Recipe: Baba Ghanoush

This garlic-y aubergine dish is one of my personal favourites, and I make it regularly. It makes an amazing dip or spread, and I often use it on veggie patties. It can also be served as part of a mezze platter with olives, pita, fresh veg, hummus etc. Here's the Wikipedia entry for it, for those of you who are interested in the background of their food :)

Ingredients
4 tbsp tahini (mine is store-bought, but it is possible to make your own, something I wish to try someday)
1 large aubergine (or two smallish ones)
4 cloves of garlic, mashed
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cumin
4 tbsp lemon juice, more to taste
dash of olive oil
salt and pepper

Method
1. Prick aubergine skin all over with a fork. Place in oven, pre-heated to 220 degrees Celsius, and roast for about 40 minutes, until the aubergine is soft.
2. Allow the aubergine to cool. Once it's cool, cut it open and remove the pulp, discarding the skin. VARIATION: once out of pure laziness, i just cut the aubergine into chunks into my food processor, skin and all. It yields a more stodgy, less fluffy result, but since I mostly use it in wraps or as a topping, I decided I preferred it that way).
3. Place the pulp in a food processor with the the ingredients and process until smooth.
4. Check for seasoning, adding more lemon juice or tahini as required (I've found some variation in different brands of tahini and not all lemons are equally sour).

Voila! It really is very easy. I prefer it when it's still slightly warm, but other people feel it's best served after a few hours of refrigeration.

Finished a project (finally)

The Cthulhu backpack I made for my friend Ian is finally complete! Unfortunately I didn't take a picture (st00pid me) but Ian swears to send some of him and Cthulhu in action :D

That sounds a bit dodgier than it is... a bit of backstory may be required...

My friend Ian and I started running together a few years back, and due to him being more dedicated than I, he has gone from strength to strength with it, and has now been running some marathons. He asked me (quite a while ago) to manufacture a Cthulhu for him, which he can wear on his back with the Cthulhu peering over his shoulder when he runs, particularly runs he just does for fun.

Making the Cthulhu was quite a challenge for me, as big plushies are not really my forte. The harnass was tricky too, but hopefully it will hold *fingers crossed*. If it doesn't, I will just have to make a new plan :)

Hopefully I will have pictures soon!

Song of the Morning

Miraculously, the song stuck in my head this morning is ACTUALLY polyrhythmic and something I enjoy :D

Backbone by Gojira

Wow that's a lot of public holidays

This long weekend has primarily been spent in bed crocheting, or sewing the Cthulhu plushie for my friend. The crochet has mostly been me working on an original pattern for little bunny amigurumi :D (Easter and the accompanying sugar rush may have gone to my head...). I'm really very excited about the pattern, because I have literally a squillion ideas for what kind of themed bunnies I want to make with it ^_^ Hopefully pictures will be posted soon...

But before I give too much away, I'll tell you about the other thing I'm very excited about. A friend of mine told me about a restaurant in Muizenberg called Closer, which I would very very much like to go to. There aren't a lot of designated vegan (or even vegetarian) restaurants in South Africa that I'm aware of, so hearing of a good one is very exciting! Though, it occurs to me that I should probably do more research into the matter before making such sweeping statements -_-".

But... SO MUCH TO BE EXCITED ABOUT :D *bounces around*

P.S. I've had a LOT of sugar

Killer rabbits and other Easter joy

OMIGOD WANT!! http://bit.ly/UKMCd Get me one for Easter, please? I should probably make something inspired by this...

Star Wars amigurumi

Browsing the net (I'm really not getting any work done) I found this link to Star Wars amigurumi! How cool? And the google image search for amigurumi is dangerous... my brain nearly imploded from the cute...

Song of the Morning and work avoidance behaviour

Song of the morning: Body Crumbles by Dry Cell from the Queen of the Damned OST.

Other than that, I spent the afternoon yesterday studiously avoiding my assignment (due for this afternoon... I have yet to start) in favour of working on a Cthulhu plushie for a friend of mine. Good to see I have my priorities straight :D

Song of the Morning etc

So this morning was a combination of misc songs from Dr Horrible's Singalong Blog. Which is not a bad start to the morning at all :)

Furthermore, I managed to make some progress on the Totoro amigurimi, but my attention span was hijacked by inspiration for some embroidery and felt badges, and the fairly pressing fact that a friend of mine will be down from overseas soon, and I owe him a Cthulhu plushie which I have yet to start *sigh*. Fortunately there's a long weekend coming up, so I have at least SOME opportunity to craft, in between hunting for Easter eggs! ^_^

As a very joyous aside, I found some plastic Easter eggs at some of my local stores (one set of which are shaped like DINOSAUR HEADS- how cool?) filled with vegan-friendly sweets. This makes me a very happy camper.

Teddy Bear Natural History

Whilst browsing the internet like it's my job today, I found some pics of needle-felted bear skulls. Intrigued, I followed the link to this website.

I really am absolutely amazed. Stephanie Metz is a sculptor, and her needle-felting work is both innovative and thought-provoking. No, really. My two personal favourites are the Teddy Bear Natural History and Overbred Animals collections. Both of these collections are commentaries on bioengineering (particularly of animals for human use) and human conceit. This isn't limited to just food animals, but pets as well.The jarring imagery she uses definitely takes a very harsh look at human-centric behaviour and the food industry.

I find this particularly amazing because I am both a genetics student and a crafter, and aside from the quality of her work, I love the fact that she has used a medium I generally associate with purely frivolous crafts to get her opinion across.

I'm not really being excessively eloquent here. Though if you follow the links her work speaks for itself, and I think that the broad scope of the commentary means that it's relevant to everyone, not just veg*ns.

DISCLAIMER: Rights to the above images belong to Stephanie Meitz, and are reproduced here without permission, but with respect.

PS: w00t for teddy-bear skulls! (sorry, it had to be said)

Song of the morning

This morning is a combination of "Hell to the No" from the Glee soundtrack (judge me not) and a friend of mine's re-imagining of "Baby Got Back" by Sir Mix-A-Lot: "I like goth chicks and I cannot lie..." etc. If I can gain said friend's permission, I'll post the lyrics as he sees them. I infinitely prefer his version.

I also feel the need to point out that the songs I wake up with are in no way representative of my actual music taste... I think it's mostly a case of my groggy brain being unable to entertain me with anything more than "Happy Birthday to You" or "Twinkle Twinkle" (two common sinners) so very bright and early in the morning.

Promises, promises...

In an attempt to remind myself of what I want to post, and out of an inability to leave my new toy alone, I have compiled a brief list of projects I am working on and favourite recipes that I wish to share.

Recipes

• Baba ganoush
• Hummus
• Chickpea patties

Crafts

• Black steampunk gloves
• Totoro amigurumi (made from the free pattern designed by Heavens_Hellcat)
• Cthulhu amigurumi
• Zombie-Killer t-shirt dress
• Shoulder Cthulhu (don't ask... all will be explained and revealed).

As you can see, I suffer from a short attention span, so things tend to happen at once.

This list reminds me of the fact that I need to make a disclaimer: I will only be posting patterns or recipes which I created (should I feel inclined to do so); however, I will be posting pictures of the results of recipes or patterns designed by other people, and credit them. Obviously.

Vegan Zombie

I lol'd at this. :) Thanks Gabs!

Song of the Morning

This will hopefully become a standard thing, as every morning I wake up with a song in my head.

The Dickies- Banana Splits

First Post (TM): What the heck is this blog?

As my highly unoriginal, but very accurate, post title may have indicated, I felt that this post should seek to define what I'm hoping to achieve with this blog, and to introduce myself. The stiff and formal tone of this post may also indicate that I'm not entirely sure how to go about it... *deep breath*

Essentially, I'm a slightly crafts-obsesses student, with a passion for cooking. I'm hoping to show off the things I make, get inspiration and share my recipes (as well as some of my abysmal cooking failures...).

My passion for cooking arose more as a personal challenge and general pig-headedness on my part... I want to make food that is both inexpensive and delicious but also fits in with my requirements of any given food. Well, I'm not sure how to present this to you without my readership (current number= 0) going "ew" and running away, never to look at my blog again. I may as well come out and say it... vegan.

Phew. That was hard :) Now, please don't stop reading. I have no intention to turn my lovely future blog preachy or dull, but instead fill it with noms that people of all culinary persuasions would happily eat. I also hope to suggest variations on my recipes for people who eat a wider range of food groups than I do :D

So that's me and the blog, but who is it aimed at?
-Crafters
-Anyone with food allergies, vegans, vegetarians, omnivores, people keeping kosher...
-People who cook for them
-People who eat
-Poor students
-People who read my blog because they love me (Hi Mom!)

I'm also trying to get a grip on the controls for Blogger, and hopefully soon my post will be pretty too :D

Yours in noms
Mekhetling