BrisVenture 2023 Day Six and Seven: The Final Edition (also, I LIVE!)

HELLO FRIENDS, I AM ALIVE!

I don't know how it has been almost three months since I have posted on here. Time and things just got away from me. Then I fell into a spiral where I was really far behind on catching up on blog posts, but then for some reason blogger and google wouldn't communicate properly and stopped me from commenting a bunch, so then I felt bad about posting again before I'd caught up. Which is silly talk, I can post and then catch up! Also I have fixed the blogger/google thing so now I can comment again on the posts I still haven't read.

So, what have I been doing?? I have been pretty much working, being with my cats, and my hyperfixation on Our Flag Means Death is as strong as ever. Did you know that MAX cancelled the show even though pre-production for the third season was already underway, and it is one of their highest rating shows?? They did. And it may sound silly, but that really put me in a very not good place. Thankfully part of my OFMD hyperfixation is that I have a wonderful community online of fellow fans, how great is that! Also, we are going to save our show, or possibly die trying.

With that in mind, before you read on could you please visit SaveOFMD.com and sign the petition? Sign it from every email account you have. Share it with your friends, family, colleagues, strangers. The petition is just one part of the campaign to save the show, but every signature could help!

But I know what you are here for, food times! So, time to finish up my adventures with my friends who visited me in November. On our final day, we went to a vegan market. Not one of the regular Brisbane Vegan Markets, this was a ticketed event for one weekend only. I was thinking it was going to be like the Brisbane Vegan Expo I'd been to before. I could not have been more wrong. It was tiny, and had almost no interesting stalls. We were so disappointed. Luckily, it at least had a small collection of food stalls that we visited. And it was in a pretty location.



Helen went straight for this plate of Balinese food.



I started with some tofu rice paper rolls. Molly also got a noodle bowl from the same stall, but I forgot to take a photo of that!



And Sharnette tried a cheeseburger served on a doughnut bun from Vegood!



I also got a pretzel with mustard beer sauce, and a trio of bao from Vegood.



And we all got some lychee iced tea, lychee was the flavour of the day!



What did we do after this? We went home and did... things. I don't quite remember what we got up to in the afternoon. But I do remember we got pizza for dinner from Pizza Hut, and everyone was very impressed that we had several pizza chains with vegan options. We also had fairy bread and Vegemite on toast, and watched the movie of What We Do In The Shadows.

We had a pretty low key day for the final day, starting with Helen making us all beans on toast. This is a very common thing here in Australia, but apparently not in the US!



We ate some vegan meat pies for lunch (apparently also not a thing in the US) and then went back to The Green Edge for everyone to do a final shop. Then home for Helen to make us dinner! Helen and Molly had bought some Plant Based Garlic Kievs, and we cooked those up with some sauteed brocollini and roasted potatoes.





Early the next morning, I took them to the airport and they headed off to Sydney. I had so much fun with them while they were here! Australia is so far away from most of the rest of the world, and Brisbane doesn't have the general appeal of Melbourne or Sydney, so the fact that they came and spent a whole week with me was so special! And I'm always open to visitors from cool overseas friends!!

I plan to be back as much as I can. I still have so many photos to share for things! Though lately I have hardly been cooking, thanks fibro! Chronic pain and fatige sucks. I also have some cool things coming up - I am going to Sydney on the weekend to see Taylor's final Australian Era's show on Monday the 26th of Feb, and then this time in two months I will be on my Scotland/Barcelona adventure! All with my N95 mask strapped to my face, of course.

How have you all been??

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Ignore the messy background, but this is a rare photo of all of the girls! They are all doing pretty well, and are as adorable as ever!

BrisVenture 2023: Day 2: Big Pineapple, Cafe Vie, Birthday Cake

Day two of our adventures happened to coincide with my birthday! I had ordered a ridiculous cake for us all to share (Molly and I shared my birthday celebrations last time she was here, even though her birthday was much earlier in the year, so we made it a four way celebration this time). We had to pick the cake up from a place in northern Brisbane, so it made sense to have a little road trip up to the sunshine coast for lunch.

Helen was also extremely excited to find out that The Big Pineapple was not far away from where we were going, so we headed their first. I haven't been here since I was a kid, and it closed for a while, but now seems to have reopened. The pineapple was not as big as I remembered! We took some photos of the pineapple, and then also did some tourist shopping at the little kiosk there, which randomly happened to have a freezer full of mini vegan ice cream tubs! We did not go to the zoo there, obviously. It looks like, according to the website, they are planning on redeveloping the whole area into an event space as well. But for the moment, it is just a fun little roadside attraction.



After this, we headed to Cafe Vie for lunch. We kept up the fancy latte theme from yesterday. Helen and Sharnette both had the Blue Matcha Latte (not actually matcha at all - butterfly pea powder, coconut blossom, ginger) and I had the Little Cin (cinnamon, cardomom, ginger, cloves, coconut blossom). Both were really nice. And pretty.





For lunch, we got some Japanese Curry Fries to share, which were excellent!



I had the OG Veggs Benedict Croissant (cheesy tofu scramble, spinach, tomato relish, hollandaise on a croissant with added facon and a rosti. Everything was excellent, except for the rosti. They used to make good rosti, but I guess they changed it and now it is not good. But the rest, so nice.



I can't remember exactly who got what, but the others got the Crispy Mushroom Parmy Burger and the Crispy Chick'n Parmy Burger, which also had facon, cheese, tomato relish, and herb aioli.





Molly also got a croissant with cheese scramble to try.



Afterwards, we went to a little op shop, and then to a lookout area that had a nice view to the ocean.



Afterwards it was cake pick up and home. We were pretty full from lunch, so we ordered a lighter dinner from Vietfoods Springwood. I had the Tofu Vermicelli Rice Bowl.



And then it was time for cake! I ordered the cake through Brisbane-based vegan caterer Vegood. I wanted something very ridiculous and pretty and pink, and they delivered with this gorgeous three layer vintage heart pink strawberries and cream cake. IT IS SO PRETTY! I got them to put a cat-themed decoration on top.



And here is an inside shot! Three layers of pink cake, with buttercream and freshly made strabwrry compote between them, covered in cream buttercream. I am not an icing fan, but apparently cream buttercream is less sweet than traditional buttercream or meringe buttercream. It was a ton of icing, but it was good! The best icing! There was also some leftover compote, so they gave me that in a cute little jar to take home.



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Speaking of birthdays, it was Boo's birthday on Tuesday - exactly one week after mine! She turned seven years old.

Sabbat Catch Up 2023: Mabon, Samhain, Yule, Imbolc

Hello, It's been a while since I've posted about any of the sabbats and the food I have made for them. In part due to not being very consistent with blogging, in part due to not being very aware of the passage of time or having a lot of energy. Anyway, here is a bit of a catch up.

Mabon aka Autumn Equinox (20th March, 2023)

I bought a bunch of stuff for snacking throughout the week, to live my best autumn snacking life. The Fix and Fogg Pumpkin Pie Butter was a gift from a friend who brought it back from New Zealand with me, and it is so incredible! Absolutely delicious. Fantastic on apple slices. I also had some apple cinnamon jam, which was very sweet. Some pumpkin bread, pink lady apples, and some cashew mushroom cheese for fun. I made a lot of different and excellent snacks with these.



Vegan Tagine with Butternut Squash from Lazy Cat Kitchen: I also made an actual dinner, sticking with the autumn theme. This tagine with butternut squash was full of flavour, though I of course left out the chili flakes. I served it over some buttered cous cous. I hardly ever eat cous cous, but it is always delightful when I do.
Rating: :)



Samhain (30th April - 1st May 2023)

Halloween gets a lot of its pagan roots from Samhain, which is also consider the beginning of the new year in the sabbat cycle. I kept things seasonal and also kept it colour themed with black and orange for fun.

Roasted Red Onion & Butternut Squash Salad from Cook Share Eat Vegan by Aine Carlin: This is a lovely salad, which I served warm. It was meant to be served with black quinoa, but I used black rice instead. It has a bunch of different ingredients to give a lovely flavour, though I left out the figs because I don't like them and it really didn't need it. The salad is a mix of cooked savoy cabbage and the rice, the roasted vegetables, and is topped with a creamy sunflower seed dressing.
Rating: :)



Yule aka Winter Solstice (22nd June 2023)

This was in the lead up to my PhD being due, and I had zero energy for anything. But my mum happened to make a Japanese Curry that night, and what a perfect way to celebrate the longest night of the year. A steaming bowl of Japanese Curry and rice was just right. We use the S&B Mild Japanese Curry paste, which is so good and has zero heat in it.



Imbolc (1st August 2023)

Confession, I totally missed this date. Imbolc is meant to celebrate the midpoint of winter. I had nothing planned because I didn't even realise it was happening. But when I looked back I realised that I did make something kind of appropriate for it. Red is a traditional colour for Imbolc, and I just so happened to make a kidney bean and red wine slow cooker stew! I used a Masterfoods recipe base for it (substituting kidney beans for the dead animals it called for), and it also had mushrooms and carrots in it. Served over some spinach and brown rice, this was very yummy and I would absolutely make it again.





We are two days away from Beltane, so let's see if I manage anything for that. Hope everyone is hanging in there, the year seems to be going so quickly.

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Beautiful Boo doing a tiny blep.

Midweek Munchies

Something that I have eaten.

This orange & ginger jam from St Dalfour was like a fancy marmalade, very nice. Enjoyed with peanut butter on toast, and in overnight oats.



In my efforts to find a non-stevia kombucha, I tried this Jiva watermelon and mint. Sounds lovely and refreshing, right? But somehow tastes awful. Thankfully their other flavours are much better.



Tried this new vegan schitzel that I found in the frozen aisle. The schnitzels themselves are huge! But it was pretty good. Served with mashed potatoes, steamed frozen green beans, and gravy.



Forgive this awful photo. But there is a fairly new little Japanese grocery store at one of my local shops, and they sell vegan hojicha ice cream! Also black sesame and matcha flavours, but the hojocha is the best! It costs almost AU$18 for a 2L tub, so it is definitely on the pricier side, but I have paid almost that amount for a quarter of the amount of So Delicious ice cream back in the day, so everything is relative.



Veganaise is over. It not longer gets shipped to Australia, and I am bereft. It is really hard to find a decent mayo here, most of them tend towards being too sweet and too vinegary. Hellman's vegan mayo is now availabe in supermarkets, and it is the closest to Veganaise I have found.



Made this tuscan meatball recipe base using some vgan meatballs. It was quick, easy, and tasted good.





Finishing off with some more St Daulfour jam, this time the mango and passionfruit. I loved the tropical flavour this had, though I always struggle texturally with gritty passionfruit seeds. I mostly used this is overnight oats.



Hope everyone is hanging in there.

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Boo had a rough day yesterday. I'd noticed that one of her back claws was sticking out funny, and she was licking it, and it smelled funky. Of course she wouldn't let me touch it. So she had to come to work with me, stay in hospital for the day being furious, and then got sedated. Turns out she had just broken her claw and it had gotten infected, so it is all cleaned up and she had antibiotics. But she was so miffed by the whole experience. I'm sorry Boo that my attempts to keep you healthy are met with such disdain! Forgive me.

Eating In

Hello friends! Long time no blog, I know. Things have been things. I am on the final push to finish my PhD by the end of June, and work is also taking a lot out of me at the moment. I mentioned I while ago that I had various news, and one of those bits of news is that I have been formally diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. It makes a lot of sense, given what my life has been like the past few years. And it was very validating to get the diagnosis, but it is also sad because it means that this really is my life now. So between work and PhD and trying to rest and recover from the two, I haven't had a lot of brain power for blogging.

But, here I am! With a blog post about some fun food that I have had delivered. I am happy that there are more fun options becoming available, so let us see!

First up, Chili Coco Thai! It is hard to find a Thai place with vegan options, as a lot of them use fish sauce and shrimp paste as a base for a lot of their sauces. So when I find a place with a vegan menu section, I get very happy. This place had a limited selection of non-spicy vegan options. I got Vegetarian Dumplings with Peanut Sauce. The dumplings were good, but the peanut sauce had a bit too much spice in it for me! I also got the Ginger Vegetarian Stir-Fry and some Coconut Rice. The stir-fry was extremely expensive for what was essentially a fairly small bland container of vegetables with a few bits of soggy tofu.





Much more fun was discovering Okuman Karaage and Ramen Bar! This place is in West End, so the delivery times can be a bit longer... plan ahead! But it is so good! This is the first of many times I have ordered from there. This was their Agedashi Tofu, which is incredible and very generous with the tofu! I also got their Gyoza and their Tofu Yakisoba, both of which were also good.



And a couple of things I ordered from Vietfood Springwood, which is a Vietnamese place with a heap of vegan options. This is the Vegan BBQ pork rice paper rolls and the Buddha's Delight (vegetable and mushroom stirfry... it said it was meant to have tofu, but it didn't). They were both really good.



When I ordered delivery from Vietfood, Doordash sprung up with 'do you want to add a drink from another place, the same driver can bring it to you'. So I ordered Lemon Roasted Melon Tea with Basil Seed from Gong Cha, a bubble tea place. But then Doordash had a second driver bring me that, and I felt bad because they order was split and I could only leave a tip on the app for the first driver, so I won't do that again. But ethical quandaries aside, the drink was lovely.



Finishing up this post with some food from Motto Motto, which is a chain of Japanese restaurants that has a few vegan options! Including their Teriyako Tofu Don bowl, made vegan by leaving off the kewpie mayo. So when I got it home I transfered with to a bowl and added my own vegan kewpie! This bowl is good, and I have ordered it a number of times now, normally with extra tofu and extra pickles! The downside is it doesn't have any veggies, so I will often add some baby spinach at home. I also got some seaweed salt fries to try, which were nice but needed more seaweed flavour.





Hope you are all hanging in there!

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Poor Boo has had some more health problems over the last couple of weeks, but thankfully I am able to get the very best veterinary care for her. She has picked up a bit now, thankfully.

Midweek Munchies

Hi friends! I had a little blogging break, which I needed. And I have a bunch of stuff for christmas to post, but for now I only have the energy for a little midweek munchies post. So that is what I am doing.

I love salt and vinegar chips, so I got this new to me brand in an Australian Vegan Grocery Store order. Alas, like so many chips, they fail in not having enough flavour on them.



A pie I found languishing in my freezer, which I ate back when it was still cool enough to eat pies during the day. It was pretty good, with a creamy bechamel topping some spaghetti bolognese, a fun pie to eat.



After my brother went back to Spain, he left some of this gf muesli behind that happened to be vegan, so I used it up. I really enjoyed it! It was nice and crunchy, almost like granola, and had a good flavour. (Spy my multivitamin and my anti-inflammatory meds in the top corner of the second photo).





Also back in the cooler months, I had this soup. I don't remember it being particularly amazing or particularly awful, so I assume it was perfectly fine. I ate it with a salad sandwich for lunch.





I bought these strawberry cashew ice blocks, because strawberry flavour is the best flavour. They do have some coconut oil in the chocolate covering, but it wasn't too strong. These are also very cute and petite in size, which I liked. I would definitely buy these again, I wish they would just make them as a tub of strawberry ice cream as well.



Finally these crunchy oat clusters... which were not very crunchy or clustery. The flavour was fine, but the gluten free muesli from the same brand that I posted about above had a much better texture.



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



I can start sharing some of the kitty christmas photos! Like what Boo thought about wearing the santa hat this year. She was not impressed!