Isolation Baking

During my two months of isolation, I did some baking. Not uncommon under the circumstances, as long as there was flour to be found! I didn't make bread, I stuck to baked goods. But I also didn't do that much baking, I ended up relying on store-bought biscuits and treats a lot because motivation was hard to come by. But still, this is a little post for the things that I did actually bake during that time.

ANZAC Biscuits from World Vegan Feast by Bryanna Clark Grogan: ANZAC day fell during my time at home, and one must have ANZAC Biscuits on ANZAC day. I decided to try this recipe, which was good. Instead of 24 little biscuits, I made 12 big ones and baked for a little longer. They came out chewy and tasty. The recipe says you can use agave nectar or golden syrup, but any Australian knows that golden syrup is the ONLY choice!
Rating: :)



Easy Applesauce Snack Cake from The Abundance Diet by Somer McCowan: In the early times, we were able to get grocery deliveries but they only offered a limited amount of products and they would automatically sub if they were out. So one day instead of getting my nice regular flour, I got some Coles brand gluten free flour. Sigh. I made this applesauce cake that was meant to be made gluten free, using my gluten free flour instead of making Somer's gluten free flour blend in the book. The Coles GF flour is not great, it is pretty much just rice flour, and definitely gives things a certain texture. This recipe also had a lot of baking powder, and I could taste it coming out of the oven. Let it sit overnight, it is much better the next day. I used sweetened apple sauce and a mix of date and maple syrups, and I left out the stevia because that stuff is gross. I also used mixed spice instead of cinnamon because I had run out - horror of horrors! This is good sliced thick and spread with peanut butter, and maybe a scoop of ice cream if you want to make it dessert-like.
Rating: :) (but leave it until the day after baking to eat)



Walnut Brownies from I Can Cook Vegan by Isa Chandra Moskowitz: Truthfully, I am not that big a fan of walnuts. But I am a fan of being able to buy crumbed walnuts that are ready to add into things without chopping. I vastly prefer pecans, but they need chopping and sometimes that is just energy one does not have. I made a half recipe of this brownie recipe in a 4 x 8 inch pan, and cut it into five brownie slices. Isa loves her damn coconut oil, but I used Nuttelex instead. This has melted chocolate as part of the batter, so you know it is going to be fudgy and delicious, even with walnuts!
Rating: :)



Bananana Cinnamon Swirl Muffins from I Can Cook Vegan by Isa Chandra Moskowitz: This recipe makes 6 jumbo sized muffins, so pull out your big capacity muffin pan. I only had enough spare banana to make a half batch, so three muffins. Again, I had to replace the coconut oil - this time with canola oil. The muffins are made by layering batter with the cinnamon swirl (again, I used canola oil for the cinnamon mix, not coconut), and then swirling. It was meant to have a total of four batter layers, but I found I only made three layers. Regardless, these are wonderful and the cinnamon swirl was a delight.
Rating: :)



Chocolate Tahini Quick Bread from 500 Vegan Recipes by Celine Steen and Joni Marie Newman: Tahini provides the fat and oil content for this not-too- sweet bread. I used regular flour instead of whole wheat pastry flour and skipped the optional coconut milk powder. This rose very high in the 4 x 8 pan I used, I might look at using a 9 x 5 instead. It said to bake for 65 minutes, but mine was done after 55, which is unusual for my oven to be done ahead of time. I like the flavour of this, though I did find it a bit dry.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



More sleeping Dim Sim, such a sleeping beauty.

Christmas Lunch 2019

Hello friends, and merry holidays or happy hopefully day off or whatever this time of year means to you. Yesterday was Christmas here, and I managed to actually muster up some festive feelings, which was nice. The day started with my traditional Christmas morning bikram yoga class, then home to presents, and making Christmas lunch. It actually rained quite a bit, which was delightful! I'll have several festive posts to share, but today I am focusing on our Christmas lunch for this year.

We decided to keep things pretty simple this year. So instead of making a centrepiece or even buying some big fancy roast, we went with the easiest options of some Tofurky smoked ham slices and a Field Roast Wild Mushroom Quarter Loaf that I had lurking in the freezer. It was my first time trying the loaf, and it had such a wonderful mushroom flavour. We sliced the loaf and gave it a quick pop in the microwave as recommended on the packaging as the simplest way to heat up, and the ham was from the fridge.





Tarragon Pea and Spinach Side from Keep It Vegan by Aine Carlin: The first of two new recipes I tried for our meal. This is very easy to make, using frozen peas and a bag of baby spinach. The recipe says to cover the peas with water to simmer, and once the liquid has reduced add the spinach to wilt. This would have resulted in a super soupy dish, so I ended up draining off most of the liquid before adding the spinach. I realised that I forgot to add grated nutmeg (doofus), and I also decided not to add the optional soy cream. It was a really nice, savoury, green side dish. Perhaps next year I will try it with the cream, and also remember the nutmeg!
Rating: :)



Miso-Glazed Roasted Carrots from I Can Cook Vegan from Isa Chandra Moskowitz: The second new recipe I tried, from my newest cookbook. This recipe is super simple, and super tasty. I made a half recipe, for three side serves. I had five skinny carrots, that I cut in half crosswise before cutting in half lengthwise, just because otherwise they would have been too long to fit easily on our lunch plates with everything else. The glaze is easy to make. It says to toss the carrots in it and then put them on the tray. This left most of the glaze in the bowl, so I scooped out the glaze and rubbed it on the carrots. I left out the red peppers, and topped with chopped parsley rather than scallions. I roasted these for a bit longer, and at a slightly higher temperature than the book suggested to make sure they were nicely roasted and glazed.
Rating: :)



Potato Squashers from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan by Dreena Burton: These have been a Christmas Day staple at our house for years. Salty, hot, crispy, roasted potatoes. Who can say know? We always bake them for about five extra minutes on each side once they have been squashed, to make sure they are super crispy.
Rating: :D



Cinnamon Citrus Cranberry Sauce from Keep It Vegan by Aine Carlin: Frozen cranberries are hardly ever available here, but I had some in my freezer still from when I bought a heap of bags last year when Woolworths randomly had them (they didn't this year). This is my favourite cranberry sauce to make, and I've made if to previous Christmas times as well.
Rating: :D



Mum also made this lovely tomato and cucumber salad with balsamic dressing.



Our Christmas table.



And my fully loaded plate.



For dessert, I got these mini vegan friendly Christmas puddings from Coles. It was great having them in individual portions, as we could each eat ours when we felt like it and it was just a small bite, rather than having a huge pudding to share with leftovers. I drowned mine in some Alpro custard, because I like a very high custard to pudding ratio.



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



While she may not look impressed here, Dim Sim had a lovely Christmas day. She got a fresh packed of Greenies, enjoyed running in and out of the rain multiple times to get rubbed down and hugged, had many sweet lap snuggles with me, and ate very well.