February food swap

Months are flying by. How is it February already? (It's actually March but I am writing this blog post as though it was February because I didn't get the time to write in February. Why is February shorter than all the other months?). Time never ceases to amaze me. It either goes too fast or not fast enough. I'd love to live outside of the constraints of time. I think that would be very freeing. But, before I go off on one (I am just in that kind of a mood), here's what I received this month:

Cola bottles, beetroot fruit bar, raspberry brownie, onion and herb veg pate, white sesame crackers, smoky BBQ seasoning, salsa, flour tortillas & flame steak flavour kettle crisps.

I wolfed down the beetroot bar, raspberry brownie and kettle chips as soon as I opened the parcel. The beetroot bar was especially lovely.  The white sesame crackers were an amazing accompaniment to my friend's homemade hummus. I usually have crudites, roasted veg or kettle chips with hummus so this was a nice change. Onion and herb pate would go lovely on freshly baked bread dipped into a soup, and the smoky BBQ seasoning, salsa and flour tortillas all lend themselves perfectly to making fajitas (one of my favourite dinners!). Recently I got into drinking tequila and these would be perfect washed down with my homemade ginger and lemongrass tequila. Amazevous!

Here's what I bought and sent to my lovely food swapper:

Wasabi peas, dried sweetened pears, dark chocolate with raisins, cinnamon and nutmeg, organic savoury pate, organic orange chocolate spread, organic vegan pesto & roasted and salted broad beans.

My two favourites in this lot are the chocolate spread and vegan pesto. I absolutely love both. People often have this misconception that vegan food is healthy, boring and tasteless. (Sometimes that is true but then even non-vegan food can be tasteless and god damn awful). I love eating fatty, tasty and flavoursome food. I also love to experiment with food. If by any chance you want to make your own pesto here's a nice recipe I came up with:

http://possumology.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/courgette-pasta-with-spicy-kale-and.html

 I have not as yet tried making my own chocolate spread but looking at the ingredients it seems fairly simple. Here's a recipe that looks good:

 http://www.sugoodsweets.com/blog/2005/12/nutella/

 

I love making my own stuff (it's more frugal, usually tastes better and allows me to be creative). Since becoming vegan I've been trying to crack vegan cheese (or veese as my friends call it) that looks, tastes and melts exactly like conventional cheese.

I have been experimenting for a year and a half now and still nothing great but I've cracked the meltability part. I just need to work on the taste and texture when hard.

I bought this great book and tried a couple of recipes. They turned out OK but not as spectacular as I had hoped.







http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1570672830

I promise you that once I've cracked the most amazing veese recipe you shall know about it and furthermore you'll be the first one to taste it!

My friend had an amazing idea of setting up a gourmet vegan cheese shop. That would be just spectacular! If only...

Lastly, on the subject of cheese, we had a vegan cheese fondue last weekend!! It was epic. Recipe and pics coming up. Love :) x