Fragments of a tropical vegan

Hi! I am hopelessly overworked this semester! And trying to do things to keep my stress levels down, which also take time. Things like striking, to prevent some of the overworking in future years, maybe. Things like starting yoga classes again, for relaxation and adaptability. Things like gardening and running with Tika and reading novels and crocheting and spending time with Andy. Blogging isn't my top priority at the moment, but I do have some things to share. Rather than taking the mental effort to make some narrative sense out of them, I present to you some fragments.

Creamy Pumpkin Soup with Kale. We grew the pumpkin, the kale, and the coriander. We added garlic, white wine, and coconut cream, and ate with store-bought chappatis for an easy, quick dinner. 

A few weeks ago I saw Joey post about this vegan tuna salad recipe. I tried it out that weekend but used nori and wakame for the seaweeds. It was yummy, but didn't taste at all like tuna, in my opinion. Chickpea-based tuna salads are still the real winner! 

We have been eating PILES of passionfruit because our vine is ridiculous. We've also given stacks away. This cup-and-a-half went into the freezer to be enjoyed during the summer months. 

We eat flowers. It's a shame salad vegetables grow better here in winter, than in summer, but we are really starting to appreciate a good salad in the winter. This one has mizuna and rocket, a radish, nasturtiums, and cherry tomatoes from the garden, plus cucumber and capsicum from the markets. For dressing, I used Dreena Burton's recipe for hummus salad dressing, with a big handful of parsley from the garden. 

I've gotten a few new cookbooks recently, because they make me happy. This is a variation on a recipe from The Sexy Vegan's Happy Hour at Home. They are roasted green capsicums (because that is what we had most of) rolled up with hummus and rocket. Yummy and nice to have some little bites instead of a huge bowl of food every night.

Tika, Defender of Kale and Spring Onions.

Nacho, Disrupter of Academic Work.

Marley and Me

Update: I waited for three weeks after we got Marley to post this, because I thought after that time they were pretty settled. They were still getting along, so I expected they always would. But in the last week, Tika started to get a little fed up with Marley, and it culminated in some fairly vicious fighting on Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately, we have had to return Marley to her original people, and they are looking for a new home for her. We are very sad about it, but it wasn't fair to Marley to live in a house where she needed to be careful not to upset Tika, and we didn't want to put Nacho through a fighting-house either. We tried our best to help them get over it, but the best decision we could make was to be a one-dog household again.

I watched that movie on a plane to England, while I was sick, and sitting next to a stranger. I cried an awful lot, and probably made the poor guy next door feel all kinds of awkward. But this isn't a post about a dog movie, it's a post about a dog. Our new dog!

Meet Marley!

She was being given away on Gumtree, Australia's equivalent of Craig's List. Andy surprised me when he asked if we should get another dog. I was super keen, and we both thought that Tika, a very sociable dog, would benefit from having a constant playmate. We contacted her people, who were reluctantly rehoming her because they have kids and other dogs and horses and work, and didn't have the time that Marley needed (and she didn't get along heaps well with another of their dogs).

Our backyard is the stuff of nightmares for soft-toy lovers...

Marley is five years old, which is probably the same age as Tika. She is also about the same weight as Tika, though a touch taller - perfect playing size.

She is an English Pointer - with a pedigree and everything - and she is a gentle, sweet-natured girl. We joke that Marley is a genteel english rose compared to Tika's ocker Australian - Marley's head and face are delicate and slender while Tika has a hippo-style blockhead (which we love!). Tika is happy-go-lucky and Marley is a touch whingier and more emotionally needy. But they really suit each other, and I think we'll see Marley settle in and boganise more soon.

Marley and Andy watch Masterchef while Tika displays her lack of a pedigree.

She came with the name, which we're sticking with. For a while, Andy couldn't remember it - he called her Mallory a few times. I think he was willfully forgetting, because he didn't want a dog named after a movie. Then I said "What about Bob Marley?"and all of a sudden it was okay. I also call her Marley-Barley, Marley-Moo, and Marls.

Marley and Tika *loved* the crunchy loofahs when we pulled down the loofah vine.

Marley and Tika get along like a house on fire (is that the right way to use that phrase??). They both play hard.

And then they crash at the end of the couch together at night.

Marley is, ahem, not the brightest dog. She is very sweet, but when we try to teach her a trick like "shake" we are met with a vacant stare. (I wouldn't have known she was dumb, because she's a lot like the dogs I had growing up. But Tika is a super smarty pants, so it's glaring in comparison!) She is also easily amused, happy to spend a few hours chasing the shadows of butterflies and dragonflies.

Three of the four of us just love Marley. Nacho isn't sold on her just yet, but she still hasn't come around to Tika. There is a clear hierarchy in the house, and Nacho sits comfortably at the top, flicking her tail and throwing punches if any dogs piss her off.

Holidays are Over

Today marks my return to work, after four weeks of blissful holiday fun. We opted not to travel during our time off, partially because we went south in November for a wedding, partially because we are trying to pay off a mortgage quite quickly, but mainly because our house is still new to us, we haven't had any significant time off since moving in, and we just wanted to hang out here.

I did only a little bit of work during my time off - work that I have wanted to do for a while, but keep putting off because the idea of starting it, amidst all my usual work, was too daunting. Thus, the holidays were a good time to get a start on turning my thesis into a book with no other work distractions, and now that I have a good start I think I will have the motivation to keep working on it.

What made up the bulk of my vacation?

I did manage to blog a lot more regularly. I won't promise to keep it up throughout the teaching semester, but I'll try. I updated and added to the pages across the top, too.

We took Tika for plenty of swims.

I read a lot of books. I went to the library maybe 6 or 7 times during my 4 weeks at home, to pick up books I had reserved.

We painted the toilet and the hallway.

This line between living room and hall is gone. I call the colour "soy chai latte".

I did some bigger cleaning projects that I don't do normally, like dusting off the blinds (a big job, since we always have our windows open) and moving furniture to vacuum under it.

My dislike of these blinds is now more than aesthetic.

We planted a few more things in the garden - a peanut butter tree, jackfruit, another papaya, some more pineapples.

We harvested many huge piles of basil and filled up the freezer with pesto.

Gnocchi with pesto, spinach and broccoli.

(Seriously, our freezer is so full right now, between pesto and mango and reduced-to-clear tofu and veggie burgers.)

Future smoothies.

I took many, many naps.

Like this, but on the couch.

We watched series one of The Killing, a Danish crime drama. It was really good - a little bit like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but less polished. I am looking forward to watching series two!

I made a pretty good dent on organising my craft room.

Before.

After.

And used it for the first time, to sew a Go board.

I rediscovered my love of cooking and had time for more complicated recipes, like Mochi, Bacon Cheeseburgers, or steamed buns filled with Lamyong beef, cabbage and 5-spice BBQ sauce.

We made mango chutney and jam, and did a few more things that will get their own posts in the coming weeks.

Mango pancakes with mango jam.

But sadly, the holiday fun times are over. I didn't tick off everything I wanted to get done - cleaning behind the oven was never really a priority, I guess - but it was so great to have a few weeks off to play, to relax, to tinker.

Starting the Day

Mornings at our house, at least Monday to Friday, look a little bit like this...

Sometime between 4.30 and 5.00am: Tika wakes up, walks to my side of the bed and licks my face. If she's feeling very generous, she goes to Andy's side of the bed and licks him, too. If she's feeling very rambunctious, her tail wags the whole time against the wall, making a noisy thunk-thunk-thunk. We *very politely* ask Tika to go back to bed, and she usually does... for about 10 minutes at a time.

5.00am: I get out of bed, feed Nacho, and take Tika for a walk or, more recently, a run.

We're coming up to the final week of the Couch to 5k program, which is a gradual introduction to running. It's pretty impressive, because I've long been very anti-running, but I really don't mind it now. This morning I ran 23 minutes without dying, or even feeling terribly puffed. Part of the success may be because I didn't really start from couch, but rather from walking-5k-at-a-fairly-cracking-pace. I fill my ears with podcasts, usually either Team Earthling or Progressive Podcast Australia.

5.45-6.00: I get home. Usually Andy's still in bed - the luxury! I try to remember to stop and smell the flowers before I have a good stretch.

We organise lunch for the day, put last night's dishes away, and then, my favourite part of the day: breakfast! I pretty much always eat granola (though on the weekends we are fans of toast, or mushrooms, or pancakes). But, since I started running, I have a very big appetite, so I have been supplementing my plain granola with some chia goo and fruit. The chia seeds have highly concentrated nutrients - plenty of fat and calories, which keeps me full for longer!

Granola with chia goo, bananas and blueberries with soy milk.

Granola, mango, chia goo, and soy milk.

By  7am we've usually fed Tika and hopped on our bikes to go in to work - I love getting in really early, when it's nice and quiet and I can get lots of work done. We're creatures of habit, but I love a solid start to my days!

Spring Things

The start of spring, in Australia, is the 1st of September, and it has definitely warmed up here in Townsville. We still have the blankets on the bed, but when I walk the dog very early in the morning the sun is up, and I don't need a jumper anymore. The warm weather has meant a few different things.

Cucumbers.

Bucket loads of cherry tomatoes. We didn't plant the cherry tomatoes in our garden - they just came up, all over. We get big bowls full a few times each week.

Last week Andy gave Tika some cherry tomatoes to see if she would like them. She did, and he thought that was awesome. The next morning I saw Tika eating them straight off the bush. Upon realising that he has competition for his tomatoes, Andy doesn't think it's so awesome anymore.

Cherry tomatoes in fresh salsa - with cucumber, capsicum, chilli and coriander.

Fresh salsa on Nachos, with refried black beans and guac.

Cherry tomatoes in Brooklyn Pad Thai.

We got a BBQ, which is fantastic not just because BBQed food is yummy, but because BBQ dinner is quick and easy and doesn't make a big mess.

Stuffed capsicums, cooked on the Weber, with some baby zucchinis.

BBQ potatoes, garden radishes, garden zucchinis, felafel balls, and corn on the cob.

Side salad with tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, nasturtiums and rocket, all from the garden.

Chickpea patties. Check those char marks.

I grew soy beans over the winter, knowing full well they are a cool climate crop and they might not do much. But I knew they would fix nitrogen in the soil even if they didn't produce beans, so they were worthwhile.

And they did produce a tiny crop.

I got more shells than beans.

Edamame salad with cucumber, wasabi, soy and pickled ginger.

We also got solar panels. On a good day we get 24kilowatts per day, and if it's a bit cloudy more like 20, which is 2-3x what we use each day, so we're pretty smug about things.

 Also, our patio is getting lovelier and lovelier, with the BBQ and the fairy lights, and a quickly growing passionfruit for shade.