As always after a year of blogging there were some pictures taken and ready to be posted without them being enough to get their own post. So were are, once again, doing a round-up.
First of all: DIY glow in the dark star-ceiling. Over the summer holidays I got some glow in the dark paint and created a starry ceiling above my bed. It is completely invisible in the light of day, but as soon as the light goes off it is actually rather pretty. I know now what I’d do different next time. I’d use a few more teeny tiny brushes as well instead of 3 more uniform medium ones, perhaps get a red star or 3 for contrast, but on the whole I’d recommend it to anybody. I first sponged a galaxy-shapes nebula and then dotted with the brush. Anyone who’s seen galaxy nail art video’s will know how. It cost me 40 euros in total, which I thought was steep, but worth it. It is lovely to look at at night.
Secondly, I found this picture of Fatty. I am also partly in it (as the camouflage-colored sweater-wearer, my mum took it). She looks really pretty and content and how I’d like to remember her: a pocket sized lion basking in the sun with an awkward ratty tail.
Then we got this pasta from Ikea, which made me smile. I am not very pro-Ikea, being a designer and an environmentalist (though they do offer some good things with regards to design and environment, but mostly not). I try to buy second hand furniture or recycle the stuff we have, but Ikea is very convenient every now and again. It’s like unethical underwear: how I wish I could quit you, but how horrible my life/backpain would be then. Anyway, as soon as I saw pasta shaped like elk, I knew we had to have that. The taste was unremarkable, but it was funny none the less.
I also figured out that if you make gluten-free non-fat vegan macaroni and cheese (it is surprisingly delicious and non-cardboard-like, I use the recipe from Appetite for Reduction), top that with some herbed bread crumbs and freeze that in tiny dishes, you always have something to eat late at night when you arrive home hungry. If you happen to have a microwave. We only got a microwave last year, and I don’t use it often (I have so far only managed to burn chocolate in it), but sometimes it is a lifesaver. And 3 1/2 minutes on full and you have steaming hot healthy pasta when you are suddenly really hungry but have nothing but a carrot to munch on. The Magic Mac ‘n Cheese recipe (with some nutritional yeast added) from one of my favorite ebooks, Comfortably Yum, would also be really nice this way so I wholeheartedly recommend you get that book. A non-vegan friend enjoyed that recipe as part of a burrito immensely.
Last but not least: silken tofu. I still need to perfect the silken tofu in chili dressing, it’s a remake from something I ordered at a restaurant around the corner because it was really good. The other dish is just a variation on the already very familiar “recipe” for whenever stuff needs to be fast. Adding some silken tofu marinated in soy sauce is very very tasty. Silken tofu is my favorite thing of 2014. I had had it before of course, many many times, but I am finally getting the hang of using it properly. It works as a chocolate mousse, as a savory dish, as addition to soup, as an egg replacer, something cold on a very hot day, in the best tiramisu ice cream ever and according to Great Chefs Cook Vegan also as a base fro brûlée instead of crème. I love it to bits!