Here are a very few pictures I made last weekend...
Check this out and let me know what you think.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Thursday, March 10, 2011
absence makes the heart grow fonder!
Hidy ho, blog friends! Did you miss us?
It has been too long since we last updated this blog (exactly 2 months, in fact). So I thought I'd hop in here to say a quick hello and catch you up on what has been happening in the world of cooking and photography (well our little microcosm, at least).
There have been some exciting developments in the field of vegan cooking going on around here. First of all, Gudrun has jumped on the "non-dairy" bandwagon with me. Milk is not good for her asthma anyway, and I was having such a good time making vegan food, that she couldn't resist joining the party! She still eats meat occasionally (she hasn't come completely over to the dark side), but she reports feeling much better without the milk. She has insisted for years that she hated soy milk, but rediscovered recently that she used to drink vanilla soy milk as a kid, and really liked it. We now have 3 different types of soy milk in dry stock at the apartment (regular for me, vanilla for Gudrun, and unsweetened for cooking) . :-)
Speaking about Gudrun joining the non-dairy party train, she decided to make me vegan pancakes (crepes, to you Americans) today! You see, I'm pretty sick with a cold, and I guess I look pathetic enough for her to make me soup and pancakes. We'll start with the soup... which was a really fun homemade Ramen noodle soup. Asian wheat noodles, some vegetable broth and salt... everything that a sick girl needs!! She followed this up with crepes made by this recipe: Vegan Crepes!!!
If you read my last blog post, you know I was going on and on about the vegan pancakes in Vienna... well, these today were spectacularly better. She rolled them up around fresh straberries and sugar, and it was divine!!! If you want to give that recipe a try, just make sure you have a well oiled (she used margerine) pan, and make sure it is hot before you pour in the batter. Don't put in too much - remember, crepes are supposed to be thin. Cook until crispy on the outside.
Gudrun is not the only one feeling better after losing the milk. I realized recently that all of my weird joint pain (finger, knee, and back) is completely gone, and has been for some time. After 10+ years of dealing with unexplainable joint issues (is 18 too young to have arthritis?), I knew something was up. So I started researching on the internet, and I came across several articles like this one from LiveStrong about joint pain caused by food allergies. I haven't had an official allergy test to confirm a dairy protein allergy, but unless my joint pain comes back, I am going to make that assumption. It was incredibly lucky that I am wacky enough to go vegan and have it help me answer my bizarre joint pain. I've been to several doctors over the years, and while they have done ultrasounds and x-rays to confirm joint inflammation, they've never been able to pinpoint the cause (although we've ruled most things out... I don't, for instance, have lupus or autoimmune rheumatoid arthritis). I find it hard to believe that not one single doctor ever suggested a food allergy! But there you have it. I'm trying to convince other members of my family (also with early onset joint pain) to also give it a try. Although, giving up dairy (and all the multitudes of products that contain casein and whey - look in your fridge and pantry for processed foods and read the labels) is a difficult task at first, I feel great, and want the same for my family!
Speaking of family, last month I went to the USA for our family's yearly ski vacation. My family (they are awesome!) tried very hard to substitute soy milk and margarine in their recipes (we all take turns making dinner). Everyone made awesome vegan food, which surprised everyone at the table (I and everyone else at the table ate like royalty!). My aunt made build-your-own taco salad, so it was easy for me to skip the beef and cheese (and load up on the beans and veggies and guacamole!). My Grandma made an amazing zucchini caserole and homemade applesauce. My mom got really into it, making cornbread with margerine, soymilk, and egg replacer. She even got so brave as to make vegan broccoli cream soup! She was a little concerned at first about what I could put on a sandwich to take to the slopes for lunch. I gave her a long list of stuff I put on sandwiches... from peanut butter to hummus to grilled or fresh vegetables with mustard. She bought me some vegan mayonnaise to make potato salad and other things, but we never got that far... the hummus varieties she bought for me were so amazing, I didn't need anything else!! I just made sandwiches with hummus and piled on fresh veggies (hummus+cucumber, hummus+tomato, and hummus+green pepper are my absolute favorites.... yum).
I made sloppy joes one day for lunch, and I made 2 batches: 1 vegan and 1 with meat. In a side-by-side taste test, everyone enjoyed the vegan variety as much as (or more than) the meat variety. Score! My grandma even asked me for the brand of the textured vegetable protein (TVP) I used instead of ground beef. For the record, it was Marjon brand "Tofu Crumbles" from a normal grocery store in Virginia. I had an extra box with me, and I gave it to her, and she has reportedly already made some vegan sloppy joes at home. TVP, by the way, is also excellent in chilli and in spaghetti sauce!! It doesn't have a lot of taste by itself, though, so get to using those spices!! Garlic is your friend :)
As the weather gets warmer in Belgium, and our kitchen stops feeling like a walk-in freezer (we only heat in the evening with wood, of which we have nearly run out and don't want to get more so close to Spring), I plan to be more active with cooking! If anyone has suggestions for recipes for me, I'd love to see them!! I'll test them out and put a review here on the blog!
In the world of photography, I bought Gudrun a 50mm portrait lens for her birthday, along with a set of 3 extension tubes to turn that lens into a macro lens. We've played a little with that new toy, and it is amazing. She used a gift certificate from our friend Laura to buy a polarizing filter (particularly good for landscapes) for her 18-55 zoom lens, and we bought a fancy tripod as well. For Christmas, my parents gave her money to sign up for a second photography class, which starts at the end of this month. New techniques and new accessories means that we should see some interesting new shots from her in the coming weeks!! Keep your eyes peeled (ew, what a gross expression).
Anyway, thanks for sticking with me through this long update of life in the last 2 months. We'll try very hard to post more frequently than this in the future! Stay tuned....
It has been too long since we last updated this blog (exactly 2 months, in fact). So I thought I'd hop in here to say a quick hello and catch you up on what has been happening in the world of cooking and photography (well our little microcosm, at least).
There have been some exciting developments in the field of vegan cooking going on around here. First of all, Gudrun has jumped on the "non-dairy" bandwagon with me. Milk is not good for her asthma anyway, and I was having such a good time making vegan food, that she couldn't resist joining the party! She still eats meat occasionally (she hasn't come completely over to the dark side), but she reports feeling much better without the milk. She has insisted for years that she hated soy milk, but rediscovered recently that she used to drink vanilla soy milk as a kid, and really liked it. We now have 3 different types of soy milk in dry stock at the apartment (regular for me, vanilla for Gudrun, and unsweetened for cooking) . :-)
Speaking about Gudrun joining the non-dairy party train, she decided to make me vegan pancakes (crepes, to you Americans) today! You see, I'm pretty sick with a cold, and I guess I look pathetic enough for her to make me soup and pancakes. We'll start with the soup... which was a really fun homemade Ramen noodle soup. Asian wheat noodles, some vegetable broth and salt... everything that a sick girl needs!! She followed this up with crepes made by this recipe: Vegan Crepes!!!
If you read my last blog post, you know I was going on and on about the vegan pancakes in Vienna... well, these today were spectacularly better. She rolled them up around fresh straberries and sugar, and it was divine!!! If you want to give that recipe a try, just make sure you have a well oiled (she used margerine) pan, and make sure it is hot before you pour in the batter. Don't put in too much - remember, crepes are supposed to be thin. Cook until crispy on the outside.
Gudrun is not the only one feeling better after losing the milk. I realized recently that all of my weird joint pain (finger, knee, and back) is completely gone, and has been for some time. After 10+ years of dealing with unexplainable joint issues (is 18 too young to have arthritis?), I knew something was up. So I started researching on the internet, and I came across several articles like this one from LiveStrong about joint pain caused by food allergies. I haven't had an official allergy test to confirm a dairy protein allergy, but unless my joint pain comes back, I am going to make that assumption. It was incredibly lucky that I am wacky enough to go vegan and have it help me answer my bizarre joint pain. I've been to several doctors over the years, and while they have done ultrasounds and x-rays to confirm joint inflammation, they've never been able to pinpoint the cause (although we've ruled most things out... I don't, for instance, have lupus or autoimmune rheumatoid arthritis). I find it hard to believe that not one single doctor ever suggested a food allergy! But there you have it. I'm trying to convince other members of my family (also with early onset joint pain) to also give it a try. Although, giving up dairy (and all the multitudes of products that contain casein and whey - look in your fridge and pantry for processed foods and read the labels) is a difficult task at first, I feel great, and want the same for my family!
Speaking of family, last month I went to the USA for our family's yearly ski vacation. My family (they are awesome!) tried very hard to substitute soy milk and margarine in their recipes (we all take turns making dinner). Everyone made awesome vegan food, which surprised everyone at the table (I and everyone else at the table ate like royalty!). My aunt made build-your-own taco salad, so it was easy for me to skip the beef and cheese (and load up on the beans and veggies and guacamole!). My Grandma made an amazing zucchini caserole and homemade applesauce. My mom got really into it, making cornbread with margerine, soymilk, and egg replacer. She even got so brave as to make vegan broccoli cream soup! She was a little concerned at first about what I could put on a sandwich to take to the slopes for lunch. I gave her a long list of stuff I put on sandwiches... from peanut butter to hummus to grilled or fresh vegetables with mustard. She bought me some vegan mayonnaise to make potato salad and other things, but we never got that far... the hummus varieties she bought for me were so amazing, I didn't need anything else!! I just made sandwiches with hummus and piled on fresh veggies (hummus+cucumber, hummus+tomato, and hummus+green pepper are my absolute favorites.... yum).
I made sloppy joes one day for lunch, and I made 2 batches: 1 vegan and 1 with meat. In a side-by-side taste test, everyone enjoyed the vegan variety as much as (or more than) the meat variety. Score! My grandma even asked me for the brand of the textured vegetable protein (TVP) I used instead of ground beef. For the record, it was Marjon brand "Tofu Crumbles" from a normal grocery store in Virginia. I had an extra box with me, and I gave it to her, and she has reportedly already made some vegan sloppy joes at home. TVP, by the way, is also excellent in chilli and in spaghetti sauce!! It doesn't have a lot of taste by itself, though, so get to using those spices!! Garlic is your friend :)
In the world of photography, I bought Gudrun a 50mm portrait lens for her birthday, along with a set of 3 extension tubes to turn that lens into a macro lens. We've played a little with that new toy, and it is amazing. She used a gift certificate from our friend Laura to buy a polarizing filter (particularly good for landscapes) for her 18-55 zoom lens, and we bought a fancy tripod as well. For Christmas, my parents gave her money to sign up for a second photography class, which starts at the end of this month. New techniques and new accessories means that we should see some interesting new shots from her in the coming weeks!! Keep your eyes peeled (ew, what a gross expression).
Anyway, thanks for sticking with me through this long update of life in the last 2 months. We'll try very hard to post more frequently than this in the future! Stay tuned....
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