Cooking With Dia

Ever wonder what to do with left over mashed potatoes? Well, instead of just bonging them in the microwave, why not make some potato cakes? You can put whatever you want in them really, and it takes about 10 minutes from start to finish. It’s a great way to fry up a quick snack that is tasty!

Hi guys and gals! Sorry I haven’t posted in a while, been dealing with complications associated with my brain shunt. I have been meaning to post a blog about growing your own veg, since that’s what I have been doing all spring and summer! What a great experience it has been, and today I bring [...]

href=”http://diadesigns.com/blog12/2010/06/14/glutenfreechoccake/” title=”Gluten Free and Vegan Chocolate Cake by diadesigns, on Flickr”>This is for all of my fellow hydrocephalus and arachnoid cyst sufferers who have to deal with a shunt on a daily basis. My fellow shuntees, I give you this cake, I hope it can help ease some of the pain you go through and distract you from the endless rattling, buzzing and overall annoying noises your shunt is making today. Whether it is overdraining or underdraining, shunt malfunction can be an absolute nightmare, and no one quite understands unless they have one.

I apologize for the two month delay in posts. On April 5 Arachnoid Cyst Awareness received its 1,000th signature on the Arachnoid Cyst Petition, and since then we have written a letter to the World Health Organization to ask for their help in setting up a worldwide protocol for people with arachnoid cysts who go ignored by their doctors. We’ve been campaigning hard to raise more awareness, and that’s largely where my time has been spent. But I do have a quick and easy recipe for you today. What inspired me to do it was a neighbor who told me she hated Doves Farm Gluten Free Flour products. I couldn’t believe it, and wanted to prove that they have some of the best stuff around.

I’ve been enjoying my purple sprouting broccoli arriving fresh every week from Abel&Cole. I encourage all of you to take advantage of this fine vegetable while it is still in season. Boiled, steamed or sauteed, purple sprouting broccoli makes a fine side dish, but here are two recipes where it takes center stage. Both are Gluten free and vegan.

Today is Shrove’s Tuesday AKA Pancake Day! Woot! Woot! Who doesn’t love pancakes? You? Then this post isn’t for you sweetie pie. In case you have no idea why the British gorge themselves on pancakes today of all days–Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday AKA the day you have to stop eating fun things, so in Sweden it is “Pastry Day”, in America it is “Fat Tuesday” (they couldn’t decide on just one food) and here it is “Pancake Day”. The idea is to eat as much of the one food you love the day before you have to give it up for Lent. That’s your Theology lesson for the day from Miss Dia.

Who loves bread and butter pudding? Who hasn’t been able to eat it since becoming vegan? Who hasn’t been able to eat it since starting the gluten free diet? Would you believe me if I told you this pudding could be good for you?
Did you know you could make banana marmalade? OK, I will stop asking questions.

Tomorrow night is Burns Night, and many a Scot will be sitting down for a Burns Night Supper to celebrate the birthday of poet, Robert Burns. Traditionally a Burns night supper consists of cock-a-leekie soup, haggis and tatties and then either clootie dumpling or tipsy laird to close the meal. But I’ve changed that all around and upside down to suit me and my vegan and gluten free friends.

A few days ago I made about 4 lbs of strawberry jam. It wasn’t meant to be that much originally, but as the kind grocer gave me 2 boxes of free strawberries, I thought, “Why not make a big ol bunch of jam?” I have been having crumpet after crumpet with this wonderful strawberry jam spread on top, but wanted another way to showcase it. What better way than to make a Victoria Sponge Cake, or as some call it, Victoria Sandwich.

If you are like me, you are constantly trying to veganize dishes you remember from your pre-vegan life. I for one have been obsessing on how to make the perfect vegan mozzarella. I’m pleased to say I’ve finally cracked the code, and managed to make a ball of vegan mozzarella, and I will be sharing that recipe with you soon. While obsessing on things like that, I forgot that the best part of being vegan is staring right in front of me-All the wonderful fruit and veg I get every week. So, today it’s back to basics with this very simple spicy risotto. If you’ve never made risotto before, this is a good starter recipe, and then as you get more confident, you can add whatever you like to it.

I wanted to do something for Hogmanay because the Scottish over here are the most like Philadelphians as far as I can see. In Philadelphia New Year’s Day is a huge celebration, in fact even more so than Christmas. Philadelphia has the Mummers Parade, which I grew up with. It is a day long celebration that goes late into the night. It starts out in South Philly with the Comics and String Bands and ends in Center City with the Fancy Brigade competition. People don’t realize that this Mummers Parade is serious business! The different bands and brigades work on their routines and costumes for an entire year–everything has to be perfect

If you are a new visitor to my blog, you may think this is a candy blog! I’ve been doing a lot of candy making this past week because I think it’s important to get all of the gift ideas out of the way before it gets too close to Christmas. I promise I will start posting proper dishes soon. This recipe is probably the easiest so far. They are getting easier and easier, but that’s because at this point all of you are cooking your arses off. On the seventh day of Christmas Dia brings to you her Giant Figgy Pudding Truffles!

I had so much fun making this today, and it is something that is extremely simple to put together in a few minutes. In England we have something called Christmas Pudding, Christmas Cake and so on. What these Christmas desserts consist of are a variety of dried fruits and nuts. I thought, “Wouldn’t it be fun to make a candy that used the same idea?” On the Fifth Day of Christmas Dia brings to you her Vegan Christmas Fudge.

*Totally Vegan and Gluten Free
If anyone is looking for a last minute gift idea, this is most definitely it. Not only is it delicious, but it only takes minutes to make–In the microwave and all! Are you gasping? Isn’t it brilliant? It takes about 10 minutes to prepare and make and another 15-30 minutes for it to cool. If you want to impress friends and family with boxes of homemade candy, be sure to give this recipe a go. On the fourth day of Christmas Dia gives to you her Cinnamon and Peanut Brittle.

I am going to be posting 12 recipes for Christmas, all vegan and all scrumptalicious. I am a big Christmas person, some may find us Christmas people extremely annoying, but I LOVE CHRISTMAS.

Thanksgiving naturally reminds the vast majority of Americans of Turkey. For many vegans, Tofurky has become a popular favorite on the holiday, but if you are like me: vegan, American and don’t like tofu, what in the world are you going to eat?
I’ve put together some suggestions for an all vegan Thanksgiving.
Starters:

I [...]

Last night I was thinking of possible dishes for an all vegan Thanksgiving, and then suddenly remembered Halloween was coming up. I miss Halloween, it isn’t something wonderfully celebrated here in the UK…

You can’t get much better than this–pancakes with jam. Of course you can use any jam, but as it is the middle of the Victoria Plum season, better to take advantage of this delicious fruit.

This soup is nice, thick and spicy, but not too rich. I would suggest serving it in small soup bowls as an appetizer rather than bigger portions for a main course. I chose to slow cook mine over 4 hours, but you don’t have to wait that long! I just find it tastes better if [...]

Today was very exciting to put it lightly. What an adventure I had with my three little dogs and mate. We piled into the car and drove down to a Pick Your Own Farm because I was dying to pick some fresh Squash–I heard this place had three different varieties and I couldn’t wait to arrive. There was a set back along the way. The car overheated and started bubbling water. That didn’t stop us however, and we continued the further 40 miles down to the farm.