Here's to a very exciting decade ahead

"Come, come," said Venables. "I really can't go along with this modern playing down of th evil as something that doesn't really exist. There is evil. And evil is powerful. Sometimes more powerful than good. It's there. It has to be recognised - and fought. Otherwise..." he spread out his hands. "We go down to darkness."
- The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie

About a month ago someone (oooo, that was me, pick me!) had a very important birthday (well, all birthdays are important, but some are more important and exciting than others). And what do birthdays always call for (well, in my world anyway)?

Why yes, that is a dirty concrete floor. Thank you for noticing.

CAKE! The chocolate cake from Bhakti Cookti Bookti in fact. It was so ridiculously rich and chocolatey that we had to eat it with ice cream lite licks hokey pokey is the BEST!). Not exactly surprising considering it basically has an entire large block of chocolate in the icing!

After the usual wintery Wednesday Night run (basically a group of us meet up on a Wednesday night to go running in the Port Hills together) M and I tempted everyone back to where we were staying to help devour the cake. Cake is pretty much the perfect post-run food right?

The cake is filled with delicious jam as well as copious amounts of chocolate icing. Yum!

In case anyone was concerned (although I can't see why) M and I did actually eat some real dinner which even included vegetables!

Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie and Olympic rowing. Perfect!

The ancient history decorated in tinsel

It was all about health, of course. It was a conspiracy. Why did they never find a vegetable that was bad for you, hey? And what was so wrong with onion gravy anyway? It had onions in it, didn't it? They made you fart, didn't they? That was good for you, wasn't it? He was sure he had read that somewhere.
- Snuff by Terry Pratchett

Oh man, it’s been a LONG time. So long that I can’t even remember everything that’s happened! I was trying to go through all my photos and it all got a bit much! I can’t believe it’s already two thirds of the way through February. Where is the year going?

I know it was months ago but the easiest place to start seems to be Christmasy stuff. Christmas time basically involves lots more cooking, baking, eating, socialising and all that kind of stuff.

The weekend before Christmas M and I travelled up to Auckland for the annual family get together. To start with we proceeded to eat our way around some of my favourite places in Auckland (as well as catching up with some of our favourite people) including lunching at Cosset...


No, I didn't eat ALL of that! But what I did eat was delicious!

We then had to devour lots of food at the family Christmas party that evening. I'd made my tofukey which always goes down well. It's nights like this that make me miss being back up in Auckland with my family. My aunts and uncles are like second parents and my cousins have become brothers and sisters.


Pancakes for brunch at Revel were the perfect way to recover from the food coma of the night before (okay, that's not strictly true but it seemed like an awesome idea at the time). They were buckwheat pancakes served with rhubarb...delicious.

Christmas eve was all about singing carols in the park whilst trying to keep the candle from blowing out (which we failed at miserably!).


Christmas itself was spent at M’s family’s house where we got to eat potatoes that were dug from the garden right before our very eyes and I ate peas straight from the pod (11 peas in one pod - apparently that's good luck).


I made tofukey and Christmas pudding (which was served with soy cream and fresh berries) for everyone. I love Christmas food. Christmas cake was also made...I think I might need to make another one now so we can enjoy it at all times of the year.


All in all I think it was quite possibly the best Christmas I've ever had. Yay!

Join me next time when I dive back down into the deep archives of time since my last post and find some other exciting things to tell you about! I promise it won't be far away.

Delighting in a food coma

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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


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

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

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


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

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

Pie in the sky (with diamonds?)

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

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


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

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


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


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


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

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


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

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

Randomness with creamy fizzy baking

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

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


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

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

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


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


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


Anyone want to come round for breakfast?

Pumpkiny, gingery snow

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

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


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


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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

Feasting for winter

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

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


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


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


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


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

I remember

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)!

I like cookies

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!!

Cake or death

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.

Escaping with Big Boots

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

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.

Minty Christmas!

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.

Late night mumbling

"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.

And it was all ginger

'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.