Farmers' Market and getting ready for tomorrow.

Another Saturday, another Farmers' Market post. Today I got a sack of tatties, some shrooms (which hopefully I'll actually use this time), some Swiss chard (frittata!), and kale from the organic farm, and another three bars - chili and coffee to send to a friend in TX, and winter spice for us - from The Chocolate Tree. It was sprinkly and chilly, and there weren't a lot of other stalls that I fancied (though the other farm stand had squash, but I just can't afford £2.50 per Kg), so it was a quick trip.

Tomorrow is movie night - French food and Gigi! I'm really excited. I've already made a White Bean Boursin from The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook. Tomorrow I'll make a baguette from La Dolce Vegan to serve with it, as well as French onion soup (also from Ultimate Uncheese), omelets from Vegan Brunch, and something for dessert that I haven't quite decided on - maybe crepes, but I'm not sure I have that kind of patience or time. (Now I've got this song stuck in my head. And for you Buffy/Angel fans, yes, that's Wesley.)

Mike's off to Gamers from 11, so I'll have about 7-8 hours to clean the flat and get most of the rest of the food made. I hope I have enough time and energy to pull this off. And I hope no one bails, because I don't have room in my fridge for leftovers from more than one dish. I probably don't even have room for leftovers of one dish.

I made you a muffin, but I eated it.

I mentioned yesterday that I made Pumpkin Chocolate Chip muffins (I only used 3/4 c of sugar, left out the soy yogurt (which isn't an ingredient in VwaV) and bunged in a 100g bag of Dairy Free chocolate chips), and that we ate the entire batch in less than 24 hours. I decided to make another batch, since we ate the last one so quickly that I didn't get to take a picture.


They're just that good. Unfortunately, I couldn't do a low-fat version because I hadn't made any more applesauce yet. It turns out that you really can tell the difference between low-fat and full-fat versions of this one. The full-fat muffins are more crumbly and slightly less moist, somehow even more delicious, and - bonus - the paper comes away from the muffin much more easily. But since I'm trying to at least keep off the weight I've already lost, this will have to be a one-off, unless I make them for the ceilidh or something.

Dinner was a cookbook challenge recipe - Red Lentil Pasta from La Dolce Vegan

(Sorry for the rubbish picture - it wouldn't have looked that great even if I hadn't already eaten some and taken the picture under bad lighting.)

I was not a fan of this. First of all, it gives the impression of coming together in about 15 minutes. Well, not if you want your onions translucent and your lentils cooked. I used some chopped tomatoes in their juices and (at least) an extra 1/4 c of water and cooked the lentils about twice as long as the recipe called for, and they still felt underdone. Even after I blended everything, I could still feel individual lentils. And they're red lentils - the kind that cook down into a paste! I don't know how that's even possible. Apart from that, the flavour was nothing special. I prefer the Punkin Pasta over this one.

I think most of the rest of the recipes I'm making from this book are desserts (because lord knows I need more desserts), so we'll see how those go.

Cookbook challenge, week 9, day 2 - La Dolce Vegan

I had oatmeal twice today. Breakfast was a quick and simple golden syrup oatmeal since I had to be at the Scottish Studies library at 11, and lunch was savoury oatmeal, similar to last night but with the addition of a few drops of liquid smoke. Since I don't have anywhere in particular to be tomorrow (just grocery shopping), I think I'm gonna try mocha.

Today was supposed to be Movie Monday, but only one of my friends could make it, so we ended up playing Settlers of Catan. We still had breakfast, which was two recipes for this week's cookbook challenge. The original challenge was for How It All Vegan by Sarah Kramer and Tanya Barnard. But we realised that not everyone had HIAV, but almost every challenge participant had at least one Sarah Kramer book, so we've decided that this week's challenge is just Sarah Kramer recipes (any recipe from HIAV, Garden of Vegan, or La Dolce Vegan). I have LDV, so that's what I'm using.

I feel like I'm now compelled to try every variety of tofu scramble I find, just to see if I like anything other than the spice combo in VwaV. So tonight's dinner was Sleepy Sunday Morning Scramble with Vegan "Sausage" Hash

(Sorry, it's not a very appealing picture. We were in the sitting room (bad lighting) and had already started eating when I remembered to take it.)

I used VB Italian feast sausages for the hash, and I only had a red onion, so that went into both recipes. Everyone liked the food. I still prefer Isa's scramble seasonings, but I liked the addition of Dijon mustard in this one. If I'd been at all prepared, the whole meal could've been ready in about 15 minutes, I imagine. My only complaint is that the hash recipe was very non-specific. It just says 'cook until done', without any real indication of what 'done' looks like. This doesn't seem to be the norm, though.

We've tentatively rescheduled movie night for Sunday. Mike won't be home, so we're gonna watch a movie he wouldn't want to see - Gigi! It's one of the classic MGM musicals from the 50s. So, we're gonna have French food and watch a musical about a French courtesan (essentially)! I'm not sure what to make, apart from Pain au Chocolat from VB, so if anyone has any suggestions, let me know!