Organic Produce

Cooking only organic for bub. Of course.

It's proving difficult at times. The "organic" shelf at woolies in Batemans Bay had mouldy corn, mushrooms on the verge of being inedible, and some... carrots. Bub doesn't have carrots.

Was fuming. Enough to forget about air disasters for five minutes.

What is going on here? People care nothing for their own health or that of their children, but shit like Kim Kardashian and who wins Big Brother - is important?

It's craaaazy I tells ya.

I'm sure going to appreciate the beautiful organic produce we have available to us in the northern rivers when we get back.

Unless our flight disappears on the way.

Vegan Chocolate Mousse

Was all hoysewifey and stuff, thought one hour of sleep is no excuse not to bake, is important to keep up ones qualities and so on.

This... this!!!

1 avocado (large)
2 table spoon raw cacao powder
2 table spoon maple syrup
1 tea spoon rapadura sugar
Blend. Omg.

Evil poison?

So bub seemed to get over the jet lag ok, after initially being a bit sore about the fact that we woke her in middle of night-sleep, and it was daylight on top of everything else...
Then has been waking earlier every night. Last night 1am. Like. 1. Am.
In desperation I gave up coffee today. Haven't been having coffee back in oz, at all. But love swedish coffee. And was quite conservative. Maybe two cups a day. Or three.

Amazingly she is now sleeping.

Two hours.

Coffee is evil poison. 

Everything fun is evil poison...

Vegan Icecream

Found recipe on Boels blogg: Vegan Glass.

Vegan Icecream.

Decided had to try it. Kind of doubled the recipe though. Actually kind of quadrupled it... (pregnant = hungry, etcetera)

Used one can of coconut cream, three large bananas, 4-5 tablespoons of cocoa powder and one passionfruit (could have easily used two though!). Mixed together with mixing stick and froze for a few hours - and... delicious...

Vegan Breakfast & Cake

How cool was my second lunch yesterday..? We call this "Vegan Big Breakfast":

Also, at long last, started to experiment with vegan baking...

Recipe:

2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 cup sugar (I used rapadura sugar)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk (I used oat milk, not sure how other types would work)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla sugar (if you don't have this, use vanilla essence but this gives it a slightly artificial taste)
Chocolate chunks

Mix flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, baking powder,salt and vanilla. In a medium bowl, whisk together milk and oil.

Add the wet ingredients and the chocolate chunks.

Bake for 30-40 minutes depending on oven, on approximately 175 degrees Celsius.

Let cake rest in form until cooled off slightly, otherwise will fall apart like mine did...

Birthday Picnic

Hubby's birthday picnic at Wategos Beach yesterday:

All made by your truly (mostly): eggplant and mushroom vindaloo, hummus, pancakes.

Not, luckily for everyone involved, made by me: Chocolate orange cake, passionfruit cake, coconut bounty - ALL raw vegan! Delicious!

Will get back to list soon. Still resting post tooth-extraction. Unfortunately for me - next appointment on Wednesday. Hurray.

Day 5: this would have been nice to eat today

Hmm. What? Stupid list.

Today would like to eat pretty much the same stuff as every other day.

What would like to eat:
Pizza
Ice-Cream
Chocolate
Lasagna (loaded with cheese)
Pancakes
Coke

What will eat, instead:
Rice Noodles
Fruit
Chocolate (is good for you)
Broccoli
Mushrooms
Spirulina-drink

So you see, it's all in the mind. In fact, will go make delicious Spirulina-drink right now. Mmm.

Deep green deliciousness...





You wish you had one.

Small Victory

Redemption?







Yup.

Terrible Cook

Have for a few years now fancied myself as a bit of a genius in the kitchen, much like Nigella Lawson-style-Masterchef-contestant (if were ever to be on TV).

Readers of this blog may have noticed it.

Now, however, I think it is high time for me to revise this optimistic view of my cooking skills. The truth is: am really not all that great.

Attempted something new today. Something "easy" which, incidentally, had seen on Masterchef recently. French Toast. Too easy, for a whiz like myself!

Recipe??? Pfffffft!!! Not needed. On we go.

What eventually ended up on plate was not French Toast. Not sure what it was - but definitely not French Toast. Sadly. Was horrible soggy mess scented with cinnamon. Hubby was deeply disappointed.

Hubby "Why can't you just use a recipe?!"
Me "I never use a recipe, cooking is so easy!"
Hubby "I would enjoy eating more if you did."
Me "I would enjoy your company more if you shut up."

But. Most not be angry. He was right. Am terrible cook.

Terrible.

Molasses Muffins

Decided to experiment with a new ingredient yesterday.

Had been informed by various sources (mainly alternative health, naturopaths and so on) that molasses is great to eat, an excellent source of this-that-and the-other. So bought some. Thought, is like sugar, is it not? It is not.

Mother was horrified when told and tried convincing me that molasses is stuff that cows eat. And horses, sometimes. Not people!

Decided to ignore mother, and googled some "healthy" recipes for molasses-muffins. Got to work.
Put everything together, slightly concerned about horrid smell and awful oily appearance of molasses. Nevermind, hubby and I said, it will be better once it's cooked.

Once cooked, muffins looked great! Fluffy, beautiful colour - what one might expect from a muffin.

The first bite was bad. The second bite was terrible. After the third bite I was crying.
Hubby, knowing it is not safe to criticize my cooking - made choking noises and claimed muffins to be worst thing he had ever eaten in entire life, all categories. Assuming this includes revolting oyster-shots he used to drink - this is very bad judgement.

Healthy molasses-muffins now sitting on bench ridiculing me. Accusing me of wasting food if I do not eat all of them. All TEN of them...

Temporarily I forget my greater goal (becoming a hippy) and curse silently to self; Bloody hippies and their bloody health... triple choc vanilla muffins - here I come!

Don't be fooled!

Banana Bread

Superior housewife-skills, once again, I tell ya... Hubby is lucky to have me.

Banana-bread.

Made once with auntie Mia in Bellingen. Instructions on piece of paper left a few details out, for instance note said "Approx 175 degrees, until it smells done."

Birthday

Birthdays are a good time of year to reflect on changes that occur as we grow older and wiser. According to tradition I always think back on previous birthdays as far as I can remember; what did I do, where was I - and so on.

Until I get to about 2006/7 - anything before then is kind of a blur.

Anyway.

2011: Byron Bay: Lovely meal at restaurant outside Byron - early night, home.

2010: Sydney: Out on the town with bunch of friends - in spite of having some sort of eye-ailment rendering me practically blind, still managed to have too many drinks and stay out too late. Was middle of week but friends are hardcore drinkers...

2009: Amsterdam: Japanese restaurant with a couple of friends. Fairly early night, rode bikes home - nobody fell over.

2008: London: Was terribly depressed, hated what was doing and also thought was getting too old. Can now look back on this moment in time knowing life was about to get a lot better; also I was not bloody old! Now I am old.


Things I have said in recent time which I would have sworn blind I would never say if asked 10 years ago:

"Old toothbrushes are excellent for cleaning purposes"
"I need a good grater"
"I don't eat dead animals"
"I couldn't live in a big city"
"I'm always asleep before 10"
"I have to do some gardening"
"I just ordered five new recipe books"
"I simply must get a leaf-blower"
"No thank you, I am not drinking today"
"Is it Friday? I didn't realise"


Hubby took me to lunch this year - awesome little cafe called the Concious Cafe, in the Bay.

Raw cacao and banana rice-milk smoothie - very nice, as it would want to be for 8 bucks! But the food was quite cheap...

Brunswick & Vegan Cooking

Brunswick Heads yesterday, for those of us who prefer to swim without waves...

Also tried new yummy vegan recipes:

Chickpea Cutlets (served with vegan gravy)

Sweet Potato Fries

Time to Run Away?

Designed them to look like Swedish Meatballs. Made them in manner similar to how one might make Swedish Meatballs.

(Apart, of course, from the ground up animals.)

In midst of all this creativity, something unfortunately got over-looked.

Taste.

Panic-mode.

OH MY GOD HAVE GUESTS COMING TOMORROW WHAT WILL I DO CANNOT POSSIBLY serve guests potato-bake, salad and bread and pretend like those are the main dishes... or can I?

Will I just heat up the saw-dust-crossed-with-sand inspired balls and act like all is normal?

Will I text everyone in morning saying event cancelled as have just come down with cholera?

Will I go down to White Shop in morning and purchase pre-made vege-balls of some description for like a 100 bucks and pretend I cooked them myself?

Will I, perhaps, emigrate back to Sweden as a matter of urgency and never cook again..?

Think is now safe to say that have greatly over-estimated my abilities in the kitchen.

Menu

Have arrived at solution (to non-meatball-issue).

Good old-fashioned canned lentils, mixed with some ginger and spices - fried in some cinnamon - and we have the perfect looking and decent tasting Swedish Vege-Balls! Phew!

However, going to have to shelve idea of vegan potato-bake. In Sweden one can find vast arrays of vegan cream-substitutes - the only thing could find in White Shop here in Byron was a tiny old dusty carton from Germany containing soycream and loads of additives. Oatcream, unheard of. Even in White Shop.

So this Christmas we may look forward to indulging in some cow-creamy potato and some cow-creamy beetroot salad.

Next year - am thinking of taking the path of least resistance and cancel whole Christmas Food tradition.
Swedish Christmas Food is not vegan. It is not vegetarian. It is not appropriate in 30 degree heat.
Have adamantly prepared it for the past 10 years - is it time to let go..?

How important is it that we maintain our traditions? How does something become a tradition? If I make, say, quinoa-salad with peanut sauce every Christmas for 20 years, is that then tradition?

In any case, this Christmas am making the following:

Lentil Balls with Gravy and Cranberry Sauce (vegan)
Potato Bake (Janssons)(vegetarian)
Beetroot Salad (vegetarian)
Eggplant Mustard Sill (vegetarian)
Gingered carrots (vegan)
Chocolate and Coconut Balls (vegan)

In Swedish:

Jag inser att chokladbollar inte traditionellt sätt är att betrakta som julmat. Men jag ställer mig för sjutton inte och kokar knäck - nån måtta får det vara!

Form Slump

Oh dear.

The soy-balls that I have told EVERYONE that I am making for Christmas (and for next weekend) - are... are... a DISASTER!!!

Really. Bad.

Going through form slump.

Soy-balls terrible. Gravy terrible - unless you love salt. Can probably be rectified - use less salt.

The soy-balls, however, are beyond salvation.

They taste like revolting mess fed as child - tinned fish-balls, or fiskbullar. They look like fiskbullar!!!

Childhood Trauma relived yesterday at dinner. Today tried to disguise horrible colour, consistency and flavour by adding tomato-paste and BBQ-sauce.

Result = fiskbullar with BBQ flavour!

WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY????

Lennox Head and a Trial Run

Took a little drive to Lennox Head this morning, just south of Byron Bay:

Am in this very moment attempting to make Soy-balls in the image of "Swedish Meatballs" - which am going to prepare for Christmas Eve. Pressure is on. Often congratulate self on being most accomplished at cooking, but something happens when trying to cook for other people... it just does not come together. Does not taste as amazing as had imagined.

Something, incidentally, happened today whilst preparing the recipe. Realised soy-beans need to boil for THREE hours. THREE! No yoga for Anna today then. Kitchen duty. Wish the White Shop in town would stock tinned soy-beans.

So, anyway, this Christmas am not taking any chances. Today is trial run. Doing second trial-run WITH OTHER PEOPLE next weekend. Other People being Swedish Neighbour and her hubby plus kids - as well as Louise plus kid. These guys are all "gluten intolerant."

Well.
Sorry guys, hard enough being practically vegan and all organic - I am not even sure what "gluten" is. Hopefully it will not kill you.

Have provided everyone with warnings that food may or may not be edible. We shall see.

Stuff White People Like

A little while ago, read a hilarious book entitled "Stuff White People Like" - another one has now come out which have not read:

Perhaps will order it.

This is definitely not a book designed to stimulate your intellect - but will definitely make you laugh!

It's one of those "it's funny because it's truuuuuue" books.

For instance, a couple of my favourite things that white people enjoy:

- Farmer's Markets (yep)
- Organic Food (yep)
- Yoga (yep)
- Vegetarianism (yep)
- Living / Doing things near Water (yep)
- Renovating a House (yeah, sort of)
- Hating people who wear Ed Hardy (mostly)
- Adopting Children from Abroad (considering)

In our circle of friends, we commonly reprimand each other by saying perhaps "That's so white." Or "You're the whitest person alive."

Hubby and I get that a lot.

In Byron Bay, they have invented what is possibly the most pretentious - white - drink in human history.

The LSD.

The Latte Soy Dandy.

It looks like a coffee, it costs the same as a coffe - but it is... ground up and brewed dandelion.

That's right. A weed. Something others may pour roundup on to get rid of. Fortunately there are plenty of white people here in Byron who will drink it.

Me included. Yes. Have confession to make. Have decided to stop all intake of caffeine. It was getting ridiculous.

For instance - could no longer get out of bed unless heard kettle on downstairs. Would actually do insane things like order a hot beverage (soy flat white) at cafe even though sunny and 30 degrees. I mean. Heard of cold drinks..?

For this reason have suffered a few nasty headaches and been slightly angrier than usual.

Yesterday we did go for a nice little drive to Mullumbimby, for a LSD. By the way the "Rock&Roll Cafe" in Mullum does not play rock music. Ensure you get a take-away cup.

Recipe Book

Been very busy, working alongside hubby to create the much anticipated... Wedding Photo Album!!!

Indeed.

As a devoted reader of this blog, you may know that this has been an ongoing project for sometime. We, in fact, got married on New Years Eve 2009.

Right now do not have much time for blogging, am in middle of making Chick Pea and Kale Curry - a recipe from this book...

... which arrived yesterday - was super super excited.

The Makings of an Ideal Wife

Look what happens when you make your own carrots:

Funny looking

Colourful!

Yes - domestic goddess.

On the subject of domestic-goddess-ness, have finally mastered the art of roasting veggies (I have used pumpkin in the example below). Do not believe this is something commonly done in Sweden (roasting) - or is that just my family?

Yes, yes, yes - (am patting self on back, congratulating self on being such an ideal wife - not my fault hubby is a bit annoyed just because he just now had to come in here to sort laptop out as the ideal wife was shouting "BAAAAAAABY the effing compuuuuter is not working agaaaain, get in here nooooow!")