On the cooling rack...

Pull apart rolls made from the usual recipe. A bit squished together but I think it worked. It's for tomorrow's AmnesTea. I'll also be providing chilli and cookies. It's turned into a bit of a pot luck but we should be able to raise some money and have some good food.

The Seccond Cookie

Sky Bear waits for the yummy Chocolate fudgy oatmeal cookies to cool so she can have their chewy chocolaty goodness all to herself.

The First Cookie

I still can't think about food, never mind about cooking, without feeling nervous. So the blog is going to be super exciting for a little while. But I did make my first cookie from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar.


It's a super healthy cut out cookie ... or at least it's in the shape of an apple, drizzled with green icing.

YES!

In other news I've been rather desperately ill with a stomach bug for the last week so excuse the lack of posting. And the lack of German Friendship Bread. Why is it that every time I promise to post my progress I end up needing medical attention?

Welliebobs!

Have I ever told you about the night I finally went vegetarian? I swear it's relevant and not just one of my usually sprawling introduction paragraphs that has nothing to do with anything.

For starters it has more than one paragraph. See? Anyway. I was going out with this bloke called Dave, he was (and still is according to google) a games programmer and was the only boyfriend that I've ever had that I didn't meet online. We where both extras in an advert. I remember I was reading Vegan With A Vengeance on set.


Anyway so he dumps me. And I'm thinking that I'm probably going to have to drop out of uni (completely unrelated to the boy), which also means loosing my job and loosing my home so life is already quite crap without this bloke dumping me. So I think I have to do something good tonight. Something for me. Something extra special.

I'd been thinking about it for years, trying out food and slowly getting used to the idea but that night was what finally pushed me to being a vegetarian. Then I went out to to Subway because I was too grumpy to cook after just being dumped.

Of course now I'm with Stephen so I'm never grumpy... shut up... and how all this relates to today is that the boy who dumped me loved Beef Wellington and I promised to cook it for him. But I never did and now I never will make it.

However, and five paragraphs later we get to the point, I made Mini Wellingtons from The Vegan Lunchbox for tea tonight. Served with carrots, chard and broccoli stir-fried with soy sauce and garlic. Very yum just a little dry and, in my northern opinion, could have done with a splash of gravy.

I'll say

We generally make a pilgrimage to Lush every time we are in a city that has one. We enjoy sniffing things, looking at the pretty colours and chatting with the very lovely, very perky staff. We like that they value the handmade, and that they don't value too much packaging. We indulge in a bath bomb and go on our way.

It's a little tradition we take part in whenever we go to civilisation. So hearing about staff being threatened and stores being vandalised made us go a bit... 'you what?!' I mean I know of people who don't like the smell but...

Turns out they are selling a bubble bar until Boxing Day that supports the HSA. Which has made fox hunters more than a little bit angry. A lot of people on the other side of the fence are angry too though. We're angry that even though fox hunting isn't legal it's still happening, that foxes are still being killed. And that the people's champion, David Cameron, would quite like it to be legal again.

Which has lead to all sorts of fun. Like the aforementioned threats and vandalism of Lush shops. And also, I assume, this lovely review on the website:


Now I don't agree with everything done by (and in the name of) the HSA. Much as I don't like everything done by Greenpeace or vegetarians or feminists. However they are doing an important job in regards to fox hunting. Personally I wish the police would do it but it turns out we can't have everything we want.

However my rambling will never amount to more than tip of the iceberg on what is a strange part of British life and politics and I don't intend to pull it apart any more here. But I did buy the bubble bar. And it smells yum.


I used it today, it turned the bath slightly pink and the smell of aniseed and peppermint was rich and luxurious. If you got to buy one make sure to sign the petition urging police to investigate hunts and uphold the law properly.

We've adopted!

So last night it was dropped off on my doorstep. German Friendship Bread starter. Live yeast to which I am to add sugar, flour and milk and keep around my kitchen for ten days.

But hay, I'm always up for an experiment.


Just looking at the instructions though there are a few things that have got me down.

1. It's not vegan and while neither am I (yet!) all my baking has been for the last year or so. And I haven't missed cake with milk and eggs.
2. With all the stuff I have to add I may as well be making a cake from scratch. Especially as it will probably cost as much as two batches of vegan cupcakes.
3. I haven't got anyone to pass on the starter too yet.

But I guess the proof is in the eating. So check back in ten days time to see if I'm still sceptical. Granted I probably still won't do it again but there will be cake at the end of it.