Flash

I love this photo, for no specific reason.  I took this photo of a tree in my front garden, using an iPhone flash, a couple nights ago. No filters, no nuttin'.  I love it, though.  Something about the texture, I guess.

On a Quiet Autumn Evening

This was taken last week in The Vines, a park in Rochester, Kent, UK.

Vegan Hazelnut Whiskey Pumpkin Cheesecake Pie

'Nuff said.

Carving Pumpkins, 2012

Vegan & Gluten-Free Green Potato Soup

I absolutely love making soups.  They're generally easy, generally quick, and almost always delicious!  The only problem with soups, really, is that they're such an autumnal food, especially the potato-based varieties.  I was determined to create a scrummy summer potato soup, though, so this is my easy-peasy recipe for the world's best Green Potato Soup:

Fill a stock pot about a third of the way with diced potatoes. Continue to add a large yellow onion, 2 leeks, a whole head of broccoli, and 6 garlic cloves, all diced.  Fill the stockpot the rest of the way with water, and bring to a boil.

While the soup is boiling, add two vegetable stock cubes, a tablespoon of cumin, a tablespoon of smoked paprika, and salt and pepper to taste.

Once everything is boiled to a tender state, take off the heat and blend until smooth.  Then put the pot back on the stove and stir in about 2 cups of frozen spinach and re-heat.  After serving, garnish with fresh thyme, chives, green onions, and vegan bacon bits.  Lovely, summery, and fresh!

Rochester Castle is Loving The Warm Weather

I must say, Rochester Castle is looking resplendent these days!  Doesn't look a year older than 1,000!

Garden Chandelier

I love the summer!  Once the days start growing longer and the weather cheers up, I'm always motivated to start tackling more DIY projects.  I had set up a white tent in the backyard to work as a kind of makeshift gazebo a couple months ago, and last year I upcycled a lovely old table and chairs and cabinet underneath to create a mini outdoor living space.  What this seating area really needed, though, was PIZAZZ.  And lighting.  But mostly pizazz.

As I was researching how to make beautiful but inexpensive garden lighting, I happened to stumble across an old hanging flower basket in the garage, and I got an idea.  The end result is in the picture above, but I'll give you a quick walk-through:

Step 1:  Get a hanging flower basket like this:

Step 2:  Get some ribbon like this:

YOU WILL NEED A LOT OF RIBBON.  Granted, I had a pretty large hanging basket, but I must have used about 60 yards of ribbon, and I could have easily added even more.  I also picked a specific colour pallet, using pinks, purples, and greens, but you could totally do this with whatever scraps of ribbon or material you have laying around.

Step 3:  Cut your ribbon into strips.  You will need a lot of strips, and I recommend making them different sizes.

Step 4:  Tie your many strips of ribbon onto the hanging flower basket.  This is super easy, but tedious.  I put all the short strips near the top and all the longest strips at the very bottom, to give it a real "chandelier" look.  It's so pretty when the long strips flutter in the breeze!  You could always do the opposite, though, and put the longest strips around the edges to give the chandelier a flat bottom, which would probably look equally cool.  Either way, just keep tying them on until you run out of ribbon.  Trust me, you'll need way more strips than you think you will!  You could also add beads or prisms or anything else that you might have lying around that could survive the weather.

Step 5: Put a plate (preferably clear glass) into the bottom of the basket, to give a sturdy and flat platform to put your candles on.  You can never be too safe with candles, so don't skimp on the size of the plate.  You will want it to sit about halfway down the basket, and you want it to be as sturdy as possible.

Step 6: Attach fire-resistant metal line to the top of the hanging basket in at least 3 places to be able to hang the chandelier securely and evenly.  You don't want it flipping in the wind or coming undone!  I left my chandelier on quite a long line, which I then ran through the frame of the gazebo, so I could easily lower or raise it when needed.

Step 7:  Put a jar or two (or three, depending on the size of the chandelier) on the plate, and put your candles in the jars.  Then raise your chandelier to an appropriate and safe height, and secure.  When night comes, light 'em up!

I hope you liked this little tutorial, and if anyone makes one, I'd love to see it!  Just email a pic to JuliaDDrake@gmail.com.

The World's Best (vegan) Citrus Cake!

This cake is so refreshing in the summer, and so easy to make!  I've simply tweaked a pre-packaged Lemon Drizzle Cake mix, and turned it into more of a Citrus Upside-down cake.  Can't go wrong!

The mix I used was from Asda, but you could use any pre-packaged lemon cake mix.  The original instructions called for it to be baked in two 8-inch cake tins, and it came with a lemon butter-cream frosting mix that you're supposed to whip up and then put in-between the two cakes to make a kind of a sandwich.  But I had better ideas.

First, I took one 10-inch spring-form cake tin and oiled it really well.  Then I cut out a piece of wax paper to fit exactly on the bottom (just trace the base of the tin), and stuck it on the bottom.  I then opened up one can of grapefruit slices and one can of mandarin oranges, and artfully arranged them, fan-like, covering the bottom of the tin.  You can't really see the design in the picture, but you will be able to see it in person so make sure you make it look pretty!

The next step is quite simple; follow the directions on the cake-mix box!  To make this cake vegan, I substituted egg replacer for the eggs, and added a little bit more than usual to help soak up the extra juice from the added citrus fruit.  Once assembled, pour the cake mix into the cake tin, over the beautifully-arranged fruit, and stick in the oven.   I followed the baking instructions on the box, but added about 5-10 minutes to account for the added size of the cake (one 10-inch instead of two 8-inch).  Just keep an eye on it, basically.  This cake will be so moist it will be hard to overcook it!

While the cake was baking away, I used some of the leftover grapefruit juice and about two cups of brown sugar to make a caramel glaze.  Click here to learn how to make caramel.

The cake mix I bought also came with a lemon butter-cream frosting mix, which was essentially a sachet of lemony, sugary powder.  Instead of mixing it with butter, as instructed, I mixed it with vegan (soy) butter, and it turned out looking and tasting exactly as it should have.  It was a straight 1:1 substitution.

Once the cake was finished baking and cooled down, I flipped it over onto a large plate and opened the spring-form tin, so the bottom of the tin was now resting on the top of the cake.  As there was a layer of wax paper in between, I could easily prise off the cake-tin-bottom. I then peeled off the wax paper to uncover the beautiful citrus fruit design now embedded in the top of the cake, and then poured the caramel over the entire cake.

Once the caramel had cooled and hardened into a thin layer coating the whole cake, I used the rest of my tinned citrus to make a pretty design on the top, and piped on the "butter"cream frosting.

I'll tell you what - a big slice of this with a tall glass of iced tea on a summer day, and the world couldn't get any better.

The World's Best Salmon Salad!

I plan on eating this one all summer!  It's a bit like a Salade Nicoise, but of course with salmon.

The trick to this salad recipe is getting the salmon just right; grilled when possible, and definitely not overdone.  If anything, I buy really good quality fish and oftentimes err on the side of underdone, but of course, please be super careful and don't serve it raw.  The salmon should be grilled with only a bit of salt and pepper, and should be served as warm chunks on the salad, not as a piping-hot slab.

The salad itself is fairly straight-forward.  The leaves are rocket, spinach, and other baby greens, and I really don't recommend using iceberg or other bland lettuce; you will need the sharpness of the leaves to contrast with the other ingredients.  To make the salad you will need to mix in grilled asparagus, barely-boiled green beans, diced tomatoes, green and black olives, boiled and quartered new potatoes, and wedges of cucumber.  You could also add a hard-boiled egg to the salad, if you eat eggs.

The dressing is very simple: cut up one shallot and mix into a small amount of olive oil, salt and pepper.  Then toss the salad in the dressing, add the salmon on top, and voilà!  A simple and stunning salmon salad.  Serve with warm garlic breadsticks to really put the "yum" in "yummy"!

Delicious Summer Recipes

The world's best gazpacho.  Seriously.  This will feed about 4.

Start by blending the following ingredients until smooth:
3 cups diced tomato
1 red onion
8 large cloves of garlic
2 slices of bread
1 cup of malt vinegar
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 T paprika
1 T cumin

Then mix in:
2 cups diced tomato
1 1/2 cup diced cucumber
1 can butter beans
2/3 cup canned corn
2 finely chopped chillies
1 diced red pepper
salt and pepper to taste

Garnish with:
1/4 of an avocado, diced, per person
chopped cilantro, to taste
chopped green onion, to taste
fresh-squeezed lime juice and cracked pepper

World's best Summer Salmon.  Awesome served with the gazpacho posted above, and super-easy to make!

Grill or pan-fry a piece of fresh salmon with a Cajun seasoning (chilli, garlic, paprika, cumin, pepper).

Serve crispy-skin-up on a bed of cumin rice.  The cumin rice is just boiled white rice mixed with olive oil, cumin, and salt.

Serve with diced avocado, cilantro, cracked pepper, and fresh lime.  Dust with paprika for added flavour and prettyness :)

Temporary Bluewater Moonscapes

I was out back at Bluewater a couple days ago, when I came across a surreal landscape interrupting the walkway.  It appeared to be a mound of boulders at first sight, but then, curiously, turned out to be styrofoam. I made an inquiry and found out that it was actually the famous Bluewater climbing wall, all disassembled and being tossed out.

The Mystery of (The Making Of) Edwin Drood

As many people in the UK may have seen, the BBC aired a 2-part made-for-TV movie this week, entitled The Mystery Of Edwin Drood.  This was the last book that ol' Chuck Dickens ever got around to writing, although he couldn't be bothered to finish it (I kid!  I  kid!  He had a stroke and died.)

Anyway, the BBC decided to film the 2-part mini-series in Rochester, as that's where the book was set, and I happened to stumble upon several days of the filming around town.  Although they shot most of the dramatisation in the Cathedral, they also used lots of other locations around town, including Prior's Gate (what you see in the shot above).  The only problem with Prior's Gate?  Well, it doesn't actually have a gate.  Technically, It should be renamed "Prior's Oversized Outdoor Granite Doorway", but I suppose that's another matter.

Anyway, the lack of a gate at Prior's Gate seemed to have posed quite a problem for the BBC team, as it would have rendered a pub and some electric street lamps (as well as cars, motorcycles, me, etc...) visible in the background of many of its shots.  So what to do?  Why, build a plywood gate top, drop some black sheeting, and tie some bushes to a table, of course!  And the effect was magical:



If you look closely you can probably see me wandering around in the background taking photos.

What a Beautiful Day in Rochester

It was such a beautiful day today in Rochester, hardly believable that it's mid-January!  I took the dog on a really long walk around town, and we stopped down at the docks for a bit.  The sun was throwing some long shadows, and the playfulness of the light was palpable.  I'm sure there will be some more photos to follow.

Photo taken January 11th, 2012, in Rochester, Kent, UK.