Tea and Sympatico

Yesterday was the Bristol Eco Veggie Fayre (previously known as the Bristol Vegan Fayre). Jo, Dale and I made a round trip and spent 8 packed hours there. The photo below shows just some of the stash I brought back, some it purchased and some free samples. Seriously, you could probably feed yourself for a day on all the food samples! I managed to also fit in homemade mushroom sauasages with wild garlic pesto on a ciabatta from local business Cafe Maitreya and an amazing middle eastern salad box that I had for the train home with kofta, couscous and red peppper hummous whilst we shared a bottle of a'Becketts white wine. The weather for the last 4 years has been amazing but this year the showers came. The sun did come out a few times though and we enjoyed delicious Beanies B'nice ice creams made with rice milk. We also escaped into one of the big tents for an hour for a cookery demo from medicinal chef Dale Pinnock . We got to sample a red lentil and coconut soup and sweet po...

It's official Aldi vegan friendly croissants in a tin are no more. They have been discontinued!!!!! I have people checking Aldi's in Manchester as we speak to see if there is any stock left but it's looking unlikely. Boo, I will be contacting Aldi and asking for them to reinstated, hope others will too and we can reclaim our breakfast treat! Annoyingly Aldi don't publish an email address and say you have to contact them by mail or phone. So, come on everybody, complaints on a postcard please. If you have a corporate or general enquiry write to us at: Aldi Stores, Holly Lane, Atherstone, Warwickshire CV9 2SQ Or telephone 0844 406 8800

Fairy Whisky Macs Makes 16 small cakes Ingredients 1 cup of soya mlk 1 teaspoon of cider vinegar 1 1/3 cups of plain flour 2 tablespoons of cornflour 3/4 teaspoon of baking powder 1/2 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda 1/2 teaspoon of salt 1/3 cup of sunflower oil 1 teaspoon of lemon extract 2 tablespoons of whisky 3/4 cup of caster sugar 1/4 cup of finely chopped crystallised ginger Preheat the oven to 350F / 180C Line the cake pans with fairy cake cases Whisk the soya milk and cider vinegar in a bowl and set aside to curdle. Sift the flour, cornflour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt together into a bowl and mix. In a separate bowl whisk together the oil, sugar, lemon extract, whisky and soya milk + vinegar mixture. Add the flour mix to this and stir until smooth. Gently fold in the chopped crystallised ginger. Fill the cake cases 2/3 full. Bake for 20-22 minutes. Once cool ice. Whisky Icing 1 1/2 cups of icing sugar 1 tablespoon of vegan margarine 4 teaspoons of whisky 2 ta...

I own a couple of pairs of shoes made by Vegetarian Shoes in Brighton. I bought the black 'Crystal Sandal' pictured above 2 and a half years ago with my birthday money from Moo Shoes in New York. They are the ideal comfy work shoe and I've worn them so much. I've even had them resoled and they still look like new. Vegetarian Shoes use amazing materials and you would never guess that they are not leather. I would recommend them to anyone vegan or not. It's easy to find cheap plastic shoes but the quality is often poor and they are likely to use animal glues. I think they will easily keep going for another 2 and a half years of constant wear! I've also got a pair of these red 'Dorothys' which come in various colours and which are currently in the sale. I've had loads of compliments on them every time I've worn them. Where do you buy your vegan shoes?

I'm getting excited about the weekend. On Saturday I'm going to the Bristol Vegan Fayre or the Bristol Eco Veggie Fayre as it's called these days (everything is still vegan). It will be my 4th year and I always see it as a way to celebrate my veganiversary (4 years on June 11th) and a way to confirm my choices and celebrate all that is great about the vegan lifestyle. I've always gone for the full weekend before and come back with a suitcase full of goodies. Only managing a day trip on Saturday this year. If you've yet to experience it, I highly recommend it!

Ingredients Makes 16 biscuits 1/2 cup of vegan sunflower margarine 1/2 cup of icing sugar Couple of drops of vanilla extract 1 cup + 2 tablespoons of plain flour 1/8 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda 1/8 teaspoon of salt The contents of 3 Earl Grey teabags Preheat the oven to 350f/ 180C. Grease and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper. Using an electric whisk beat the margarine until creamy. Add the vanilla and icing sugar and beat again. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour and bicarbonate of soda. Stir in the contents of the teabags. Fold this mixture into the margarine mix in two batches. Add a bit more flour if too sticky. Roll out on a floured board. cut out with your favourite cookie cutters. Transfer to the baking tray and bake for 12-14 minutes until they start to turn golden. Allow to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire cooling rack. Whilst they cool put the kettle on and make yourself a pot of Earl Grey. Enjoy!

Kicked off the weekend with a big Oddbins wine and whisky tasting. Over 40 wines and 8 whiskys including the delightful BenRiach Pedro Ximinez Sherry Wood finish, Saturday was a trip to Chorlton to the annual Chorlton Arts Festiva l Crafts Fair, one of the launch events for the festival which just keeps getting bigger each year going from a little community event to drawing some big names. I've had a stall at this busy craft fair for the last 3 years so it was nice to be on the other side of the table for a change. I bought a great broach with a drawing of the Manchester skyline from Purple Pixie , like the necklace below but with white on a black background. Saturday evening my friend Steve, a connoisseur of pizza, came over and we ate pizza and watched a good old 80's film Mystic Pizza . My hair at that time was exactly like Julia Robert's in the film! We had two pizzas, balsamic roasted vegetables and 'ham' , mushroom and pineapple. These were followed up by Kni...

I've spent the last 3 days trying to find a tub of Vanilla Swedish Glace to make Knickerbocker Glories this weekend, but to no avail. My local Tesco and Sainsbury's seem to have stopped selling it and the health food shops either don't sell icecream or had run out. I managed to get a tub of the chocolate in The Eighth Day and spotted these little tubs of the latest contender at the same time, Coconice . Like Booja Booja , it's pricier than Swedish Glace , a little one person tub costs £2. I was delighted to find though that it had a spoon under the lid and couldn't resist tucking in on the bus. There were 3 flavours available chocolate, strawberry and a non vegan one with manuka honey. I went for the chocolate. It was pleasant enough and coming in a small pot is good news for me as I have more of an icebox than a freezer. I prefer my chocolate a bit more chocolately though, on inspection the label showed that there was only 4% chocolate! It was more caramely than ch...

The new novel by Scarlett Thomas has just come out and I was delighted to get a surprise copy from Dale. Thomas is a vegan and has included vegan characters in one of her past novels 'Popco' which was the first time I'd ever come across any interesting vegan characters in a novel. The book design of the new novel is similar to her last one 'The End of Mr Y ' with cool black edged pages.

Seeing as how I used to work for a wine merchant , have a keen interest in all things wine and spirit related and a fairly good collection of vintage glassware, it's come to my attention recently that I've hardly got any wine glasses. I went to a friend's for dinner last week and was presented with a whole cupboard full of fantastic wine glasses and asked to choose which one I'd like to drink out of which was a real treat. This weekend I went over to stay with Jude and Paul in St Anne's which always means good charity shopping. Jude picked me up from Kirkham and we had a mooch around and the charity shops there. I came across these beauties which are handmade and etched and cost £5 for four of them. The bottles on the bar in the background are full sized Pisco brandy bottles from Peru and Chile, which gives you an idea of the size of the glasses. As I live in a one bedroom flat, I often try to combine uses for things to save on storage space. I can see these gla...

Managed to get out of the office this afternoon out and about today to actually see some art. First stop was to see some of the Future Everything festival and the Manchester Modernist's Tour of old K6 red telephone boxes finishing up at the Museum of Science and Industry with a sound art installation in one of them by Ailis Ni Rian . Then a quick stop to catch CU exhibition in Copperfaced Jacks pub underneath the Palace Hotel which turned out to be a great setting. Next up was a train to Liverpool for their Light Nigh t when galleries and other cultural venues stay open late. We fueled up at the vegetarian Egg Cafe , home of such vegan treats as tandori mushrooms! I'm not the biggest fan of everything on their menu but the mushrooms are always a winner, the cake selection is great and it has a good atmosphere. From there it was the Toulouse Lautrec preview at the Walker Art Gallery. And finally an interesting, funny and self indulgent yet clever comedy show at the Bluecoat,...

Fantastic news for Manchester Veggies. Martin the Mod of the much missed Mod Pop Cafe fame which used to be under Pop Boutique on Oldham Street is back with a new business. In a prime spot on busy Oxford Road, Martin is now running an all veggie kitchen at the Thirsty Scholar pub under the railway arches by Oxford Road train station. It's business as usual with homemade veggie burgers with vegan cheese, chillis, noodles and all the old favourites.

I'm a bit under the weather and have had a throat infection for the last few days which luckily doesn't seem to be developing into a full blown cold but has left me feeling pretty low. I like the taste of hot toddies but as a vegan I don't use honey and I am avoiding citrus fruit as I have a tendency to get eczema when I'm run down and citrus can exacerbate it. So, I'm come up with this version instead and I must say it tastes fab. It's a measure of blended whisky with a teaspoon of agave syrup, boiling water and a bag of Birt and Tang Ginger Pu'er Tea . The tea also contains cloves and pu'er is a type of fermented green tea which is packed with polyphenols so plenty of anti-oxidants all round to fight off illness. Feeling better already!

In my new job I have to read applications all day and then write reports about them with constant deadlines to meet. It's kind of the equivalent of doing exams everyday! I'm sure I will get more used to it in time but at the moment it's often hard to switch off and my brain keeps on going in my sleep or occasionally it stops me from sleeping. A while ago I sent some of these Pukka Night Time tea bags to a friend who sometimes has sleep problems as a side affect of medication. She got in touch and said how great she's found them and has had some really restful nights sleep. I'd forgotten how good they are, I've been using a different brand of herbal tea for for a while now to less effect. So, I'm back on these. They are available from health food shops and also Tesco and at the moment boxes have a code inside that you can enter on their website to get sent some free samples of their 3 ginger, 3 berries and 3 mint teas too.

I got my first proper pay rise paycheck this month since starting the new job. One day I will save some of my new (albeit small monthly) disposable income! As the law that is Sod had it, first my blender went on fire and had to be replaced and then my laptop collapsed and has been declared deceased. So the Bank Holiday weekend started well with forking out for a new laptop. I was restrained and bought the cheapest pc laptop available rather than the lovely shiny Mac Book. I stayed at my sister's on Friday and only popped home briefly on the way to a friend's house on Saturday teatime for a birthday curry feast to grab some soy yoghurt and a couple of jars of Geo Foods chutney from the fridge. Good job I did as there was water streaming through my kitchen ceiling. Builders had started work doing up the empty flat above me the day before. So it was all very dramatic. A plumber had to come out with ladders and get in through the windows above. He has managed to temporarily sto...

For a while now I have been meaning to experiment with the Aldi vacumn packed croissants in a tin. A few years ago I tried a 'vegan' croissant and it was so awful and so uncroissant like that I didn't think I'd ever eat one again. A while back I happened to pick up one of the little blue tins from the fridge section of Aldi and started scanning the ingredients list. I have a habit of doing this in the vain hope that something will turn out to be vegan friendly and I was delighted to see that these were. Whilst not having the buttery taste of non vegan croissants these are really tasty and actually once you've been vegan for about 6 months your tastebuds change and you really don't miss the taste of the butter. The dough is in a long rolled up piece which is perforated into 6 triangles which you split up and then roll to make traditional crescent shaped croissants. For the experiment I squished the dough back together over the perforation of 2 of the triangles wi...