Agar Agar Prints

Today I would like to share a recent crafty discovery of mine - Gelli Printing or you could also call it monoprinting with a gelli plate. That means that you need a special printing plate for this technique, which you could buy not quite on the same cheap side here or better make your own one. I found this recipe online and being a vegan I find the idea of gelatine very repulsive and substituted it with the same amount of agar agar (which is an algae) which worked out great.

There is so much room for experimentation with gelli printing.

And I have just started - 

there really is an addictive factor in it.

The girls find it fun too and like watching and assisting.

 

These prints will come in very handy soon.

Green Beans

This year's unexpected harvest from Hubby's herb garden.

Looks like beans. Tastes like beans.

Red

 Oh yeah, we could harvest our first red tomato before our vacation starts.

And there are more to come:

Will there be some tomatoes left for us

when we come back?

Green or Red?

Hubby's first gardening attempt at tomatoes is looking very promising.

The question is now,

will they turn red before our vacation?

Speaking of green and red,

here comes Christmas in July:

Beginning of the Blues

No, I am not sad. Quite the opposite. I am actually very happy, because the blueberry self-picking season has started this week. We have discovered a blueberry farm last year and this year the blueberries have grown even bigger there (as have the girls).

 Hello fresh blueberries galore, smoothies and muffins!

Hubby cooks vegan

What looks like hodgepodge ...

 ... is actually called Spartan Millet Mediterranean.

From German vegan sensation Attila Hildmann's book "Vegan for Fit".

A huge portion for hungry ancient warriors and 

with some more tomato paste, salt and cumin quite edible.

Another meal, another Hildmann recipe, another grain -

popped Amaranth for breakfast:

... also with raspberries, soy joghurt, rosted coconut flakes

and way too much agave syrup.

Hubby put so much effort in making this for breakfast for Clara and himself

and even Clara found it much too sweet.

You can find both recipes (and some more) here.

Hubby's Veggie Garden 2.0

Hubby's garden activities started later then intended this year, 

but now they are taking form:

Zucchini, pumpkin and self-sown potatoes from last year.

A new addition:

 tomatoes

... and built just yesterday:

a herb garden

with rosemary, oregano, thyme, parsley, cilantro, chives, ruccola

and a bean plant.

We'll see what this season brings!

Hubby cooks vegan

Hubby's weekly vegan cooking has lost its pace recently,

but he has cooked this lentil stew twice in May:

It's the thick lentil soup from "Peace Food".

(German recipe here)

The soup is one of Clara's favourites,

she eats bowl after bowl of it.

To fire up Hubby's vegan cooking again,

he wished for this book for his birthday:

The German edition of the Forks over Knives resipe book

The documentary about the positive impact of a plant-based diet is well worth watching, and now I am looking forward to all those new meals that will come out of this book (browsing through it was appetizing, and cooking without oils sounds adventurous too).

Hubby cooks vegan

It's been over a month
since I last blogged about Hubby's culinary endeavours. 

But even if I didn't blog, Hubby did cook - 

from his growing stack of staple recipes: 

he did the scrambled (v)eggs and pizza and tortillas.

And today we cooked together:

Season's Special

You don't really need a recipe for this, 

but you need to know the timing
for the potatoes and the asparagus.

Hubby peeled the potatoes

and I dished out advice.

PS: The brat is vegan.

Pink Moments of the Week

 Here come our Pink Moments of Paris:

at Montmartre

not far from the hotel

Flamingo Chinese cedar

at Parc Floral

a tulip which name and colour resonated with me

40 000 tulips were blooming in the park

at Cité des Sciences

 at Centre Pompidou

How pink can you get?
 

glace framboise

 on our last day it got so warm and sunny
I even got an upper lip sunburn (red, not pink)

Hubby took loads of pictures

and didn't cook vegan

but invited nearly every night 

for dinner at this superauthentic Indian and Sri Lankan restaurant.

At night we could nearly forget where we were:

But then,

we remembered:

Summer Knitting

What happened to that green thing that I wanted to knit for spring? Better not talk about it... Green wool will also look pretty under the Christmas tree, I tell myself.

Oh yes, spring is here, it feels like summer is around the corner sometimes, so let's move on to another New Year Knitting resolution (here) ... a white summer sweater.

Cotton feels much better in this weather. And this vegan life of mine has more and more problems with wool.

That's what I found in a bag, in a box, in my studio. A tunic started in the summer of 2010, with a back and a nearly-done-front. No sleeves. I might have liked this leafy pattern four years ago, but I know myself and my knitting possibilities at the moment - I will never be able to knit two sleeves following this lacy pattern. I need mindless-mama-knitting. Frog-frog, rip-rip, that means. A blank slate for a new pattern.

Hubby cooks vegan

When I came back from a morning yoga class the other day, I was met by three lovely people being busy in the kitchen.

"What are you cooking?" - Pancakes!!!!!!!!!

A request from the girls,

Hubby found this German vegan pancake recipe online

(and used water instead of apple juice).

But where did Hubby go?

Clara cooks vegan.

Very good.

Hubby cooks vegan

Hubby was a little behind in his cooking, I gently nudged him.

I could choose a new recipe from "Peace Food".

Something quick, on a busy weekday evening.

And so the man, who really loves eating soup,

cooked the first soup of his life himself.

Pea Soup

Made from frozen peas, with a hint of fresh thyme.

Light, hearty and elegant.

Even without garlic and the white wine

we omitted.

Good stuff, Hubby!