Yummy Yummy in My Expanding Tummy

We took the kittens back to the vets last night to have their little stitches taken out (well, Eliot had her stitches taken out by the vet, Sylvia, in her infinite craziness, decided to take her's out on her own). They were rewarded with their favourite treats and some wacky cat nip. After the vet and some wretched Brussels' traffic, we headed home for dinner. We had goodies in for Italian (I just bought some really greenish looking spelt and spirilina pasta), and Thai - and we went for the Thai.

Now any long time readers will know that I don't toot my own horn when it comes to my cooking. I am just not the kind of lady. Especially not when I see the likes of River, Shellyfish, Celeste and other vegan bloggers who are consistently crafting beautiful and interesting food. BUT....last night's curry was the dish to end all dishes. So if you only ever try one of the the vegancowgirl's recipes...this is it!

I am not sure if it is some newly developed baby growing super power, or if it was the never-before-used Lime Leaves, but the curry was so tasty I wanted to cry (and lick the bowl) - I actually did both...but the tears were from an episode of Little Mosque on the Prairie.

All other ingredients were pretty generic Thai curry ingredients (though I did serve the curry on a bed of Japanese Soba noodles), so I am pretty sure it was the fresh and authentic tasting Lime Leaves that did the trick. Yum Yum!

Lick The Bowl Curry and Soba Noodles

200ml organic coconut milk
200ml tomato puree
2 tsp olive oil
5 spring onions - diced
1 big thumb of ginger - diced
1 slab of extra firm tofu - diced
2 sweet potatoes - sliced
1 aubergine - sliced and diced
1 handful of frozen Lime Leaves - I picked these up from our Asian grocery shop
your every day average thai curry paste (I used red)

1 packet of organic soba noodles.

In other news...(how did I manage to not blurt this out at the top of the post?) It's a Girl!!!! Is it selfish (or maybe weird) to be excited about the idea of making a mini feminist inside by belly right now? Well, too bad!

I am off to Dublin tonight with Kim - girl's weekend away. We spent last week in Nice, which was...ok. The conference was great, but the city was actually...not very nice. A little on the sleazy side. And the food was less than impressive. Ah well, you win some, you lose some. I am not going to start complaining about the wonderful travel opportunities I have. We are off to Budapest next weekend - to visit friends. It will be interesting what happens to this vegancowgirl in the land of the goulash (to quote kevin).

I also have to share a picture that Kevin took of me when we traveled to Ypres for Armistice Day.....we pulled over when we saw this pile of carrots on the side of the road. Both Kim and Kevin thought it was a vegan's dream to be atop a bed of carrots. Have they never tasted vegan brownies? Now THAT would be a vegan's dream.

Curry & Clafouti & Chutney Oh MY!

I have a nice bounty of photos and recipes to share, and the great part is that most of the creations were inspired by the writing and cooking (and drool inducing photos) of other great vegan bloggers.

Last night I made dinner for us, following a taxing day of doing not much but house rearrangement and an attempt to find a new (and long) dinning room table from the flea market area of Brussels, which is neatly tucked away below the edge of the 'upper city'.

We did manage to make it to our favourite cafe on Ch. de Waterloo, where I indulged in a grilled veg salad.

The dinner was inspired by the writing of Ricki at Diet, Desserts and Dogs who made a great Tagine. Now, I don't own the proper cookware for an authentic tagine, and we were a little pressed for time after indulging in a late afternoon stroll. I did make a stew using the same philosophy harnessed in the obvious goodness of ricki's recipe. It was yummy, a little hot though. Might limit myself to 1 tsp of fancy harissa next time.


I used: green olives, 2 cups of quinoa, 1 tin of tomatoes, garlic, one can of chick peas, dates, harissa (2 tablespoons...one next time) and cilantro sprigs for a topping.

This morning I was up at the crack of dawn after some tugging of covers woke me up. I managed to whip through some knitting that accidentally became unraveled last night, but soon wanted to play with the kitchen. Yesterday, almost by pure accident, we walked into a tasting party at a fancy gourmet shop that is actually open on Sundays (!!!!) in Brussels, on Waterloo. In addition to tasting some delightful wild strawberries, we picked up some harrisa, mango chutney and 1 basket of perfectly pink gooseberries.

I couldn't let these little darlings waste any time in my fridge so I set to work making my very first Clafouti, which is a French desert that is intended to be stuffed with fruit and custard. Kev was a pretty lucky dude this morning when he woke up to find his VB2B (a silly little name that he whipped up which stands for: Vegan Bride To Be....ahhhh.......) offering him a Gooseberry Clafouti for breakfast!!!! I made a quick Maple Glaze for the top. I had a tiny taste before embarking on my recent obsession of eating apple sauce as much as possible - and it was pretty fantastic if I do say so myself.

I borrowed the thoughts and basic rejigged desert recipe from
Vegan Visitor but mixed it up here and there.

Ingredients: 12 pink gooseberries, 1 packaged of silken tofu (medium), 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of almond milk, 1 tsp of apple cider vinegar, 1 tsp of b.s, 1 tsp of arrow root powder, rose water, agar nectar, cinnamon.

I topped and tailed the goosberries, washed them and sliced them in half. I covered them with 2 tsp of agave syrup and 1 tsp of rose water. Whilst they soaked I added the lemon to the almond milk and processed the tofu (K did NOT wake up!), I added the milk to the tofu, and then the flour etc to the wet ingredients. I followed the advice of Vegan Visitor and added the fruit after the batter. I baked it for 1 hour and 10 minutes at 350.
I couldn't bring myself to limit the little pink globes of gastronomic glory to one treat, so I made something else I had never tried - a chutney. We had the chutney tonight, with a yummy curry. Scrumptious!

Ingredients: Garlic chives, gooseberries, dates, brown sugar and apple cider vinegar.

I have also been a little bit naughty in other areas of my life. I spent some euros on really cute foodie stuff, which, when I saw them, knew that they really, really, really wanted to come home with this little lady.Can you see the goat? Can you see the squirrel?

My next batch of beanie buddies is destined to be in the shape of butterflies...and god help all of my students this year.....
Aren't they great? Just you wait and see what I get up to with those cup cake bottoms! I made our lunch today on the groovy plate - did you SEE the squirrel AND the goat?


In other news I have to share a major accomplishment for Kevin and I....today, we fit a three seater sofa in side our uber tiny euro-version Ford Fiesta and then preceded to put together a piece of IKEA furniture without screaming at each other! YES!

Vienna Day I

Whoooahhhh. Happy to be home, but oh my, did I ever love Wiener. It is an amazingly wonderful, fantastic, hip, exciting, expressive, beautiful, antiquated, contemporary and well planned city. I had an amazing time and some of the best done european old-school style vegan food.

After a great little hug train starting at my desk and winding its way around the classroom I jumped a cab (the first of three crazy cab rides the weekend was to hand me - on this one, the cab driver commented on my remarkable ability to imitate a pigion. Must have been all of those days standing in Gore Park as a child) and headed for the airport....early me + late plane = a long time to contemplate how cute the three different sizes of stuffed Snowies the airport has to offer. After finally taking off the flight was mega smooth and my pre-departure salad bar adventure stayed right where it was supposed to.

The cabbie who was the commander of our arrival was a chemist from Croatia, and a wonderful sightseeing guide. The dark sky was my back drop for yet another first glance at a city (see Manchester), but the outskirts of Vienna was well lite by a rash of industry and development. Hotel Kugel was an acceptable spot of rest for the two nights stay - the area was FANTASTIC (7th quarter I think ---- wait a second, I am teaching fractions right now and I know damn well that there isn't a 7th quarter.....more like 1 and 3/4. Nice try Vienna). Anyway, there was an inspection of the crocked floors and a homage paid to the glue that was holding the 60's wall paper firmly to the year 2007 - way to go adhesives; food was next on the agenda, and the concerige was able to suggest a great little vegetarian (almost....despite the fish...but it is Europe and I have come to be happy with just about anything close to lettuce as an option at most restaurants) asian place down the street. We found the one and only Bhung Bui after a bit of hunting and enjoyed a really good tofu/veg/ stir fry. It wasn't anything to write home about, but it was satisfying to some hungry bellies and the wine was organic.

Through the frigid wind the way was found and I tooked into bed quick to fall asleep even faster.

Curry Catch Up

Bonjour!

I have a recipe to share that I made before leaving Toronto and it was so yummy that I needed to post it. Enjoy!

But wait a second...there is a wicked show on BBC 2 (Animal Park), and I couldn't start this post without suggesting that everyone quite their job and watch this program 24/7.

The Wednesday before I left I wanted to make a meal for my family and I decided on a curry. I made this decision mostly because I thought, if they weren't jiving on the curry, they could (HOLY CRAP, the joey on Animal Park is about the cutest thing I have ever seen!) have the veg and/or rice separate from the coconut milk combination that I whipped up.

I started with my mom's well used wok, and a little bit of olive oil. I diced the extra firm tofu into one-inch cubes, searing them until crispy, and than removing them from the wok, placing them in a covered glass bowl.

I also started about 1 cup of basmati and 2.5 cups of water to boil. Making sure to check it constantly to avoid burning....Turn the heat down after about 20 minutes, cover tightly.

I added 2 tbsp of seaseme oil, curry powder, cumin, pepper and coriander to the wok, which was sitting between med and high, and threw in the chopped sweet potato, which I allowed to cook on their own for about 15 minutes - just to soften them up. I than added the green onions, cooking until translucent. I than added some mushrooms, 2 tomatoes, red pepper, garlic and ginger.
At this point I also added some soya sauce. I cooked the veg for about 15 minutes, let the oil burn off and crisped up the veggies.

Then comes the yummy - the coconut milk. I actually added 3/4 of the can, rather than the whole can, only for the sake of it not being a 'lite' can, I added a wee bit of water to the now thick and chunky sauce.

I added the tofu and let the curry simmer for approximately 30 minutes.

With Matt not making it home from work, Rick at work and Em having fallen asleep with a headache my plans for a family feeding turned out to be a lovely intimate meal hour with Anne Marie, my mom and myself. The only thing that was missing was a bottle of wine. I added crushed peanuts and raw cashews to the top of the dish, serving the curry (in totality, rather than separate, now not having to worry about keeping the dish's elements separate for Em's sake) atop a bed of fragrant rice.