Wordless Wednesday

Mumma's Making Vegan Gumbo

Last night I made my first ever Gumbo (vegan gumbo at that!)

I had always shied away from making Gumbo as it is normally made with meat and seafood (and I'm a vegetarian.)

However, my veggie friend made a fantastic vegetarian one and I thought I would give it a bash, I must admit I did not follow a recipe, I looked at a few for inspiration and then made it up as I went along.

Recipe...

• First mix equal amounts of vegetable/olive oil and flour together over a medium to high heat to make a brown rue. (I probably used about 1/3 of a cup of each.)
• Next chop in large chucks/slices 2 red onions, 2 cloves of garlic and 3 sticks of celery. Fry these off in the rue for around 7 minutes.
• Whilst the onion, garlic and celery are frying prepare 4 cups of veggie stock (1 stock cube per 2 cups of hot water) and chop 1 green bell pepper, 4 spring onions, 1 pack of okra.
• After the 7 minutes, add the stock and then all these spices...
• ... 3 bay leaves, 2+ tablespoons of cayenne pepper, paprika, chili powder, Cajun mix (chili powder, oregano, dried garlic, dried onion, black pepper, paprika, cayenne pepper, dried chilies), oregano, thyme, sage, black pepper, dried chilies, 4 tablespoons of vegetarian Worcestershire sauce, 1 chopped green chili.
• Then add the remainder of the chopped veg and add some sweetcorn (optional) and add 3 chopped vegetarian/vegan sausages of your choice.
• Then add enough brown rice to feed 2-4 people.
• Let it cook for 30 minutes to an hour.
• Add more spices to taste if you feel it needs it.

Take out the bay leaves and enjoy :)

My Halloween Weekend...

... Looked like this!

Friday evening was spent at a Celebrity face mask themed birthday pub crawl!

I was Nigella Lawson :)

I was up until 2am Friday night, then up at 6am Saturday morning caring, baking and sewing for our Halloween Party Saturday night (I made my costume and parts of OH's) I finally finished my patchwork dress in my lunch break at work on Saturday :)

Happy Halloween :)

Some more Autumn firsts

This week has seen some more Autumn firsts for me.

On Tuesday I had my first Hot Cider of the year, I was so excited. All of last winter I drank Hot Cider in my local and I've been waiting all year for it to make a come back!

Yesterday I made my first Pumpkin Pie of the year. However, it didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped.

I used this slightly adjusted vegan recipe...

Pumpkin Pie Filling

Ingredients:

• 750g of roasted pumpkin blended into puree
• 150g cup muscovado sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon allspice
• 1 1/2 soy milk with a teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 4 Tablespoons cornflour
• 4 Tablespoons water

1. Mix the pumpkin, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and allspice together in a large bowl.
2. Heat the vanilla soy milk in a small saucepan over low heat.
3. Dissolve the cornstarch or arrowroot powder in a small amount of cold water.
4. Add the dissolved cornstarch to the heated soy milk. Bring to a boil for one minute, then remove from heat. The soy milk should resemble vanilla pudding.
5. Stir the thickened vanilla soy milk into the pumpkin mixture.
6. Set the vegan pumpkin pie filling aside and make the crust, or use a prepared crust and skip to the “Baking the Pumpkin Pie” instructions below.

Pumpkin Pie Crust

Ingredients:

• 125g flour
• 75g non-dairy margarine (I used Pure)
• 3 Tablespoons water

1. Pour the flour into a medium bowl.
2. Cut the margarine into the flour using two dinner knives or forks, until all the margarine is small, flour-coated chunks.
3. Add the water to the flour and mix thoroughly, forming a ball of dough.
4. Spray a pie pan with non-stick cooking spray, or coat it lightly with margarine.
5. Roll out the dough into a circle and place it in the pie pan, or simply press the dough into the pie pan. Make sure the crust is an even thickness throughout, and covers the entire pan.

Bake the Pumpkin Pie

1. Preheat the oven 220 degrees.
2. Pour the pumpkin pie filling into the crust. Bake the pie at 220 degrees for 15 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 180 degrees. Bake the pie for 40-50 minutes, or until the pumpkin is firm.
3. Let the pie cool for about two hours before serving.

This wasn't the best Pumpkin Pie I've ever made, so I'm on the hunt for a better one, let me know if you have a good one, I'd love to try it out.

For the original recipe I adapted slightly please see here

In 6 Weeks...

My goodness, I can't believe 6 weeks has past since I last blogged, and as always I have to look back through my photos to remember what on earth I have been up to...

1) I've made lots of risottos...

2.) Dog came back from being missing for 2 Weeks :)

3.) I did lots of baking...

4.) I saw a life size remote control Dalek!

5.) My fruit bowl has seen many a squash...

6.) Minni has just been Minni...

7.) I've made some scrummy food...

8.) We've seen a lot of this guy (a cat, who's name we don't know, but I call Fwiend. He lives on OH's street and has no tail)

9.) I drank Tequila...

10.) We saw some chickens...

The first crumble of the year and my first Herman!

Today, we had 2 of our dearest friends over to drink lots of wine and eat lots of food!

I rustled up a vegetable pie and some roast potatoes after a series of disasters.

I had original planned to make a lentil roast (much like a nut roast minus the nuts) but I realised I had no loaf tin to bake it in :( then I discovered the lentils needed to boil for 45 minutes before I could use them.

Lastly something horrible happened to the first batch of pastry that Mike made, luckily I whizzed up another batch was all fine!

Also today was the day I made my first crumble of the year, a blackberry (from the blackberries I picked the other day) and raspberry.

I hoping the fact that it was all gobbled up before I could take any photos means they all enjoyed it.

Sarah brought me a Herman Cake to look after, I had never heard of a Herman cake before, but it sounded like such a lovely thing to do, it comes with daily instructions, I have to feed him, stir him and even talk to him :)

I'm off to eat the cheeky scraps left of the crumble, have any of you ever had a Herman cake?

It's officially Autumn!

The 1st of September is here and some may say I'm crazy, but in my eyes, that makes it officially Autumn and what a dent we made in the first day of Autumn.

I made these gluten free and vegan cupcakes...

Mum made soup and we went blackberry picking ready for my first crumble of the year on Sunday. I also gained a fruit bowl (thanks Mum).

She gave me some of her homemade jam too :)

I also had my whole knitting technique re-written, we discovered my Great Nannie had taught me to knit by looping anti-clockwise instead of clockwise, leaving me with a twisted stitch. I was taught to hold my tension in such a way that once I've grasped it I should be able to knit like fury. I was like learning to knit all over again.

I almost forgot the squashes I have gotten this week, ready for my favorite time of year (yes, how did you guess, Autumn.) Anyone that knows me well, knows I have an absolute obsession for squashes of all shapes and sizes, I love finding new ones, my net challenge is to grow some.

Paquito and Gem Squash!

My 1st of September was finished off with this scrumptious vegan dinner...

Dan Dan Noodles with Spicy Tofu

Kitchen Porn

Kitchen Porn is a phrase often used by me and those close to me. It quite literally is me cooing over china or cooking wear I can't afford.

I was in Jarrolds yesterday and fell in love with this set from Portmeirion...

I am smitten :)

On the subejct of kitchen porn, whilst in Jarrolds, I fell upon something I have been lusting after for quite some time, I joked and said "this is what I'm saving up for"

Le Creuset Casserole Dish

I have wanted this gorgeous purple casserole dish by Le Creuset for quite some time now but at £145 a pop I think I shall have to keep on wishing.