I love making bread. Baking is so therapeutic and it lets you really take out all your anger and hurt on the dough, the bread still turns out delicious. This morning Alex left for his Swedish lessons and I was home on my own, I rarely get to as I work most days, and I felt like baking something. Sure, there were dishes to be washed and I could have vaccumed the floors or folded clothes or possible even changed the bedsheets, but I wanted to bake and to bake something ‘real’ and nothing like sissy cookies. I was reading cookbooks at work (I do this a lot when there’s a break) and read what Jamie Oliver had to say about learning how to bake good bread. Apparently you’re supposed to treat your dough the same way you make love to your woman, a gentle but firm touch, caressing the dough with smooth moves. I obviously wouldn’t make a very good lover, in my house there’s punching the dough, stretching it hard, folding it three and four times, turning it over and squeezing it hard.. yeah, I guess I wouldn’t be such a great lover.

Here’s a pretty simple bread with herbs and sun-dried tomato. It makes perfect bread for soup or for eating with a slice of cheeze. The herb and tomato flavour is mild and not overpowering, it’s just perfect in every way.

Simple sun-dried tomato and herbs bread:

• 1 sachet/2 tsp dried yeast
• 8 dl (3 1/3 cups) whole wheat flour
• 7 dl (3 cups - 1 tbsp) flour
• 1½ tsp salt
• 2 tsp sugar (for the yeast to feast on!)
• 2 tbsp mixed herbs (I used an Italian blend)
• 8 sun-dried tomatoes, finely chopped
• 3 tbsps olive oil
• 5 dl (2 cups + 1 tbsp) warm water

Mix everything except for water and oil in a big bowl. Make sure to mix it well. Add the warm water and oil and stir it together. Flour a surface and put the dough on the table. Now is the time to really work your dough. Knead it, stretch it, turn it, fold it and punch it. Work it for about ten minutes, until the surface is smooth like baby skin. You may have to add more flour as you work the dough but be careful not to add too much. Pour a bit of oil into the bowl you were using and put the dough in. Toss it about a bit to coat the entire dough and cover with cling film. Let the dough rise for about 30 minutes in a warm place. After it’s about doubled in size, punch the dough once to deflate it and put it on a floured surface again and knead it lightly. Divide the dough in two and roll each part into a log shape. Cut each part in 5 pieces and roll each part into a bun (or just put it directly on a baking tray with parchment paper with a cut side up, it doesn’t look as nice but the taste is just as good). Cover the breads with a clean kitchen towel and leave to rise for another 20 - 30 minutes. Bake in the oven for 8 - 10 minutes in 225 C (440 F). Let them cool on a cooling rack covered with a kitchen towel.

You know what sucks? Buying icecream and realizing that it’s perfect…  except for one tiny problem: CARMINE. When I bought and tried a relatively new icecream, called Lovice, on the Swedish market I was thrilled. It was so delicious I decided I never wanted to eat any other vegan icecream ever again. Yesterday I was happily munching on it again and decided to (for some reason I don’t know why) check the label. It proudly states that’s it’s made entirely from vegetable sources but then I spotted carmine, which I avoid because it’s made from bugs (eeew, gross!).

I feel cheated.

I sent off a short letter to the company that makes the icecream and I’m hoping to get a reply. In the meantime I won’t be eating any more of the icecream :´(

Here’s my short letter:

I was very glad to hear there was a new icecream on the market made from vegetable sources. I’ve been vegan for a while now and am getting pretty tired of boring icecream. So when I heard of Lovice I immediately bought 3 flavours and put them in the freezer . My partner and I have been eating it for some time now and it is really tasty, but yesterday I discovered that both the blueberry and the strawberry variety have carmine. Carmine is in NO way made from vegetable sources! It’s a red colouring made from a type of bug. It’s very sad that you have chosen to use animal products in an otherwise vegetarian icecream. When I read the label of your icecream and saw that you state that it’s completely vegetarian I trusted you, as stupid as that might be. I feel tricked. There ARE vegetarian alternatives to carmine (beetroot is probably a good one!) and I hope you might consider making some changes to an otherwise fantastic product.

And in Swedish:

Jag var väldigt glad då jag fått höra att det fanns en (för mig) helt ny glass på marknaden som var helt vegetabilisk. Jag har varit vegan en längre period och är ganska trött på illasmakande glass. Så när jag hörde talas om Lovice köpte jag genast 3 olika smaker och la i frysen. Jag och min sambo har ätit av er glass under en period nu och den är verkligen god, men igår upptäckte jag till min förvåning att både jordgubbsglassen och blåbärsglassen innehåller karmin. Karmin är INTE på något vis vegetabiliskt! Det är ett rött färgämne tillverkat av en sorts insekt. Det är väldigt tråkigt att ni har valt att ha djurprodukter i en annars vegetabilisk glass. Inte bara är det tråkigt det är också ren och skär lögn. När jag läser på baksidan av er glass och ser att ni skriver att den är helt vegetabilisk så tror jag naturligtvis på det, dum som jag tydligen är. Jag känner mig lurad. Det FINNS andra vegetabiliska alternativ till karmin (rödbetsfärg är bra!) och jag hoppas att ni tänker fundera på om ni kan göra några ändringar till en annars fantastisk produkt. 

Happy New Year everyone! It’s been quite a year for me, both good and bad things have happened but in the end everything has turned out pretty good. Wow, December just flew by without as much as a short break for me to catch my breath. First it was the fair, and then xmas and new years. I’ve been busy!

My resolutions for the new year are:

• Get much better at recycling - as it is now if I’m in a hurry cans go in the trash bin and get thrown out with everything else. there’s really no need for me to be in such a hurry. So recycling more it is!
•  Brush my teeth and clean my face everyday - it might seem odd to admit that I don’t, but if I come home late at night or if I’m just relaly tired and grumpy I’ll just jump right into bed without so much as removing make up or brushing my teeth.
• Update my blog regularly - this winter updates have been sparse, I rarely feel like spending time in the kitchen.

I didn’t want to make any resolutions I know I can’t keep so I won’t be promising to lose weight, exercise all the time or keep a diary. I’ll stick with things I know I can do.

This is going to be a great year!