Beat in the rest of the ingredients until just combined and then press into the prepared baking tin. Bake for about 15-20 minutes. Let cool.

Mint Filling
Beat the margarine until light and fluffy and then slowly add the icing sugar whilst beating. Add the peppermint essence and milk until you reach your desired consistency. Spread the filling over the top of the cooled base.

Melt the chocolate and the margarine together and then spread gently over the mint filling. Chill until firm enough to cut into slices (about 20 pieces...).

Eat.

Magical summer

2010-12-11T11:12:00.001+13:00

"...we choose our next world through what we learn in this one. Learn nothing, and the next world is the same as this one, all the same limitations and lead weights to overcome."
- Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach

Summer has well and truly arrived and it is glorious.

What better way to finish a stressful day at work than to come home to the smell of the fire going outside in the garden. Finding your flatmates preparing the most amazing kebabs ever and cooking them over the mini outdoor BBQ. Sitting outside in the sun whilst the rabbit frolics around at your feet and you have one of your flatmates cut your hair. Eating the kebabs (which tasted like the most amazing pizza on a stick!!) and enjoying awesome company.

Then washing the kebabs down with homemade lemon cordial mixed with crushed strawberries and mint (followed by Rochdale Ginger Lime Cider...SO good). Watching hilarious juggling attempts and sharing stories of summers gone by.

And what better way to spend a beautiful summer night than lying on the grass listening to music, the sounds of the birds in the bush and the animals in the zoo down in the valley below while watching the sky slowly change colour and the stars come out one by one.

Summer is amazing...

The satay of greatness

2010-12-08T21:36:00.001+13:00

"A few weeks ago I'm sitting on a three-ply tea chest which some enemy had left at my place for kindling"
- Half Gallon Jar by Hori

So, umm, I did a race a little while ago, hence my travels down south (and before you know it I'll be heading south again...yay!). It was quite a long race (24 hours anyone?). So long in fact that I even took some satay tofu (and rice) with me!

No, not that much! But I did cook a rather epic amount so was eating it for days...literally (well, 3 days). We even made some of it up into a pasta dish for the night before with some added veggies...

I would give you a recipe but really it just consists of cooking up some veggies and then throwing in a disturbing amount of peanut butter (okay, slightly simplified but I'm sure you can imagine it...right?). I did actually once try to write it out for my lovely cousin D but I got a bit thrown when it came to amounts of stuff. So basically, I'll just tell you what I normally put in it and you can do the rest...

This particular one was a lot plainer than normal since I was going to be eating it on the go but normally I'd cook up a whole heap of veggies like onion, red capsicum, grated carrot, broccoli etc. Drizzle in a little soy sauce/tamari and sweet chilli sauce. Then start scooping in big spoonfuls of peanut butter (and I mean BIG). I normally add one spoonful at a time with a little bit of water. You can also add a big handful of raisins or sultanas (or even chopped dates) at this stage. Crumble in your tofu. Add some more peanut butter and water. I'll be totally honest here and say I can easily use over two thirds of a 300g jar of peanut butter for a whole block of tofu. That's why it tastes so good! Then chuck in a big handful of cashews and voila!

It's awesome on rice, pasta, toast, quinoa...anything really. I've eaten it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, middle of the night, snacks...oh, and it's also great unheated later on. I've even made it with cashew butter instead!

Late night mumbling

2010-12-04T22:28:00.002+13:00

"Bring me apples, Danby, and chestnuts too. Run, Danby, run. Bring me crab apples and horse chestnuts before it's too late, and get some for yourself."
- Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

Well here I am, up far too late cooking black beans because I, well, didn't get on to it earlier! I also just pulled a loaf of banana bread (the one from Veganomicon if you were interested) out of the oven and am now procrastinating writing this post while I gchat with M. You see, life has been a little crazy lately. Oh fine, my life is always crazy...but I love it!!

So basically, it's been a couple of weeks since I got back from Christchurch but I still haven't told you about our awesome dinner at The Lotus Heart...because you can't really go down there and not have a fine dining experience!

We got a starter to share which, because I am a bit bossy, I chose...cashew cheese and crackers. The menu describes it as house cured cashew cheese served with grapes and rosemary almond flax crackers and it's raw!

SO good. I just wish you got more. I loved the cashew cheese. It was so creamy and awesome! Of course, I had to get their ginger beer because it is truly awesome as well...I need some new words to describe all the awesomeness!!!

For our mains we got a couple of dishes to share. I've pretty much tried everything on the vegan menu so they weren't anything new but that doesn't make them any more delicious. First up, the Portobello Magic which is portobello mushrooms served on golden brown potato rosti with wilted greens and grilled vegetables (I stole that description from the menu too!).

It is so ridiculously filling and delicious although perhaps a little overboard on the orange sauce. And then we had to get pizza...the veganio pizza in fact with its delicious cashew nut aioli. They clearly work magic with cashews here.

Anyway, I almost wished we'd got the large size so we could have taken the leftovers home. I love pizza! But you can't come all the way to The Lotus Heart and not have dessert. I mean, there is more than one vegan option on the menu! In fact, there are, like, 3 (out of 4) vegan options!!! First up, (raw) banana-nut pie with raw vegan ice cream.

I remember ordering something of the same name here a couple of years ago and it being okay but this time it was incredible. And there is no words to describe how good this raw ice cream was. We also got a slice of vegan chocolate cake, also served with the rather incredible ice cream.

I love cake! Anyway, basically The Lotus Heart makes the most awesomest of food and I can't wait for my summer holiday and the next trip there.

Beautiful world

2010-11-25T16:45:00.001+13:00

'One should never trust a woman who tells one her real age. A woman who would tell one that, would tell one anything.'
- The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

I'm now back in Auckland and the weather is as unpredicitable as ever. Earlier today it was super sunny as I wandered down the street but it's gone all grey now! I am looking forward to a summer down south.

Anyway, here is just a little snapshot of food from the first few days down south. More to come. My flight down to Christchurch arrived just in time for me to be really starving and in need of dinner so M whipped up a mean green curry...the first of many (perhaps too many?) in a row!

I supplied the dessert...2 pieces of mint slice from Revel up in Auckland after we discovered the magic the previous weekend.

I now have to work out how to make my own version. This might even top the ginger crunch from Soul Food but I think I need to do a few more taste tests before I reach a final conclusion! Plus I need to do some more "sampling" research before making it myself!

The next day it was a long car trip north to Nelson. We decided to go via Kaikoura where we stopped for lunch. M's sister used to work up there and suggested we try Hislops Cafe.

I got the lentil burger which was pretty tasty but I was really hungry so it could have done with two slices of bread instead of just the one on the bottom.

After making it to Nelson just in time for our races we needed dinner so M and I ventured into town in search of Poppy Thai after a recommendation from a local.

We started off with spring rolls. I love spring rolls!

I couldn't decide what I wanted for my main course until M pointed out the pineapple curry and I was sold. I added tofu to the vegetarian option and it was really delicious. Leftovers were eaten cold for lunch the next day.

Nelson is pretty...

...but Lake Rotoiti the following day was even more amazing.

I live in a most beautiful country.

And it was all ginger

2010-11-17T09:51:00.003+13:00

'I fear, to thy peril, my good Annette,' said Emily; 'for it seems his verses have stolen thy heart. But let me advise you; if it is so, keep the secret; never let him know it.'
- The Msyteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe

So you want to make your own ginger crunch? So you want it to be awesome? So you want it to be so gingery that it knocks your socks off?

We went to a potluck round the road last night and poor M had to carry steaming hot vegan lasagna fresh out of the oven. It was delicious so therefore worth his hard work.

Anyway, back to talking about ginger, being the awesome person that I am, I had made a super gingery ginger crunch, braving the use of the oven despite ridiculously hot temperatures (what was with that? It's back to being grey and cool today). I still think I can make a better ginger crunch (I've mainly been focused on the icing and not the base which needs some work since it's mostly just the Edmonds version) but here we go since some people have been getting impatient!

Ginger Crunch*

125g vegan margarine, softened (olivani is good)
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground ginger

Ginger Icing
150g vegan margarine
2 Tbsp ground ginger**
7 Tbsp golden syrup
3 cups icing sugar
crystalised ginger, chopped

Cream the margarine and sugar until light and fluffy (or as long as you can be bothered especially if you only have egg beaters which are tedious). Sift the flour, baking powder and ground ginger together and mix into the creamed mixture. You might want to use your hands to get it all mixed in nicely. Press the mixture into a greased 20 x 20cm cake tin or something similar. Bake at 190C for about 20 minutes or until light brown. Just try not to overcook the edges as I did. Top with ginger icing as per below...

Ginger Icing
Melt the margarine, ground ginger, golden syrup and icing sugar together in a saucepan and mix well. Then pour over the base and sprinkle the crystalised ginger over the top (it will sort of sink into the icing). Chill until firm before cutting into pieces (a hot knife works best). I cut mine into about 20 pieces*** but then again I was trying to feed the masses at the potluck.

Eat.

*It's pretty hard to get this recipe wrong...let's just say I was baking in a kitchen where I couldn't find any measuring cups or scales so I improvised. It worked out fine.
**Just as a note, New Zealand tablespoons (Tbsp) are 15ml whereas I think Australian ones are 20ml.
***This way you can eat several pieces without feeling bad! Not that you should feel bad anyway...ginger is good for the stomach.

Hot and gingery

2010-11-16T15:04:00.000+13:00

Where a battering ram cannot work, really good short-crust pastry can often break through.
- Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett

Oh my gosh!! Look what we have here...

...ginger crunch from Soul Food. It's SO exciting! So yes, I'm hanging out in Christchurch and eating good food (among other things).

More to come soon...

Am I ever home?

2010-11-11T14:08:00.001+13:00

"The world is lighter," he said, "because of you."
- Winter Of Fire by Sherryl Jordan

I am off to Christchurch tonight. Exciting!! Anyway, while I was starting to pack the other night I thought it was ridiculous just how many pairs of shoes I had to pack for this trip (umm, 6 pairs of sports shoes including climbing and cycling shoes, a pair of jandals and some sneakers - it's a busy trip). I'd only just unpacked from going to Rotorua last weekend...some days I think I should just live out of a bag. Oh wait, I've done that before too. If you are getting the idea that I am pretty much never home then you might be right!

Anyway, like I said, I was in Rotorua over the weekend for a race. M flew up on Thursday night and, after feeling too lazy to make our own breakfast we headed off to find food. I heard via the grapevine (well, you know, through an auckland vegan's blog) that the Vegan Revellers was back on the menu at Revel and since I remember it being delicious and I hadn't been to Revel in ages anyway I thought I'd drag M along there for breakfast.

It is slightly different to the old version in that it has fried tofu in place of the falafel but otherwise I can't think of anything different about it. Still delicious. Still awesome. Still super filling. Yay!

But we still needed dessert (yes, even at breakfast time). I sent M up to the counter to get me a slice of their peanut butter pie...

...but he also came back with something else, vegan mint slice. Oh man, this was so amazing we debated going up and getting a few more pieces but since the guy serving us already thought we were crazy for eating so much sugar we decided against it but I really wish we had!

Unfortunately the ginger crunch at Revel (pictured in the background) isn't vegan so that was for M but I will definitely be stocking up on it when I get to Christchurch!

The drive to Rotorua takes several hours so we had to stop along the way for a picnic lunch. I'd made big Blueberry Ginger Spelt Muffins from Vegan Brunch but with extra crystalised ginger 'cause we both love ginger.

I'd also made some sweetcorn and bean fritter things roughly adapted from the Edmonds sweetcorn fritter recipe (using cornflour instead of normal flour, a mixture of ground flaxseed and water instead of the normal egg, added sweet chilli sauce and a tin of cannellini beans, mashed up). I served this with a random chutney we'd bought at the supermarket and a whole lot of grapes. Much healthier than our car food!

I had no idea what we were going to have for dinner so we just wandered round the supermarket in Rotorua hoping stuff would jump out at us.

In the end I cooked up some pasta with a box of Fry's Vegetarian Chicken Style Strips ('cause it seemed amusing at the time) with some veggies and a bought pasta sauce. It was surprisingly good.

Chocolate karaoke

2010-11-02T17:14:00.000+13:00

'Well, yes, but it's not about the football.'
'You're saying that football is not about football?'
- Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett

A few weeks ago (because I'm so organised like that) I went out to dinner with my awesome NZ brother (as opposed to the American brother 'cause going out to dinner with him might be a bit hard). I don't know that many people who are into Indian which is pretty sad so this was the perfect opportunity to hit up Satya on K'Road again 'cause I hadn't been in ages.

We ordered an entree to share and I'm really trying to remember what it was called but I have no idea, even after trying to decipher it from the online menu. No idea how to describe it. It was okay but a bit weird. Like...no, I have no words that fit.

Anyway, onto my main which I think was the Vegetable Koorma but don't quote me on that. It was really nice though. You do need to ask the waiter which items on the vegetarian menu are vegan though because only one is labelled.

Along with rice, I had my koorma with a good old roti. Nothing special but really good for dipping (and making a mess everywhere).

When we went up to pay my brother was a bit embarrassed as the guy at the desk said to us, "you're the vegan table right?"

We were pretty full but I was craving chocolate sorbet despite already eating a fair bit of chocolate that afternoon (I blame the cravings on having recently gotten (got?) concussion) so we walked down into town to Giapo.

This stuff is like paradise on a spoon. Although you do have to put up with the crazy karaoke coming from inside while you eat!

It was all so green

2010-10-28T22:12:00.001+13:00

"Because you killed him and put him in the cold, cold ground?" Actually, it hadn't been all that cold but I felt I was due a little artistic license. My mind soared and swooped, way above everything. I could see so much! I felt like God. This was fun.
- Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris

How come it feels so good to get home again and yet it sucks at the same time? Why do some of my most favourite people have to be so far away? And why does my backlog of photos never stop growing?! Oh well! We'll get there...eventually.

Anyway, you might be pleased to know that I am still in one piece. I did not fall down a 12 metre cliff and neither did I get a stick through my front wheel and come off breaking my sternum or ribs. I left those adventures to others in the team!

I did, however, ride for 25 hours (that's 9 days in a row of racing and training), get some wicked cuts and bruises from crashing into rocks, fell off my bike in a bog and got completely submerged and spent more than 2 hours cleaning the mud off my bike and shoes only to find NZ customs in a relaxed mood.

I laughed so hard that I thought I might explode, got attacked by a magpie (seriously...you can see where the beak of the bird wedged into my helmet!), lazed in the spa pool and learnt more about bikes in 9 days than I ever had in the last 3 years of riding. When I finally get a chance, there'll be more info about the trip up here if anyone is interested.

Oh, and I also managed to eat some pretty good food. I didn't photograph most of it (like the awesome vegan lasagnas that got whipped up for us non-meat eaters one night) because I am a bit slack but rest assured, you will not go hungry even in small towns in Australia (I found tofu, both plain and marinated, veggie burgers, oat milk and all sorts of other staples in every supermarket I went to).

This is the only photo of food that we actually cooked. This was our second night in Mt Gambia and there were three of us girls cooking together in our little unit. We were lazy and bought pre-prepared stir-fry veggies since we were traveling the next day.

Next stop was a farmstay not far out of Carisbrook. It had the most awesome kitchen where we would cook up communal meals each night. Down the road in Marybourgh there was a cafe (Legendz) that could make soy milkshakes. After a hot day out in the forest I couldn't think of anything better!

It was thick, cold and delicious...and I drunk it so fast that I got a headache!

Food-wise, Daylseford was when it got exciting. We'd just arrived and were mulling around town whist some people were sussing out somewhere good for coffee when one of my team mates spotted a sign outside one of the cafes saying it was vegetarian and vegan.

My first trip (we went twice) to the Himalaya Bakery I got a mini chocolate cake and organic cola.

I also got an apple and cinnimon scroll to take away with me too (oh, and later on I got one to eat on the plane home too...they were big and deliciously filling).

Our first night we all went out to dinner at the Old Hepburn Hotel. I got a veganised version of the vegetable and kidney bean nachos which was pretty good but I could have done with more bean mix and less corn chips. It didn't last all that long though (riding every day makes you hungry...and incredibly tipsy on one bottle of alcoholic ginger beer and therefore your table's entertainment for the evening)!

Saturday night was the social function at a pub down the road. Food was catered but I'd organised in advance for a meal to be provided for me. They ended up changing their vegetarian dish to make it vegan which I thought was pretty cool...green curry with tofu and tempeh. Not anything flash or amazing but it filled me up and, quite frankly, I was hungry so as long as it was edible I wasn't really fussed.

And for dessert they served me a big bowl filled with grapes and strawberries. Everyone else at my table was jealous and I had to fight them off!

After our final race we went into town again for lunch and boy did I need food by then...desperately (after nearly 3 hours of mountain biking I was pretty desperate)! I managed to convince over half the team to join me at the Himalaya Bakery again! Everyone had to agree the food was really good.

I got the open veggie burger (I think it was made from lentils). It was good. So basically, if you find yourself near Daylesford, go here. I really recommend it.

For our final night we went out to the Jasmine Thai Restaurant in Hepburn Springs. Items on the menu that could be veganised were clearly labelled which was super cool and my meal was delicious. Of course I was pretty forgetful that evening and forgot my camera again. Typical...

...but after over 2 hours of cleaning my bike and bike shoes (I don't think either have ever been this clean since they were brand new - look how sparkly it is!) I was completely exhausted.

So all in all it was an awesome trip (and this is a ridiculously long post). Plans are already underway for next year...

Bikes and cream pies

2010-10-13T10:40:00.001+13:00

Tonight was turning out to be a huge one for realizations. They could just stop coming any old time now.
- Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris

I go to Australia at the end of this week! I would be excited except for the fact that I'm terrified. You see, this is what happened last weekend when I was out training...

...and I'd had to climb up several metres in order to take this photo! The general consensus among some of my friends is that my mountain bike has gotten jealous of my road bike and decided it would throw me off just to make sure I knew who was boss. I ended up with mild concussion and head trauma. Thanks.

Anyway, we will worry about the racing when I get there and instead I will show you the delicious dinner party I had with a couple of friends the other night.

J made some awesome roast veggies (kumara, potato, carrot and pumpkin). You can't really go wrong there.

Our beautiful host made a big pot of vermicelli noodle stir-fry with heaps of veggies and flavoured with soy sauce, sesame oil and ginger.

And here is my plate (oh okay, my first plate 'cause let's be honest, it was really good and I was really hungry).

I was in charge of dessert and after wondering what to make for ages I ended up making the Caramel Cream Pie from Alice's blog. You see, I'd had a tin of this soy condensed milk and a packet of the soyatoo cream sitting around in my pantry for ages with no idea of what to do with them (does anyone else see something new and exciting and buy it without any thought of how on earth they might use it?) so this was pretty much perfect.

Next time I think I'd double the amount of caramel filling and half the amount of cream topping but otherwise it was really delicious and simple to make (which is always a bonus when you're running late after your bike gets a puncture on your training ride after you've already got lost and have been out way longer than anticipated as it is).

Looking forward to doing it all again when I get back. We already have the date scheduled!

Crumbs and goddesses

2010-10-05T21:04:00.000+13:00

Very slowly, Glenda raised her right hand into a fist and lowered it into her mouth, and bit down very hard in an attempt to somehow retrieve the last fifteen minutes from the records of the universe and replace them with something far less embarrassing, like her knickers falling down.
- Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett

The other day I told M I was a domestic goddess. That may have been a slight exaggeration but I did venture into the kitchen to do a spot of baking (and do my chores for the week). There is nothing like the smell of fresh baking wafting through the house (nothing except eating said baking). The other morning I actually woke up to the confusing smell of chocolate brownies and fresh bread as my flatmate had stayed up all night baking as an attempt to procrastinate from his study...awesome!

Anyway, it was my Mum's birthday that night and what do all birthdays call for? Let's see...um, CAKE! This is a chocolate crumb cake. It is SO good and got much love from the family.

And here is my (first) slice. We all went back for seconds (and were all tempted by thirds but one doesn't want to overdo these things too much).

Then, because I am awesome, I whipped up a batch of chewy oatmeal-raisin cookies (from Veganomicon) for my cousin who was chained to her desk writing her masters paper and for M who lives in Christchurch which is enough of a reason by itself but a while ago he sent me my favourite ginger crunch in the mail (for those interested, yes I will post a recipe once I get something even close to as good as this).

They were really quite good and because of M you actually get a photo because I'd eaten and given away all the cookies by the time I realised I still didn't have a photo of them. Thankfully (or perhaps not but in this case it worked in my favour) the post down to Christchurch is pretty slow so he hadn't eaten all of them by the time I hounded him to take some photos. His camera is much better than mine. Perhaps I should steal it.

Memories of cupcakes and pizza

2010-09-29T09:28:00.006+13:00

Though Eric's tone was light as a marshmallow, his meaning was a sharp blade hidden inside.
- From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris

I'm having one of those weeks where my head is whirling all over the place and I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with the number of photos I have sitting around to be blogged about but we'll deal with that another time. Instead we'll just take a little time-travel back to Sunday because I can actually remember that far (anything earlier has merged together!). On this particular Sunday my best friend B was up visiting me. It was also daylight savings (the one I always dread 'cause you have to turn the clocks forward an hour) which may account for the fuzziness of my brain.

Anyway, after getting up super early (and of course it felt even earlier with the whole daylight savings thing) for a training ride out to Kumeu and back, B turned up at my place and we cruised over to Kokako for breakfast. I was starving by this stage which wasn't surprising.

I love their vege booster juice which is, apparently, a combination of carrot, celery, beetroot and ginger. Seriously, it is quite possibly the most delicious juice ever although I did adore the green juice I had at The Lotus Heart.

There really isn't that much vegan food on offer at Kokako despite it being a vegetarian cafe but the tofu scramble is good and is generally my usual order when I come here. It will fill you up.

On our drive home B spotted the Kraftbomb sign and I realised I'd always wanted to go (I also realised that it's just down the road from my house) so we swung the car around and went inside. Ooo, vegan cupcakes from the NZ Cupcake Queen!!!

I was very unoriginal and got the peanut butter chocolate chip one...typical. Maybe next time I might branch out to one of her more exciting flavours?

It is a bit tragic but we ended up eating a sort of lunch in the car from food we picked up at Huckleberry Farms (there was an apple here as well...not just pie!).

Then it was time to make the drive over to the shore to catch up with our friend E. I made the boys epic pizza...

Well, I did eat more than one slice, 2 slices in fact, but E's place was lacking in decent-sized plates so I drew the short straw and ended up with this tiny plate! This pizza was piled a mile high with vegetables and was of the knife and fork variety. We spent the rest of the night watching movies, eating cookies (good old Oreos!) and drinking tea. Awesome.

It was epic

2010-09-23T08:55:00.001+12:00

She'd thrown him. Not just off-balance but into some dis-ordered reality where he wasn't entirely sure which way was normal, which was safe.
- A Fine Passion by Stephanie Laurens

I could say that eating a late breakfast and checking out earthquake damage was the reason for my trip to Christchurch a couple of weeks back and although that sounds quite wonderful (well, the late breakfast bit does) it's not true. I really went to down south for a race which probably doesn't surprise anyone. We had a long drive ahead of us but that was going to pale in comparison to what we were going to face the following day.

Continuing along a theme of eating late, since breakfast wasn't eaten until after 11am that meant lunch was late too...4:30 in the afternoon kind of late in fact and consisted of homemade bread slathered in peanut butter and eaten in the supermarket carpark at Timaru.

You're getting a photo of this because M thought it was really quite funny. We couldn't go into the supermarket until I'd eaten because I was so hungry and we were too lazy to go sit in the park to eat (okay let's be honest, I was too desperate for us to stop so I could eat).

Finally we arrived in Naseby which is one of my favourite places ever. Even better was the fact we were staying in the awesome Naseby holiday park...awesome because it is right next to the forest and I love the forest here.

We were tired and a bit hungry by the time we finally arrived so dinner was quick. I fried up a packet of tofu with some mushrooms then added a packet of soup/curry (seriously, it can't decide which one it is supposed to be) and some broccoli. Delicious.

It really wasn't all that long before we were crawling out of bed again in the morning to get ready for the race...a 12 hour rogaine. If anyone is interested, you can read my writeup of the event here.

It's very unexciting but here is my breakfast before the race - weetbix, tinned fruit salad, soy yogurt and oat milk.

And here is the event centre in Ophir...so awesome! We were based out of their town hall which is the building on the right.

One thing I love about the sports that I do is the amazing countryside that I get to see and explore. I think Central Otago is one of my favourite places and the scenery is just spectacular. I hope to be doing this for as long as I possibly can. My Mum tells the story of a lady in her 90s competing at the World Masters Orienteering Champs one year and I guess that is something that I strive for.

So yeah, the scenery was awesome, M and I worked very well as a team (although I wish his legs weren't so long 'cause it is tough work keeping up) and we made it back with 5 minutes to spare which is always good. My feet were absolutely killing me but it was all worth it as we won the mixed grade...oh yeah!

Although I'm sure you're all sick of scenery by now, but I have to finish with a photo looking down over Naseby forest from our walk the following morning...this place is extremely close to my heart.

Returning home gets harder every time...

Rumbling down south

2010-09-20T15:09:00.000+12:00

He could not accurately have told anyone how he passed the next several hours. He was lost in his own creative reverie. In a rapid hand that skated across the white paper like a bird landing on water, he mapped out his scenery
- The Final Act of Mr Shakespeare by Robert Winder

About this time last week I fell asleep at my desk but luckily today I am much more awake! 5:40am flights are not fun.

Anyway, it feels like a lifetime ago now but about a week and a half ago now (?) I flew down to Christchurch for a race in central Otago. 10:30pm is quite possibly the latest I've ever had dinner but my plane didn't land until after 9:30pm and then we had to go pick up some gear from B's house. I think I was getting to the point of wanting to eat my hand by the time we finally got to M's house but it was okay because he had cooked me dinner!

Homemade bread fresh out of the breadmaker (it was still warm!!) and pumpkin soup!

I'd made a double-batch of the Fudgy Wudgy Blueberry Brownies from Veganomicon...one of the batches went to my brother (because I am an awesome sister!) and the other was technically for M's sister to bribe her into picking him up from the airport the week before but of course we needed to do a taste test first!

They were so ridiculously sweet and rich that I actually only managed half a piece which is saying something since I can normally finish anything sweet! But then again, it was, like, 11:30pm by then and such a late dinner really screws with my appetite. But in saying that, they were certainly delicious and I hear via the grapevine that M's sister has polished them all off.

Naturally we ended up sleeping in for ages the following morning so I was practically ravenous by the time I awoke. We had planned to go to The Orange Tree for breakfast but it was shut due to minor earthquake damage so we trooped off to Cathedral Square and made it to The Lotus Heart just in time to make their cutoff for the breakfast menu.

First up...drinks. I wish I could remember what my juice was because despite being bright green it was seriously delicious. M ordered some berry smoothie...I just love the bright colours.

I really wanted the Flax-oat French Toast which was really delicious and super filling.

M's choice was the Raw Cacoa Crepes (at least I think that's what they were). The crepes were made with cacoa and zucchini apparently and filled with all sorts of fresh fruit.

On first glance I swear the crepes look like they're filled with lollies! But I'll be honest here, we both found the crepes to be far to rich and chocolatey for breakfast (I can't believe I'm saying this!). A single one of these for dessert would be amazing but it was all a bit much for breakfast.

After breakfast (we'd reached midday by then!) we went for a wander around town (or the parts of it we could access) to see some of the earthquake damage. To be honest you couldn't see all that much in town because many of the roads looked like this...

There were army trucks and police cars everywhere (this was nearly a week after the first earthquake but Christchurch is still being hit by aftershocks).

When we parked our car to go to breakfast we passed this building below. Its whole roof had collapsed and tried to escape out the window. There are buckled buildings all over the show.

Each building you pass in town has a piece of paper taped to it describing it's current state. You don't want to find one of these red ones on your building.

We didn't head out to the south where a lot of the damage is as we were running a bit late and needing to head off on our journey into central Otago for the weekend. Thankfully I only felt a couple of aftershocks while I was in Christchurch but the low rumbling sound before the house started shaking is really quite scary.

Anyway, this post is already quite long enough so the rest of the adventure will have to wait...

Packing a pot of pies

2010-09-09T17:35:00.000+12:00

...and it wasn't low cut enough to look slutty. With my boobs, the slut factor kicks in if I'm not careful.
- From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris

I am off on an plane tonight but before I go...

I made pot pie (or whatever it is you might call it)! Well, actually I've made it several times in various different ways and it has even passed the flatmate test (as in they were still alive the following morning).

This is my first version and the only one I got around to photographing which is rather unfortunate because once it was in the oven I realised I'd forgotten to put the baking powder in the scone top despite putting it out on the table with all the other ingredients! So the following versions looked much cooler. This particular version is filled with leeks, carrot, mushrooms, onion, creamed corn and tofu and topped with a wholemeal scone mixture adapted from The Vegan Table.

Other versions have involved chickpeas, cannellini beans, courgette, broccoli, cauliflower and any other vegetable in my fridge! Basically you stirfry up the veggies and I add a tin of creamed corn to give it some liquid. Then once they are pretty much cooked I pour the mixture into a casserole dish then whip up a scone topping and drop that on top. Bake in the oven for roughly 20 minutes and there you have it (but be aware...it'll be super hot inside). Perfect food for winter and the cold, wet nights we seem to have right through spring.

Anyway, I'm off...as usual my packing is quite behind schedule! Think of me this weekend as I fly into the earthquake zone and then head off deep into the wilderness!

Keeping out the predators

2010-09-07T10:32:00.003+12:00

"You must keep your feet grounded so firmly on the earth that it's like you have four legs, instead of two. That way, you can stay in the world. But you must stop looking at the world through your head. You must look through your heart instead."
- Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

As I said in my last post, I had a friend come visit me for the weekend...after picking M up from the airport we thought we'd go roam the supermarket because that's what people do on a Thursday night right? Amongst other random buys (chocolate was the essential reason for the supermarket trip) I discovered this packet of chips in the International isle. I mean, how could you possibly pass up a flavour of chips called Mrs H.S. Ball's Chutney? What could possibly be more appealing?!

We ate them all on the car ride home. Of course, this might indicate that they were delicious or something. Rather they were weirdly sweet (well, they were chutney flavoured after all) but awfully addictive...if that makes any sense.

We went out for breakfast but I didn't take my camera which was pretty slack but in my defense we actually weren't planning on breakfast (well, we were...just not right then). Because neither of us checked out the address of our morning destination carefully enough we had to postpone morning plans till later and go eat before I turned into a monster. So we went to Raw Power since we were in town and I had their tofu scramble. It's really good...but clearly camera-shy because every time I've had it my camera has, well, not been there. Oh, and we may have had a giant melting moment cookie as well but that might just be a rumour.

I do, however, have a photo of lunch...which isn't exactly pretty but still tasted good. I suspect that after biking out to Kumeu most things would have tasted quite good though.

We had to retreat to a bus stop to hide from the wind and rain. Typical Auckland (there was blue sky in the morning, then it rained, then it was blue sky again...repeat until you get exhausted...but the weather never does).

And then we biked home again...

We were up at my beach house the next day (after arriving late at night from basking in the Waiwera Hot Pools until we turned all wrinkly) and for breakfast I made us both the Banana Flapjacks from Vegan Brunch. They turned out really delicious (between the 2 of us we easily polished off the whole batch) but I really need a non-stick frypan because I was wrestling with the old cast iron one which was determined to destroy all remnants of a good mood. Luckily I'd given M prior warning that I was likely to turn into a monster when it came time to try and turn them over so he didn't panic when I started cursing.

Served with peanut butter (well, mine was anyway), blueberries, soy yogurt and golden syrup. Quite awesome.

Fuel before heading up over the hill to the reserve for running drills...

This is a muesli bar from my local bakery. They are awesome (the bakery specifically but also this muesli bar)...heaps of vegan options and if you are avoiding wheat or gluten, well you have quite a few choices too.

I attempted to climb the predator fence in an attempt to get out of doing the drills but M was having none of it...

...okay, who am I kidding?! You don't have to drag me out for any adventures (as for the predator fence, Tawharanui Reserve is a penninsula protected by what they call the predator fence to keep, well, predators out...turns out it keeps humans out too if you don't cross at the proper gates so I guess that makes us predators as well)!

By the time we got back it was after 4pm and we hadn't even had lunch! Emergency refueling was called for before I either passed out or turned into the monster from hell (is this a recurring theme for this post?)...

A big bowl of stir-fried veggies and tofu sausages mixed in with a packet of curry/soup (it tried to claim it was both which was a bit confusing) and served with spelt toast smeared with my Mum's kumara and sundried tomato hummus. Oh, and a bottle of Phoenix Cola. Can't go wrong.

And then it was time (well, after lazing on the couch and watching the news about the earthquake in M's hometown which was a bit scary) to head back home which is always a bit sad. I'd like to stay up at my beach house forever.

Oh goodness me!

2010-09-02T11:18:00.003+12:00

"The chances of finding out what's really going on in the universe are so remote, the only thing to do is hang the sense of it and keep yourself occupied. Look at me, I design fjords. I'd far rather be happy than right any day."
"And are you?"
"No, that's where it all falls apart I'm afraid."
"Pity, it sounded like quite a nice lifestyle otherwise."
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Life is amazing. Hell, even when it's tough it's still pretty amazing. Here are some cool things and great food in my life recently...

Ginger crunch.

Even better is getting home from a long day at work to find a parcel sitting outside my bedroom door...a parcel containing my favourite ginger crunch all the way from Soul Food in Christchurch. Awesome!

Riding my bikes.

This is my new road bike (I've called her Ellie...interesting to note that my mountain bike is definitely male in my eyes but my road bike is a female)!!! She's shiny and fast!

And here's my mountain bike. He's strong and dependable...and is about to go on his first overseas adventure! I will admit there were times in the past when I was quite ready to throw him off the top of a cliff but these days we are quite good mates!

Hot soup on a cold day.

This is one of the many vegan soups (Tuscan bean and vegetable to be exact) from the coffee shop across the road, Agnes Curran. They make all their soups and are now consciously thinking about the ingredients they use and let me know when they're vegan. Plus the staff there always make me laugh (I don't drink coffee but my boss does and I'm the one to go get it...they know me very well!).

Running at Tawharanui.

Waikauri Bay is my favourite place and over the hill is Tawharanui Regional Park which I've been exploring all my life. Running over there never gets old. Even better is sharing the experience with a friend and we even had beautiful weather...in the middle of winter!

Chocolate (I mean, how could it not be part of an awesome life)!!!

That (above) is a Decadent Date from She Chocolat in Christchurch (D bought me a whole bag as a present). It's described as a fresh organic medjool date hand stuffed with a gianduja filling and coated in the finest Belgian chocolate. Delicious!

New running shoes (I don't know how fond I am of the bright pink colour of my new Mizunos though but I love Wiggle!). Even better is getting new off road shoes and wearing them in (because I can't handle them being clean for long)! Below are my new Inov-8 Roclite 285s 'cause my old ones are starting the slow trip to falling apart.

The only thing that makes that experience even cooler is testing them out in the Waitakere Ranges.

It is like paradise (but the weather is very temperamental out there so I'm always weary of taking my camera out with me...maybe next time).

Eating lunch with A at Kokako and catching up on all the gossip and drama of his life...makes for a truly entertaining experience! It's just along from my gym so A is a bit of a celebrity whenever we go too!

Plus the food there is good. Above we have the tofu scramble with their awesome veggie booster juice and below is the beans on toast (which isn't really beans on toast at all since they put the beans next to the toast but I can forgive them!).

As I was writing this I realised it could actually go on and on which is incredibly heartening!

But one of the best things? Awesome friends coming to visit...I'm counting down the hours till I head out to the airport tonight!

How to stay alive

2010-08-29T19:50:00.000+12:00

Time, unfortunately, though it makes animals and vegetables bloom and fade with amazing punctuality, has no such simple effect upon the mind of man. The mind of man, moreover, works with equal strangeness upon the body of time. An hour, once it lodges in the queer element of the human spirit, may be stretched to fifty or a hundred times its clock length; on the other hand, an hour may be accurately represented on the timepiece of the mind by one second.
- Orlando by Virginia Woolf

It was D's birthday recently and birthdays are important and need to be celebrated. Don't think about it as getting older (we're only as old as we feel anyway). Think about it as celebrating another year of being alive. Being alive is really quite underrated and trust me, it is definitely something worth celebrating.

We were going to have a little party a couple of days later but on the actual day I took her out for dinner at Revive. No one should spend their birthday alone.

This is their hotpot of the day, the Tangy Tandoori Chickpeas which was served on brown rice and I chose the Juicy Bangkok Slaw for my salad. I love their slaws and this was a pretty good hotpot. I was starving so it really hit the spot.

Then a couple of days later we had a little party at D's parents. Aunty L loves creating platters...

The dip was a spicy red bean dip from one of Alison and Simon Holst's Meals Without Meat books. I could have probably eaten the entire contents (this may have partly been because I was really rather hungry by then). I restrained myself but it was very good.

Everyone else was eating my Aunty's seafood chowder but she had whipped me up some kind of veggie and lentil casserole and it was pretty good. I ate it with more corn chips and the remaining veggies from the platter.

And then we had cake...which is really the main event when it comes to birthday food. I seem to have found my place within our family as the birthday cake maker. I'm not complaining (for a start, if I make it then I know I can eat it and I like cake so getting to eat it is a real bonus!).

We are quite good at polishing off a cake in our family. Life is far too short for tiny slivers.

I do think this photo might be a tad deceptive. I swear the icing wasn't that thick!

Chips chips chips chips, we like chips

2010-08-24T09:41:00.000+12:00

He was not an ill-disposed young man, unless to be rather cold hearted, and rather selfish, is to be ill-disposed.
- Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

Sing the title as a round...it's great fun (then try singing happy birthday followed by 'For she's a jolly good fellow' also as a round...that's even more fun although we may have drunk a fair amount of wine by then)!

A little celebration was called for, despite the fact it was a couple of weeks late so my kiwi brother (as opposed to my American brother), my lovely cousin D and I trouped off to my parents place for delicious food and good times.

Dinner was tofu stir-fry and oven chips (kumara chips for me but there were potato chips too). Mum seasoned them with kelp salt which was super delicious, and I convinced her to leave the skins on...I've now made my parents converts. Awesome.

I've been dying to try a raw dessert for ages so this seemed like the perfect opportunity. I ended up deciding on The Real Cheezecake from Ani Phyo's book Ani's Raw Food Kitchen. Very costly to make so I'd been saving it for a special occasion but it is super easy.

It was sensational (better than I expected to be honest)...very filling but not too rich and everyone loved it which was cool. I thought they might think it was a little too weird or something but no, it was welcomed into everyone's stomaches with open mouths.

Wine and apple cider...they do say don't mix your drinks and they may be right! Also not so good when you have a race the next day but I couldn't stop laughing most of the night so that can't be a bad thing right?

Oh, and just in case anyone else was interested...Beauty and the Beast in 3D was awesome. I may or may not have needed tissues.

Yet another goodbye...

2010-08-19T08:31:00.000+12:00

Quinn's appetite was as outstanding as his equipment. He enjoyed dessert so much, he came back for seconds.
- All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris

...which can also be known as Monday in Christchurch.

Leaving Christchurch is always hard. When I come home I find that I end up feeling quite lonely and sad.

But before I had to leave I met up with my friend M and we went for a little run in the mud and the drizzle around Halswell Quarry with the aid of an orienteering map (and perhaps we may have ventured on to some private land but what no one saw, no one knows about right?).

Running, of course, makes you feel a bit hungry so we ventured into town for a spot of lunch at my favourite cafe, Soul Food. M is quite indecisive and I want everything so we decided to get the vegan BLT (which is extremely yummy...probably the vegan aioli that really does it for me)...

...and the vegan lentil and brown rice burger (which is very filling and healthy-tasting although not in a bad way in case you were of the opinion that healthy-tasting and delicious couldn't go hand in hand)...

...and split them. It was a good decision.

They also have 2 sweet vegan options. The first one is the fruit muffin which is really soft and delicious and the creamy stuff on the top is very nice.

The second is the ginger crunch which I had on Thursday night as well at Govinda's. Soul Food and Govinda's are actually run by the same people which is fortunate because that means you have 2 separate places you can get this most awesome ginger crunch. But as I said on a previous post, I am doing my best to replicate it!

Again, so that neither of us got jealous, we split both choices but the ginger crunch bet the muffin hands down. There really was no contest.

And then it was time to go home which was very sad. But it's okay because I will be back down that way very soon (and thank god for skype, email and all that jazz)!

Doing a 180...

2010-08-16T10:17:00.002+12:00

Ross was unsure about leaving Joe in Danny's house. He could imagine what she'd do if she arrived home unexpectedly and discovered a stranger ripping out her toilet.
- Knotted by Michelle Holman

...also known as Sunday in Christchurch.

We ate porridge, went orienteering (otherwise known as running round in circles and standing round in the freezing cold afterwards), sat in front of the fire and ate peanut butter sandwiches. Oh, and I got asked to do the World Rogaine Champs. ARGH!!!! Exciting!!!!!! (in case you hadn't worked it out, that was exciting news number 2).

Moving on. In the afternoon B and I popped into his local mall to, well, do mall stuff (well, actually to go to the supermarket but we got distracted). On our way through I saw this...

Personally this could almost be exciting news number 3 but you might laugh at me. Beauty and the Beast is, like, my favourite movie of all time (okay, maybe a close second after The Princess Bride). And now it's in 3D!

Anyway, once I'd calmed down from that excitement, we popped over to visit D at her motel to eat cake...certain celebrations always need cake right?

I like cake (although making them in B's kitchen is not quite so good since it is lacking in some vital equipment so it's lucky I brought my cake pan down with me)!

Then for dinner we went to the Dux de Lux which is a vegetarian and seafood pub (I think they used to be solely vegetarian but they now serve seafood as well). With heaps of the meals you get a salad on the side (which you get to pick). There were 2 vegan options this time so I went with both...a tofu and vege one and a green salad. The tofu salad was divine.

I also really like their (alcoholic) ginger beer. You may have noticed I like ginger and since discovering that alcohol, in moderation, is really not that scary, this is a very nice drink.

We wanted kumara chips but it was not to be (they were sold out) so we settled with buffalo wedges. This plate destroyed us and we left way too many on the plate for my liking but my stomach was just not gonna take any more.

For my main I ordered the corn and vegetable fritters which are served with a beetroot chutney. I had these last time I was here but I didn't feel like the Indian dish and I can get a red tofu curry up in Auckland any day. Plus I like corn fritters. They were better than I remembered too.

So all in all another pretty much perfect day...

It's all very exciting...

2010-08-12T13:04:00.000+12:00

But he could not move. He could not make the effort. He lay there with his face turned into the gentle stream of falling water and did not stir again.
- Angel - Seeker by Sharon Shinn

...otherwise known as Saturday in Christchurch.

It started with coffee...or, more specifically, since I've never drunk a cup of coffee in my life, a ginger chai latte with rice milk from The Orange Tree.

I then wanted vegan pancakes and nobody was going to stop me...I doused them in maple syrup and they really didn't last long at all. I love pancakes (oh, and they can make them gluten free too if you so desire)!

I've only just recently started climbing again after various injuries and events got in the way. Unfortunately winter is not really the best time for climbing outside so we just hit up The Roxx. Just so you know, I don't normally climb in socks (or polypro pants for that matter) but my feet were too cold.

There was an emergency peanut butter sandwich consumed partway through (well, not partway through a climb because that might be a little crazy).

Yes, I have chalk all over my hands...they don't normally look that weird.

Climbing makes me hungry so we went exploring for a stop of lunch/afternoon tea. And what did we find?

Yep, it's Eternal Delight - a raw vegan cafe. I didn't even know they existed (well, in New Zealand anyway). It was all terribly exciting but I had to remember we were going out for a fancy dinner so we couldn't eat too much so we decided to split a main and a dessert. B chose the Italian pizza and salad.

Seriously this was amazing. I don't know how they did it but just looking at the photo right now makes me want it again real bad. The salad especially was very impressive (yes, the pizza was great but there was something about that salad...).

As a sweet treat I picked the Superfood Black Forest Cake which uses goji berries instead of cherries. The guy gave us a discount because it had fallen over. He said that normally it stands tall and proud. Again it was pretty awesome. We decided we'd have to come back here for their Friday night fine dining next time I'm down.

And then we raced home to check trademe (like eBay I guess but specifically for us here in New Zealand). You see, I had placed an auto bid on a road bike as the auction was going to close while we were out so I had no idea if I'd won or not. But guess what?! I won!!! This is exciting news number 1 (more to follow in the next post). I will probably post photos of it everywhere at some point. It's awesome!

Anyway, moving on! Dinner was a special occasion made even more special because B and I were joined by my beautiful cousin D and her boyfriend. So basically, it was dinner with my bestest friends in the whole world and it really can't get much better than that. We decided to go to The Lotus Heart because it's fancy and they do awesome food.

Fries first...you can't really go wrong with that (plus their homemade tomato sauce is real good...they should bottle and sell it 'cause I'd definitely buy it). B ordered tea and I had to take a photo...I want this tea set.

D and I went with their homemade ginger beer...you also can't go wrong with that. I order it every single time.

For our mains B and I decided to order a couple of different things and share (D and her boyfriend did the same). We got the vegan pizza which had their special cashew vegan aioli on it...I have to try this 'cause it tasted super cheesy (well, at least my memory of cheesy).

We also ordered the curry of the day. Somehow I have managed to delete the photo I took of this...oops! Anyway, I can't remember now what it was but it was tasty which is really all that counts. I think the waiter was quite impressed that we polished off all this food with such ease (and then casually asked for the dessert menu too).

Dessert...raw pumpkin pie with raw ice cream. Oh my god! This was really REALLY good. So good that I was very surprised. It was also a ridiculously large portion and I couldn't even finish it which is quite a rare thing for me. I had to take the leftovers home (there was no way I was letting it go to waste!).

And to finish off an awesome night? We went to live comedy...a perfect night (especially because B and I tried to book too late so they'd sold out but somehow 2 people cancelled right before the show was about to start so we got their tickets).

Back before dark...

2010-08-09T11:50:00.003+12:00

We did see a lot of machine guns, but at least we didn't see any severed heads.
- I'm not eating any of that foreign muck by Brian Thacker

...otherwise known as Friday in Christchurch.

If you're going to be out traipsing across the hills all day then you're going to need a big, hearty breakfast. This is where my epic porridge comes in...for the 2 of us I used 1 cup of wholegrain oats, 1 cup rice milk and 1 cup water. About halfway through cooking I added 2 heaped tablespoons of peanut butter, 2 sliced bananas and some frozen berries. Topped with golden syrup this was absolutely perfect (as we huddled next to the fire)!

So after breakfast and much debate over where we were going to go, we headed off to tackle as much of the Crater Rim Walkway that we could before it got dark (we should have got up earlier in hindsight but holidays are for sleeping in right?). The below photo is looking down into Lyttleton Harbour from the Port Hills.

Along the way you encounter various gun emplacements and what we could only assume were once bomb shelters or something similar. The artwork on some of these was really quite fascinating...

Are you worthy of notice, observation or consideration?

We live in a free country where you are free to do nothing
B thought he'd bring his gas cooker along so lunch was really quite civilised. That morning I'd fried up some cubes of tofu and we just added that to a packet soup (Naked Organics Thai Coconut Curry).

Ah, a hot lunch...just perfect for a beautiful, but freezing day on the hills.

This was our turnaround point since we didn't really feel like wandering in the dark. As it was, we got back with enough time but the sky was definitely well on its way to darkening.

I'm not much of a walker so I was feeling rather stiff by the end and was quite glad to curl up in the car on the way home again (it's ironic really...I could run that track and probably feel fine but when it comes to walking I just get tired!).

We were pretty hungry by then so dinner was definitely in order. We were joined by B's friend M and thought we'd check out somewhere we hadn't been before, the Welcome Chinese Vegetarian Cafe.

As a starter for everyone we ordered the Crispy Savoury Cheeky Nuggets simply because it is such an awesome name!

We each got to pick a main dish that we would all share and I ended up choosing the Hotplate Sambal Lemon Eggplant Tofu.

M ordered this dish but I actually can't remember what it was. My main memory was that it was quite spicy but delicious.

B ordered us the Crispy Sesame BBQ Fried Rice on Hotplate which is described as BBQ Sesame sauce over Crispy protein with Nori and fried rice. Let's just say that to me that description sounds highly unappetising but it turned out to be my favourite of all the dishes. The 'crispy protein with nori' was absolutely delicious and I should have taken a cutaway photo of it 'cause it looked so cool.

Dessert is, of course, very important and I got some vegan ice cream because, well, it was on the menu and that in itself is pretty exciting.

We also got some red bean pastries to share because I love red bean. I was kind of hoping for something like the red bean pancakes I get in Auckland but it was not to be. These were still pretty good though.

Dinner (we'll definitely be coming back to this restaurant) and company was nice and all but I was quite happy to get back to B's flat and sit in front of the fire with a nice cup of tea. I'm such a nana!

Ready for takeoff

2010-08-05T14:53:00.000+12:00

The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't.
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Oh man, SO busy!!! At least I'm slightly more awake than yesterday where I walked around in a bit of a dream after 3 hours of sleep. A concert (Band of Horses...it was awesome) followed by some girly time followed by cats keeping me up followed by a tiny slab of sleep snuck in somewhere followed by my 5am alarm for training is guaranteed to fry your brain especially after you've already had a string of late nights/early mornings before this. My alarm went off at a similar time this morning but I decided training could wait. I have epic plans for the next 3 days so some sleep was probably a good idea (although I still feel a tad scatterbrained).

Anyway, I got back from a whirlwind trip to Christchurch on Monday night, repacked my bags and headed over to my cousin's flat to look after her cats for the week. The best thing about Christchurch (apart from hanging out with my best friend) is the food. I dream about this food! In fact, I planned my flight down on Thursday afternoon especially so I could make it there in time for dinner. It meant I had to leave work early but hey, some things are more important!!

Dinner at Govinda's Vegetarian Restaurant. I think this meal was, like, $5 which is dirt cheap and gets you a decent amount of curry, savory pastries and rice.

Dessert was the best damn ginger slice ever...I have been trying to replicate it with no success so far (not that my versions haven't been delicious but just not quite up to this standard...I'm working on it!).

There is much more food and adventuring to come (hey, I was there Thursday to Monday and there is a lot of eating you can do in that time). Oh, and some exciting news (well, if you're me anyway). Stay tuned.

I am a domestic goddess

2010-07-28T10:11:00.000+12:00

I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. I was waiting for that moment - you know the one I mean - the moment when your date suddenly confesses to something you just can't stomach: he reveals himself as a racist or homophobe, admits he'd never marry anyone but another Baptist (Southerner, brunette, marathon runner, whatever), tells you about his children by his first three wives, describes his fondness for being paddled, or relates his youthful experiences in blowing up frogs or torturing cats. After that moment, no matter how much fun you have, you know it's not going anywhere.
- Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris

Some days I just want to spend all day in the kitchen...like I'm having a fantasy about being a (not so desperate) housewife. Odd, since I don't want to be a wife, or stuck at home in the kitchen instead of working or adventuring. But I do like being in the kitchen.

Anyway, it's these sort of days which are perfect for cooking up a storm and stocking up the pantry, the fridge and the freezer. First up we have a big batch of stewed fruit which I use on my breakfasts.

It's always a little different but this particular batch contained 2 x 1.5(ish)kg bags of organic granny smith apples (oh how I love having Harvest Wholefoods so close), a few handfuls of frozen mixed berries and about a cup of organic raisins...oh, and a dash of vanilla along with a good shake of cinnamon. This freezes really well too.

Next up was a giant batch of muesli (well, as giant as the oven dish would allow...it made 2 big containers full). Apparently muesli is granola. Is that correct? I don't know. We always call it muesli.

Hmmm, what's in it? I just tend to throw in what I have but I think it's got wholegrain oats, rye oats, rolled oats, some other kind of oats I can't remember (maybe buckwheat?), shredded coconut, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, almonds, cashews, brazil nuts and hazelnuts baked with a drizzle of molasses and a big spoonful of coconut oil. Once cooked and cooled I added ground flaxseed and dried fruit consisting of (I think) dates, pineapple, apricots and raisins (or were they sultanas? I can't remember).

There really is nothing like homemade muesli...I'm serious. Plus you can't really go wrong. Just don't talk on the phone while it's cooking 'cause you might forget about it. Luckily one of my flatmates was paying attention! Chuck in what you've got. I have a habit of finding stuff in my pantry and then emptying out the entire packet.

I also made my awesome muesli bars which I have before training every morning. They are SO good (an old flatmate once proclaimed them the best muesli bars they'd ever tried). Again, I just use what I have on hand but you can see one variant of my recipe here.

If you eat too much pudding you won't sleep

2010-07-21T08:54:00.010+12:00

The whole night suddenly rose up and whalloped me one.
- Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris

So, as I said in the last post, my mate M was up for the weekend recently. Instead of hanging around Auckland we decided to head north a bit to my beach house. After a long car trip up through the Friday afternoon traffic and munching an entire packet of vegetable crackers (um, how can you have an ingredient listed that simply says vegetables. I mean, what vegetables? Aren't you going to list them?) I made us dinner.

Turning on the oven when it's this cold is a very good idea (so is huddling by the heater under a snuggly blanket). So dinner was pizza using bought bases (well, actually Turkish Bread pizza bread which makes a mighty fine base) and a fancy tomato sauce then topped with onion, capsicum, mushrooms, courgette and black beans mixed together with a bit of oil and finished off with grated mozzarella cheezly and sliced tomato.

Oh and there were some veggies on the side...steamed broccoli and raw carrot sticks. I needed a veggie kick after way too much sugar at lunch.

Breakfast...some fancy store-bought muesli (which, no matter how fancy it is, never can taste as good as homemade), stewed apple and kiwifruit, soy yogurt and oat milk. There was also toast but that's not pictured. We were fueling up for a long run later that morning over the hills.

There was lunch in here at some point...leftover pizza on the hills somewhere and toast when we got back. You can just picture it instead. We all should use our imaginations a bit more (plus if you imagine it, what you see might be more exciting than what it really was which could be kinda cool).

Then dinner. Food always tastes amazing up here no matter what you cook. Perhaps it's because we tend to spend the days exploring and getting out in the fresh air. Or maybe it's just because this place is magic. It could, of course, be both.

I marinated some tofu and then stir-fried it with some veggies. This was served with two thirds of a packet of green tea soba noodles. Difficult to serve and messy to eat but delicious. I should eat these noodles more often.

Dessert was required. I made a mint chocolate self-saucing pudding adapted from a recipe in the Edmonds Flatters cookbook...although I got a bit impatient waiting for it to cook so we probably started eating it about 5 minutes before it was properly done but hey, it was just super fudgy and there is nothing wrong with that!

It was good pudding, very good pudding.

Now let me show you something disturbing(ly awesome?)...

Yes. What you are seeing is true.

To make up for that I made us both massive tofu and veggie sandwiches to take out to the orienteering the next day (hummus, marmite, lettuce, tomato, carrot, beetroot, fried tofu, soy cheese). Even after squashing this sandwich down to pack it up, it was still impossible to wrap my mouth around.

But after this high dosage of wholesome veggies and grainy bread I felt much more like a healthy human (I suspect I looked like a crazy monster attempting to eat it though).

Boys can't choose dessert

2010-07-17T10:45:00.000+12:00

She read the way a cat eats: furtively, daring anyone to notice.
- Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett

There is a new vegetarian cafe in town (well, apparently it's all vegan or something like that but I don't really know). Okay, not technically in town 'cause it's in Mt Albert but that's still in Auckland city (until this whole supercity thing kicks in and then everyone is in Auckland I guess). Anyway, it's called Cosset. I had my mate M visiting from Christchurch last weekend so it seemed a good time to go check it out.

This is M's hot chocolate. It came with some kind of spicy biscuit which I got to taste. It tasted like a spicy biscuit.

This was my berry smoothie. It was really yummy and so thick that I ate it with the spoon that they thoughtfully provided.

I ordered the hotcakes. I don't know why other than that it isn't every day you can go into a cafe and order vegan hotcakes. I wanted something savoury but picked something sweet...! They were really sweet (okay, so I did douse them in maple syrup as well so that could account for some of it) and not nearly as thick as I imagined hotcakes were supposed to be. They seemed more like crepes.

So instead I suffered order envy looking at M's toasted sandwich thing with turkish bread and lots of veggies and stuff. It looked and smelled exactly like what I wanted...unfortunately I didn't order it.

I left M in charge of picking some sweet things to finish (you might well say that I'd already had enough sweet stuff for the day...and you'd be right there but that's just too logical for me). Rule of thumb...don't leave a guy in charge of picking dessert when you sort of know already the kind of thing you want and you haven't told them (i.e. I wanted chocolate and cake which is no surprise really if you know me well. M clearly had forgotten this).

So we started okay I guess...dark chocolate and apricot balls (or something like that). They were okay but not earth-shattering or anything.

Next up was some kind of oaty cookie which I attempted to halve but it was very stubborn and rock-hard. It's the kind of cookie you want to dunk in a nice hot cup of tea.

And finally, a spicy, fruity muffin which was the best of the bunch but still not what I wanted (this is not to say it wasn't a nice muffin 'cause it really was).

So all in all, I didn't exactly love my meal but I suspect that was what was picked. Next time I'll get something savoury ('cause that all looked awesome) and then make sure I get to pick dessert. Yes, it's a plan!

We are family

2010-07-13T12:41:00.001+12:00

Here we were, bounding through the cemetery, going toward the Wicked Witch of the West, instead of hiding in a dark hole where she couldn't find us. This was so smart.
- Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris

(I think someone has a Sookie Stackhouse addiction...and I think that someone might be me)

My new flat is on the edge of an orienteering map...how cool is that?! Admittedly it's just a park map but still, it's pretty awesome. I mean, I've lived down the road from maps but never, well, actually on a map before. I've run past this house countless times. I know this area backwards. You just don't understand how cool this is!

Okay, rant over! Moving on...

A couple of weeks ago my beautiful cousin K and my awesome brother C came round for one final dinner at my old flat. I was trying to clean out my fridge and pantry so I cooked up all the potatoes I could find, a block of tofu and every vegetable I had left (apart from all the carrots because if I'd done that we would have turned orange). Oh, and finished off the last of a jar of peanut butter and one of macadamia nut butter.

And here's my plate.

Dessert was also made (a team effort) but unfortunately I forgot to take a photo! I made the Lower Fat Banana Bread from Veganomicon but since I didn't have any apple sauce I actually just added an extra banana and it seemed fine...until I overcooked it in the oven (I think I had it turned up a bit high). It was still good hot and slathered in olivani.

Also recently was my Dad's birthday which, naturally, called for cake. But before we can get to cake you've got to eat dinner like a good girl right?

Mum made the vegetarian shepherds pie from Alison and Simon Holst's Meals Without Meat but adapted a dumpling recipe to put on top instead of the usual potato mash mixture. It's good. I should get the recipe.

Anyway, how about cake...?

I was, unsurprisingly, in charge of cake and spent ages trying to decide what to make. I ended up going for the Peanut Butter Banana Cake from The 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes. It is basically a banana cake with peanut butter cream cheese icing...and is really tasty!!! I can't believe I hadn't made it until now considering how many of Kris's other cakes I've made.

I like cake!

A world full of ginger

2010-07-05T13:34:00.000+12:00

The vanity of others offends our taste only when it offends our vanity.
- Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche

I haven't plugged my camera into my computer to get photos off it in ages and right now I'm not really sure where my camera is since I moved flats yesterday and there are boxes everywhere! So you will have to make do with another tiny teaser from a few weeks ago...

...good old ginger crunch based on the traditional Edmonds Cookbook recipe but veganised and with an increased ginger content (you can find the recipe here. Love...!

So good. Next time I want to make the icing a thicker consistency and, um, perhaps double it (and trust me, there will be a next time)!

Coming up next time (if I can get some space to breathe)...lots of food and maybe a little explore of my new flat (if it ever stops raining).

10 deep breaths

2010-06-26T08:56:00.000+12:00

"Some things are just never meant to be no matter how much we wish they were."
- Gilmore Girls

No book quote today. Actually, not much of anything really. Instead you get a pearl of wisdom from Gilmore Girls. Oh, and some vegan chocolate sorbet from Giapo in town. It took 3 of us to demolish this...it was that rich.

That's all.

Riding on the choo choo train

2010-06-24T11:53:00.004+12:00

He was a tiny little man with an immense low-slung protuberant belly of the kind that women have when they are eight and a half months pregnant, and he carried this great ball in front of him very proudly, as if it were a special medal or a coat of arms.
- Going Solo by Roald Dahl

My Aunty turned 60 recently so that called for a bit of a celebration. As usual, I was left in charge of making the cake. For my Dad's 60th I made him a rocket ship cake. For my Mum's 60th I made a gingerbread house (with a chocolate roof) complete with a garden. Yes, the old Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake book gets a lot of use around here. My Aunty was flipping through it and got her heart set on the train cake so that became my mission...

But first I had to veganise her favourite lentil roast (she was making a normal roast and wanted her usual lentil roast to go with it). Personally, I thought it was kind of boring and I'd make a whole heap of adjustments before making again but I've posted the recipe at the bottom of this post in case anyone's interested.

I ended up running out of time to make the gravy 'cause decorating the cake was taking much longer than I'd anticipated (although I did sleep in which didn't help) so I had to make an emergency call to Mum to help out (a tahini gravy from this old wholefoods cookbook that we both have). Lucky we have some of the same cookbooks so I could just tell her the name of the book and the page number. Yay!

So here's my dinner plate - lentil roast with tahini gravy, salad, stir-fry veggies and roast potato, kumara and pumpkin (I didn't end up eating the potato in the end though...I just can't love potatoes, at least not like how I love kumara).

I then proceeded to get a bit tipsy on wine (I was given this bottle as payment for raking mountain bike tracks at my mate's farm). I'll be honest and admit it only takes 1 glass and I'm a bit lost.

My cousin D was in charge of the evening and her belief is that dessert is the main meal of any celebration so there was lots of it. My dessert bowl consisted of apple crumble and trifle (after a bit of instruction, Mum was able to whip up my famous trifle...feels a bit weird knowing she made it and not me but it was still awesome).

I'd lent Mum my copy of The Damn Tasty Vegan Baking Guide but luckily there are my favourite cake recipes in Kris' other book, The 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes. I made 2 different kinds - carrot cake and chocolate cake (using the Black Forest cake recipe) with the front being all chocolate and the 2 carriages being mostly carrot cake with a thin layer of chocolate along the tops (to make the carriages higher). Luckily it all worked out because I started baking without any idea on how I was going to put it together...note for next time: plan otherwise you'll email your cousin and call your Dad several times out of panic.

Here's my slice of cake. People were very reluctant to destroy the cake which was both flattering and annoying. Come on people, it's made for eating...

And then to top off the evening I decided to play their piano...bad idea for a girl who recently cracked a bone in one of her fingers. I am a hopeless case!

Anyway, here's the recipe for the lentil roast if anyone is interested. I have no idea where the original recipe came from...

Lentil Roast

1 cup red lentils
2 cups water
1 onion, finely chopped
25g vegan margarine
1 tsp mixed herbs
grated vegan cheese (as much or as little as you want (or can afford because let's be honest, vegan cheese is expensive!)
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1 flax egg (I used 1 Tbsp ground flaxseed whipped with 3 Tbsp water)
salt
pepper
paprika
4 weetbix, crushed
wholemeal flour to coat
little oil for cooking

Put the lentils and water in a saucepan and simmer gently, uncovered, until the lentils are tender and all the liquid is absorbed (which is apparently about 20 minutes but I can't remember how long it took me).

Set the oven to 190C.

Fry the onion in margarine (or oil if you want but I felt in the mood for margarine) for 10 minutes until soft and lightly browned then add this to the lentils together with the mixed herbs, cheese, lemon juice, flax egg, salf, pepper and paprika.

Add a few crumbled weetbix (I used 4 from memory) to stiffen the mixture.

Oil the loaf tin and coat it lightly with flour and then spoon the mixture into the tin. Lightly brush the top of the loaf with a bit of oil and bake 45 minutess until brown and crisp, basting the top with oil from time to time.

Tip out of the tin and slice, served with tahini gravy or similar.

Someone cares

2010-06-17T20:19:00.000+12:00

Generation succeeds generation, but there is a fool walking the earth who is never ravaged by time.
- The Solitaire Mystery by Jostein Gaarder

Random note before I begin...as this site is displaying at the moment there are 3 pieces of vegan chocolate cake within about 5 posts...does that say something disturbing about my diet?!

Anyway, on with it...

There is just something so cool about food that someone else cooks for you. I'm not talking about restaurant food or cafe food although that can be nice and all. I'm talking about food that someone you care about makes for you...

Dinner was at The Chef's house the other night. I had devoured a rather intense hot chocolate that morning (hot soy milk and 2 big slabs of dark chocolate courtesy of the cafe across the road from work who made it specially for me since they weren't sure whether I could have their normal hot chocolate or not) so I was feeling the need for veggies and hoping he would provide.

This was cooking on the stove when I walked in...stirfry veggies with tofu and satay sauce (he even roasted and crushed the peanuts...ah). Pretty much my perfect meal. I suspect I am quite easy to please though.

After dinner we went to a talk by Don Tolman. Neither of us had heard of the guy until a couple of days before when he was on bfm (I was on my way to the supermarket from work when I heard him talk) but we were both intrigued. It was interesting but sometimes he talked in these over-the-top funny voices which annoyed us. Anyway, when we got back The Chef heated me up one of his awesome apple pies...I am seriously addicted. There could be worse things to be addicted to...

This is a pie from the second batch which wasn't quite as good 'cause he was trying something different with the pastry but by 'not quite as good' I mean still seriously amazing. I was told there is only one pie left now. This is a sad thing (especially if that pie doesn't make it into my tummy).

In the morning The Chef made us porridge with wholegrain oats, banana, maple syrup and walnuts (brain food according to Don Tolman and my brain does need some extra help).

It's been a while since I've had porridge but it was definitely the perfect weather for it (raining, cold, just generally miserable winter weather). I polished mine off with some awesome ginger tea I found on his shelf.

He then had to rush off to work and I had to rush off home to start the baking extravaganza which is making a train cake (more on that next time) but he sent me off with some homemade 6-grain buns for lunch.

Ah, everyone should have their own personal chef to take care of them!

Sleepy slabs of tofu

2010-06-10T11:34:00.000+12:00

"We have a long way to go, and there is time ahead for thought. It is something to have started."
- Treebeard from The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien

I am too tired to think straight right now so I will leave you with a photo from an awesome brunch I had a couple of weeks ago with The Chef at Roasted Addiqtion.

The Vegan Tofu Florentine which is huge slabs of fried tofu served on spelt toast with avocado, spinach, capsicum and some delicious chutney/sauce type thing. I think it could have done with some fried or baked tomatoes or something like that but otherwise it was very tasty and incredibly filling. Come visit me and eat it.

Right, back to work. I have a train cake to make tomorrow...