Reflections on 2009

Happy New Year everyone! I wish you all the best in seeing out the old and welcoming in the new. New Year’s Eve has come and gone in our household yet again. The haggis nachos are devoured, washed down with some wonderful raspberry lemonade. But rather than share the recipes just yet, I wanted to write a little round up of 2009.

Let me start with the brightest highlight in the shape of dear Sylvia who was born early this year. She is just gorgeous and has brought immeasurable joy to E and me and both our families. Life has been a rollercoaster of change with her arrival and will continue to be next year when I return to work.

I was surprised just how much time I was able to devote to cooking and blogging after Sylvia’s birth. She has been such a good baby with her sleeping and playing, although, now that she sleeps less and moves about more, I am finding that she is demanding more of my energies. Zinc (our cat) and the garden also continue to be other delightful distractions.

The other personal highlight of the year was our trip to Edinburgh to visit E’s family. Edinburgh is such a beautiful city that it is a delight to wander around the atmospheric old streets and gaze at the gorgeous historic buildings.

But best of all was having Sylvia meet E’s Scottish family and friends. They absolutely loved her and it was such a pleasure for us to spend time with E’s parents and his sister’s family. It was great to be able to share Sylvia’s Christening with them as well as an early Christmas dinner. Leaving Edinburgh made me sad not to be living near them on a more permanent basis.

I have made a best of 2009 list but this year has been one where I can count on one hand the number of films I have seen at the cinema and the same might be said of new cds and gigs. On the other hand I have watched too much tv and read too many trashy novels.

Best of 2009

• Best television – Mad Men, Foyle’s War (repeats) and Masterchef
• Best film – Bright Star
• Best dvd – Millions Like Us
• Best cd - Fourteen Autums and Fifteen Winters: The Twilight Sad
• Best adult book – Neon Pilgrim by Lisa Dempster
• Best children’s book – Peepo by Janet and Allan Ahlberg
• See list below for blogging and foodie highlights

Now onto the blog highlights. I had thought I could do a best of each month as I did last year but in the end there was just too much good food this year to narrow it down to 12 posts. Instead I will just do a list of some of the highlights:

Blogging and Food Highlights of 2009

• Blogging was made easier at the start of the year with a new computer and new camera. My blog now has more and larger photos as I have developed more confidence in my photos.
• My ‘About’ posts on apricots, apples and broccoli.
• Enjoying quirky combinations: broccoli in burgers, chocolate on beetroot risotto, sweet filling in ravioli, pumpkin and chocolate in bread pudding, and chocolate on pizza.
• Pleasing E with chocolate caramel slice, mars bar slice, butterscotch surprise cake, dal makhani and sour skon.
• Discovering a gingerbread and panforte that make excellent gifts.
• The adrenalin rush of cooking with that stinging superfood, nettles, and the pleasure of finding that they make excellent soup. (Thanks AOF)
• Finally discovering the most delicious and satisfying vegan and gluten free sweet recipe: pumpkin brownies.
• Making old favourites chulent, miso soup, crackers, potato boston bun, hedgehog, apricot sponge pudding and sponge cake, which have all been on the to do list for a long time.
• It was the year we finally got a compost bin working but the most environmentally friendly discovery was making vegetable stock with scraps stored in the freezer.
• Cooking with ingredients that I had only read about before: purple carrots, rose petals, cavolo nero and fresh cranberries.
• A link from the Wikipedia nut roast entry to my main nut roast page, where I am continuing to add links to nut roasts I make. (I am up to number 12.)
• Enjoying many loaves of the great sourdough bread from Andres.
• We have managed to eat out at many great places during the year. Local highlight would have to be Hellenic Republic and Scottish highlight was The Witchery.
• Writing a new About Me post, and developing work-in-progress Index by Ingredients and Kitchen Notes Ingredients and Substitutions. I am sorry to say I have not managed to update the latter two posts as much as I would like.
• Meeting bloggers at recent vegan potluck (which I will write on soon).

I could go on and on about all the wonderful food of the year but Sylvia is yet again dismantling the cd collection. The bounty of good food on my blog illustrates how much fun I have with blogging. It continues to inspire me and keeps me sane.

As I have said in previous years, I am not into new year’s resolutions. I merely hope for health and happiness and the strength to throw out my beloved manky old oven mitts. I have many ideas for blog posts that I hope will appear in 2010, a small backlog to post and a huge list of bookmarked recipes to try.

Finally, I end with a huge thank you to everyone who reads this blog. Thank you for your comments, your ideas and suggestions, your thoughtfulness, your feedback, your sharing, your support. I continue to connect with wonderful people in reading many favourite blogs and discovering great new ones. It was encouraging to hear from family and friends in Edinburgh that they read my posts. I send best wishes for 2010 to fellow bloggers, family and friends. (Picture below is of me and Sylvia by my little 4 year old niece Grace. She and my other nieces make great contributions.)

Most of all I want to thank my mum and E. Thanks Mum for all your support and friendship this year while I have found my feet with Sylvia. Thanks to E for his constant support in doing dishes, keeping the music playing on the stereo and trying almost anything I care to cook. I would not have cooked and blogged so much this year without E to encourage me and keep an eye on Sylvia while I am in the kitchen and on the computer.

Spiders, Banavacado and Tradition

I wanted to post separately about the lime spiders that we drank on Christmas eve because they have a special meaning to me regarding tradition. We often talk about tradition as something that has been done since time immemorial. However, traditions come and go. One Christmas eve, lime spiders taught me the joy of creating our own traditions.

With seven children in my family, you will understand that Christmas is a busy time for my mother. She was always in charge of the cake, the pudding, the turkey, the presents, gift wrapping, herding us to mass, all while keeping an eye on seven children. (Meanwhile my dad was in charge of esoteric but important tasks like checking all the light globes on the Christmas tree lights and drilling holes in lifesaver lollies to make presents.) The older I get, the more I admire her for making this look so effortless.

Many years ago, though I am not sure exactly how many, we managed to convince my mother that we had lime spiders every Christmas eve. I am not sure why or how. My dad had given us a love of lime spiders, which he talked about as a special part of his past. For the uninitiated, they are a scoop of ice-cream in a glass of fizzy sweet lime drink. Even the name is fun. When you pour in the lime lemonade, it froths up. For a child this is magical and exciting. To convince my mum of a tradition gave us a sense of power that could only come at a time when she was too flustered to argue (or maybe she just wanted a lime spider as much as we did).

So now every Christmas I love to have lime spiders and mince tarts and to feel like so much is possible. I spent a Christmas in Dublin with my sister Chris one year and we spent quite a bit of time searching for lime lemonade. I think we ended up with coke spiders but plain lemonade and green cordial would do just as well.

You may have noticed on this blog, that I am not afraid to mess with tradition. Being vegetarian has meant that I have parted ways with many meaty traditions, but I have found ways to create new meaningful traditions without meat. Perhaps this is all because we convinced my mum to create a lime spider tradition many years ago.

So today I will share a quick dip I made on the weekend after hearing the Coodabeen Champions discussing a 1970s beauty contest cookbook on the radio. They mentioned a curried banana dip that took my fancy. But I was not so keen on adding dry biscuit crumbs. I was thinking about making guacamole with a half avocado I had in the fridge but I remembered this idea and decided to try it with avocado instead. I also omitted chutney, cayenne and mustard powder but added lemon juice. Here is the version I made to nibble with crackers.

Curried Banavocado Spread

½ an avocado, mashed
2 inches of banana, mashed
good shake of curry powder
juice of ¼ medium lemon

Mash with a fork and serve with crackers. It is strangely pleasing.

On the Stereo:
Introspective Fragments, Part 1: Lebensessenz

Festive roast and punch

Today is the chaos that they call Christmas Eve. Most sane bloggers are probably too busy to even glance at the computer but I need a bit of down time. It has been a busy morning with Sylvia being a rascal: throwing every bit of food she can off the high chair, mercilessly chasing Zinc and rushing over to grab the beer every time I open the fridge door. So while she is sleeping I thought I would share a few christmas pics and simple ideas for christmas.

Last Sunday, after decorating our own tree the previous day, we headed down to my mum and dad's place to help decorate their tree. It is much bigger than ours as they have more space. At the top is a photo of both old and new decorations. The angel is one of my favourites from when I was a child. The ball with 'Sylvia' written on it is one of nine that my sister organised to be made with each of my parents' grandchildren's name written on it. What a great idea!

Of course there was lots of food. Here are some of the cute shortbreads that my sister in law Erica made. My sister Fran made some great gluten free chocolate cupcakes. I was too busy to take much down, apart from some cheese pastries that my mum had left in our freezer when she kindly stocked my kitchen for when we got home from Scotland.

I also took some juice as I had been curious to try Delia Smith's suggestion of equal amounts of red grape juice, cranberry juice and ginger ale. While waiting at Glasgow Airport, I had time to flick through her Christmas book and I happened to read that this was her favourite non-alcoholic combination. My mum had a cranberry and pomegranate mix which was nice in the punch but I have since experimented further and it is better with just cranberry.

I also had my first glimpse of the new chook house that my mum had just had put up. She will be getting chickens in the backyard once they are in stock. Did you know that even live chickens sell out at Christmas. Stay tuned for some fresh eggs on the blog! Thanks to Grace for taking this photo for me. Not bad for a 5 year old.

Mum and dad's garden is looking beautiful with lots of roses in bloom so I can't resist a photo.

Back home, I decided to try a recipe for Oat and Onion Roast from Nic at Nip it in the Bud. It is a good simple alternative to nut roast for those who have nut allergies. I have also been searching for ideas to use some of my sage while it is thriving and before the cruelty of summer's heat hits it.

The recipe called for mixed herbs and didn't specify if they should be dried or fresh. I don't think it really matters which you have, especially as the measurement is a dessert spoon which is much more flexible than tablespoons. I am sure Nic would appreciate my handful of fresh herbs straight from the backyard because she is keen on her allotment gardening.

The roast was delicious with lots of salad for dinner when we got home from decorating the tree. We were able to watch a Very Speccy Christmas. Both E and I were pleased to see a great Aussie Christmas show as we purchased the Radio Times at Glasgow Airport and E has gone over every detail of every show as he missed the British tv at this time of year. Our favourite show title is Cardigans at Christmas. How very British. I also love Santa Dalek on the cover.

Well, Sylvia is awake and creating mischief once more. E is finished work early and has been dispatched to the shops for swiss cheese and cherries, despite telling me that going to a supermarket cramps his style. The Christmas nut roast is cooked but I am avoiding making pastry for some mince pies. I should go and face them.

There will be more festive recipes after Christmas. But until then, I wish all my readers, family and friends a very merry Christmas and much fantastic festive feasting.

Oat and onion roast
adapted from Nip it in the Bud

• 4 oz (125g) oats
• 4 oz (125g) grated cheese (I used a smoked vintage cheese but any cheddar will do)
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 onion, choppped
• 1 handful of fresh chopped herbs (I used sage, parsley, thyme and rosemary but Nic used a dessertspoon of mixed herbs which I presume were dried)
• 1 heaped tsp of promite (Nic used marmite - any yeast extract or stock paste will do)

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. Grease and line a tin. I used a slice tin 18 x 28cm which made it very thin so next time I think I will try a loaf tin - 13cm x 22cm.

Mix all the ingredients together then tip into prepared tin and smooth on the top with the back of a spoon.

Bake for about 30-45 minutes, depending on how big your tin is. I think 30 minutes was enough for the slice tin. Serve with a nice chutney or gravy.

Delia's Festive Punch (non-alcoholic)
from Delia Smith

125ml cranberry juice drink (I used Ocean Spray which has sugar in it)
125ml red grape juice (I used Extra Juicy juice)
125ml ginger ale (I used Schweppes)

Mix and drink. It serves 1-2 people but can be scaled up depending on how many you are serving. Delia suggests serving it with lime slices. I would fancy trying this with orange slices too.

On the Stereo:
A dark noel: the very best of excelsis projekt: various artists