That's a big marrow...!

I made some of these Golden Vanilla Cupcakes from the book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World for my family at the weekend, and will also be having them made for us at our wedding by our new caterer to whom we gave the recipe.

After the recent drama with our last chef leaving, we managed to find a new venue, Mar Hall in Bishopton who gave us a list of vegan options to choose from for our new menu- we decided on parsnip and thyme soup for the starter, open ravioli with wild mushroom and asparagus in truffle oil for the main, and apple crumble with soya ice cream for dessert, followed by the aforementioned cupcakes, which sounded like a tasty menu. :) I'll try and get a few photos on the day to post here. ;)

Only a fortnight and one day to go now till I'm a married woman! I've not got much more to organise now, I'm having my hair trial tomorrow and bought the last of my favours today(I'm not telling what they are as they're to be a surprise for some readers!) All those cupcakes meant I've gained enough weight that I can now fit back into my wedding dress, which I tried on again at the weekend at my parent's house. :D
This here is a roasted marrow stuffed with golden vegetable rice (I cheated on this and used Uncle Ben's, which is vegan). My mum was given the marrow by a friend from work who grows them herself, and it was massive- to give you an idea of the scale, here's a photo of it in the fridge...
Big, eh? And that thing in the shelf above the marrow wrapped in the clingfilm is new Soya Free Cheddar Style Cheezly (I tried to find a link but it's not on their website as yet, I got mine in Holand and Barrett.). It uses pea protein instead of soya. It melts. tastes delicious and their best yet IMO. 5/5

Not food related- Why I've been away, and latest wedding gossip

I've just got out of hospital on Tuesday after being kept in for nearly a week for observation following a gastric bleed.This is after being in for a fortnight in total 4 or 5ish weeks ago where I had about 3 bleeds (I was let out then took relapses within a few hours twice!) and I've needed transfusions of about 11 units of blood in total over this time.

They still don't know the cause of my gastric bleeding and I've already had an endoscopy, colonoscopy, half an enteroscopy(this had to be halted as apparently I took a panic attack while under sedation), and barium meal xrays which failed to show anything. On Tuesday I had a capsule endoscopy but it can take around 4 weeks for results.

The same thing happened 4 and a half years ago too and was just written off as unexplained gastric bleeding and not further investigated as I never took a relapse over that time until these more recent incidents. One doctor said it was possible they might not even find anything there (which I find rather worrying). I'm feeling a bit better now, just a bit run down and tired.

I'm hoping everything will be sorted by the time of my wedding- only 6 weeks to go now!

We found out last week that the chef who was going to make our all vegan menu had left the hotel where he rented his restaurant, so Jay and my mum have been looking into finding a new place to go for our after wedding meal. I'm really glad we're having an intimate(13 guest) family wedding on a Tuesday so it (hopefully!) shouldn't be too difficult to find an alternative place to cater for our meal- had we been having a huge wedding on a weekend I'd be panicking!

I'm back after a long break! And here's a Pongal-inspired pilaf thing

I discovered Venn Pongal in Dino Sarma's Alternative Vegan book, and as he says himself in this post it can take a while to make. He has a few suggestions for new takes on it himself which I'll have to try out shortly. I came up with this pongal-inspired pilaf recently for a quick dinner- I've used the same spices(see Dino's blog) but instead of the traditional rice and split peas which take a while, I've used quicker-to-cook amaranth and a drained and rinsed tin of kala chana brown chickpeas for a speedier alternative. I'm very pleased with this experiment so I've tried a few variations and quinoa or cous cous also work well in it. :)

Photos from Cat's potluck

Brian is skiing on the Nintendo Wii...
Morven's walnut banana loaf...
Penny's chocolate cake- recipe here
Just desserts(because we ate the starters and mains before I remembered to take photos!)
Isla, Cat and Brian's dog

Dad Brian and daughter Bree...

Potluck Food, and (more) wedding talk!

I'm going to a Yahoo! Scottish Vegans' group potluck tomorrow, and I'm bringing this chocolate and coconut fudge. I used this 3 minute fudge recipe here with all coconut oil, and replaced the chopped nuts with dessicated coconut. I then lined the bottom of my tray with more dessicated coconut, then after spreading the fudge in, sprinkled even more coconut on top.

So I do hope everyone likes coconut- especially as the savoury dish I'm bringing is a mixed veg and mushroom korma!

I'm still wedding planning, and will be looking into booking a table at a venue for an all-vegan meal after our wedding this week- I've been emailing a few local hotels and restaurants asking if it was do-able, and The Watermill and Raeburns@ Ashtree House Hotel have gotten back to me saying they could cater for vegans- which might be handy for you to know if you ever need to book a table in the Paisley area!

Jay had been looking to hire a vegan kilt but we've been tring to find a hire service without any luck unfortunately- now there's a niche in the market if anyone is thinking of starting up their own business, kilt hire for vegans and vegetarians!

He's now decided he'll probably wear a suit instead, but I'm still going to post some of the information I've found on here in case anyone else reading finds it useful...

George, a member of the Scottish Vegans group(whom some of you who read The Vegan may recognise from the front cover of the Autumn 2009 edition wearing his kilt!) told me he got his tartan from Marton Mills, it's a polyester viscose named "Caledonia" from their Balmoral Range. His is a "Great Kilt" and here are instructions on how to fold it-

http://www.garbtheworld.com/pgs/foldkilt.html

Plus you-tube video instructions here- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jE__DYSM6U

Some kilt tailors will also make you your very own bespoke kilt using a non-woolen tartan but of course this is very pricey.

Although many of the cheaper casual kilts available from tourist shops are not woolen, all of them we've come across do however have leather straps so unfortunately are not vegan friendly.

Vegan Sporrans to buy and belts- http://www.vegansporrans.co.uk/catalog/index.html

Bespoke vegan sporrans, kilt straps and belts- http://sporran-nation.co.uk/vegan.html

Cappuccino Cupcakes- with recipe! :)

200g self-raising flour
150g sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract
3 tsp instant coffee
190ml hot water
110ml sunflower oil

-preheat oven to 180C

-make coffee by adding the hot water to the 3tsp instant coffee

-line a 12-cake tray with cupcake liners

-sift together dry ingredients, then add wet ingredients, and whisk

-spoon batter into liners, then bake for 22 minutes

-leave to cool then ice if desired


Icing recipe-

1/8 cup Pure marge
2 tbsp soya milk
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1 1/2 cups icing sugar

-mix together then spread over cakes

- you can garnish these cakes using cocoa powder sprinkled on top, or alternatively grate chocolate over them, or pop on some chocolate-covered coffee beans. Best served with a nice cuppa! :)

Hope you enjoy these cupcakes if you decide to try them out! :)

In other news Jay and I have set a date for our wedding- 24th of August this year, and I've found my dress at last! It's a completely vegan heavy jersey material, but I'm not going to tell you readers any more than that, you'll have to wait for the photos! ;)

I've been getting a lot of spam comments left on this blog lately for me to moderate, is anyone else using blogger having this bother? At least, I think they're spam, as they're written in some sort of asian-looking script which I can't actually translate! Spam fail.

Illustrated Recipe- Fridge Cake

Live cooking action photos by Jay!

You will need...

8oz vegan digestive biscuits(I use Morrisons' Value ones)
4oz vegan margarine
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp cocoa
1 heaped tbsp syrup
2 bars of plain chocolate
dried fruits and nuts of your choice(optional)

Crush the biscuits into crumbsMelt the marge, sugar, cocoa and syrup in a pan. Now add the biscuits to the melted mixture
Now press into a sandwich tin then put into fridge to set (should only take 20 mins)
Melt the chocolate bar over a bain marie(or a makeshift bain marie using a pan and a pyrex dish like I did!)Spread melted chocolate with optional added fruit or nuts (I used almonds and dried cherries) over the biscuit mixtureNow press more nuts, like these walnuts, on to to garnish if desired, then ut back in fridge to set

...Voila, you have a fridge cake! Slice into pieces and serve!