Monday, January 14, 2008

Chocolate Update

...OK, so I have limits. The handmade vegan chocolates were something of a failure. Not disastrously - the chocolate was delicious, but this was only the result of buying a good brand to begin with, not because I did anything right!

They set up great and all looked well but they refused to come out of the molds. Just point blank refused. Wouldn't even try! I tried coaxing them, pressuring, enticing, threatening, entreating, but these little treats just would not cooperate and remained clam-like in their little plastic trays.

I ended up taking a sharp knife to them, thereby ruining the molds (all of $1.79 each from AC Moore) but feeling better for maniacally wielding a sharp implement and venting truculant-chocolate-induced rage!

Any suggestions? I clearly have a lot to learn about this business ... perhaps I need to purchase more vegan choccies for 'research purposes'??????

Stay Vegan, Friends! :)

By Popular Demand...

Last night, for the first time in more than a decade, I ate a.....sausage roll!

Yes, it was a whim that came upon me out of precisely nowhere, but both My beloved and I decided to run with it and see where the craving took us. And this was the destination:



I'll post the recipe as soon as I figured it out properly, but in essence all I did was to take a pack of GimmeLean (sausage-style) and blitz it in the food processor with some 'additions'. I divided the pack into two and to the first half I added freshly roasted garlic and grated Sheese 'blue cheese' and to the other grated onion and sun-dried tomatoes.

Then I mounded the mixture on a piece of pre-made vegan flaky pastry, rolled it into a tube form, scored the tops, brushed with a 
little oil and baked until crispy and the filling was hot inside.




My Beloved made some kalamata olive mashed potatoes and I added some gently simmered savory puy lentils and we ate with gusto!

Stay Vegan, Friends!