Tea and Sympatico

There's been quite a lot of excitement recently with new brands of vegan ice cream appearing in the shops. They're not always that easy to find though and I've got no chance of getting something home from Manchester to Glossop without it melting. So, when I saw this book for £2 in The Works the other week I snapped it up. I was drawn to it as Ginger's Comfort Emporium is a local Manchester based company and I've sampled one of their delicious sorbet pops at a street fair. There are actually a few vegan recipes in the book but there are also plenty that can be veganised by subbing coconut milk. I couldn't wait to get started and as soon I got home I veganised this Salted Caramel Peanut Butter icecream. I don't have an icecream maker but this worked fine without one. You make the mixture in a pan then after it's cooled put it in the freezer taking it out every half hour to give it a stir (do this about four times and then leave it overnight).

As a Vegan Life blogger I get a free digital copy of the magazine. We actually decided to pay to subscribe to the paper copy though as it's such a nice magazine. When we subscribed we got a lovely free gift of some shower gel and hand soap. The latest free gift for subscribers are a set of Hurraw Lip Balms which are my favourites and which I'd highly recommend if you're looking for a new vegan friendly lip balm. For info on subscriptions  check out this link . There's quite an emphasis on healthy foods and detoxing with it being a new year issue. As I posted here back in December I've been trying to focus on eating well and it paid off as for once I wasn't ill over the festive season! I've got several recipes from the magazine bookmarked to try over the next few weeks. We kicked off with this courgette noodle dish topped with marinated mushrooms and a sauce made from cashews and sundried tomatoes. It was delicious and really filling and only used hal

We've recently acquired one of these. It belonged to Matt's nana who inherited it off a lady she used to go and visit. She'd always admired it and it was left to her. After Matt's nana passed away it was in storage but has recently come to live with us. I've looked these up online and I reckon it's made of mahogany and dated around 1905. I'll give you a clue - Matt's nana was known for her baking. It's a fabulous 3 tier cake stand with an ingenious mechanism which lets it go flat for storage. I first saw one of these a couple of years ago and even blogged about  it here! I absolutely love it and will make sure it is well used but well looked after.

Glossop is pretty good for shopping. We've a Co-Op, M and S Food, Aldi and a 24 hour Tesco as well as loads of great independent shops and a market too. I do miss my favourite bargain shops though and if I ever see a Home Bargains or B and M Bargains anywhere I have to pop in. I recently saw a few posts on the Facebook page - Vegan Special Offers UK , that mentioned things like tofu and oat milk popping up at bargain prices at somewhere called Heron Foods . And guess what? Yep, we have a Heron Foods too! Just before Christmas I discovered that they had some Omega 3 non-dairy milk. I tried this at Vegfest in London in September but this was the first time I'd seen it on sale anywhere. At 3 cartons for £1 I stocked up. Whilst it hasn't replaced soya milk in tea or coffee I have been loving it for the last month in smoothies and overnight oats and I'll be sad when my stash has gone. I discovered this earlier this week. Vegan friendly sunflower margarine for 80p

Happy New Year everyone! A few years ago I looked back over the past year in cake but I think 2014 was more a year of exploring vegan cheeses for me. After years of not really liking soy based cheese I've started to try more and more products and it's been really exciting to see the developments in taste, texture and meltability! I've really got into making pizza from scratch and invested in a pizza stone and also a copy of Julie Hassan's Vegan Pizza book. I've had good success using the pizza dough recipes from the book and also the cashew based cheezy sauce for topping the pizzas. Vegusto No Moo Melty is also a nice vegan pizza cheese that featured on quite a few pizzas. As far as convenience goes though I think my new favourite vegan cheese for pizza is the Violife that is sold in a solid block. It's such a good price too! I've also had a go at making my own simple nut based cheeses using recipes from some of my favourite bloggers. A rec