In which there is a Christmas

It’s that time of year again.

I bloody love me Granny. If you want me in the mean time, I am here;

In which there is Christmas art and craft

More than anything else, what Christmas means to me is craft. There has been a lot of art and making. Theirs;

And mine;

Remember the small version of big hexagons? Here they are again, in the form of little removable brooches on four pouches I sewed for the girls’ Christmas presents. They were filled with little goodies including Cath Kidson patterned tissues and pin badges from paperchase, and sweeties, of course. Does this still count as a “Buy Nothing” present? Maybe not, but it’s cute and I love making up presents.

Besides that, I have been on a Buy Nothing kick with more cooking and baking like a crazy thing. Just because I work 91/2 hours a day doesn’t mean I can’t make up three batches of Turkish Delight on the day before Christmas Eve. I am a sweetie machine! It would seem Turkish Delight doesn’t photograph well, which is a shame because those little cubes in three different jewel colours for Rose, Orange Blossom and Mint are so pretty. These were so much fun to do and far easier than you’d think. This is the second time I’ve done T.D, the first time was with Kate, and that came out too Rosy and too wet. This time, I used a recipe from here; http://www.christmas-joy.com/recipes/turkishdelight.htm and it was perfect. Only quibble is my Orange Blossom essence wasn’t all that strong, you really have to close your eyes and wish to taste that orangey-ness.

I’d like to post more about the Buy Nothing thing but just go see http://www.buynothingchristmas.org/ because they are more eleoquent. I am into it more from a reducing consumerism and saving money angle, rather than a “Christmas is about Christ” angle, but we have a lot in common. I also like that this year I haven’t been given any stuff I don’t need. (I’ll post actual Christmas photos another day, in case anyone cares, but suffice to say I won’t run out of books, coffee, underwear or smelly things for a while.)

Hope you all had a peaceful Christmas, good blog-readers (all six of you!) and I’ll leave you with a gratuitous photo of my Christmas presents from last year; gingerbread cookies from VWAV.

In which it starts to smell a bit like christmas

It’s starting to smell a bit like Christmas around here. Work at the nursery goes on until the 22nd (Boo!) so if I want Christmassy feelings around the house I shall have to do it myself. Hence the oranges and cloves.

I wasn’t going to blog today but work is making me crazy. I’m quite calm generally, at work. I don’t mind being wee-ed on, or bitten or jumped on or scraping five bowls of fish stew off the floor, but everyone has their one thing that pisses them off. Mine is knocking my glasses off my face. ARRGH! You can pull my hair and smack me as much as you want, but you do not mess with the glasses! Do. Not. Want. *breathe breathe* …There, rant over. For the record I fixed them and I back to my serene, earth-mothery self.

I was going to do a “things I am grateful for” list, but I think I’ll go drink a coffee and get back to bum wiping. Peace x

In which I love December…

This is what made me late for work this morning.

Speaking of work, on our third trip to that toilet that hour, a dear little girl looks up at me and tells me “I weewee all the time.” And I’m not too tired to laugh out loud because she really, really does.

So I’m loving; trying to decorate a ten foot christmas tree with the help of a two-foot toddler on my shoulders, the smell of the pine and my own tree waiting in the sitting room, taking time to art journal, carol services by candlelight, the clean and tidy(ish)ness of the house, going to bed at 10.30, Bonnie Prince Billy and the Barefoot Doctor.

This time last time

This time last time, I was here;

This time this time I find myself here;

That’s one turn of the wheel of the year. I know I am pagan because I find the seasons so incredibly fucking cool. Every little change, and everything that is the same as last year but infitely different in the details, I feel astounded and blessed. I am deeply in love with this planet, I don’t care and I don’t ever want to get over it.

These pictures are from two walks taken at the same time in two different years, almost to the day. They were both walks into Leigh Woods taken in the final days before the Christmas Pantomime (last year was Panto of the Opera, this year was Treasure Island), desperately trying to get some forest time into my life and ground myself. It seems I haven’t changed much in terms of what my eye is drawn to. I love the cyclical nature of the year because looking back across the wheel gives you a point of comparison, and I am able to say that here, now, I am feeling so much better than I was this time last year that I don’t even have words. This is me trying to use my blog to actually talk about my year out and what I’ve learned and blah blah but we all know life isn’t like that so I’ll leave it. I’m starting to think about going back to uni, getting back in touch with my department, buying books. Truthfully just thinking about going back into an academic environment after so long gives me a horrible sick feeling in my stomach but I’m also so, so ready.

Peace x

Following advice

(Photo by Ben Michaud)

 

Advice

When work is long, the panto is approaching and tempers are short, making moustaches out of your friend’s hair will make everything better. I promise.

Come and gone…

It’s been a while, mostly due to the absence of internet. My favourite time of the year has just flown by. Little Red Riding Hood went out for hallowe’en, into the woods barefoot for her Samhain, alone with the moon and the trees and the tide on the Avon just turning. She had a basket full of super-cool pumpkins, carved to scare ofd the spirits. Bristol is a treat to look at at night, but fireworks make it better. Grab some friends and some blankets and groundsheets, get a candle in a lantern and a flask of tea and just sit and go “ooh, ahh”, go to the pub then have mulled wine and play games in the dark. Have a zen sunday, have a few zen sundays sewing and sitting around, with so many friends that i didn’t know were artists.

And big big big news. I am a waged woman! I now work full-time at Clifton Tots Nursery, on the toddler floor. We have about twenty 18 months to 3 year-olds, and it’s as chaotic as that sounds, in a good way. I am so, so happy and grateful to have this job. I knew my right job would come to me in time, that I am exactly where I need to be, but it can get hard to believe. Yes I was waiting unemployed for a long long time of stress and interviews but it was because of this one coming alone. It’s so affirming, when what you are waiting for arrives. My tao is so good to me, even if I can’t explain this concept to many people it’s still my truth.

“Some people don’t understand when I say these are the things I believe” Damh the Bard
Peace and a blessed Samhain for those who celebrated x

In which there is a samhain baking update

Here is the long anticipated baking update. I’ve been reading lots of vegan foodie blogs and maybe some day I’ll get round to linking them, but in the mean time here’s what’s been cooking. And I’m including my adapted recipe for apple muffins, because they are the best muffins ever and just the other day I was getting cross with a blog for raving about a recipe then not supplying it. But that’s to come. Also, a rant about fake cheese.

Courtesey of Vegan Brunch;

Cinnamon rolls

Isa’s Cinnamon Roll recipe is better than the PPK one, and I made these for an unofficial brunch in that I wanted to make them so I invited Kate, Tim and Rob to come eat them with me. (Official brunch club seems to be on hold at the moment, I might host one in a few weeks.) They were certainly easier than the other one, and like I mentioned they are a bit healthier too. But I’m still not impressed. They take a lot of time, effort and mess for what they are, and frankly I think I’d rather eat a bowl of porridge with cinnamon and sugar, or a peice of good bread with jam. So I might not be making these again tbh. That said, I never bothered with the drizzly icing because by the time it gets to that stage I always feels like “You want me to get out another mixing bowl? Fat chance!” Maybe that icing makes it, but I doubt it, friends, I really do.

Muffins

Lemon poppyseed (rocking the heartshaped silicone baking cases I got from Helena and Nat for my birthday. My housemates know me so incredibly well!) Of course they taste better for being heart-shaped. Nice and light and easy-peasy to make. A big hit.

Courgette-spelt muffins. (Muffins spelled C-O-U-R-G-E-T-T-E. Shut up, it tickled me.) These were… ok. They’re whole spelt, and you can really tell. They have a very “wholefoody” taste, not sweet at all, like digestive biscuits only more so. If you want a healthy mufin it’s a good recipe, little sugar and little oil, but they’re a bit joyless if you ask me. Put it this way, Sam says they go well with chilli. And if I, with my years at RHF, think it’s too wholegrainy then you know it must be true.

Moving on from Vegan Brunch, Helena requested the sausage casserole I made the other day. This is a really nice recipe, and I did it with overnight bread, which is still the best bread recipe ever. It’s basically sauteed onions and garlic, with squash or other earthy sweet veg like sweet potatoes added, cooked up in gravy then with veggie sausages added at the end. Lots of mustard and sage going on. It’s autumn in a bowl.

 

Also, moving on from semi-normal food, I am afraid I have taken the plunge into hardcore veganhood. The non-vegans might argue I was already there, but trust me, I wasn’t. Until now. Now I have attempted the mysterious alchemy that is macaroni and “cheese” with nutritional yeast. Dun Dun DUUUUUUH! (I’m still not using seitan and bought vegan cheese or scrambling my f-ing tofu though, fear not.)

I’ve been aware of the existance of nutritional yeast for many years, having sold it back at RHF (Rugby Health Foods where I used to work) but I always avoided it on the grounds that it looks and smells like fishfood flakes and is weird. It was always something other people ate, and I was not going there. But sometimes you need something creamy and yummy, and the “Nooch” as those at Post Punk Kitchen call it, was there at the wholefood shop so i took the plunge.

 I used this recipe for “Macaroni hates Cheese” from the PPK; http://theppk.com/recipes/dbrecipes/index.php?RecipeID=210

And it came out ok. I suppose. The first time I ate it I felt a bit sick because it was so creamy and rich, and the yeast taste is strange when you’ve been off cheese for a while.

See, it looks right. Ok, so that’s spag not macaroni but shut up. Also love my bowl that I painted!

This was all inspired by the post over at Vegan YumYum here: http://veganyumyum.com/2007/10/mac-and-cheese-cheeze-yeast/ I didn’t do that recipe because it called for miso and tahini which I usually have in, but not this week. Hers looks a good deal more elegant than mine, and she summed up the whole taste better than I could

“

Mac and Cheese. Cheeze? Yeast?

October 17th, 2007 Stumble it! <!–Lolo–>

There are innumerable recipes for vegan mac and cheese on the internet. I’ve tried a lot of them. Some of them simply call for “slices of soy cheese” and some vegetable stock to be mixed over pasta. The majority, however, require nutritional yeast, and they usually also require making a roux. The recipe below is from my upcoming cookbook, and it’s one of my favorites. However, if you’ll indulge me for a moment, there are some things about vegan mac and cheeze I want to talk about.

Now, I’m the first to admit “Mac and Yeast” doesn’t quite have the same ring to it. That’s why I tend to call it “Mac and Cheeze”. But I’m also the first to admit that these recipes, even the best of them, don’t really taste all that much like mac and cheese. Some get much closer than others, and a lot are downright tasty. But it’s not cheese. Your omnivore or veggie friend/spouse/child may love it as much as or even more than the real stuff (if you’re lucky), but they probably love it on its own merits, not because they really can’t tell the difference.

But you know what? It doesn’t have to taste exactly the same for me to love it.

A lot of people, myself included, are really interested in making vegan food that’s indistinguishable from the “real” thing. It’s a fun challenge, and oftentimes, a challenge where you can really and truly be successful. But there are many instances where you don’t create something identical, but what you do create is actually good. Different, but yummy. While vegan mac and cheese doesn’t taste exactly like non-vegan mac and cheese, it satisfies the same craving. It’s rich and creamy and salty and vaguely cheese-like. It’s a yummy, thick creamy sauce to top noodles with.

I think that sometimes it’s enough to satisfy your cravings with something similar, if you can’t find something identical. After three years of being vegan, I don’t even crave mac and cheese anymore; I crave mac and yeast.

I think expectation is important with food. If it looks like a grape, you expect it to taste like a grape. If I hand you a glass of sparkling wine and tell you it’s gingerale, you might be put off when you take a sip. You might even like wine, but you expected it to be, well, not wine. If I say, “here, try this mac and cheese” and give you mac and yeast, you might be disappointed when you tasted it. If you’ve never tried a mac and yeast recipe before, and you want to try this one, keep in mind that it doesn’t taste like cheese.

It just tastes like yummy”

Well said there. This is not something I’d ever feed a nonvegan. If I did I would not call it Macaroni Cheese or some tongue-in-cheek variation because the words “Vegan cheese” makes most people go “Aaaauuugh!” and for good reason. I’d only ever serve it as “pasta with creamy sauce”, because that’s what it is.

Anyway, to round this off I’m going back the whole muffin thing to proudly present Gracey’s Apple Muffin Recipe. This is the first recipe I’ve adapted enough to call my own and post on my blog, so here it is. If anyone wants to test it out for me (Here’s looking at you, Mr Paul) then I would love them forever.

These are the best muffins ever. I’ve probrably tried 20 or so recipes over the last year and these win. Pretty healthy in that they are light on the sugar and oil, and you can get up to half wholegrain flour without them tasting remotely wholefoody. You can sub that for wholegrain slept, and use half honey, agave or maple syrup instead of sugar but they won’t rise nearly so much and the texture will be wrong. They’re really filling and not too cake-y, so if you need an emergency breakfast you feel like you did have breakfast, not a cake, which is the main fuction of muffins for me. Repeat after me; muffins are not cupcakes. You all know I love cupcakes, but sometimes you need a proper muffin. This is for those times.

Apple Muffins (Makes 12 big ones)

2 cups plain four

2 cups wholewheat pastry flour or wholewheat with the bits seived out

1tsp salt

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

1 tsp ground cloves

1 cup soya milk

2 capfulls cider vinegar

4 tbsp vegetable or sunflower oil

2/3 cup sugar (plus extra for sprinkling)

2 cups applesauce

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C. Mix together the flour and dry ingredients in a bowl, make a well in the middle and pour in the other ingredients. Mix gently but thoroughly until combined, Spoon into muffin cases and sprinkle the tops with a bit of cinnamon and brown sugar, to make them crunchy and sparkly. Bake for 25 minutes.

TaDaaaah!

 

And for your pleasure and delight, here is gratuitous forest picture of the week. Beech leaves on the turn at Ashton Court;

In which there are quiet spaces…

It’s been pretty quiet around here recently.

I’m happy actually, but something about this phase of Autumn is bringing me into myself. I’ve been out of the sewing groove for a while, making the odd bits and peices, playing around with different techniques, patterns and colour but not in a productive way. I sometimes feel like because I don’t have a job or a degree right now, if I’m not pumping out finished peices or writing, sewing and painting every day then I’m somehow a bad lazy person. So this has been a few weeks of just sitting with ideas and mulling them over, which is actually just as creative as making tangible “things” all the time just so I can go “look, look, I do stuff with my time!”

It’s always nice to have a quiet space.

Some days you need to put all your bedding on the floor.

Light some candles.

Get out the tarot or the crystals

and let them run through your fingers

Without trying to make meaning.

 

If anyone needs a quiet space these days

They are very welcome to join me in mine.

 

… and I have lots of faith that things are quiet because there is lots of new stuff under the surface getting ready to come out.

(I really hate how wordpress won’t let me write my lines like a poem, but insists on putting space between them. There’s bullet points but that’s really not the spirit I’m going for. *Sad face*)

By the way, this week has been National Baking Week. Did you know that? There’s been lots of experimental cooking and I will do a vegan/foodie update soon to show Paul all the things I’ve made from the cookbook he got me.

Tell a lie, some serious sewing has gone on here today while Sam was out. (I’m like a secret elf and can’t work with people watching.) I can’t take pictures and do it justice because it’s dark now, but here’s a little taster of new and very beloved raw materials;