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Thursday 13 May 2010

Oops! I did it again.....

... I left it too long between posts! Bad Sal!

Well I'm making up for it with lots of pics. Starting with pictures from a recent PPK meet up. I was in Brighton to see Ash playing at Concorde 2 that night (they were freaking awesome by the way) and all the food in the day made this one brilliant weekend.

It was supposed to be in the park but the weather was decidedly dodgy, so JoJo graciously hosted for us. But, as if you didn't already know, I'm a bad blogger and I forgot my camera, so I took a pic of my (first!) plate with my phone. I've totally forgotten who made what so here's a vague outline. Cheesey feet crackers! hehe they were awesome, carrot tart which was delicious, salad with pasta / seitan sausages and rocket, sausage rolls, potato wedges with barbecue sauce, rice salad, spanakopita (sp?) and home made bread. All delicious. The potato wedges, barbecue sauce and rice were my contributions.


Then the important stuff - the dessert plate - Clockwise: Kip's fortune cookie (with added snarky defensive omnivore / vegan sayings inside - brilliant!!), Helen's rocky road cookies, Jojo's rocky road brownies, Holley's vegan jaffa cakes (AWESOME!) and my apple / custard mini pies.

Those rocky road cookies were so good - you're gonna see them again in a couple of pics' time!


A close up of my rice salad that I took just after I made it. Sauteed peppers, onions, mushrooms, redwoods bacon style rashers, sweetcorn and peas with brown basmati rice.

And my pies. Totally cheated on these - I cooked up some granny smith apples with sugar and spices and then rolled out shop bought shortcrust pastry and cut them out and put them in muffin tins. A spoonful of alpro soya custard and apple mixture with a cute heart of pastry on top and a sprinkle of sugar and they were ready for the oven.

I had som pastry left and I love pastry so hate to waste it, so I made a turnover with the leftover apples and custar. It came out weird looking but yummy.


The next morning, my friend and I were planning to go to Wai Kika Moo Kau for a veg brekkie but as my bro and his girlfriend came with us, we went across the road to Bubble Kitschen. They serve a vegan breakfast alongside their vegetarian and omni versions. It was MASSIVE and the coffee was pretty bad but the breakfast was pretty damn good!


Onto some randomness. Dinner the other night. I saw Levi Roots make pumpkin rice the other night and thought it looked pretty good. And I had a butternut squish (hehe) in the fridge already so I made my own version. I also had some orange pepper and sweetcorn leftover in the fridge so I chucked them in too. It was good but I think I need to play around with the spices before I post the recipe. I just had it with some steamed tenderstem broccoli.


I made some seitan sausages on Sunday and for a quick dinner I blitzed up some tomatoes and mixed them with wholewheat penne, sugar snaps, asparagus (HURRAH for UK asparagus season being in swing!!), cannellini beans and some herbs and spices. Oh and one of my sausages - pretty good for a quick dinner.


I made the sausages because I fancied sausage and mash. So that's what I had sunday, with onion gravy. YUM.


Remember those rocky road cookies I mentioned before - well I dreamed about them for a week after having them in Brighton. So I dug out Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar and made a batch. Me and my friends ate some when they were round for dinner and I made them take a load home so I didn't eat the whole batch myself. I froze some because I was in danger of eating them all. They are SO good! My friend's hubby who I sent some home with my friend for, said they're my best baked good yet, so thanks Isa & Terry!! I made sure to only cook them the minimum time so they were fudgy and soft. If you have this book you gotta make them!!


Here's the dough, I had to seriously restrain myself from just eating all the dough straight out the bowl.


When I was in Brighton I went into Infinity to buy some Tempeh and all they had was the one with sea vegetables in. Boo, but I bought one anyway! And thought I'd make the chesapeake tempeh cakes from Vegan Brunch. The only complaint I had with these is not to do with Isa's recipe - it's my own fault - I added some old bay seasoning because I found it in the American shop near where I live. And so they pretty much just tasted of celery - and I don't like celery! Dummy. So I'm going to try making them again without the old bay and I think they are going to be awesome.

I made a potato waffle to go with them. I haven't got these quite right yet but I'm working on it and I will post the recipe as soon as I have it right!


This was a quinoa pudding that I got the recipe for from the GI Vegetarian cookbook. It was spectacularly underwhelming. But I like the idea of it - so I'm going to play with it and report back next time!


Simple dinner of rice salad and some tempeh that I baked with a bit of all purpose seasoning sprinkled on it and had in a big floury roll with barbecue sauce. yummy.


This was a recipe I got off sparkpeople for tempeh carrot salad. It had ginger and orzo pasta in in. I changed it a bit by adding some lime juice and adding shredded cabbage and sugar snaps. It was really really good but I think it needed more tempeh. I'd make it again definitely.


And finally, a quick dinner of spaghetti bolognaise - made with linda mccartney mince and sprinkled with nooch. Yum.


I will try not to leave it so long next time.

Laterz
xXx

15 comments:

  1. All these wonderful foods totally made up for your absense! Vegan jaffa cake and fortune cookies? I'm in!

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  2. Wow, this is a stunner of a post! Those pies you made are adorable. Love the hearts. And the rice salad is beautiful-- everything looks delicious!

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  3. i'm hung up on the ginger carrot salad with tempeh. i think that's my fave of this post!

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  4. OMG! Apple turnovers!!
    YUM YUM! I haven't thought about those for YEARS and now I'm not gonna be able to think about anything else!!
    Amazing looking food Sal, that rice salad got me licking my lips too. You have so many meet-ups you're so lucky!
    Sausage, mash and onion gravy probably has to be my favourite meal ever - pure comfort food.
    Good to know that Linda M's mince is vegan. So many of her products aren't and it surprises me that her daughter doesn't have more say in that seeing as she's vegan.
    I'm glad you thought Ash were awesome 'cos they've just been announced as playing at Benicassim this year and me and Mr treehugger were talking about them and both of us said we weren't really bothered about seeing them but now they get your vote I will make a point of catching them.
    :)

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  5. Great to see you back again! There's just so much wonderful looking food on here that I don't know where to begin! But I do have VCTOTCJ, so I'll be making those rocky roads. And I like the look of your sausages, too. And those vegan-message fortune cookies look great, too.........

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  6. Quinoa pudding sounds intriguing! I need to log into the PPK forums once in a while so I don't keep missing meetups :/

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  7. Me too! My poor blog is so neglected! :(

    Hee hee, cheesy feet! The rice salad looks so yummy and I love all the ingredients that you used.

    The little pies are so cute, Sal! Your weird looking turnover looks a little like some kind of sea creature... or if you flip it upside-down it looks like the top of Bart Simpson's head! :D

    I bought Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar just before we hit the road so I didn't get a chance to bake any of the cookies. I did make a huge list of the ones I want to make though, and the Rocky Road cookies are at the top of the list. :)

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  8. My goodness! I love those fortune cookies, and the cake and even if you say they were a cheat I love those apple tarts!
    I so want the vegan cookie book. So much. But I know I'll just be eating cookies all day long!

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  9. I would've been eating that cookie dough too, lol, it looks sooo tempting. I'd love to get my hands on anything from your dessert plate...

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  10. Holy moly everything looks awesome, especially that cookie dough. To be honest I too have eaten a many bites of cookie dough before I actually stick em in the oven. And then i wonder why i dont get as much recipe yield psh.

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  11. Those heart-topped pies are adorable! I guess you might say that the secret ingredient is love? ;)

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  12. I love your blog and the name of your blog. It is TOTALLY like that in Hawaii. When I tell them, "Can I get the Navajo sandwich but with no meat or cheese, and add avocado?" They just look at me like...what is wrong with you!! They are always so confused by me :) All you food on this blog looks wonderful by the way. I am following you now , check me out and follow my blog too if you like it :)

    elilaiann.blogspot.com

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  13. omg! I'm going to crumple up from a mix of food envy + being really hungry. Why do I read blogs when I'm hungry? especially yours because the food always looks so amazing.

    that potluck looks amazing!

    I love the misshapen pastry - I suppose it is an alien pastry. I mean, what else is one to do w/ leftover dough?

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  14. ps. I really want some vegan fortune cookies!

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  15. That coconut, mango cake looks absolutely gorgeous, my mouth is salivating just thinking about it. Can't wait for the recipe!

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speak to me, yo!