Friday, September 30, 2011

A no-sew hair-clip tidy

Premise: my daughter's hair-clips and elastics were jumbled together in a box, and the resulting mess was a source of conflict.
I needed a quick and easy way to organise them all. I didn't want to do much or any sewing.
Even though I loved the idea of making a caddy which would hang over a coat hanger - we don't like making holes in the wall, and I would have nowhere to hang it.
I didn't want to spend much or any money.

Result: A stand-up polystyrene board cut to size, covered in fabric, with attached ribbons. Cost: zero. Time taken: half an hour.



Materials needed:

A piece of polystyrene board (or cork board, which was my original plan, but couldn't find any).
A ruler, cutter, pen, a fat quarter (a nice piece of quilting cotton),  some ribbons, and some drawing pins and sewing pins.


Instructions: Measure the polystyrene or cork board to the size you want. Mine is 30 cm x 35 cm, because I want it to fit in the cupboard.


Cut out the board. Vacuum up all the millions of tiny polystyrene balls which go everywhere as you cut. Perhaps a hot wire would have worked better, but I didn't have one to hand.


Iron your piece of fabric, then lay the board on the wrong side of the fabric, and begin pinning. Pull the fabric taut so it is neat and tidy on the right side.


Endevour to make nice, neat and tidy mitred corners, but don't worry too much! No-one is going to see them.


Ta-dah! One covered board....now for the ribbons.

Cut your ribbons to size, tie a knot in the end or cut on the bias to stop the unravelling. Pin them to the board. Then take a wider piece and cover the tops of the ribbons with it. I used long sewing pins to pin this piece to the sides of the board.


I then at a loss, as I realised I had nowhere for the elastics...a few bead-headed sewing pins (long, quilter's pins), fixed that problem. You might come up with something a little prettier...I was working with what I had on hand.


And voilà! The finished product, with all hair-clips and elastics neatly arranged and ready to go. 


Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Six Month Veganniversary!

Well, about 6 months and two weeks really, but who is counting? We're celebrating by having dessert for lunch today, and I'm finally inspired to blog about it. A Flylady/Facebook friend of mine put me onto a recipe for a "zucchini apple pie" filling (from http://allrecipes.com). We have a zucchini glut (of course - Italy, July, what else?). I happened to have some store-bought wholemeal pastry in the fridge (for those of you in Italy, I use Buitoni Pasta Sfoglia Rustica, which is accidentally vegan). Only enough for bottom crust though, so the idea for Strudel came about.

I turned the pie filling into a strudel filling by adding 3 tbsp pinenuts, 6 chopped, pitted dates, 3 tbsps soaked sultanas and 2 tbsps breadcrumbs. I wrapped the whole lot in the pastry, and baked it at 200°c for 30 minutes (brushed the top with soy milk, first). And it came out like this:



When I cut into it, it looked like...STRUDEL!

And with soy icecream on top, it looked like...DESSERT!!


YUM YUM!!
Happy 6 month veganniversary to me :-)


Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Pre-school ESL...breakthrough moment.

This blog purports to be about teaching English in Italy, but I haven't blogged about that for such a long time. Mainly because it is all just ticking over right now. And because everything is taking a backseat to the Delta (exam June 1 - beginning to think in terms of "countdown").

The biggest buzz is from my pre-school class at the moment. It's all come together so well this year (compared with last year's mad scrabble around for inspiration). My basic lesson plan is always the same, but I choose to emphasis different aspects each time, working on building their vocabulary and giving them usable chunks of language. A lesson of one and a half hours (with anywhere from 16 through to 28 kids) goes something like this.

Take the roll - they answer "Yes" to their names.
Count the kids, out loud, going around the class (yes, they can count past 20 now).
Use  genkienglish.net warm-up song (action version), What's Your Name song, Hello, How Are You song, to get them singing, moving, laughing, having fun.

Read a story book. So far we've "done" "Mrs Wishy-Washy's Farm" (success), "Animal Boogie"  (near success), "Watch Out, Big Bro's Coming" (fail), Ten In The Bed (huge success), and today I introduced "Are You My Mother?"...

Move into Wiggle Time. We use the Wiggles songs a lot. Their favourites are Five Little Ducks (be warned, if you use the live version, with Captain Feathersword crying his eyes out, expect hysterical laughter from the kids), Here Comes A Bear, Captain Feathersword (the Pirate Dance), and Rock-a-Bye-Your-Bear.

Once we're all Wiggled out, we move on a DVD of children's songs which I've had forever.CYP Best songs from this are Open Shut Them, Teddy Bear Teddy Bear, Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush, Heads Shoulders, Insy Winsy Spider, If You're Happy and You Know It, and to my great surprise, Tommy Thumb!

And THAT is where today's breakthrough came from.

I like Tommy Thumb in that it teaches two very usable chunks - Where is X? and Here I am! I'm never sure of the actual uptake in the class - they usually learn something VERY different from what I think I'm teaching! So today while I was reading "Are You My Mother?", and we got to the part where the baby bird says "Here I am, Mother!" and one of my students sang "Here I am, Here I am", I wanted to sing and dance and cry all at the same time! A very exciting moment...

And after all the singing and dancing (of the lesson plan, I mean), I hand out a worksheet which has some tie-in with the lesson. Today I tried to move towards literacy, by giving the 5/6 year olds a tracing writing sheet, the 4/5 yr olds a "letter a" writing sheet (trace, copy, and fill in the space with "a"), and the 3/4 yr olds a colouring sheet with the same theme (family words). Hard to tell how that went, although I noticed that one of my "problems" was thrilled by it! He doesn't usually participate in the colouring, so perhaps he's telling me that he's really wanting to be challenged. Something to think about for next time.

When I think back three years ago, and how terrified I was at the idea of teaching young and very young learners, I have to smile...can't laugh yet, because there is still so much for me to learn, but I'm so glad I said yes to giving it a chance.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

A Sunday morning walk in the Italian spring sunshine

I took advantage of a quiet Sunday morning (early start thanks to my lovely full-of-energy kiddies), and went for a walk in the spring sunshine. There were so many flowers (wild and otherwise) that I couldn't resist taking a few photos. And then I thought that perhaps some people are still in winter, or heading into winter, or could just use a little colour...so here they are! Plus a few general views for orientation.
A view of San Michele from La Vignetta

The path in front of me as I wander, singing

Olive trees, because they are all around

A lone poppy - it must be nearly ANZAC Day

Remembering...

Bobbing peony roses

Little yellow roses on a wall

Pretty pink flowers against a wall

More olives and distant hills

I think I will come back to this post in the dead of next winter, just for a breath of freshness and colour.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

My first short story.

Two years ago, I wrote my first short story (as a grown-up, that is...), as a Christmas present for a friend. I also entered it in a competition. Although it didn't win, I still feel a small thrill whenever I read it. And I think it is time to share it :-) 

I hope you enjoy it. I love feedback on my writing, so if you have any constructive comments, they would be much appreciated (positive or negative!).

Northern Skies


An original short story
By
Jo Gillespie






Dedicated to Jo K., a person who personifies faith and optimism,
and who is a very dear friend.

Merry Christmas.

I’ve been back in London all of thirty minutes, and I’m already remembering some of the why I left. We’re stuck in a motionless train under south London. The smell of the plane trip hangs around me. The shower I had in Beth’s dingy Sydney bathroom is a thirty-hour old memory, and although I sprayed copious amounts of the latest Giorgio Armani parfum pour femme all over me in Duty Free, I’m uncomfortably aware that at least some of my fellow passengers are not enjoying sharing this trip with me.
And although I’m not the only one with luggage, my overstuffed rucksack seems to be more offensive than anyone else’s. I’ve tried to tuck the straps away, but more than one person has managed to trip over them, all the same. I’ve said “sorry” more in this half hour than in the last six years altogether.
Six years ago, I left for a gap year. Running away so fast from my life in London. Running from my in-each-others’-pockets family. We’d lost our way after burying my father much too soon. They’d let me run, though. In those six years, I’d missed my sister’s wedding, and the birth of her first three children. I’d missed one brother’s graduation from Law School, and the other’s growing success as a chef. I’d missed witnessing my grandfather’s slow slide into dementia. Those were events, though. I’d been too busy enjoying a million adventures Sydney-side to miss anything else.
It’s the twenty-fourth of December. As we pulled away from station under Heathrow Airport, the carriage was mainly taken up with fellow travelers, tourists, or locals returning home, like me. I wonder briefly how many have been away for as long as me. I’m the only one with a tan. So my guess is, even if they’ve been away longer, they haven’t been as far. I want to feel smug for being such a great adventurer, but remind myself that I’m now back for good. I feel slightly ill.
Four stations on from the airport, the carriage is now jammed full, most people carrying one or more pretty paper or plastic bags, advertising where they’ve done their Christmas shopping. My gifts are taken care of, thanks to kangaroo, koala and boomerang shaped key-rings. Thanks, Sydney Airport. I want to sink my head in my hands, but resist.
The temperature is rising in the stalled train, and people are starting to shed their layers. Out in the open air of London, it’s probably three degrees, and people are wrapped up to ward off that above-ground chill. I’m glad I had the foresight to stow my jacket before catching the train, but I’m still over-heating in my zip-up sweatshirt, which bears the logo of the Sydney Olympics.
Six years in a warm and friendly outpost of Britain’s former glory, and I’ve forgotten, or lost, that hard London edge. I make eye contact with a business type, his orange and blue tie chosen to make a statement. A smile crosses my lips, but he scowls.
‘What you looking at?’
‘Just that advert above your head.’ I pretend to be fascinated by the ad for Life Insurance, wondering how such a professional-seeming gent could be so rude. Bad morning at the office, I guess. Or maybe this stalled train is making him late for a million pound meeting. I turn to look out the window into the darkness of the tunnel.
The carriage is too quiet for my comfort. I can hear myself think too loudly. Conversations which could be carried out safely, masked by the noise of the engine, have drifted into silence, and now no-one speaks. I suddenly wish I’d agreed to Tony’s offer. I could be cruising in his yacht off Sydney Harbour by now, heading away to see the world. Standing by a handsome man. Adventures waiting for us over every sea we travel. Trouble is, I’m done with that now. My sense of adventure has deserted me.
The train suddenly starts to move, and there is confusion as people struggle to keep their balance. Mr Orange-Tie falls against the pole he was hanging onto, and swears, but we’re in England, and no-one else makes a fuss.
As we pass through the stations along the line, the crowd changes, swells, thins. Too soon for me,  the train pulls into the station I’ve been waiting for, and dreading. Thirty-one hours after leaving the burnt acid blue of a southern hemisphere sky, I’m blinking up the dull grey of that of the north, the Christmas shoppers oblivious to the drizzle. The smell of fried chicken mingles with exhaust from the Turnpike Lane traffic, and I’m jostled off to the side of the pavement. I’ve made the wrong decision. London is hell.
Right now, Beth, Tony, Amy and Craig would be sleeping up on the open deck, being rocked gently by the swell of the ocean. They’re leaving tomorrow. First stop, Auckland. Then they’re doing the Pacific Islands.
I’m being rocked by the irritation of strangers. It’s my rucksack. They think that I don’t know where I’m going, but I do. This street leads to my family. I’m going home. My family just don’t know it yet. I push myself out into the stream of pedestrians, and point my feet towards the place I grew up.
The crowds thin out as I leave the shopping streets, and hit the residential zone. My shoulders are screaming at me, telling me what I already know – I should have left more stuff in Sydney.  I should have left myself there. I stop at Number 24. Grandma and Granddad’s house. Before Granddad passed away. The letterbox is still the same, and I touch it for luck, before walking on, walking to Number 32.
There used to be orange curtains in my room, overlooking the street. Now they’re green. I hate green. The downstairs lights are on, so someone must be home. As I open the gate, I notice my hands are shaking. Tired shoulders. The anxious knot in my stomach doesn’t let me lie to myself. At this point, I am sure I should have stayed in Australia, and put this moment off for another year or four. The three steps to the front door seem to take a year, but before I’m ready, my traitorous hand has snaked out and rung the bell.
There’s a clatter of small feet, and a pixie opens the door. A suspicious pixie, who frowns up at me. We stare at each other because the pixie doesn’t know me at all, and because I can’t figure out which of my sister’s children is hiding under that floppy green hat. We’re saved by the pixie’s mother, who comes waddling down the hallway.
‘Fergus, who is it? I’ve told you not to open the door without asking who it…Holy Mary, Mother of God. It’s your Aunty Isabel.’
I’m engulfed in my sister’s warm arms before I can say a word, my rucksack getting stuck in the doorway as I’m pulled inside.
‘Mum! Paul! Issy’s back! Oh, Gran’s going to have another heart attack at this. You’re soaked right through. You should have called. Mike could have picked you up, for sure.’
The offending pack gets dumped in the hallway, to drip all alone on the doormat. The pixie who, as it turns out, is my sister’s youngest child (but not for long, judging by the size of my sister’s belly), skips ahead of us, singing Jingle Bells for good measure. The twenty-fourth. Lunch. A family tradition that I’d forgotten. Everyone is going to be in the kitchen. I wonder if they’ll be able to make room for one more. An almost-stranger now.
We enter, and as I look at the over-loaded table, and the crowd of faces, showing various expressions of shock, surprise and happiness, I remember. And I realize.
This is not the wrong decision. This is the right decision for me, right now. I’m not a stranger. This is my family and home is where I need to be. I pull up a chair, and Mum places a plate in front of me, and squeezes my shoulder.
‘It’s good to have you back, Isabel. Merry Christmas.’


The end
   

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Entertaining and Eating Out - two new experiences.

Last Thursday was a VERY special day. An old friend from my AFS Turkiye days (1988-89!), who makes amazing chocolates on a small island in Maine (blackdinahchocolatiers) was visiting Italy with her husband and two friends...two VEGAN friends! Via facebook, we organised to meet, which in the end turned out to be lunch at mine. First time entertaining since becoming vegan. I was VERY excited. And in my focus on "cooking for friends, cooking for vegans" I forgot to worry about the "cooking for a chef" part! Oops!

Our menu was as follows:

Bruschetta - plain garlic, olive patè, artichoke patè

Wholemeal pennette with Puttanesca sauce

Roast potato and parsley pesto salad

Beetroot and Blood Orange salad

Carrot and Sesame Salad

Leek and Mushroom Quiche (which was a bit of a disaster! I made the filling with soy cream, but didn't add enough cornflour and it didn't set. I ended up scooping out the filling into a pot, stirring in more cornflour and cooking it until it thickened, then pouring it back into the pie crust! - it still tasted ok-ish).

For dessert we had soy icecream (store-bought), with homemade vegan chocolate sauce (which was a crazy choice, considering I was cooking for a Chocolatier! Eek! However, she declared it delicious - I think I had VERY polite lunch guests ;-) )

It was a real pleasure entertaining as a vegan, and cooking for vegans. The discussion about the whys and wherefores was interesting as well.


That was Thursday, and on Saturday I had another first. First time eating out as a vegan. I planned ahead. Luckily in Italy, because they generally cook from scratch in restaurants, instead of cook chill which is common in some places, as a vegan you can ask chef to leave out things, or change things around a bit. It helped that the friends I was dining with know the restaurant owners, too! There was much hilarity as I tried to explain what I DO eat (everything EXCEPT that which comes from animals...yes, that means honey, too), and in the end, I had a very satisfying and delicious meal!

Bruschetta with olive and tomato
Borlotti beans with porcini mushrooms (to die for! Honestly!)
Hand-rolled spaghetti with simple tomato sauce.
Fruit salad for dessert.

Perfect :-)


And to top off the week, I just discovered a recipe for the best hummus I've ever made!

http://vegweb.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=ec11327653c032bd93cf02b2c39d7b56&topic=18020.0

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Challenge Fail!

Sorry. It's one thing becoming vegan (which was so much easier than I expected it to be). It's a whole other thing trying to get a very unfit 40 year old body into REAL exercise every day...
I started so well, but fizzled on Thursday. That was a given, really, because of teaching from 8 until 5, with lots of driving in there too. You may remember that I'd done double duty (exercise-wise) on Wednesday...well, my knees really let me know what they thought about THAT on Thursday. So I decided my sprint from car to school to car to school to high school to school to car was plenty. Then there was some excuse (like needing to work on the DELTA) on Friday which stopped me, then I examined for PET/FCE most of the day Saturday, and it rained today. (Nobody mention the orbital trainer upstairs in the warm and dry...).
So I've failed.
Bummer.
And I'd love to say ... well, I'll just jump back in tomorrow...but I think we all know THAT isn't going to happen. I'll stick with the vegan challenge, and passing the DELTA with more than just a pass (ha ha ha), and perhaps in the summer time, will be more movement-inclined. Ho-hum...

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

wow - day five already...

The flab is losing its sag! I can feel it, even if no-one can notice. Got up at 6 a.m. again, and shuffled downstairs to do the GAG routine (I LOVE the fact that Bums, Tums and Thighs turns into GAG in Italian - Glutei, Abdome e some other large muscle group which starts with G...gambe? maybe...) Anyhoo...did it. Took 30 minutes. Felt good...but not enough. Uh-oh...addiction kicks in around Day Five maybe?

I taught at the pre-school - much better today (relatively speaking...). Lots of Wiggles, including their favourite song. Rockabye Your Bear - it never gets old. Love the dance. I'm thinking end-of-year recital with all my little cherubs...even though I know it is NEVER going to happen!

So after that, I decided it was time to try out the vegan sponge cake with "butter-cream" icing. I used margarine (vegan) in the icing. I've never cared for margarine, and being vegan isn't enough to make me like it. However, the fact that it tastes more or less like Italian butter (which always smells and tastes rancid to me) makes the whole icing thing acceptable to all those in this family. In fact, as I write, at 9.15 p.m., there is one small, sad slice of cake left on the plate in the fridge. That's a good result in my book!

Dinner was also a success. My first try with TVP , and it turned out very well. Tasty, chewy, wonderful food for a cold evening. I boiled it for 15 minutes, then let it drain (I had a few hours. Usually you just squeeze the extra moisture out). I sautéed an onion and a leek, then added the TVP, let that sizzle for four minutes, added garlic, diced potatoes and carrots, some shoyu (1 tbsp), and a tbsp of tomato paste, then covered the lot with enough boiling water to cook the vegies...left it until they were down. Turned into a really comforting stew. I'm impressed! Served with broccoli and mushrooms, and my work here is done. Which is good, because I'm in the throes of planning for tomorrow's seven hours of teaching children of various ages...

Oh yes....after lunch and before afternoon lessons, I ALSO fitted in a 30 minute walk/run around my village. 3.13km of uphill/downhill. On the off-chance that I don't feel like the orbital trainer tomorrow evening after all that teaching, I'm going to consider that I'm one-up.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Still doing it

I got up at 6a.m. again, and did another 25 minutes on the orbital trainer. It was tough - it really is the blog that keeps me to it! How odd. Remembering to take the iphone (with podcasts) upstairs before going to bed helped! Very interesting podcasts on ten odd animals in history - only listened to the first five, so will listen to the other five next time I'm on board.
I also walked from my car to school and back - which granted, only takes seven minutes, but that is 14 minutes in total. It counts, right?
And when I got home from work, Miss 7 reminded me that she REALLY needed a new exercise book, otherwise there was NO WAY she could do her homework...
Which necessitated a walk down to the village shop and back up. Add another 10 minutes to today's total, and it is starting to look pretty good.

Also discovered that, given the fact that our one and only bar/coffee shop in San Michele just closed down, the men all now hang out in the shop. It was packed (well, packed for SM) - there were five men in there, gas-bagging. I love my village.

Vegan round-up - pasta and vegies for lunch, minestrone with beans and silverbeet in it for dinner, followed by my vegan Peaches and Cream - the cream was made from ground almonds - tasty, but not creamy enough. They were too gritty to have the same mouth-feel as whipped cream. I will keep on hunting.

Monday, March 7, 2011

If you based your opinion of my teaching ability...

on today's lesson at the pre-school, you'd probably think "What the HECK is this person doing teaching kids?" What a disaster! Thank goodness I've had some wonderful lessons with this group recently, because otherwise I'd chuck in the towel RIGHT now!

Some comments I've had recently from the kids (in Italian) are "The English teacher is just so lovely." "English is really FUN!" and "The English teacher is really FUN and LOVELY!" - so I'm taking that to mean I'm doing something right (Thanks to Genki English!)
But discipline really is an issue. I know it isn't just me - both the PE teacher AND the Religion teacher are having problems, but today was diabolical. Let's blame it on the wind! - it is blowing a gale, and the sun is shining, so it is a Mad March kind of day.

What to do about a little one who does roundhouse kicks, followed by punches and slaps to anyone he can reach? Same fellow only stays in his chair for about two seconds at a time - and only gets out of his chair to kick and punch...today the teacher left the room, and there was an all-out brawl! I feel very ineffectual at moments like that, because even if I speak in Italian, they just won't listen, and won't stop. I can't even catch the fellow to put him in the Time-Out chair - not that he'd stay there.

I think I need some advice, but the teachers tell me I'm doing well (????) - today it doesn't feel like it.

______________________________________________________

If I wasn't vegan, I'd ask for some cheese with that WHINE! ;-)

On a brighter note, I hauled my comfortably-sized behind out of bed at 6 a.m., and did my Aerobics Arms DVD for 30 minutes! Today's challenge - TICK. I didn't want to do the orbital trainer today for two reasons...one is that my leg muscles were telling me they'd quite like a rest, and the second was that I didn't have my phone upstairs - no podcast = very boring workout = high likelihood of stopping after 10 minutes...

I can feel my triceps. :-)

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Day Two of the Exercise Challenge.

We woke up too late to go to the mountain. I wasn't very sad about that - it meant I could fit in my 20 minutes on the Orbital Trainer before my shower. While pedalling away I try to increase my brain power (or at least my ability to answer pub quizzes!) by listening to podcasts from the lovely folks at Stuff You Missed In History Class and Stuff You Should Know. Today I learned all about quicksand - even though many old movies (and some not so old - Hi, Indie!) would like us to believe differently, it is actually fairly unlikely a human would die in quicksand - it usually just isn't deep enough. :-)
I needed to know that.
Yesterday I learned all about Richard the Lionheart - dreadful administrator, genius at war, which is why he spent most of his rule either crusading, or beating up on his should-have-been-father-in-law Phillip of France. Great fun - keeps me pedalling, otherwise I'd give up after 8 minutes (that's my boredom threshold limit for orbital trainer).

To make up my exercise regime to thirty minutes (you know the drill - "moderate exercise, thirty minutes at a time, three times a week, blah blah"), I vacuumed vigorously and washed the floors feverishly - it ended up adding another twenty minutes to my regime - bonus!

Legs - sore.
Knee - complaining.
Feeling - pumped :-)

And menu, because after all, this started as a vegan challenge, and morphed...
Lunch was the standard wholemeal pasta with herby tomato sauce, and dinner was a wonderful soup - thanks to my Dutch friend Arja for the suggestion!

Small onion
2 leeks
2 potatoes
4 carrots
1 celeriac bulb
250gr split green peas
4 cloves garlic
salt and pepper to taste

I sautéed the onion and leeks in a little olive oil, then added the chopped vegies (diced), and garlic. Sweated them awhile, then added the washed peas (I didn't soak them), salt and pepper, and covered with 2 litres of water (which I had to top up later). Brought it slowly to the boil, and then let it simmer for an hour. I pureed mine, because I prefer a creamy soup. Served with nutritional yeast - delish! Hubby had his chunky, and also pronounced it "delish" - or rather, his seal of approval - a shrug and a "You could make it again." :-)

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Another update

I guess I knew that this would happen - once the challenge ended, so did the blogging. I AM still vegan, though, and we've still been eating well, as my ever-expanding behind proves. I thought I would share a few new photos of some of our more interesting meals. And then I thought I'd share my NEW 30 day challenge idea...
Grilled eggplant with parsley

vegie burgers made with okara, carrots, zucchini and rolled oats

ugly looking but normal tasting home-made tofu

Samosa-stuffed pastie. Fine! VERY FINE!


Still my fave from Veganomicon - seitan with brussel sprouts, kale and sundried tomatoes.


And the new challenge is (mostly to get me blogging again!) -
Building exercise into every day for 30 days. I'm enjoying my food too much, and it is showing. Spring is in the air, and with that, the desire to shed what I am kindly calling my winter weight...
So, as my diet is probably not going to change much (trying to keep up with calorie intake, plus vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, protein, etc etc...), my exercise regime MUST change.

Today I began with 20 minutes on the orbital trainer. That felt good - made me quite grumpy for the rest of the day, and my sit-down muscles are telling me to go to Hades right now...
Tomorrow might include a trip to the snow - I'll try to make that count.

Wish me luck - I hope to be as successful in THIS new challenge as I was in the last!

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Truffles, anyone?

Flash!!! I remembered that one of the reasons I began blogging about my vegan adventure was to develop a menu plan which I could recycle every four weeks, and never have to worry about meal-planning again. So WHY then, did I find myself at 6 p.m. on a Friday evening, on facebook SPECIFICALLY because I DID NOT know what was for dinner?
I can't answer that question.
However, it did prod me to look over the meals we'd had in the last month, and I managed to put together a passable dinner of Potato Parlsey Pesto Salad, carrot sticks and sautéed mushrooms. Wonderful stuff. My next task is to take all 30 days of Vegan Adventure posts, and actually CREATE the four week menu plan to work from. No problem - sure I can fit that job in somewhere.
Last night I also made Almond Milk in the Vegan Star. The recipe needs tweaking, as the resulting milk is quite runny. It left me with some almond pulp though, and I didn't want to throw it away, so....

Almond and Walnut Truffles

About a cup (maybe less...) of almond pulp
1/3 cup walnut pieces
1/3 cup almonds
1/3 cup sultanas
1tbsp agave syrup
coconut for rolling

Use a food processor to chop up the walnuts, almonds and sultanas. Mix these with the almond pulp and agave syrup. Roll into balls, and roll in coconut. Put in fridge for 1-2 hours. Yummy, and dare I say it?...a little bit FANCY. :-)

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Time for a Still-Vegan catch-up post

Wholemeal pasta with broccoli and herbs

Stir-fried cabbage with miso and cider vinegar

Big fresh mixed salad

Vegan Scalloped potatoes, baby! 

And a big pot of lentils.

Well, hi there! It seems like ages...but really, it is just a few days. A few very packed days. However, we're still eating well, and it is still a grand adventure. The best way to catch up is by looking at the above photos. I think the highlight so far has been the scalloped potatoes. Made with vege broth, garlic, herbs and nutritional yeast - it really looks like parmesan on top there, doesn't it? They were so creamy and delicious.

And today, my newest shiny appliance arrived...I've already made the first batch of soy milk. I soaked the soy beans for 4 hours (recipe said 1 hour, but it was dance night!). I wasn't sure how long it was going to take, perhaps an hour or something like that - 25 minutes! It took 25 minutes to make 1.5 litres of creamy soy milk. I'm so excited to try almond milk and rice milk now.
Well...not right now...tomorrow now or the day after tomorrow now, if you get what I mean. NOW now is all about DELTA Assignment Number Five...getting it sent in before midnight.

Night night.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Good food day.

I was at home, studying today. I finished Assignment/Task Four, and sent it in. Then I made lunch for daughter and me. We had wholemeal pasta with a tomato/cannellini bean sauce.
And I made dinner while I was at it, because I had to take daughter to dentist in the afternoon, do the shopping, run an errand for a friend, AND SEND MY BOOK to the competition (which I did! Great feeling!).
So dinner was grilled eggplant slices, and then I made up a vegetable stew kind of thing.
Olive oil, sautéed two leeks, added some garlic, then added eggplant, diced small, some sliced zucchini, then some sliced mushrooms. I then added some miso, tomato paste, oregano and basil, and some red wine, and let that stew for some time...then added some cooked cannellini beans, put the lid on, and turned off the heat. I reheated it at dinner time. All the flavours had melded, and the texture was wonderful - creamy, tasty, herby, warming. The photo is dreadful ;-) We had that with the grilled eggplant slices, and some Valeriana  salad greens (apparently known in English as Lamb's Lettuce) - they were on sale at the market today, and looked so pretty! I just dressed them with a little olive oil...didn't even need salt.
And that was today as it happened...

The other news is that my volcano in Iceland (I say "mine" - I mean the one my book is loosely based on) just started erupting! Which would be super marketing, if my book was ready to be published!
Iceland volcano...again

Thursday, February 10, 2011

The first chance I get....

I'm making THIS!!!! raw blueberry cheesecake (a great blog to visit for recipes. She's amazing!)

Today was a looooooong one! As are all Thursdays - and from the 24th they're going to get so much longer...but I'm not going to think about that just now.

Knowing I'd be home late, and tired, I asked Saint M-I-L to make minestrone for dinner - and she did with a vengance. Lentils, borlotti beans, carrots, silverbeet, potatoes, rice, and all manner of vegan goodness. Followed by lots of fruit (kiwifruit and apples).

Lunch - I was halfway to work when I realised I'd forgotten to make any...which shows where my brain is right now...well, shows that it is AWOL, anyway!  So I popped into Café Ripasso before work, and asked the lovely Carlo to have grilled vegies ready at 12.30...and because he's such a sweetie, when I went back at 12.30, not only were my vegies ready and waiting, but he'd ALSO set the table for me! It really made my day. I can't imagine the people at Café Grandori extending the same friendly hand! Yay for Café Ripasso, I say.

That's all, folks. No photos, but we'll get back to them when things calm down a little. I have the day off work tomorrow in order to prepare last part of DELTA Task 4 (due at midnight), so will have a little more time to do something interesting with the vegies I'm going to pick up from the market in the morning - although I do have to take Daughter to dentist in the afternoon, so am not sure WHAT I'm going to make. Watch this space!

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

I missed a day! That was awful!

Am now an official blogging addict :-)
I spent some of my yesterday working on the DELTA, some of it working on lesson plans, and the REST of it (until *ahem* 1.45am) EDITING THE BOOK! Finally! The The Clendon Award deadline is fast approaching, and nothing makes me focus more than a looming deadline. Hated not having time for a blog post!

Of course, woke up dazed and confused this morning, checked the fine print, realised what I THOUGHT was meant by "ARC Format" wasn't what it was at all...much cursing and gnashing of teeth, and frantic "well, if I do this, race here, duck over there, and squeeze that in here" - upshot was that I DID NOT GET IT IN THE MAIL today...nor even printed out! I did, however, get it whipped into what I believe is ARC format! I compared it to a published paperback, and it looks pretty similar :-)

Yesterday's meals were great! Still vegan...my m-i-l made pumpkin risotto for lunch, so I nabbed a plate of that (she's very careful to let NO cheese near it now - poor thing, I think she's terrified), and then for dinner, I finally made Veganomicon's chickpea cutlets! Wahoo! They are AWESOME. And as there is a slight snarky note about how the recipe has appeared on blogs all over the 'net, I'm NOT going to be one of them! You'll just have to google ;-)

 Don't they look just like schnitzel?
While making the chips, I managed to totally wreck my food processor bowl! I guess one of the spuds was too heavy - the blade buckled, the plate support snapped clean in two, and the plastic bowl cracked all over the bottom, and up the side! Gave me one heck of a fright - luckily, most of the chips were cut. And I can get replacement parts...no-one was injured, and that's the most important thing.

Today - first time I've had lunch at the bar since Day One (thanks, Heather, for making me GET OUT MORE!). Carlo from Cafe Ripasso in Viterbo is such a honey (can I still call people honey now I'm vegan?), and made me a super plate of grilled eggplant and zucchini, with olive oil and garlic (apologies to colleagues at meeting afterwards), and mini bruschette...yummy!

Dinner was the rest of the split pea soup from Monday, which I padded out with wholemeal pasta stars. And lots of fruit to follow. Gotta have that fruit!

Right, back to the DELTA, and lesson planning I go...but relieved in the knowledge that I have finished the book (Novel One, finished first draft, haven't finished editing. Novel Two, haven't finished first draft. Novel Three - contest ready, baby!).

Monday, February 7, 2011

The Thirty Day Vegan Challenge ends here - being a vegan doesn't.

It's been a very satisfying and educational thirty days. I'd like to start by thanking those readers who have followed the blog, checking in every day, leaving encouraging comments and suggestions on facebook (Leslie, Pea, Rowena, Kate, Ushka, Ken, Cathy and others I may have missed for now), and in person (Anna, Heather, Naomi...) and keeping me honest (and honestly reporting).
Perhaps I entered into this lightly, a little bit tongue-in-cheek, a little bit like making fun of my earlier self (I do remember saying so clearly, when I was a vegetarian, years ago, "Oh, being a vegetarian is easy...but vegan is a full-time job. I couldn't do it!")

Guess what? Being vegan isn't hard work, really.  It does take a little planning,  perhaps I haven't been at it long enough to really understand all the nutritional side of things yet, and I'm yet to try eating out as a vegan, but it has opened up a whole new vista of cooking, a new way of approaching food, and I'm feeling the love in the kitchen again.

At the beginning I said that I wasn't going to make my kids go vegan, and I stand by that. School lunches are what they are here in Italy, and with me being at work so much, there is no way I can pick them up, take them home, feed them good vegan food, and take them back to school (perhaps if I was a more militant vegan, I'd be marching down to the mensa, DEMANDING a vegan option for my kids...). BUT...I must say that because my attitude towards preparing the evening meal has had a bit of an adjustment, and perhaps because they can see that I'm back to cooking with joy, the children are eating better. That's a fantastic side-effect.

I wish for the last blog post of the 30 day challenge, I had some pretty pictures and a great menu plan. Instead, it was one of those days! A Monday - dance night. Also the day my daughter got her mid year report, which meant a trip to her school and a queue (not for long, luckily).

My lunch was leftover spaghetti puttanesca from yesterday (way too much, but no-one else was going to eat it, and I hated to waste it - and therein lies the main reason for my well-cushioned posterior!), and dinner was supposed to be a flavoursome split-pea soup...and it was, for the children. Hubby and I instead had salad and fruit. I was stuffed full from lunch still. I even managed to fit in a walk between feeding son, and feeding daughter (not my week to take the girls to dance).

Thanks once again for following...not too sure where this blog is going to go now...perhaps I need one more week of menu planning - I always feel better with five weeks instead of four (and I hate to stop blogging!), or perhaps I'll now get back to the teaching/DELTA blog this is technically supposed to be!

Only tomorrow will enlighten us. Until then, thank you again, friends and strangers, for your eyes on this writing. I appreciate your visit here, to Stitchery Dell.

Jo

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Day 29...WOW!!!

One day off completing the 30 day Vegan challenge...but certainly not one day off going back to "normal". Vegan is my NEW NORMAL. There are still some things which need tweaking (one of them being QUANTITY). In the first two weeks, I lost a kilo...in the second two weeks, I put it back on. Looking back over the four week menu plan, I'd say this is because of the amount of grains I started adding (like bread, which I don't usually eat at all), and is probably also due to the amount of sitting and studying I'm doing - no exercise gives Jo a big tummy...

The spring weather seems to have arrived (whether it lasts or not remains to be seen), so I might be able to slip in a few more walks during the week now. I'm thinking of either recording all my notes as a podcast, or else downloading some discourse analysis podcasts, and listening to them while I walk - so I don't feel so guilty about stepping away from the desk.

Okay, on to what we ate and made today.

Breakfast - the usual.
Lunch - the usual for Sunday - wholemeal pasta alla Puttanesca! Yummy as always.
Dinner - I had the left-over left-over pumpkin from yesterday's lunch, reheated, smushed up and spread lavishly on toast! Wonderful...then fruit.


I also made RICE MILK today, after scaring myself by reading too much about soy...I used the recipe from my new favourite blog vegan reader and one cup of rice made A LOT of milk, so I'm hoping I won't be the only one using it.



It's that funny brown colour because I used maple syrup to sweeten it. It isn't too bad, but the real test is coffee tomorrow morning! 
And because making rice milk creates nearly 3/4 cup of rice bran (from one cup of rice), it was time to make rice-bran/raisin/oatmeal cookies! And they are wonderful! 







You can just SEE the goodness, right? 

I feel like tomorrow should be a celebration, but I'm working, then picking up daughter's school report (a two hour mission last year...), so not sure that dinner is going to be out of the ordinary. I'll be dancing in bliss all day though! 30 Days a vegan...





Saturday, February 5, 2011

Day 28. That's Four Weeks. Not a month.

Another Saturday, another wonderful lunch from my mother-in-law, who hasn't realised she's now cooking vegan at the weekend :-) Well, once a weekend, anyway.
We had her wonderful spinach risotto (and I wanted to take a photo, really...) - spinach from our garden, so all the more special. White rice, but hey, let's not rock her boat toooooo much!
Then followed by the (by now standard, but by no means boring!) roast pumpkin, cardi and oven baked potatoes with fennel seeds. Yummy!

For dinner, all I did was re-heat the leftover cardi and pumpkin, and added some beans on the side, dressed with olive oil and garlic smoked salt. Super! The kids had carrot sticks and apple slices instead of the vegies, and also stewed pears for dessert (slightly sweetened with agave syrup, as a special treat).

I feel all virtuous today. The pumpkin looks like a big smile on my plate :-)

Friday, February 4, 2011

Day 27 - still going strong.

Today was the second seminar for DELTA, so I got up at 5.30, got ready, had my yummy overnight oatmeal (ooops, not so overnight today, because I forgot to put it to soak...), then headed out to catch the train. It was only once I got on the train that I realised I'd forgotten to do anything about lunch! Double oops.

Never mind! The train station Termini in Rome has a lovely little supermarket (Despar) which, owing to its high tourist traffic, stocks all sorts of wonderful things for the hungry vegan. My lunch (on the train on the way back home) was the following: four small mandarins, 2 bananas and a packet of mixed nuts, with a bottle of water. Very fruitarian, I thought, even though a real fruitarian would only have eaten the mandarins, or the bananas...

Tonight I tried to do something with tofu. I cut it into slices (which, in hindsight, were too thin), and marinaded it in a mix of red wine, garlic, sage, basil, olive oil and a touch of shoyu. I turned it after 30 minutes, then left another 30 minutes. Then I laid the slices on a baking sheet, and baked them at 200°c for 20 minutes, turned them and baked them for another 10 (I was working from a recipe...). They tasted quite good, but were very tough - so next time I'll leave thicker slices, and perhaps bake them for less time. I am also going to experiment with different brands of tofu, until I can make my own. (that is for a future post...)

I served it with oven-baked potato wedges (yes, that is a repeat from earlier this week, but they were so good, and the kids asked for them...), and another type of braised kale, this time with spring onions, garlic, zucchini and red wine. Very tasty.

Fruit to finish and that was Day 27. I had a chat with mother-in-law, and she's promised not to put cheese anywhere near the risotto for tomorrow's lunch :-)

Off to write assignments, plan lessons, edit book, and hang out with hubby now...Rugby 6 Nations starts tonight!

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Day 26 - A guilty vegan...

... but only guilty of missing a blog day! I was just so tired last night, all I could do was go to bed...so sorry!

However, I need to fill in the menu-plan gap for my own benefit, so today is almost two for the price of one...almost, but not quite, and I will explain why.

On Tuesday night, I put some beans on to soak. It was a mix of kidney, black, cannellini, and borlotti beans, and I soaked them all together. Yesterday morning, I rinsed them, brought them to the boil, then changed the water, not once, but twice during the cooking time (to avoid socially unacceptable side effects - and I must say it worked!). Then I left them to drain.

(Lunch was spaghetti with a simple herbed tomato sauce and nutritional yeast).

In the evening, I sautéed some spring onions, garlic, diced celery, carrots and zucchini. I added a little miso, then some red wine. Once that had reduced a little, I tipped the beans in, added some tomato paste and a little water,  some dried basil and oregano, and let that all simmer. I also made some wholemeal bread, as the carb/comfort on the side. It was a great rib-sticker of a meal for a cold evening.

Today I took the standard pasta, carrot and broccoli mix to work for lunch. There were plenty of beans leftover for hubby and I for dinner tonight (see, two for the price of one!), along with a mixed salad courtesy of mother-in-law (who also made her rabbit stew for the kids. Was I tempted? Only by the green olives she puts in it...I have a tin of green olives in the cupboard, and thought about opening them, but it wasn't worth it...) I think she put in some fresh garlic shoots or spring onion shoots (in the salad I mean) because it was powerful strong! :-) I apologise in advance to all those I must speak with or sit near tomorrow!

I feel like I'm ending the 30 day challenge with a whimper rather than a bang, but I realise that I've learned so much these past four weeks. The most important lesson is that, with planning and a little effort, being vegan is quite easy, very tasty, and hugely satisfying.

...the next four days will decide whether this is a more permanent change ...but I believe it is.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Day 24...

Menu:
Overnight oatmeal (with ginger for a change, yummy!) - breakfast.
Lunch - kasha (toasted buckwheat) with steamed broccoli and carrots, plus fruit.
Dinner - yummies! Chickpea, olive and sundried tomato salad, oven-baked chips with basil, sage and garlic, and seitan with mushrooms and black curly kale. Fantastic and satisfying meal.

Off to hit the books for DELTA, and edit MY novel....

Monday, January 31, 2011

Week Four, Monday.

Yep, I'm feeling about as flat as that title, but that has nothing to do with my wonderful new lifestyle choice :-) It's nearly a month, see, and female readers will read between the lines. Even vegans get PMT, it seems :-)

Anyway, I'm well into the swing of DELTA assignments - did I already mention, 18 assignments in 17 weeks? Oh, and it isn't just "write something, hand it in and wait for feedback..." It is "write something, hand it in, read what everyone else has written, give feedback, wait for feedback on both what you've written, and the feedback you gave..." I'm loving it, really :-) Trying to absorb all the terminology so that I can fling it down on the page on June 1, and sound knowledgeably concise ... My 40 year old brain just about wants to tell me what I can do with the DELTA.

Anyway, today's menu. Chaos. I just wanted to mention again, because I haven't for quite some time, my vegan breakfast of choice: Overnight Oatmeal. The wonderful and very tasty cereal I've been eating for years (oh, how I miss the freeze-dried red fruit pieces!) was riddled with dairy, so it had to go! Now I roll my oats before I go to bed, mix them with sunflower seeds, linseeds, sultanas and cinnamon, and pour soy milk over. Put it in the fridge, covered, and in the morning, I give it a stir and add some agave, or maple, or malt syrup for sweetness. That's it. Delicious, and it really keeps me going until lunch time.

Lunch today was a really thick and creamy mushroom noodle soup, of which I ate MUCH more than I should have done! Fruit then followed, of course (I have stopped mentioning the fruit, but am eating at least 5 pieces a day!).

Dinner was hurried - daughter had dance, and it is my week to take the girls. I made a soup from barley, buckwheat and yellow lentils, flavoured with spring onions, grated carrots and a little celery, and a potato. By the time we got home, it was more of a grainy stew than a soup, but it was delicious, and there is enough for hubby's lunch tomorrow, and probably mine, too, so BONUS!

Okay, off to do more work/study...

Work always expands to fill all available time...I officially have NO more available time, but more work keeps on arriving. At some point very soon, the balance is going to tip, and I am going to run screaming mad ...

or else I'm just going to keep on getting everything done, keep on smiling, and on June 2, sit down quietly in the theatre in Viterbo to watch my daughter's ballet recital, happy in the knowledge that, whatever the result, I did the best on the exam that I knew how to do at the time.

I vote for option two :-)

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Vegan Baking (which nearly rhymes when said in my accent...)

Very quick post today. 
Made some chocolate apricot almond cookies which were wonderful (better warm than cold though.)


I then made pineapple and carrot muffins (again...can't remember if I've already posted a pic of them, so forgive me if this is a repeat!). 



And I turned out the vegan "cheese" and took it along to the lovely afternoon tea at my dear friend's house.

It is really only "cheese" in the fact that you can cut it and stick it on crackers. Otherwise, I would say it tastes more like the old Kiwi favourite dip, made of Nestles Reduced Cream and a packet of Maggi Onion Soup, with a dash of vinegar - solidified....

If I ever make it again, I wouldn't put in the onion - I would put in a selection of fresh herbs instead. I think that would raise it from "ho-hum" to "give me more" status. 

As for other food today, lunch was the standard wholemeal spaghetti with Puttanesca Sauce (without the anchovies, naturally), and leftover tapioca pudding (very starchy meal!), and I didn't bother with dinner. Bonus, because that means what was meant for dinner tonight will be dinner tomorrow night! It will have to be...otherwise it would need to be tossed, and I am not going to start wasting food like that! Actually, am now thinking it might be my lunch, and I will make something else for dinner...

On to the weekly menu planning now!