🗁Added 7 photos to album Life in Fife, 2024.
The Edinburgh fireworks visible from my beach at midnight. Fireworks were going off all along the coast on both sides of the Forth, quite apocalyptically.
Posts between 2024/01 and 2024/02 (20 out of 20)
- Worked every day, which was a bit much. Lots of meetings. Too much co-op, too little time.
- Did a Mental Health First Aiders course, thanks to Greener Kirkcaldy, which was really good.
- Made raspberry coconut tart at the Community Kitchen, and chocolate hazelnut cupcakes at home.
- Mostly braw but freezing days, interspersed with flurries of snow.
- Swam in the sea twice.
- Went to Burntisland for an afternoon.
- Found out that the vegan cafe isn't reopening after the winter break, which is very sad. Started contemplating upending my life to open a cafe again. Advice from the people who were running it, and other small business owners in the vicinity, is "don't."
- Planted tomatoes, chillis, aubergine, pumpkin and squash, after taking every precaution I can think of against fungus gnats.
- Caught up with a friend I haven't seen for ages who is.. opening a new cafe this week. At least I have somewhere to go to immediately replace Kangus.
- Went to Edinburgh for the co-op CoGM, then to Mum's, then to Manchester for a day.
- Started and finished The Galaxy, and the Ground Within.
- 350g plain flour + 1.5tsp baking powder + 0.5tps bicarb + cinnamon + nutmeg + ginger
- 250ml almond rooibos (I'd normally use oat milk here, but had none) + 1tbsp vinegar + vanilla extract
- Started and finished This is how we lose the Time War.
- Went to London for the TAG face-to-face which was very positive and productive. Spent more time in The City than I think I have before. Ate some excessively expensive food. Took the sleeper home on Burns night, and they kindly provided a bagpiper.
- Got home to find the tomatoes and pumpkins have sprouted and the sea is where I left it.
- Made a surprisingly successful cake.
- Found out another beloved local-but-not-local-enough-to-go-regularly cafe, with excellent vegan options, the Old Barn in Auchtermuchty, has closed :(
- Survived a week with only a 'work' laptop.
🗁Added 15 photos to album Life in Fife, 2024.
The year is off to a good start, sunrise-wise.
🗁Added 25 photos to album Life in Fife, 2024.
H and J came for a visit. They sent their Lake District weather on ahead - as soon as they left their house it started drizzling. That didn't stop us from helping K with roof-related tasks, or going for a swim in waves that are far too big for me to brave on my own. J spent several hours making gnocchi, and we wanted the new Indiana Jones movie. We also had brunch at Roots & Seeds.
🗁Added 11 photos to album Homemade food.
Courgette choc chip cake in the Community Kitchen. I actually got to stay and eat it this time - they served portions double the size I would've, with cream! It was great.
Pumpkin gnocchi made by J and H on their visit. Also a pizza by me, because I was gifted some Violife (homemade seitan pepperoni, still fine in the freezer!).
🗁Added 24 photos to album Life in Fife, 2024.
As soon as H left the skies cleared and it was gorgeous again, if a bit frosty.
🗁Added 4 photos to album Stuff I made.
Primulas in my foodpath garden are doing well despite it being frosty. I tidied up all of the old remains of veg plants, and it's looking better..
🗁Added 6 photos to album Homemade food.
Coconut raspberry tart with a shortbread crust at the Community Kitchen. Choc hazelnut coconut cupcakes at home, for sharing.
🗁Added 11 photos to album Stuff I grow.
Planted several varieties of tomato and chillis, aubergine, pumpkin, butternut squash. Covered them in clingfilm in a desperate attempt to deter the remaining fungus gnats from moving in.
Diego2 has produced a teeny tiny flower.
🗁Added 46 photos to album Life in Fife, 2024.
A week of brilliant pink skies, mornings and evenings. Cold and bright. Ever the looming threat of snow.
Week in review: 8th - 14th January
Post created with https://apps.rhiaro.co.uk/no-ceremonies-are-necessary
🗁Added 24 photos to album Life in Fife, 2024.
🗁Added 19 photos to album Edinburgh 2024.
Two days in Edinburgh for co-op time. Lots of post-its; food from Green Bite, Soul Vegan, BBL.
Week in review: 15th - 21st January
Post created with https://apps.rhiaro.co.uk/no-ceremonies-are-necessary
🗁Added 14 photos to album Misc visits.
A long weekend at Mum's, with woodland walks to The Ramblers. A day trip to Manchester to see some more of the co-op gang for curry and milkshakes. And rail replacement buses.
🗁Added 58 photos to album London, Jan 2024.
Three days in The City for TAG f2f. Views of shiny buildings from the Apple office. Lots of coffee and fancy food. Pizza at Purezza with MW before the Caledonian Sleeper home. There were bagpipes, because it was Burns Night.
🗁Added 4 photos to album Stuff I grow.
Tomatoes and pumpkins sprouted. No chillis, aubergine or squash yet.
🗁Added 9 photos to album Life in Fife, 2024.
🗁Added 2 photos to album Homemade food.
Remember the buttercream disaster of a few weeks ago? I've had tubs of too-runny orange buttercream sitting around in the fridge ever since. I don't have anything like enough of a sweet tooth to want to lather it onto everything. Finally I figured that since many cake recipes start with creaming butter and sugar, why not give the buttercream a whirl in its place?
I vaguely recalled that the ratio of flour to butter+sugar should be about 1:1, though obviously I didn't know what the sugar to butter ratio in the buttercream was. So I put together (everything approx):
I mixed the wet and the dry into the buttercream bit by bit, until a cake batter of a sensible consistency formed. I stirred in raisins and mixed peel, then baked it for about 40 mins at 160c.
The result was amazing! The cake has a perfect crumb, the spices and orange flavour come through nicely, and it has an undertone of creaminess that really surprises me. It doesn't look like much, but it turned out so much better than expected.
Week in review: 22nd - 28th January
Post created with https://apps.rhiaro.co.uk/no-ceremonies-are-necessary
🗁Added 3 photos to album Homemade food.
The menu said lemon meringue, but we had no cream of tartar, so I settled for lemon tart with a biscuit crust. The non-vegans got regular meringue that had been donated crushed up on top of theirs.
