It's Christmas time in the city

The idea of a Christmas advent activity each day is not exactly a new idea, the first time I tried do it was when one year I was able to be home everyday in December rather than off at boarding school. My little brother had just turned five and to keep him entertained each day I planned a Christmas activity with him, weather it be making reindeer out of pot's and storing Christmas sweets in them or making giant chocolate Christmas trees as hard as I tried I just wasn't able to pull it off for the whole 25 day's. So three year's later when I found myself reading this article by Gala Darling I was convinced I'd try again this year with Jake once we had moved into our new apartment. So instead of the traditional twenty-four day countdown we had a nineteen-day countdown starting last night after we had finished unpacking all our things. 

When were in New York we had gone to urban outfitters and picked up this tree, it's also the tree at the top of this post. The design comes from the Snoopy cartoon series and although it comes with a single red bauble we couldn’t help but also get this super cute Jeff Koons inspired metal balloon dog to hang on our tree too. Because of the small amount of needles on this tree putting our fairy lights on wasn't really an option so instead we have them slinking up the wall behind and with the fairy lights on at night with all the other lights off it's quite magical.

We were both really in the Christmas mood last night as it was freezing outside with rain pelting down, somewhat reminiscent of my childhood in England, which is also the reason I possibly still don't like having hot Christmas’s it just feels wrong to not be wrapped up with the heating on. But nevertheless we took advantage of this Christmas spirit and hung candy canes and baubles around our wee flat, however with what we did later I don't see the candy canes lasting long!

Have you ever tried the peppermint hot chocolates Starbucks releases each Christmas? Well if you haven’t they are super yummy and you definitely should however it's in nine at night and pouring with rain And you don't live in a city that's open late then you should try this it's really just as good if not better because you can just keep making them. The cups are really huge so we used two heaped teaspoons of Cadbury Drinking Chocolate with brown sugar and added a candy cane to give it that delicious peppermint infused taste. Then cuddle up in you jammie's and snuggle down to watch a good movie, ah bliss.

Lot's of Love

              Audrey Megan

Soup for one

OK so it's a week later and I still haven't finished that pumpkin and I had a heap of silken tofu left from the pumpkin pie. So, what with it being quite cold I decided to branch out and make up my own soup recipe, and nom nom nom, it was tasty! Please excuse the somewhat terrible photo and try it out. I call it my:

Vegan Fridge Soup

Makes around 3-4 servings.

1 Tbsp. Red Onion

3 Tbsps. Olive Oil

150g Silken Tofu

1-2 Tsp. Oregano

2 Tsp. Ground Coriander

2 Tsp. Ground Black Peppercorns

1 Tsp. Salt

230g Pumpkin

3 Tbsps. Tomato Paste

1 Vegetable Stock Cube

1 1/2 Cups Water

1 1/2 Teaspoons Arrowroot

Method:

Peel and cut the pumpkin into 3cm cubes and steam in the microwave on high for 6 minutes. While the pumpkin is steaming, Sauté the red onion in half of the olive oil. While the pumpkin is steaming, cube the red onion and slice the tofu carefully into strips. Sauté both the red onion and the tofu in the oil with the salt, pepper, coriander, and oregano.

Mix the arrowroot in a cup with about a tablespoon of water until free of lumps.

When the pumpkin's relatively soft mash well. Then add the water, tomato paste, pumpkin and arrowroot mixture to the tofu and onion. Crumbling the stock cube into the mixture.

Stir well until boiling, and add more arrowroot/water mixture if the soup isn't yet thick enough.

Serve with toast and dairy-free margarine.

Luckily, as I made this just for me I still have a lot left over for lunch or dinner tomorrow, and I defiantly recommend trying it. And I promise that it's not just because I made it!!

Lots of Love

              Audrey Megan