Foodie Friday_ Spanakopita!

Recently when there was nothing much on TV (like, the whole of Christmas!) we stuck on an episode of "Dinner Date".

On of the guys cooking made a vegetarian menu, with Spanakopita starter and stuffed peppers (!) for main.  I think he cooked veggie food cuz he wasn't a very good cook and less stuff could go wrong with vegetarian courses??  He tried one of his Spanakopita and said it was like eating PVA glue, mmm.

Anyways, for Christmas I got Jerry "Vegan with a Vengeance"; a cookbook we used to have, but it the course of our many house moves it has either been lost, or remains in storage at a parent's house. We would occasionally wonder what had happened to it, so it seemed to be a nice re-purchase item.

So, one of the recipes in it is for Spanakopita! This seemed like the perfect excuse to make it... hopefully edible ones too!

This was not a recipe I had made when we used to have the book previously; here are my substitutions:

- I used frozen spinach, not fresh
- I picked up fresh dill in the supermarket (pretty amazed that they had it in there!), but somehow it did not make it's way thru the checkout?? I blame the cashier!
- I made a special trip to 8th Day to buy nutritional yeast- it seems to be about the only place I've ever seen it ++ mental note, perhaps email Holland & Barrett to ask them to stock it  ++
- I also got nice greek black olives, and extra virgin olive oil in 8th Day (should have bought tofu in there too, but that's a different story)

The method was fairly similar to the 'tofu ricotta' she makes in the Pizzas section of the book.

You cook the spinach & spring onions etc. in a pan, but then she directs you to do the tofu/nutritional yeast part in a big bowl; tipping the spinach into this after.  As soon as I started doing this I was like "uh, why = extra washing up" but it was too late by then, so further mental note for future reference ++ just do it all in the same pan eh?

The quantities she gives make 30-triangle shaped pastries, which I wasn't up for- I made nine I think, but they were really easy (and my little girl especially Loved 'painting' the oil all over the filo pastry!), and I have leftover ingredients to make some more- this time with Dill in - for my Monday working lunch.

I served this with Jamie Oliver's Greek salad recipe (which was also supposed to have Dill in it!), hummus and pitta breads.

Items due for return 9/01

Thursday is Library day!

Today I had these due back:

I had got "Are you my mother?" (graphic novel) out for Jerry, he'd been asking if the library had "Fun Home" by the same author; at the time of checking they did not, but this caught my eye on the shelves instead.  He did not like it, oh well.

I also returned "Ms. Cupcake- The Naughtiest Vegan Cakes in town!", although technically this was not due until Monday.  I got this out aaages ago; in work they were having a Bake-Sale (one they gave us decent notice about), so I ran a search on the library catalogue for 'vegan' for some inspiration.  

I made two recipes from this: Red Velvet cupcakes, and the Bakewell Tart Cupcakes. They both had a similar- easy - method and produced tasty results. CONFESSION TIME: I'm not actually vegan, Jerry is, but I daydreamed about the Bakewell Tart cupcakes after they were all finished.  Raspberry plus Almond is one of my ultimate combinations!

I was sad to return this to the library, and would be happy to add this cookbook to my collection... if only it was a little cheaper on Amazon!    

The Empty Hearse

Whoah this ep. of #Sherlock is totally like "Whispers Under Ground" ~ @Ben_Aaronovitch

New year, new blog

Well it's been a while, but one of my resolutions is to blog more! And I'd love to post more, but my internet time this evening has been taken up by doing an online grocery shop, and also bloody resetablishing this profile! So, happy new year everybody, and see you tomorrow! #Sherlock time