Shopping,

My Hubby and I went to Enniskillen (N-Ireland) yesterday for some shopping.
We found a great little Art shop that also does huge canvasses, and I 'm thinking about doing a big pastel painting.

We found the shop when we went for lunch. Before I turned vegan we always went to Eason bookstore. They have a lovely little restaurant on the second floor. When we came there they had nothing suitable for me. Not even the veggie soup was without animal stuff.

We found another coffee shop who served real veggie soup. While we were enjoying our meal I saw that little art shop. Have to remember that for next time a need something.

Main reason for going to Enniskillen was to see if there is more available for vegans and I must say that Asda does a nice range of food suitable for vegans. Better than the supermarkets on this side of the border, and we came home with some nice things to try.

Christmas

I completely forgot to mention my lovely Christmas meal. We were invited at a friends house and she cooked for the meaty people. The soup would be vegan, but to be on the safe side, I brought my own main course and dessert.

For starter we had a lovely onion soup. For my  main course, I'd made a yummy vegan puff pastry filled with veggies and covered with vegan cheese. All the trimmings my friend had cooked, I could eat.
As a dessert I had made an apple-up side down cake with warm custard.

As a vegan you don't have to miss out on the Christmassy stuff. I had a lovely Christmas!

losing weight...

Yep,
A lot of people ask me if I loose weight now I'm vegan. I don't know where the idea comes from, but let me tell you that since I started my vegan lifestyle in October I've gained quite a few kilos :-(

Cooking is much more fun now it's a challenge and all the baking I'm doing to find nice cake and cookie recipes... Ohohohohoh. I don't have to go on the scales, the mirror tells me all I (don't) want to know.

10 kilo has to go.

Apple Up-side-down cake

It's been quite a while since I posted. The up side down cake I made last time got mixed reactions. I made another one. This time an Apple up side down, and that got very good marks from my neighbours.

Here's the recipe:

It's for a small 11cm springform, so really for max. two people.

50 gram vegan butter
100 gr plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp soya milk
50 gr caster sugar
300 gr cooking apples, peeled, cored and chopped
50 gr sultanas
1 tbsp sugar

Method:

Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

- Place apples, sultanas and sugar with a little water in a pan and simmer for approx. 5 minutes. Leave to cool.

- Mix flour, butter and baking powder
- Rub the butter in the flour mix
- Add the milk 1 spoon at the time and mix till you have a smooth batter

- Line the springform with bakingsheet

- Put the apples at the bottom of the springform
- Poor over the batter and bake the cake in the oven for approx. 40 minutes


Bon appétit!

Weather is miserable today and to be honest, for the last week. Rain and heavy storm and cold. Fields are flooding around our little village. At night I get the horses in, out of the wet field and on to the concrete. They don't seem to mind. Around 10PM they are already waiting to get in.

The weather is that bad that not even the dogs want to go outside but curl up on the couch or in their beds in front of the woodburner.

Approaching the festive season, I thought it's time to experiment with some vegan baking. No eggs and no "normal" butter.

Today I have a pear/banana/walnut up side down cake in the oven. Never done one before and it's a bit of trial and error I think. My neighbours will be my guinea pigs. They don't know it yet though :-)

I wrote down all the ingredients I used. If it's a hit I'll post it on here.

With the cake in the oven I can concentrate on my last Christmas commission. You can follow the progress on my FB page or my blog. Just visit my website and follow the links.

Just a quick note.

I'm very busy at the moment with my paintings. I have commissions to finish before Christmas and they have to be framed and sent to the client. This Saturday I will be going to my parents again. Hubby will look after the animals :-)

When I'm back I will up date my  blog. I have some nice new websites and apps too for you.

Talk to you next week.

Donna's soup (the recipe)

I think my husbands American Mam Donna won't mind that I share her Orzo Corn Soup recipe with you. I made some slight changes as I can't get any Orzo here where I live. You can easily replace it with brown rice.

Here we go:
1.5tbsp olive or rapeseed oil
vegetable stock. I use veggie stock cubes and 1.5ltr water
2 chopped onions
4  garlic cloves chopped (I love garlic, but of course you can use less)
150 gr brown rice
1 tbsp oregano
2 tins chopped tomatoes
250 gram corn kernels
salt
1 tbsp basil
pepper

Sauté the onions in the oil till tender and than ad all the rest of the ingredients. Bring to the boil and simmer for 15minutes (or more depending on the rice)
I easily forget the soup and it might simmer for half an hour :-)

This really is a very filling soup. Make it in big quantities and put it in the freezer. Enjoy.