CERES Winter Solstic 2026

We had good memories of the Winter Solstice at Ceres in 2024 so we went again.  This year it was done differently with a family friend Friday night and an adult only celebration the next night.  We went on Saturday which was different from last time, with a craft market and a gorgeous festive space in an old train carriage, as well as the usual food trucks and music.  It was a rainy night but so enjoyable to spend the wet dark night at CERES where, as the website said "a time to reflect, reconnect, and celebrate the light’s return."

with a small craft market with lots of great products.  I really loved how they decorated an old train with a Christmas tree and candles and reflective words.  

Combined the lights in the darkness, the pagan celebrations 

dark - different from last time - kids and adults

This year we will be holding not one, but two solstice celebrations – a family-friendly Friday night and an adult-only celebration. Both will culminate in 

website

kids celebrations and fun but adults more reflection and reconnection  

When we arrived about 5.30, it was still light and the rain was holding off.  We were greeted with the stals in the Mystic Marketpace.  I enjoy arriving at a party early to get my bearings before it gets too lively.  That was how this felt.  (The tickets to the event were booked out well in advance.)

Soon the darkness fell upon us to provide a canvas for the warm glow of welcoming lights.  We love visiting this beautiful green community environmental space that is a green oasis in the midst of our city.  It was lovely to see it lit up on the longest night of the year.

The market stalls were mostly crafts; lots of candles and crystals with the occasional honey and fudge.  One of my favourite stalls was the Beaded Petal Co where beads had been painstakingly threaded onto wires and bent into exquisite flowers.  You can see a close up of the flowers in the below photo collage.
 

We moved on into the indoor market with more interesting products on offer.  One of my favourite stalls had the sea anemone and air plant jelly fish.  I loved the dark wicca illustrations and jewelley and there were many candles and crystals to add to the gentle lighting.  It was still fairly quiet when we first looked but really busy later.  

The winter solstice is the perfect time for mulled wine and I am quite partial to a snifter.  I bought some in the CERES Merri Cafe & Bar near the car park but it was also on offer further towards the creek among the food trucks.  I was pleased I remembered to take a keep cup even though I could not find my glass keep cup.  It was just the warming drink I needed for the wintery evening.

We didn't go to the uv face painting station but instead walked down the hill to the music and food trucks space under rows of ligths.  I was delighted with some native Australian animal lights.  Above is a pink koala.

Behind this fun possum light you can see the "stage"for the bands.  The live music added to the mellow mood.  Unfortunately it was not great weather to stand around watching the bands.

We wanted to chec out the food trucks before there were any queues.  Sylvia had decided she would make a beeline for Wokking Amazing which you can see behind the kangaroo light above.  The brightly painted and brightly lit truck beckons in the darkness.

I was keen to try the Samosa Chaat a the Purple rabbit food truck.  It was an Indian inspired meal of -smashed samosa in a chickpea curry served with mint tamarind chutne, cashew yoghurt and a crispy potato topping.  

We stopped at the CERES Kitchen stall which was serving cakes and hot drinks.  Sylvia was impressed that the Chai latte was vegan.  (I was surprised that despite many being made with soy milk, not all of them are because there can be honey added on milk in the chair mix.)  She enjoyed her warming drink.

Once we had our meals and drinks, it was cold and drizzling with so we headed to the sheltered half of the building with the band on the other side.  In the foreground of the picture is a little wombat light.

The sheltered space had floral arrangements where mulled wine and other alcoholic drinks were being sold at a bar.  There were only a handful of tables which were already occupied.  We asked to share a table with two free chairs and were welcomed by a couple of friendly women.  As we ate and chatted, the space filled up and got noisy with all the socialising as well as the live music behind the bar.

Sylvia had bought a Peking duck pancake and a nuggets and chips munch box from Wokking Amazing and was very pleased with her choices.  I had some of the chips but was not so keen on nuggets or mock duck.  My samosa chaat was very satisfying and I was glad it was not too spicy for me. 

CERES has an old Red Rattler train carriage and it was very welcome with the wet cold night.  It is two spaces with tarot readings in one half and a reflective festive space in the other half. 

Christmas decorations can sometimes seem like the commercial part of a religious event.  The festive space in the train with a Christmas tree, candles and greenery felt more authentic.  It makes so much more sense to have them in winter than in our usual summer Christmas.  It seemed more in sync with nature and the focus was on reflecting on the cycles of nature and the candles being symbolic of calling the sun.

I really loved this space but it was busy.  We had a short queue outside to get in and were directed to move in a line along the displays rather than being able to really stop and reflect in the way I would have liked.  Having said this, I found it a calm and hopeful space.

Along the way were contemplative readings among the candles and fairy light that were keeping the dark at bay.  People were quiet as they slowly moved through the carriage and there was a sense that the space was as sacred as any church.

At the end of the journey was a place where we were invited to write down our obstacles in life to be burnt to ashes and our intentions that we wished to bring to the light which would be planted to create fertile soil and new life.

It was odd to step outside back into the world.  More people were queuing to get in and there was another queue nearby for the tarot card readings.  

We stood by one of the fire pits to warm up in the drizzling rain.  A small woman at our side talked to us about how she was about to have her first performance as a fire dancer and of her respect for the flames.  I really wanted to stay to see the fire sculpture that was promised as a spectacular finale but it was rainy and the ground was pitted with puddles.  Instead we headed home feeling the calm and glow of the solstice.

CERES Winter Solstice
Corner Roberts & Stewart Streets
Brunswick East, VIC 3057
5pm - 10pm, Saturday 20 June 2026
https://ceres.org.au/winter-solstice/

To see links to most posts on CERES, go to my CERES Winter Solistice 2024 post. 

Vegan roast dinner pizza using short cuts

I have been eating roast dinners since I was a small child.  They come naturally to me.  Even being a vegetarian has not changed this.  So when Sylvia said we should have a vegan roast dinner pizza I embraced it wholeheartedly.  Although it took about 3 hours from making the dough to taking the pizza out of the oven, it was fun to do on a quiet night when I could jut potter around the kitchen.  If you love pizza and love roast dinners, and are open to experimenting, this one is for you!

We made a pizza chunky with brussels sprouts, roast potato, nut roast and cauliflower and flavoured with gravy, white sauce, brie and cranberry sauce.  It was a lot of work but it was worth it.  I am writing it up here today because I want to record some of the ways I made an effort to make it easier.

You can see in my photos that this was a modern pizza, not just because it veered away from traditional pizza toppings but also because it used the air fryer for the potatoes.  I hadn't made air fryer roast potatoes before but I would do it again, especially for a small batch of roast potatoes.

My air fryer is quite small so it took two batches of potatoes at 20 minutes each to roast.  It doesn't sound so quick but it worked well on a busy day when I was juggling lots of recipes and could use the timer on the air fryer to remind me when I got distracted.  I think the constant shaking helped them get crisped up.  In the first batch I was careful turning them and spraying again when turned.  The second batch was sprayed with oil once and shaken lots of times to distribute a small amount of oil and salt.

I also made the cauliflower cheese in the microwave, the fried the nut roast ion top of the stove and steamed the brussel sprouts in the microwave.  I am used to the convenience of steaming sprouts in the microwave but this was the first time I used these short cuts that made it easier to cook the cauliflower cheese and nut roast.  

Usually I made a white sauce for the cauliflower cheese in a fry pan, boil the cauliflower, then tip the sauce over the drained cauliflower and add grated cheese before baking.  This time I just made the roux in the microwave like I have seen my mum doing.  It needed some good stirring but seemed quicker.

Nut roasts, as the name implies, are cooked in the oven.  They are usually a loaf that takes quite a while to bake and the when done they need time to cool to avoid being sludgy.  So I cooked mine on the stovetop.  It was more like a burger but the mixture was classic nut roast.  Once I had fried it, I used my egg flip (or spatula) to break it into small chunks to make nut roast crumbles.

I am recording what I did to make all these components because short cuts is how I manage my life (or try to).  I have many ways I can eat a quick gravy, easy white sauce or short cut nut roast crumbles.  Of course this is not fool proof.  I have already tried the white sauce again.  I misread the recipe and added 2 cups of milk instead of 1 1/4 cups and had to change up the timing, incorporate more flour and butter with rigorous stirring and increased the flavours.  At least it wasn't that hard to begin with so it was less stress when it didn't go quite right!

It took me so long to get all the ingredients ready so I could add the toppings to the pizza base that my fast track sourdough pizza dough rose for much longer than usual (about 2 hours) and was in great shape as a result.  

Making everything for pizza meant it did not want to be cooked too much because it gets a second burst of cooking when the pizza is baked.  It also did not have to all be hot at the same time, which is one of the challenges of serving a roast dinner, because it would all be hot once baked on a pizza base.

 

The first item to go on the pizza was the gravy.  I usually fry onion til quite soft to make a gravy because it adds great flavour.  My mum just used gravox powder and water on the pan that the meat is cooked.  I decided I could bypass the onions and focus on frying the flour and adding flavours.  I added some vegemite to darken it because light coloured gravy looks odd to me!  The gravy was a success!  This short cut is not just for this pizza but because Sylvia has learnt to love gravy (at last) and wants me to make it more often.

Then I arranged the ingredients one by one.  They ended up being quite crowded but I liked that there were individual pieces that made me feel like I was eating a roast dinner.  It was like being Violet Beauregarde being amazed at the flavours when chewing on the 3 course gum at Willy Wonka chocolate factory.  Only, I am sure you will agree that pizza is better than gum!
 

This pizza is perfect for a fun alternative to a Christmas roast dinner or for jaded pizza lovers.  Both of these worked for us.  I love Christmas in July.  Sylvia is tired of the same old pizzas.  We were both delighted with our amazing roast dinner pizzas.

More roast dinners on Green Gourmet Giraffe: 

• Roast dinner like mum used to make - nut roast, roast potatoes, roast pumpkin, cauliflower cheese, peas and gravy
• Parsnip nut roast with onion and sundried tomato gravy, mashed potatoes with olives and yorkshire puddings
• Stilton nut roast with stuffing balls, roast potatoes, roast pumpkin, sprouts, gravy and cranberry sauce
• Haggis and cheese mole nut roast with chocolate and red wine gravy, roast pumpkin and sprouts
• Golden beetroot nut roast with roast potato chips, roast pumpkin and creamy leeks and peas.  

Vegan roast dinner pizza 
An original Green Gourmet Giraffe recipe
Serves 4-6 

• 2 x large pizza bases (I used my fast track pizza bases)
• handful or two of brussel sprouts, trimmed and halved
• 1/2 a wheel of vegan brie, diced 
• 2-3 dessertspoons of cranberry sauce 

Air fried roast potatoes 

• 4 medium potatoes, chopped
• olive oil
• salt

Microwave cauliflower cheese

• 1/2 head of cauliflower, cut into florets 
• 1 dessertspoon of vegan butter
• 2 dessertspoons of wholemeal flour
• 1 1/4 cup soy milk
• 1/4-1/2 cup nutritional yeast flakes
• 1/2-1 tsp seeded mustard, 
• 1/2 tsp garlic granules
• juice of half a lemon
• pinch of salt

Frypan nut roast crumbles

• 1 medium piece of dried bread, grated (I used rye) grated
• 1/3 cup walnuts, crushed with a fork
• generous dessertspoon of white sauce
• 1/tsp dried onion granules 
• 1/4 tsp dried mixed herbs 

Easy gravy 

• 1-2 dessertspoons vegan butter 
• 2 button mushrooms, finely chopped
• 2 dessertspoons of flour 
• 1 cup water 
• 1 tbsp tomato sauce
• 1 tsp stock powder 
• 1/2 to 1 tsp vegemite (gives it colour) 
• 1/2 to 1 tsp dried mixed herbs 
• 1/2 tsp garlic granules
• 1/2 tsp onion granules 
• 1/4 tsp smoked paprika
• good grinding of black pepper

Air fried roast potatoes  

Placed in saucepan with pinch of salt and cover with boiling water.  Bring to boil and then simmer for about 2 minutes or until almost cooked.  Drain.

Spread potatoes in one layer in the air fryer (if your air fryer is small like mine you will need to do this in two batches).  Spray with olive oil, and sprinkle with a pinch of salt. Air fry for 10 minutes at 220, 6 minutes at 200, 4 minutes at 190, shaking half way and at the end of each period. 

Microwave cauliflower cheese

Steam cauliflower florets with a little water until just tender.  (About 5 minutes but check and shake around midway through.)  It needs to be firm enough that it wont fall to pieces when being stirred into the white sauce.

Melt 1 tbsp vegan butter in microwave in a small mixing bowl (30-40 seconds).  Mix in flour and microwave for 20-40 second.  It should be cooked enough that it dries out slightly and smells cooked.  

Gradually add in the soy milk.  At the beginning add just a small amount each time and stir vigorously after each addition until it is a smooth mixture.  (If you add it too quickly it is hard to stir in and is more likely to be lumpy.)  As the mixture gets thinner, add a bit more and a bit more until it is thin enough to add quite a lot.

One all the milk is incorporated, microwave until it thickens (about 1-2 minutes.  It can bubble up high so needs to be in a bowl with some extra space and checked regularly).  I found the top part of the sauce will thicken quicker than the bottom and needs to be well stirred in after about 30 seconds. 

Add nutritional yeast flakes, a pinch of salt, seeded mustard, garlic granules and juice of half a lemon. Taste and adjust flavours if necessary.  

When the sauce is done, tip in the cooked cauliflower and gently toss in the sauce.

Nut roast crumbles

Heat frypan.  I use a cast iron frypan which can heat forever  but if a lighter frypan I just heat it on low and turn up heat when ready, if necessary.

Mix all ingredients together to make a stiff mixture (a bit thicker than a dough).  Take handfuls of mixture and flatten into a small discs (about 5cm in diameter) with damp hands (to stop it sticking).  

Take pieces of mixture and flatter into a disk.  Spray frypan with olive oil and fry disks over high heat until browned on each side.  A bit of crunch is good as you want some different textures on the pizza.  Use a spatula to break up in the pan or take off the pan and chop into chunks.

Easy gravy

Melt 1 tbsp butter in a med frypan  Fry the mushrooms for a few minutes until softened.  Stir in the wholemeal flour to make a thick paste (roux).  If it is really dry you can add another tablespoon of butter.  Fry, stirring frequently, until it browns slightly and smells cooked.

Gradually add 1 cup water, stirring well after each addition to make sure there are no lumps.  Stir in the remaining ingredients, noting that the vegemite needs some good stirring so it colours all the gravy rather than ending up as a black blob (you could stir a spoonful of water into it before adding it if you prefer).

When all the ingredients are mixed in, heat over high heat, stirring frequently, until it boils and thickens slightly.  (It will thicken more as a cools).

Brussels Sprouts: steam halved sprouts with a little water in a microwave tub for about 3.5 minutes or until just soft when stabbed with a sharp knife 

To prepare the pizza:

[Press or roll out the dough to make 2 large pizza bases if you are not using pre-made bases.]

Preheat the oven to 200 C.  Spread each base with gravy, arrange cauliflower pieces, brussel sprout halves, and potatoes on top.  Sprinkle with nut roast crumbles.  Dot the brie and cranberry sauce around the toppings.  Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the toppings olden brown and the edges of the pizza base are golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped.  Serve hot or warm.  Can be kept wrapped in baking paper overnight and reheated tge following day.

Notes:

The components should not be cooked until they are too soggy.  They need to be cooked until just tender and then when cooked again on the pizza they will continue to soften.  They can be prepared ahead of time.

If you don't have pizza bases, you can just make a roast dinner with these components 

There are many possible versions:

• I used my fast track pizza bases.  I make these regularly to keep my sourdough starter alive but I have also made them as fast track yeasted pizza bases (without sourdough).  Either are really easy but even easier is buying pizzas bases ready made.
• Sylvia sliced her brie rather than cutting it into blobs.  
• I would add roast pumpkin. 
• Sylvia would add roast carrots.  
• I would double the nut roast as it didn't make enough of an impact.  
• If you don't have dried bits of bread in the freezer that need grating into breadcrumbs, you could buy breadcrumbs or blitz some old bread in the blender. 
• If you are making the nut roast without the white sauce in the picture, you can substitute with , silken tofu and besan, or a yoghurt or cream cheese or an egg and maybe a bit of seasoning if needed.  I would even use a mashed banana.  Anything goes to moosh together all the dry ingredients into a thick dough.
• If brussels sprouts are out of season other green such as peas would work.  
• If mashed potato are what you are used to in roasts then you can use that instead of roast potatoes.
• If you have leftovers from a roast dinner they would be really quick to make into a pizza.  
• We used Damona vegan brie.  If vegan is optional, you could use dairy brie or camembert instead.  Or  there is enough flavour to just leave out the cheese.

Also:

I know the white sauce is béchamel sauce, just as I know that cauliflower cheese is cauliflower gratin.  But sometimes I am just the kid from the country and not at all fancy!

On the Stereo:
Mink Car: They Might be Giants 

Vegan Hot Cross Buns: Matcha, white chocolate and coconut

Yesterday I made made my usual traditional hot cross buns and also experimented with vegan matcha hot cross buns.  I learnt not to use old matcha and if you want to add white chocolate it has to be decent chunks, not chopped thin melts.  Despite these glitches, the HCBs turned out rather well.  They were soft with a matcha aroma - that I recently saw described as "turf" - and the chunky crosses that we love.

You can see in the below photo collage of the steps in making the hot cross buns that the dough was a green that gave me hope of some colour but in the above photo you can see by the time it baked it was a dark green.  

You can also see in the above picture that this is not a simple recipe.  I put the dough together the night before, in the morning I chop the dough into pieces that I roll into balls, set aside to rise, pipe the crosses before they go into the oven and glaze them when they come out piping hot.  It is worth the work but it is enough to just bake one or two batches each Easter.  

I have a tradition of spending Good Friday baking hot cross buns.  Coming from a Catholic family, it is a quiet day for me of withdrawing from the world.  Despite no longer being a practicing Catholic, I still consider it one of the holiest days on the calendar where sorry and hope co-exist.  A big baking project is the perfect way to slow down life.  

I made the matcha hot cross bun batch for Sylvia who had requested this flavour combination.  (The coconut was interesting but quite subtle).  My favourite hot cross buns are the traditional ones with dried fruit, but I like to use cranberries and dried stone fruit.  So I also made a batch of those ones yesterday.  I have had so many sweet treats lately (hello Cake Picnic) that I have held off on the HCBs and only had one before Good Friday.  
 

It was so good to have hot cross buns hot out of the oven yesterday.  I was reading an article on the best way to eat hot cross buns and was surprised that the options were unheated, toasted or microwaved, with unheated being seen as the worst way.  I don't like the crisp charred edges of toasted hot cross buns not the drying effect of the microwave.  

In my family we always had hot cross buns heated in the oven and I still prefer this.  The smell of spiced warm buns is amazing!  My mum now used the air fryer.  The very best way to eat a hot cross bun is when it is warm and just baked.  This is one of the best reasons to bake your own.  It is the best!

There is a lot of waiting around while baking hot cross buns.  Some of it is useful for cleaning up the kitchen but I spent some of it going down some online rabbit holes about Easter.  It was a nice change from all the depressing news.

Here are a few highlights of my reading.  (I have shared some links to Easter stories below):

• Discovering Norway's obsession with crime fiction at Easter (Påskekrim) that has led to "grisly decorations like chalk body drawings on pavements and cute baby chicks holding bloody knives",
• Reading an Australian ex-pat in the America scratching her head about the holiday-loving USA's lack of enthusiasm for Easter, 
• Laughing at humour about outrageous hot cross buns flavours including mugshot photos of said buns, and 
• Hearing the animal rights activists' ethical alternative to rolling your Easter egg down a hill at the annual Preston event in the UK.
• Delighting in a New Zealand article that muses on the perpetual tension down under of celebrating a spring festival in the midst of autumn and suggests the feijoa is a suitable seasonal food for "a holiday in search of a culinary tradition".

It was also great fun to read some novelty hot cross bun flavours such as fairy bread, rhubarb and custard, tiramisu, and iced vovos.  I was glad to be part of the hot cross bun craziness this year!  Maybe next year I will try making these hot cross buns again but with fresh matcha!

Fun Easter links:

The Easter crime wave sweeping Norway in BBC, 30 March 2026.

Why Easter in America is my first expat culture shock in Australian Financial Review, 2 April 2026

Albanese To Address Nation About Alarming New ‘Doritos Cheesy Jalapeño Hot Cross Buns’ (spoof), in The Shovel, 2 April 2026 

Rat race: inside Sydney’s Royal Easter Show rodent judging – where the winners are decided by a whisker,  in the Guardian, 3 April 2026

Easter has a soundtrack just like Christmas, so why do we never hear it? in The Conversation, 2 April 2026.

Hot Cross Crimes: The Supermarket Easter Buns No One Asked For, in Broadsheet, 26 March 2026.

Easter egg rollers should use potatoes, Peta says, BBC, 31 March 2026.

Why the feijoa is the true taste of Easter in New Zealand, The Spin Off, 3 April 2026.

More vegan sweet yeasted bakes on Green Gourmet Giraffe:

Doughnuts - baked, vegan, overnight, sourdough (v)  
Hot Cross Buns - wholemeal and yeasted (v)
Overnight sourdough cranberry nut rolls (v)
Overnight Sourdough Hot Cross Buns (no knead) (v)  
Rhubarb and raspberry no knead focaccia (v)

Overnight sourdough hot cross buns
An original Green Gourmet Giraffe recipe
Makes 6-8

125g ripe starter (100% hydration)
50g vegan margarine, room temperature 
1/2 cup mashed banana (about 1 and a half bananas)
3/8 cup soy milk, room temperature
1/4 cup aquafaba
3 1/2 tbsp matcha powder
60g vegan white chocolate chopped (more?)
40g desiccated coconut
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1//2 tsp dried ginger
225g white bread flour

Crosses:
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup flour (or a little more)

Glaze:
2 tsp water
1 tbsp caster sugar
good shake of mixed spice 

Measure out the starter (mine is best when it is rising and had lots of little bubbles and smells lovely and is still a bit thick in texture) and stir in the margarine, then add banana and soy milk.  (It is ideal the mixture is room temperature.)

Add remaining ingredients and stir well.  Leave for 30 minutes.  Knead in the bowl for 15 seconds.  It will be very soft still but you should be able to knead it and wipe most of the mixture off your hands.  Cover well with clingwrap or beeswax and leave overnight - about 8-10 hours until well risen.

When dough is risen, scrape out onto a well floured surface.  Cut into 6-8 pieces (depending on the size of your tin - I had 6 largish buns in a medium rectangular baking tin.).  I use a metal pastry cutter (dipped in flour for each cut) but a large sharp knife will do.  

Gently roll each piece into a ball.  Do this by putting the corners as tightly as possible around the bun (without squishing the bun) so the floured bottom of the bun is like a little blanket around the bun.  Toss in flour as though it is very fragile just using finger tips so it is not sticky.  Then use your hands to shape into a smooth ball, continually very gently pulling the dough to the bottom of the bun and lightly rolling in more flour to keep it from sticking to your hands.

Line a a baking tray or medium roasting dish medium dish with baking paper (and/or grease) and arrange balls in it quite close to each other so they are just touching but not really snug against each other.  Cover buns with beeswax or clingfilm or a clean tea towel and leave to rise for 30 to 2 hours.  Heat oven to 220 C while buns rise (or 30 minutes before you are ready to put in the oven).

Mix flour and water together to make the mixture for the crosses once buns ready for oven.  It should be thick enough to be almost stretchy and drop off the spoon in soft clumps.  Pipe crosses onto the buns.  Bake for 15 minutes.  Turn buns around for even baking and reduce oven to 180 C and bake for another 25 minute or until golden brown and sounding hollow when tapped.

Five minutes before buns come out of oven or just as they come out, mix glaze ingredients together and microwave for about about 15-30 seconds on high or until the mixture boils.  Remove buns from oven.  Transfer to a wire rack.  I have found it this easier if the baking paper has some overhang so you can use it to pick the buns up (even easier with another person who can pick up the other two corners to help you lift it).

Brush buns with prepared glaze and see if you can wait for them to cool before you sample one.  They are good for 2 to 3 days or can be frozen.  I reheat my buns from room temperature for 10-12 minutes at 180 C. 

On the Stereo:
For all our days that tear the heart: Jessie Buckley and Bernard Butler 

In my Kitchen - January 2026

January was a busy month of holidays with lots of stone fruit and salads, swimming and sun cream.  It was a dry month with 2 scorching days of 44 Celcius  that left sad brown patches in the garden and kept us indoors with the air con on.  I had holidays on the first and last week in January so had time to relax and also time to go out.  In fact on the first week of January I ate out 6 out of 7 days.  That is a lot for me.  I will write more about eating out and other outings in My Monthly Chronicles soon.

At the start of January Sylvia changed her diet from vegetarian to vegan.  We have always eaten a lot of vegan food and now eat even more, though I still have some yoghurt and cheese on meals such as the above nachos and salad.  For a while Sylvia was so keen on eggs that it is odd not to have eggs is in the fridge.  Other than that, it has meant checking out lots of new products in the supermarket and trying new ideas in the kitchen. 
 

January starts with the end of the festive season.  We took down the tree, put away the cards and finished the treats.  There was leftover Christmas pudding, stollen, panforte and shortbread.   

One of my holiday meals that was easy to make and wonderful to eat was a Festive Roast Potato Salad that used up some of our Christmas leftovers and it is on my blog.

Vegan products 1: We tried lots of new vegan snacks.  One of my favourites was this bag of DJ&A mushroom crisps.  They were crispy dried button small mushrooms with very moreish seasoning.

Vegan products 2:  Damona vegan cheese is the only one that Sylvia has really loved.  She also is quite a fan of the Numo caramel chocolate bars - one of the good reasonably priced chocolate treats from the supermarket.  Which brings me to Sweet William rice crackle choc koalas.  I've never been a huge fan of their chocolate.  She liked the Plantein sweet chilli tenders but I was not so keen.  The FunDay caramel chews are nice but not really my thing.

Vegan products 3: Some vegan products were no surprise.  I have used Damona cheese before and I don't think it is a secret that Oreos are vegan.  We were impressed by the Oreo creme eggs, which were on sale when we needed to spend money quickly to get cash out at the supermarket for a purchase.  I was most amazed by Hellman's mayonnaise (because Hellmans do good egg mayonnaise it was good to see they can also do a vegan one that is not ridiculously sweet) and that our local Italian supermarket sells plant based Nutella that tastes good (and is made with chickpeas and rice syrup).

Vegan products 4: Sylvia really likes these little chia, rice and chocolate puddings.  I don't like those sort of desserts and was just amused by their name: Fancy Plants.

We returned to crispy tofu cutlets which we made in December 2023.  This time we tried in in the air fryer with a spray of oil.  I also double dipped it in the milk and breadcrumbs.  We served it with mash, gravy and green vegies.   Very good.  Perhaps not quite as golden as when shallow fried but delicious and crispy. 

Tofu cutlets always seem quite old-school vegetarian.  I quite like a lot of the older vegetarian recipes that have lots of nuts, tofu and beans rather than all the mock meat of today.  So I was delighted recently when Sylvia discovered the joys of reading my Moosewood Cookbook.  Of course she found it on social media but thank god someone is still talking about it.

One of our regular hot weather meals has been rice paper rolls.  We have been filling them with vermicelli noodles, vegies and fried caramelised tofu from micadeli.  That sticky tofu is so delicious we often eat some of it by itself but it also gives great flavour to the rice paper rolls without making it soggy.  I find that with the thick tofu sauce, the rice paper rolls it is plenty of flavour without a dipping sauce.  Mind you, I find that it thickens pretty quickly.  If I add 1-2 tbsp water to the sauce it means my sticky sauce doesn't quickly get dried on the bottom of my cast iron frypan.

It has been a month of lots of chopping up salad vegies but we have also been discovering some great new recipes that are bound to be favourites because they offer a lot for little effort.  

Another favourite was Zucchini pesto from Plant You.  It a matter of roasting zucchini and garlic and then blitzing them with cashews, basil, nooch, lemon and seasoning.  The sauce is quite velvety and lighter than regular pesto.  I really like that it holds its green colour longer.  It's been excellent with pasta especially on the first night when we had it with tofu bacon.

The zucchini pesto was great for lots of meals.  I had it for lunch with crackers rocket, capsicum and cherries.  (Mmmmm, cherries!)  I stirred some pesto into potato scones and then dipped the scones in more pesto.  And I had a lovely lunch of leftover pesto pasta with green capsicum, peas, tomatoes and cheese chunks.  (I had also wished I had celery in the fridge for it but we were out.)  

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We tried the meal prep burritos - also from Plant You.  Sylvia was keen to have burritos  whereas I prefer a burrito bowl.  Overall it was very good with Mexican spiced rice, tofu "beef" and chipotle lime cashew.  We loved the spiced rice.  I really liked the cashew cream, though Sylvia found it a bit sweet and not salty enough.  And of course we had lots of vegies.  

I was not a big fan of the tofu beef.  I didn't really like the overall texture of the chunks of spiced tofu and also felt it was not dark enough.  The rice and tofu were similar colours and I felt there should have been more difference.  My preference if I was to have these chunks would be a dark sauce rather than just a spice mix.  We found it was improved with a tin of whole black beans in a seasoned sauce - that you can see below.  Alternately it would be good to have the tofu cut smaller or grated and then fried up with brown lentils and finely chopped walnuts with a bit more of a sauce.  

The recipe for the meal prep burritos, was intended to make 10-12 burritos so it lasted us a few meals.  On the second night we had it for tea, we remembered that we had bought corn chips and this went very well with it.  

We have made the Mexican spiced rice again.  I have tried a couple of Mexican spiced rice recipes in the past but they have been fiddly and stuck to the bottom of the saucepan or taken a while in the microwave.  I am not sure it this rice was nicely fluffy without sticking because my paranoia about burning led me to use 4 and 1/2 cups of stock rather than 3 cups.  I think that the rice might also work with brown rice instead of basmati.

 

This meal looks similar to the meal prep burrito bowls but on this occasion I only made the spiced rice and did not bother with the tofu and cashew cream.  On top of the rice was grated carrot, celery, capsicum, tomato, lettuce, roasted almonds, diced cheese, yoghurt and chipotle plus Sylvia's seasoned chickpeas.  

It is just the thing to eat in front of the telly on a hot day and watching the tennis as I marvel at the skill and athleticism of the players, with the soundtrack of the thwack of the ball and squeak of the sneakers in the quiet moments between commentary and cheers!

On one summer day when we were busy Sylvia made nachos by layering corn chips, whole black beans from a tin, and grated Damona cheese. I topped mine with salsa, lettuce, tomato, purple cabbage, red capsicum and yoghurt.  You can see the final dish at the top of the post!  It was excellent. Just the thing for a night I was more busy washing all the potting mix off my arms than preparing dinner.

 

This was the work before our nachos dinner: re-potting the camellia.  I have had the plant for about 20 years and it was ailing so we took it out of its pot and found it was really root-bound.  It took a lot of work to take the dirt from around the roots so we could re-plant it in a larger pot.  I'd like to say it is flourishing now but it is a bit sad.  It is hard to know how much is from the heatwaves soon after or the shock of a new home..   

 

Sylvia is quite happy to eat the plant based Golden Gaytime ice creams.  I don't love the dairy Golden Gaytimes as much as I used to as a kid but I really liked this Lamington version.  It had a lot of chocolate with the coconut ice cream.  I know it is traditional to have the biscuit crumb coating but surely a Lamington Golden Gaytime could have some coconut flakes in the coating.

We had a trip across the river to the Melbourne's eastern suburbs to pick up this sweet little Tiffany lamp that Sylvia bought online.  It's looking lovely on her desk.

I made a collage birthday card for my mum.  Cakes, flowers and a cup of tea are her sort of thing.  We had a lovely celebration meal by the seaside restaurant.  I have written a post about lunch: At the Heads, Barwon Heads.

While out looking for second hand books to use for collage, Sylvia found a childhood favourite: Angelina Ballerina.  It made for a cute collage to hang on her wall.

We made some donations to the op shop.  I found a food processor that I had not used for 10 years.  It still worked so I hope someone else will find it useful.  I also reluctantly put this picture in to the op shop.  The framed poster has sentimental value because I bought it when in Berlin decades ago.  It is from the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and is a photograph by Eugene Atget who was a photographer in the late 19th Century and early 20th Century.  

The photo on the poster was taken by Atget in about 1900 of a house at 54 Rue Vieille du Temple on the corner of Rue des France Bourgeoise in the Marias in Paris.  It was built of stone, when most houses in Paris were made of wood, in the early 16th Century by the wealthy Jean Hérouet, a royal treasurer.  It was restored in the 19th Century, badly damaged by the Luftwaffe in World War II and subsequently rebuilt.  On our last trip to Paris, we stayed nearby in the Marais, but I did not know the connect with the poster at that time.

I have always loved looking at the blur of a human figure who was moving too fast for the long exposure needed by cameras in that time.  But I have too many pictures to find a home for it and hope that someone else gets as much enjoyment out of it as I did.

Much as I try not to accumulate too much a birthday is a time for a few fun presents.  An old plate, a cat and a book on a card, little elephant candles and a literary feminist book.  I am also looking forward to some experience presents.

Another fine meal was a One Pot Pearl Couscous with onion, kale, carrots, celery, sun dried tomatoes and chickpeas.  We added more vegies because we ran out of zucchini.  The coconut milk and nooch at the end took it up a notch to be something we want to repeat.

I am sending this post to Sherry of Sherry's Pickings for the In My Kitchen event. If you would like to join in, send your post's url to Sherry by 13th of the month.  Or just head over to her blog to visit more kitchens and her gorgeous hand drawn header.  Thanks to Sherry for hosting this event that brings together wonderful bloggers who share glimpses into their kitchens.