Berlin

I visited Berlin last month. I went with my mum. I was pretty excited to visit all the vegetarian places but I ended up staying in a completely different area to where they predominately are. I didn't want to drag my mum across the city! We did venture out to Kruzberg ( I think) one night to Cafe V. Getting there was a nightmare, I kept messing up the trains. It was dark when we got there and there was a load of sketchy characters. We got to Cafe V anyhow and was greeted by very friendly English speaking staff.

Personnly I didn't find the food great or the menu. Lot's of tofu, which I'm not really into. I meant to take down what we ordered but forgot. I got a canneloni type thing and my mum, I don't remember, ha. Terrible review, sorry!

Bagel idea

I made this a few weeks ago and got hooked. I ate it too many times that I kind of got sick of it!

So it contains:

- Roasted or grilled sweet potato strips (thin)

- Sweet chilli sauce

- Hummous

- Feta

- & Salad.

Trust me, it's delisssh.

Sugar cinnamon pull apart bread.

While flicking through stumbleupon, I came across This recipe (http://www.joythebaker.com/blog/2011/03/cinnamon-sugar-pull-apart-bread/) for Cinnamon sugar pull apart bread. It looked unreal and I kept saying I had to make it. Only problem was that it was all in cups. I find some website conversions to grams differ from others so I don't know if I had the correct measurements.

It was pretty easy to make but I don't have to much experience making dough but it turned out all right! Mine wasn't as skillfully put together and I cooked it for a bit longer than needed.

Extremely chunky vegan apple and berry crumble

Crumble with a hint of coconut.

I got a great recipe of a friend for a apple and berry crumble pie. She brought me a slice of it and it was great.

You need a shortcrust pastry base for the pie.

For the apple and berry filling: 350g cooking apple (shreded)

150g raspberries

125g blueberries

100g sugar

I stewed all this together with a drop of water until it reduced.

For the crumble:  
       100g (vegan) butter

100g caster sugar

25g desecated coconut

250g plain flour

This crumble is nice and chunk so make little molds with the crumble and place it on top of the berry mix. The coconut really adds to it to, I highly recommend it!

Summer smoothie ice pops

I came home one night to find ice pop molds that my Mum got in tesco! I had been looking ages for cheap and suitable ones.

So I blended up some fruit to make ice pops with. There is gala melon and banana, Strawberry and orange and strawberry. They were so tasty!

Another summer cake and macaroons

I made another tall, sweet cream filled and summer berry cake for a little cat party! I made one chocolate sponge and one vanilla and cut them both in half, resulting in 4 halfs!

Chocolate Macaroons.

I have always wanted to try make these but thought they looked really complicated. After my friend made them and said they were easy, I gave it a shot.

I used this recipe- http://www.followmefoodie.com/2010/12/parisian-macaroon-macaron-recipe-from-stuart%E2%80%99s-bakery/

They were pretty simple to make and taste so yummy!

Dogs in Distress-Rescue, Foster, Adopt

Dogs in Distress is a great Irish animal organisation who work independently to help get dogs out of the pound and into foster homes until they get adopted.

The woman who run this are great so I just thought I'd throw a link up here. My family and are dog fosterers for dogs in distress and are currently with our 2nd foster dog, Jessie.

If you are thinking about getting a dog, please rescue a dog rather than b

uying one. There are so many rescue dogs who apreciate loving homes. Dogs in Distress always have pure breeds too.

So check the site and dogs out and pass on the good word!

http://dogsindistress.org/index.php

to view current foster dogs looking for homes-http://dogsindistress.org/blog/index.php

Sweet potato/normal potato rosti.

Please excuse the terrible phone pictures. Sometimes going upstairs to get my camera is to much of a trek.

So this evening I had an itch to try a rosti. I have never had one before and made one before. I keep seeing them in places so it inspired to give it a go. I didn't look at a recipe but my mum told me to squeeze all the juice out.

1-I grated one sweet potato and one normal baking potato and then squeezed all the juice out by my hands.

2- I fried the grated potatoes with olive oil, salt and pepper and some rosemary and cumin.

3. Fried for about 5 mins. I tasted it to see if it was hard.

4. Put the grated potatoes in a bowl along with a couple teaspoons of cumin, honey, an egg and chunks of feta.

5. I tried to fry them but that failed so I baked them and they turned out so yummy.

If this is even how you make a rosti, I have no idea. Will be making them again for sure anyway!

Another chocolate raspberry adventure

I decided to give the chocolate raspberry cake a go. With still so many raspberries growing in the garden, they are calling out to me to be eaten.

This time however, I put some grated chocolate on top and used single cream instead of double cream to make the icing on top. I much prefer the double cream. It is a lot more smoother.

I also decided to make some raspberry cupcakes and make an icing using double cream and icing sugar along with raspberries through it. I decided to use the hummingbird bakery recipe for cupcakes this time and did not like how they turned out at all.

Goodlife food range

While down in Cork I took a stroll into the Quay co-op health food store in Carrigaline.

http://www.quaycoop.com/Shops_-_Locations.html

They had the biggest range of vegetarian food I've seen in a health food store, It was great! I wish there was a place near me like that. So many different brands of falafels, tofu and vegetarian fridgerated products. There was also a load of fresh vegetables and free leaflets with whole food recipes which I picked up.

Anyway, I went for 'Good Life-Fruity Falafel Quarterpounders with Cumin, Corriander and Chilli'. I got a pack of 4 for around 3 euro! They were extremely tasty and I had two. I haven't seen these being stocked up in Dublin anywhere and the website doesn't say either.

http://www.goodlife.co.uk/