O.M.G (skite skite skite)

Sometimes, something happens, and I think, "I must be doing something right" Today, this was it.

Le Creuset wok. Red. Salvation Army. $40. Excellent condition. Best I can figure, these don't seem to be available in NZ anymore (and after 2005 they started making then with a glass lid), but the large frypans retail at $250 - $500. :) EXTREME EXCITEMENT.

Lovely Max wrap dress. Salvation Army. $6. I'm wearing it out to dinner tonight to celebrate Mexican Flag day! Weeeeeeee!

I made Vegan Chilli Chocolate cupcakes to take with me.

What I did for my holidays

Well, actually, I didn't really have holidays. But I did go down to Rotorua for Raggamuffin, and let me tell you, I can't wait for the next one! Breakfast at Zippy's, a night at the Thermal Holiday Park, and a day barfoot on the grass drinking beer and listening to reggae.

Here is a very small portion of my tomato crop. Low acid Roma tomato's in the front there, and a selection from a mixed 6 pack of seedlings at the back. I grew them in big white buckets against the north side of the house (which is the sunniest spot on our section, but is also our concrete driveway :( ) Applications of fish fertilizer and constant watering resulted in a bumper crop. They are finishing up just as my dad's fancy heirloom tomatos are ripening. How convenient! Sadly, my eggplants are not doing so well. Some mysterous pest has laid eggs in every one of the fruit and they are all infested with the hatchling grubs. :'(

In other news, next saturday I'm off on the "Waves and Wheels to Opua" train trip. Yippee!!!! Auckland to Whangarei by train on the north-western line, Whangerei to Opua by coach, And then Opua to Auckland by boat going around all the little inlets. Can't wait.

http://www.railfan.org.nz/

Vegan Piefest

I managed to snap this photo just before the worst of the carnage! My pie was a big hit. Other favourites were Vegan Steak pie with peas and potato (everyone had doubts about the veganness of this pie, but it was made by the host, so it must be true!), Tofu, Spinach and Artichoke pie, Chocolate Pumpkin pie (I am not a fan of pumkin, but even I liked it!), and Conrad's Plum, Pear, Nectarine and Apple pies (that's his 2 in the front there). :)
I ate so much I had to go home for a lie down.

PiePiePiePiePie

I've made a mean vegan pie for vegan pie-fest tomorrow. One of my favourite pies is a creamy chicken and mushroom pie, so I was trying to figure out something in a similar vein.
Mushroom and Onion Miso Pie.

INGREDIENTS:
-Vegan Flakey Pastry (New Way or whatever)

-Mushrooms

-Onions

-Olivani (or other vegan margarine)

-Miso paste

-flour (about 2 tablespoons)

-Black Pepper

-boiling water
(no quantities because it depends how big your pie dish is)

Slice up your onions and mushrooms. I used 4 smallish onions and about 18 medium-large white button mushrooms because they were on special. Melt some olivani and fry them up in it. Just until the onion is starting to go golden brown. Then strain out the liquid if there is a lot. Maybe keep it for stock if you like. Line your pie dish with pastry, poke it lots with a fork, and bung it in a 180C oven until it's starting to colour. (this is to stop the bottom from getting soggy). It will puff up, but you can press it down again. If you're fancy you can use pie weights to hold it down.

I use quite a shallow dish and make a thin pie. Now for the creamy sauce!

Make up about a cup of miso, maybe a cup and a half, using about a tablespoon of miso paste and boiling water. (depends how strongly flavoured you want your sauce)

Now we're going to make a kind of a vegan white sauce.

In a saucepan melt some olivani, about 2 heaped tablespoons I guess. Once it's well melted, chuck in a heaped tablespoon of flour and stir vigourously with a wooden spoon until smooth (it might go quite solid but don't worry). Add a little miso to thin it down and keep stirring until smooth. Add another tablespoon of flour and stir until smooth. (Basicly you are cooking off the flour as you go). Then add a little more miso, stir until smooth, keep adding the miso bit by bit until you have a sauce that is like a slightly thick pale gravy. Now add black pepper to taste. Mix the sauce into the mushrooms and onions. Fill the pie shell. (if the mix looks too runny, use a slotted spoon so you leave some of the sauce behind). Cut some pastry into strips and lay a criss-cross pattern on top of the pie. Brush the top with some oil, or the mushroom stock that's left over from cooking. Bung it in the oven on 180C until the top is golden. Let it cool a bit before cutting it.

It is delicious cold. Mmmmmm..... picinic!

It's too darn hot to sit in front of a computer.

DO WANT

I'd like to be sitting inside one of these just now.

I've been having a lucky couple of weeks. Money and free stuff keeps falling in my lap. I bought a Big Wednesday ticket, but I guess it's not that kind of luck. :( Can't win them all I guess!
The monkeys are somewhat heat affected, they are so hot they can hardly move. Poor monkeys.
I went to Wellington for one night to see Throwing Muses play. It was awesomewicked. I also spent the next day shopping before my flight out, ended up having to buy another bag for my lovely second-hand purchases, 2 of which were Kimonos. They are from a place called Asia Gallery in Kilbirnie (look it up!) They import second hand stuff from japan. The kimonos are mostly only $25 each, although there was a big pile of $5 kimonos in the middle of the floor also. I wanted to buy some just for the fabrics, but didn't have the room! :( Maybe next time.

Eating pizza and drinking beer at Fidel's on Cuba St is also highly recommended. Best vegetarian pizza. Yum.

Having a beer with Santy

Sometimes cleaning and serving drinks just isn't enough to get me through the day. That's when the snacks come out and the creative juices start flowing. And I don't mean the tequila.
This took me multiple sheets of A4 and at least 6 goes at getting the face to not look too evil. I am not much of an artiste, in the drawing sense, so it was hard work. He is actually leaning on the bar leaner and having a pint with the locals.
I am proud to say that he has already caused much mirth and merriment.

Drat!

I just made some gingerbread cakes. I put some leftover batter into muffin tins. The darn things wouldn't come out! The tops broke off, leaving the stumps behind. :( Which is funny :) because last night or the night before I was watching a Seinfeld re-run in which Elaine has a thing about muffin tops, and doesn't eat the stumps. Someone ends up opening a "muffin top" store, but then they can't get rid of all the stumps... hilarity ensues (but no too much, because it is Seinfeld after all).

I also just made chocolate christmas trees with M&M baubles, with greater success, though some of them look a little developmentally retarded.

More monkeys also. Thank goodness the monkey breeding season is almost over. The Orphange can't take many more!