Tuesday, January 03, 2012

2012

Happy 2012, everyone!

They say what you do on New Year's Eve is what you'll be doing for the year ahead, and if that is the case, then Andy and I will be doing a lot of cooking, a lot of eating, a lot of reading, some movie-watching, and just a little bit of drinking.

Here are some of the things we ate, over the course of an afternoon and evening, on the last day of 2011.

Candy cane slice.
Candy Cane Slice

Crackers & Dip. I find champagne goes really well with sharp flavours, like this basil and olive dip.
Basil & Olive dip

We also had some cheese & crackers - smoked cheddar sheese, to be exact, which I received as part of a package swap with Susan (which I will post about soon).  This is really yummy, nicely textured vegan cheese.

Sheese and Crackers

I made sushi! It was my first time making it, and it really wasn't as daunting as I expected. My only tip is to have wet hands, so the sushi rice doesn't stick so much.  I made my sushi with brown rice, following the recipe from Celebrate Vegan by Dynise Balcavage, except filling it with zucchini and tofu.
Sushi

The results were a bit bland, in both colour and flavour, and next time I will have zippier fillings. But, I can make sushi!
Brown rice maki

The best part of the night was easily when we ate ice cream sundaes. I bought some Soyatoo! Whipped Cream on my birthday, back in November. Because it was so freaking expensive, I wanted to use it on only the most perfect dessert. I decided, more than a month ago, that it had to be an ice cream sundae. But it was only this week that the right confluence of ingredients found themselves in our home. Some vanilla spice ice cream in the freezer.  Some Macho Fudge Sauce (from Urban Vegan by Dynise Balcavage) in the fridge. Some sprinkles in the pantry. And the result was everything I expected, and more. So, so good.
New Year's Eve Sundaes


That wasn't all we cooked on New Year's Eve, though. We also made some preparations for breakfast the next morning.  I made these parsley breakfast sausages in the frying pan, because I couldn't be bothered steaming them.
Breakfast sausages

And we made some tattie scones. These are essentially mashed potato flat breads, which we ate every day for breakfast in Scotland. And they are easy to make!
Tattie scones

So with a bit of reheating, opening a tin, picking some spinach, and chopping some mushrooms (including this well-endowed specimen)...
Conjoined twin mushrooms.

We had our first meal of 2012.  It was good.
New Year's Day breakfast

My "resolutions", if you want to call them that, are simple. I plan to wear gloves when I was dishes, to make my own laundry detergent, and to keep my Flickr account up to date. I'll add a brief promise for the next week or so to this: I will post a recipe for fig & pecan stuffing, and for mango granola, because Hannah has asked for them.  Remind me if I forget.

7 comments:

Hannah said...

Wheeeee! Can I also ask for the dip recipe? ;)

It's funny, I've never heard that saying before this year, but at least five people have talked about it. Except they've all said it's what you do on New Year's Day? Regardless, I'll be doing a lot of blogging, eating, laughing, and absolutely no cleaning. Sounds about right :P

P.S. The Vanilla Spice ice cream.... what brand? All I get is lame-o So Good here.

Dee said...

tattie scone recipe please! They look wonderful.

Emma said...

That olive dip sounds so good.

If that new years thing is true, I'll be sitting on my arse drinking sugary sugary wine forevermore :D

Lovlie said...

Happy 2012 to you! Oh my, what a feast you had! The basil and olive dip sounds fab! And those sushi look delicious! It's been a while since I last made sushi.

You are going to make your own laundry detergent? Can I have the recipe for this, please; it will be awesome to make my own too. I'm curious to know how you are gonna make this. Sometimes I use soap nuts but they are so expensive.

Theresa said...

Hannah - I'll post the dip 'recipe' in my requested recipes post! The Vanilla Spice is Theresa & Andy's Ice Cream Maker brand, not for sale in Canberra I'm afraid! Hmm, if your year is determined by what you do on New Year's *Day*, my 2012 will have less cooking, but still lots of eating, and plenty of clandestine bike rides through the suburbs to spy on houses for sale. I hope it's New Year's Eve, I don't want to be a creep all through 2012!

Dee - tattie scone recipe will come in the next post, too :)

Lovlie - I'm using this post: http://offbeathome.com/2011/03/make-laundry-soap as a guide, but incorporating it with some of the links and comments that follow. It won't be straight away, because we need to find some funny ingredients, but I will definitely blog about it when we have a batch :)

Kari said...

If this sets the scene for your 2012 I think you'll be just fine :) It sounds like the perfect start to me!

Can I add to the recipe requests with that candy cane slice?? It looks wonderful!

Mel said...

Happy New Year! It all looks fantastic, sushi and tattie scones were on my list to make in 2011 but I never got around to either. This post has convinced me that I need to try these scones, looking forward to seeing the recipe. :)