What’s On Your Workdesk this Wednesday?
Same story again this week, I’m afraid – still no activity on the actual desk, but I am continuing work on…
Tiny Carpets
Progress is definitely being made on the front cover of the second needle book. Here is where I started it, working on the outer border.
Mapping out the inner border and starting on some of the internal shapes, working in the dark red thread to begin with. Those four funny little triangles are the hats the little figures are wearing!
Beginning work with the orange thread. You can see the legs of the little figure emerging, bottom right.
This is as far as I’d got by Tuesday evening.
No progress at all on the knitting front – I need to pick up the stitches for that second sleeve and get knitting again.
Food
Recipes of the Week
I’ve been busy experimenting with flatbreads this week. I found a couple of brilliant YouTube videos. The first one was how to make red lentil flatbreads and I just had to try this one – it didn’t seem possible that they could be made with only two ingredients!
Vegan Lentil Flatbreads
All you have to do is take a cup of red lentils, wash them in a sieve under running water, put them in a blender with 2 cups of water and blitz until smooth. (Someone in the comments pointed out that despite what was said on the video, there’s no need to soak them). The resulting batter is then poured a ladle-full at a time into a saute pan or skillet on medium to high heat and cooked, turning once, until it is firm and starting to go golden brown. That’s it! They are delicious and fluffy.
My first batch came out all sorts of funny shapes, mostly looking like a map of Australia. On the video, she managed to keep them really nice and round! My very first one stuck badly and broke up, probably because the pan wasn’t hot enough. As usual I cooked without oil, and once I’d got the hang of it and got the pan nice and hot, it wasn’t a problem, and by pouring in the mixture really slowly, the shape did improve a bit, so that they looked a bit more like Iceland than Australia! Fortunately I managed to avoid making any that looked like the UK because they would have been seriously misshapen! I dumped the bits of the broken one onto a plate, and later, I broke them into really small pieces and fried them again until they were crisp. They are now stored in a small plastic box and are being used to sprinkle on top of salads etc to give a nice crunch! Nothing wasted here!
I made the second batch the next day, and this time I made them savoury, by adding a tablespoon each of onion powder and nutritional yeast (which gives a nice cheesy flavour), a teaspoon of garlic powder, and salt and pepper to the mix before blending. They are absolutely delicious! I made these into little cones and filled them with fried marinated tofu and chopped baby spinach. They were a bit small to make into cones but they tasted pretty good!
They keep for a few days in the fridge, and they freeze well, too. Very quick and easy to do, and filling and nutritious, gluten free if that’s your preference, full of fibre and excellent for satiety and weight loss!
This lentil mixture used plain has a neutral flavour, so it could be flavoured either savoury or sweet. I am going to try making them with cinnamon and sweetened with maple syrup, and served with bananas and nuts and maybe some blueberries. I thought you could also deliberately break them up and fry them as crispy fragments, and the sweet version could be used in granola, or on its own as a sweet crispy sprinkling for deserts or smoothies or whatever takes your fancy.
Zucchini (Courgette) Bread
I made these the next day, from another YouTube video. The recipe called for white plain flour but I don’t have this, so I used wholemeal bread flour which made them pretty substantial and also much darker in colour! The technique for these is different from the lentil ones which are more like pancakes. You grate the courgette and mix it with the onion and the other ingredients to form a soft dough. After leaving it to stand for an hour, you divide it into 8 portions and roll these out into circles, which you then cook in the saute pan as with the lentil ones, turning half-way through.
These are also absolutely delicious – firmer and more chewy than the lentil ones. We had some for supper last night with hummus, and the night before, with Saddam Hussein soup (Iraqi spiced lentil soup) – I blogged that recipe a few months ago. There’s so much you can do with these flatbreads – you can flavour them how you like, and fill them, or spread things on them, or tear them up and use them to mop up curries, to accompany soups… the choice is endless.
I’ve found some other similar recipes to this one, that you roll out rather than making a pancake-like batter, and I’m really keen to try them.
Stewed apple daily!
At the moment we are consuming vast quantities of stewed apple! I’m in panic mode, trying to clear the end of last year’s apple crop from the freezer to make room for the new lot – every day my hubby is bringing in bowls of windfalls and will soon be harvesting them from our little tree. We don’t know the variety, but the apples are just fabulous… I never tire of them! Since getting my soya milk making machine, I am enjoying making custard with the soya milk – I just use Bird’s Original Custard Powder (which is cornflour based and egg-free), sweetened with a little natural stevia, and I adore the creamy taste of it made with soya milk. It doesn’t taste nice made with almond milk, though. I blend the custard powder and stevia with a little milk in a jug, top it up to 1/2 pint and microwave it till it thickens, stirring it intermittently.
It’s my hubby’s job to peel and chop the apples ready for cooking and freezing, and I come down in the mornings to find a big pot full of them, ready for me to cook! I just drain off the soaking water, stir in a small quantity of stevia, and without adding any extra water, cover the pan and put it on a low heat to cook slowly while I do something else. Once it’s nice and mushy, it gets a good stir, and when it is cool, it goes into containers ready to freeze. Each container holds enough for two days for the two of us.
I never get weary of eating stewed fruit and custard. Sometimes I vary it by cooking ground rice instead of custard – that is lovely with rhubarb, plumbs, apricots, gooseberries etc. Alternatively, I throw the stewed fruit and some extra-thick custard into my high-speed blender (no need to sieve it) and blitz it until it comes out a silky-smooth fool. Deelicious!
Next time I will share a fabulous new salad with you.
Nutrition
Changing tastes
Talking of white or brown flour, we were recently given a home-made white loaf by someone who prides himself on his bread-making. It was most professionally baked and it had a good crust and an even crumb, but it tasted so bland! The texture seemed over-spongy and insubstantial. It’s the first white bread I have eaten since going fully whole-food plant-based and it was an indication of just how much my taste has changed. So much “normal” food in the standard Western diet is lacking in substance and you don’t notice this when you are eating it all the time, but after eating real food for a while and then tasting the alternative again, the difference is very noticeable. I really don’t have any desire for this refined stuff any longer.
It is said that after abandoning animal-based food for a while, one’s taste buds recover and become a lot more sensitive, and you begin to enjoy the utter deliciousness of plain, unprocessed foods in the way they should be enjoyed. Who knew that broccoli could be so delicious?!
Salt
I have noticed that I no longer need to add salt to my food at the table. Unlike some whole-food plant-based people, I have not adopted the full “SOS-free” version – sugar, oil and salt free – I am oil-free, and no added sugar, but I do still cook with some salt. One reason for this is that with an ileostomy it is very easy to get dehydrated and one has to be sure to keep one’s electrolyte balance correct, hence the reason for my drinking a litre of rehydration/electrolyte drink daily, which I make myself. We are not consuming vast quantities of salt and it certainly doesn’t seem to be doing my hubby any harm in the hypertension department, as his blood pressure has plummeted to normal levels since adopting this lifestyle.
A lot of people think they’d never be able to abandon salt, fearing that their food would become too bland to be enjoyable. We are all so accustomed to high sodium levels in our food – it is added to nearly all processed foods, and is present in all meat, with significantly higher levels in processed meats which have also been linked to cancer. However, as you gradually wean yourself off it, and add alternatives to your food to flavour it, such as herbs and spices, lemon juice, vinegars etc., you soon find you don’t miss it, and this is helped by the restored sensitivity of your taste buds.
Kitties
Not a great deal of feline activity from the girls this week because the weather has been pretty awful and they haven’t wanted to go out. Those two can sleep for England. Ruby usually settles on the top of the cat tree and dangles various bits of her anatomy over the edge, offering an almost irresistible temptation to pull them! Lily’s latest favourite daytime sleeping place is on the floor in the flat sitting room. Not much cuddling up together while the weather is so hot.
Ruby takes centre stage yet again this week. Dead to the world, or what?
See what I mean about the dangly bits?
Claws well dug into my hubby’s trousers to stop her falling off.
They went down to the vet on Monday for their annual MOT and inoculations. All is well, and the vet wormed them at the same time. Ruby is always more nervous than Lily, who is the most laid-back kitty you could imagine – the sort that purrs at the vet’s (although apparently not this time!). Both were very well-behaved and they were soon home, and enjoying their tea.
We had a false alarm last week, on the day my cleaning lady was here. Ruby is absolutely terrified of her and her roaring hoover and squeezes behind the fridge in the flat kitchen for the duration! They were both in the garden and my hubby was calling them in ready for their trip to the vet’s. Lily came in like a little lamb and was put into the cat carrier, and Ruby was on her way in when my cleaning lady appeared at the back door brandishing a wet mop, and Ruby freaked out and dashed up to the top of the garden again! There was NO persuading her to come down till the poor lady had gone home, by which time it was too late, so my hubby went in and let Lily out again. She must have been very confused, and wondering what on earth he was playing at, shutting her in the cat carrier and then letting her out again!
Clothes
The second of my Romanian blouses is being modelled this week! I love this one with its dark red and black embroidery.
Dark red socks to complement the embroidery, and my Ebay harem pants. I forgot to put on any jewellery.
Here are some closer pictures of the blouse, with some detailed shots of the beautiful embroidery.
A detail shot of the front. You can see that the armhole seam is decorated with embroidery. I love the white smocking around the neck.
They have even added a bit to the back, in the form of small spots of embroidery. Again, the sleeve seams and the smocking are so pretty.
The sleeve. The diagonal bands are most unusual. The small square spot motif is used to great effect throughout the blouse, either as a block of pattern, bands, or isolated spots. There is also some white smocking at the cuff.
Finally, a close-up shot of the embroidery on the sleeve. I love the bold checkerboard effect of the repeated small square motifs, and the fine buff band below this panel.
My only complaint about this blouse is that all that exquisite embroidery has been done on a pretty thin, insubstantial cheesecloth. It’s very nice and cool, though.
Have a great creative week, everybody.
You look very stylish again, Shoshi – that’s a really good picture of you! We’ve got loads of apples too, but they won’t keep long. We tend to make crumble a few times in August/September and that’s it – the apples are gone. I don’t have a freezer or a pantry to store them, so most of them are just wasted. Your lentil bread sounds like something I might like – I love lentils in every shape or form – honestly, I could like on them! Ruby’s antics made me laugh – Oreo had a close encounter with the hoover too when he was little and ever since then he’s terrified of it. He kind of worked out that it’s ok when we are not handling it, but as soon as he sees us rolling it even before we turn it on, he runs off in a panic. He doesn’t like the vets either. Last time we went, he very slowly crawled into the sink and made himself look very small as if he wanted to disappear. It was quite funny, but I felt so sorry for him. He’s a purrer too but he definitely didn’t purr at the vets! I’m so glad it’s cooler now! Happy #585!
You have inspired me to get the graph paper out and start working on a cross stitch chart! I found a freebie online and chose just a section for my design, probably for Christmas cards. I have Aida and floss already, so will get going fairly soon. I really enjoyed using my lovely pencils to make the chart, a thoroughly absorbing couple of hours was spent in the cool. That lentil flatbread recipe sounds interesting, I might have to havea go at that!
Hugs LLJ 6 xxxx
Ooh, I do love that blouse. I can see why you like it so much, what a lot of embroidery there is and yet when you see it as a whole it has lots of plain areas. I hope it continues to be worn and worn (and never wear out). Think this is one of my favourite outfits, it looks so good with the black harem pants. Yo0u model it well and what a lovely figure you have if you don’t mind my saying so.
Quite like the sound of the lentil flat breads as I love lentils. The crunchy bits that fell off and you saved for salad sound delicious and I think I would be knocking some bits off so I had to crumb them. Might give them a go when I can use my arm a bit better.
Lovely photos of Ruby and a lovely tale of the leaning lady and her mop LOL.
Hugs, Neet 7 xx
What an interesting post – so much to ponder, I have never tried lentil flat breads but have discovered (and thoroughly enjoyed) lentil cakes as opposed to rice cakes, I though the lentil ones were delicious, and I have made a flat bread like that but with chickpea/gram flour – which are lovely. Show me a chick pea and I am there basically (we eat anything in this house – or will at least try too). That Romanian blouse is just stunning, it looks fantastic on you – it ties in quite well with your stitching and I love how the red then grows and sprouts little orange legs, quite exciting 🙂
You really do enjoy dressing up for our benefit! what a pretty embroidered outfit! I don’t add salt to my cooking, other than water for cooking veg/pasta in . Hope you have a good week – look forward to seeing the knitted second sleeve maybe next week! Helen#2
Wow, don’t you look stunning! Love that blouse. I am intrigued by your lentil recipe – have bookmarked that one to try. I am trying to remember if I still have my food processor in the cupboard to grind the lentils – truly I haven’t used it in so long I may have got rid of it!! That’ll be me rummaging in the kitchen cupboards tomorrow morning. I haven’t been particularly good with my ‘diet’ this week, but I haven’t been bad either!! I have however now managed four weeks without sugar in my tea so I am quite pleased with that. Small steps. (I got that dress on the other day. It fits already, but a little snug lol. A little more work to do). Happy WOYWW, stay well, safe, Cindy #21
You always have so much on the go. Loving the fashion show and the kitties too. Wishing you a very happy woyww and a lovely creative week, Angela x14x
A very informative post! The kitties are gorgeous as is the blouse!
Have a great week!
Carol N #25
Oh Shoshi you and your outfit are beautiful !! Love the top beautiful stitching. And I like the needlebook you are working on. I’ve a few unfinished !! We too are enjoying garden veggies. Oh the tomatoes are huge and tasty this year. Swiss chard, Eggplant and Kohlorabi sautated with flavored EVO the main menu !!!
Thanks for visiting and you kind comments. Things will get back to normal, in a different way no doubt but all are safe. I miss my growing up grandkids. No air travel No visits just a crazy world we are in right now.
Have a great weekend. Stay Safe
The blouse is absolutely fantastic! <3
And yoyr cat seems to thrive with his master…
also saw this on some of your previous posts… LOL
Have a nice week!
Sussie nr 33
Looking very stylish! That outfit really suits you. Thank you for your comment on my blog – we were staying on the South coast on the Devon/Dorset border in Seaton. My mum lives in Taunton so we could visit her, and my bridesmaid lives in Kilmington so we saw her as well. Next time I am down I would love to meet up, but I got the impression you were further into Devon – closer to Cornwall – is that correct? Sorry I am late commenting. Happy belated WOYWW. Take care and stay safe. with love & God Bless, Caro xxx (#9)
Hello Shoshi!
Apologies for the absence, I’ve been reading but have fallen behind with the commenting.
First of all I absolutely love both of your Romanian blouses. A family who trade next to us at a folk festival we do (or used to do, in these strange times!) have a small factory on their ancient farmhouse in Transylvania providing work for many of the local ladies, distilling their own gin and making preserves and pickles. When they bought the property it hadn’t been occupied for years and came fully furnished with chests of hand embroidered linen, military uniforms and the most incredible blouses I’ve ever seen. I’ve tried suggesting that I could give the blouses a good home with me but they’ve had them framed. Boo!
Love the kittie pictures and I’m delighted that their booster injections went well.
Those lentil pancakes look and sound amazing. I’ve got a sack of split yellow peas in the cupboard, I’m inspired to try something similar.
Stay safe, happy & healthy! xxx
I LOVE that blouse! So beautiful, and I can see just how nice and cool it would be! The kitties are gorgeous as ever, and Ruby’s tail does look like it needs a little tug…Mittsy often sleeps on the floor when it’s hot, at night she sleeps with her body half in “her room” and half in the hallway, lying on the wood floor between the carpet and the wall! Inky enjoys the top of the cat tree just like Ruby! Your lentil flatbread sounds intriguing, I will have to look it up on You Tube. I’m on WW, and lentils are “free” so this would be a “free” bread! Enjoy your embroidery, it looks like it’s coming along brilliantly! Have a wonderful week, Lindart #27
Hyia Darling – Sorry I am late getting round again – Weds tends to be a busy day atm. Gorgeous projects as always . Stunning Blouse wow- did you embroider that – looks like you are more than capeable. I am still waiting for my tomatoes to ripen but they are coming along. Your garden looks lush and fab that you have apples. Take care Soojay xxx
HI Shoshi, very interesting to read about your flatbread experiments – the lentil one sounds a bit like the chickpea/gram flour ones I like to make, so quick, easy and versatile. We’re not completely veggie, but moving closer to it all the time, going more for plant-based, low carb much of the time. Look forward to seeing your salad recipe next week! Have a lovely weekend, sorry I’m late visiting :o) Annie C #19
That blouse looks lovely, my favourite is the beige embroidery, but the fine smocking is just lovely isn’t it, and the way the pattern is slightly repeated to keep the back interesting too, how lovely. Ah the stewed fruit, just love it. How marvellous to have a willing peeler and chopper on hand – it is a bit of a chore isn’t it! Great progress with the teeny rugs, the lack of desk is absolutely not an issue you know, really we should change the name, but I cant. The stupid acronym pleases me too much!!
Oh, I had a blouse like that in the seventies, I loved it! Yours is very pretty! I can imagine the temptation of pulling on the cat’s tail, I think I would! Thanks for visiting my blog the other day, have a great weekend! Hug from Holland. Marit #8
Always love reading your posts!
Just shown my husband the lentil flatbreads – he is always up for a new recipe to try…
Sorry I am so late posting – have a good week!
Susan #10