Happy Spring!

Or happy Easter, belated Ostara or just: a happy long weekend!
I'm looking forward to 4 days with no plans at all except for two nights at the theatre.
I can't seem to remember what the word "free time" means.

Thanks to y'all for the advise on the fish issue. I guess it's really an Omega 3/6 issue. To be honest, with all my nutrition research, I never paid attention to it properly.
(I wrote "y'all"... damn you Rachel!)

And no, of course I haven't been studying for my final exam in 4 weeks... actually, I don't care much about my grade - work reference and my English exam is much more important and those are both ace (the latter because I'm going to write it myself probably) :)

I have been busy helping out a friend who has been diagnosed with acute leukemia. I shouldn't let myself get dragged down by this, but it's really tough. Doctors say he'll be all right, but it is awkward to see someone who used to be the most energetic and sporty person I know suffering through chemotherapy.

Anyway, to the food - my camera isn't actually broken; I assume my rechargeable batteries have come to the end of their recharging life.

A couple of days ago I finally made Pasta Alla California from V-con. Why didn't I make this earlier? It's got pasta, wine, rocket and broccoli... well I guess I had to make friends with avocado first.
This was an awesome salad including tomatoes, mango, avocado (again!), pea sprouts, cilantro and a lime-soy sauce dressing. It was awesome and the picture sadly doesn't do it any justice.


Three weeks ago, I visited Azumi in Fulda and we had a taco night... now is there a trick how to eat taco shells in a not messy way?

taco supplies!


Anyway, I'm planning to do some Easter baking tomorrow. I plan on making hot cross buns (how I miss them!) and maybe a German hefezopf (tribute to Grandmother). Also, it's Anne's bday tomorrow and I offered bake something for her when she gets back to work on Wednesday.

Has anybody got any suggestions what to bake including nuts or chocolate and fruit (that's what she suggested)? Any new recipes in blogland that I might have missed?

Rainy, but still a quite Good Friday

Happy Easter to all of you who celebrate, and a lovely long weekend for all the others!
I hope it's less rainy where you are as I was woken by a thunderstorm in the morning and is has been pouring ever since.

This comes as no surprise at all... why should the weather be good for a change when I've got a week off work?

Anyhow, I don't celebrate Easter, but there's one thing I miss about England and especially since I've gone vegan... Hot Cross Buns :)
I mixed two recipes I found online and modified them to my liking (I think candied fruit peel is icky):

• 350g /12oz white flour
  
• 5ml/1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 5ml/1 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 1 sachet yeast
• 25g/1oz sugar
• 75g/3oz raisins
  
• finely grated lemon peel of one lemon
  
• 75g/3oz vegan margarine, melted
• 175ml/6floz soy milk, warmed

for the crosses:

• 50g/2oz flour
• 25g vegan margarine
• some water (very little!)
  

Glaze

• 25g/1oz sugar
• 30ml water

1. Stir the yeast into the soy milk.
2. In a seperate bowl, combine all the dry ingredients and make a mould.
3. Pour in the milk mixture as well as the margarine. Knead for about 5 minutes until you've got a soft, buttery dough. Cover with a clean dish towel and let rise in a warm place for 1-2 hrs.
4. In the meantime, mix sugar and water for the glaze and make the crosses by adding only a few drops of water (you really don't need more) to the margerine and flour and knead it into a dough. Roll bits of the dough into very fine sausage-shapes. Two of these will be combined for the crosses.
5. When the dough has doubled, form it into buns, place on a prepared baking sheet and let them rise some 20 minutes more.
6. Before baking, first glaze the buns and then add the crosses.
7. Bake for 20 mins at 180° C and be careful that the crosses don't turn brown.

These are traditionally eaten on Good Friday, but are far too good to be eaten on only one day.
Plus, there super easy and use ingredients you probably all have on hand. They turn out more rustic-looking than the Tesco/Sainsbury/whatever bought variety, but were approved of by my English friends.

Thanks to Maki's tutorial, I also made hot no-cross bunnies which were inhaled by the kids ^^
(this is also the reason why I only managed to take a shot of the less prettier looking ones... though be careful when using raisins for the eyes... some kinda exploded XD)

I have lots and lots and lots of pictures to share and stories to tell and recipes to type and all sorts of stuff that I didn't have the time for in the last couple of weeks, so stay tuned.

But one more thing for today... yesterday I received a lovely letter and lots of kawaii stuff from Roberta that reminded me of her "Pay it forward" game that I participated in, and what could be a better day for presents than today?

These are the rules (shamelessly copied):
"Pay it forward"

1) the first 3 people who will leave a comment on this post will receive a present handmade by me within the next 365 days (I'm thinking of something food-related here, I guess..)
2) you have to "pay", doing the same thing on your blog;
3) I will send the present just to those who will post this on their blog.

No animals for Easter!

No food today. Instead, I'd like to draw your awereness to something else... as the holidays are approaching, countless parents suddenly think that giving their kids an animal as a Easter present without looking into what a bunny really needs is a good idea.

A huge number of those animals- mainly rabbits, but also other rodents or small animals- is dumped somewhere or given to animal shelters by the beginning of the summer holidays at the latest.

In between, single animals are crammed into small cages, fed unsuitable food and never let out of their cages unless for the kids to squeeze them.

I'm not saying that kids shouldn't have pets. Though I am totally pro-AR and all, I don't think pets are a bad idea, if they are taken proper care of and are not bought at a pet shop or something.

There are plenty of homeless animals in animal shelters or at private organisations that are kind enough to take care of them, no need to buy them like a bar of chocolate or support breeders.

If you'd like your children to have a pet, talk to them about it first. Then, you can give them a book or a stuffed toy or some pet supplies as a present.

But by all means, please don't support the habit of treating animals, no matter how cute and cuddly and simple they may seem, like toys.