Spiced Red Wine Poached Figs

So it was harvest sunday at our church a few weeks ago which means people bring 'gifts from God' (includes produce, craft etc etc) I myself brought the husband cos he's lovely! Apparently once people have brought everything it's pretty much a free for all! So Alex and I eyed off the giant box of gorgeous figs. I have never loved fresh figs unlike alex who eats about a thousand in a sitting. Anyway, i wanted to make something delicious and here it is!

 Gorgeous figs bubbling away! 

Recipe (totally try it at home!)

• 2 cups dry red wine
• 2 tablespoons  brown sugar
• 1 cinnamon stick (or a tsp or two of cinnamon- to taste)
• 2 each whole cloves
• 6 whole, ripe figs

Combine Wine, Sugar and Spices in a saucepan and bring to a simmer.

Place cleaned, trimmed figs gently into the saucepan on a low heat. 

Cook for about 15 minutes turning figs once (if needed- mine turned themselves!)

Remove figs when soft (about 15 minutes) and heat liquid until it is a syrup consistency. 

Serve warm with vanilla bean icecream and crushed almonds! 

Delish!

So the adventure has begun

I have started my recipe challenge and so far it has been delicious! I would LOVE to post about them but i can't find my camera cable anywhere, so once i find it i shall blog away!

At our church on sunday we had 'harvest thanksgiving' and many people brought gorgeous fruits and vegetables, Alex and I were lucky enough to take home a big bag of figs, a giant pumpkin and some aubergine! Yummm! I personally don't LOVE figs (like Alex does) but i enjoy dried figs so i though i would try poaching them and see what they taste like...yum! I made red wine poached figs (i'll post the recipe and photos soon) 

Dinner last night was pumpkin and peanut butter curry, it was inspired by a recipe somebody told me about but i changed it a fair bit. I don't think I've heard alex rave about food so much.

Menu for this week so far.

-Crunchy Eggplant with Spicy Sauce

-Creamy corn filled empanadas 

-Moroccan chick pea stew

-Pumpkin Risotto

-Homemade Ravioli

Yes, vegan ravioli (so excited)

oh and i'm about to start making some raspberry jelly cakes (pink lamingtons!) Woohoo, can't wait to properly blog to you all!

A dinner party for queens

So we have a new apartment and last night i had a dinner party for some of my girlies! 

the menu 

-sweet corn chowder 

-spinach canneloni w garlic bread 

-trifle! 

yum yum yum! 

the sweet corn chowder is something I've.never made but i used a recipe from my mums cookbook! i was worried about it tasting a bit like soy cos its a fairly creamy soup but it was divine! 

the canneloni was pretty straight forward but tasted yummo. my sister in law taught me how to make it- pre made canneloni tubes from the supermarket is the first step. then mix a soft tofu with a whole lot of spinach and some nutritional yeast, stock powder, pepper n salt to taste! fill canneloni tubes and put your fave pasta sauce on top with a bit of water in the bottom of a oven dish. cook in a moderate oven for about an hour then eat! yummy! 

the trifle is one of my favourite vegan things! i layer a homemade butter cake either jam then put a vegan red jelly on!(i use the cottees cold set jelly in port wine flavour). then put banana and homemade custard then my special family recipe of vegan cream!

My married mission

I got married on the 12th of march and it was amazing! loved every moment of it 

If you don't follow my blog it is www.wonderland-days.com

Anyway I have decided that because i am cooking dinner every night i should make it a bit of fun. Hence i propose a twist on 

the julie & Julia project! For those of you that have seen/heard 

about the movie/true story of a girl name Julie that decided she was going to cook every recipe from a Julia Child book, she blogged about the whole process and there was a movie made about it, i loved the movie and recommend it!

So my twist is to try 365 new recipes for the year starting on Monday the 28th of March, 2011. Now they will obviously be all vegan which should be a whole lot of fun! 

Here is my food wish list so far...

Corn Chowder - From the Skinny Bitch Cookbook

Coffee Date Cake with Coconut Irish Cream Sauce - The Conscious Cook 

Avocado & Coconut Icecream - TBA

Peanut Butter Ice cream!

Ravioli of some sort!

So yeah my list so far is more desserts than anything else but once i find some good vegan recipes everything will be alright!

wish me luck!

The Jam that changed my life

About 2 weeks ago my 2 lovely sisters Sharleen and Krystal and my super cute niece Justice went on an adventure day up to the Adelaide Hills, our 1st vegan stop was Bamboo Talk, its in Mt Barker (69 Gawler St) and we had AMAZING sushi, it had a faux tuna in it and we also had some other dishes like steam dumplings! yumm and i highly recommend going there!


Then we went to beerenberg farm and picked strawberries, it was truly awesome, you take a little basket and pick/eat as many strawberries you like and it costs $3! Then if you wanna take them home it was about $9 a kg! Awesome! I took a few photos on my Fuji Instax camera! 

Strawberries are pretty much natures candy, i highly recommend going out and actually picking your own strawberries, there is something about actually knowing what your eating.


Anyway back to the jam that changed my life... 


I love figs, they're gorgeous and just so packed full of flavour and i also love jam so when we went into the beerenberg store i was in jam heaven...I've always been very bias when it comes to Jam, my nanna's homemade raspberry jam is like nothing else and i rarely buy jam cos it just doesn't compare to the sweet tartness of homegrown and made jam! In beerenberg i found Fig & Cinnamon Jam!   It's amazing on scones and in pastries, i highly recommend it! yummo!

Banana Caramel Layer Cake

When i went vegan i was totally bummed that Banana Caramel Pie was going to be one of the things i missed, then my amazing sister in law told me she worked out how to make caramel vegan, i was so used to using caramel in a can that when i looked at a recipe my mum had in her cookbook it was easy! So it's a normal thing now days that i make a banana caramel cream pie, its delicious and i love it but the other day i was wanting something MORE than pie...something cakey but still banana and caramel! So here comes the idea for a banana flavoured cake with a caramel centre, although my photos do not do it justice one of the guests at the dinner party we attended said it 'changed her life'!

Absolute Delish!

Vegan Satay!

This is for Taygan, I have cooked this for you and I expect you to cook it lots when you leave me for Melbourne (also think of me when you eat it)

So this is one of my favourite easy meals...its fantastic and if you fill it full of veggies and rice it's a dream!

It serves about 4 people, depending on how hungry you really are!

1/2 Cup of Kecap Manis Soy Sauce

1/2 Cup of Sweet Chilli Sauce

1 Can of Coconut Cream

3 Tablespoons of Peanut Butter

A whole heap of veggies (I use onion, carrot, capsicum, potato, broccoli and cauliflower normally)

Enough rice for 4 people

So cook rice (i shouldn't need to explain this one) fry veggies. Mix the satay sauce ingredients together and add to veggies, mix well and heat until thick and awesomely yummy! See seriously easy and full of taste!

Enjoy! (i'll post a photo next time i eat it!)

Satay Dip

This dip was given to me by my brother and every time i make it people rave and practically lick the bowl, so this recipe is for all my bowl-licking friends out there!

The dip platter from my engagement party, the one on the bottom left is the satay dip! (white one is corn relish dip and other is pumpkin-macadamia dip)

1 Cup Water
4 Tablespoons of Crunchy Peanut Butter
2 Tablespoons of Soy sauce

2 Tablespoons of Sweet Chilli
1 Tablespoon of Brown Sugar

 Place all in one saucepan and boil until it is a dip thickness (Usually about 5 minutes) be careful as it tends to splash and it's super hot! Place in refrigerator until cold (usually requires a good stir before serving!)

Love to hear from you if you end up making this dip!

First Blog

Welcome fellow vegans and foodies! I love food, not just the eating but the preparation, the decoration and the joy on peoples faces when they taste something they love.

When I went vegan I rediscovered my passion for food, cooking became a challenge and an exciting adventure. Other vegans will agree that when you try something vegan and it tastes just like 'mum used to make' it's such a good feeling. I spend days reading cookbooks working out how to vegan-ise a recipe. I always assumed that going vegan would make me lose weight, well I was wrong I enjoy food but still feel super healthy and guilt free!