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.

Christmas catch up

Christmas day came and went...

Jerry made us some snazzy party hats, as we never got any crackers

For dinner we had Roast pumpkin stuffed with wild mushrooms and hazelnuts and all the trimmings

Here I am writing in my adorable new Scheduler for 2010 (ok, the link isn't for the exact one, but very close and very cute!)

I think I'm frowning trying to remember something difficult, like Jerry's birthday ;)

And of course we needed to walk off all that food!

Here's Pepe modelling her snazzy scarf of Auntie Sandra- it is all the way from a shop called Doggie Goodie in Hong Kong

Actually Pepe has HATED the snow. If we don't keep her on her leash all the way around the park she just plonks herself down and refuses to take another step. These past few days it has melted a bit, but we're predicted for more heavy snow these next few days!

Sunday snacks

Here are the pics of Jerry's birthday cake from last week:
Vegan Black Forest Cake

We didn't have any birthday candles, so I used sparklers- which I think look better !

I tried a piece and it was sooo rich, like a chocolate fudge cake!

Today we've made Vegan Spiced Ginger Cookies. I was thinking that they might be nice stuck together with some of the leftover buttercreme filling from the cake :)
The spicy flavour is nice especially at this time of year when the weather is starting to get chilly.

Happy birthday Jerry

Yesterday - 24th October - was Jerry's Birthday !
Here we are celebrating having a meal at Chaophraya. We went there with my mum & dad:


The food was okay; the "Tapas" starters were the nicest part. We went at 3pm so I think they were only serving the Lunch menu... Jerry chose a papaya salad- but it was a bit too spicy for him !

Today I am going to finish off making his birthday cake: Vegan black forest cake. I've made a couple of amendments to the recipe on the site so will have to report back on whether it's any good :>

Pepe and Jesse are good. Pepe has outgrown her winter coat from last year, the big fatty! Over on Pug Snuggly I love the 'Sailor Tattoo' ones. The clocks have changed for winter here so although it might not start getting colder right away, it'll definetly be too dark when I get home from work (5.30pm onwards) to be taking a walk in the park :<