Arborio Rice & Chickpea Cream

Rice Ingredients (Serves 4)

- wholemeal Arborio rice (4 handfuls / person)
- salt
- olive oil
- fresh parsley

Procedure:

Cook the rice as per the instructions on the box. When the rice is ready, let it rest for five minutes by covering the pot with a lid, and then add the olive and fresh parsley leaves, which you will have previously washed and prepared.

THE ART OF COOKING RICE
Never mix the rice when it’s cooking: the cooked grains will automatically rise to the top when they are ready, allowing the less cooked ones to go to the bottom. Interfering in this process by mixing the rice will actually spoil its very autonomous and intelligent cooking procedure!
Never drain rice: do wash it before cooking by rinsing it a few times in a sieve. Put the exact amount of water needed for cooking, and let the rice absorb this water. Should the rice require more water, boil some water separately and add that water to the pot (never add cold water). It does take some practice to get the right amount of water first off, but you will get it eventually!


Chickpea Cream Ingredients (Serves 4)

- 200g chickpea flakes (you can find them in health-food stores and some specialized super-markets)
- 3 ripe tomatoes
- ½ a leek
- a chunk of fresh ginger
- chilly
- herbal salt
- olive oil
- juice of half a lemon


Procedure:

Chop up the leek as well as the fresh tomatoes. Heat some olive oil in a pot, and then add the leek to stir fry slightly. Then add the tomatoes, the chick-peak flakes, and cover with water. When the water starts to boil, add the herbal salt, chilly, and the ginger. The chickpea flakes only take about 15 minutes to cook, so when they look nice and soft, process all the ingredients with a hand-held food blender until it has reached a creamy consistency. If it seems too runny to you, you can keep it cooking until the excess water evaporates; if, on the other hand, it seems too thick, you can add some boiling hot water until it reaches the desired consistency.

For a tangy swing, drizzle some fresh lemon juice on your chickpea cream once you’ve served it on the plate. Lemon juice, and hence Vitamin C, is an essential element in iron absorption, so it’s especially important to combine it (in whatever form you should choose) with your legume dishes.

Pumpkin Boats

Ingredients:

- 1 whole pumpkin
- 1 large zucchini
- ½ a leek
- ½ a large eggplant
- a large piece of fresh ginger
- fresh sage leaves
- olive oil
- salt (herbal salt is preferable)
- chili powder (as per one’s taste)

Procedure:

Cut the pumpkin into slices and remove the seeds leaving the skin on. Place them in an oven dish and bake in the oven at 180oC until soft.
In the mean time, cut the zucchini and eggplant into very small cubes, as well as the leek and the sage leaves. Heat some olive oil in a pan, and then lightly stir-fry the sage leaves and leek – when golden, add the zucchini, and then the eggplant. Remember when stir-frying vegetables: if you cook the vegetables at a high heat, they will retain the water and remain crunchier. If you instead cook them at a lower heat, they will go mushy and lose a lot of their taste. Add the herbal salt, fresh ginger (which you will have cut up into small pieces), and chili powder.
Simply place the vegetables onto each pumpkin slice, pressing them slightly down into the pumpkin. Replace them in the oven for another 15 minutes, and then ENJOY!

ENJOY: from the French “en joie”, literally “in joy”: pumpkin is a very joyful vegetable with its vibrant orange color. It is truly a gift of nature, especially as the season gets colder; you want to boost your body up with orange foods! Pumpkins are rich in antioxidants and beta-carotene, which will strengthen your immune system. Beta-carotene converts to Vitamin A and helps reduce the risk of cancer and other dangerous diseases.
IN JOY! For body, mind, and soul.

Broccoli Kamut Pasta

I just love broccoli! And I love Kamut! So here's the two in divine culinary union.

I must admit that when I hold a broccoli branch (is that how you'd call it?), I feel like a bride holding a bouquet....should a sweet prince ever greet me with a broccoli bouquet I'd be flattered (and taken aback by such original creativity!)

Ingredients

(these quantities are roughly for 1 person....use your instinct)

- 1 medium-small broccoli head

- 80g (?) of kamut pasta (you can of course use any pasta for this dish, but kamut pasta has a wonderful taste and is nutritionally much richer than other types of pasta)

- herbal salt (or normal salt)

- chilli powder

- olive oil

Prepare the broccoli into bite-size pieces. I like to use the "trunk" as well - you just need to cut off the hard green exterior and use the middle bit, which is light in color.

Bring to the boil a pot of water, and then place both pasta and broccoli in together. After roughly 10 minutes (check cooking time on the packet of pasta), drain off the water, replace the pasta and broccoli in the pot, add olive oil, a bit of herbal salt, a dash of chilli powder...mix mix mix....this gets the broccoli nice and....mmmm...spread out. Serve! I find this dish really heart warming, especially on a cold winter's day.

Red Quinoa, Radicchio, and Baked Vegetables

Ingredients:

- red quinoa

- radicchio

- season vegetables (I used eggplant, pumpkin, red pepper, leek, zucchini, fresh ginger)

- fresh sage leaves

- olive oil

- salt

- curry powder (optional)

- any other spices you may like: chilli, turmeric

Prepare the quinoa following the instructions on the packet. Red quinoa is very tasty, so depending on your taste you can add a little salt if you like. A drop of olive oil is always good. Once cooked, you can give the quinoa a nice shape by putting it into a small bowl and then tipping it onto a plate (if you do want to do this, the quinoa is the first thing you have to put on the plate...).

Prepare the vegetables into chunky chunks, preheat oven to 180C. In the meantime, place the sage leaves into a blender with some salt and whatever spice tickles your fancy, and olive oil. Make it quite runny so that you can mix the vegetables with it in a bowl, and then place them in the oven dish for baking. You can also add other herbs to this if you like, such a as rosemary, origano, parsley. I'm not sure how long the vegetables took to cook....you can tell by looking at them!

In a separate dish, place the radicchio which you will have washed and cut into four. Simply place in the oven with a little olive oil and top. They don't take long to cook, so just keep an eye on them.

Enjoy!

Post Scriptum: there is another green preparation on the plate in the photo: I won't put the recipe for that because I added burnt sesame seeds.....eeewh.....a flop!

Hearty Quinoa and Pumpkin Soup

Here's a very easy and warming soup recipe for you:

Ingredients:

- 500g pumpkin

- 1 courgette/zucchini

- 1/2 leek

- 70g quinoa

- 30-40g fresh ginger

- 50g sunflower seeds

- a bunch of fresh sage leaves

- salt and spices to taste

- olive oil

Procedure

Prepare the vegetables into small cubes...because it's nice to eat tidily. I really don't like it when you get those soups (which do taste nice) but that have HUGE pieces of cabbage that splash all the way across your face and down your chin. It's hard to be lady-like. This is my capricorn coming out. I'm very precise with cutting my vegetables.

Heat some olive oil in a pot and add the leek and sage leaves. Add the sunflower seeds so that they may toast in the oil as well. Wait until the sage leaves have literally cooked in the oil, and the leek is golden brown.

Add the rest of the vegetables and cover with water. Bring to the boil, add salt and whatever spices you like (I personally like turmeric and a little chilli powder, especially for heating up if it's a cold winter's night).

In the mean time prepare the fresh ginger by cutting it into small small pieces. Once the soup has cooked (check the pumpkin, and you will know when it's ready), add the ginger, cover the pot with a lid, and just let it brew for another ten minutes.

It is then ready!

Finished Stairs!

The stairs are indeed finished....finally! One of them is a bit mucked up (hadn't made the right consistency of cement), but the rest are nice....and they give you a nice massage as you walk on them. Check here for how to do it yourself.

Apple and Chestnut Cake

Since I had a lot of studying to do, I thought I'd bake a cake instead. Following past baking disasters, I think I've almost reached a state of bakery enlightenment...as the great philosophers say, "You bake, you learn". This is a wonderful autumn recipe (I'm only saying this because it's autumn now....but I'm sure I'll bake it in the other seasons as well).

Ingredients

- 100g wholemeal spelt flour

- 100g Maizena (maize/corn starch)

- 50g Chestnut flour

- 100g brown sugar

- a teaspoon of Cremor Tartar (or yeast equilivalent)

- 100g raisins

- 50g chopped walnuts

- 1 apple, peeled and cut into small pieces

- cinnamon and nutmeg (to your heart's desire)

- 3 tablespoons of maize/corn oil (or olive oil)

- roughly 230 ml water

Procedure

Preheat oven to 180C. Mix together all the dry ingredients, and then add the oil and water. Mix....the mixture should be runny enough to just be poured into the baking tray. Remember to grease the baking tray before-hand.

Bake for 50min-1hour without opening the oven, then check with a knife if the inside is cooked. Cooking times always vary, depending on the oven, how big your baking tray is...follow your instinct, listen to the voice inside your head. It's the baking angel talking.

If it is cooked, turn the oven off, leave the cake to rest for 10 minutes, and then pull it out to cool on a baking tray (take it out of the tray or it will "sweat" all the steam out and remain soggy on the bottom!).

Once cooled, have a taste, and if it's friends-worthy have a tea party!

Green Soup

I've been asked to post some soup recipes, so let's start with an extremely simple and quick recipe. This soup is good if you want to have a very light meal, or if you want to accompany a more important meal with some soup. It's heating...and it's green!

Ingredients (for 2):

- olive oil
- fresh ginger
- 2 big courgettes/zucchini
- half a leak
- a bunch of turnip leaves
- salt to taste
- water

Equipment:
- a hand-held food blender

Heat some olive oil in a pot and add the leek to stir fry. Then add the chopped courgettes and the washed turnip leaves. You can leave it all in big chunks. Add the water, pinch of salt, and ginger (which you will have cut into smaller bits - the amount of ginger is up to you, I like to put quite a bit in because I love the taste and it is especially good in winter for building up the immune system. It also has very heating qualities). Bring to the boil, and when the courgettes are soft (after about 10-15 min), turn the flame off and blend it.

Told you it was easy! If you really want to show off you can toast some sunflower seeds and sprinkle them on top.

Simple Biscuits

These biscuits really are simple to make. I can give you rough guidelines as to quantities...as usual I just estimate the amounts, hoping it turns out.

Ingredients:

- 100 g of jaggery gour (this is the unrefined sugar that you will find in Indian shops or International Supermarkets). If you can't find it you could try replacing it with dark sugar or maybe Maple Syrup (remember that honey goes toxic when heated, and I've also heard some controversial stories about Agave....)

- 50 g of small oat flakes

- spelt flour: I didn't use much at all, and I guess it can pretty much be replaced with plain flour as well.

- olive oil

- a handful of raisins

- a teaspoon of ginger powder

- a teaspoon of cinnamon powder

- some tepid water

Preheat oven to 180 degress Celsius.

In a pot, place some olive oil and then add the oat flakes and jaggery gour. Keep stirring to get the gour to melt (it usually comes in hard balls). Add some water if necessary, and keep mixing so that it doesn't burn. Once it has all melted and mixed with the oats, place in a bowl and start adding a bit of flour.....sorry! I really don't know how much I used, but not much at all! Probably half a cup. Add some more olive oil and a little bit of water. Mix it all with a wooden spoon until it's a nice ball. You should be able to pick the "dough" up in your hand without it sticking to your fingers.

Make little balls and flatten them between your hands to get biscuit shaped shapes....and then place in the oven. They take roughtly half an hour to cook, just keep an eye on them, and when they look golden brown pull them out of the oven to cool.

I just tasted one and they're lovely because they're not too sweet at all.

I'm not a builder, but....

We've been doing work in the house....well, we've paid someone to do work in the house, i.e. paint walls, build cupboards, drill things into the walls.

There's one little project, however, which I started working on yesterday evening, and am slowly moving ahead with it -- and I would like to share it with you for this reason:

If you have a set of stairs (of similar structure to mine) that you would like to personalise, OR you need to cover the steps but are reluctant to paying out loads of money for materials and for someone to do the work for you, then here's the solution. And this is obviously just one of the many options, but it gives you the right idea of how it can be done. As I said in the title, I am not a builder....this should be an encouragement to all!

Ingredients:

- white cement

- glass pebbles, stones, mosaic pieces...whatever tickles your fancy!

As you can see in the photo I've done alternate steps for now, but the effect is very pretty, and much nicer than the ugly lynoleum. I'm waiting for these steps to dry to then do the rest of the steps.

Again, I am not at all experienced with cement or any such material, so it really is a fluke that they've turned out like this. If you're an expert, you won't need me to tell you (as I have learned) that the consistency needs to be smooth, but not too runny. If it's too watery then you'll get little bubbles in the cement, even when it dries, and this makes it less compact....mmm....I have one "bad step"....we'll see what happens.

I'll be back with some recipes shortly! Autumn is a great season, and some of my favorite vegetables are coming soon!

...I'm back!....

It's been a long summer of silence....a summer that has extended into a very warm and sunny September.
There have been some sad goodbyes this summer: the Stevia plants, which were growing at an amazing speed, didn't survive the summer heat (or was it maybe my absence?), and have returned to Stevia heaven. My gorgeous chilli plant, which had given its first fruit at the beginning of the summer, is now no more than a long-lost memory.
My two basil plants, amorously sharing a single vase, are alive and well...but no longer with me! They are three floors up, at a lady's house - she kindly agreed to look after some of the herbs while I was away, and has now indirectly made us understand that we won't be getting them back.
On a more positive note, we do have some new additions: loads of origano, a gorgeously chirpy mint plant, another positively sturdy rosemary, and Jasmine (without "the" in front, as it's her name) being quite the show-off and stretching her bright green branches to distant corners of the terrace. Definitely the princess of the castle.

Other summer news is that I've become very good at badly playing the guitar, and that I'm joining belly dancing classes, which I would suggest to all (women), young and not-so-young. If you need to strengthen your back and increase mobility in your hips, then I'd say belly dancing is perfect....with Yoga of course ;)

I'll be back on soon with some new recipes! In the mean time, keep smiling!

Vegetable "Lasagna"

This very simple dish manifested on the evening of my mother's birthday: I made another more elaborate "lasagna" for the rest of us, but since my mother is intollerant to almost everything I had to think of something "mummy-friendly".

Ingredients:

- aubergine (eggplant)

- potatoes

- rocket

- salt (I used herb salt)

- paprika

- origano

- olive oil

Quantities obviously depend on how many people you are preparing it for. I have made this dish twice, the first time was very thin, the second I added an extra layer of potatoes, and I must say it's better in the thinner version (more delicate). If you do want to add extra layers, I would suggest using the aubergine....or cutting the potato very very finely!

Preparation:

Prepare the aubergine and potatoes into thin slices, and chop up the rocket leaves (if you don't have rocket, red lettuce will do the trick wonderfully! I can't think of the name now...in italian it's "radicchio"). Turn the oven on: 180C.

Before starting the layering, grease the oven dish with some olive oil. Place the layer of potatoes, then sprinkle some herbal salt, paprika, and origano leaves (dried or fresh), and another drizzle of olive oil. Place the rocket leaves (put loads on! Don't worry, even if they look a lot, they will lose all their water and shrivel down to almost nothing!), and then the layer of aubergine (you can overlap the aubergines as they cook quickly...I put a couple of layers as the last layer), and sprinkle some olive oil, paprika and salt.

Place in the oven until cooked....mmm....30 minutes? 40 minutes? You can tell.....check that the potatoes are cooked.

The photo I put is of the second time I prepared it, when it was a bit thicker. The first time round I actually turned the whole dish over, so that the potatoes were on top....looked good.

It's a really simple dish to prepare and the good thing is that you don't need to cook the vegetables before-hand. An extra note: I used the light colored aubergine in this dish, the round type. They're much better as they seem to remain more intact and more delicate than the darker longer type. You could also try adding zucchini (courgettes) to the dish....they would go really well! They'd be extra delicious if you grilled them first, which would make the whole preparation a bit longer....but if you have the time and heart to do it, then why not!

I will put the recipe for the other more elaborate version shortly....it's delicious!!!

Teeth and No Tears

I was sitting in a park yesterday elegantly enjoying my ice-cream, when I bit upon an especially crunchy piece of....piece of what? Was it a cone? Was it a hazelnut? NO! It was my tooth! Shiver quiver....I get chills down my spine at the mere thought of it! It wasn't my real tooth, but that famous piece of resin that acted as a replacement tooth after my fall in Ecuador (see the Teeth and Tears post for the full story).
This time I didn't shed a tear, nor did I experience any sort of emotion. I was actually on my way to the cinema and just thought I'd go to the movies and think about my half-tooth later on. I even took a photo of myself, mainly for the thrill I will get in seing my sister's look of horror when I show it to her.
My aunt had the good sense to tell me to call the dentist, who only had a free appointment next week OR within 15 minutes....so we jump into a taxi and rush off to the dentist! (missed out on the movie). One hour later I walked out with a "new" tooth, much better than the last job he'd done at sticking on my Ecuadorian piece of tooth (because I threw that one in the bin...I hope! I have a slight doubt I may have swallowed it). Point is I didn't bother looking for it...it's time was most definitely up.

Anyway, various things happened at the dentist, mainly regarding realisations about today's society: the main conclusion is that we have to become "everything-ologists". Let me explain: it's as though people do the bear minimum, minimum effort for (let's be truthful) extremely mediocre results. If, for example, you happen to break a tooth (and this is just an example), and your dentists works away at it for an hour and then asks you to look at it, do not think you're wrong in seing that he has done a very mediocre job, and DO direct him in his craft.
If, for example, you happen to break a tooth (and this is just an example), and you notice a little porosity where he (or she) has just been working, don't hesitate to ask him what (on earth!) it is....he may just fix it!...and in the end feel really happy about the job he's done. Well, good for him.

I hope you've managed to read between the lines.

As my philosophy teacher in India used to say, modern-day society produces INSTRUMENTS: a million knives, a million forks, a million torches, a million lawyers, etcetera, etcetera....A lawyer is no grander in scope than a knife is at doing its job. So if and when we choose to put ourselves in the hands of instruments, I wouldn't do it with the blind faith and surrender that our grandparents may have had. An instrument must be put to good use. We must somehow become "everything-ologists", and develop at least a questioning power - not to become doubtful and overquestioning cynical meanies, but to have the awareness that instruments will, if allowed, do the bear minimum.

Chocolate-chip Muffins!

Today is the first day of a new era: no more amateur baking, no more guessing amounts - this time I followed the recipe, for real. And I finally got a good result! I even went out and bought scales: past baking nightmares have taught me that "more or less" doesn't quite work.

I got this recipe for Chocolate-Chip Muffins from Vera's blog, they're really easy to make and if you follow the recipe you will get nice soft muffins. If I got them, then you will too because I am far from having the baking finger.

I picked out the best ones for the picture up above...ha ha! But this is what the rest of them looked like! Lesson learnt. Do not overfill the muffin cups. I used paper muffin cups because I refuse to use alluminium in my kitchen. The alluminium ones are sturdier, but since we're on our way to a generally healthier life, let's steer well away from using it! The paper ones work fine but, as I just mentioned, be careful not to overfill them, or your muffins will look more like...run-away muffins. Or overly-affectionate muffins, trying to get close to the other muffins and coming together in some bakery version of holy matrimony.
If they do turn out like this, we may then adopt the philosophy of not judging a book by its cover, and that should have you covered.

Ingredients:

- 300 g flour "00"

- 50 g potato starch

- 1/2 packet of cremor tartar

- 100 g cane sugar

- 300 ml of rice/soya milk

- 5 teaspoons maize oil

- 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate soda

- 1 tablespoon of apple vinegar (or white wine vinegar)

- chocolate drops (as many as you like!)

Turn on oven to 170 degrees. Sieve the dry ingredients and mix them together: flour, potato starch, cremor tartar, sugar, bicarbonate soda. Pour in the wet ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon, and then add the vinegar and chocolate drops. Fill your muffin cups to 3/4....or a little less. I thought I'd filled mine up 3/4 - I should maybe reconsider my understanding of "three quarters".

Place in oven for 30 minutes, then check with a knife/stick: if they're dry, turn the oven off and let them rest for a few minutes, and then pull them out to cool.

And since you've gone to all this effort, you may as well taste one! Mmmmm....I've already eaten two. Insatiable....I'm going back for more!

Nutty-Choco "Ice-Cream"

I'll blame the summer mood for this excessive production of cold desserts - I don't know if anyone's been experimenting with the frozen banana-base, but I certainly have! And here's today's result. Scrumcious! Quite moossey as well.

Ingredients:

- 2 frozen bananas

- handful of almonds

- handful of walnuts

- handful of hazelnuts

- 3 pitted dates

- Agave syrup

- bitter cocoa powder

- for extra naughtiness: dark chocolate (without milk powder to maintain the dessert vegan)

- a liquid base: can be grape juice if you want to keep it gluten-free, or rice/almond/soya milk.

The procedure is always the same: peel the bananas and place them in plastic wrap in the freezer for about three hours or until frozen. In the mean time, soak the nuts in the juice or milk for the same amount of time.

Once the bananas are frozen, cut them up and place them in a food processor with the rest of the ingredients. I didn't really measure: I guess a couple of tablespoons of cocoa powder, plus a little more for good luck. Agave syrup....mmm....I just put it in. You don't need much: the bananas and dates are already sweet, but a little syrup is good to contrast the bitter cocoa powder. Add the rest of the ingredients and start woozzing...oh! Also MUST add (before woozzing) about half a cup of juice/"milk" - this is always to save your blender, and to give the ice-cream a smooth consistency.

Don't forget the extra touch! Dark chocolate: cut it up a bit before hand and then give it a last woozz once the whole thing has already reached a smooth consistency.

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised with the result! Might be nice to sprinkle some coconut flakes on top at the end...or not. May as well be 100% decadent while you're at it!

Strawberry Sorbet!

You must all prepare this, you will be shocked by the smooth consistency of this sorbet! And all without an ice-cream machine!

(Sorry about the photo...I was blinded by the sun - and yes, I take all my photos on the same table..haha!)


Ingredients:

- 2 ripe bananas
- a punnet of strawberries
- Agave: about half a small cup?
- either juice (apple or grape), or rice milk

Peel the bananas, wrap them up in glad wrap and place in the freezer. Wash the strawberries, take the green part off and freeze them as well (place them in a plastic tupplewear container).

After about 3 hours, the fruits will be frozen: cup up the banana into chunks and place in a food processor. Start off with a just a bit of banana and a bit of strawberries....they're frozen so you don't want to destroy your food processor or its blade. Add the juice/rice milk straight away, and start blending. As you see that it gains a smooth cremy consistency, slowly add the fruit that was left out, as well as the Agave.

Isn't it amazing? Mine has quite a fizzy flavor...I think it's the strawberries that did it. You can add or diminish Agave quantities depending on how sweet you like it....but don't ruin it with sugar!


Serving Suggestions: if you're preparing it for friends, try and prepare it almost on the spot - I've placed mine in the freezer, but I'm pretty sure it will turn into a frozen block of sorbet. So better to prepare and consume immediately! (or place it in the fridge if it's going to be consumed within a short time after preparation).

Frozen Avocado Cake

What a find! I was browsing through the net for some raw recipes, and this is what I tumbled on. It's really easy to make, and the taste is not bad either!

Ingredients:

- 1 ripe avocado
- 1/4 cup of coconut oil
- 1 tablespoon of lime juice
- 1 tablespoon of Agave

Crust: 1 part nuts, 1 part dates.

Firstly place the pitted dates and whatever nuts you like into the food-processor, to get them nicely chopped. Then place the lot into a plastic container (you're going to have to put it in the freezer, so avoid glass). Press it down evenly with a spoon.

Process the avocado with the rest of the ingredients until all the avocado has "creamyfied", and then put it on top of the "crust" part. Place a lid on the plastic tin (I used a plastic lunch-box, or tupplewear, as snobby people like to call it), and place in the freezer.

It will take a few hours to freeze: when it's ready you can pull it out and tip it over (like I've done in the photo above)....looks prettier with the crust on top - the eye plays it's part!

Stuffed Zucchini Planets with Polenta Chunks and Vegetarian Ragù

I found these funky round zucchini vegetables at the supermarket, and thought they'd be perfect for stuffing! Also because they're slighty "sturdier" then regular zucchini, so if you like the taste of crunchy vegetable, this is the option for you! I also had some left-over polenta in the fridge, which I cut up into cubes and lightly stir-fried with some fresh herbs and a little bit of fresh tomato. Aaand, something I haven't had since...gosh, so long ago I can't even remember. I think it was in Australia, so we're looking at 12 years ago: textured soya flakes in a spicy tomato sauce. Delicious!

Stuffed Round Zucchini:
(quantities obviously vary depending on how many you need to make: the stuffing ingredients were enough for 3).

- round zucchini/courgettes
- half a red capsicum/pepper
- half a medium-sized aubergine/eggplant
- why do all the ingredients have two names?
- fresh coriander
- a chunk of fresh ginger
- olive oil
- your favorite spices (I used salt, chilli powder, coriander powder, and turmeric)

Cut the "top" off of the zucchinis (you can keep them for decoration, like little hats). Use a spoon to scoop out the inside. You can either chop it all up, capsicum and aubergine included, or use the grating option thingy on your blender: it's faster.
Stir-fry the lot with your spices and herbs - the zucchini will let out a lot of water, so wait til it's absorbed, and then use a spoon to place the concoction back into the zucchini. Add some olive oil on top, and cook it in the oven! How long for? Well, it really depends on how cooked you like your zucchini. I think I had mine in for about 20-30 minutes, and they were still quite crunchy, which is fine for me because I like the taste of raw vegetables. If you cook them longer they will probably become softer (probably better for kids with aversion to anything that tastes healthy, as well as adults who have been conditioned by the bad culinary habits of modern-day society).

Polenta Chunks:
Prepare the polenta by following the instructions on the packet. Now, that was easy. If you're a first-timer in polenta preparing, be aware: there are two types: the sloooow type, which involves you standing there for an hour mixing uninterruptedly - reminds me of my childhood....don't mean it to sound like child labor...well, it was. But I remember it being sold to me as "Come on, help aunty in the kitchen!". Or the fast type, which magically only needs about 10 minutes cooking, and it's done. You decide how much of a martyr you want to be.
Once cooked, place in an oven dish, or something that has edges around it: the polenta will go hard, and you can then cut it into cubes (note: another delicious recipe involves grilling it! Yummy!).
Lightly stir-fry the cubes with some herbs: sage and rosemary (I also had a spoonful of left-over vegetables from the zucchini stuffing: left it in to give it some color). Add some salt and whatever spices you like.

Vegetarian Ragù
I woozed up three ripe tomatoes (sorry, "woozed" is the word I've always used...quite onomatopeic, but probably not a word) - so what I mean is: place three tomatoes in a food processor, and...woozz them up. Place in a pan, add the dry soya flakes (about a cup), and let it cook in the tomato sauce for about 10 minutes, or until the sauce has dried up a bit. Add salt and any other herbs or spices you like (I made mine quite spicy, which went quite well with the zucchini), as well as fresh ginger to give it the extra spicy edge.

Love the spicy edge.

Banana and Coconut "Ice-cream"

Wonderful results in the lab today! I bet this "ice-cream" would taste great with a nice slice of vegan chocolate cake!

I got the idea for this creation from another recipe that uses frozen bananas as a base - and you can pretty much add anything you like to that!

Ingredients:

- two bananas

- a small cup of coconut flakes or powder

- 10 almonds

- 1/2 cup of rice milk (soya or almond milk would be fine too - make the recipe gluten-free)

Peel the two bananas and wrap them in plastic wrap, and place in the freezer for about 3 hours. Place the coconut directly into the small food processor, with the almonds and the rice milk - the rice milk should just cover the almonds, if not add a little more. You will notice that after about 10 minutes, the coconut will have absorbed all of the milk, so you can add a little more just to keep the almonds soaking. Woozz it all up after about 3 hours (leave it in the fridge).

Once the bananas have frozen, cut them up and place them in a normal food processor, together with the rest of the ingredients....and wooooozzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Ready! I had a taste of mine just a few minutes ago, and was very impressed. I've placed it in a plastic box back in the freezer to see what sort of consistency it will gain. And now I can't wait to try it with a whole load of other fruits and nuts! I'm sure a cashew version (without the coconut) would taste great, as well a chocolate one, strawberry....it reminds me of these super-drinks they make in South America, especially Brasil. It could also work with avocado, as well as quinoa, which would make it a really nutritious cold dessert -- particularly good for fussy children and conservative men.

Quinoa on a bed of Mung Bean Cream and Asparagus in Pesto Sauce

This is a lovely summer dish, light and very nutritious! Remember that the mung beans need to soak a night before cooking them.

Cook the quinoa with a pinch of salt. Once it's absorbed all the water and you've turned the gas off, stir a bit of olive oil in with it.

Mung Bean Cream

Ingredients:

- mung beans: you'll have to decide the quantity yourselves because I didn't even look how much I poured in: cook them until they are soft and all the water has been absorbed (don't cook them in too much water, because it's a pity to have to throw out all the "good stuff").

- 6cm piece of leek

- olive oil

- salt

- chilli powder

- 1 tsp of ginger powder

- 1 tsp of turmeric powder

- 2 tsp of fennel powder

- 1 big sage leaf

- a handful of fresh coriander leaves

- a bit of water

Stir fry the leek in the olive oil until it's soft, and add the big sage leaf in as well (you can leave it whole). Add the mung beans and a bit of water - here's the thing: you don't want to add too much water because we're not making mung bean soup. If the consistency is too dense, you're always in time to add more water. I started off with too much water, and it then meant me standing there for ages waiting for it to absorb....Add the spices, and then woozz it up with a food processor (the hand-held ones...no harm if you don't have one...well, just use what you've got). Once it's cooled down a bit and you're close to serving time, add the handful of fresh coriander leaves and woozz the whole thing up again. Voilà! Add some fresh olive oil and you are done!

Asparagus in Pesto Sauce:

Cut the asparagus stems into rounds, and then steam: don't overcook! It's nice to keep them a little crunchy.

Prepare the Pesto Sauce using fresh basil, olive oil, a pinch of salt, and a few pine nuts: woozz up the ingredients in a little food processor.

Mix the asparagus and pesto together.

Display the dish beautifully, as though you were serving a king, and bon appetit!

Sesame and Gour Balls

Ingredients:

- sesame seeds (toast them a little)
- gour (Jaggery gour: unrefined cane sugar)

Mix the two together into balls...could I be any more concise?

No, I couldn't: an extra note: Jaggery gour can be found in Indian shops.

Pumpkin and Chocolate Cake (Vegan)

This cake is even more of a fluke than the apple one, and the result even better.

Ingredients:

- 300 g of pumpkin

- 1 cup of flour

- half a cup of Manitoba flour

- 3/4 cup of cane sugar

- pinch of salt

- 2 teaspoons of cremor tartaro (or yeast equivalent)

- a sprinkle of cinnamon

- a tablespoon of maize oil

- half a cup of rice milk (more or less....I may have added more: as we say in italian "ad occhio" - you will have to judge for yourself whether it needs a bit more milk if the mixture is too thick).

- dark chocolate

Boil the pumpkin and then mash it with a fork, and let it cool. Preheat oven to 180 C. In a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients (passing them first through a sieve): flour, sugar, salt, cremor tartaro, cinnamon. Once the pumpkin has cooled, add the maize oil, and then add to the dry mixture. Also add the dark chocolate, which you will have cut up (the amount is up to you - depends how chocolaty you want it!) The pumpkin will mix with the flour - then start adding the rice milk and keep mixing with a wooden spoon. Add rice milk until the consistency is smooth (not too runny, but not stodgy either).

Place in an oiled tray and bake in oven for about 45 minutes (check with a knife or toothpick before pulling out). It will acquire a lovely toasty color on top...and the chocolate will melt inside...need I say more? Let it cool and then ENJOY!

Gums and Oils

An anonymous has left very helpful guidelines on gum health and hygiene, so here goes!

• Cinnamon oil is good for gums : it is an antiseptic that helps kill the bacteria that cause tooth decay and gum disease.
  
• Aloe Vera: Speeds healing of damaged gum tissues, counters infection, irritation and inflammation.
  
• Tea tree oil: helps kill infective microorganisms including those responsible for tooth decay and gum disease.


• Echinacea: tones gums and helps fight infection.


• Mint: helps tonify teeth and gums.


• Myrrh: fights infection of mouth and gums.


• Apple cider vinegar can be used for teeth whitening and gum infiammations.

Teeth and Tears

I have always loved going to the dentist...I know it may sound strange, but it's true.

And it is with great shame that I must confess the following: I went to the dentist today and cried. Why? Because he was manoeuvering in between two of my front teeth, and the one that I had broken (and then repaired) in a bycicle accident in Ecuador..well, it popped out! I think I was taken back to that moment, and started reliving the trauma, the nightmare of losing a front tooth! Childish, I know. To my defense, I wasn't weeping or anything, just a couple of shy tears rolled down, much to the amusement of the assistant dentist who said "Why are you crying? You'll be even more beautiful than before!". Yeah, like that's possible.

All of this drama to issue a word of warning: I have deleted the posts on home-made toothpaste and powder because bicarbonate soda is not good for your teeth. I was very enthusiastic about them because they really whitened my teeth -- but not everything that shines is a healthy tooth. Bicarb soda is highly abrasive and can ruin your tooth enamel...not to worry. I will try to find a solution that doesn't use the soda. Actually, does anyone know of what essential oil is good for your gums? I've apparently brushed my teeth with too much violence and my gums have suffered.

Back to dentists...and travelling: I went and fell on my face in a nasty bycicle accident in Ecuador (5 years ago), and had a lovely local dentist rebuild one of my teeth for the price of $20. (this little guy on the left is sort of what I looked like...except that I wasn't so happy). My friends, don't let the price fool you. I've had that tooth in for the past 5 years, and remained intact until 10:23 am today (more or less). So: may I advise you to take a trip to Ecuador to have any important tooth jobs done? My dentist was really lovely, very hygienic studio, and well...the price speaks for itself -- for what you're going to spend on dental care in your country, you may as well get a trip to Ecuador as part of the price).

Old beads...

I've been quietly producing these days....found a bag of old beads, a pass-me-down from my aunt. I've been meaning to thread them for quite a while, and I think the flower show of the other day reawoke my creative side. So here's the result...

Ingredients:

- old beads

- thin cord

- old anonymous-looking silver chains (if you have any, otherwise just do without)

- earring hooks (if you want to make matching earrings...quite the runaway princess!)

Obstacles and Dangers:

- a younger sister who suddenly appears and decides to claim some of your creations, saying that one of those beads was actually hers, hence giving her absolute rights over the whole necklace...hasn't happened yet, but want to bet? She'll hide in my new Stevia plants, and then pop out as soon as I leave everything unattended..-

Very Chocolate Vegan Cake

Cakes Cakes Cakes...does anyone out there understand the extent to which I am sacrificing myself to give you these recipes? I have already told you that the only other person in this house who could help me out in the consumption of these cakes is my mother...but she's intollerant to gluten!

Very Chocolate Vegan Cake (will post a photo of it next time I bake one, which will probably be soon...although some pumpkin has made its way into my fridge, so the Pumpkin and Chocolate cake may be next in line...). I found this simple recipe from the blog of Semplicemente Vera: here it is in English.

Ingredients:

- 2 cups of flour
- 1/2 cup of cocoa powder (Fairtrade is better)
- 2 teaspoons of yeast
- 1 cup of malt OR sugar
- 1 1/2 cups of rice/soya/almond milk (the almond milk goes quite well with the chocolate, but is more expensive than the other two types)
- 4 teaspoons of maize oil
- a pinch of salt
- AND (essential ingredient for me): dark chocolate: I like bitter dark chocolate (if you want to keep the cake vegan, that's the one you'll have to get. Check it doesn't have milk powder in it). Quantity? I use 3/4 of a bar of dark chocolate. You can either grate it or just cut it (cutting is easier and it comes out just as well, if not better, than if you grate it).

Mix all of the dry ingredients together: if you want to be fancy prancy, then sieve them first.
Mix all of the wet ingredients, and then guess! That's right! Mix the two mixtures together.
Preheat oven to 180 C, oil your baking tray, pour the mixture in....let the cake bake for about 40 minutes, but check it with a knife or tooth-pick before taking it out (to my bachelor friends: this means that if the knife is wet when you take it out of the cake, it's not ready...as if you'd bake a cake anyway!).

Enjoy! I think this recipe is also good if you want to make a sort of base cake to then cut in half horizontally and spread a nice home-made chocolate and hazelnut spread....I'm becoming more and more sinful by the day.

Stevia...and my new Herb Garden

I mentioned my new plants, so here's a picture of them! They look so sweet!

On the far left we have Rosemary, then Sage, black Basil, and Stevia (on the far right).

bottom row is a sad...a sad what...I think it may be of the Orchid Family. Mr A...any hints on how to save it? And then a teeny weeny basil plant (that will be getting a partner soon).

They've completely brought to life the kitchen balcony.

I finally found Stevia plants at a gorgeous plant fair I went to on friday, in Milano. Oh, it was so beautiful! I just felt like buying all the plants, and then buying a house to put them all in! Anyway, these hard-to-find Stevia plants have finally been found, and I just hope I manage to keep them alive. I tasted a leaf even before buying them, and they are soooo sweet. I had to stop myself from picking at them on my way home on the tube. I don't think people usually munch on leaves directly from pot-plants while sitting on a train. Italians are weird: you can get away with having criminals in government, but God forbid you should munch on fresh leaves while sitting in a train!

Anyway, a big prelude to get to the point:

STEVIA: Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni.

It's native of South America, Central America, and Mexico, and it is a natural sweetener. There is lots of controversy about it because it could (and does) substitute sugar, without the ill-effects that sugar has on the human body....read more about it on Wikipedia....

I quote:

"For centuries, the Guaraní tribes of Paraguay and Brazil used stevia, which they called ka'a he'ê ("sweet herb"), as a sweetener in yerba mate and medicinal teas for treating heartburn and other ailments. More recent medical research has shown promise in treating obesity, high blood pressure, and hypertension. Stevia has a negligible effect on blood glucose, even enhancing glucose tolerance; therefore, it is attractive as a natural sweetener to diabetics and others on carbohydrate-controlled diets."

Fluke Apple Cake (Vegan)

I have never been particuarly talented with desserts...especially bakery. I used to make a cake which involved no baking whatsoever....it was called the Heaven Cake. It got its name after its divine taste, as well as how fast it was going to lead you to death because of its ginormous fat content.

But yesterday I baked my first spicy vegan apple cake - and I've called it a fluke because

a) I couldn't find the flour anywhere...it popped up in a forgotten corner of the fridge, and it wasn't the best flour for baking cakes (Manitoba flour)

b) my mum had hidden the baking tray

c) I mistook the nutmeg as cinnamon...oops...

BUT - lo and behold: it turned out fantastically! (Unlike this photo)So I want to share the recipe with you. I timidly presented it to my uncle today, who is THE official taster of the family, and the fact that he not only ate the slice assigned to him, but also took away half a tray nicely packed up in a bag...well, I would call that major success.

Ingredients:

- 1/2 cup of wholemeal or plain flour

- 1/2 cup of manitoba flour (if you only have plain flour, then just use 1 cup of plain flour for the whole thing, and call it a day!)

- 1 cup of rice/soya/almond milk

- 1 cup of brown sugar

- 2 tablespoons of maize oil

- 1 tablespoon of rice malt (optional...I just wanted to finish off my jar)

- 2 teaspoons of "cremor tartaro" (this is what I use in Italy....equivalent to yeast)

- 3 apples: peeled and chopped up into small pieces

- sesame seeds: I love them so I just pour them in...up to you.

- pinch of salt

- cinnamon powder (how much? You decide)

- nutmeg powder: one teaspoon? Nutmeg has heating qualities...so easy on it....I poured mine in thinking it was cinnamon. In fact, I was looking at it thinking "gosh, this cinnamon looks really dark". Yeah, because it's nutmeg!

Mix together the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, yeast, cinnamon powder and nutmeg powder, sesame seeds, salt. Add the other two ingredients: rice milk and apples. Mix it all together. If the mixture is very watery, add some flour. I left mine quite runny and once baked it had a nice soft consistency. Follow your instinct...what are the cake angels whispering into your ear?

May I suggest...nuts would go beautifully in this cake. A match made in heaven.

Preheat oven to 180 C, and pour mixture into an oiled baking tray....place in oven. It will take about 40 minutes to bake, if not a bit more...maybe an hour. Remember that the apples are very wet, so I'd leave it in a little longer rather than pulling it out too soon. When you see that it's turned a nice dark golden color on top, leave it in the oven for five minutes and then pull it out to cool.

Prepare some nice herbal infusion and have a tea party! I would love to have people over for cake...I had to drive 40 minutes to get the cake to my uncle (well, I wasn't going there just for that). My mum is intollerant to gluten, so that leaves me alone with one BIIIG cake to finish. Well, going up to talk to my new plants now....I'll post the Very Chocolate Vegan Cake recipe soon!

Body Scrub Recipe

Body Scrubs have always been a luxury that I haven't granted myself, although I've always loved receiving them as gifts. They also seem to be the sort of beauty product you buy as a gift for someone when you don't really know what else to get them...unless you specifically know that that person loves body scrubs. Woopydoodyda.

Well, I think that we can now stop denying ourselves the luxury of body scrubs, and if you're going to give it as a gift, then why not make it yourself (especially if it's for a special friend - they will appreciate it even more!).

Ingredients:

- 200 grams of buckwheat flour

- 3 tablespoons of juniper berries

- 2 tablespoons of coriander seeds

- 1 tablespoon of ginger powder

(you will find all the ingredients, except for the flour, in the spice section of your supermarket)

Stick the whole lot in a food blender, and voilà! BODY SCRUB!

Wet your body in the shower, and then put some of the mixture onto your hand and rub it onto your skin. It smells lovely, and it will leave your skin naturally smooth. I also tried it on my face but found that it left my skin slightly dry -- so may be good for people with oily skin, and perfectly safe to use on the rest of the body.

The Big Clean - Shank Prakshalana

We can apply all the creams, and masks, and perfumes we like...but the truth is that if we're filthy inside, well, we're simply filthy.

As weird as this may sound, I devoured with great interest (in one day) a book on Intestinal Hygiene, by Dr Soleil (it's a group of French doctors who write on various topics). Now, I'm not sure what the title is in English because I originally read it in italian (translated from the French original)...I've leant it to my neighbor who still hasn't returned it. He might be getting a knock on the door later today so that I can post some other practical techiniques to keep our intestines and colon healthy.

I'm almost due for my second intestinal clean-out: the first went tremendously well (didn't that sound British!). I felt sooo light afterwards. You can really feel that whatever you eat is digested, absorbed and eliminated quickly and with great efficiency. I can say that I've never had problems with my intestines, and that I have always been regular. Well, after this clean-out I became even more regular! Like a swiss watch! It was like the time references around the world were the Big Ben, Greenwich, and my bowel movement! Even my skin looked fresher.

Before you go on reading, I just want to say that you do need strong will power to get through the 3 liters of salty water -- it becomes increasingly disgusting, but don't forget your final aim!!! CLEAN INTESTINES! CLEAN INTESTINES! (That's what the cheerleaders are calling out here on the right).

Back to the intestinal cleansing: here's a simple way of getting a clean intestine (or at least it's a start towards a clean intestine): we drink a large quantity of salty water until the water that is eliminated from your anus comes out clean. It's a very cheap technique, but you do need to dedicate two to three hours if you want to do it properly. The drinking of the salty water is probably the most unpleasant part of the whole process, but hey! Beauty has it's price (inner and outer).

Technique:

Choose a day in which you know you won't have running around to do and people to see: it's a day that you are going to dedicate to yourself. Make sure you have a light meal the night before, so that you digest properly and get a good night's sleep.

When you wake up in the morning, prepare 3 litres of salty warm water (the salt should be sea-salt, and you need 6 grams for every liter of water).

Put on some nice music...and drink your first glass. You will then do the 4 exercises (I will put them down below)....then drink your next glass. You will probably feel the need to evacuate...so go. If you don't need you, that's fine...drink the next glass, and do the 4 exercises again (these exercises must be done after every single glass -- they help the water move out of the stomach and into the intestines).

Once you've started evacuating, you will continue until all the water has been eliminated from your intestines and colon (and it will become clearer every time).
Once you've finished, resist the urge to drink fresh water (I really felt like drinking a sweet herbal infusion!), and put some brown rice on to cook. Dress it with some olive oil and fresh herbs.

On that day, abstain from sports and alcoholic or acid beverages. For the following three days, abstain from animal products.

The 4 Exercises:

1. Stand erect with feet hip-width apart. Stretch your arms up above your head and interlace your fingers. Bring your trunk from left to right (repeat three times per side).

2. Stand with your legs slightly open, and twist with your trunk from side to side: let your arms swing with your trunk (repeat a few times).

3. Come down to the floor: the position is like the one to do push-ups, except that your arms are straight and you're not keeping your body in the plank pose...you relax your legs and buttocks, and let the hips come down towards the ground. From this position you turn your head as though you were trying to look at your heels.

4. Squat down, and place your hands on your knees. Now twist the upper body from side to side: as you twist to the left, your right knee comes towards the ground and your right arm straightens (or almost) -- as you twist to the right, the left knee comes towards the ground and the left arms straightens.

Advantages of practicing this technique:

It helps get rid of temporary problems, such as pimples, constipation, head-ache, insomnia, lack of appetite and concentration, etc, as well as bigger cronic problems. This exercise helps to clean the inner walls of the intestines of the crusts, making the intestine a much happier place! Assimilation of nutrients definitely improves becuase of the greater surface of contact between the food we eat and the regenerated mucous walls (the authors describe of people who actually eliminated crusts and mucous which contained traces of antibiotics that they had taken up to 20 years before!! Imagine that!!)

Risks and Contraindications

There is a minor risk of not eliminating the water from the anus. In this case, you will patiently have to wait for it to be eliminated via the urinary tract. This is very rare, but can happen on occasions. There may be meccanical or physiological obstacles: a slight hypothryoid condition, a big mass of gas int eh colon, a mass of encrusted "garbage" in the intestines/colon, a lazy colon, the water not warm or salty enough....or even fear of the unknown or of failure -- basically a psychological block that doesn't allow the body to eliminate properly.

There are some things that can help in these situations:
- the Yoga candle pose (Sarvangasana)
- jogging on the spot

- belly dancing

- vigorous massage

- or an intestinal clean-out!

Contraindications: DO NOT DO IF YOU HAVE AN OPEN ULCER, HYPERTENSION, OR KIDNEY PROBLEMS.

Frequency:

You can practice this technique 4 times per year (especially good during the change of season). If your first experience has tired you out a lot, it means that the effect has been deep and that you should probably repeat the second one after 1-2 months. With practice, this disintoxication becomes more and more gentle.

Why Salt?

Once upon this time, this technique used to be done with sea water. Salt makes sure that the water remains INSIDE the digestive tract, and does not allow it to be absorbed by the intestinal walls. The concentration of the salt in the water has to be similar to that of the blood plasma, so to avoid any loss of minerals due to osmosis. Salt is also a great disinfectant and killer of bacteria! Furthermore, salty water is a great way of softening the waste products that have hardened into crusts and that stick to the delicate intestinal walls.

IF you do have severe kidney problems, the same technique can be practiced by boiling a good amount of leek in 3,5 litres of saltless water, and then use this water to do the intestinal clean-out.

Nutritional mask for your hair

It's a few years now that I've been trying to grow my hair, and I always seem to reach a stage of "I can't stand it anymore!", and chop it all off. Well, none of that is going to happen anymore...I mean, looking back at photos of me with short hair reminds me of my "equastrian look". That's right, I sustain that I look like a horse, much to my best-friend's funny looks every time I use this expression. I just feel that short hair brings out the horse within me. It's a long story....I'd have to start from Etruscan history (on the right is a picture of me and my family on a day out)....exactly, I won't go there.
Anyway, so now that I have almost-long hair, I want to look after it properly, and I've found a wonderful recipe from the blog of Semplicemente Vera that will bring your hair back to life! The following amounts are a bit scarce for me (I have quite long hair)...so if need be, just throw in a bit extra yogurt, as well as everything else (caution on the turmeric.....stories of me as the Jaundice Monster later on....)

Here are the ingredients:
- 2 big spoons of natural yogurt
- 1 teaspoon of turmeric powder
- 1 tablespoon of camomile tea
- 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
- 10 drops of vegetable oil
- 1 spoon of honey or malt
- 2 big spoons of lin seeds (instructions on how to prepare them down below)

Apply to hair and keep in for about 20 minutes.

Some notes before you run off to make it yourself! Please read on!

IF you have very light blonde hair, avoid the turmeric (or just use very little of it): it tends to give your hair a very golden color....yes, almost yellow. I have a sort of boring dark colored hair (not very dark, but not light enough to be considered blonde). I got talked into doing some blonde highlights a while back (yes, always blame others when you can), and they really took on the turmeric color! So just be careful. If you're not that light I'd give it a go, because it does make your hair a pretty honeycomb color.

The lemon juice, honey, and camomile are the lightening agents: don't imagine any sort of hairdressing chemical blonde results...but they do give a nice light to your hair, especially if you go in the sun afterwards.

The Lin seeds (aka flax seeds?): how to handle them: put them to soak the night before. What I do is that I put them in a sieve on top of a bowl, and put the water on top of them -- it's much easier to handle them when you'll need them the next morning. Basically, you just lift the sieve up and you'll see that they're already really oily! Now, the first time I did this mask, I wizzed them up and just mixed them in with the rest of the ingredients....the result is that I am still finding lin seeds in the bathroom!!! It took ages to get them out, and they just got all over the place, much to my mother's delight....so I learned my lesson. After you've wizzed them, place the whole concoction back into the sieve and press them with a spoon so that the foamy-oily stuff comes out. It's quite amazing...I would say that the consistency is how you would imagine lizard saliva to look like. So there you've got a very home-made version of lin-seed extract, which you can use for other recipies as well (such as natural hair gel: I'll put the recipe for this on soon). Wait a minute: don't throw out the fibrous stuff that's left! I just stuck the whole lot into my cereal bowl, but you don't need to do everything I say. I think it'd be really good in a salad, or just thrown into a soup as well. Very nutritious, so it's a pity to waste.

The Jaundice Monster: I don't know if you've ever dropped turmeric anywhere...well, if you haven't, and you're not intentionally planning to do it, steer well away! It stains everything yellow!
I apply the mask over the bathroom sink, with the bowl underneanth me.....you'll see, you'll try to start off all prim and propper, and then it just all goes down the drain when yellow stuff starts dripping everywhere. Once you're done, wrap your hair up in plastic wrap...trust me....you will soon find out that the heat from your head starts to "melt" the mask, and you'll have nice trickles of yellow oil coming down your neck and face...aaaaaaaaahhhh, the Jaundice Monster is here! Mmm....maybe not a good thing to do with a boyfriend in the house. It's very attractive: a yellow head, with yellow stuff coming down....good enough to test anybody's love.
Lesson to be learned and remembered:
- do not wear a white top when doing this (unless you need an excuse to throw it out)
- do not sit on mother's white divan while waiting for it to seep in...actually, get yourself back into the kitchen and clean up the mess you made!
- wear a singlet top that's easy to take off

I can tell you the mask works: I did one this morning, and my hair is really soft and shiny. My sister refuses to look at me from how good my hair looks (and it just reminds her of her beautiful long hair that she cut off not so long ago...). She even sustains that I made her cut her hair so that I would look better! The madness of it all....I wasn't even on the European continent when she did the deed!

Photographic film

Did you know that photographic film is made of gelatin (in my sister's terms: cow knees)!! After some research I have discovered that no vegan-friendly (or animal-friendly) film has yet been invented....looks like digital photography is the least expensive and most environmentally friendly photography there is.