Recipe

Storecupboard food today.

Did a burgermix 'loaf' for lunch today.

1 packet Burger mix
1/2 pint cold water
2 shreaded carrots
3 leaves red cabbage, shreaded
1 tsp veganaise

Make up mix with water (as per on pack instructions) and leave to stand. Shread the carrot and cabbage and mix up with the veganaise. Leave to stand. (for nicest results do both these far enough ahead to let both stand for around an hour or so. Or for the cabbage/carrot just use left over coleslaw from the previous day (which is what I did in reality :-)

Anyhow - mix altogether, put in a greased loaf tin and Cover with foil. Bake for around 30 mins at 180 degrees celcius, taking the foil off for the last 5 minutes.

Serve with veg of choice in sufficient quantities to feed all.

(I did sprouts and green beans, both in need of eating, lol. And pepperonata:

3 peppers (i used a yellow and two red)
2 Onions (more if small)
2tbsp olive oil

slice both finely. Fry off the onions - around 10 mins - in oil. Then add peppers and stir through. Cover and leave on a low flame/temp. to gently cook for around 20 mins. Leave to stand for around 10 more minutes to let flavours develop.)

This pepper mix makes a good topping for toast, pizza, potatoes, etc. as well.

Reading

Lots of reading done in the last couple of days, although mostly on the web.

I've been doing some further 'work' on the Steiner Education side of things and beginning to spend some serious time looking into Antrosopophy. I'm finding it quite hard going, mainly because there is a lot of pholosophical language in use and I don't have much background in that. Anyway I've found www.waldorfanswers.com a good place to begin unknitting stuff, and the links are good. Its by no means comprehensive though.

I've also spent a fair amount of time with the magazine pile. I'm now up to date with Prima, Country Living, The Vegan and Real Simple. I've re read a pile of Mothering magazines as well.

I've also read (cover to cover, none of this picking in and out stuff) the newest copy of The Mother Magazine. It came through the door on Christmas Eve and made me very happy - been waiting ages for it as the publishers had a problem with the printers and apparently a number of issues had problems with half pages, things being upside down etc. So very happy to see it. Probably the best value-for-money of everything I subscribe to as well (more details at www.themothermagazine.co.uk)

I've given up on G.P. Taylor for the moment. I'm finding Shadowmancer just too derivative of so many other fantasy fiction books. My personal take on this is that Mr Taylor is relying on a lot of his readers coming to his brand of Christian fiction without the background reading of 2 and a half decades of reading this sort of thing. Every plot twist seems to belong somewhere else, although the whole is reasonably new. But it doesn't seem to manage to stay within one fantasy genre or writing style and his editor could have done more work on it. Pity, because as a person he's quite interesting (I sat in on a press conference with him at Greenbelt this year). Anyway - if you want to read Christian-orientated/inspired fantasy fiction I'd suggest C.S. Lewis' Narnia series to begin with.

Lots of books given to the children for christmas - variations on a fairy theme for DD1, Mr Bounce for DD2 and DS got the latest Wibbly Pig (complete with a Wibbly Pig soft toy, which he adores). I bought DP the latest Pratchett paperback (Monstorous Regiment) although I'll admit that that was one of those 'I want to read it for myself' presents, lol. I've got a wish-list running at Amazon atm, which has a lot of Permaculture books on it, which will be my next personal reading project once I've got my feet under the Steiner thing :-)

Off to do some more reading now - probably a re-read of Knit One (a new US knitting magazine - I'm one of those who read a lot of craft/handcraft magazines, but the amount of handcrafts actually done shrinks as the number of books/magazines increases). and I need to remember to talk to the bank tomorrow about how much a money transfer to the US will be because I'd like to buy a couple of curriculum books that I can't get here and the company in question doesn't take paypal!! Ho hum......

First post and all that, lol!

Reading and Recipes - the 'specialist' blog.

Mainly to list the reading I do (and whether I'm enjoying it or not) and the recipes I end up cooking, inventing, eating - sometimes with the help of a DD or two. Mainly a second string to my blogging career to keep a track on all those lovely things that we create in the kitchen, and to remind myself of all the books I own so that I don't end up with duplicates of things that cost a tenner apiece (ouch!).

Recipes on here will be vegan, although there will be substitutions and suggestions made for those of you that wish to add in other stuff :-) Beginning with the basics and all that.

First recipe - one that gets made a lot in this house when a quick meal is called for.


Veg. basket soup.

For 5 servings (2 adults, 2 children and a baby)

1tsp olive oil (optional)
Two onions
Two potatoes (normal size, if diddy then you'll need more)
Three Carrots

(We don't usually peel our veg, just give it a rinse to remove any mud/bugs. But we also buy organic where we can, and would suggest that you peel any non-organic veg. to make sure you intake as few chemicals as you can.)

1tsp of organic veg stock powder, (optional - we like the vecon stock, but marmite works well too)

Peel and slice onions into half rings, saute in the oil. Whilst this is happening chop the carrots in to rounds and then add them. Stir well. Then leave whilst chopping the potatoes into cubes roughly 2cm. Add them to the pan and continue to saute, stirring frequently, for around 2 mins.

Sprinkle over stock powder (or add other stock concentrate to the pan) and stir through. Add enough water to cover up to 3/4 the depth of vegetables and stir to incoporate the stock powder/concentrate.

Leave to cook - simmering, but stir every so often to ensure it doesn't catch on the bottom of the pan.

Serve when the potato is cooked through.

This is nice with a couple of slices of good bread, or you could stir through a little tomato puree or fresh, diced, tomatoes if you have them. In early spring this is particulary nice with the addition of parsley or alongside a mixed herb/lettuce salad.

We usually follow this with an apple or pear at this time of year, and we aim to gain at least 3 servings of veg/fruit from each meal in the day.


And there endeth the first entry :-)