Spice Box of Earth

I Am Moving Blog House! :/

ocean0fviolence — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 23:21:48 +0100

Oh my Tumblr chums, though I have thoroughly enjoyed my stay here, I have been lured most heinously over to Wordpress! With its tremendous widgets, tag clouds, social networking integration and so on and so forth, I have been hopelessly tempted. I will continue to link from Tumblr for now, for the lovely people who are ‘following’ me, but I hope you will continue to follow from afar, via Google Reader or a good old fashioned bookmark!

http://spiceboxofearth.wordpress.com/

Top Secret Thrilling News

ocean0fviolence — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 21:04:34 +0100

Oooooh what could it be, what could it be??

Vegan Food Swap The First! (July)

ocean0fviolence — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 21:03:07 +0100

July was my first ever Vegan Food Swap, and a very exciting one! As my first attempt I hope I managed to put together a decent outward package - I included a vegan choccy bar, a yummy chorizo, some fruity gummy sweets and some home baked brownies. I did fear slightly for the home baked goodies but I do hope they arrived in a good condition!

The parcel I received from the lovely Jojo of Vegan in Brighton was wonderful!

I am a huge liquorice fan so it was a joy to receive 3 liquorice based goodies :) The chocolate and sweeties were yummy indeed! Some of them found their way onto my cupcakes, like lots of sweet things in my house……

Thank you Jojo for my wonderful box o’ vegan delights!

To join in with the UK Vegan Food Swap just head over to To Happy Vegans and sign up :)

Lush!

ocean0fviolence — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 20:15:26 +0100

By jingo, I love Lush! Christmas and birthdays are often Lushtastic for me, since I can send friends & family members in there to buy me “whatever’s vegan” and they just can’t go wrong! As well as buying me a mascara from their brand new makeup range (ALL VEGAN!) my boyfriend topped up a gift card for me for my recent birthday, and today I skipped into my local store with GLEE and got the most wonderful haul!

Vegan Blog Roundup - July!

ocean0fviolence — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 23:20:00 +0100

Ooooh deary me. My ambitious plans for a weekly blog post roundup became somewhat swept up in all the cake kerfuffle. But nevertheless! I have been keeping track of all the yummy and interesting happenings out there in the vegan blogosphere….

Fat Free Vegan Kitchen has been a huge inspiration to me ever since I first Went Vegan. For reliably yummy, healthy, wholesome dishes, this blog never fails. This Thai Black Pepper and Garlic Tofu looks mighty tasty to me.

I adore Maple Spice - it has to be in my top 10 vegan blogs out there today, and my top 5 non American. This Stuffed Jumbo Pasta Shell Lasagne looks AMAZING and it’ll definitely be on my dinner-for-guests list for the near future. Thank you Maple Spice! <3

Here’s one I am definitely saving for the Autumn months! Veggie num num’s Eggplant Risoni Bake looks absolutely delicious, not to mention hearty, rustic and generally cosy as heck.

These Chive & Garlic Dumplings from Olives for Dinner are entirely my cup of tea. Lovely doughy dumplings with a tasty garlic chive filling. In my mouth please!

Vegan Birthday Fun and more.....

ocean0fviolence — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 22:33:26 +0100

My dearest vegan readers, life has been tremendously busy of late! I have spent the last week or so baking like a baking MACHINE, but the busyness has, I hope, now eased off for a little while. Today was my birthday and my first non cake filled day in a while……much to my joy! But here we have a little selection of the cakes, dinners and other treats of the last week or two….

I do hope normal service will resume shortly!

Sausage & Caramelised Red Onion Pie

ocean0fviolence — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 20:39:00 +0100

Here comes another hearty, pietastic dinner idea for all you pie-lovers out there! Recently I picked up a pack of Vegusto herb sausages from V Revolution, who have stocked up on a tremendous amount of Vegusto goodies recently. Though I scoffed one in its glorious natural (grilled) state for breakfast, I wanted to do something a bit more exciting with the other, and you can never really go wrong with pie glorious pie!

Ingredients:

1 recipe shortcrust pastry (or buy ready rolled)
2 red onions, thinly sliced
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp maple syrup
3 tbsp red wine
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp Bisto onion gravy granules
1 red chili, finely chopped
1 large veggie sausage of your choice, chopped
a handful of ripe cherry tomatoes, halved

First, grease or spray your pie dish with oil. Line the bottom of the dish with pastry ready for filling and preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

Over a low heat, sauté the red onion and chili in a little olive oil. Add the vinegar, syrup, red wine and sugar and leave to cook, covered, over a very low heat for 10 minutes. Add the gravy granules and a little hot water if necessary. Allow the mixture to cook, covered, for another 5 minutes.

In a frying pan, sauté the sausage until browned, and flash fry the halved cherry tomatoes in the pan with the sausage for a few minutes. Then, line the bottom of the pie with the sausage and tomato.

Put the caramelised onion mixture over the top, and top the pie with the remaining pastry.

Bake at 180 degrees for around 20 minutes or until nicely browned…..

Yay for pie! The bestest Sunday food!

Noochy Sausage, Mushroom, Pepper & Tomato Omelette

ocean0fviolence — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 20:19:00 +0100

Ohhh myyyyy gossshhhhhh it’s been busy here at Cake Towers recently! I have some pretty chuffing booked up weeks of baking approaching and unfortunately it’s not really been the time to get SAVOURY CREATIVE in the kitchen :/

And so, I turned to the good ol’ PPK tonight for this tofu omelette. I’m trying to go a bit easy on the fats/carbs lately if at all possible, so I swapped out the olive oil and added a little soy milk. I used my trusty copper bottom frying pan with the lightest spraying of oil and these turned out perfectly. I topped with 1 chopped Linda McCartney sausage, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, chopped spring onion and garlic. All were sautéed over a low heat with a spritz of oil. I mixed in a tablespoon of noochy goodness just before serving.

(Gluten Free) Mac & Trees Pasta Bake

ocean0fviolence — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 22:29:44 +0100

I had a little play with some gluten free pasta today since I’ve been gorging on gluten in a big way recently and I’ve had a bit of teh dreaded bloat.

I used Sainsbury’s standard ‘free from’ corn fusili and the tremendous Appetite for Reduction Easy Breezy Cheezy Sauce, replacing the plain flour with maize meal and adding some olive oil and soya milk.

I baked in the oven with some grated Vegusto and Cheezly on top. A satisfying and hearty dinner after a hard day’s bakin’! Not quite up to Amy’s Daiya Mac & Cheeze standards, but good enough for me :)

Vegan Pizza Day Celebrations!

ocean0fviolence — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 15:30:41 +0100

I rarely venture into Manchester city centre on a Saturday night these days….. I’m far too old for all that, and the staggering men and tottering women that can be seen lurching around town as early as 9pm are not quite my cup of tea.

HOWEVER, yesterday was different. Yesterday was INTERNATIONAL VEGAN PIZZA DAY! So after I had delivered my calzones and pizza slice cookies to V Revolution (a tremendous vegan lifestyle & record store in Manchester’s Northern Quarter) and had spent a fun couple of hours lunching & shopping with the lovely Vicki, it was off home for a bit of a disco nap before our dinner reservation.

I chose Dough Pizza Kitchen, again in Manchester’s Northern Quarter, as they have a variety of vegan options for all courses - a rare treat in a mainstream restaurant!

I started with a big ol’ baked garlic mushroom topped with rocket, which was lovely and ‘meaty’ and tasty and by god, HOT.

Then it HAD to be pizza of course - I went for the veggie option with wonderful Cheezly atop……

And finally I finished with a ridiculously tasty chocolate brownie/peanut butter blondie combo with dairy free vanilla ice cream….

All in all a very satisfying first Vegan Pizza Day for me - what did you get up to??

Cheezly Chorizo Calzones

ocean0fviolence — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 15:20:35 +0100

Ahh my vegan chums, Vegan Pizza Day is over, but now it’s time for me to share this ridiclously good recipe with you all. This is heaven in a freshly baked dough parcel, and is so easy to make! I made the dough using my trusty bread machine, a standard pizza dough recipe. I also made the filling the day before and left both in the fridge overnight for easy Pizza Day Morning baking…..

Ingredients:

2 red onions, chopped
3 large garlic cloves, chopped
2 of your favourite vegan chorizo sausages, sliced
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 cup green olives, chopped
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 packet your favourite vegan mozzarella, grated
1 serving pizza dough (from a 2lb bread machine)

To prepare the filling, fry the onion, garlic and sliced sausage in olive oil until the sausage is browned. Add the tomatoes, green olives, paste and paprika. Let the mixture cook over a low heat for 10 minutes or so. Add a little water if it starts to dry out.

Chop the pizza dough into 10 equal pieces. Roll each one into a neat ball. You will then need to roll out each circle and spoon a heaped tbsp of the filling on top. Put a good helping of the mozzarella on top of the mixture and fold over, using a little soy milk if needed to help seal the edges.

Bake at 180 degrees on greaseproof baking paper for 15 minutes. Be careful, as they will be hot as heck when you take the first chomp!

Enjoy!

vrevolutionyeah: If you’re not in town, you’re missing out on...

ocean0fviolence — Sat, 30 Jun 2012 16:20:23 +0100

vrevolutionyeah:

If you’re not in town, you’re missing out on this. Vegan chorizo & cheese calzones, and pizza cookies from Cottage Cupcake Co available in V Revolution. They’re going quick, but there are free Club Mate samples, and more food will be appearing throughout the day!

IT’S HERE! Vegan pizza day is here! And I just delivered...

ocean0fviolence — Sat, 30 Jun 2012 10:59:00 +0100

IT’S HERE! Vegan pizza day is here! And I just delivered this freshly baked bushel o’ Cheezly Chorizo Calzones to V Revolution in Manchester’s Northern Quarter. How are you celebrating??

Chorizo & Everything Casserole

ocean0fviolence — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 20:20:00 +0100

Herein continues my total obsession with the ROYALLY TREMENDOUS Wheaty vegan chorizo sausage. Plus you get double extra LOLZ from squeezing the sausage out of its sheath……. No? Just me? Well then, swiftly moving on…..

You can pretty much throw whatever veg you like into this casserole, which could just as easily be made in the slow cooker.

Ingredients:

1 red onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, whole
2 vegan chorizo sausages, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 large stick celery, chopped
4 large chestnut mushrooms, chopped
1 large red (bell) pepper, chopped into large pieces
2 tbsp tomato puree
1/2 cup vegetable stock
1 carton crushed tomatoes/chopped tomatoes
3 tbsp nutritional yeast (optional, but aw go on)
1 tsp smoked paprika
salt & pepper to taste

In a large saucepan, sauté the onion, garlic and sausage in a little olive oil until the onions are softened and the sausage is slightly browned. Add the stock, tomato paste and vegetables. Add the crushed tomatoes, nutritional yeast and smoked paprika. Stir well and add a little water if necessary. Turn the heat down low and let the casserole bubble with the pot covered for around 45 minutes. You’ll want to check on it every now and then in case you need to add more water.

Serve with potatoes and green vegetables, or with some nice creamy mash.

Save this one for winter why dontcha!

Bittersweet Chocolate Chili with Blackberry Jewelled Rice & Mojito Salsa (& cake)

ocean0fviolence — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 19:19:00 +0100

Well my vegan friends, I tragically found myself not winning the tremendously fun Chopped Vegan competition earlier this week! I fell into the chocolate chili trap like……erm…..a piece of chocolate falling into my chili. There were some wonderfully inspired dishes that made great use of the four mystery ingredients (dark chocolate, black eyed beans, fresh mint and blackberries).

Here is my non winning recipe :)

Chili Ingredients:

olive oil
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 red chili (or more if you like it hot!), very finely chopped
1 red onion, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
3 pieces dark (bittersweet) chocolate
1 tsp cumin seeds
3 tsp cumin
1 tin black eyed peas
1 carton crushed tomatoes

Rice Ingredients:

1 cup wild rice
1 tbsp vegan butter
1 tsp cardomom seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 bay leaves
a handful chopped blackberries

Mojito Salsa:

juice of 1 lime
1 red onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup finely chopped ripe tomatoes
2 tbsp white rum
a handful of fresh mint, chopped

Sauté the garlic and chili in a little olive oil with the cumin seeds. After a few minutes add the red onion and pepper and sauté for a little longer. Add the cumin and the black eyed peas. Mix well, then add the crushed tomatoes. Sit the chocolate on top, let it melt, then stir it in. Leave the chili cooking over a low heat.

Finely chop the red onion and tomatoes. Mix with the rum, lime juice, mint and salt. Put in an airtight tupperware and give it a jolly good shake (imagine it’s a proper mojito!).

Fry the cardomom seeds, cumin seeds and bay leaves in the vegan butter for a minute or two. Add the rice and toss it around in the mixture. Put the rice into boiling water and cook for 12 minutes or so. When the rice is cooked, drain and mix in the chopped blackberries.

Finally, to complete my week of non winning, I present my ‘coffee shop’ selection of cupcakes that were entered into a little local competition - the flavours are Hot Chocolate, Maple Macchiato and Cappuccino. Hurrah for not winning!

Chocolate Cupcake (nothing more)

ocean0fviolence — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 22:32:00 +0100

It’s a busy old time both in the day job and with the cakes at the moment so I’ve barely been doing any ‘proper’ cooking! I will post my feeble Chopped Vegan recipe tomorrow, now that I’ve learned there was never any danger of me making the final cut - curse my love of Mexican food! It kept my thinking firmly inside the box.

Tomorrow I’ll be decorating a splendid series of ‘coffee shop’ cupcakes to take to a cake networking session and enter into a competition. Vegan represent!

Mini Blackberry Pies

ocean0fviolence — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 21:56:09 +0100

This pie is fiendishly easy to make. I found myself wondering what to do with some leftover pastry this evening, and after today’s Chopped Vegan! challenge, some blackberries too.

Well, it would’ve been rude not to really. And I can barely even class this as a recipe (unless you make your own pastry - you can use my standard recipe, but add a tsp of sugar to the mix).

Roll out your pastry and line mini pie tins or cases. Fill with blackberries and sprinkle some sugar on top. Cover with strips of pastry and bake until nicely browned (around 15-20 mins).

Et voila! Perfect mini desserts. I topped mine with whipped Soyatoo - why not!

Chopped Vegan! (part one)

ocean0fviolence — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 16:26:03 +0100

Well now, this is all very exciting! Who is doing the PPK’s Chopped Vegan challenge?

I have produced my dish, taken arty shots, and await the final whistle. I know there will be some absolutely wonderful dishes being cooked all over the world, so my hopes are not too high, but this has been a lot of fun!

Once the results have been announced, I will post my kinda crazy recipe here…. I have to admit I’ve never used chocolate, blackberries and mint together in a savoury main course before! (or even anything before……..)

Picture Post - cake, food, fajitas, FOOD

ocean0fviolence — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 20:25:27 +0100

Blimey dear readers, it’s been a busy old week where the day job’s concerned. However, I had time to take some foody snaps, and will be embarking on nothing short of an ADVENTURE in the kitchen tomorrow.

I had time to bake a lemon vanilla cake to order……

I made an absolutely heroic cheesy pasta dish in about 13 minutes when we were in an almighty rush to get somewhere on time……

I ordered a whooooole lot of packaging and other goodies for my secret cake-selling superhero activities including these SPLENDID A3 laminated posters which I am just in love with…….. (my cheeky technique is to mention only vegan options at a stall, thereby sucking in all the regular folks and at the same time attracting the attention of any vegans; then I enjoy the utter delight on their faces when I tell them they can eat ANYTHING….)

Friday night was, OF COURSE, fajita friday. Since we do fajitas every week in our house, I don’t often photograph it. However, last night I was thrilled to be using my new obsession, Wheaty chorizo sausage, and had to take a snap…

Then I was curiously inspired to put together this series of pictures. I call it, “Anatomy of a Fajita”…..

HOW DO YOU BUILD YOURS?

Vegan Here - Worldwide Events App

ocean0fviolence — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 22:03:36 +0100

For one reason or another I stumbled upon this forthcoming app today….. I was browsing the vegan section of the Kickstarter page, and getting a warm fuzzy feeling inside seeing all the creative vegan projects that are raising money and getting funded, when I spotted this.

The project has now been fully funded and the iPhone app launch date is scheduled for August 3rd. Amongst other things, this app promises to help support a worldwide vegan community by providing a single point of reference for all sorts of vegan events.

It’s already possible to register an event, and if you visit the site before July 15th you can request to join the focus group and test out the app.

The Vegan Here site’s blog is tracking the status of the app’s development and it all looks very exciting to me!

Though the project was successfully & fully funded, the Vegan Here folks are accepting further donations in order to further develop the app for, e.g., the Android market, and to make additional features available.

So, am I totally late to the Vegan Here app party? I hadn’t heard of this before I stumbled upon it today and I really hope it works out as it seems like a tremendously good idea to me!