Vegan MoFo VI, Day 31 - This is Hallowe'en!

And this is why I'll never be a professional baker.

I didn't post yesterday because I was working on my stuff for today.  And frankly, this is so epic, it should count as 2 posts.

You know how, when Facebook first started up, you filled out all your info about what stuff you like - favourite bands, movies, books, etc. - but they changed at some point and sorta automatically subscribed you to the pages for the things you like?  So I get posts from movies that I like, usually stills from the film.  But every once in a while, they post other stuff - related but not exactly stuff from the film.

A few months ago, The Nightmare Before Christmas posted some Oogie Boogie cupcakes.  They looked pretty awesome.  Well, about a week ago, they posted Jack Skellington cupcakes.  How I didn't have this idea on my own I'll never fully understand, but I saw them and immediately thought, I am going to make those.

Well, their idea was to use chocolate cupcakes and vanilla buttercream.  But he's the Pumpkin King, so of course pumpkin cupcakes would be more appropriate.  But since vanilla buttercream would be a bit much for pumpkin cupcakes, I made cream cheese frosting.

I used the recipe for Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World but left out the chocolate chips, used pumpkin pie spice instead of just cinnamon, and made them gluten free.  For the frosting, I used the cream cheese frosting recipe from the same book.

That's right - I am the Pumpkin King!

Back to those Oogie Boogie cupcakes.  One batch of pumpkin cupcakes wasn't enough to take to the office, but I didn't have enough pumpkin to make a double batch (why did I only buy one can?!).  So I decided to make chocolate cupcakes.  Once I'd frosted the pumpkin cupcakes, I thought, what the hell, and threw some green food colouring into the rest of the frosting.

Looks like it's Oogie's turn to boogie!

Both varieties of cupcake tasted great.  The only problems I had were that doing small decorations like that is kinda a pain in the ass, and cream cheese frosting doesn't really take to being built up.  I probably should've made two separate batches (a cream cheese and a buttercream).  That's what laziness gets you, children - melty looking Oogie Boogies.  Also, a number of cupcakes didn't make the journey to my office, so there was a bit of carnage.  But I've only been at work for 20 minutes and I think about half of them are already gone, so meh.

I can't believe MoFo is over already!  I've really enjoyed it, even though I did reach a burnout stage.  I'm already looking forward to next year!

HAPPY HALLOWE'EN!!

Vegan MoFo VI, Day 29 - Sunday Baking (on Monday)

Obviously today is Monday, but Mike hurt his hand and didn't feel like cooking tonight, so we just had leftover tofu scramble for dinner.  And I did bake yesterday, but I didn't write about it.  So I'll do that now!

Last night I made the Snickerdoodle cake from Have Your Cake and Vegan Too!  It was pretty easy to make and put together.  The only not-easy (but still not particularly difficult) part was putting the topping on.  My frosting had already set a bit and wasn't as sticky as it maybe should've been, so the sugar crystals kept bouncing off (all over the worktop and floor that I'd just cleaned).

We didn't have any last night, but I took it into work.  One person said it was lush; another said she was glad she didn't live with me because she'd be really fat.  And I believe 2 people had cake for lunch.  So, I'd say it was pretty successful.  I did get a piece in the end, and it was pretty good, though (I can't believe I'm saying this) it maybe had a bit too much cinnamon.  But it really did taste like a snickerdoodle, which is one of my favourite cookies, so overall I'm happy with the outcome.

The whole point of my Sunday baking theme was to make a few different cakes from Have Your Cake and Vegan Too! to determine if I want to buy the book.  Of the things I've made, I'd say the majority have been good to outstanding.  I could definitely see myself baking my way through the rest of this book (or at least the rest of the recipes that I liked the look of).  So, if anyone in my family is reading this - I want this book for Xmas!

Vegan MoFo VI, Day 28 - My Hateful Kitchen

I've just spent the better part of 4 hours cleaning my kitchen in order to do a kitchen tour.  It's the cleanest it's been since we moved in.  That said, you'll soon understand how I feel about it because, as you'll see from the photos, it still looks dirty.  This is one of the many things I hate about my kitchen.

Anyway, this is a shot of the right corner of the kitchen from the doorway (attached to the sitting room).

You gotta play it safe around electricity.

You can see the kettle, toaster, microwave, and washer are all sharing one pair of sockets.  This is because there are exactly 4 outlets in the kitchen - that pair is one, one is behind the fridge, and the other is by the cooker (and the cooker is plugged in for the digital clock).

A closer view of the area - the microwave is sitting on top of the box that houses the gas meter.

You can see here that this is kinda the hot beverage and miscellany centre - we have a few varieties of tea,  and the coffee is behind the chocolate spread.  There's also a container of sugar and a container of a sugar/stevia blend.  And, of course, my vitamins, because this is a sensible place to keep them (in fairness, I keep them there because I have a glass of oj every morning and take my pills with it).

Above that is one of the cupboards.  I keep all my non-flour baking stuff on the top shelf (including apple cider vinegar, because it's a vegan kitchen), and the bottom shelf has sauces, vinegars, bouillon, condiments, a few spices and herbs, liquid sweeteners, and a couple of Japanese cooking ingredients.

Beside that is the cupboard with all the flours (top - the one groaning under the weight of all the flours), with pasta/noodles, beans, seeds/nuts (that I can eat), and grains on the bottom shelf.  Did you notice the ceiling?  Yeah, that's pink.  Even better, it's pink-painted wallpaper.  I don't know why they didn't just paint the ceiling pink, other than because they knew how much of a hassle it would be for the next owners to deal with it.  Also, the walls are covered with some kind of lino-like substance that was apparently all the rage in the 60s, supposedly because it was easy to clean.  That is a lie.  Or, at least, what's on the stuff in my kitchen isn't coming off.

The fridge came with the flat.  It looks alright, but it makes a lot of weird noises, so I suspect it's not long for this world.  I use the top for storing cereal and breadstuffs (and my electric kitchen scale, which is under the bread).  Also, notice the light switch - by its position, you'd think the lights were off, but no, they're on.  The genius that put in the light switches put them all in upside down.  All of them.

This is the full view of the main work areas of the kitchen from the fridge.  I did 2 or 3 loads of dishes today, and I couldn't be bothered drying all those.  The drawer beneath the dish dryer is where I keep my cutlery.  Notice how the cooker sticks out by about a foot?  That's because I measured it at the front and it was 60cm, but I didn't measure it at the back, which is not 60cm.  It makes perfect sense.  Also sensible - curtains in the kitchen.  We're gonna remove those and put in a blind soon.

This is the view of the left side of the kitchen, also from the fridge.  That unit there was in the sitting room when we moved in.  As a set, I didn't much appreciate them because they took up so much space.  But this one by itself actually proved to be great for the kitchen:

I keep my cookbooks on the top shelf, wine glasses, wide tumblers, large mugs and random storage things on the middle shelf, and most of my crockery on the shelves with the pull-down door.

Beneath that, I keep some pans and the bottom of my blender/food processor on the bottom shelf.  I keep my extra bagged spices and herbs in the top drawer and baking utensils in the middle drawer (the 3rd drawer is the junk drawer).

The bit with the sliding door is our drinks cabinet.  I keep the many bottles of wine that friends bring over for dinner parties and don't drink in here.

Front view of the cooker - it's all gas.  We wanted a dual fuel, but there's no ground in the electrical wiring, so they legally couldn't install it because it was an electrocution risk.  Fun!  To the right are my cast iron pans that need re-seasoning and a few bottles for recycling, and to the left are my slow cooker and a few bottles of oil.

Moving to the left, we see the spice corner.  Most of my bottled herbs and spices are here (apart from the ones in the cupboard), mostly because I couldn't think of anywhere else to put them.  There are also a few large jars of things - plain flour, nooch, and sugar.  That hanging utensil thing was here when we moved in, and I'm actually glad it was left (but probably only because they couldn't be arsed to unscrew it from the wall).  Speaking of the wall, why WHY is the socket so far up the wall?  Why?

And finally, the worktop (with breadmaker and other random stuff to the left).  I didn't get a close-up of why I hate that too.  The person who lived here before us obviously put a hot pan on it, because there's a raised ring on one bit.  It also stains really easily, so I can never tell if I've spilled something or if it's a 20-year-old stain (which is maybe why I hadn't deep cleaned in so long).

I forgot to take a photo of the cupboards beneath, but they're basically all my other stuff (pots, baking sheets and pans, colander, storage stuff) that I just threw in there when we moved in.  The other thing about hating my kitchen is that I don't even want to spend the time making it more user friendly, so it's not particularly well organised.

So now you know why I hate my kitchen, or can at least sympathise to a degree.  I can't wait until we either save enough to get the kitchen redone or I get a new job and can afford to make payments for a new kitchen.  Having a crappy, uninviting kitchen really sucks the joy out of cooking.

And now that my kitchen is finally clean, I'm gonna go make a mess!

Vegan MoFo VI, Day 27 - Still sneezing

I've been sneezing since about 3pm yesterday, and I slept really badly.  I kept waking up with my tongue feeling like sandpaper because I couldn't breathe through my nose.  At least Zebby let me sleep in a bit.  Anyway, all this is to say that today I'm just gonna review some products that I've had recently.

First up are Redwood's beef-style and turkey-style roasts, which I really like, but they're usually a bit more costly than I like to spend on what is essentially a big seitan sausage that I could make myself.  But when they're on sale (like during one of Holland & Barrett's sales or marked down at Real Foods), I kinda can't help myself.  They're not meant to be cooked in anything other than an oven, so I bought some months before I could actually cook them because they were on sale.

It turns out you can cook these in a slow cooker (there are ways of doing so that I found at the time, but I'm too lazy to google them now), which is what I did with these when I didn't have an oven.  In the oven or the slow cooker, they come out moist and tender and taste remarkably similar to what they're mocking (though the texture isn't the same, but that's probably a good thing, especially for the beef).  The only issue I have is that the turkey-style roast really stinks when it's cooking.  I made one a couple nights ago and I thought I was smelling the cat's room (which is at the other end of the flat).

Both varieties work well as an actual roast, i.e. with potatoes, carrots and onions, or with mash and veg on the side, or with vegetable rice (which is how I ate the turkey-style the other night).  However, my favourite way to eat either of them is to slice into strips and put in a wrap with boiled potatoes and carrots and a bit of gravy.  So good!

Next up is Prewett's chocolate creams - gluten free chocolate biscuits with a chocolate cream filling.

From Amazon - which doesn't actually sell them.

I bought these at Real Foods today when shopping for nice things to take to people in the States who are letting me stay with them (and trying to figure out what happened to my tea, which they seem to have discontinued).  The photo is a little misleading (they don't have nearly that much cream filling), but they were really good - a bit crumbly, but good flavour and nicely crisp without being hard.  I also like that they don't have a gluten-free feel to them - they just have a regular old biscuit texture (and taste).

Finally, Tesco has a range of juices called Juice Bar.  They look to be mostly vegan - they're juices, but I've found fish oil in juice before, so I'm not gonna issue a blanket all-clear on them.  Mike used to get them often from the Tesco near his office, but he thinks they may have stopped carrying them (or that they moved to another part of the store and he can't be bothered looking for them).  I had my first try of them tonight with the Virgin Sangria - grape, apple, and orange juices.  I really liked it - it obviously didn't taste like real sangria, but the flavours worked surprisingly well together (I was wary of the combo initially).  Mike had the Rootin' Fruitin', which was a combo of pineapple, mango and carrot.  I wasn't impressed with this one, and he didn't love it either.

They usually have them on offer - 3 for £3 or 5 for £4 (I think) for 250ml bottles.  They're not massively great value for drinking from home (I usually have oj and get it on offer for 2/£3 for 750ml of Copella, the best oj I've ever had), but they'd do in a pinch if you didn't want to buy an entire 750ml bottle of juice for drinking on the go.

Here's a bonus picture of my cat being super adorable:

FYI - That is not an invitation.  He will cut you.

Vegan MoFo VI, Bonus! - Rekorderlig Winter Cider

A few days ago, I mentioned finally finding Rekorderlig Winter Cider (cinnamon and vanilla flavoured apple cider) after having seen the company tweet about it for ages.  It says on the bottle that you can drink it hot or cold, so we first tried it hot.  To be honest, I didn't love it.  And considering the hype, I felt like I should have.

Well, I bought two bottles, and I had the second bottle tonight.  It is so so SO good.  So good.  You definitely want to drink this cold.  And you definitely want to drink this.  The cinnamon gives it a subtle warmth while the vanilla gives it a different kind of sweetness than you get from the apple alone.  It would've been good as just apple/cinnamon, but the vanilla pulls it together.

I feel like this one isn't quite as sweet as, for instance, the berry cider (which is one of my favourites ever).  It might work for someone who likes a slightly drier cider (though it is still pretty sweet, so maybe not).

I really want to drink this all the time.  I'm gonna be super sad when this goes away after the winter.  I could drink it all year.

Vegan MoFo VI, Day 26 - British Food Friday - Sausage and Mash

I'll be honest - I'm a little burned out, but I've also been really tired this week, hence a lack of posts for the past couple of days.  And today's post is a bit of a cop-out (again) because I only came up with it around 5pm today.  Also, I'm having another allergy attack, so I'm doubly tired and can't stop sneezing.

That said, at least I can talk about something new.  As I said, it occurred to me that I didn't plan anything for BFF (I kept thinking I'd do a roast in the slow cooker, but I never remembered in the morning and was always too tired to prep in the evening) when I was standing around the office trying to decide what to do about the fact that it suddenly started hailing out of nowhere (the forecast for the entire day was sunny).*  I decided to go to Tesco to figure out what to buy for dinner while I waited for the bus, and I suddenly had a brainwave that I could do sausage and mash.

It just so happened that Tesco had a new variety of Linda McCartney sausage (red onion and rosemary) on offer for £1 for a packet of 6.  Combined with the fact that the regular LM sausages were both more calorific and more expensive, I decided that it might be good if I talked about a product I've never actually talked about before.

I wasn't really sure about them, but they turned out to be really good.  They had a nice flavour and texture that were completely different from the regular LM sausages.  And they were really tasty even though I burned them!  I could see myself buying these again.  I served them with some noochy Smash and microwave-steamed veg.  It was quick, easy, delicious, and filling, which is exactly what I needed.

I might try to get some extra entries in over the weekend if I can get over this allergy attack and find the energy to do anything.  And I'll definitely post next week, since it's nearly the end of MoFo (*single tear*).  I'm hoping to at least be able to do Sunday baking (especially since one of my co-workers asked me why the baking had stopped) and some more cookbook challenge stuff.  And there might be another restaurant review since Mike totally owes me dinner.  We'll see how it goes.

*That was some crappy sentence structure, but I can't be bothered fixing it.

Vegan MoFo VI, Day 23 - Soup!

Today's post is gonna be another cop-out because I realised that I don't have anything for my lunch for tomorrow unless I buy another can or carton of soup.  I'm a little tired of store-bought soup, so I'm gonna make some scramble, which I've blogged about extensively.  So instead, I'm gonna talk about ... store-bought soup!

It's proper soup weather in Edinburgh, and that was especially true today.  It was a pretty crappy day to start with, and then the haar rolled in.  It's been misty and dreary all day.  Today was the kind of day where you can't imagine eating anything other than soup.

Since I'm trying to lose weight, I've also been relying on soup for my lunches when I don't have anything to bring from home.  I don't know of any store-bought vegan soup that's particularly calorific, if only because they aren't loaded with meat and cream and stuff.  It's also pretty easy to find vegan soup at the store, whereas you're less likely to find sandwiches or other ready-made lunch-type foods that are suitable.

The only problem I have with store-bought soup is chunkiness - I'm a big fan of pureed soups (generally, though I also love a soup full of barley).  It's pretty difficult to get a smooth vegan soup from a can, so I've gone through a bit of trial and error trying to figure out which soups have the right chunks (e.g., potatoes, beans, carrots) or are smooth enough to not put me off.

My go-to brand is usually Baxters - they make quality soup and (usually*) label them if they're vegan.  They're also sold in pretty much every big-box store in the UK.  I think I used to like one that had butternut squash, but I kinda went off it last year, so I'm not even sure if they make it anymore.  My current favourite of theirs is the Carrot and Butterbean.

I also like Tesco's tinned lentil and veg soup.  I'm not sure if that's exactly what it's called, but it's in their low-cal range, and an entire can is, I think, 180 calories - not bad.  Tesco have also just released a couple of vegan soups in their fresh cartons.  I'm 99% certain that the Lentil, Bean and Barley and the Mexican Chili Bean soups are both vegan.  I tried the first yesterday and really liked it, though I would've preferred more barley and fewer chunks of tomato.  I tried the other one today, and it was just awful.  The potatoes were so undercooked that they crunched.  Tesco is getting a strongly worded email from me.

This is obviously not an exhaustive list of store-bought soups.  I mainly buy soups for lunch, and I only have a Tesco nearby, so I can't really speak to the options at Sainsbury's, Morrisons, M&S, etc.  Maybe I'll do another soup review if I get another job that happens to be near a different shop.

*I picked up a revamped can of Carrot and Butterbean today that didn't specify, so I'm wondering if they've changed that practice.  That would suck since it's the quickest way to determine if I need to bother reading the ingredients.