It’s summer! Lovely fabulous summer. Despite being ill (and also somewhat crazy) I decided a couple of days ago that I needed someone to give me plums. Ask and ye shall receieve; I have enough plums to feed a small country. One of my mothers friends has a plum tree and he was kind enough to give us a small part of his harvest. I also have plenty of tasty Swedish apples bought in the apple orchards of south Sweden, some apricots (for that marmalade I made a few days ago that my mother just loved) and a very big summer squash of some sort (maybe crockneck, I don’t know)

I have spent the entire day in the heat of the kitchen, making jam, marmalade and plums in vanilla syrup. It’s horrendously hot and humid and I’m ill so maybe this wasn’t the best decision I’ve ever made, but it’s a very delicious one.

I still have more than two thirds of the plums to go. I think I’ll make some more jam, and some marmalade maybe.

1. Plums in vanilla syrup, 2. white rose, 3. An abundance of fresh produce, 4. Plums in vanilla syrup

Plums in vanilla syrup:

• 1 kg (2 lbs) plums
• 1 stick of vanilla
• 8 dl (3 cups) water
• 6 dl/500 gr (1 lb) sugar

Cut the vanilla stick in half, lenghtwise. Put in a pot together with water and sugar. bring to a boil and let boil for ten minutes. Cut the plums in half and deseed them. Put in the sugar syrup and let simmer for about 2 minutes. After simmering put the plums in a clean heat resistant glass jar and pour some syrup on top so that they’re all covered. Put lid on, let cool. Keeps in the fridge for about a week and tastes lovely with some soy icecream or in a cake.

Just a minor update to let anybody using IE know I’ve fixed the issue with all the text in the posts being horrendously huge, and a few other minor things. If anyone finds any problems, comment about them here so I can try to fix them. Cheers.

So, I’m ill with a really bad throat and almost losing my voice. It’s horribly hot outside and I’m feeling kind of miserable. To make it all better I’ve had Alex redesign the blog completely. I’ve been sitting behind him with my imaginary whip, nagging threateningly ‘When are you going to finish my blog, get working on my blog, why haven’t you finished it yet, stop reading webcomics, get working on my blog’. It’s finally finished! (And be assured that I have been working hard too, making pictures happen, whining about colours and constantly nagging about what I want.)

We’ve basically heavily customized my old design (which in itself was customized from the Mother Russia theme by Dream Logic) with some stolen fantastic elements from the Rounded theme at It could be this one and a couple of mine and Alex’s own ideas. I think it came out looking totally fab!

And because you all love food pictures so much, here’s what I cooked up while Alex was tinkering with css and other manly stuff.

Bangers n’ mash! Normal mash (you know, boil potatoes, add lots of ‘butter’ and soymilk, salt and pepper, enjoy!) with some bangers I made form a dry mix we bought in England and some steamed veggies. Also gravy made from vegan gravy granules bought at Tesco.

It’s late summer and I feel like making jam, preserve fruit and make sure our little family has all it needs for the long winter ahead of us (although Cookie doesn’t really appreciate marmalade for some reason). So, to make sure we had enough breakfast marmalade for our lovely toast I made an effort and made some marmalade. It is absolutely delicous!

Is it true that you’re either a marmalade person, or a jam person? If it is I’m definitely a marmalade person. I like to think that we’re a bit more civilized and refined. We have good manners and high morals. Yeah.

On the the marmalade. It’s a very simple apricot marmalade with an added twist from roasted hazelnuts. I found the recipe for it in a food magazine at my caretakers house.

To make my fabulous apricot hazelnut marmalade, take your favourite apricot marmalade recipe (or try this, this or one of these) and when it’s finished boiling and you’re ready to pour it into jars, add roasted hazelnuts (however many you want, I had 100 grams (3,5 oz) of hazelnuts to about 1000 grams (2,2 lb) of apricots).

To roast the hazelnuts, put nuts in a hot dry pan, make sure they are constantly moving so you don’t burn any of them and when they are all hot and getting roasted enough, take them out of the pan, put them in a clean kitchen towel and rub them between your palms to get rid of the skins. Chop the hazelnuts coarsely.

I’m also thinking of making some cherry marmalade, some pear and walnut marmalade, some plums in rum, lime and vanilla and possibly some carrot orange marmalade (I loved making that as a kid).

So, before I get into writing the actual cooking element of this post, I should introduce myself and mention what’s up. I’m Alex, Emmie’s boyfriend, and after some discussion Emmie and I decided that I’d help out more with the site (Up until now I’ve just done the coding, maintenance and provided the hosting for the site). I’m not a great cook like Emmie, but I try what I can, and so every so often I’ll be putting in an update or two. So, hello!

Now, to the food! I found a cookie recipe online months ago (click here!), and have wanted to make some ever since, but we’ve not had the ingredients, or the time, or some other reason. I decided a few days ago (and it was the thing that sparked the idea of me updating) to make them. The icing recipe is slightly modified, so I’ll be posting our version here. For the cookies themselves, there’s no point completely copying the recipe from John and Kristie, so I’ll leave it on their site so they get the credit they deserve. They’re completely vegan - The food colouring is E122 rather than E120, which we smartly bought in England as it’s not available anywhere in Sweden.

Vegan Icing:

• 480ml (2 cups) confectioner’s sugar (Unfortunately we didn’t have enough, so we food processed some normal sugar, and evidently not enough as our icing was a little grainy)
• 6 tsp soy milk
• 4 tsp syrup (preferably corn or golden) - (We made “mock” corn syrup by boiling water and sugar - not so sure if it worked well, next time we’ll be using golden syrup, I’ll let you know how that works)
• ½ tsp strawberry flavouring
• Food colouring

1. If you’re making mock corn syrup, take 5 tbsp water and 10 tbsp sugar, mix them together and then boil over a medium heat until all the sugar is dissolved - Then use as syrup.
2. In a bowl, stir the sugar and soy milk until it’s smooth.
3. Beat in the syrup and strawberry flavouring until the icing is smooth and glossy. Add more syrup as needed to prevent the icing from being too thick.
4. Add food colouring, and leave to dry overnight.

England was fabulous. To be quite honest, I’m a pretty bad vegetarian. The main reason for our trip wasn’t food and fantastic experiences, it was actually shopping! I got taxreturns and all of that money went to England. Now, before we actually go on the the food there’s something I have to tell you. I’m a big chunky girl and here in Sweden it is such a hassle finding clothes that fit me. I’m about a size 18 american sizes, and a 20 UK and here in Sweden that means I have to find all my clothes in the fatties depratment of any store. Let me just say that the selection is rather poor. So, a lot of the money in England went to buying me some fab tops, shoes, trousers, accesories and makeup. I am such a spoiled girl now. If you’ve never been subjected to searching for ugly clothes in the darkest part of any store you cannot even begin to understand the happiness and sheer joy of going into a store and knowing there is something in there that will fit, will look good and won’t make you look like an old lady. So there, England has made a fat girl very very happy.

Now, onto what you’re REALLY here for. The food. Despite what I just said we did eat. And a lot at that. In Alex’s mum’s garden was lots of fresh vegetables. Potatoes, beans, carrots, beetroot, swedes, turnips, cucumbers, bell peppers, different kinds of lettuce, zucchinis and fresh herbs. Fresh lovely food picked straight from the garden.

1. Risotto with mushrooms, lemon thyme and courgettes, 2. Bangers with chips, gravy and steamed homegrown veggies, 3. Chips with salt and vinegar, 4. My artistical interpretation of fish and chips, 5. We had access to lovely fresh homegrown veggies every day., 6. English breakfast, 7. Spicy veggie sandwish @ McD, 8. Veggie deli!, 9. Shepherds pie and burger with chips., 10. An all english meal!, 11. Tasty vegetable pasty!, 12. Cucumber of love

Admittedly I haven’t done too well on the vegan front. Back at home in Sweden it’s different, we’ve ditched cheese (well, almost, I had cream cheese today) and eggs do not come into the house (we still have some quorn though) and it’s been long since I had dairy milk (although again, I do have dairy products sometimes). So overall, it’s going well here in Sweden. In England however I hardly even thought about it. The shepherds pie I had at that lovely vegetarian pub in Bath was fabulous and vegan as were all the chips. Except for the veggies most other things weren’t. We tried various kinds of different ready made products and they were all tasty. We bought vegan jelly, custard powder, worstersauce and different food colourings that we took home and also an assortment other foodie things (my favourite being a small measuring cup that does both cups, ounces and milliliters).

Everywhere had vegetarian options and lots of places had vegans ones too. England really is veggie paradise.

Woah, we’re back from England! We had a wonderful time with plenty of food (some vegan, some vegetarian) and loads of clothes shopping for me. I’m still suffering from some sleep debt, we spent about 40 hours without sleep because of the trains, buses and the flight back to Sweden. It was a truly horrendous experience. We’re trying to catch up on everything that’s been happening at home and on the net since we left, but there’s so much.

Check out my England flickr set here!

No real cooking going on yet, we had pita breads with beans today and other than that it’s been mostly sandwiches so far. Yesterday we went to see the new Harry Potter film. I had awesome new clothes, lots of makeup and the best bit? Food! We went to a thai restaurant in town (we’ve been there many times). The food is tasty, there’s a few tasty vegetarian options (note to self: ask if they’re vegan!) and most importantly, it’s cheap. Eating out on a tight budget usually limits us to falafel or McDonalds (their McBean burger - swedish, is vegan, even the dressing is!) but this thai place is almost as cheap.

The top picture is my food. Tofu stirfry with rice and a yellow curry coconut milk sauce. It’s yummy and hot. Alex had the tofu stirfry with satesauce and I tried some, it’s heaven. There are a few other options of tofu stirfry aswell, the main difference between the dishes is what sauce it has, but some of them have cashews or mushrooms or noodles aswell. The food here is delicious.

To not make this a completely useless posts I have decided that pictures of Cookie will have to be included. Behold the power of the cat!

I’ll be back with proper food posting soon! <3

We’re off to England tomorrow morning for two weeks of buying new things, eating good food and enjoying life and time off from work. We will obviously be having a fabulous time and will be calling each other dah’ling all the time (after all isn’t that the most english you can ever be?). But besides that, we are looking forward to going to a genuine English pub with genuine English pub food. Yeah, ecxept it’s all vegetarian and vegan. Did you know, dah’lings, that there’s a vegetarian pub in Bath? it’s called The Porter! (Which happens to be a very short distance from my lovely boyfriend’s mother’s house.) It’s all just too fantastic to be true. And as if that wasn’t enough there’s also a really good (apparently) vegetarian restaurant in Bath that we might go to called Demuths. They also have a cooking school (I needs me a birthday and presents!).

Apart from that there are plenty of food related things I will be trying and taking home to Sweden.

• Parmazano - it’s cheap in England, I love it and it’s sooo good.
• Vegan Worcestershire sauce - the only type of Worcestershire sauce we have in Sweden has anchovies in it.
• Jelly -Can I get an amen? Amen! (I’ve never actually had jelly, ever!)
• Vegegel - Instead of gelatine, for gelling… things.
• Red food colouring - because it has carmine in it in Sweden and I neeeeds my red food colouring.

• Chips! Thick and greasy with vinegar on (I’ve never tried vinegared chips)
• Crisps - PRAWN cocktail flavoured is vegan, how wack is that?

And totally not food related at all (or I guess it is in a way), I’m a fat girl. And proudly so, but it seems like this shit country I live in hate all us thick ladies and won’t make any clothes for us. Therefore I am going to spend my hard earned money shopping away at the fat loving stores of England. Like Evans. I love you England, and god save the queen. I guess.

It’s summer!

Breakfast; I have it everyday and it’s by far my favourite meal, when I have time to do it properly. Swedish breakfast is usually nothing fancy. We have smoothies, or porridge with fresh fruit and coffee/tea, or yoghurt with muesli/granola and orange juice or just bread with butter and cheese with some tea/coffee. I like this kind of breakfast a lot, on workdays I don’t have time for anything fancy and to be honest I don’t really like cooked food in the morning. Something I do have sometimes is scones, or pancakes. In the weekend when there’s plenty of time for long breakfasts with some cat cuddling and man hugging we bake scones, cook nice tea, bring out the marmalade and spend an hour just talking, eating and enjoying life.

When I was a kid we had scones for breakfast on birthdays, special occasions and when we were really really lucky.It’s always been very special to me. SO nowadays I’m a scones fascist who won’t let anyone eat scones improperly!

Here’s how we did it this morning.

Do you have a special breakfast you just love?

Scones: Serves 4

• 8dl (3,33 cups!) wheat flour
• 1½ tbsp baking powder
• 1tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 100 gr (3½ oz) vegan margarine
• 4 dl (1,66 cups) soymilk
• (yeah I’m sorry, but it really does require thirds of cups here)

Turn the oven on to 225°C (440°F). Mix together the dry ingredients. Add the margarine and work that mix with your hands (you could put it in the food processor) until the margarine is mixed in evenly and the mixture is kind of grainy. Add the milk and stir together. You don’t want to work the dough very long, just mix it together quickly. Divide the dough into four pieces and make a round cake of each one (I usually just grab a fourth from the bowl with floury hands, but you could put it on a flat surface and do it properly). Put the four round cakes on a baking tray with baking paper. Cut each cake in two, but not all the way through and ‘fork it’ a bit (pierce each round with a fork a few times to help it bake evenly and also because that’s how I’ve always done it!). Bake in the oven for about 12-15 minutes until they are golden and have risen quite a bit. break the rounds apart and cut each half in half! Serve warm with butter and marmalade/jam and some nice tea to go with it.

I have come to realize something, there isn’t enough falafel talk on this damn blog. The lack of falafels might lead one to think I don’t actually LIKE falafel. but I do. I love falafel with a passion that sets the oceans aflame like petrol in a swimming pool, an inferno of….. err, yeah. So, I love falafel and have it every week. At least once, sometimes twice or even three times. As a poor cheap herbivore it isn’t always easy to go out and grab some food with your friends. And falafel here is so cheap! And so good. There’s a distinct lack of vegetarian cheap food here. Not complaining here.. I’m just saying. So we have falafels. Every time we go out with friends, my mother, on our own to buy obscure thingamajigs we end up eating falafels and drinking some cheap, cancer inducing, NO sugar drink.

I <3 falafel!

Ode to a falafel

You fill me up,

oh baby, that’s so yummy,

I love you,

ho.

Jump into my tummy.

I drench you in sauce,

with pickles and onion.

You aid me in my cause,

on my way to eating a million.

This poem ends now,

cuz’ nothing rhymes with orange!

(no, not even doorhinge, nice try though)

We had falafels for lunch today. Home made with amba sauce (that’s a mango sauce with vinegar) and some really tasty tahina. It really doesn’t matter that we eat falafel atleast once a week, every time we make it at home it’s special. It takes a long time with many preparations and then we eat them ritually. I ALWAYS eat them the same way and I ALWAYS have an extra falafel ball at the end with some sauce. I don’t have a recipe for falafels, because I never use one but I always have lots of parsley, some mint, buttloads of ground cumin, lemon, heaps of garlic, some chilli, salt, pepper, a few teaspoons of dried corainder.. and more. The thing is, I always make enough to feed a hungry army of herbivores so now we’re going to be eating falafels for dinner as well, and quite possibly for lunch and dinner tomorrow too! I’m not complaining, quite the opposite.

Before rolling the falafel up this is what it looks like. Lettuce, onion, tomato, cucumber, yellow bell peppers, tahina and amba sauce, all on a flat middle eastern bread called liba bread (that’s what they call it here in Sweden atleast!) Some heretics eat falafels in pita bread but that’s blasphemy!

What’s your favourite food?

ps. a picture of that lone falafel I always eat last, as a ritual sacrifice to the falafel gods!