More Ink!

Yup, he's done it again. Joe Deegan has exceeded all expectations and given me a bitchin' new tattoo! A very rare Welsh bird of prey called a Red Kite, with some daffodils and a pink ribbon. It's in memory of my mother and also a symbol of my nationality. I love it!

For those who haven't heard of them before: Red Kites are pretty awesome birds. There are breeding centres for them in the part of Wales where I am from, where there are now 600 breeding pairs. However at one time they were so rare that the entire population of Red Kites was down to just a few pairs and came from one single female bird! These birds have a wingspan of 5 and a half feet would you believe it... that's taller than me! 

Joe and I ate the yummy vegan croissants I made... and I forgot to take a photo! Oh well, I'll just have to go buy more pastry won't I? ;-) 

Aside from this, not a great deal has happened lately. Gerry is thankfully the coolest and most laid-back pup known to the history of dogkind, so the fireworks at Halloween didn't bother him one bit. In fact, it was me that was freaking out in the garden when on the phone to my dad and a few dozen fireworks suddenly went off over my house and rockets started landing on the patio!! The only time Gerry lifted his head was when he saw a beagle on the telly. And that was for about all of 10 seconds. I was quite shocked at how many dogs I saw wandering on the local green with no owners in sight, being left alone to sniff at burning bonfires and trot up to kids with fireworks. There were dozens of dogs barking like crazy, you'd think their owners would have the sense to bring them inside tonight.

My father also came to stay for a few days and even though Dublin had some pretty bad flooding we still managed to get out and do a few things like visit the Japanese Gardens at Kildare National Stud, go out for nice vegan food at Delhi O'Deli in town and Bits'n'Pizzas in Dun Laoghaire, and just generally mooch around and go to a few galleries and drink mojitos. It was a nice relaxing visit.

In other news, I have been made redundant so I have to look for a new job. Whoop-de-doo. Not really looking forward to that. I hate starting afresh. Luckily I kinda saw it coming so I'm quite prepared and not really very phased by it at all. Hopefully I'll be sorted with something by the new year.

Here's a few pics I've taken recently of random goings on :)

Wonderful vintage lighthouse necklace I got the other day.

The Japanese Gardens at Kildare National Stud - so beautiful.

Chilli Corn Soup, a veganised Jamie Oliver recipe, I'll post it up soon.























Gerry out on a walk early one morning.























Autumn leaves.

Remember Logan?

Do you remember Stretch? The little lurcher I rescued?

Well here are some more recent photos! He is now called Logan (Logi for short) and was transported from the rescue centre last month over to the UK by Erin Hounds. He was fostered by a lovely girl who I befriended on Facebook and who posted up these beautiful pictures of him. He looks so much better now and is really coming out of his shell, wanting to play with toys and always running over for a cuddle.

Logi is still looking for his forever home and a soft couch to sleep on and call his own... so if you would like to adopt him or know of someone who's looking for a new friend to share their home with, then get in touch with Erin Hounds today - his rescue information and more photos can be found here.

CROISSANTS!

I was just catching up reading through friends' recent posts, and I came across this entry over at Blueberries' blog about Jus-Rol's vegan home-bake croissants.

I love croissants. I think I could happily live off croissants and only croissants for the rest of my life - so finding out that you can make your own vegan croissants so easily has just totally blown my mind! And putting Spar's own vegan version of nutella inside would make them even more mind-blowing!

I am going to try this very soon and I'll post all about it here. This better not be a let-down. I am already salivating and dribbling all over my keyboard as I type. I am just SO excited.

Delphi Delights

I really love Delphi but have not been able to find a website for them, which is odd seeing as they make so many delicious products. I have tried everything from their fake chicken pieces to their stuffed vine leaves, and have enjoyed them all. I was in Field & Vine today in Rathmines Upper and came across this - their Avocado & Houmous dip:

I am going to try it tonight spread on some bread with some salad. I can't wait to see what it tastes like as I'm a big fan of avocados but it is very rare to find ready-made guacamole which is vegan, and being a big fan of houmous too I think I really can't go wrong with this! I also feel a homemade experiment coming on... Houmous is so easy to make and I've tried making beetroot, red pepper and of course original recipe houmous in the past. I think I should start getting more creative!

It's Just Food...

There's a company that have recently come to my attention called JUST FOOD, who's soups and salads have been popping up lately in Supervalu and Superquinn. They are a 100% organic food company who were established in 2004 by Deirdre Hilliard who began selling her homemade food on a stall at the Midleton Farmers Market in Cork. Since then she has expanded her company, but still believes in cooking fine quality food in small batches from her commercial kitchen in Cobh.

I decided to try a couple of their products as they are currently on offer for €2 in Supervalu. The Spicy Lentil soup and the Moroccan Chickpea soup are both vegan and the ingredients lists are very impressive indeed. There's absolutely nothing artificial in there at all, and everything is organic, right down to the very tiniest ingredient. Yes, even the seasoning and oil are all organic.

The Spicy Lentil soup is probably one of the nicest soups I've ever tasted. If you like curry, you're going to love this. And it is literally packed full of puy lentils. The Moroccan Chickpea was blander and more tomatoey but you could still taste how good and fresh it was. I popped some chana massala spice in there for a bit of an extra kick, because I just love spicy food.

I think I'm going to be buying the whole of Supervalu's stock of the Lentil soup while they are on offer because they are so handy for work. I think I could even make it quite easily myself, so I'm going to give it a go in the near future.

Yummy Gummies!

How glad am I to see GOODY GOOD STUFF sweets in Holland & Barrett!

This company sells sweets with no gelatin, no dairy, no artificial colours, no gluten... and they are fat free! All of their sweets are vegetarian, and a lot of varieties are also vegan. These are the vegan ones - take a look!

Fizzy Cola Bottles
Summer Peaches
Sour Fruit Salad

Holland and Barrett also now have a Reward Card. You can collect 4 points for every €1 you spend, so sign up today and get 150 points free! I just registered to create an online account so will be sent one in the post. You can also sign up for one at any H&B store.